MRSA is short for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Staphylococcus aureus is a strain of bacteria naturally found in most animals, including humans.

In your dog or cat, staph can be found as naturally occurring bacteria on the skin, in mucous membranes, as well as in the GI tract.

Occasionally pets can become infected by their own normal flora.

I refer to these infections as “pet acne,” because they are usually harmless and very easily treated, but when a pet’s normal flora develops resistance to broad-spectrum antibiotics, it becomes a very dangerous health threat.

If these bacteria undergo genetic mutation — making them resistant to even the strongest antibiotic available, including methicillin — it can cause serious illness and even death in pets.

MRSA Symptoms

MRSA symptoms are similar in both people and animals.

A MRSA skin infection usually starts as a small red bump or boil which can develop into a deep painful abscess.

Common locations in the body where an infection occurs are the skin, ears, and at wound sites, especially after surgery.

Initially, MRSA can look like any other infection, but it doesn’t respond to antibiotics.

When the skin lesions refuse to heal, that’s often when people start to realize they’re dealing with a potentially life-threatening infection.

The infection can progress to necrotizing fasciitis. It can also move to the lungs as necrotizing pneumonia, which means pneumonia that slowly kills off lung tissue. About a third of MRSA infections in the lungs cause death.

A septic infection of the entire body can also develop.

Because MRSA is so difficult to treat, it can progress from a mild skin rash into a life-threatening infection that invades your pet’s bones, joints, and major organs, as well as the bloodstream. About half of MRSA infections in the bloodstream are fatal.

Why MRSA Has Become a Problem for Pets

How did MRSA even come to be? How did it develop in pets?

We are overusing antibiotics in human and animal medicine. We’re also exposed to even more antibiotics when we eat factory-farmed animals and animal products.

If it was not for the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine, there would be no need to make this video. The decision to use antibiotics should never be taken lightly. They should not be prescribed unless absolutely necessary. Aside from the ability of bacteria to mutate and develop resistance to antibiotics, these drugs also have side effects like every other chemical does.

Many of the health problems for which antibiotics are routinely overprescribed respond just as well and often better to safer alternatives like herbs, common sense approaches like disinfecting wounds, as well as nutritional supplements.

Unless your pet has a life-threatening illness or injury that can only be treated with antibiotics, let your veterinarian know that you prefer to at least try and treat, if possible, without antibiotics.

Avoiding Overuse of Antibiotics

Hopefully, an increasing number of health professionals are waking up to the problem of antibiotic overuse, but if your vet isn’t quite there yet, and is handling most cases by just constantly or recurrently dispensing antibiotics, you might want to consider finding an integrative vet who’s more apt to work with you on reducing the use of antibiotics.

Culturing an infection will identify whether it’s bacterial in nature, and only bacterial infections are responsive to antibiotics.

Viral and fungal infections do not respond to antibiotics. Dispensing antibiotics to treat a viral infection is a classic example of indiscriminate overuse of the drug, and I see it happen all the time in veterinary medicine.

If the culture is positive for bacteria, it will also identify the specific type of bacteria, allowing the most appropriate antibiotic to be used. Not every antibiotic works equally well on every infection.

If your pet has an infection that requires antibiotics, I really think you need to demand that your veterinarian do a culture and sensitivity test. Otherwise, your vet’s basically guessing as to what antibiotic is most appropriate, and potentially fostering antibiotic resistance by choosing incorrectly. Once the culture has identified what type of bacteria is growing, then your vet will be able to identify what antibiotic is best used to treat the infection.

Making sure your vet is making the best choices is the very first step in successful treatment. Giving the proper dose at the proper intervals and using the entire prescription is important, even if your pet seems to be fully recovered before the medication has run out.

This will ensure the infection is totally resolved and prevent your pet from having to take another full course of antibiotics because the first course wasn’t fully administered, and the infection wasn’t cleared.

I see this most commonly in my practice with skin infections. The skin appears to be getting better, so clients stop the antibiotics before the really deep life-threatening skin infection is thoroughly treated. This not only increases the risk of developing antibiotic resistance, but also leaves the pet not fully treated. Recurrence is inevitable.

All-Natural Help for MRSA Infections

Make sure to give your pet a high quality pet probiotic during any antibiotic therapy.

Antibiotics kill off the good bugs right along with the bad ones. Giving a probiotic will reseed your pet’s gut with the appropriate healthy bacteria that he needs for a strong and balanced immune system.

In my practice, I use other things to help reduce bacterial growth, including oregano oil, propolis, and olive leaf extract. I also use essential oils, colloidal silver, Manuka honey, and Pavia cream to naturally treat MRSA.

There are many other options that holistic vets use, and they have identified them to be quite successful at treating MRSA infections naturally. Deciding exactly what protocol to use and how to use it is really best done with the help of your integrative veterinarian.

This article sums up nicely why I gave up unfermented soy years ago for my own diet, and why we have never allowed soy to be in any of our foods or treats at Green Dog. We were upset to hear that Castor and Pollux was planning to use soy as one of their primary proteins in their new grain free formula (which is now on the market) and this just added to our list of why we had to get rid of that brand right away. I’ve always meant to write a blog posting about soy in pet foods, but Dr. Becker has come through again with a great article.

By Dr. Becker

As I was scanning an industry trade journal recently, a headline caught my eye.

