Q: Interesting article on digestive health! I have a Snowshoe Siamese X (10yrs) that just went through major abdominal surgery. Turned out she had gallstones which blocked her bile duct. She also had a pretty good bacterial infection that got into her liver. Her final diagnosis was Bacterial Cholangiohepatitis, including Actinomyces and Obstructive Cholelithiasis. She’s home now and on numerous meds including two different antibiotics. One is long term (8 months) and the other is for two months. What I can gather from the digestive health article is that the pre and probiotics would be a good addition for her. She is currently being tube fed 4 x daily with a Prescription gastro diet and supplemented with Halo Sensitive formula-Seafood Medley. I have just picked this up trying to encourage her to eat on her own. The more she eats on her the less tube feedings I need to do. She seems to be really enjoying the food. Is there any other supplements I could give to augment what she is getting in the food?
Thank you
Terri

A: Hi Terri, Thanks for sharing the story of your Snowshoe Siamese X. I am glad to hear she is recovering well from her extensive surgery and infection. The bacterial cholangiohepatitis often occurs due to movement of bacteria out of the intestine and into the liver. As such, I agree that a source of pre- and pro-biotics would be a good long term choice for her to keep a healthy balance of good intestinal bacteria. Halo cat foods contain the pre and probiotics only in the dry food–you will need to ask your veterinarian if it is okay that she eat dry food at this time. If not, you can supplement these additives in a paste form that your veterinarian can recommend. The other supplements I would recommend for a cat with this type of liver problem are ursodiol and SAMe–these nutraceuticals help make bile less toxic and improve overall function of the liver with anti-oxidant support. If she is not on these supplements, ask your veterinarian to consider adding them to her regimen. Hope this helps.

Good Luck and keep us posted on her progress.
Dr. Donna Spector

Q: I have a miniature Dachshund that has several issues:

1. He is overweight and I am hoping to help him lose weight. He is on a “weight control” dry food now and has been for some time. I actually feed him less than the recommended amount for him to lose weight and he hasn’t lost an ounce. Please advise.

2. This summer he has really had issues with his skin breaking out in hot spots in the “armpit” and groin regions. What could be causing this?

3. Even though he is short-haired, he sheds terribly bad. I use an oil supplement now but he still sheds excessively. Why?

Thanks for your help and I look forward to hearing your suggestions on what items Halo has that may help with these issues.

A: Thanks for your questions!

1. I am so happy to hear you are making a plan to get the excess weight off your dog. The health risks of obesity are real and he will feel so much better at a more trim weight! Although you are “feeding less than the recommended amount for him to lose weight”, he needs a weight loss plan specifically tailored to him:

• The first thing you must do is determine his IDEAL body weight. Your veterinarian can help you with this determination if you aren’t sure. Be warned, most people over-estimate how much their pet should weigh…you may be surprised by the number of pounds he needs to lose. In general (breed standard) Dachshunds should weigh less than 16 pounds. Remember, there are also medical conditions that can contribute to obesity (such as hypothyroidism and Cushings Disease–both very common in this breed) and your pet should be fully evaluated before beginning a weight loss program.

• Once the ideal weight has been established, the best weight loss plan is one that provides approximately 75%-80% of the calories your pet would require at that ideal weight. For example, if your dog should weigh 15 pounds (6.82kg), his daily needs to lose that weight are approximately 275 calories (although it can range from 205 to 300 calories depending on his metabolism).

• In general, he should lose about 1 to 2% of his body weight each week. You should weigh him at least every two weeks for adequate monitoring. If he is losing too quickly or not quickly enough, the daily calories must be adjusted. When the goal weight is achieved, a new plan for food intake must be made with your vet.

2. The skin condition you are describing sounds like pyoderma–a skin infection which commonly occurs in the skin fold areas. Obesity definitely contributes to this problem. The skin folds are warm and moist environments ideal for bacterial growth. Once the actual infection is taken care of your veterinarian may be able to recommend some basic maintenance tips for keeping the skin folds clean and dry as possible. There are some baby wipes or medicated wipes which can prevent the terrible breakouts.

3. As far as the shedding, make sure the oil supplement you are using is “broad-spectrum”. Don’t just include fish oils…there are many essential oils that have been proven to be beneficial for hair and skin health. Halo Dream Coat is a blend of 6 virgin oils which provides multiple essential oils (including fish oils). Again, the Dachshund breed is also very prone to endocrine problems which manifest themselves as shedding/hair loss, obesity, etc. These include hypothyroidism, Cushings disease and others. Given your dogs issues with the skin and obesity, make sure you get a vet visit to ensure he is not dealing with something like that.

Hope this helps.
Dr. Donna J. Spector

Q: My little munchkin, Mister Kitty, was just diagnosed with Diabetes. He is 14, and overweight. I have recently been enlightened about what pets are eating in most commercial foods, and had started to slowly shift their diet. (I have two cats). They started looking better—improved coat, muscle tone, energy and all.

Two weeks ago, Mister started drinking more water and urinating more. By the time I got him to the vet, (a week later, my vet said to wait because it could have been the heat), he had already lost one pound (17lbs to 16 lbs–he’s also large framed). She thought he looked so good physically that he could just really be drinking too much water because of the heat. But we did a full physical and bloodwork, and he was positive for diabetes. She prescribed injections of Lantus (glargine insulin) twice a day.

My vet is really busy, (but seems knowledgable), so hasn’t really talked to me much about the situation. Her assistant told me to not feed him your brand because of the carrots, peas and sweet potatoes in it. However, he is already looking so much better and losing weight, my hunches tell to stick to your program and get his weight down but I don’t want to do anything wrong and hurt him.

