Fleas Still on Attack

Day 10: it's madness here in this house. They are biting us all over. The children are scratching themselves to bleed. I keep fighting the little buggers. We spray and double apply Advantage and they keep coming. I keep finding them on myself when in the car (which I bombed), when in my bedroom (which was bombed...twice). Okay. So in the interim we acquired another canine host: Garbo. A 9 year old Standard Poodle, white. She is very sweet, and susceptible to skin allergy and infection (secondary to flea bites). Oh and she also has an E. Coli urinary tract infection. That's under control with Baytril. Anyway we now all have to get out and torch this house to end the insanity. Every twitch an imagined flea is biting into my leg, my back, belly. Is that a FLEA on me, or a mole???? Oh crap, I ripped off a mole, no... it IS a flea!
Am I going insane? Why can't a vet control a simple flea infestation??? Why? Because these are the aforementioned NUCLEAR fleas. They have spent many generations living at the grooming parlor perfecting their invincibility through constant bombardment with a myriad of insecticides, shampoos, harsh chemicals and emerged a NEW SUBSPECIES capable of exponentially multiplying, infesting the house while dining on the human and canine inhabitants therein. These mutant bloodsuckers brush off harmless chemicals, like Advantage and Siphotrol, laughing and munching as they go. These little bastards who are biting the living hell out of my family originally smuggled themselves here upon my unsuspecting male Standard, Ruprecht. He must have brushed against an infested dog there, or from the cracks of the dark, damp holding kennels and cages of the grooming parlor. I must descend on them with mighty fury a camera crew and fix them...In any case we need to vacate. I'm going to use Borate powder to desiccate the fleas in the carpets, yet the couches and beds are infested. I might call a company like Terminix [visited site] Ah yes this is what we are dealing with: I captured one and it appears it is the cat flea (More viscous to pets and people). It is darker and smaller than the less hearty dog flea.

Time for the big guns. Moral again: Check pet for fleas with careful inspection using a flea comb before leaving any grooming, boarding facility, veterinary hospital. Use a verifiably effective flea product for all pets. Check for fleas regularly.

Big Dog on 2nd Floor...

...will eventually become a difficult situation. Mel (not his real name), the 110lb labrador mix still sporting his cahones, was slowing down on his walks in Sherman Oaks. His human dad was getting old himself and having back trouble of his own. The local veterinarian had found arthritic changes in his lower back and gave him a general pain killer (Tramadol, synthetic opiod). This was the day he couldn't make it up a long flight of slickly tiled steps. Today was the day Mel's back was to give out. Inauguration day for Barack Obama. The day the country was finally cool enough to have a black president. Mel was going down. His human dad hoisted Mel up those steps once more. Spine strain for spine faulter. On the housecall his lymph nodes were enlarged to accompany his testicular tumor, the main medical consequence of not neutering the dog. Use it or lose it. Either Mel's back went out structurally or a tumor of the prostate has invaded the spine. His dad and mom and other family members said goodbye and Mel was peacefully euthanized at home. And as I labored to give Mel his sleigh ride down the tiled steps I thought about how the sweet lab must have touched their lives. I was also very grateful I had pre-treated myself with Ibuprofen.

SOAPBOX:
Please neuter your pets. Please research why this is important. Please live on the first floor with a large pet if there is no elevator.

Thanks,
Dr. Steve Weinberg

The Importance of Veterinary Follow-Up Care

I have witnessed the sad effects of the lack of verified understanding of instructions between pet owners and veterinarians both as a hospital clinician and working in the field as a housecall vet. The state of veterinary medicine with all its advancements to rival or even exceed human medical care is at a crossroads. The shortage of veterinarians and trained technicians, especially RVTs (Registered Veterinary Technicians) is taxing the ability to effectively manage health care in keeping up with demand from the public.

The biggest problem is not simply the lack of ongoing communication between the vet and the pet owner, it is the lack of verified understanding of follow-up needs, and the ability to correctly carry out the administration of medication, physical therapy, dietary recommendations and timely recheck exams. We as veterinary care providers want to cure ailments and at least keep chronic conditions under control. I believe that sometimes there is what I call a "co-delusional agreement" that the pet owner understands the veterinarian's instructions. In actuality, the owner does not fully understand or is embarrassed to admit they don't understand the instructions or are not physically able to carry them out. The vet assumes that the owner understands and is able to carry out the treatment.

Statistics have shown that pet owners complete the recommended medication somewhere between 27 and 50 percent of the time. This situation may demonstrate that many ailments will resolve in spite of or without treatment. This may also be the cause of treatable disease becoming a chronic condition. The more problematic situation can arise when the patient is misdiagnosed, incompletely treated and is not reevaluated to monitor efficacy of prescribed treatment plan.

In summary, it is the responsibility of the veterinary health care provider to present a clear, concise treatment plan and follow-up care and verify that you, the pet owner, understand and are physically able to carry out the home treatment. It is your responsibility as a pet guardian to be proactive. Ask questions. Don’t be embarrassed to admit you don’t understand. Take your vet to task and ask for their diagnosis or possible diagnoses. Have them explain the treatment, demonstrate the treatment, and make you aware of signs of any side-effects that may occur. Ask to be shown how to medicate, change a bandage, and ask when to return. Ask what the possible outcome may be with the best and worse-case scenario. Be informed. Research the condition yourself on the web, newsgroups and discussions with other pet owners who have been through similar ordeals. You owe to yourself and your pet.