The normal joint is like a well-oiled machine – runs efficiently, smoothly and is free of pain. Introduce bad guy Mr OsteoArthritis and things can get a little chaotic inside a joint. Mr O. Arthritis is able to gain painful power of your pets joints due to the gradual effects of his partners in crime – inflammation, wear and tear, injuries, age, and obesity to name a few.

Signs that your pet may be having trouble with this bad guy –

For our canine companions this may include:

• Difficulty getting out of bed
• Resting more than usual
• Reluctance to walk, run or jump
• Stiffness or Limping when moving
• Changes in behavior – potentially newly formed aggression
• Uncharacteristic hiding or barking

For our feline friends this may include some subtle behavioral changes such as:

• Hesitance to walk up or down stairs
• Reluctance to jump up onto or down from furniture
• Less time playing

So what can we do to combat this terrible team causing such grief to our pets?

(here is where I need some theme music — think Superman perhaps? Da da dadada da…)

Thankfully we have an awesome team of SUPERHEROs that can help us out.

Introducing………….

THE “P” MEN

Pain Relief – responsible for reducing inflammation and providing almost instant relief from the crippling effects of arthritis

Pentosan – providing longer lasting relief from inflammation and pain, as well as increasing the volume and quality of joint fluid and increasing healthy cartilage production

Powders – containing ingredients such as glucosamine and chondroitin Sulfate to help stimulate the production of joint fluid and cartilage

Portions of less food – responsible for reducing the load on your pets joints

Pampering – providing them with a comfortable bed that is neither too soft (making it difficult for our furry friends to get out of) or too hard, and a warm place to have this bed – inside a kennel, by the fire or in your own bed (what ever tickles your fancy J ), as well as a Superheros Cape (otherwise known as a rug to help keep warm),

With either a combination of these Superheros or sometimes just one is enough, we can help your pet get that spring back in their step. So if you think that Bad Guy OsteoArthritis and his partners in crime are wreaking havoc in your pets joints, please be sure to visit us at Newtown Veterinary Clinic to have a chat on the best way to help your pet cope with arthritis.

Share a photo with us on Facebook of how you keep your pets warm over winter to be in the running to win a warm blanket for your pet. Post to

www.facebook.com/newtownvet

Can I get Your Attention?  

(Dogs Who Jumping Up on You/Guests)          

Question: How do you I stop my dog from jumping up on me/guests?

Answer: The main reason dogs jump up on you, or your guests, is for attention. More accurately, they are asking you a question and the right response it important for many reasons (which I won’t go into here!). The normal response when a dogs jumps up is to tell them off or to ‘get down’ but unfortunately this still classifies as attention so when you do this they are learning that this behaviour works!

So what is the right response when a dog jumps up on you?

• Avoid making eye contact or saying anything your dog.
• Gently push the dog down, using a 3 strikes and you’re out rule
• If your dog jumps up a third time simply place them in a room on their own for a minute or two (there must be 5 seconds of silence for them to be let out again) or simply put them outside. Alternatively, if you are outside when the dog jumps up then immediately go back inside.
• Remain CALM when doing the above & be CONSISTENT!

What about guests?

• When guests knock on your door, place your dog outside or in the nearest room with a ‘good dog’.
• Invite guests in and ask them to pay no attention to your dog until they are calm and relaxed.
• Bring your dog back into the room on lead, this gives you control.
• If your dog tries to jump up you can calmly hold them back without saying anything, but if they persist place them back outside, or in another room, for a time-out. Wait for calm and then try again.

The reason we use the above approach is to show your dog that a) jumping up won’t succeed in gaining any attention, and b) if they continue to do it they will be removed from the family. This encourages your dog to use self-control, the best kind of control there is!

Thank you to Hayley Wright of Taking the Lead.  For more great information visit http://www.takingthelead.net.au

Happy Valentines Day – NOW GET MOVING!

It’s time to shift those love handles, not just your own, but those belonging to your beloved cats and dogs. It’s time to stop feeding all those extra Dentastix and fatty table scraps, and get your pets moving. So if your beloved dog or cat is battling the bulge, YOU – the owner, need to be proactive for their long term health and take part in the

 Newtown Veterinary Clinic

12WPT

12 Week PET Transformation

Here I will introduce Rocky, a beautiful and rather rotund Labrador, who’s owners have already signed him up for the challenge.

Rocky is my name (pant pant pant) and I’m a happy, content (pant pant pant) Labrador. I love eating (pant pant). Life is great, all I have to do is sit next to my loving humans (pant, pant, pant) and look at them in that cutesy sort of way as if I am starving. (pant, pant, pant) You know the look – big eyes, slight head tilt (pant, pant). My favorite food is jam on toast, biscuits, apple, any form of left-overs – mmmmmmmmm (pant, pant, pant).

