CAROL MCALICE CURRIE
Statesman Journal

June 29, 2007

Dogs and cats can’t say “gesundheit,” but many suffer the miserable effects of allergy season alongside their human companions this time of year.

Dogs especially don’t usually sneeze or have stuffy noses, but the symptoms they do have can be aggravating to owners, and uncomfortable for the pet.

According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, about one out of every five dogs nationwide suffers from some form of a noticeable allergy.

Allergies, the immune system’s abnormal reaction to common substances, manifest in pets in different ways.

Some pets have skin irritations, while others experience hair loss, eye discharge or inflamed ears and ear infections. In many cases, it’s a chronic condition, stretching from spring to fall, or worse, year round.

Pets will respond by scratching for prolonged periods, licking their front feet and scratching at the dry skin on their backs.

Many people, said Keizer Veterinary Clinic vet Dr. Kim Girouard, mistake scratching and licking for flea infestation, which is a separate problem.

Some dogs are allergic to flea bites, Girouard said, but more are allergic to what’s in the air. Just like their pet parents, many dogs, more than cats, react negatively to tree pollen and grass, mold, mildew and dust mites.

“We’ve seen a big-time spike here the last three weeks,” Girouard said. “It’s seasonal, but this year, we’ve seen quite a few cases.”

Girouard said inhalant (breathed in) allergies tend to be responsible for a significant number of animal ear infections.

Pet owners, he said, tend to think of an ear infection as an isolated event, like a cold. Girouard said he’ll treat it as such initially, but if it doesn’t clear, he starts looking for underlying causes. Other types of allergies in animals include: contact, food and bacterial.

“With a persistent ear infection, you have to prove to me that it isn’t an allergy,” Girouard said.

He starts with food to rule it out, and typically discovers it’s an inhalant allergy. Food allergies generally produce vomiting and diarrhea. Girouard said antihistamines work occasionally for airborne allergies, but they’re not as effective in small animals as they are in humans.

“Sometimes we need to use something a little stronger, as in an anti-inflammatory — a steroid — but we treat with as little medicine as we can.”

Elaine Legget of Eureka, Calif., visiting Minto Brown Island Park en route to Seattle with her 4-year-old French bulldog Baby, said she thinks her dog must be bothered by pollen or grass.

“Every year around this time of year, she starts getting eye goop and shaking her head,” Legget said. “I take her to the vet and she’s usually got an infection.”

Girouard said steroid-side effects are less likely in animals than in humans, but he prefers to start with as low a dose as is effective.

Dr. Donald Howard, a Salem, Oregon veterinarian who specializes in pet acupuncture and chiropractic medicine, said he has noticed the annual uptick in dog and cat allergy cases.

He said pet owners often will turn to him when Western medicines fail their animals.

“If their pet has been, or is becoming, cortisone (a steroid) resistant after being on it for a long time, they often can be helped by acupuncture,” Howard said. “Animals can really go nuts this time of year with all the allergens in the air. A few sessions and then a couple of maintenance treatments are sometimes all that is required.”

Although summer allergies aren’t life threatening to pets, Girouard said it’s still a good idea to watch for symptoms.

“You don’t want to leave it untreated; it’ll only lead to more problems,” Girouard said.

David Ian Miller

Monday, June 25, 2007

Snapping, snarling, growling, jumping, sulking or just plain sad and scared — if this describes your dog’s behavior, it may be time to send Rover on a religious retreat.

The Monks of New Skete, an Eastern Orthodox community in Cambridge, N.Y., rehabilitate dogs with issues. Their training techniques are based on getting a dog calm, centered and balanced, as well as encouraging the deep emotional and spiritual connection possible between humans and dogs. You can watch them in action on Animal Planet’s “Divine Canine” series.

The Monks of New Skete, an Eastern Orthodox community in Cambridge, N.Y., rehabilitate dogs with issues. Their training techniques are based on getting a dog calm, centered and balanced, as well as encouraging the deep emotional and spiritual connection possible between humans and dogs. You can watch them in action on Animal Planet’s “Divine Canine” series.

The monks support themselves by raising and training dogs, but their furry friends are far more than a business endeavor. Dogs are a central part of the monks’ religious training and spiritual practices, as well as beloved companions that enhance the life of the religious community. Hanging out with dogs, the monks believe, can bring you closer to God and also make you a far nicer person.

Brother Christopher, 52, and head of the New Skete dog-training program, joined the monastery in 1981. I spoke with him by phone about what he’s learned in his 25 years of working with (hu)man’s best friend.

To read the rest of this interview click here
www.sfgate.com

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Center in FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

Hosted by Pet Sitters International, Take Your Dog to Work Day falls on Friday, June 22nd this year.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the day was created to encourage companies to allow employees to bring pets to work, relieving some of the difficulties of owning a pet: “the objectives of the day include: making pet adoptions more common by placing less of a burden on the owner, ‘facilitating positive interactions’ between employees at the workplace, and helping businesses cooperate with local animal shelters to increase the number of adoptions. It is estimated that thousands of companies, called ‘pet-friendly’ companies by some, participated in 2006.”

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

The Daily Mail

A nursing home with round-the-clock care is being opened in Japan – for elderly dogs!

The aging pooches will be able to live out their final years at the canine home, surrounded by puppies to make them feel younger.

