Month: December 2018

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The Annual Snowbird Migration

Do you make the annual migration from the Great White North to Florida or Texas each fall? Make the trip in your RV or perhaps just driving in the car from one seasonal home to the other? Here are some ideas for you to consider.

First of all, if your pet has never made this trip before, don’t just plan on throwing him into the car at the last minute and taking off on a twenty-four hour drive without some advance planning. If your pet is an experienced road warrior, then you just need to get the food and water together and make a roomy spot for him inside the car and go. If your pet is not an experienced traveller or has anxiety issues about traveling, you should already have been working on that for months in advance. Nonetheless, don’t just expect to load her in the car and take off without some advance preparation. Be prepared to make the trip in legs, a few hundred miles or less at a time, if necessary, then a relaxing stop at a pet-friendly motel before repeating it the next morning. You may have to play it by ear. If the overnight stopover thing doesn’t help, you might have to just get up extra early, gird yourself for the grueling sojourn ahead, and make the rest of the trip in one gigantic marathon trip. Regardless, I do not recommend that you load your pet up with drugs in an effort to make the trip easier on yourself. Those drugs sometimes are safe and effective, sometimes not so safe and not so effective (and more is not necessarily better). Deal with it as best you can this time, and start working on the problem as soon as you’ve gotten to your destination and have given the pet a couple days to acclimate. These ideas may be less an issue if the pet is aboard a motorhome or other RV. Regardless, give it some thought — how much do you know about your pet’s health? 

If your pet has a history of any health issues or if she is older, greater than six or seven years old for a big dog, over ten years for a cat or small dog, consider having a thorough physical exam and blood workup done a couple weeks before you intend to leave. Your veterinarian can only glean so much knowledge from a physical exam. A blood workup can sometimes reveal serious trouble waiting in the wings. Pets with subclinical kidney disease and/or congestive heart failure may seem fine while at home in a comfortable environment with no stress and plenty of available drinking water, but I have seen them stressed to the point of death by a distraught owner who had no idea that the trip down to Florida was literally killing their pet. They shove the pet into an unventilated corner of the back seat, withhold the water for the trip (so the pet will not have any accidents, of course), and race down from Minnesota or Ontario in one fell swoop. After a day or two of being here in Florida and the pet simply “not acting right” they decide to bring her to the ER where we find the pet dehydrated and in the advanced stages of decompensated renal failure – and the owner never had a clue! Fifteen hundred dollars later we find ourselves euthanizing a pet that just never had a chance, all simply because of owner ignorance.

Do your best to keep the diet as consistent as possible for the trip. Sudden changes in food and/or water and too many treats (in an effort to quell the dog’s anxious behavior) can lead to vomiting and/or diarrhea, which then can escalate into dehydration, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, and/or pancreatitis. Stress — and a long car trip is stressful to any pet, whether they are seasoned snowbirds or greenhorns — often plays a major role in the development of this problem.

One other thing to keep in mind — what may be appropriate travel conditions for your pet up north, may actually be dangerous once you’ve left the cold weather behind. I had a dog come in with significant hyperthermia because the owner squeezed the pet carrier in down low on the seat and then piled the car full of other items, smothering the pet carrier and cutting off all ventilation – not such a big deal up north where it simply helped to mitigate the cold temperatures. Once they got to Florida however, the dog could not cool itself down. Remember, dogs self-cool by ventilating the excess heat through their lungs  – panting. For this highly efficient process to work, they need plenty of ventilation. That means lots of air circulation and abundant space around the pet and its carrier. Open the windows and/or turn on the air conditioner and make certain the airflow is getting to the pet. Cats are better equipped for handling cramped, stifled quarters than are dogs, but the same still applies.

Remember, stress is a major factor in many disease conditions. Try to make the trip as unstressful as possible. The more your pet freaks out over making a long car trip, the greater the likelihood that it will lead to some health issues. If you start preparing days ahead of time and think about your pet as a significant factor in this trip, not just another article of luggage or furniture, it should go a long way toward averting disaster.

