Prince of Wales Animal Hospital

	How do you become a veterinarian?
	What is wellness testing?
	Why does it cost so much to have dentistry performed on my pet?
	I was told by my friends that it is cruel to de-claw my cat. Is that right?
	Is all pet food the same except the price? The labels on the bags all look like the food is good.
	Do indoor cats need vaccinations?
	My friends tell me that it is best to let my female dog have a litter before she is spayed. My veterinarian tells me to spay her before her first heat. Who is right?
	Can my pet be vaccinated if it has an ear infection?
	I hear you can get worms from drinking milk?
	Why is it dangerous to feed my cat dog food? I have three small dogs and one cat so it is less bother to just buy one bag of dog food and let them all eat it. My cat doesn't seem to mind.

	How do you become a veterinarian? In Canada, you have to graduate from a licensed school of veterinary medicine and then pass board examinations. Then you can practice veterinary medicine. To earn the D.V.M. (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) will take at least six years of university education although most graduates will spend more than six years. Many in fact earn a B.Sc. prior to entering vet school. High marks from high school are essential in gaining admission to a Canadian veterinary college as there is a lot of competition. There are four colleges with one more being added in Calgary which will apparently graduate only large animal veterinarians. The four main ones are: the Ontario Veterinary College of the University of Guelph, the Western School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Saskatchewan, the Atlantic College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Prince Edward Island, and the veterinary college of the Université de Montreal at St. Hyacinthe.
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	What is wellness testing? In our hospitals, this refers to the evaluation of both blood and urine in senior pets. A senior pet can be as young as 7 years old or as old as 10 years of age depending on the species and the size of the pet. While we perform a thorough evaluation of an animal during the yearly or twice yearly examination, and question the guardian of the pet closely as to any potential problems that they have noticed, we can only determine so much about a pet’s health. This is because certain problems are “under the surface”. Not yet detectable. We want to know about a condition before the condition becomes a problem. In order to do this, we take samples of blood and urine and perform analysis of these samples. This gives us a great deal of information about the workings of the various organ systems, especially the white blood cells, the red blood cells, and the kidney and the liver. If we find a developing problem before it becomes serious, we have a much greater chance of preventing or delaying further problems. We can do a lot with medication and diets to prolong the life of your pet once we diagnose a medical condition.
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	Why does it cost so much to have dentistry performed on my pet? This is a very common question because we all go to see a dentist (some of us not as often as we should), and we know how much it costs to go to the dentist. The main reason it costs more to have your pet’s teeth scaled and polished is that unlike us, your pet will not voluntarily open their mouth, keep it open while we examine and work on their teeth and refrain from using their sharp teeth to bite down on our valuable hands and fingers. As a result, we have to use an anesthetic to put your pet into an unconscious state so that we can work on their mouth. This first requires a blood test to ensure there will be no unexpected problems with anesthesia and then requires the use of sophisticated anesthetic machinery including monitoring equipment. Also, unlike us when we finish our dental appointment we simply get off the dental chair and walk out, our patients have to be monitored and recovered until they can stand and walk. This takes time and is the reason your pet is hospitalized for the day. And lastly, because some of our patients have to wait for some time before their guardian decides to have dentistry performed on them, their mouths and gums are often so bad that we have to start antibiotics before the dental day.
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	I was told by my friends that it is cruel to de-claw my cat. Is that right? This is a very difficult question to answer as we have to define cruel and also have to determine if this procedure is needed. Some people have very strong philosophical arguments against de-clawing cats calling it unnatural. The first part is determining if it is cruel. Most veterinarians believe it is only cruel if there is uncontrolled pain experienced by the cat. If the surgery, and yes it is a surgical procedure, is done properly, the cat will awaken from anesthesia with very little to no discomfort. The procedure is performed with pre-anesthetic sedation, full general anesthesia with further local ring block anesthesia and pain medication. They are also kept for two days after the surgical day so that we can monitor their status and are sent home with pain medication just in case. If we believed that it was cruel, veterinarians would not perform this procedure. With reference to the philosophical question, most veterinarians believe that de-clawing a cat is no less unnatural than neutering them. Certainly if the cat is not destructive there is no need to de-claw. However if the cat is destructive, we know that if the cat’s guardian cannot stop its destructive behaviour, there is a strong possibility that the cat will be euthanized. De-clawing is certainly a better choice. And while we prefer cats to be kept inside, from years of experience and discussions with our clients, we know that de-clawed cats that go outside are still well protected by their attitude, teeth and hind-claws. They still can hunt, catch mice and climb if they so wish. Also, it can be much easier to find a home for your cat if circumstances change, as in someone in the home developing allergies, if your cat is de-clawed.
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	Is all pet food the same except the price? The labels on the bags all look like the food is good. Absolutely not. In fact, in most cases the quality of the pet food is directly proportional to its cost, provided that the food is bought from a veterinary hospital, a pet store, or a grocery store. We strongly recommend against buying pet food from distributors whose food is not obtainable from anyone but themselves. The good news is that generally the more expensive the food, the less that you have to feed your pet so that if you calculated the actual yearly cost between a high quality food and a cheaper food, there is not a lot of difference. You will pay more at the check-out counter but will return less often. And more importantly, your pet will have a greater chance to live a longer and healthier life with likely fewer veterinary bills. Also, be very careful of the claims on the labels of pet foods. The most important quality of the food is its digestibility which will have a very major impact on the long term health of your pet. In fact, a first year animal nutrition lesson taught at the University of Guelph showed how to use a piece of old shoe leather, crankcase oil and a few other odds and ends to meet all the requirements of a dog food label. Always remember that the label shows the *minimum requirements*. We recommend that you purchase food from the companies that actually test their food on animals (in a very humane way), and that either perform the nutritional research that has greatly improved the longevity of our pets or provide the research funds to universities to conduct this research. These companies are Purina, the Royal Canin/Walthams/Medi-Cal group Hills, and The Eukanuba/Iams group.
