Dear friends,
I have just received a GINORMOUS kick in the butt from a client who reminded my Mom that I have not been very good about writing my e-column. This lady said that she had not seen anything from me on this website in so long, that it was going to have to be a "fall-into-winter" kind of a e-column, because I was so late that I could not even put a month on it this time! Well, I was sure she was wrong, so I went back and checked and - oh my! Hebert says that the proper way I should feel is "chagrined." I checked to see what that word means, because Hebert says that a smart dog would know, and the online dictionary I looked at (Mom's big old dictionary was too heavy for me to even flip open) says it means I should feel "vexed or unsettled by disappointment or humiliation." And I am indeed humiliated that I forgot for so long.
So, I have some stuff to tell you. I have been saving it up. Just because I haven't been writing, doesn't mean I haven't been reading and thinking! I have just been having too much end-of-summer fun to write to you. But now I am READY! First, the cool stuff, buckaroos:
The first thing is that finally, pets like us - and even chickens, and cows, and pigs - are being treated more humanely by the people who you would think would want to treat us that way in the first place - VETERINARIANS. I have read that the people who are important veterinarians in big groups - like the American Veterinary Medical Association, and some of the people in charge of the vet schools where they teach people how to be a veterinarian - have gotten their heads out of their - wait, Mom says I can't say that. But I still think that they must have been absolute - no, Mom says that I can't say that, either! She says I have to say that they have been "educated" by groups that care about the welfare of animals to see that what they used to tell veterinarians and veterinary students to do was WRONG and MEAN to animals like us. And that now they have decided to be humane.
The first big good change is happening in vet schools. Here is what used to happen there (I will warn you, it is bad and scary what they did then). People who were learning how to be veterinarians had to do awful experiments on lots of animals, like dogs and cats and chickens and pigs. Their teachers, who were all vets, said that it was necessary to help them "learn" things like how animal bodies work and what happens when we get sick or die. And they did that by MAKING healthy pets like us us get really, really sick - and sometimes die - on purpose. Just so they could watch it and study it and take notes. Can you believe it? It is true, my dears! My Mom remembers her whole class having to watch perfectly healthy dogs get put to sleep so that everyone could see what happened to their heartbeat as they die. (NEWSFLASH, friends: It stops. Even I know that!) And she almost got thrown out of vet school that same year because the guy who taught one of her courses where vet students learn about how drugs work had his head so far up - wait, I remembered that I can't say that. But he made his students work in small groups to give pets bad diseases like diabetes, and adrenal disease, and he made all the students kill their dogs at the end of the course, and when my Mom asked why they couldn't just learn about this by making a video of one dog or cat each who already had the diseases they were learning about and then everyone could watch it and learn just as much, so that lots and lots of animals didn't have to die, and why the animals in her course couldn't be adopted to people who would love them, this very bad man insisted she kill her dog. He told her that only an idiot would adopt a dog that was sick with one of the diseases he made the students give their dogs, and he told her that she would be a terrible vet someday because she didn't see the need to do this "research". And, when Mom asked why then, if only idiots would treat dogs with diseases like diabetes and adrenal disease, they were doing the "research" in the first place, since everyone already know how to treat those diseases that only an idiot would treat, he got really mad and threw her out of his office.
And Mom still remembers, since 1980, that her dog was a beautiful Husky who knew all kinds of tricks and would do them so that you wouldn't hurt her, whenever a student came near her cage. She had been someone's pet at one time......before she ended up in a pound and someone sold her to be a research dog. And she got killed. By people learning to be veterinarians. Who were being told that they had to do that, by their veterinarian teachers. And there were lots worse things that are hard for Mom to talk about, even now, things that happened to pigs and goats and chickens and other dogs. My dear friends, it would sicken you to know what happened at vet schools in the 1970's and early 80's! It makes Mom mad, and it makes me mad, too. Because it is wrong, and there is just no excuse for it. There wasn't any excuse then, and there isn't now. I think Mom is right when she says she is not giving any money to her vet school, the University of Illinois, until they admit that it was wrong to be doing all that bad stuff and say in front of everyone, like in the newspaper, and say that they are sorry they put students through all that and most especially the poor animals who died too, and say that they are moving towards a program like you will read about below and say when they will start it for sure instead of just talking about it, and also (big breath) when they will finally be DONE with useless animal experimentation for good. And we BOTH think that they should start teaching their students about complementary medical therapies like acupuncture and chiropractic and herbal medicine. Because those things have helped ME a lot and a lot of our patients, too!