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Pet Hoarding

Hoarding pets – rescue or incarceration? 

A television news article this week dealt with a woman whose house was raided by animal control authorities because neighbors had complained about the offensive odor emanating from the premises. When authorities entered the house they found over 100 cats living in this small tract type house, along with several dead cat bodies in the freezer, fecal material described as “two feet deep” on the floors, and cats suffering from various degrees of physical distress. The woman who kept the cats was apparently not living at the house and she told the police that the person or people who normally assisted with the care of her cats had recently been unable to help her. Needless to say, the cats were taken in by the local authorities and placed under the care of local humane groups to be hospitalized as needed and rehabilitated and then farmed out for placement with new homes. This particular incident happened in the Tampa Bay area but could just as easily have occurred pretty much anywhere.

Similar articles appear on the news a couple of times a year, usually dealing with cats but occasionally dogs, birds, horses, and even exotic zoo type animals are the victims, so the problem is out there. It just seems to be overlooked for a prolonged period before it is finally uncovered. Now – I’m no psychologist but the people who are guilty of this sort of behavior are, in my humble veterinary opinion, obviously a little over the edge. I’m sure their behavior probably began in a relatively normal way. A cat or two as pets or adopted from a shelter or off the street may well lead to a sense of self-satisfaction and the rush of feeling the part of the savior. That “high” derived from the sense of having saved these animals may well lead to an urge to repeat this feeling by “saving” more and more animals and each successive “rescue” leads to the need for another fix. In other words, not far into this behavior pattern the need for the rescuer to “save” another animal probably overcomes the actual need for the animal to be saved. No doubt, at some point the environment into which these pets are taken becomes much more detrimental to the well-being of the rescued animal than if it were simply left to its own devices in its natural environment, whether that’s the street, the forests and fields, or whatever. Rescue gradually turns into forced incarceration and an environment of squalor and disease develops.

Now I’m not talking here about the person who is hooked on cats and wants to have 10 or 12 cats but takes pleasure in providing those cats with plenty of personal attention, meticulous care, and proper food and medical attention. That situation is close to the edge but I think it falls short of the dangerous pet hoarder. (However, I have seen this situation turn into a serious abuse scenario simply by that loving and caring owner experiencing a major health problem and the cats suddenly being seriously neglected.) I’m not talking about a bunch of outdoor cats living at a particular address or about a dairy farm where often there are lots of cats who are kept around, fed a little cat food and a lot of surplus milk, in exchange for their services helping to keep the local rodent population in check. Sometimes any pet situation can appear marginal, and the ultimate determining factor should be the quality of the animals’ lives. I’m also not speaking here of legitimate pet rescue people who are out there rescuing strays and lost pets, keeping them temporarily, and fostering or adopting them out to homes with the intent of actually finding long term homes. Such an endeavor requires a boatload of money to keep it going, lots of volunteer labor, and a tremendous sacrifice in space, personal facilities, and private life. The dangerous situation arises when free-roaming cats and/or dogs are “rescued” and locked up in a building and/or in cages where they have no choice but to suffer and waste away at the whim of their captors. 

In my line of work I tend to meet up with the people who are caught in the middle ground and are frequently difficult for me to figure out. I think it sneaks up on these people, and one day it dawns on them that maybe things are getting out of hand – an animal is found dead and they didn’t even realize it was sick, or it never dawned on them that it hadn’t shown up to eat for the past several days. Hopefully this scenario serves as a wake-up call to the gradually evolving pet hoarder, but I just never get to know for sure. If this situation sounds familiar to you then maybe you have a problem. Back up and try to look at yourself objectively or ask a friend to be honest with you. Remember, anybody can fall into this category. I’ve seen veterinarians guilty of “compassion overload” who simply cannot turn down a pet in need, even if it is one that will obviously not be place-able or perhaps should be euthanized. Gradually the veterinary hospital is filled with strays and misfits, eventually to the detriment of the hospital’s medical facilities and care. And as a result you, the pet-owning client who trusts in your veterinarian’s good judgment, eventually become a victim of that doctor’s loss of vision.