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	Do indoor cats need vaccinations? The whole question of vaccinating is undergoing a great deal of review. We are learning more each year about the duration of vaccines and consequently there are going to continue to be changes to our recommendations to our clients. Unfortunately, a lot of the research has been performed on very small samples of dogs and cats so we have to be very careful in our recommendations. The protection of our client’s pets is our number one goal when assessing vaccine needs. Each case is different so it is very hard to make blanket recommendations. It is best to assess each pet’s exposure level when deciding which vaccines to use. This can best be done during the annual health examination when you can discuss with the veterinarian what your pet’s lifestyle is. For instance, indoor cats in homes where they can meet outdoor cats on the opposite side of window screens are at risk. Does your cat escape outside periodically? Do you have friends visit with their cats or do you take your cat to a home where there are other cats? Do you know if you have any bats living near your home? These questions all need to be answered before deciding which specific vaccines are needed for your pet, even an indoor cat.
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	My friends tell me that it is best to let my female dog have a litter before she is spayed. My veterinarian tells me to spay her before her first heat. Who is right? With all deference to your friends, unless they have a D.V.M beside their name, you should listen to your veterinarian. Unless you are particularly interested in letting your female dog have puppies, your veterinarian is correct in recommending that she be spayed *before* her first heat. There are two major reasons. The first is that female dogs spayed *before* their first heat have almost no chance of developing mammary cancer (breast cancer) in later life. This is a definite plus as intact female dogs are very prone to mammary cancer. This occurrence will possibly result in a shortened life. It will at least result in surgery and rather expensive veterinary bills. The second reason is that a female dog spayed before her first heat is considered an immature bitch and her reproductive organs are immature, less well developed with less blood supply, less abdominal fat and surgically much easier to perform with a lot less risk of surgical complications. As an added bonus, because the surgery is easier to perform, it will be less expensive to you than if she was mature.
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	Can my pet be vaccinated if it has an ear infection? Generally speaking, no. The reason for this is that if your pet has an existing health problem, it is already mounting an immune system response to try to heal itself. If we vaccinate this pet, two things may happen. First, the body’s response to the vaccine may distract and divert the body’s immune system from mounting a successful attempt to heal itself. This will possibly let the existing problem, in this case an ear infection, get worse and maybe even become dangerous. Secondly, the reason we vaccinate is to protect the pet against a disease. A pet with a pre-existing health problem has an immune system already compromised. If we vaccinate such an animal, we do not know how good a response to the vaccine will occur. It may only respond 50%, or 60%. We want as close to 100% protection as possible so if we expect 100% and the body only provides 60% protection, we are not getting what we want. Even worse is that we will assume the pet is protected after we administer the vaccine when in fact the pet is not adequately protected. The better course of action is to treat the pre-existing condition, in this case an ear infection, and then after the course of treatment is over, have the pet back for a re-check. At this time if the infection is sufficiently under control, the veterinarian may decide it is alright to vaccinate.
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	I hear you can get worms from drinking milk? This is a myth that seems to still be around. You won’t get worms from drinking cows’ milk. Puppies and kittens however can and do get worms from drinking their mothers’ milk. The larva or the juvenile forms of worms are passed via the milk that is suckled by puppies and kittens and if not detected and eradicated can cause serious illness and in some cases death to the young animal. These worms include roundworm, hookworm, and whipworm and are parasites that that are also dangerous to humans. Except for whipworm, they are shed in very large numbers into the environment by dogs, cats, raccoons every time they defecate. They are particularly dangerous to young children. This is the reason that all sand boxes should be covered so that cats cannot use them as large litter boxes and children should be trained not to eat soil or to place earth soiled fingers into their mouth. This is also the reason that all pets should be checked for and treated for intestinal parasites throughout the year.
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	Why is it dangerous to feed my cat dog food? I have three small dogs and one cat so it is less bother to just buy one bag of dog food and let them all eat it. My cat doesn't seem to mind. Your cat may not mind eating the dog food but it will sure mind having a shortened and unhealthy life. Cats are not dogs, which is rather obvious, but in the past, nutritional research was done mainly on dogs, and cats were considered small versions of a dog. Luckily for cats, the good pet food companies researched the nutritional needs of cats and discovered some very interesting facts which in one case has made a dramatic improvement in the longevity and health of cats. They discovered that cats, unlike dogs, cannot synthesize an essential amino acid called taurine from other amino acids. Consequently, a cat fed nothing but dog food will be deficient in taurine. Big deal you say. It is a big deal because these researchers found that a deficiency in taurine is a major cause of a serious cardiac problem in cats, called dilated cardiomyopathy. This is a condition whereby the heart muscle becomes weak and in order to maintain its ability to pump blood, starts to expand. This expansion or dilation of the cardiac muscle causes the heart to weaken and eventually to fail. As a result, pet food manufacturers add taurine to cat food and as a consequence the incidence of dilated cardiomyopthy has decreased tremendously. There are a number of other reasons to not feed cats dog food including the fact that cats unlike dogs are carnivores and need a higher percentage of protein in their food and that the pH of the food has to be kept in a rather narrow range to prevent the formation of urinary crystals which can be very harmful to cats. back to top