Human-animal bond as seen at CAWC.

July 4th safety for your pets

Before you throw your first burger on the grill or begin all your fun Fourth of July activities, remember your furry friends. Fireworks, holiday foods, summer heat and travel, can all be stressful for your pet. There are a few things you can do to make the holiday safer and happier for your pets prior to the festivities beginning.

Make sure your pets have proper identification on them. Now is the time to check your pet’s identification tags and make sure they are up to date with your current information. Update any microchip information your pet may have as well. If your pet is not microchipped, it’s a great time to speak to your veterinarian about placing a microchip.
When you go out to parties or firework displays, leave your pet at home. Loud fireworks and unfamiliar places can pose a risk of your pet getting spooked and running away.
Keep your pets inside if you or your neighbors will be setting off fireworks. A safe, escape proof room or crate would be a great place for that. Some soft music playing in the background can help filter the outside sounds.
Keep sparklers, glow sticks and kabob skewers away from your pets. These are things that curious pets may try to ingest.
July is typically one of the hottest months of the year. Keep your pet cool with lots of fresh water, shade, fans and / or the air conditioning (if you have it).
Avoid the urge to feed your pets any table scraps. While “people” food looks, and smells good to our pets, remember, it is food for people. Dogs and cats, can both look super cute begging for those extra holiday treats, but a lot of those items are toxic or at the very least can cause gastric upset.
Never leave your pet locked in the car during extreme temperatures. Your vehicle acts like an oven and locks in the heat. Temperatures in cars on mildly warm days can be significantly higher than outside temperatures and on hot days, and is extremely deadly.
If you are traveling, leave your pets at home with a trusted friend or house sitter, or at a boarding facility. If you need to bring them with you, make sure you keep them safe.

While all these tips are great, the best defense is a good offense. If your pet struggles with anxiety during these times, talk to your veterinarian about possible medications for your pet to help them cope. Or consider a Thunder shirt, which is a soft and flexible pressure wrap to help calm your anxious dog.

For more information or if you have any questions about keeping your pet safe, please call our office!

Heartwarming Stories of Senior Dogs

in Human-Animal Bond/by Matthew Boisson

There are many things that occur during my work day that are heartwarming, but perhaps one that tugs the most is the adoption of older pets. All of us know how fast the lifetime of our beloved companions races by, and how difficult it is to say goodbye. It is for this reason, I am so touched when my clients chose to open their hearts and homes to senior dogs and cats. We have a few clients that have chosen to do this repeatedly, often times with senior pets that have many medical issues.

Chewy & the Hobson family

Chewy is a 10+ year old pug that my clients and friends Jan and Karen Hobson adopted in the past few weeks. His medical history is relatively unknown. We are unsure of how and why he lost an eye, but are somewhat concerned it could be from glaucoma, which means we have to watch his remaining eye closely. He had a type of skin tumor that can be very aggressive when they adopted him, as well as some significant dental disease. An x-ray to rule out bladder stones showed a severe trauma to his right hip.

Heartwarming photo of Chewy on the couch at his new home.

Chewy looking mighty happy on a couch at his new home.

He is also about one of the sweetest little guys you will ever meet.

Jan and Karen sat while I explained to them the treatments that Chewy was going to need, and the potential issues he may face down the road. When I was done, they looked knowingly at each other and lovingly at Chewy, and Karen said “Well, we better get started. He is ours now, and he isn’t going anywhere.” Chewy had his tumor removed, his teeth cared for, and is being monitored for glaucoma and hip discomfort. He is fitting in with their other dog Josie and has his place on the bed.

Bo & Beau with the Ramirez family

Shana and Mark Ramirez had middle aged dogs when I met them, and they cared for them into very old age. When their 2 dogs passed, through friends they heard about a patient of mine that needed a forever home. Bojangles was a just under 13 year old lab whose owners had passed away unexpectedly. He had some significant health issues that needed to be monitored closely. He had cancer that has the potential for recurrence and some orthopedic issues.

Mark and Shana adopted him, and he is now almost 14 years old and going strong. Since then, they have adopted a healer mix that unfortunately sucumbed to cancer shortly after they adopted her. Although their hearts were broken, they arrived a my clinic with Beauregard, an almost 11 year old lab mix with a fractured tooth and significantly impaired vision. And a heart of gold. Bojangles and Beauregard have become fast friends, and Mark and Shana beam when they bring in these very loved boys.

Heartwarming photo of Bo & Beau together in Ramirez home.

Bo, using his new buddy, Beau as a pillow while they rest together in the Ramirez home.

The capacity for love that these and many of my other clients show for these dogs and cats is humbling. They look past their own concerns for sustaining loss, and are content to love these friends as long as they can. They take great solace in bringing these companions back to health physically and spiritually.

It is beautiful to watch.

~~Dr. Lisa

Want to start a heartwarming story of your own?

Visit the website for Old Dog Haven, a local non-profit dedicated to helping senior pets. Old Dog Haven is one of the current beneficiaries of our referral rewards program to support their efforts to shelter and care for elderly dogs in need.

Welcome to our new website & inaugural blog

in Human-Animal Bond/by Matthew Boisson

We are really looking forward to communicating with all of you in a timely and interactive way on our new website and through this blog.

My hope is that this blog is a place to give you general medical recommendations that are near and dear to our hearts, discuss current events and happenings at the clinic, and just some personal reflections on life as a veterinarian. We hope that you all will give us feedback on what topics you might want some insight on, as there are so many things we are only able to briefly touch on during your appointments.

One comment I hear from many of you when you are in for a visit, is how entertaining it is on some days to be in the lobby and observe the parade of pets and their people. I know you are often left wondering what the whole story was, as there are many amazing adventures and connections that we get to be a part of.

I will share one such story from last week. Wednesday was a particularly busy day at Companion Animal, and late morning a petite, 84 year-old woman walked in and announced that her 5 1/2 pound Chihuahua had been attacked by a bear the previous night. The bear, attracted by garbage in the neighbor’s yard, was just outside her backdoor when she let her little friend outside.

A black bear, like the one nosing around the porch at 2 am when Bianca went out to go potty.

The bear immediately scooped little Bianca into her mouth and was seconds away from making a meal of her.

The bear, however, did not realize that Bianca had a mama bear of her own. Fueled by shock and concern, out of the house charged Bianca’s mom. She snatched Bianca out of the bear’s jaws and yelled “go away” in a very fierce voice. The bear made a hasty retreat. Bianca did suffer significant bite wounds before her rescue but, luckily, she had some extra padding that stopped the bear’s teeth from doing worse damage. This was the only time in my career I was happy a patient was overweight.

Dr. Tolle took Bianca to surgery to repair the wounds. Bianca’s family thought she looked like a porcupine leaving the clinic from all the drains placed to help her wounds heal. Unfortunately, a bear’s mouth has a tremendous amount of bacteria and her tissues were also damaged by crushing so she required a second procedure this week. Considering tiny Bianca was literally snatched from the jaws of death, she is healing very well.

This is one of those stories that I wouldn’t been able to believe if I hadn’t witnessed the wound myself. The reaction this diminutive lady had to her beloved friend being in peril was incredibly brave and selfless. We all felt in awe of her actions, and energized that we were able to help put her little buddy back together.

On the really tough days at Companion Animal Wellness Center, I always remind myself that we are constantly being touched by the amazing, the humorous, the life affirming, and the remarkable. My job is never boring.

~ Dr. Lisa Newnham