Take a look at yourself and think about it. Do you have more pets than you can deal with? Can’t keep up with walking all the dogs or cleaning all the litter boxes? Veterinary care has become a thing of the past because you just can’t afford it any more with this many pets? Do you not have time to pick up and/or interact with each of the pets in your household? Do you have messes around the house that you just haven’t gotten around to cleaning up? Are you afraid to let company come over to visit because you don’t want them to see just how many cats you actually have? These are just a few of the warning signs of pet hoarding. Quality of life – for the animal, not for you – is the key. Remember, it’s not about giving yourself a good feeling; it’s about providing a proper, healthy environment for the pet.

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The Hamburger (or Chicken) and Rice Diet

The Hamburger (or Chicken) and Rice Diet

I’m sure you’ve all heard it before at one time or another – if not from your vet, then from a friend, relative, or a neighbor. If your dog is having some gastrointestinal upset – vomiting, diarrhea, or both – we frequently recommend a “bland” diet. This particular diet is intended to be something that is easily digestible in an effort to help rest the GI tract and allow things to slowly and gently return to normal. Often we will offer a prescription diet but this is one of the occasions where a home remedy can be just as effective. Probably the most commonly suggested home diet is the hamburger and rice diet, or the chicken and rice diet, depending upon your or your veterinarian’s preference. Usually your doctor will also give an injection or two and send home some prescription medications as the main component of the treatment. The diet is to help the ease the transition from illness back to sound GI health.

You need to realize that, just like the medications given to treat the condition, this special diet is only a temporary thing. Sometimes we as veterinarians are a little less than detailed in our explanations regarding home treatment and our intentions may get lost in the hustle and bustle and barks and waggles of patient discharge time. The boiled hamburger and rice diet or the boiled skinless, boneless, chopped chicken and rice diet is intended to last for just a few days. I usually try to have my patients back on their normal commercial diet within 1-2 days of their visit or within 3 days if they have been hospitalized. In addition, it is important that the hamburger be boiled and drained of any and all grease – the idea is bland. The meat is only there to help give the rice a little substance and flavor. Don’t fry it, don’t lace it with taco seasoning, Tabasco,  Lawry’s, seasoned salt, or any salt and pepper – nothing. Meat should be nothing more than about 1/4 of the total mix. The rice should be plain white rice. It’s bland and easily digestible. Wild rice, brown rice, long grain and all of those other good-for-you kinds of ricy things are not as bland and therefore not as good as plain old white rice. The rice can be quick rice, or good old fashioned slow-cooked rice. Cook everything up, mix it together, and throw it in the fridge. It will keep for two or three days, and by then you’re done with it anyhow.

Don’t be like the little old lady who came in for a routine visit a while back. As part of any visit I always try to touch upon what diet  is being fed. Now I’m not a pusher of any particular diet. If your dog does well on its diet, then I’m a strict adherent of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school of thought. But I always ask just in case something weird is going on, like the “all-Oreo” diet, or the “potato chips and hot dog diet”, or some other oddball thing. But I digress…

Anyway, in the process of examining her dog I asked about diet and she mentioned that she was feeding the dog the hamburger and rice diet that her old vet recommended. I, of course, being the inquisitive guy that I am, asked if the dog had been having some GI issues recently. She said that, no, he hadn’t had any problems like that ever since he had been on the diet. So I discreetly inquired just how long had she been feeding this special diet and she told me that back when ‘Brownie’ was a pup he had some diarrhea and old Doctor Ned said that this diet would probably help. Well, the diarrhea cleared up and the dog liked it so well that she just kept right on feeding it and he never had another problem.

