Ticks! Ticks!

Hi all. My husband camped near Jefferson Lake on the SE side of Mt. Jefferson last week and encountered a TON of ticks. To be honest...I have not seen a tick since I moved to Oregon 3 and a half years ago, but, I guess they are here. Please, please if you are taking your dog to the mountains now or this summer, use tick prevention. Start with Frontline plus, that should be enough unless you are visiting a heavily tick infested area.

Remember ticks can transmit Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever...and other diseases not so common here.

Pet Hospice

Greetings, I am back if you are listening. Since I last wrote I have had to say good bye to my second and final dog child after 13 and a half great years. Being a veterinarian I am confronted with the emotions and decisions regarding euthanasia weekly...and sometimes daily. Because of this I felt prepared to send my lovely German Shepherds on to the spirit world, let their energy be free of the flesh and go back to the universe, perhaps to be a companion again someday. I was wrong.

Nearly one month before we actually had to put Guinness “to sleep” I had placed an IV catheter and was about to end her life because she had a bout of seizures and looked so terrible and confused. But something told me it was not time...maybe she would be a little better if I just waited. Sure enough she rallied and came out of her mental fog and began to eat and take her walks again.

So many adjustments had been made to our lives, and our house, to accommodate the lovely aging ladies, but it never bothered me. I felt I was caring for them as we care for elderly humans. Non-slip mats in front of the dog bowls, ramps to go in and out of house and cars and a an occasional piece of dried poop found under a dog bed...well that got to be more frequent.

Living through caring for aged animals, I realized so many parallels to human hospice...with one difference: we can decide when to end it. What an important and difficult place to be in. During my struggle I asked...”What right do I have to decide it is your time to go???” “Do you want to go Guinness?” “Should I have let you go sooner?”

So life is. Pain and sadness, loss...but only all these things because of the joy, happiness and comfort that comes to us too. Winding down the path of aging with Guinness one day we came to a place where she was ready to leave the world, my husband knew it, I knew, she knew it. We helped her pass on and then I lay with her for a long while smelling her fur and just taking in the sight of her. Over time it seemed the soul left her physical body. Spending this time with her I realized how important it is to be home with your pet at this special moment.

My story is not special or new, I know. But I wanted to write this to remind myself and others that we go on a journey with our pets and we are forced to see them through infancy to geriatrics to the process of dying. I feel it is normal for this to be challenging and sad and draining. We should expect for the final months to push us to certain limits and to question our decisions. It is normal to be sad, really, really sad to see them go and to bawl at the moment of their death.

Word of advice...practice reality in your mind on a regular basis. What I mean is; do not tell yourself “I can't live without my faithful dog” but instead tell yourself “I will cherish my pet while they are here and make every moment count. I will stand by their side until the end and let them go with dignity and peace. And when they are gone I will have enough love to give to another needy pet and they will have something to give to me.”

Thanks for listening and I promise...no more blogs about aging dogs!!!

Open House

Thank you to everyone who came to open house, it was fabulous!!! The band Moonlight Mile was excellent, I thought. The violin and guitar together were relaxing and entertaining. I enjoyed seeing clients outside of the normal appointment setting and meeting new people.  I hope you all met our new employees Michelle and Katie and learned something new about our clinic or about veterinary medicine.

If anyone has a burning question about veterinary medicine, or the clinic or me, please ask it here as it will guide me better in what to write about.

For the first time at our open house we had our laser out and Michelle was educating everyone on how it works. I wanted to mention that I just read an article in a recent veterinary publication about Laser Therapy. As many of you know we added Laser therapy to the practice in May.

Current research on lasers confirms that a specific wavelength of coherent light does indeed take away pain and heal tissue. Wavelengths from the mid 700's to the low 900's nanometers (nm) prove to penetrate the deepest and units with power of lower wattage (500 mW or less) can be applied directly to the skin thus delivering a measurable dose of light directly to the underlying tissues. Machines of high power, over 500 mW (some are 10 and 12 Watts) cannot touch the skin directly, must be moved constantly and risk damaging tissue. 

I am so proud to say that after months of research I purchased a low power laser with wavelength production of 808 and 905 nm.  This means treatments are safe and effective.

All dogs and cats with knee, elbow and hip arthritis and pain are great candidates for this treatment. It is possible they can be maintained with laser treatment alone and not have to use drugs for pain.

I'll sign off for now.
Julie

Preventative Medicine

I would like to talk about preventative medicine. Why is it hard for people to enact preventative medicine for themselves and their pets? I think it is because we cannot measure what we prevented.

Modern medicine is held to a standard of “evidence-based” medicine. Essentially this means there are double blind studies to back up any and all treatments we provide. A drug or surgical treatment is given to a large number of dogs or cats with a disease, most of the animals benefit. At the same time the dog or cat not given the treatment must not gain a benefit. This is a good standard to maintain.

