All posts by Dr. Marty Becker

It was the largest horse rescue in U.S. history, and now one of the babies needs your help and a home!

Rescue,

What would you do if you were asked to help save the lives of over 900 starving horses, many blind, and all the mares pregnant?

If you’re Elaine Nash, you mobilize your nonprofit horse rescue, Fleet of Angels, along with fellow rescue group Return to Freedom, and get to work. That’s just what happened when a horse and burro sanctuary in South Dakota closed down, leaving hundreds of horses starving in desperate conditions.

The two groups managed to get all the horses moved to homes and other rescues around the country, but still have huge feed, transport, veterinary, and land leasing bills to pay — and around 165 remaining horses who need homes, including babies like little one-month-old Allie and her mama, shown in the photo above.

It was the largest horse rescue in U.S. history, and these beautiful horses are American Mustangs, literally national treasures. The groups working to save them need all the help they can get, so please donate if you can, volunteer if you’re near Fort Collins, Colo., and consider adopting wherever you are — you can see all the available horses on the ISPMB Adoptable Horses Facebook group, where they’re known as the Hallelujah Horses!

There are young, healthy horses, pregnant mares, babies, stallions, geldings, seniors, and blind horses. They need you, and I’m pretty sure you need them, too! And there’s a $100 gelding subsidy for the stallions provided by the National Equine Rescue Network.

Fill out the adoption application here.

Can’t adopt? Please donate at www.ISPMBHorseRescueMission.org, and ask your friends and family to donate, too.

Still have questions? Email niffyg@yahoo.com.

Please share — these groups have already spent nearly half a million dollars, and need to wrap up this rescue in the shortest time possible!

Veterinarian’s granddaughter wrote her first book, and of course it’s about animals

This and That,

Love of animals and of writing runs deep in our family. I’ve written 25 books, selling over 8 million copies with three New York Times bestsellers. Our daughter, Mikkel, has co-authored five books in the Ultimate Pet Lovers Series, as well as the upcoming book, Fearful to Fear Free.

Now the third generation is starting down the family path. Mikkel’s daughter, our granddaughter, Reagan, wrote her first book, and of course it was about animals.

It was also dedicated to Teresa and me, which is probably the most meaningful acknowledgement we’ve ever received in our lives.

Here’s wishing great things for QT Pi Becker’s “Cowgirl,” our own animal-loving Reagan!

Read it here.

When your puppy eats your sofa

Pet Connection, ,

A reader has a not-uncommon problem: A sofa-eating puppy. I asked my daughter, trainer Mikkel Becker, to help her out with some tips.

Q: My 4-month-old Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy ate my sofa. Literally! What can I do? I can’t afford to buy much more new furniture.

A: Congratulations — you have a normal puppy! That’s the good news. The bad news is that without plenty of training and supervision, things can get worse before they get better. Puppies are hard-wired to explore their environment, and since their paws don’t have opposable thumbs, they use the next best thing: their sharp teeth.

But you don’t have to lose any more furniture. Chewing and scratching provide pets with exercise and mental stimulation, but they don’t have to be destructive — at least not to anything other than their approved toys. Puppy kindergarten followed by advanced training, as well as plenty of interactive exercise and playtime, can help you teach your pup how to channel his chewing — and his energy, in general — into more productive and acceptable activities. Here are some tips.

  • Put his brain to work with puzzle toys that make him think. Some favorites are the Snuffle Mat and the Nina Ottosson Twister. Believe it or not, a good mental workout can leave him too tired to even think about eating your furniture.
  • Provide interesting and long-lasting chew toys. I like the Kong not only for durability but also for its “stuffability.” Load it up with peanut butter, baby carrots, kibble and other tasty treats, freeze it, and then let him go to work trying to get all the goodies out.
  • When you see your puppy chewing on something he shouldn’t, get his attention so he turns away from it, and then give him an acceptable chew toy. Praise him when you see him chewing on his toys; it’s important for him to learn what’s OK for him to chew as well as what he shouldn’t. – Mikkel Becker

Read more, including about the new canine family tree, in this week’s Pet Connection!