It announced the opening of a new manufacturing plant to produce protein for animal diets.

Protein in animal diets being one of my favorite subjects, I read a little further … only to discover the company opening the new plant makes vegetable protein.

And the reason they need more manufacturing capacity is to answer the growing demand for soy protein products in North America.

Clearly, soy in all its forms is being included in an increasing number of commercial dog and cat food formulas.

I’ve discussed the problem of soy in pet food often here at Mercola Healthy Pets.

But I think it’s probably time for a closer look at what soy is, the health problems it can create, why it’s used by so many pet food manufacturers … and why you shouldn’t feed it to your dog or cat.

Parrots in New Zealand: Canaries in the Coal Mine*

In 1991, a wealthy American lawyer named Richard James was living with his wife in New Zealand.

The James’s were pursuing their retirement dream of raising exotic birds ‘down under.’

The couple wanted to feed their flock of exotics the best diet available.

Soya beans were being heavily marketed in the U.S. as a new wonder food, so James offered the young birds soya feed.

Parrots don’t eat soya beans in the wild. And the result for the James’ flock was disastrous.

Some of the birds became infertile. Many died. Young males hit puberty years early and aged prematurely.

James consulted Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick, a toxicologist consulting at a New Zealand laboratory. James told Fitzpatrick he was certain soya beans were killing his rare birds. Fitzpatrick thought James was mistaken, but he decided to investigate, because there was obviously hormonal disruption occurring with the parrots, and he had eliminated the possibility of other hormone disrupting chemicals like pesticides from the equation.

Dr. Fitzpatrick went about studying soya and its effects. He discovered soya contains both toxins and powerful plant estrogens capable of disrupting female menstrual cycles. It also appeared to damage the thyroid.

Eventually, the British government studied the safety of soya proteins in modern food and published results in 2002 concluding that health claims for soya were not supported by clear evidence. Further there could be risks associated with high levels of consumption.

Meanwhile, Dr. Fitzpatrick, still concerned about soya consumption and in particular, about children and soya milk, determined an infant fed exclusively soya formula could ingest estrogen equivalent to five birth control pills a day, based on body weight.

*(For those of you unfamiliar with the expression “canaries in the coal mine,” from Wisegeek:

“Life for an actual canary in a coal mine could be described in three words: “short but meaningful.” Early coal mines did not feature ventilation systems, so miners would routinely bring a caged canary into new coal seams. Canaries are especially sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide, which made them ideal for detecting any dangerous gas build-ups. As long as the bird kept singing, the miners knew their air supply was safe. A dead canary signaled an immediate evacuation.”)

North American Cheetahs: More Canaries in the Coal Mine

Approximately 30 years ago, captive breeding of North American cheetahs was undertaken to reverse a population crisis within the species.

But in 1985, 29 cheetahs in American zoos died, many from liver disease. Only 18 were born, and 7 of those died before reaching adulthood.

As few as 10 percent of adult female cheetahs living in captivity in North America produced live cubs in the mid-1980s. Yet in other countries, 60 to 70 percent was the norm.

The difference? Cheetahs living and breeding successfully in other parts of the world were fed whole animal carcasses. North American cheetahs were fed a commercial feline diet of horsemeat and soy.

Researchers in Ohio studied the food the North American cheetahs were eating. They found the soy portion of the diet contained plant estrogens similar to the hormones found in female mammals.

Four cheetahs in a U.S. zoo were switched to a diet of chicken meat and no soy. Liver function improved, however, whether the cats would ever be able to breed successfully remained a question mark.

The researchers theorized the cheetahs were probably extra-sensitive to the effects of plant estrogens due to inbreeding (the result of a previous population crisis). However, the amount of soy in their diets was relatively small, leading the scientists to conclude all felines probably have difficulty ridding their bodies of excess estrogens.

The Difference Between “Safe” Soy and Most Soy

Only folks who’ve been living under a rock for the last 30 years have missed the massive marketing campaigns promoting the health benefits of soy products. It’s estimated the American soy industry spends at least $80 million a year to promote worldwide soy consumption.

This, despite well documented evidence of the anti-health properties of soya in both animals and humans.

Plant estrogens, also called phytoestrogens, produce biological effects in humans. In soy protein, the most common of these compounds are isoflavones.

The way soy is processed affects the level of phytoestrogens. Traditional fermentation reduces the levels of isoflavones dramatically, however, factory processing does not. And U.S. varieties of soy are manipulated to be pest resistant (soybeans have some of the highest concentrations of pesticides of any crop), with the result that they contain higher levels of isoflavones than soy grown in Japan or China.

Raw, mature soybeans contain not only phytoestrogens, but also phytates that prevent mineral absorption and substances that block the enzymes needed to digest protein. Soy also contains other anti-nutrients, including:

• Antigens in the form of non-denatured proteins that can create serious allergic reactions in both animals and people
• Trypsin inhibitors that hinder the action of proteolytic enzymes in the GI tract, reducing the digestibility of proteins
• Oligosaccharides — indigestible sugars that cause gassiness and diarrhea
• Phytic acid, which can interfere with the body’s use of vital minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc

The soy in traditional oriental diets has been fermented for long periods (18 months on average) using molds, cultures or other substances that radically alter its biochemistry. This transformation through fermentation lessens the impact of anti-nutrients while making the amino acids in soybeans available for use by the body.

