Patients news

Here are the pictures of Lucky and Bishop, some of my new patients for October.

“Q” is this curious, Italian Greyhound with tremors I saw this week.

Next time I see Simba and Violet, I hope to catch a picture of those kitties.

Patches

Here is Patches's picture. This little Fox Terrier is shown snoozing while she is receiving her acupuncture session. She is anxious at the beginning of each session, but slowly curls up into a ball, hides her eyes and sleeps through it. Patches has been referred for acupuncture by Dr Gayle Roberts DVM from Northwood Animal Hospital to help her neck pain.

Puppy Nutro recall 9/30/09

Just got the news yesterday, this is from the website of Nutro:

Small pieces of melted plastic were recently found in the production line of select varieties of NUTRO® dry dog and cat food products. We immediately retrieved the affected pet food from our distributors, and only three sku’s reached retail stores. These were delivered to a small number of PetSmart and Petco stores. The specific products are listed below.
Upon discovery of the melted plastic, we immediately halted manufacturing and performed a thorough search of all equipment. We identified the source as a worker’s “bump cap,” similar to a hard hat, which inadvertently made its way into our manufacturing process.
Based on our extensive review, it is highly unlikely that any pieces of plastic made it into finished product. However, upon learning of the incident, we voluntarily retrieved all potentially affected products. We strive to produce pet food of the highest quality and safety standards. Consumers who believe they have purchased potentially affected product should return it to their retailer for a full refund or exchange for another NUTRO® product, or contact the Nutro Products Consumer Care team at 1-800-833-5330. Thank you for your continued loyalty and support for Nutro Products.

PRODUCT THAT MADE IT TO SELECT PETSMART STORES IN CA, AZ, CO, TX and NM ONLY
Product Name NUTRO® ULTRA™ Puppy food for dogs
UPC 79105 51313
Size 4.5 LB
Best by Date 09/10/10

NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® Chicken Meal, Rice and Oatmeal Formula Small Bites Puppy
79105 23050
Size 5 LB
09/10/10

PRODUCT THAT MADE IT TO SELECT PETCO STORES IN CA, NV, HI and UT ONLY
NUTRO® ULTRA™ Puppy food for dogs
UPC 79105 51315
Size 30 LB
Best by Date 09/10/10

Jesse

Jenny sent me this picture of her "highness" posing for the camera.

Wysong food recall

http://www.wysong.net/recall.php

The following batches of Wysong Canine Diets Maintenance™ and Senior™ have shown above acceptable moisture levels and may contain mold.
Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090617
Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090624
Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090706
Wysong Maintenance™: lot #: 090720
Wysong Senior™: lot #: 090623

We ask that if you have received any of these Wysong products to please not feed them, and contact Wysong for product replacement. Email: Wysong@Wysong.netSubject: Product Replacement Alternatively, please return or exchange at the store from which you purchased the product. Credit will be issued via our Distributors to the Retailer.We apologize for the inconvenience.

News from the trenches

Finally, after many clients’ suggestions, I named my pin cushion “Bessie”. She is very useful and makes counting needles after treatment painless (you know what I mean).

I have been very busy this last month: here is a quick review of some patients I am treating.

Before leaving for Maryland, I saw “Scooby”, a Golden Retriever. Sandee lost “Baron” earlier this year and Scooby entered her life later this year. Scooby likes to make an entrance in the pool. The day before I saw him, he had a 2 hour jumping, and swimming session under his belt. Yes, you guessed it, this athlete wanna be Phelps was a little sore.

“Wednesday” is still doing well, eating well. Her bladder cancer seems to be stabilized or slow growing. As you can see on the picture of her second acupuncture treatment, the needles do not bother her.

“Jessie”, my WOOD kitty patient, probably has the same type of bladder cancer as “Wednesday”. To the amazement of Jenny, her owner, she is still around. She is quite a tough little kitty; she is treated for several old kitty ailments, but seems in good spirit despite all this and functioning like nothing is going on. She is on medications, Chinese herbals and acupuncture to support her.

“Pidge” my favorite stubborn Bull Dog, is continuing to loose weight, however, she developed a old dog vestibular syndrome and has been slowly getting back to stand and moving around. I treated her today and we hope she will be moving around better in the next few days.

“Bishop” and “Lucky” are two sweet senior Shelties I started acupuncture and Chinese herbals.

“Patches” is this friendly senior Fox Terrier I started last week for a painful neck. We are waiting to see how much improvement we will see this week.

“Leia” belongs to Rhonda, a super veterinary technician. She likes Labradors and she actually has 5 of them! Leia is 13 yrs old and has some weakness problems with her hind end. Hopefully the acupuncture and Tui-na will help her have a better quality of life.

“Sable” is still good. The ankle wrap (we have one on right now) is doing its job. “Sable” loves to go for short walks, and his muscles are now more relaxed then when I started with him. I remember the first time I saw Sable, John the owner, told me if I try to touch him he’ll bite. He now accepts our touch since he feels more comfortable.

Canine Rehabilitation, no it's not just about the underwater treadmill

I just came back from Maryland where I went to attend a course on canine rehabilitation. This was a 6 day course and I am on track to go in Florida in December to attend 2 other modules. When people and veterinarians think canine rehabilitation, they have the image of an underwater treadmill in mind. Strengthening or conditioning with an underwater treadmill is actually only a small part of canine Rehabilitation. Some therapists do not even use it to take care of their canine patients. Also, not all dogs do well in water or in a small enclosed space.
Canine rehabilitation is great for post-op (and pre-op) orthopedic surgeries, for the rehabilitation of neurological patients (fully or partially paralyzed), painful orthopedic condition, painful /sore muscles, ligament/tendon problems, trigger points in muscles, conditioning of athletes, care of the painful geriatric patient. When a pet has been lame for some time, some compensation occurs, and rehab can help rebalance the muscles of the whole body.
How does it work? First, we need to evaluate your pet, talk about goals (couch potato vs an athlete), and we’ll make an individual plan. There is a lot to take in consideration when making a plan: age, condition (obese, slim), athletic activities (flyball, agility), owner and pet willingness to put time into the rehab program, individual healing time, concurrent disease (Hyperadrenocorticsm, cardiac disease), etc.
What do we use? Massage, manual therapy to help relieve trigger points, stretching, joint mobilizations, laser, e-stim, TENS, therapeutic ultrasound, home exercises, strengthening with exercise (cavalettis, poles, obstacle courses, and underwater treadmill)). All is done with the fun factor and comfort of the patient in mind. I really want to see my patient back with a smile. OK, there might be a lot of treats given (Let’s give healthy ones please!!) and some patients know me now as the treat lady.
The first thing I saw when I started this course is a video about a quadriplegic dog left for dead on the street with a cervical fracture. Quadriplegic means this dog had all 4 legs paralyzed. This little guy was given to the rehab service by the surgical department when his fracture healed. After 2 months of a rehab program, this little guy was walking, not normal, but he was walking, having fun with other dogs and made friends with one of the hospital cat. Yeap, if you have a little tear in the corner of your eye and a smile on your face reading this, you’re not the only one!
With the Tui-na course I followed several years ago, I already do some manual therapy and have witnessed great improvements in my patients. The addition of what I learned in this rehab course will help my patients achieve a higher goal in their pain management and return to some or complete function. I can’t wait to learn more!