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Welcome to our Spring 2010 Newsletter
Many regular clients may have seen a small extension to the car park last month; an extra parking bay has been added for those busy times.
The existing parks have also been lengthened. Thank you for your patience during busy times.
The Peninsula Vet Surgery team participated in the Jetty to Jetty Fun Run in July. James ran the 21km; Penny ran the 10km while the rest of us walked the 5km.
Click here for our Team Photo
We all enjoyed the beautiful morning at Woody Point, congratulations to the event organisers.
During the cooler months there is always a reprieve from the fleas, but as the weather warms they will emerge again.
The new flea tablet, Comfortis has been working well especially for the dogs that swim. Please talk to us about Comfortis next time you are in.
If you're travelling off the Peninsula during the summer months with your pets, be aware of Paralysis Ticks especially in bush areas.
These tiny ones can make our pets especially small dogs & cats very sick and can be fatal. Please use preventative measures to protect your pets
and check them over daily especially around the head and neck areas.
In this issue, Ian starts a series on pet foods, trying to inform you of the different foods available for pets in the supermarket, pet shops and vet clinics.
We wish one of our oldest patients "Rat Cat" Stewart a happy 20th birthday. We also tell Jasper's story, a mischievous Lowchen, who ate some coins
and needed surgery to retrieve them.
Enjoy your reading.
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Your Pet is What It Eats by Ian.
Does your pet have flatulence, loose bowel motions, occasional vomiting, bad breath, dull coat? It could be the diet you feed your pet.
In this article, I will look at dry dog food first and hoping to look at dry cat foods next time. The principles of diet do apply to both dogs and cats.
In the modern age it has become very convenient to feed our pets from commercially available pet foods. The most readily available are in the supermarket.
As with most packaged foods, these are made by multi-national companies which source raw products from various global markets.
The raw ingredients are put together here or overseas and beautifully packaged for us to purchase.
In the wild, dogs and especially cats are carnivores, hunting and eating smaller herbivores. Our domestic dogs and cats do not have to do this as we provide their
diet. In days of old, people would feed their pets left-overs, meat scraps, bones, vegetables etc.
There were some nutritional deficiencies with these diets and so the commercial pet food industry arose.
I would like this article to be more informative than critical. The 2 big pet food companies in the supermarket are Nestle' and Master Foods.
Both these companies make a range of products of your pets. Once again looking at dry dog food as an example,
I would like to point out the difference in their quality. This is often reflected also in the price of the food, cheaper meaning poorer quality food. Let's look at the Purina range of food made by Nestle'.
Reading from the Ingredient Panel on the packet, the first ingredient is the primary ingredient in the food followed by the second etc.
Note previously I stated that dogs are carnivores, meaning they should eat meat as their first ingredient. From the dry dog foods I have chosen for
this article it is clear there is a distinction between the diets.
Diets high in wholegrain cereals will cause flatulence, loose bowel motions etc in most dogs while diets high in meat content will be better for a carnivore.
Purina One Lamb & Rice Adult Formula
Ingredients: Lamb, Rice, Poultry Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Sorghum, Soy Meal, Wheat, Corn, Animal Fat, Vitamins, Mineral, Salt, DL-methionine, L-lysine, Anti-oxidants & Natural Flavours.
Beneful Healthy Radiance
Ingredients: Wholegrain Cereals, Meat & Meat by-products, Vegetable & vegetable by-products, Sugar, Salt, Minerals, Humectant, Preservative, Vitamins, Food Colours,
Emulsifer, Natural Flavours & Anti-oxidants.
Lucky Dog Adult
Ingredients: Cereals & Bran, Meat & meat by-products, Tallow, Salt, Vitamins, Minerals, & essential Amino Acids, Food Colours, Preservatives, Natural Flavours
From this small exercise, clearly Purina One Lamb & Rice would be the better dry dog food from this range of foods.
Taking the time to read the ingredients may help with your selection of foods, however it does not guarantee it is the right diet for your pet.
How does it taste to your pet? Once again beware because the cereal based foods are usually more palatable but they are nutrient poor per gram so pets will need
to eat more of them to get the nutrients they need.
I call them junk foods (we all love a fast food burger but know it's not very nutritious).
I hope this article sheds some light on the pet food dilemma. Remember the more you pay for a pet food usually the better it is, regardless of who endorses it.
Also, any of the premium foods such as Eukanuba, are in a different range to the supermarket pet foods and offer a more nutritious diet to your pet.
I will address this at some later stage.
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JASPER AND THE MAGIC COINS
Recently we had a very special patient come to see us with an unusual problem. His name is Jasper and he is a Lowchen. His mum Lynn noticed that he had been vomiting now and then and could not keep much food down. He was still however very active and wanted to play but was just not himself.
Lynn made an appointment to see the vet; she then told Dr Ian that she was missing some Canadian coins from her husband's jacket. The penny dropped.
Dr Ian xrayed Jasper and indeed you can see 2 coins overlapping clearly(see photo). The coins would not pass naturally and surgery was decided upon.
Dr Ian performed surgery called an Exploratory Laparotomy and opened the stomach. Low and behold 2 magic coins were retrieved.
Jasper has made full and great recovery and is now known as the doggie money box.
We all hope he has not taken an extra special liking to coins for a staple diet!
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PROPER GROOMING OUR LONG HAIRED CATS
Owning a long haired cat is not as simple as you think. Although they are beautiful with their thick long fur, if you aren't planning on grooming them on a
daily basis then I would strongly advise not having one.
Daily grooming prevents the hair from matting and knotting. If left the hair mats together tighter and tighter.
This is extremely uncomfortable for the poor puss as it pulls on their skin and can even tear the skin when severe.
We see many cats through the practice that aren't groomed properly and they need to have a full sedation and have their hair shaved back to the skin.
Sometimes this is not an easy job for the nurses and takes a lot of time if the hair is badly knotted. Care needs to be taken because the knots are so
tight and close to the skin that the shaving process is very slow to avoid cutting the cats loose and fragile skin.
So while poor puss feels much better afterwards it's still a traumatic process for all involved.
In the warmer months, we quite often sedate and shave long haired cats as the heat can affect them.
It makes for a much more pleasant experience for the cat and the nurse though if puss has minimal knots!
If you are definitely keen on owning one of these beautiful felines a helpful hint would be to start brushing puss from an early age on a regular daily basis.
All it takes is 10 minutes if done regularly and once they get used to it most cats will love being groomed as it feels almost as nice as being petted!
By Jackie Spyers
Veterinary Nurse
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