Is Halo okay for him? Is it okay to give him dry food throughout the day? The vet told me to leave just a little hard food down for him to graze on.

Sorry for being long-winded, but my vet just hasn’t had time to answer any of my questions. She is good, I like her, she’s just busy at this time of the year. Thank you very very much for your help, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

A: Thank you for your questions about Diabetes in cats. Hopefully Mister Kitty gets on the road to recovery with Halo right away!

Cats are very similar to people in that Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease. This means that they are still able to secrete insulin but their body is just not responding the way it should. The most common reasons for this “insulin resistance” are: obesity, inactivity, other diseases (such as bladder infections, pancreatitis, etc), medication usage (such as steroids) and DRY FOOD DIETS. Cats are carnivores and really should be eating a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. Most dry food diets are moderately to very high in carbohydrates and it is felt that the long term feeding of these foods often lead to problems with obesity and the development of diabetes.

All recent diabetic research in cats indicates that the very best thing you can do for Mister Kitty is put him on a COMPLETELY CANNED FOOD diet. This canned food should be high in protein and low in carbohydrates—the Halo canned Chicken and Salmon varieties are best. The carbohydrates it does have should come from fiber-rich vegetables and not things like corn and white rice. The fiber-rich vegetables are complex carbohydrates and do not immediately turn into sugar. Dry food should not be left down for him to graze on–this counteracts the beneficial things you are trying to do. NO DRY FOOD!

The remission rate is very high for cats once they switch to all canned food–the majority of cats will revert back to being “non-diabetic” in the first 4 months after this switch…and many of them do it in just a few weeks. It is critical that you watch his blood sugar carefully during this time to avoid episodes of hypoglycemia (which can be fatal if undetected) from too much insulin. The best way to monitor this is with at-home blood sugar checks. Ask your veterinarian how to do this. Don’t be surprised if his requirements for lantus (glargine) insulin start decreasing right away.

I know your veterinarian is busy, but you have every right to her time as any other client. Your cat has a serious condition and one that can be REVERSED if managed appropriately. Be an advocate for him to get the best care possible.

Hope this information helps. You can also see my article Feline Diabetes: A New Look at an Old Disease

Good Luck
Dr. Donna J. Spector

Q: My cat has the same thing. Again a rescued kitty, she pulls her hair out in clumps. She then gets her hair back and looks beautiful again, and then she starts all over pulling it out. The people I rescued her from say the vet said she just had bad nerves, I would too if I lived in one room with 3 big dogs and 2 bother cats who were all mean, probably because they were neglected! She is not the same cat I got 2 years ago. A lot of love and now she gets up in peoples laps; she is not scared of anything now! She lays all over me; she thinks I’m her pillow! What do you suggest? I am on SS disability; I only get $674 a month that really limits what I can do. Her hair is back right now, I think it’s because I switched her to Friskies can. Let me know what you think. Thank you and god bless all of you @ halo every animal deserves to be spoiled!

A: Your kitty is lucky to have found you–bless you for rescuing her!
Pulling out hair can be a sign of several things in cats: 1) Nervousness/anxiety; 2) Behavioral problems; or 3) Allergies (most commonly inhaled allergy or food allergy). My recommendations are as follows:

• Identify any stressors in her environment. Sometimes it isn’t an obnoxious dog or a bully cat that stresses a cat out. Sometimes it is the lack of proper play items in the environment or something not even as obvious. Visit The College of Veterinary Medicine web site to read details on the Indoor Cat Initiative. This initiative gives tips to identifying possible stressors for indoor cats and ways to enrich their environment to minimize nervousness and possible behavioral and medical problems.

• Begin a natural diet (like Halo)–free of artificial colors, preservatives, or other synthetic chemicals that sometimes lead to allergic skin reactions.

• Begin a fatty acid supplement (like Halo Dream Coat). Fatty acids are essential to soft supple skin and an excellent hair coat. Fatty acids have been proven to have beneficial anti-inflammatory effects within the skin and may be “just what the doctor ordered” for your kitty. This is especially true if she has allergies that may be contributing to her pulling out her hair.

Give these things at least 8 to 12 weeks to work. If she is still pulling out her hair, you should make an appointment with your veterinarian to discuss the next steps for her. Read my article Allergies in Cats for ideas on what might be necessary at upcoming vet visits.

Good Luck
Dr. Donna Spector

Q: What do you think of testing my dog every six months for heartworm instead of giving monthly heartworm pills?

A: This practice is not advised. To understand better, read the following scenarios.

If you get a positive test result on your dog, this means your dog has already been infected for 5-7 months and by definition, has adult worms living in their heart and/or lungs. A positive test result means you and your dog must face treatment of a potentially fatal disease. The treatment is expensive and dogs can have severe side effects from the medications used or from the dying heartworms.

If you get a negative test result, most likely your dog is not currently infected, but remember—no test is 100% and although uncommon, false negative heartworm test results can occur. This most often happens if dogs are infected with very few worms, the worms are still immature (common if you miss the right date for testing), only male worms are present (the test is only accurate for female worms), or the test was done incorrectly. This may mean that your dog goes incorrectly diagnosed as “heartworm negative”, increasing his risk for fatal complications from heartworm disease and serving as a source to infect other dogs.

No one likes to give medication unnecessarily, however, heartworm disease is prevalent in every U.S. state (except Alaska ) and kills dogs and cats every year. The best news is it is completely preventable. There are many options for heartworm prevention and many of the available medications also include routine dewormers for other common parasites affecting dogs and cats. Ask your veterinarian what prevention plan is best for your dog or cat.

Visit the American Heartworm Society for more information on heartworm disease in dogs and cats and to view current recommendations.