Well must go, my humans are calling (pant, pant). They’re taking me in the car. Woo hoo! Nothing like a sniff of fresh air through the open window of a fast moving car – tends to make me a bit gassy though!

…

How pawsome – I got to pop in to the Newtown Vet Clinic! (pant, pant). I love going there (pant, pant, pant). I get so many pats, belly rubs and a few of those yummy liver treats (pant, pant).

I had to stand still for a while on this black platform (pant, pant). Some numbers showed up, I think it read 50kg (pant, pant, pant). Then my human pets had a chat with the vet, while I got more pats and belly rubs (pant, pant). They mentioned a few things – “high risk for diabetes”, “early onset of arthritis” and “weight control” (pant, pant, pant). I’m not quite sure what a diet is, but apparently I have to go on one. There was talk of a 12 Week Pet Transformation – hmmm sounds like hard work and there was no treat this time – what’s with that! (pant, pant, pant)

Apparently I will be heading (pant, pant) to the Million Paws Walk in May (pant, pant, pant) to celebrate my body transformation and new found fitness (I am getting puffed just thinking about it – pant, pant) I will let you know how I go!

Cheers Rocky (pant, pant, pant)

———————-

So join Rocky in this great 12 Week PET Transformation. Talk to any of the staff at Newtwon Vet Clinic about participating. Initial weigh-ins can occur until the end of February.

Final weigh-ins will occur during between the 8^th -15^th May 2015.

There will be great prizes for the most transformed cat or dog to be announced (12 weeks from the end of Feb) at the Million Paws Walk on Sunday 17^th May 2015 (winners not at the walk will still receive there prize).

So be sure to come in for your pets FREE weigh in, a “before” photo and some information to help you transform your pet.

This is not the "real" Rocky.  Photo taken from Pintrest.

Happy New Year!!! Did you survive the Christmas rush? Still nursing a lovely hangover from New Years eve? Personally I am enjoying a relaxing time building sand castles at Torquay beach with the kids while the dogs run around like hooligans, frolicking in the water and biting at the waves. It is such an awesome way to keep everyone cool!

It is also a good time to send out a reminder that as the weather really starts to warm up, we don’t want to see any of our beloved pets affected by the heat. Ensure your pets have a plenty of shade and multiple fresh cool water sources.

Most importantly

Please remember NOT to leave your pets in cars on a sunny day!

Tests conducted by Melbourne’s Metropolitan Ambulance Service on a 29 degree day with the car’s air conditioning having cooled the interior to a comfortable 20 degrees, showed it took just 10 minutes for the temperature to more than double to 44 degrees – in a further 10minutes it had tripled to a deadly 60.2 degrees*. As with people exposure to these types of temperatures can be extremely dangerous.

Dogs are especially prone to the effects as DOGS CANNOT SWEAT – the only way they can cool themselves is by panting. If the air around them is too hot – especially if they don’t have access to cold water, dogs are not able to regulate their body temp. So please don’t leave your pets in the car (or your children for that matter) while you pick up a few groceries, duck into the bakery or grab some booze at the bottle-o. You may get back to your car to find your beloved has died an agonising death or a very hot dog needing expensive emergency veterinary treatment

On a happier note – enjoy your holidays, keep calm and keep your pets cool!

How do you keep your pets cool on these sweltering days?

Are you travelling away with your pets? Send us a photo of your pooch on holiday and post it on our Facebook page.

If you find a pet or child in a hot car, please call the Victorian Police on 000.

 *http://www.rspcavic.org/health-and-behaviour/dogs/dogs-in-hot-cars/

Raisin’ some interest with Zac the Jack Russell!

This week our nurses took a call from the owner of Zac, a cheeky 10 year old Jack Russell who lives an idyllic beach life in Jan Juc. He happened across a loaf of raisin bread that had fallen out from his owners shopping bag. He was pretty happy with his discovery and got to work, devouring half a loaf before he was found with his bread. With a sore bloated belly, he was rushed to the vet.

Sadly for Zac his problems were two-fold. The yeast in such a large amount of bread causes bloating and abdominal discomfort (although the Newtown vets admint they are themselves guilty of sharing a corner of their toast with their dogs, and say this small amount is okay!). However the bigger concern for Zac was his ingestion of the raisins in the fruit bread.

It has been discovered that grapes and raisins can be toxic to dogs, this has only really become apparent in veterinary medicine in the last 15 or so years and is still poorly understood. It seems that some individual dogs that have consumed this fruit will develop an accumulation of calcium in their kidneys which can result in kidney failure. For some animals this can go un-noticed by their owners for some time until the damage has caused substantial illness.

Luckily Zac’s owners acted straight away.

Poor Zac was given a tablet to make him vomit, but after the usually beautiful drive through Torquay and up the Surf Coast to Newtown, Zac only managed to make half a slice of bread and a couple of measly rasins reappear. He was admitted to hospital for intravenous fluid therapy, some pain releif for his bloated belly and some charcoal to help absorb any of the remaining toxin from the fruit.

