Help for ACL Injury in Dogs & Cats, Niacinamide

Arthritis has always been the most common problem we see in older pets, and now we’re seeing it in young dogs because of the high incidence of ACL injuries.  When the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee is damaged, the joint loses stability. Over time, instability leads to the development of arthritis.

We can help dogs with unstable knees with surgery, and this will help stabolize the knee, but it will not eliminate the development of arthritis, it just delays the age at which the arthritis develops.

Signs of pain

There are behaviours that indicate pets with knee injuries and other causes of arthritis are in pain:

·          Slow to rise from sitting position

·          Circle multiple times before sitting or laying down

·          Make a plopping sound when they lay down because they can’t bend their knees and get close to the floor

·          Lag behind when walking

·          Sit down on walks

·          Reluctant to jump into the car

·          Grumpy

·          Snap when accidentally get nudged

To help these dogs, we use the following therapies

1.     Acupuncture, including points GB 34 and ST 36 at the knee

2.     Laser therapy, especially the setting E

3.     Herbs & supplements, including boswellia & turmeric, Sasha’s Blen

4.     Omega 3 fatty acids, including Vet Plus Missing Link with 1000 mg glucosamine/tab

5.     Homeopathy, including Traumeel & Zeel

6.     Rehab exercises, including stretches, full range of motion, walking backward

7.     Salt water swimming with no quick foot-planted turns

8.     Adequan injections

9.     NSAIDs, including Metacam, Deramaxx, EtoGesic, Rimadyl, Piroxicam

10.  Supplements including Niacinamide

 Pet families are often familiar with the first 9 steps, but many have not heard of using Niacinamide.

Niacinamide also called Nicotinamide

Niacinamide is a systemic therapeutic agent. It improves joint mobility, muscle strength, decreases fatigability. It increases maximal muscle working capacity, reduces or eliminates arthritic joint pain. Niacinamide heals broken strands of DNA and improves many kinds of CNS functioning.

Unlike many of the other therapies, Niacinamide works slowly. It takes three months of niacinamide therapy before we can judge effectiveness.

No matter what we do, some joints are so injured by the arthritic process that no amount of niacinamide therapy will cause improvement. These dogs are great candidates for stem cell therapy.

We carry Niacinamide at WaterWorkz.

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Feeding Cats Chicken Gizzards, WIngs, & Necks or using Health Mouth

In the wild, your cat would eat 8-9 mice every day. That’s scout out, chase, catch, kill, and devour. You may have lost sight of what a tremendous hunter your cat is, but if you look into its mouth and see red, inflamed gums, and dental calculus, be reminded that your cat is not eating what nature intended.

If your cat is hacking up hairballs, is constipated, or is bored, it is not eating as nature intended. Nature intended for your cat to eat mice.

There’s not much meat on a mouse, but there is lots of skin, hair, gristle and bone--material that

· strengthens your cat’s teeth and gums,

· helps remove plaque, and

· naturally cleans.

Because mice are not commercial available, except as feed for snakes and captive birds of prey who are often fed mice, I recommend feeding cats chicken necks, duck wings, whole quail, and rabbit "chunks.

To make this safe for your cat, take the chicken wings or necks from the fridge and remove fatty tissue. (Mice are extraordinarily lean. (Twiggy was a great example of a mouse.)

Warm to body temp of 38 C or 100 F by soaking in hot water or neuking for a few seconds. Don’t cut up the treat and don’t really cook it. Just warm it to body temp. The bigger the pieces are the more likely your cat is to chew them appropriately, so don’t cut them up.

A chewable alternative is chicken gizzards, a gristly delight, except in the deep South where gizzards are a deep fried delicacy. Many cats, like Southerners, love chicken gizzards.

If your cat can't stand gizzards, and doesn’t have the carnivorous heart of a killer, but you’re worried about its dental hygiene, put Healthy Mouth in its water. Healthy Mouth is an organic supplement full of antioxidants that can help your cat’s gums & teeth. Healthy Mouth has the seal of approval of the Veterinary Oral Health Council. Not as good as mice, but lots easier to provide because you just add a little to the water. It’s ideal if multiple pets, including cats & dogs share the same water bowl.

We carry Healthy Mouth at WaterWorkz. If we have mice, we won't admit it.

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Anxiety Meds for Dogs & Cats, Zylkene

Is your pet anxious? Does your pet cower when there’s thunder & lightning? Does your dog tremble and shake when you load it in the car or your cat cringe when you get the carrier to travel to the vet clinic? Does your pet run and hide under the bed when company comes?

Trembling, shaking, hiding, cowering are all signs of anxiety. So, too, is biting. That’s right, for some dogs and cats, anxiety provokes aggression rather than cowering. These pets often display signs of anxiety & fear before they bite, such as moving backwards, pulling the head closer to the body, or looking away. If we don’t stop whatever is causing anxiety, they lash out.