Factory processing, by contrast, starts with defatted soy protein meal rather than the whole bean. The meal is produced in a crushing process. Raw beans are crushed into thin flakes. The flakes are mixed with a petroleum-based hexane solvent to extract the soy oil. Flake waste is toasted and ground down to soy meal or soy flour, both of which wind up in animal feed.

The soy oil is then cleaned, bleached, degummed and deodorized.

“Naturally brewed” soy sauce means the processed soy protein meal has been mixed with mold spores and “aged” at high temperatures for 3 to 6 months.

Regular, non-brewed soy sauce takes only 2 days to produce. Soy flour is blended with hydrochloric acid at high temps, under pressure, and the result is hydrolyzed vegetable protein. Various preservatives and additives are used to improve color and taste. This method employs the use of the enzyme glutamase, which in turn produces large quantities of the “g” (glutamate) in MSG.

Why You Should Avoid Pet Foods Containing Soy Products

Soybeans and soybean-related products can be found in an increasing number of commercially available pet food formulas, dry, semi-moist and wet, including many beautifully advertised, big selling brands, as well as veterinary formulas and prescription diets.

Soy is a plant protein used by pet food companies to boost protein content and add bulk. Because plant proteins are less expensive than meat proteins, pet food manufacturers use them to increase profit margins.

The ingredient label might not even say soy, as it is commonly listed as vegetable broth, textured vegetable protein or TVP, and perhaps other aliases.

The majority of experts on pet nutrition agree soy isn’t good nutrition for cats or dogs. It is considered a low-quality, incomplete protein well known to create food allergies in pets.

According to Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD, authors of Cinderella’s Dark Side:

“The soybean contains large quantities of natural toxins or “antinutrients.” First among them are potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other enzymes needed for protein digestion. These inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors cause enlargement and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including cancer. Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together. Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors.”

A study was conducted in 2004 at the University of Pennsylvania to determine the amount of phytoestrogens in 24 random commercial dog foods. Results revealed all the foods containing soy ingredients had concentrations of phytoestrogens in large enough quantities to have a biological effect on the pet.ⁱ

Soy has been linked to gas and deadly bloat in dogs. It is high in purines and is therefore a completely inappropriate protein source for urate-forming dogs. It is also high in silicates and promotes the formation of silica stones.

The carbohydrate action of soy can cause a rise in blood sugar in many cats. Soy is also linked to thyroid damage, and since hyperthyroidism is common in kitties, this is yet another reason it should not be part of a feline’s diet.

The ingestion of soybean products is also linked to seizures in both dogs and cats.

I hope I’ve given you a more complete understanding of why avoiding pet foods containing soy products is best for your favorite four-legged companion.

In my opinion, the potential risks associated with feeding soy are simply unacceptable … especially when you consider your carnivorous cat or dog prefers and receives a much higher level of nutrition from animal protein sources.

References:

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• ⁱ American Journal of Veterinary Research, 2004 May;65(5):592-6.
• Source: PetfoodIndustry.com February 10, 2012
  Source: The Guardian July 25, 2006
  Source: Alaska Science Forum January 18, 1988

Not long after we first opened the store, we found a product that we thought sounded like a no-brainer for a green store – doggie poop bags that broke down quickly in water so that they could be safely flushed. It seemed quite logical that pet waste would be best disposed of in a system already in place to treat sewage, so we bought them. However, it occurred to us that we had only worried about the safety of the home sewer system before we bought them, and had not considered to ask what happens to the water supply when pet waste was flushed. We were already selling flushable cat litter and advocating the flushing of litter. Is flushing really the best way to dispose of pet waste?  We contacted the city of Portland about this issue, as we wanted to make sure that it would truly be a good idea on all sides. They vehemently opposed the idea at the time, and we ended up not reordering those bags again (and they weren’t selling that well anyway, so we left it at that).

We heard recently that a few of our distributors were probably bringing in flushable bags, which concerned us a bit, as it means  they would then be actively promoted to local retailers and therefore marketed more widely to the public. As some years had passed and I knew that Portland has made some upgrades to the system in recent years, I called again to discuss the issue. I spoke to Mike Ciolli, Wastewater Manager for Operations in Portland (Columbia Facility). The essence of what he said was similar to what we had heard in the past – They are “Strongly Discouraging” the disposal of any animal waste into the system. He said the facilities are so overtaxed already with human waste, and the facilities cannot be expanded any more than they already have been. As Portland grows, they are very challenged to figure out a way to accommodate this growth from a sewage treatment perspective, which is why they’ve invested so much in bio-swales to divert storm water overflow from the system. The issue of volume is a significant one, when it comes to dog poop. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the typical dog excretes three quarters of a pound of waste per day—or 274 pounds per year. This means that for every 10 dogs, more than one ton of poop is generated annually! A seemingly small increase in flushing dog poop would actually generate a very significant problem for a city’s waste management system.