It’s pretty difficult to argue with that, but the fact is that a meat and rice diet is a very bad diet. It is completely unbalanced and is likely to lead to nutritional problems when fed long term. In order to balance it out, it would require a number of modifications and then, just like any “complete and balanced” diet it would no longer be simple. So the moral of the story is multiple:

  • Dont’ feed a hamburger (or chicken) and rice diet long term unless your veterinarian clearly specifies that you are to feed it long term
  • When your veterinarian gives you directions be absolutely certain that they are complete and that you understand them completely before you go home and do the wrong thing.

Don’t wait years between veterinary visits only to find out years after the fact that you violated #1 or #2 above.

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Pet Identification for the 21st Century

As far as your pet is concerned, getting lost might be the most important issue you will ever face. Hopefully your pet will never get lost or otherwise separated from your side. In the event that somehow happens, hopefully you will have taken every precaution to aid in his safe return. To help avoid the heartbreak of a hopelessly lost pet, please give serious consideration to the following ideas and suggestions.

First, if you don’t already have one, get some type of identification tag  (get one on Amazon or go to your local pet shop and pick one up – metal or plastic) with your name, your boat name, and a functional phone number on it (your cell number or a phone in your home country where a live person is likely to answer it – one phone call may be all your pet’s rescuer has the time or inclination to give). VISIBLE identification is the form most likely to get you and your pet reunited in the event of unexpected separation. And make certain the ID tag is firmly attached (via a good quality split ring) to your pet’s collar. Don’t be lackadaisical about this. Picture your pet running loose in a strange place and then picture that one person who might actually take the time to think that this pet looks like it could be lost; that person who might actually make an effort to bend over and look at your pet’s collar for a phone number! THIS IS IMPORTANT -MAKE IT EASY! That phone number has to be readily visible and it has to work in order for you and your pet to have a chance. The single biggest problem inherent in pet identification revolves around the fixed nature of a pet ID tag or collar and the limited amount of information it can provide. Being aboard a cruising boat or riding the roads in an RV, means that the best you can generally do is to provide your cell phone number or your e-mail address or even a phone number for a close friend or relative who is not traveling. But is that enough? What if they aren’t home when that call comes in, or what if the call goes to voice mail? Will it all end up in a frustrating game of long distance phone tag while your pet is running loose God knows where? Most good Samaritans are going to stop short of taking the pet home for an entire day or an overnight stay when they can’t even be certain that someone cares about the pet they’ve found.

Right now, the state of the art in pet identification is the electronic ID tag and the vast majority of people are completely unaware that it even exists! Electronic identification overcomes virtually all of the shortcomings of the engraved or written tag and the microchip. People are so unaware that a number of very efficient and potentially very effective ideas for electronic ID tags for pets have already come and gone. They disappeared due to poor design and poor promotion by their designers and an across the board general ignorance by the pet-owning public. As a result we are left with making do using the available items that are out there. This includes waterproof flash drives and QR tags.

For medium to large dogs, consider the Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth USB Flash Drive ($30.49 on Amazon) and for cats and small dogs, I’d suggest one of the smaller water-resistant flash drives, such as the all metal Raoyi Waterproof Metal USB2.0 Flash Drive ($6.49 on Amazon) or the GorillaDrive Ruggedized USB Flash Drive ($9.78 on Amazon).

Actually any of these (among others; there are a number of weatherproof metal flash drives with hooks, connectors, carabiners, and other forms of attachment available on Amazon if you just enter “waterproof flash drive” into the Amazon search box) flash drives will work on a dog (as long as it’s not a dog with a chewing fetish) of average size or larger, but you’ll need to check them out for size if you’re fitting a cat or small dog. They all look pretty durable. Whatever you choose to buy remember that none of them are completely indestructible. Don’t let your pet (or another pet in your household) chew on it; don’t let anybody beat the crap out of it, etc. And make certain the split ring (if necessary) that you attach it with is sturdy and ready to take a beating.