Zylkene may help. Zylkene is a milk-based tranquilizer that calms pets without causing harm to the liver or kidney. Zylkene is an over-the-counter med, which means you don’t need a prescription to use it. We carry Zylkene for dogs & cats at WaterWorkz and encourage everyone to keep some on hand for travel & holidays with fireworks. It is a capsule that’s easy to open and mix with food or wrap in a treat and give on its own. Zylkene is not likely to interfere with any other meds a pet is taking, but if you’re concerned schedule a visit with Dr. Pollen to discuss your particular pet’s situation.

Zylkene is given once a day. It is best to give it for 2 days prior to anxiety-producing event, then again on the day of the event. By the 3rd day, pets are calmer and less upset by factors that normally trigger alarm bells. When necessary, such as with kennelling, Zylkene can be given daily for an extended period.
Although Zylkene is made from casein in milk, it is lactose free, so not likely to cause problems in lactose-sensitive dogs & cats.
In addition to Zylkene, we encourage pet families to use calming herbs, homeopathy, flower essence, essential oils, pheromones Adaptil and Feliway, body wraps or Tellington TTouch thundershirts, and conventional tranqs, such as Alprazolam, to reduce anxiety.

If your pet has a brain, it’s able to think, and some of its thoughts are going to be anxious thoughts. Anxiety reduces a pet’s quality of their life is, but you can change that. Discuss using Zylkene and all the other techniques we have for bringing peace of mind to the pets we love.
Zylkene is licensed for use in Canada and England, but not in the US, so it is not available through Amazon or US internet pet suppliers.

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Chicken Strips Killing Dogs

Many dogs fed chicken strips have become ill and some have died. After eating dried chicken strips, dogs have developed lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, bloody diarrhea (melana), and increased water consumption with increased urination (polyuria/polydipsiaor PUPD). Your dog can develop symptoms within hours of eating the chicken strips, or your pet may develop symptoms gradually.

Fanconi Syndrome
Dogs that died appeared to have kidney failure or Fanconi-like syndrome. In some dogs, the symptoms developed quickly and in other dogs, symptoms developed over weeks or months. Fanconi syndrome is a type of kidney failure with glucose in the urine. In humans, Fanconi syndrome has been linked to exposure to toxins, including cadmium, lead and mercury, and to certain medications.

Nestle Purina Fails To Act
Nestle Purina makes two brands of chicken strips that have been implicated in pet poisoning and dog illness: Waggin’ Train and Canyon Creek Ranch. Nestle Purina has refused to withdraw Waggin’ Train and Canyon Creek Ranch even though the FDA has had over a thousand complaints of poisoning.

Nestle Purina and other suppliers of chicken strips claim the FDA hasn’t found what’s wrong with their products. Nestle Purina plans to continue to market dried chicken strips until the exact toxin or cause of illness is has been identified.

Toxin Tests
Among the tests that have been done on chicken jerkey treats were assays for melamine, the ingredient that killed so many in China and throughout the world. The FDA also tested for drugs, poisons, toxins, mycotoxins, heavy metals, formaldehyde, antibiotics, and maleic acid. Despite their efforts, the FDA has not identified a toxic cause of poisonings. Some are now considering whether it is not what is contained in the dried chicken jerkey,but how it is processed. For example, has irradiation caused molecular change in the dried meat that is poisoning dogs? Irradiated pet foods have poisoned cats and vets no longer recommend feeding irradiated pet food.

VeggieDents Also Implicated in Pet Poisoning
In Europe and Australia, concerns over chicken strips have been joined by concerns over non-chicken product, VeggieDents. Concerns about pet health were so high that Virbac, the maker of VeggieDents, pulled them from the Australian market. Australian VeggieDents were made in Vietnam. VeggieDents are still being sold in some countries.

What’s Safe?
Veterinarians are recommending families don’t feed dogs & cats any treats, chicken strips, dried sweet potatoes, etc, from China or any treats that are irradiated. It’s easy to recognize irradiated food because it’s marked with a symbol called a radura.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to recognize treats made in China . Large batches of Chinese treats may be shipped to a another country and packaged in the recipient country. Then, labelled as from the country that did the packaging. For example, dried chicken strips made in China can be bulk shipped to Canada, packaged in Canada, and labelled made in Canada. Until this practice of labelling the packaging country as thugh it’s the source country is changed, it’s safer not to feed chicken strips.

Safe Treats For Pets
I recommend feeding dried liver from Canada or the US or feeding real food such as peas, blueberries, and carrot shavings as treats.

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DMSO in Dogs & Cats

DMSO, or dimethyl sulfoxide, is a marvellous anti-inflammatory topical medication that is under-utilized in dogs and cats.

DMSO, Why Infrequent Use?
DMSO helps reduce swelling and helps decrease pain, so why don`t we use it more often?
• DMSO is applied topically so the hair must be clipped;
• DMSO drags whatever is on the skin deep into the body with it, so the skin must be clean before DMSO is applied;
• DMSO causes a strong garlic taste in the mouth.