The other issue he brought up is that the bacteria that they use to break down the sewage is chosen to be quite specific to human waste, and pet waste is not broken down as easily by it, causing big problems on that end (he also mentioned that pet waste seems to be much higher in “inert” ingredients that aren’t broken down as easily). Combined with the fact that pet waste can be contaminated with things like parasites, bacterial diseases such as leptosporosis, and toxoplasmosis (toxo. is transmitted through cat feces) that are transmissible to humans, this complicates the problem. If the system is overwhelmed and the pet waste is not broken down properly, these things can slip through. This has happened already on the west coast, as wild sea otters are commonly testing positive for toxoplasmosis, which comes from cat feces being flushed and from storm runoff contaminated with cat feces being implicated. A National Marine Sanctuaries study done ten years ago in Washington state stated that blood tests revealed that 60 percent of the otters tested positive for Toxoplasma, which has been proven as a significant cause of mortality in Southern sea otters in California. There has also been a documented outbreak of human toxoplasmosis in British Columbia, shown later to have been caused by contaminated drinking water, presumably from cat droppings.  This is just one pathogen – others could follow the same pattern.

What to do?

• We encourage people to compost flushable/biodegradable cat litters (minus the poop) at home. Please note: biodegradable cat litter is not yet accepted into the food waste composting program in Portland. It can also be scattered under bushes to break down on its own. When landfilled, it would be best to use biodegradable/compostable bags.

• Always pick up dog feces from the ground to avoid it being washed into rivers and streams via storm drains – this is a critical step to protecting fresh water from contamination.  We recommend biodegradable or even better, compostable bags. Most landfills in our area have, or will be soon switching over to capturing methane, generating electricity on site, so even landfilling poop is a greener option than it used to be. Though materials take ages to break down in a landfill, encasing poop in a regular plastic bag will ensure it’s preservation forever! (though reusing a plastic bag saves energy vs. the manufacture and transport of compostable bags – AACK! It’s all very complicated.) Picking it up is the critical part of course.
• There are also home composting kits (Bokashi Pet, also available in our store) that are designed to provide pathogen free fermented poop compost that can be buried or used to fertilize ornamentals/trees etc.  Bokashi tells us that in-ground composters that you bury and add water and enzymes to are inefficient at eliminating pathogens, which can be pushed into the groundwater quickly by all of the flushing with hose water into the soil.

We worry a bit that if retailers sell flushable bags, advocating to customers that this is the greenest option, that the amount of pet waste in the water treatment facility will spike. Mike Ciolli said that he’s aware of a mention by the EPA in an article that says flushing is the best way to dispose of of pet waste, but says that he doesn’t know anyone in his field that has ever advocated the flushing of animal waste, and that there has never been any effort/memo etc issued by the EPA to people in his field that would support this practice.

This is an issue with no perfect answer, but clearly every effort should be taken to keep pet feces from contaminating our streams, rivers, oceans and drinking water.

A Tapir learns to touch a target in a zoo

By Christine Mallar

We just brought in some nifty extendable target training sticks to the store, and so I thought I should write up a description of what it’s used for, as targeting is such a fun and really easy activity to do with your pets, no matter what species – I’ve even taught a fish to target. No, seriously! This isn’t an indication of what a good trainer I am, it’s just an illustration of how easy it is to teach and learn. (In fact, I have to laugh as I just Googled “Target Training a Fish” and came up with lots of results! Here’s one).

To ask an animal to target, you are asking the animal to deliberately touch an object, and you are marking the moment with a sound (like a click from a training clicker). The animal knows this sound means that a treat is coming their way, and allows them to pinpoint the exact thing the trainer wants them to do to earn that treat.  This clever concept was created by dolphin trainers. Dolphins are very smart,  but slippery. Trainers couldn’t possibly have used traditional methods of training that required physical domination of the animals (like cowboys did with horses, or dog trainers did with leashes and choke collars) – it just isn’t possible. With a whistle and a bucket of fish, dolphins participated voluntarily in their own training (and if they weren’t having fun they could easily swim away). Picture this: a dolphin trainer wants the dolphin to jump out of the water and touch a ball that is suspended way up high. First, the trainer might toss the ball onto the water and wait until the dolphin investigates it. The trainer is watching for the moment the dolphin touches the ball with its nose, and they mark that moment exactly with a whistle. This noise means a piece of fish, which the dolphin happily goes to collect from the trainer. When the dolphin happens to touch the ball again and hears that whistle, it starts to become quite clear to the dolphin that she can touch that ball on purpose to make that trainer give her another fish.  Now that the intent is clear that the behavior is to touch the ball with her nose, the trainer can introduce a hand signal or word right before she touches it, which becomes the command. The trainer might suspend the ball from a rope right at water level, and ask for and reward touches to the ball.  Then the ball can be raised a little at a time and the dolphin must now stretch to reach it, and then jump to reach it, etc. Targeting can also be used to teach her to touch other parts of he body to objects or even trainer’s hand, allowing the trainer to perhaps shake a flipper (first a “trick”) and then this trick is used to slowly shape a far more difficult behavior, like allowing a vet to take blood from a vein on that flipper – all with voluntary participation from that dolphin. It removes the fear of that procedure as it’s taught gradually, and is certainly easier and less risky for everyone involved than corralling that dolphin and herding her into some sort of restraint device that would enable them to get that blood sample forcefully, and good luck getting that done a second time! With positive reinforcement training, it became possible for trainers to get voluntary participation from the dolphins for complex behaviors.