Zac spent the night in hospital and had to have some blood tests the following day to ensure that his blood calcium and kidney enzymes were all still okay. He was discharged to go home after his 24hours in hospital, and has to return for further blood tests later in the week to make sure his kidneys are still functioning okay.

See you soon Zac. Hope your tummy is feeling better!

Dog owners remember to close your bread bins and pantry doors this winter when fruit toast is on the breakfast menu!

Flea Circus

Treating your pets for fleas is a very common topic and is certainly a subject that vets get quite passionate about. It is certainly very important to treat our pets for fleas for a number of reasons such as:

• Relieving your pets
• Preventing Flea Allergy dermatitis
• Preventing spread of tapeworm infections.

However, I though I would share some information I came across and found quite interesting on the attractions of ye old times, the famous flea circus. Here I was, believing that it was all just an illusion with miniature mechanised circus equipment. Not so!!

Fascinatingly I discovered that actual fleas were used and “trained” to perform circus acts! The history of flea circuses dates back as far as 1578 with the first being advertised as early as 1833 in England. There are quite a few techniques used to train fleas. Some of these involve observing the fleas to see if they had a predisposition for jumping or walking. Once sorted, they were harnessed by carefully wrapping a thin gold wire around the neck of the flea! Jumping fleas were used for kicking small lightweight balls – the harness would prevent them from jumping away and they would shoot the ball instead. Running fleas were used to pull small cars and vehicles or rotate a ferris wheel.

There are also reports of fleas being glued to the base of a flea circus enclosure. Miniature musical instruments were then glued to the fleas and the enclosure heated. The fleas fought to escape, giving the impression of fleas playing instruments. The majority of fleas in the flea circus are, however, dead. They can be attached to their circus equipment and manipulated with the use of magnets

Feeling sorry for fleas at this point in time? PLEASE DON’T! Unfortunately we cannot train our fleas to jump off our beloved pets and exit stage left Moulin Rouge style in frilly costumes. This is why it is essential to use a veterinary recommended flea product. There are many products available for the treatment of fleas and these include both spot on and chewable forms and some of the products are also combined with worming treatments to cover everything for ease of use.

Please pop in for to discuss the best treatment for your pet.

Are you looking for something a bit different to entertain guests at your next party? Then go no further than the Dinky Di Aussie Flea Circus (based in the Northern Territory) at http://www.hyperclown.com

Other interesting facts about fleas:

• A flea can pull up to 160,000 times its own weight.
• A flea can jump over 150 times its own size. If a man had the same strength, he could jump over 100meters.
• A flea can jump 30,000 times without a break.
• Dead fleas dressed as wedding couples were popular collectors’ items in the 1920s.

Want to read more on flea circuses – check out the following websites:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_circus
• https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine-articles/flea-circuses

Bones and balloons – they are not really two words that you often hear in the one sentence. Except of course if you are holding a gruesome ghost party for a six-year-old boy. However for Willie the Westie, the words bones and balloons are all too familiar.

Perhaps it was a moment of excitement that caused him to quickly gobble up and devour the bone. Maybe he was daydreaming that he was ‘Willie the Caped Crusader’ and no bone was too big to defeat. Whatever the reason, gorgeous little Willie the Westie attempted to swallow a relatively large piece of raw bone – WHOLE! Unfortunately for Willie the bone then became lodged in his food pipe (oesophagus).

Feeling painful, exhausted and not at all interested in eating anything, Willie the Westie was rushed to see the vets at the Newtown Vet Clinic. A very prompt diagnosis led to the quick referral to Advanced Vetcare in Melbourne. Here the fabulous team of specialist surgeons removed the lodged bone with the use of a specialized scope.

X-Ray showing marrowbone stuck in Willies Oespohagus

Due to the delicate nature of the oesophagus, scarring from trauma can easily occur. This scarring leads to the permanent constriction (stricture) of the food pipe, blocking all forms of food from getting through – not too great for a hungry little Westie!

Now, here is where the balloons come in!

To stretch out the stricture, a balloon catheter is placed in the oesophagus. The balloon is inflated at the site of the stricture. This then stretches out the muscle fibers and breaks down the scar tissue to return the food pipe back to its original size.

To allow healing of the oesophagus and prevent a recurrence of a stricture, it was important that Willie did not swallow any food. Of course Willie still needed good nutrition to recover from his ordeal and this was achieved via a gastric feeding tube. This tube is placed through the side of the abdominal wall and straight into his stomach!

The great news is that Willie has recovered from his ordeal incredibly well. And after all that he has been through, I think he certainly deserves the title of “Willie – The Courageous Crusader” – just no more tackling bones!

Willie the Courageous Crusader!