Trick or Treat

And now for the costume event of the season! This year for halloween, Sammy is a devil.



Phoebe is a flower.


And Amos, is Secretariat!!!!!


Please note that last costume required some handiwork on my part, affixing the jockey to Amos' coat (a.k.a. saddlecloth) but it works perfectly and he doesn't seem to mind!!

Hope your adventure is just as entertaining!

Merry Maid?

Proof that dogs are sometimes smarter than kids. Please note who is managing to put trash where it goes, close cabinet doors as well as load the dryer!

Why Vet Schools Are Important For Med Schools

About 100,000 dogs a year get Cushing's disease, a condition in which a tumor on the pituitary gland produces too much cortisol. Dogs gain weight, experience high blood pressure and their muscles atrophy.

Recently, the procedure used on humans to remove the tumor has become available to animals, thanks to the collaboration between a neurosurgeon and some veterinarians based in Los Angeles. While the procedure is rare in humans, it is much more common in pets, so this collaboration was a win-win for both species.

It was the human neurosurgeon who taught the procedure to the veterinarians. In return, he gained access to tissue sample from dogs with the disease--a veritable data bank for him. In fact, according to the New York Times, it is these tissues that are instrumental in the development of drugs to treat the disease in animals as well as humans.

It is, quite simply, another area in which veterinary medicine and human medicine can both learn from each other and help both species in the process. "We have a full loop," says Dr. Adam Mamelak, the LA neurosurgeon who taught the vets how to remove the tumor. "We're using a human procedure in animals, and using their tissue to study the disease."

The Shakes

So the wet dog phenomenon is hardly news to anyone who has ever given a dog a bath or tried to dried one after a rain storm. They shake. But exactly how fast do they rid themselves of the unwanted water?

That is exactly the question that Andrew Dickerson, a graduate student at Georgia Tech set out to answer in a study recently published in the journal, Fluid Dynamics. Using a high speed camera, Dickerson and his team took footage of all sorts of animals, from bears to mice shaking themselves dry.

And what they found is that when it comes to getting dry, size does matter. A mouse has to shake much much faster than a bear to rid itself of water droplets clinging to its fur.

Not earth shattering, you might think but consider this. The real-world implications may be in new washing machine designs which essentially mimic the actions of animals. That is the focus of all of Dickerson's research: discovering mechanisms found in nature.

No word yet on his next topic of investigation.

Cavaletti Au Naturel

For those of you who are familiar with riding, you will recognize the above as a Cavaletti, a horse training device used in Dressage as well as when training a horse to jump. The general idea is to teach then to raise their legs over the rods. In Dressage, it is all about grace, height, form and timing. When teaching a horse how to jump, the bars are gradually raised until the horse has no choice but to jump over them, ideally without fear since he has been walking over them for a while.

In any event, Miss Phoebe has graduated to a Cavaletti in her rehab. When I drove into the parking lot of the facility this week, they had one all set up for her in the parking lot, complete with bars about two inches from the ground set into plastic cones. She walked over it beautifully, without knocking over a single bar, and I was told to work on this movement during the week.

Ack!! Where was I going to get a Cavaletti--especially one that wouldn't require setting up and taking down all the time (for the gardeners, who mow the grass and blow the leaves once a week) and that wouldn't become Sam's newest toy?

I first experimented with garden stakes on top of overturned small flowerpots, which worked well enough until Sam ran straight through them and then ran away with a stake. Plus I think Phoebe had a hard time seeing the green stakes on the green grass.

Then as I was walking through the dog park this morning, I noticed all the tree limbs and trunks that were strewn about. Perfect, I decided, but short of needing a chain saw, I was limited to those I could haul back to the car--and those that would fit into the car.

So began a slow but steady process of me dragging tree limbs and Sam thinking I was the greatest mother on the planet for taking home major sticks for him to play with! A few trips and a lot of dirt later, I had my stash, which I assembled in the driveway so I don't have to take it apart twice a day.

Here is my handiwork, which, by the way, works quite well, for the time being.

I'm feeling quite clever and if I have to raise them up, I figure I will set them on those overturned flowerpots or maybe even dog food cans. Sam, however, has not forgiven me for not letting him have even one to play with! Miss Phoebe is feeling quite pleased with herself for walking over them perfectly, sometimes without even thinking about it! Plus she has lost a pound.

Halloween Safety Tips for Pets

To costume or not to costume, that seems to be the question floating around the animal lover's blogosphere these days. While I will not divulge the details of my own costume decisions (stay tuned), I will tell you that this is probably the first time in many years that I picked up an orange flyer at my vet's office with some Calming Halloween Fright tips for pets.

Have we gone overboard in our vigilance? I'm not sure. Perhaps we have gone overboard in our celebration of All Hallows Eve and there very well may be some frightening aspects of it for your pet.

Some of the tips are just plain common sense, like bring your dog indoors. Of course there will be ghosts and goblins wandering the streets and dogs left outside are going to bark and/or frighten the tots who are collecting their candy. A follow up to the suggestion to keep your pet indoors is the coda to keep him confined to a room well away from the front door. In my house that would be next to impossible unless I would like to have the paint scraped off a door. I will simply keep them with me, wearing collars, so if need be, I can corral them. Better yet, I may let them drag around their leashes. . .

As for candy, well you know the drill. No chocolate for dogs, or anything else in that haul. And please remind your kids NOT to leave the candy within dog sniffing or striking distance, i.e., off the floor. Ditto to keeping tails away from open flames, like candles. Better yet, substitute glow sticks for candles. Safer all around.

And as for costuming your pet, well, it is entirely up to you, but here's a great big caveat: don't put a mask on your pet or anything that he/she could trip over. And if they look miserable, take a quick photo and tie a cute bandana around their neck.

My group will be in costume--hopefully long enough for me to take a photo so stay tuned.

Doggleggs

During the course of Miss Phoebe's rehab, I have investigated many, many products that are on the market to make life with a rehabbing dog easier. One of the best, is the little hock brace that I found at ortho-pet. It is not designed for her knee, but does protect her lower leg and ankle, both of which are taking more strain these days. It is a simple velcro wrap around compression sleeve that seems to be doing its job.

The problem with knee braces for dogs is the fact that they do not stay in place without an elaborate contraption that wraps around the dog's neck. This all seemed like much too much work for both Phoebe and me and I was not sure Phoebe would tolerate it, so we went for the easier approach. My vet says it is not hurting but she is not sure if it is helping!

Along the way, I purchased many other gizmos to make getting in and out of the car easier, etc. but I also came across a great company, with a great story, just in case you are ever in need of dog rehab products.

The company is Doggleggs and it is the brainchild of a graphic designer named Schon Gross whose large dog developed a fluid filled callous on his elbow. The vet really had no great solution for the treatment of the hygroma--fluid filled callous--and suggested she try to adapt some sort of sports kneepad to fit the dog.

Well that is what she did, combining it with a sleeve harness to keep the kneepad in place. By the second day of wearing his new kneepad contraption, the swelling in the hygroma was reduced by half and the dog was soon walking without a limp. When she took the dog, wearing his Doggleggs to the vet, he suggested she patent it at once.

Dogglegs Therapeutic Rehabilitative Products expects to have $500,000 in sales this year and there is now a complete line of rehabilitative products for horses as well as dogs. Unfortunately, there is still no ACL brace for dogs that does not require a harness to keep it in place around the dog's neck or a small fortune.

But she does have an interesting back leg brace that is a bit more substantial that Phoebe's but the same idea.

Schon Gross also does custom fittings so you never know. . .