When I first became a zookeeper, very little training was done in the zoo setting. I was lucky to be a part of some of the early pioneering – zookeepers who realized that these same things might be possible, that training could enable keepers make animals easier to manage, more easily moving from exhibits to holding areas, for example, and even to participate in their own medical care.  At Zoo Atlanta, we had heard about the amazing things that were being done with orangutans at the Brookfield Zoo. These orangutans had some sort of need for injections (perhaps diabetes? I can’t quite remember right now, which shocks me, but anyhow…). They brought in marine mammal trainers, and worked with them to set up a program to shape behaviors like approaching the mesh and hanging onto it, letting their forearms be touched, and then touched and held for a period of time, then touching the arm with an empty barrel of a syringe, then building up to little injections of sterile water. Before this time, an orangutan might have had to to be darted, or made to enter a small “squeeze cage” that would hold them in a position that would enable a vet to poke them with a needle. Stressful, and certainly not practical for something that needed to be done every day.  As soon as we heard about this, we orangutan keepers at Zoo Atlanta jumped on this idea. Of course! We could do this too! We had to battle some pretty hard preconceptions against training (we appeared to be having a good time and “playing” with our animals instead spending our time doing more scrubbing and sweeping) but as we were able to ask the orangutans to open their mouths on command so we could see their teeth, and able to take their temperature with an ear thermometer, trim toenails easily, and even to convince the vets to allow us to give them their flu shots ourselves – no muss, no fuss, no fear – we started to get people to pay attention. We set up a training committee for keepers from all areas of the zoo to come and share ideas for how positive reinforcement training could be used and work together to achieve it – otters or lemurs could easily be taught to jump into a crate and moved to another exhibit – no nets, no gloves, no risk, no stress. Just fish for the otters or bananas for the lemurs and a little bit of time and everything becomes easier! Giraffe keepers were moving them easily through a narrow hallway that they had previously been frightened of using, which happened to be the only way out onto exhibit. The rhinos were already comfortable with being touched on their heads and hand fed, but were soon able to be positioned easily to present different areas of their body to be inspected and touched, leading to keepers being able to file their toenails or even treat and bandage a serious tail wound that the keepers and vets would never have had access to otherwise. They avoided a likely tail amputation by way of a risky immobilization and were instead easily able to ask Rosie the rhino to present her tail to the vet techs and keepers at the bars of her holding area and stay still for daily cleaning and bandaging of the tail, all for the price of a few pieces of fruit.  The animals really benefited from the enriching mental stimulation, and reduction of stress in their lives, as did the vets and the keepers. With every species, this sort of training almost universally started with target training. Each species had a target that suited the situation – the orangutans started with a wooden paint stir stick and moved to clips we could move around and clip to  the wire mesh of their holding area caging. The giraffes had a long pole with a plastic ball on the end (with keepers on ladders) , and for the rhinos whose sight wasn’t their strongest point, and were a bit frightened of sticks or poles, we made a flat, square target with a handle on the back for the keeper to hold and bright yellow and black diagonal lines painted on the front for visibility. (Look at this link to see lots of zoo animals across the country learning to target – it makes my heart swell to think about that change we envisioned becoming mainstream for keepers now, developing their positive relationships, enriching the animals’ lives, reducing potential sources of stress, and reducing the need for immobilizations. Keepers are drawing blood from veins, using ultrasound to check for heart disease or monitoring a pregnancy, etc. It’s a beautiful thing)

For dogs and cats, any household item can be used – the eraser end of a pencil, a wooden spoon, or even your hand. The clicker can be “loaded” – a trainer term that means you click the clicker and give them a treat, several times until you start to see them understand that the noise means treat, and that it is a good noise. If they happen to know a few behaviors, like sit, you can ask for a sit and mark the moment their butt touches the floor with a click, following it with a treat.  Then present your hand or your target object right to them and see if they’ll investigate it. If they touch it with their nose (or whatever you’d like them to touch things with, like their paw. The nose is generally an easy place to start though), try to click the clicker at exactly the moment their nose touches the object, and give a treat. Do that a few times, and then do the same thing but stop an inch or two short of where you had it before, so that they have to move towards it slightly to touch it. You should, in a short time (short for a dog, probably longer for a fish) you’ll see what we like to call the AHA! moment where they tentatively stretch towards it – you’ll click and treat and next they’ll really seem to “get it” and touch the target with more intention. Yippee! Now you can start adding a word like “touch” as you present the target, and since they already know what you want when you present it, they’ll quickly come to associate that word with the behavior. Congratulations! You have now trained a new behavior and put it on command! Now see if they’ll move towards the target in another way, to the left or to the right,  eventually being able to walk towards a target to touch it. I wanted to show you just how easy this is by teaching my cat Otis to target and filming it for you. I’m using a clicker, holding the treats in the palm of my clicker hand and using the handle of a wooden spoon as my target. I don’t use the word touch until I see him “getting it”. I keep my session short so as to keep his interest, I use good treats he’s willing to work for, and I end on a good note. When I was really impressed with one of his touches, I gave him two treats. Notice: the first nose touch was just because I showed him something new – essentially an accident. Then he doesn’t know what we’re doing but knows it’s something good, so he weaves around happily, and because he’s a cat and he’s happy, the next thing he does is rub his face on the spoon handle, which I catch with a click at the moment he first makes contact. The 4th click is that tentative try with intention. Now we’re in business.