When would we use DMSO?
DMSO is ideal for tendonitis because it penetrates, reaching the tendons in a way that blood-borne pain medications do not. If you’ve ever examined a chicken or turkey drumstick and noted the clear, tough tissue that stretches from the muscle to attach to the bone, you’ve seen tendons. Tendons are clear because they don’t have blood vessels inside them, like muscles have. This means medications have to diffuse thorough surrounding tissue to reach tendons, unlike the route medication can make directly into muscles. Thus, medications that travel through the skin to the tissues directly underneathare ideal for treating local tendon problems. DMSO does this.

Thus, we can apply DMSO to a sore limb and it will go straight down to the tissue below the skin. We just need to clip the hair and clean the skin before applying the DMSO.

Conditions Treated With DMSO
DMSO helps with these conditions
• DMSO can be applied topically post surgery to relieve pain and inflammation.
• DMSO can be applied topically to relieve tendonitis.
• DMSO can be used to flush bladders and help eliminate cystitis.
• DMSO can be mixed with triamcinolone and injected into tendons.

DMSO Is Similar to Laser Therapy
DMSO penetrates tissue directly beneath and eliminates inflammation. This is very similar to the action of a laser. So, for dogs or cats that cannot be shaved or have dirt on the skin that cannot be removed, laser would be a better choice for treating tendons.

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Collapsing Trachea in Dogs

What's a collapsing trachea?
The trachea is a tube that carries air from the back of the throat to the lungs. The trachea is held open by cartilage rings. The rings don’t go completely around the tube, but about 80 % around. The little portion of the trachea that is not supported by cartilage can collapse into the trachea. Over time, the collapsing tissue stretches so far it reaches the other side of the tracheal wall. This process is called tracheal collapse.

When anything, including the body’s own tracheal membrane, touches the inside of the trachea, the body responds by coughing. If the material touching the trachea is dust or debris, the cough expells the material and clears the airway.

With tracheal collapse, the membrane of the trachea touches the inside and no amount of coughing gets it out of the way. Once the membrane has stretched far enough that it sags against the inside of the airway, the pet is cursed with a chronic, explosive, harsh cough.

Breeds predisposed to develop tracheal collapse
Pets most disposed to develop collapsing trachea are those with tiny throats: Maltese, Poodles, Chihuahuas, Pomeranians, Yorkshire Terriers, & Silky Terriers, for example. We try to protect these little ones throughout life, but if they develop a chronic cough from tracheal collapse, they need medications.

Medications that help treat tracheal collapse
These meds help treat cough of collapsing trachea:
Tessalon + hydrocodone +/- promethazine + Cerenia.

Tessalon helps because it contains lidocaine and anesthetizes the stretch receptors.
Cerenia helps with cough by affecting the brain.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) formulas for collapsing trachea
Two TCM formulas help with collapsing trachea:
Xiao Chai Hu Tang and Xue Fu Zhu Ye Tang. Xiao Chai Hu Tang is present in multiple formulations. If the pet has knee and back problems in addition to tracheal collapse, Then Kan Herb formula Benefit Hips & Knees is helpful. If the pet has liver problems in addition to tracheal collapse, then Open the Liver Channels is helpful. For pets that may have cancer, heart or lung problems in addition to tracheal collapse, Xue Fu Zhu Ye Tang is helpful.

If your pet has an explosive cough that occurs with excitement, it may have tracheal collapse.Use holistic veterinary care to help your pet be as comfortable as it can be.

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Treating Disc Disease in Dogs, Low Dose Dexamethasone

Disc disease is one of the worst illnesses a dog can develop because the dog can be paralyzed for life. Fortunately, there is a lot we can do to treat dogs with disc disease, including use low dose dexamethasone.

Disc Disease or IVDD
Disc disease, (also called IVDD or intervertebral disc disease, has two forms: sudden onset and gradual onset. Either form of disc disease can cause paralysis, but it is more common with sudden onset disease.. These dogs are often unable to walk, to urinate, or to defecate.

Here's little Sophie receiving a laser treatment from her mom, Peggy. Sophie has chronic disc disease. Fortunately, we have so many ways to help Sophie stay healthy and happy.

We can make a profound improvement in dogs with disc disease by using acupuncture, laser therapy, and homeopathy. And, research suggests using a very small amount of dexamethasone is also helpful. This is good to know because in the past, research has shown that large doses of prednisone or dexamethasone, or solu delta are harmful. While large doses are not helpful, current data suggest that low doses of desamethasone will help by decreasing inflammation. The dose is between 1/10 and 2/10 of a ml of 4 mg per ml dex. It is administered at the time of initial injury.

Low dose Dexamethasone Is Safe with NSAIDs
Low dose dex can be given once post-op even in pets that are receiving pain controlling NSAIDs, such as Aspirin, Rimadyl or Metacam, EtoGesic or Piroxicam. This is good because we cannot use other steroids, including prednisone, with NSAIDs.

Combine Holistic & Conventional Vet Medicine
If your pet has disc disease, request both conventional medication with low dose dex, and holistic veterinary care. Just like Sophie, your pet will have the greatest opportunity to experiencea life that is full of health and joy.

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