This type of device overcomes most of the limitations of the printed or engraved ID tag (not to mention your pet’s microchip, which we will discuss in a moment). For our intended use the flash drive only needs to hold a few megabytes of info to suffice, although most thumb drives now hold several to many gigabytes (far more capacity than you’ll ever use for this purpose). You can enter as much or as little information as you want, you can update the information as often as you need to, and the device can be read by anybody who might find it, providing they have access to a computer. Since it’s simply a computer flash drive, all they need to do is plug it into the USB slot of any computer and voila it’s all right there – pet name, contact information: your cell number, your mother’s home phone, your boat’s name, RV park, marina or anchorage location, the color of your boat or RV and any distinguishing characteristics, special needs, your upcoming itinerary, whatever you think might help somebody find you and get your cat or dog back where he belongs. You can even include your pet’s vaccination and critical health information. You can include files in both Word and PDF format if you choose, so that somebody doesn’t inadvertently damage a writeable file. Virtually any computer can read a word or a pdf file.

Visiting a non-English speaking country? Use a free online translation site to translate your information into French, Spanish, Portuguese, or whatever, and put that on there too; label it francais, español, or whatever so that a finder who does not speak English can recognize it. In this day and age, even in developing countries most people are familiar enough with computers to recognize a thumb drive when they see one. Even if the finder does not have a personal computer in his or her possession, most communities have places where one can go and rent or borrow time on a machine, such as a library, phone company office, or internet café. Not everybody everywhere has access to a microchip scanner, but this is the computer age and most people in most places are likely to have access to a computer. Give them the necessary information and make it as easy as possible to contact you and you are at least giving yourself and your pet a fighting chance. Just don’t get too carried away. Just because someone wants to get your pet back home does not mean they want to read your or your pet’s biography. My cat’s digital tag also includes, a written promise to any veterinarian willing to take him until I can retrieve him, that I will pay any and all charges associated with his rescue and protection.

Sample Text for Your Flash Drive Message

To whom it may concern:

Thank you so much for rescuing our dog, Max. Since you are reading this message, somehow Max has become separated from us. Max lives aboard our boat and he is like a member of our family. We are desperate to get him back. We live aboard a sailboat and we are presently cruising the islands of the Bahamas. We checked into the Bahamas in December with the intention of staying until May but we will now probably stay until we get Max back.

You can try to reach our daughter who lives in Maryland in the US. Please call her, collect if necessary, at 410-555-1234 or on her cell phone at 410-555-4321 and leave your phone number and a message stating that you have Max and are trying to contact us.

The name of our boat is the sailing vessel Second Wind. It is a white fiberglass catamaran and is 40 feet long. We normally anchor in harbors rather than visiting marinas.

If you have access to a high frequency or HAM radio, someone can contact the Cruiseheimers radio network any morning. The net starts at 8:30 AM and meets on the 8152 kHz frequency. Just break in and tell them why you are interrupting.

Please feed and take care of Max for us until you hear back from us. We will gladly reimburse you for all expenses associated with his care and his return to us. If you cannot keep him, please take him to a veterinarian or a shelter along with this flash drive so that they can try to reach us.

Message #2:

To whom it may concern: Thank you for saving me. I am lost. My name is Maxwell and I live aboard a boat with my owners. They are probably frantic because I am missing. The boat is a sailboat and its name is Desperation. My owners are anchored out in Dakity Bay here in Culebra. You can call them on a VHF radio by calling “Second Wind, Second Wind.” If they don’t answer, please make a general call on the VHF telling people that you have found me and need to contact my owners aboard Second Wind.

If you cannot reach anybody, please at least place a call to my owners’ daughter Jeannie in Maryland. Call her at 410-555-1234 or on her cell phone at 410-555-4321 and leave your phone number and a message stating that you have Maxwell and are trying to contact them. Please don’t let me go until you have found my owner. They will gladly reimburse you for any expenses.

These drives are supposedly tough and/or waterproof but I would be leery of placing a metal ID tag on the pet’s collar adjacent to the device unless the device is somehow protect, e.g. wrapped in tape, or similarly protected.