So what now? Dogs can take this sort of behavior to really great levels. Perhaps start teaching your dog to touch a yogurt lid with her foot. Then the lid can be moved gradually farther away – what fun indoor exercise to run to the lid, touch it with her foot, hear the click and run back to you! The cat can hop up onto other surfaces to follow the target to touch it – up to the couch and onto his cat tree and up to the mantle and back down to the couch and then to the floor. Exercise in disguise of fun tricks! Teach your pet to target a variety of objects and use it as a way to name them: “Touch ball” “Touch Frisbee” – make your dog have to think about which one you’re asking for once they’ve learned two of them. How many can she distinguish over time? They can learn to touch a colored sticker, and you can stick that to places in the house – a sticker on a drawer that’s slightly open has a dog targeting and learning to close the drawer, or the fridge, or turn on a light, etc.Targeting is a great way to teach “Heal” as they have to be behind the target for it to work! Lots of tricks are possible, and there might even be a few that are useful to you. Just remember, whether a behavior is “useful” or not is irrelevant – the points are to challenge an animal’s mind, create fun, build your relationship, and make you a better trainer by teaching you to have good timing (clicking at the right moment) and watching for ideal moments where you can catch the behavior, or even a very small version of that behavior over time. Target training can be a great confidence builder in a shy dog, and can even face their fears by slowly targeting closer and closer to something that makes them uncomfortable. There are oodles of links out there about clicker and target training. Here’s a good video I stumbled upon that shows someone teaching a trick (”Bow”) using only the clicker and the target. They happen to be using the cool new extendable target stick we’ve brought in to the store. This video is interesting to watch, as the leaving the butt in the air while bending only the elbows is “shaped” by clicking right at the very first moment the elbows touch, which technically happened before the butt sunk to the floor for a “down” type behavior. By concentrating on that specific moment, the dog is able to really hone in on the fact that that’s really what the trainer is after, and sinking down in the back end is irrelevant to the trick.

There’s lots of good info on this site about the process as well.

No matter what your pet is, if it has a spinal chord, it can be trained using these methods. (For you local folks, ask Doug Duncan at Doggie Business about his visit to “chicken camp”  where new dog trainers have to clicker train a chicken as part of their animal training lessons.) What a fun thing to try with your dog, and how useful when it’s nasty weather outside, or when your dog needs surgery and has to stay on bed rest – they can still be learning and challenged and having a good time, right from their bed.  Keep it short, keep it fun, and if they seem frustrated, ask for something easier and end on that high note. Then think of possible smaller steps you can take towards your goal, so that they are more easily understanding what it is you’re going for. Now you’re a trainer.

Related Links:

• Pets, Protein, Dry Food and Disease
• The Completely Healthy ‘Pet’ Food Your Vet Probably Vilifies…
• You Asked For It… The 3 BEST Pet Foods You Can Buy

NOTE FROM GREEN DOG PET SUPPLY: see also this previous blog post – Tips on Getting Your Cats to Drink More Water

In the “Answers from Experts” (03/99 issue) of the Whole Dog Journal, Holistic vet Dr Carolyn Blakey suggests that homeopathy can help, as well as acupuncture, “which would be great for stimulating whatever tonal ability the dog may have. With megaesophagus, the whole problem is a lack of innervation (sufficient supply and activity of the nerves). The messages are just not getting through to the esophagus to constrict and move food down; it gets all flaccid. But acupuncture can get those neurotransmitters working, or at least, get them working better than before.”
She also mentions that it would be important to have a good vitamin mineral supplement as well as digestive enzymes to help the dog (or cat) to absorb more nutrition from the food that makes it into the stomach.

A customer shared her very clever solution to a long time problem she was having. Her dog loves to bark out of the window, and was not only creating a lot of noise for her close neighbors, but she was also shredding her blinds. The shredded blinds not only looked terrible, they were an expensive loss. Then she hit upon the great idea to purchase a sort of contact paper made for windows that made them look frosted, and the problem was solved! They still let plenty of light in, they look attractive, they provide valuable privacy for houses that are close to the neighbors, and by only frosting the bottom panes, the owner can still look out the top part of the window if she needs to see outside. The dog can’t get up that high though, so the visual stimuli that were causing her to bark (squirrels, people passing, etc) were removed. She’s calmer, the neighbors are happier, and the new blinds remain unshredded, as there’s nothing to see by pushing them out of the way. Check out this awesome DYI site that shows beautiful ways to embellish the frosted glass look with a paint pen. Beautiful!

So of course tomorrow, watch out for your pets when your house is full of people:

• Make sure if they’re overwhelmed they get moved to a quieter place in the house with a nice raw bone or bully stick or stuffed Kong to work on.
• Make sure they’re wearing their ID tags in case they sneak out the door as people come and go.
• Make sure no one slips them too much turkey, especially skin and gravy, as Pancreatitis can set in quickly with too many rich fats. Of course, cooked turkey bones are extremely dangerous for dogs – cooking any poultry bones changes them from edible to sharp and splintery.
• Be careful of the wrappings, strings and foil etc that were involved with turkey cooking, as they seem yummy too. Protect this sort of garbage from your pets.
• Raisins, grapes, rising bread dough, onions and chocolate often play roles tomorrow in the big meal, and they are all toxic to dogs.
• Raw turkey necks, however, are a great treat for dogs (unless their Thanksgiving day is filled with too many other treats – maybe save that for a quieter day if they haven’t had one before), and the raw liver and heart are worth cutting up and giving little pieces to both the kitties and the dogs.
• Keep your emergency vet # in an easy to find place in case your pet eats something they shouldn’t
• Have a wonderful holiday!

