Rabies Vaccine - Why does my pet need that?

Rabies Vaccine - Why does my pet need that?

These days, we rarely hear about a domestic animal with rabies virus, and when a human gets rabies, it makes the evening news!  However unseen, rabies virus is endemic to the continental United States, which results in many of our wildlife animal friends still affected.  

How common is rabies? 

In the latest epidemiologic report from 2010, the CDC identified 6,153 cases of rabies in animals and 2 human cases.  Of those, 92% of cases were in wild, undomesticated animals.  Domestic species accounted for 8% of all rabid animals reported in the United States in 2010. In 2010, the number of reported rabid domestic animals decreased compared to 2009 among all domestic species except cats.  The principal hosts today are wild carnivores and bats. As you can see, rabies virus is still among us!  Your pet needs the rabies vaccination to prevent possible exposure.  There is no treatment for dogs or cats, and infection with rabies virus for pets is 100% fatal.  And the bottom line is, rabies vaccination is the law.

The law comes into effect if your pet is reported to medical workers or the police for scratching or biting a person, or in some cases, another animal.  If your animal is current on their rabies vaccination, you will get a ticket for the bite/scratch and you are required to home-quarantine your pet for 10 days.  If your pet is not current of their rabies vaccination, you will get a ticket for the bite/scratch and you are required to impound-quarantine your pet at a shelter or veterinary clinic for 10 days.

Rabies vaccines are very safe.  Less that 0.05% of animals have a reaction to the rabies vaccine.  Also, rabies vaccines are 100% effective in preventing rabies infection!

By: Amanda Schnitker, DVM

The Scoop on Poop!

Why are we so preoccupied with checking your pet’s poop?

Consider the following facts:

• Most pets are born with roundworms.
• Roundworms and hookworms carried by pets can infect people.  These infections have been known to cause eye disease leading to blindness in an eye in some people that are infected (primarily children).
• Hookworms can penetrate skin and foot pads to enter a pet’s body without even being ingested by your pet.
• Just like chicken pox in people remain in the body to cause shingles later in life, once a pet has roundworms, they can recur in their body without ever being exposed to an outside source.  Indoor cats can redevelop this parasite in the intestines despite being indoors for years!
• Pets can also get parasites like tapeworms from ingesting a mouse or having fleas.
• The CDC reports that 14% of Americans show that they have been exposed to roundworms based on detection of antibodies in their blood.
• In addition to roundworms, pets can be parasitized by:      
• Giardia, Tapeworms, Coccidia, Toxoplasma, Tritrichomonas, Strongyloides

Keep your pets safe and help keep your family safe!

• Have your pet’s fecal sample checked regularly.  We recommend a fecal check every 6 months!
• Pick up pet waste as soon as possible from the yard
• Keep your dog and cat on heartworm preventative all year round.  This helps prevent against intestinal parasites too!
• Teach kids to always wash their hands before eating especially after handling a pet.

Learn more at the Companion Animal Parasite Council at http://www.capcvet.org/

article written by:

Scott Petereit, DVM

Camp McDonald Animal Hospital, soon to be Companion Animal Hospital

Mount Prospect, IL

Wellness testing: What it is and why we do it

Wellness testing: What it is and why we do it

As veterinarians, we are at a disadvantage relative to our human medical counterparts, in that our patients cannot always tell us how they feel or what is wrong with them.  Still, our goals are always to 1) relieve pain and suffering, 2) treat ill pets and 3) whenever possible, prevent a pet from getting ill in the first place.  The life saying that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” certainly holds true to veterinary medicine, and when we cannot prevent disease from happening, we try our best to help pet owners detect disease early – before it becomes a major problem for our furry friends. 

You will often hear your veterinarian recommend that your pet be examined every 6-12 months – this gives us an opportunity to see how your pet is doing at home, find out about changes in their behavior and perform a comprehensive physical examination that may detect early signs of a disease.  A good history and physical examination can detect a number of diseases early, but some changes in the body are more subtle and not as easily identified by a veterinarian’s eyes, fingers and stethoscope.  For a better look at what is going on inside your pet, you will often hear your veterinarian, or their support team, recommend annual wellness diagnostic testing. 

The “Young” Annual Profile:

Young pets (< 7 years of age) get sick too!  Typically, wellness testing of young pets is less extensive, but includes:

• Screening for heartworm and tick-borne diseases
• Assessing blood counts (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets) for signs of bleeding, infection, or bone marrow disease.
• Assessing chemicals in the blood (“chemistries”) that can tell us information about liver health, kidney function and protein metabolism. 

”Normal” values for some of these tests are based on statistics – they are the values that 95% of apparently healthy pets produced on the same test.  Sometimes our pets didn’t read the book on what’s “normal,” so testing even a healthy pet can give us an idea of what is “normal” for them!  Still, if we find out that your pet is not fitting the norm, it gives you the opportunity to make sure that there isn’t something wrong.

The “Senior” Annual Profile:

Pets >7 years of age are considered “senior” citizens.  Although you can still see humans in their 80s and 90s running marathons, it is not uncommon as we age for our bodies to not work quite like they used to.  The same is true in our pets.  Kidney and liver disease are seen more commonly, and our metabolisms may not run like the well-oiled machine they used to.  To account for this, “senior” testing is usually more comprehensive:

• Screening for heartworm and tick-borne diseases – older pets can still get them!
• Assessing blood counts for signs of bleeding, infection or bone marrow disease
• More extensive blood chemistry testing to have more precise information about the kidney, liver, and intestinal function and to screen for metabolic diseases.
• Testing of the urine (urinalysis) and thyroid (T4) for metabolic diseases

Ask your veterinarian about annual wellness testing.  We have a number of tools at our disposal to diagnose disease in our pets, and catching disease early helps us to keep them healthy and happy longer!

article written by:

Erich Roush, DVM

Wolf Merrick Animal Hospital, Kenosha WI