My cat’s digital tag does include a written promise to any veterinarian willing to take him until I can retrieve him, that I will pay any and all charges associated with his rescue and protection.

We’ll talk more about flash drives and such below, but here and now let’s discuss the other practical option that you have available for electronic protection of your pet, the QR tag. We have all seen QR codes in number of places, from products we buy, to billboards and the sides of vehicles. Even election candidates are starting to include QR codes on their junkmail campaign mailings. The QR code is that little (or sometimes big) square box with all the pixelated-looking gobbledygook inside the square. You simply point your phone at the code (with a free QR code reading app installed) and the code will connect you to a website where you will find more information, or in the case of your pet, the scanner will reveal your personal contact information which you had previously uploaded when you got the tag. These tags are available, often for less than $10 and range from tags that are specifically for use on pets to those intended for just general purpose identification use, such as on luggage. You buy the tag, go to the associated website and, often at no charge, sign up for inclusion in their database, providing all of the information needed to get your item (or your pet) returned. Check out the pet-specific combination QR tag from CNATTAGS that serves double duty with an engraved name and address on one side like a traditional pet ID tag, and a QR code on the backside – a truly great idea. There are also pet-specific QR tags from Dynotag, Red Dingo , PetDwelling , and others. Or you can order up a set of general purpose tags from Dynotag. Just remember to check if the purchase price includes free lifetime registration. I think that on most of these brands, that is the case.

(A special note to those of you living and cruising aboard boats (and also, to some extent, RV’s) when using a flash drive for identifying your pet:

As an example, if you are cruising aboard a yacht in the Bahamas, your flash drive should say so and might offer your intended itinerary. Not only should it give contact information for someone in your home country, it should also instruct the person finding the dog to contact the Cruiseheimers HF radio network. Tell them the daily time and frequency for the net and how they can break in and give the net your boat name and the pet’s return information. Cruiseheimer listeners, if they have the information, will seek you out even if you don’t have a HF radio aboard. These are the kinds of things that no conventional pet tag or microchip can do.

(Other cruising locales have similar regional HF radio nets that you might utilize, such as the Caribbean Safety and Security Net or even Chris Parker’s Caribbean weather net. [See cruiserswiki.org] Some popular cruising destinations also have local VHF nets. Thisis the sort of emergency that just about anybody is eager to help with.)

A couple of minor points worth mentioning: I would not offer a reward or make mention of anything more than reimbursement of expenses. If someone is concerned enough to take the tag and read your message, they will probably expend the necessary time and energy trying to contact you without any further incentive. You don’t want to come across as a wealthy yacht owner and turn a generous humanitarian gesture into some kind of extortion attempt. After the pet is returned, you can then (and you really should) express your gratitude any way you choose

Remember that you as a cruiser take your lifestyle for granted and tend to forget that most people have no idea whatsoever that people might actually live aboard boats and travel the oceans. Even in the U.S. normal people (after all, we can all completely agree on this – cruisers are not “normal people”) do not give this much thought. Inthe Caribbean, the average person on the street, unless he/she specifically deals with cruisers, generally assumes that you are from a resort or a cruise ship, not a private yacht. If someone finds your pet, it is important that they know the situation. And there is still no better insurance than a leash. Do not think of a leash as some kind of restriction or punishment. It’s your pet’s lifeline. Use it!)

Keep the above discussion for liveaboard cruisers in mind if you are a land cruiser living in a motorhome. You may very well be able to modify these ideas to fit your special needs.

If you are more into lowtech (i.e. not your typical cruiser) at least put some sort of small, waterproof container (A small zip-lock baggie attached to the collar with wire ties would work.) on the pet’s collar containing a paper or card with as much information as possible to help get your pet back in the event it becomes lost. Just like with the flash drives, you should include personal information, boat or RV information, home contact information, (how about a boat card or personal card?), etc. – everything and anything that might help – particularly a functioning e-mail address and a textable phone number that will reach you wherever you happen to be. This option is far inferior to the above devices, but it’s still better than nothing.