Two areas of research in support of preventative medicine come to mind. In 2002 a study reported that 25% food reduction in a group of Labrador Retrievers enjoyed a significantly longer life span than the control group who ate more food. We have also know for many years that having a female dog spayed before her first heat nearly eliminates her risk of getting mammary cancer (known as breast cancer in women). If you wait until after the second heat to have a female dog spayed then her chance of getting mammary cancer is 25%. These results really motivate me to recommend spaying your female dog before her first heat and to advise all pet owners to restrict caloric intake throughout life.

All too often it is hard to see what we gain when we live a healthy life. We all know people and dogs that eat or have been fed a poor diet and live to a ripe old age. We know people that smoke that live a normal life span. It leaves a person to wonder, what is the best way to maintain my health.

At this point I choose to fall back on common sense or what seems to be intuitively correct. For me this means eating and drinking in moderation. Eating whole, fresh food. Avoid smoking and ingestion of chemical-laden food. Exercise in moderation. Yes, I believe that too much exercise is unhealthy. Variety in food and types of exercise supports the idea that with variety we will get all our complex needs met.

Emotional stress in moderation is an important component to health. Work and play in balanced amounts.

Exposure to pathogens in the environment makes logical sense in that it teaches our immune system what is a pathogen and how to build up protection against it. Too much protection from disease is bad.

Okay, okay, this is nothing new, I know! But we get distracted by new drugs from these old truths that can not be tested in the modern scientific model. I wonder if our world is coming up on an era where we go back to common sense. Maybe it could be considered more of a realistic view of life as opposed to the view that there is a magic pill to cure what ails us all. Or a single magic berry! There really is no cure all.

Laser Therapy for Pets

I am very excited about a new treatment that I am using: LASER therapy.  Often there are patients that have pain or inflammatory conditions that no drug will help or they will not allow acupuncture or take herbs or supplements.  In the past there was  nothing left to offer them.  Now I am employing my therapy laser for just such cases.

Laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.  It sounds scary but it is basically light created by manipulating photons and using reflection to make  uniform beams of “light”.  There are different powers of lasers, everything from the low power like laser pointers to surgical cutting lasers.

Many therapy lasers are high power, however my unit is lower powered providing an unparalleled  level of safety for patients. What is amazing about this class of lasers is that there are essentially no harmful side effects (as long as you do not point the beam into the eye through the pupil). 

But even more amazing are its benefits. Scientific study has determined that there is a narrow band of wavelengths of light, known as the near infrared, that is absorbed by 2 important tissues in the body and result in healing.  These wavelengths of light are not visible by the human eye! They are between 780-950 nm.

Once the light wave is absorbed by the particular cell structures, one is a component of mitochondria and the other is hemoglobin, the energy production of the cell is turned on. In some cases direct gene stimulation occurs and a cascade of healing mediators ensues.  The laser does not heal, but rather turns on the tissue cells so they may heal themselves. The most notable and documented effect is control and elimination of pain, like arthritis pain. 

Scientific study is ongoing, but the general feeling is that there is no limit to what light can heal.  The trick is to know what wavelength to use and how much power to apply and for how long. 

One thing is for sure, it treats pain with no side effects. I have used it on my painful plantar fasciitis and get immediate pain relief.  I have been able to relieve painful mouth inflammation in 2 dogs and improve arthritis in a cat.  We have only just begun! It is not a panacea, and it requires an absolute diagnosis, but the applications will be many.

Benefits:

Treats pain, inflammation, infection, edema, wounds, and most likely many medical conditions.

Non-invasive, non-painful

No negative side effect

Treatment times may be very short

Can be applied where nothing else has worked

May be able to get patient off pain medications

Works with medications for better result or so that medications can be reduced

Yoga

Bikram yoga changed my life. I have said this many times, and it is true. Bikram Choudhury put together of sequence of 26 Hatha postures and began to teach them in a 105F room. The claim is that this sequence systematically works all parts of the body including internal organs, veins, ligaments and muscles. The heat is intended to warm the body to make it malleable and to sweat out toxins. After my first class several years ago I was hooked and within a month I felt completely different. My core strength had improved and my stress level had dramatically decreased. Then I moved to Salem, Oregon..no Bikram.

All types of yoga have the ability to change us. I like yoga that provides exercise but at the same time is a meditation. Meditation because when our mind is calm and open we can accomplish goals we once thought impossible. Part of this meditation is control of the breath which leads to control of the mind. When you are in control of your mind and emotions you have great power to go into the world and be successful.

Yoga also helps maintain a healthy flow of energy in the body. The result for me has been improved physical and mental health.

I was so excited to find "Hot Yoga" just next door to the clinic at Simply Blissed! While not the 26 Bikram style poses, the Hatha poses are led in a 100+F room and the experience is similar. The classes are packed, which shows you there is something to this yoga. It leaves one feeling so darn good.

Anyway, it got me wondering about how animals meditate and if they need meditation. I suppose they are much less affected by the stress of money and reputation than we are. Perhaps the sunbathing of my cat under the most beautifully blooming flowers is his meditation. A colleague of mine believes dogs walk to meditate or meditate on their walk. Exercise does seem to balance most dogs.

I am sure everyone has heard of Doga? Yoga with your dogs...anyone up for starting this in Salem????

Silver Falls, OR and Sheeba and buddies