Advice on Caring for Your Canine Friends

For many years Dr. Judy and I maintained a mixed animal practice. We were happy to examine and treat any animal upon request and counsel the owner if treatment wasn’t indicated.

Generally, we found, owners want what’s best for their pet or livestock, barring financial restrictions.

Farm dogs like Ol’ Shep often have to earn their way, either as a working dog or a lone sentry, watching for burglars or alerting everyone when the cows are out on the road at 3 a.m.

To ensure their longevity, working dogs like Shep need to be provided a few essential health practices. As a puppy Shep should receive a three-shot series of puppy shots starting at eight to 10 weeks of age and spaced two to four weeks between.

This is followed up with a one-year rabies vaccination by six months of age. Once these vaccinations have been “boostered” a year later, vaccines can be administered every three years. However, there isn’t total consensus among vets that Shep’s shots should be spaced at three-year intervals.

Previously, the thinking was that distemper/parvo vaccinations should be administered every year as a one-shot booster, with the exception that mature dogs receive rabies vaccinations every three years.

Not every dog is a working dog. Many are considered a member of the family. This was the case for our dog, Sable. (My 14 year old son, Allen, named her for the big, busty blonde that wrestled on the WWF.) Sable was a 100 lb. chocolate Lab with a big frame and wide chest. Let’s just say, the name fit.

If your dog is as dear to your family as Sable was to ours, you may want to talk with your vet about developing a wellness plan, a planned program of vaccinations and other preventive health services. Generally, this is an excellent strategy for providing your dog the best veterinary care at a budgeted, reduced fee.

On the other hand, Ol’ Shep likely will receive minimum health care. The vet will likely administer Shep’s vaccinations while he’s at the farm treating livestock or a horse or two. One other health issue that is more of an annoyance for Shep but will become annoyance for everyone if Shep spends any time in the house. Fleas! If Shep’s fleas aren’t controlled, these pesky critters will get in the carpet, sofa cushions and on owners also. Fleas also may carry tapeworms between dogs. It is just easier to prevent the problem than try to eradicate it after your house is infested and you are being bitten.

Flea and tick collars are helpful but nothing beats using a systemic topical on Shep’s neck, topline and at the base of the tail. Some owners are disenchanted because the fleas don’t immediately roll over dead with all eight feet in the air. In fact these topicals are usually birth control methods. No longer are powerful organic phosphate chemicals routinely used to kill the fleas. A flea lives about seven days. Therefore after application the fleas disappear as they die of old age with no kiddie fleas growing up to become adults. Check with your vet on the best flea control measure for your dog. There is a new flea prevention program that is an injection that will prevent fleas for a year with just one shot.

Hopefully your dog sees your vet during regular hours in the office or on the farm, rather than in a late night emergency visit. Late night service is usually more expensive and sometimes not available, unless you are prepared to drive to a major city.

Some pet owners rarely provide health care for their animals until a middle-of-the-night crisis. Here’s an example from my experience:

Late one night Dick called me to report that the family dog was coughing and hacking.

I could tell that Dick was of the mindset to just put the dog outside. But I could hear his wife, Janeen, crying in the background that her dog was in distress.

Dick wasn’t choked up until I told him what my fee was to see the dog in the middle of the night.

But a crying wife can work wonders. It wasn’t long until Dick said that Janeen would meet me at our office with the dog, Festus.

I had known Dick for years as a horse trainer, but on the rare call that I made to his farm, I had never met his wife. When she came into the office, I was taken aback.

Dick is an old, grizzled 60-something horse trainer. Janeen couldn’t have been more than 30-something. She was blonde, attractive and was wearing cutoffs and a halter top. I later told Judy that at that moment I gained a new respect for Dick.

Clearly Janeen’s dog wasn’t an old farm dog like Shep. Festus was a white 10-pound mutt that had been conferred a little class, referred to as a “Malta-poo.”

I knew that the dog likely had tonsillitis. When I tried to look at its tonsils, it latched onto my thumb like a bolt of lightning.

I confess that I may have been more focused on Janeen than the dog, but the dog immediately redirected my attention.

I reflexively jerked my hand back from the dog, which did not release its death grip until my hand reached its apex. Festus bounced from the ceiling, ricocheted off a wall and landed in the sink behind me. It turned the faucet on full blast before completing a four-point landing.

It was obvious there wasn’t going to be any touching this dog without losing a hand.

Fully embarrassed, I told Janeen that there was no need to look down its throat. As she retrieved the wet dog from the hand sink, I told her, “Festus has tonsillitis. I can treat him with an antibiotic, which will likely relieve the infection.”.

Janeen was clearly relieved. Then I told her, “In return for being so understanding and kind, I won’t charge you our emergency fee”.

I recommend a couple of essential health protocols for all dogs, whether they’re an Ol’ Shep or a more privileged family dog.

Have your vet test your dog for heartworms every year, early in the spring before mosquito season.

Mosquitoes carry heartworms. Dogs can be put at high risk if bitten by a heartworm-infected mosquito. Heartworm infections lead to congestive heart failure.

If your dog tests negative, put him on a prevention program for heartworms – one tablet a month during mosquito season was the usual routine but now there is a prevention medication that one injection will protect your dog for a year.

Generally, dogs should be put on a heartworm prevention program during their first spring after six months of age.

If, like Sable, your dog is a member of the family, I recommend other health programs to assure your pet’s longevity. Check with your vet for a wellness program, including annual physicals, teeth cleaning, and vaccinations for Lyme’s disease and several viruses. These programs are very beneficial and easier on your dog and your pocketbook than treating an illness.

By the way, the morning after I was bitten by Festus during the “emergency” office visit, Judy asked me over breakfast, “I saw Dick’s check in your shirt pocket. Why doesn’t it include the emergency fee?”

Fortunately, my mouth was full.