July 2010

Young animals can’t fight parasites off very well until their immunity improves with age. Roundworms, coccidia, and giardia love to take advantage of a young, defenseless bowel and cause inflammation and diarrhea, as well as multiply and spread to other victims. Worming and the use of medicines directed against these bugs will prevent severe infections and spread of these parasites.

Of course, we have to know which bug or parasite may be invading our young kitten or puppy to treat it. Checking the feces for a particular infection will help us decide what drug to use. Most puppies or kittens are usually wormed or treated for parasites by the breeder, shelter, or pet store with panacur, drontal, albon, or metronidiazole. So most young puppies and kittens are treated for roundworms, giardia, and coccidia before they even arrive at the veterinary hospital. However not all of the youngsters may have received the right dosage, the right medication for the particular bug or worm they are carrying, or may have become re-infected after treatment.

A fresh fecal sample may help us identify which puppies or kittens still are infected or became infected after treatment. This sample may contain some eggs, cysts, or parasites we can identify under the microscope. A fresh fecal sample can be checked for bugs by diluting a small amount on a slide and looking at it. This is a screening method known as “direct smear”. A “fecal float” means putting a bit of the sample in a solution that “floats” the worm eggs, coccidia, or giardia cysts to the surface of the container where they can be “captured” by a cover slip. Diluted poop that is spread out on a slide makes it easier to identify worm eggs, coccidia, and giardia. A “float” concentrates the numbers and makes it easier yet. With that information we then know which wormers or other drugs will help prevent or control medical conditions and diarrhea.

With all that said, most puppies and kittens usually rid themselves of unwanted worms and bugs with two to three treatments spaced between 6-12 weeks of age. On the other hand, puppies and kittens in high density populations tend to be “barraged” by more than one bug or worm and may require multiple types of mediation and more frequency of treatment depending on the infection. Examples are large breeding operations, shelters, and pet stores where worms, giardia, and coccidia are often passed around simultaneously. Preventative worming and treatment for giardia and coccidia is commonplace in these situations. In addition some worms need broad spectrum wormers. For example, hookworms are harder to kill then other roundworms and tapeworms need a different wormer than roundworms.

Diarrhea in adult dogs and cats is usually caused by changes in the ingredients of the food, a new treat or chew, or ingesting a piece of rubber, plastic, thread, foil, toy, wood, rock, spoiled food, carcass, poop, or parasites like giardia. Irritation to the bowel by allergens, stuff that shouldn’t be in there, or infections can cause that uneasy feeling and “the runs”. Adult animals can pick up a giardia or tapeworm infection from their surroundings or from fleas. Both can cause diarrhea, but can be easily treated. Giardia can be diagnosed with ELISA “snap test” or under the microscope. Tapeworm segments are usually spotted crawling around the butt area. Adults are rarely affected by intestinal roundworms like young animals. The scooting and weight loss in adult animals that is often attributed to worms is usually caused by irritated anal glands, food allergies, and medical problems like diabetes.

Check out my YouTube video:

What\’s in the Poop?

You can treat minor diarrhea, vomiting, itching, and ear problems with over the counter medicines while you are waiting for veterinary care. Check out my free download next to this blog.

My book, Dog Dish Diet, will teach you how to prevent common medical problems and save you and your dog needless suffering and expense.

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Does your dog have a chronic skin problem? Does it itch all the time? You know it doesn’t have fleas. Your vet gives it shots and pills that work for a while, but after a week or so the itching gradually gets worse again. Sometimes it itches so much that it has “hotspots” or sores that look red, raw and are painful.

Or your dog may scratch and shake its ears and have waxy discharge that does not go away, even with medicine.  It does not have ear mites or a foxtail in its ear, but the vet tells you it is an “ear infection”. The infection never seems to clear up.

Your dog may seem to have a touchy stomach and eat grass all the time. Some dogs eat grass for nausea, and vomit to make themselves feel better. Maybe your dog always seems to have soft stools or even diarrhea that comes and goes without an obvious cause. Your vet may have done tests to rule out parasites and gave medicine for the diarrhea. It seemed to get better, then returned after the medicine ran out.

All of these symptoms can be caused by the “type” of dog food, the ingredients in the dog food, or the lack of needed ingredients like omega oils. For the last 15 years I have had better luck curing skin, ear, stomach, and bowel problems with nutrition instead of “patching” them with constant medications.

My book, Dog Dish Diet,will save you money and trips to the vet and keep your dog healthier and happier.  I have counseled my clients to feed better and stay out of my office for years. I love animals too much, to not do “the right thing”. Changing the diet a bit does not work on every dog, but 90% get better, itch less, vomit less, scratch their ears less, and have firmer stools. Gamble that your dog is not one of the 10%, or keep paying your vet. Besides 20 bucks is only less then half of an office visit.

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I went for my first deep dive to eighty feet here in Hawaii after my veterinary conference. I love to watch animal behavior as well as appreciate the beauty of tropical fish and other animals, We dove to  a “cleaner station” where fish, turtles, manta rays, and even eels go to get detailed. Cleaning fish have evolved a really cool behavior of eating dead skin, fungus, and other parasites on and in the gills, mouth,teeth, and skin. The cleaner fish get an easy meal and the recipient of the cleaning is healthier without the parasites or fungal growths. I watched animals lay motionless with their mouth and gills open to let the cleaner dart in and out of its body. Can you imagine laying on the bed, ans letting out “cleaner beetles” to clean our teeth, gums, and excess ear wax? Probably not. That’s why we bathe and brush. Dogs love to lick our wounds and scabs ,but that isn’t nutritionally driven, it is a social behavior.. They lick theirs and ours to clean it and promote healing.

One of the lectures was a bout coughing. Lynelle Johnson DVM PHD talked a bit about the causes  in dogs and cats. Both develop coughs due to heart problems, infections, and allergic problems. However,if a dog is obese, it can stress the lungs to cause and exacerbate  lung problems.. In fact she has found that weight loss alone decreases coughing in affected dogs. However she said that it is very hard for clients and the dogs to exist on a rigid weight loss diet to lose or keep their weight down.

The beauty of the Dog Dish Diet is that it helps owners choose lower calorie commercial foods and treats or to make healthy lower calorie crock pot foods that make weight loss effortless. Dogs have it easier than us, if we feed them healthier, less calorie dense foods they are happy. Owners that use the recommendations in the book see significant weight loss in their dogs in a few months. I gave Dr.Johnson a copy of Dog Dish Diet and asked for her professional feedback.

Dry, commercial dog food is like our fast food and some people, dogs,and cats just can’t deal with all the excess carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are fuel for our bodies and if not used are converted to fat and stored. Stored fat adds unneeded pounds and causes medical problems.

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