Owners will pay £400 a month to keeop their dogs at the Soladi Care Home for pets, according to a joint release by Soladi Co. and the Endo Veterinary clinic in Tochigi, eastern Japan.

Veterinarians at the home will offer 24-hour monitoring, and four-legged residents will be fed specially fortified food.

The home, which can accept 20 dogs at one time, will employ puppies to play with the aging dogs to help them keep fit and feel younger.

Analysts say that a boom in pet ownership in Japan, coupled with better health care and a more balanced diet, has led to a surge in elderly pets in Japan.

That has spurred doting owners to turn to vitamins, aromatherapy and even acupuncture to help their companions through their old age.

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

CSU’s vet school pioneers in research that makes breakthroughs possible in human medicine.
By Katy Human
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 05/29/2007 01:24:10 AM MDT

Fort Collins – The patients in a modern, high-tech hospital here are furry and mostly four-legged – save for that, this could be mistaken for a center of human medicine.

The atrium of Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital is open and brightly lit by a curving wall of windows. Signs direct visitors to admissions, the cancer center, cardiology, ultrasound.

CSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science has much to celebrate on its 100th anniversary, having emerged as one of the top vet schools in the nation and a research powerhouse. To read more of this article visit www.denverpost.com

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with K9 acupuncture house-calls. Jeanie is also treating dogs with acupuncture at the DoggieDay Play Center in Boston.Visit FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

Menu Foods harassed pet owners
May 26, 2007 — From USA Today

The pet food company that recalled 60 million cans of contaminated dog and cat food repeatedly made harassing phone calls to pet owners who had lawyers and said they didn’t want to talk, even after a judge ordered the firm to leave them alone, court records show.

Lawyers from six firms representing clients who claim their pets were harmed by Menu’s pet food asked a federal judge in New Jersey Wednesday to stop Menu from “bullying” people who had called the company since the recall was announced March 16, according to their court filing.

U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman in Camden, N.J., agreed with the plaintiffs, describing the calls as “aggressive,” according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by USA TODAY.

“It’s one thing for two people to sit down at the table and voluntarily agree to settle their case. It’s another thing to harass people on weekends through automated phone calls,” Hillman said to Edward Ruff of Pretzel & Stouffer, Menu’s lawyer.

Hillman ordered Menu Foods to have no contact with anyone who believes their animal was injured by its product unless a lawyer representing them is involved.

Ontario, Canada-based Menu Foods has hired Crawford & Co., an insurance adjustor in Atlanta, to contact pet owners who called the company to report animal illnesses or deaths, according to the hearing transcript.

At a previous hearing on Friday, May 18, the judge had cautioned Menu and Crawford that they should not contact people who had joined one of the lawsuits against the company. Legally, Menu cannot contact those plaintiffs directly but must go through their lawyers.

But in affidavits presented in court Wednesday, pet owners said they received calls that weekend from Crawford representatives who pressed them to answer questions even after being told the owners had hired lawyers. In some cases, the pet owners also received multiple calls from Crawford’s computerized phone banks after telling representatives they were represented by attorneys, according to the affidavits.

“Menu’s representatives asked owners to sign releases which waived their right to get advice from a lawyer,” said attorney Jay Edelson in an interview.

His Chicago-based firm Blim & Edelson represents more than 600 pet owners.

“It appears that the company was engaging in a cynical strategy, designed to settle some of the strongest claims cheaply and induce pet owners to give up information it might be able to use to defend against others,” Blim & Edelson said in a letter Friday that was sent to clients and posted on Internet blogs for pet owners.

Ruff said in court that he told his clients about the judge’s instruction after the May 18 hearing, but because it was the start of a holiday weekend — May 21 was Victoria Day in Canada — the message may not have been fully communicated, according to the transcript.

Hillman was unyielding.

“It seems to me that Menu Food is out to do whatever Menu Foods wants to do in a way that could adversely impact the rights of possible members of the class action suit,” he said, according to the transcript.

Calls to Ruff’s office seeking comment Friday were not returned.

Operators at Crawford directed USA TODAY to call back Tuesday after the holiday.

Menu posted a notice on its website after the hearing, saying it could not have direct contact with individual pet owners “for the time being” because of the court order.

“In light of the order, we regret that we cannot communicate with you at this time. As soon as the court permits, we intend to resume efforts to resolve claims directly with pet owners. We will post additional information when we are able,” the notice says.

Since mid-March, Menu has recalled wet pet food products sold under more than 100 brand names, including Procter & Gamble’s Iams and Wal-Mart’s Ol’ Roy.

The Food and Drug Administration has linked the contamination to wheat flour imported from China that was tainted with the industrial chemical melamine. The FDA’s investigation also has revealed melamine-tainted wheat flour was mixed into pet foods made by other companies, and animal feed and fish feed.

Although the FDA has not provided an official count of pet deaths associated with the recall, it has said unconfirmed reports received from pet owners total more than 4,000 deaths.

Menu is facing dozens of lawsuits stemming from the recall. This week a federal multi-district litigation panel will meet in Las Vegas to determine which district court will hear the cases against Menu. The panel is expected to announce a decision by mid-summer.

www.vetlocator.com

Another reason to start cooking for your pets or use safe and healthy pet foods made from companies like Solid Gold, California Naturals, Abady and to boycott all those foods made by those companies that farm out to Menu Foods.