New guidelines on how to stop mosquitoes before they spread disease to pets (and people)

Veterinary Medicine

The big news in preventing mosquito-borne diseases in dogs, cats, and humans continues to be what’s known as vector control. In other words, instead of focusing exclusively on preventing or treating the diseases, we need to incorporate a robust prevention of the mosquitoes. Which, considering most people hate them and their itching, burning bites even in the absence of canine and feline heartworm, Zika, West Nile Virus, and other ills the pesky insects carry with them, is an appealing concept.

The Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) has for the first time issued guidelines for mosquitoes and the diseases they carry. They’re comprehensive and well-worth a read, but the section on prevention includes this information:

Dogs:

There are several products available for use on dogs to repel and kill mosquitoes for an entire month. Products contain permethrin at relatively high concentrations (e.g. Effitix® [44.88%; Virbac], K9 Advantix® II [44%; Bayer], Vectra 3D® [36.08%; Ceva]; Activyl Tick Plus [42.5%; Merck]). Several of these products are labeled to control other ectoparasites as well. Recent research indicates that treatment of dogs with a combination of dinotefuran, permethrin and pyriproxyfen (Vectra 3D®) inhibits uptake of heartworm microfilariae from infected dogs and prevents transmission of heartworm infective larvae from infected mosquitoes to non-infected dogs. These spot-on products are not labeled for use in cats, nor should they be used in cats. Long-lasting permethrin-impregnated clothing and bedding is also available for dogs (not cats) to repel mosquitoes. Mosquito control products approved for use on dogs should not be used on humans. A complete list of available ectoparasiticidal products is available at capcvet.org.

Cats:

Currently there are no mosquito control products with monthly residual activity approved for use in cats. There are some short-acting, over-the-counter products available for mosquito repellency. Only use products that are approved for use in cats. Keeping cats indoors will minimize exposure to mosquitoes.

]As we head into what’s predicted to be a truly terrible mosquito season, it’s critical that all pet owners and my fellow veterinarians familiarize themselves with the information in these guidelines.

Also of interest: My interview from last year with Dr. John McCall, MS, PhD, professor emeritus in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, about Vectra and the studies used to develop it.

This post is not sponsored in any way.

The frustrating reality of finding out why your cat is vomiting

Pet Connection, Veterinary Medicine

A reader wants to know why her cat is vomiting all the time, but hesitated about all the tests her veterinarian wanted to run. Here are my thoughts.

Q: My cat has been vomiting a lot, and my veterinarian wants to run all kinds of tests to figure out the cause. Is that really necessary?

A: Figuring out why cats are vomiting is one of the more frustrating problems veterinarians face. A whole host of problems, from hairballs to hyperthyroidism, can cause cats to vomit. Among the common causes of acute vomiting — meaning it comes on suddenly — are adverse reactions to food, feline infectious peritonitis and acute gastritis of unknown cause — what we like to call “garbage gut.” Chronic vomiting, which continues over a long period, is usually related to adverse food reactions or intestinal bowel disease. But there is still a wide range of other potential causes, which is why your veterinarian may want to run an assortment of lab tests or order imaging such as radiography or ultrasound.

At last year’s North American Veterinary Conference, M. Katherine Tolbert, an internal medicine specialist at the University of Tennessee, presented some ways to help practitioners narrow the possible causes of feline vomiting. These include looking at the cat’s age, breed and sex. For instance, a middle-aged Siamese might have gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma, while a young Abyssinian is more likely to have feline infectious peritonitis. A middle-aged or senior domestic shorthair should get a thyroid panel to rule out hyperthyroidism. A shorthaired cat who frequently vomits hairballs may have chronic gastrointestinal disease.

Any details owners can provide are important, no matter how minor they might seem. Always let the veterinarian know how often the cat vomits, whether he’s eaten anything unusual or new, or any change in his routine or environment. Depending on the cat’s medical history and the severity of the signs, it may be possible to start with a fecal exam or diet trial before moving on to more specialized diagnostics.

Read more, including about spaying and neutering for kittens, in this week’s Pet Connection!