By Dr. Becker

The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Canine Vaccination Task Force has updated their vaccination guidelines for 2011.

According to AAHAnet.org:

Developed in a manner consistent with best vaccination practices, the 2011 Guidelines include expert opinions supported by scientific study, published and unpublished documents, and encompass all canine vaccines currently licensed in the U.S. and Canada. The task force that developed the guidelines included experts in immunology, infectious diseases, internal medicine, law, and clinical practice.

I’m encouraged by, if not blissful about the new guidelines.

The absolute highlight is that all core vaccines with the exception of the 1-year rabies are now recommended at 3-year or greater intervals.

Even more exciting is the task force has acknowledged that in the case of the non-rabies core vaccines, immunity lasts at least 5 years for distemper and parvo, and at least 7 years for adenovirus.

Hopefully these new guidelines will help more dog owners understand the long-lasting effect of those puppy shots! And hopefully, more dog owners will now request titers rather than automatically revaccinating their canine companions for distemper, parvo and adenovirus.

Summary of New AAHA Canine Vaccination Guidelines for 2011

Please note: My vaccine recommendations and those of Dr. Ronald Schultz, follow this summary.

CORE VACCINES

Canine Distemper (CDV)

Initial vaccination in puppies < 16 weeks of age

• Starting at 6 weeks, vaccinate every 3 to 4 weeks (6, 10, 14 or 8, 12, 16 weeks) up to 14 or 16 weeks; final shot should be given between 14 and 16 weeks to minimize risk of maternal antibody interference

Initial vaccination in dogs > 16 weeks of age

• One dose

Revaccination

• For puppies who received initial vaccination series by 16 weeks, a booster no later than 1 year after completion of initial series, then ≥ 3 years thereafter
• For dogs who received initial vaccination after 16 weeks of age, every ≥ 3 years thereafter

Notes: Among healthy dogs, distemper vaccines are expected to induce immunity for at least 5 years.

Canine Parvo (CPV-2)

Initial vaccination in puppies < 16 weeks of age

• Starting at 6 weeks, vaccinate every 3 to 4 weeks (6, 10, 14 or 8, 12, 16 weeks) up to 14 or 16 weeks; final shot should be given between 14 and 16 weeks to minimize risk of maternal antibody interference

Initial vaccination in dogs > 16 weeks of age

• One dose

Revaccination

• For puppies who received initial vaccination series by 16 weeks, a booster no later than 1 year after completion of initial series, then ≥ 3 years thereafter
• For dogs who received initial vaccination after 16 weeks of age, every ≥ 3 years thereafter

Notes: Among healthy dogs, distemper vaccines are expected to induce immunity for at least 5 years.

Canine Adenovirus (CAV-2)

Initial vaccination in puppies < 16 weeks of age

• Starting at 6 weeks, vaccinate every 3 to 4 weeks (6, 10, 14 or 8, 12, 16 weeks) up to 14 or 16 weeks; final shot should be given between 14 and 16 weeks to minimize risk of maternal antibody interference

Initial vaccination in dogs > 16 weeks of age

• One dose

Revaccination

• For puppies who received initial vaccination series by 16 weeks, a booster no later than 1 year after completion of initial series, then ≥ 3 years thereafter
• For dogs who received initial vaccination after 16 weeks of age, every ≥ 3 years thereafter

Notes: Among healthy dogs, distemper vaccines are expected to induce immunity for at least 7 years.

Rabies 1-year

Initial vaccination in puppies < 16 weeks of age

• One dose not earlier than 12 weeks or as required by law

Initial vaccination in dogs > 16 weeks of age

• One dose

Revaccination

• For all dogs: annually as required by law

Rabies 3-year

Initial vaccination in puppies < 16 weeks of age

• One dose not earlier than 12 weeks or as required by law

Initial vaccination in dogs > 16 weeks of age

• One dose

Revaccination

• For all dogs: within 1 year of initial dose regardless of age at time of initial dose, then every 3 years thereafter as required by law

NON-CORE VACCINES

Measles Vaccine (MV)

This vaccine is supposed to provide temporary immunization of young puppies against distemper by ‘cross-protecting’ them against the disease in the event there are still maternally derived antibodies present. It is always given in combination with other vaccines – distemper plus measles, or a 4-way combination of distemper plus measles plus adenovirus plus parainfluenza.

It is only recommended for healthy dogs between 6 and 12 weeks of age.

Canine Parainfluenza (CPiV)

There are two delivery systems for this vaccine – intranasal and parenteral (injected).

This is a flu vaccine. The intranasal form prevents clinical signs of illness, infection and shedding. The injected form prevents clinical illness, but not infection or shedding. It is used for dogs that aggressively resist intranasal delivery.

The parenteral vaccine is always given in combination with certain core vaccines; the intranasal form is always given in combination with the bordetella vaccine alone, or with bordetella plus adenovirus.

It is always given in a single dose. Revaccination recommendations, depending on the form of the vaccine (intranasal or parenteral), are per the combined core vaccine schedule, annually, or more frequently for ‘high risk’ animals.

Bordetella (Bb) Vaccine

The bordetella vaccine can also be delivered intranasally or by injection.

Parenteral administration requires two doses, 2 to 4 weeks apart. For the initial vaccination, it is recommended the second dose be given at least a week before the dog is boarded, attends a dog show, etc. Revaccination is recommended annually

The intranasal vaccine is single dose, with revaccination recommended annually or more often for ‘high risk’ dogs. Some dogs experience side effects for 3 to 10 days after vaccination, including coughing, sneezing and nasal discharge.

Canine Adenovirus (CAV-2) – Intranasal

The intranasal form of the adenovirus vaccine is a non-core vaccine.

It’s recommended for dogs at risk for respiratory infection caused by the adenovirus, and it may not provide immunity against canine hepatitis. It should not be considered a replacement for the injectable form of the vaccine.

This vaccine is available only in combination with the intranasal bordetella and parainfluenza vaccines.

Canine Influenza

Vaccine is given in two doses, 2 to 4 weeks apart, in dogs older than 6 weeks. Annual revaccination is recommended.

Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease)

Vaccine is given in two doses, 2 to 4 weeks apart, in dogs older than 12 weeks of age. Revaccination is recommended annually and/or at the beginning of tick season as determined regionally.

Notes: Recommended only for use in dogs with known risk of exposure, living in or visiting regions where exposure risk is high or where Lyme disease is endemic. Tick control products are required in addition to the vaccine.

Leptospira interrogans

This refers to the 4-way killed whole cell or subunit bacterin. The 2-way killed bacterin form of this vaccine is not recommended.

Vaccine is given in two doses, 2 to 4 weeks apart, in dogs older than 12 weeks of age.  Revaccination is recommended annually, but only for dogs with reasonable risk of exposure.

Notes: Vaccination should be based on known geographic occurrence/prevalence and exposure risk of the individual dog.

Canine Oral Melanoma

This vaccine is only available for treatment of dogs with malignant melanoma. It is not intended for the prevention of oral melanoma.

Crotalus atrox (Western Diamondback rattlesnake vaccine) (toxoid)

Field efficacy and experimental challenge data in dogs are not available at this time. (Vaccine efficacy and dose recommendations are based on toxin neutralization studies conducted in mice.)

Canine Coronavirus (CCov)

This vaccine is not recommended. Neither the modified live nor the killed CCov vaccine has proved effective against combination coronavirus/parvo disease. Only the parvo vaccine is protective against dual viruses.

What Dr. Ron Schultz Recommends

For those of you not familiar with Dr. Schultz, I recommend you watch my 4-part video series with him. You can find links to all 4 videos and articles here.

Dr. Schultz is one of the preeminent experts in the field of veterinary vaccines. If you read the full AAHA vaccination guidelines report, you’ll see his work referenced throughout.

Dr. Schultz recommends not starting a puppy or kitten core vaccination program before 6 to 8 weeks of age, with revaccinations no more frequent than every 4 weeks. So for example, if you start the program at 8 weeks, you would give another dose of the core vaccines at 12 weeks, and the third dose at 16 weeks.

Dr. Schultz’s core vaccine protocol for his own family’s pets differs in that he actually runs antibody titers on the mother to know exactly when the best time is to effectively immunize the puppy or kitten for the 3 core viruses. Then he titers the little ones 2 or more weeks after the vaccine, and as long as the response is adequate, he doesn’t in most cases revaccinate for the rest of the pet’s life.

When it comes to rabies vaccines, Dr. Schultz gives the first vaccine after 4 months of age, revaccinates in a year, and then again in 3 years and every 3 years thereafter. In other words, he follows the law for 3-year rabies vaccines, even though he doesn’t believe a vaccination every 3 years is necessary for immunization.

Currently Dr. Schultz is in year 4 of a 7-year study of the rabies vaccine. You can read more about the study at the Rabies Challenge Fund. His goal is to be able to recommend that after an animal is vaccinated at from 12 to 24 weeks for rabies, there’s no need for re-vaccination every 3 years.

Hopefully we’ll see the results of his 7-year study reflected in a future revision of the AAHA’s canine vaccination guidelines, as well as in state and local laws.

My Vaccination Protocol

My protocol at Natural Pet is a first round of the 3 cores before 12 weeks of age, usually around 9 to 10 weeks. Then I boost between 15 and 16 weeks. Then I titer 2 weeks after the second round to see if the animal has been immunized and not just vaccinated.

My rabies protocol mirrors Dr. Schultz’s, except I prefer to wait until 6 months of age before giving rabies vaccine.

As for the non-core vaccines, I don’t recommend any of them. Visit the following pages for a discussion of:

• Canine flu vaccines
• Bordetella vaccine
• Lyme disease vaccine
• Leptospirosis

Note several non-core vaccines are only available in combination with other vaccines, some of which are core. I recommend you check with your vet to ensure none of the non-core vaccines are being piggy-backed on core vaccines your pet receives. Most traditional vets do not carry single vaccines, so ask to see the vaccine vial before assuming your pet is only receiving one agent at a time.