Luckily, thanks to a big bunch of hard work by a lot of people who care about pets like me, some vet schools are getting smarter. Ross University just joined a growing list of veterinary colleges like Tufts and Oklahoma State University that will not do surgeries and other classes like that anymore. I read this in a magazine one of our Nurses was reading last week, called DVM Magazine. It's too bad that my Mom's vet school is not on this list! The students at schools like Ross learn a lot of their necessary surgery and medical lessons on cadavers, just like medical students do. When they first work with live animals, it is for simple things like putting on casts and bandages. Or fixing what is already wrong with them. They don't hurt or kill the animals. And the students do a lot of work with animals in their community, with dogs and cats and farm animals too, to treat problems that need to be fixed anyway. And there are even some vet schools that let their students learn about acupuncture and other therapies that can help them feel better. I think that's a better way to learn, don't you?
And here's another good thing! In this same magazine, I read that the AVMA has held their "sit-stay" about saying it is NOT OK to cut off a dog's ears or tail. This is sometimes called "ear cropping and tail docking", but what it means is that they cut off pieces of you - and do you THINK that doesn't hurt? And exactly WHO says it makes anyone look better? It took those vets working with the AVMA so long to agree to vote against this, I wanted to cut off pieces of their - oh wait. *SIGH* Mom says that is also something that I cannot say. But I bet they would have decided faster, it I HAD threatened to cut those parts off. I watch enough neuter surgeries around here to do the job right.....but anyway. They did finally decide that it is a wrong thing to do, and even when the Utah Veterinary Medical Association (UVMA) wanted them to change their minds and make it an OK thing to do, the AVMA did a good sit-stay and said NO. So now, it is official that the AVMA wants cutting parts of a dog's body off to be eliminated from any breed standards (for dogs like Boxers and Dobermans and Schnauzers and Great Danes, who have their poor ears and tails chopped off all the time). Even when the American Kennel Club (AKC) blasted the AVMA for not being "consulted," the AVMA held their sit-stay. I say, good AVMA! And UVMA and AKC, go to your kennels and stay there! Bad dogs!
But now I have a couple of things to warn you about. The first thing is this H1N1 virus. Another is doggie flu. Now, I don't want to make you crazy with worry, because I know that a lot of your owners may already be a little worried about it already, but you DO need to know that a few animals have been diagnosed with H1N1. There was a cat in Iowa, and also two ferrets - one in Nebraska (who died) and one in Oregon (who is recovering). The Iowa kitty is recovering nicely, too. NO dogs have been diagnosed so far. But, since we now know that birds and pigs and people and cats and ferrets can get this virus, I want you all to do some things to keep yourselves healthy, OK? First, you need to eat right. Now, I have written a lot about food in the past, so I won't say too much again, but please, if your people are feeding you a bad food you really need to talk to them again and make them read my old e-columns about what foods are good for you. This is SO important, my friends. You know about the guy who wrote the Hippocratic Oath? The one that all Doctors take, that says "First, do no harm?" His name was Hippocrates and he lived in Greece in B.C.E. times and he was the guy who is called the father of medicine. But he had an even more important quote that a lot of people have forgotten about. It says, "Let food be your medicine." What he meant was, that it is a bad idea to think you can be healthy if you are not eating a good natural diet that is right for your body. And I will say only one more thing before stopping all talk about food: hellllloooooo.... we are carnivores, so we should be eating MEAT, not just dried-up stuff in a bag all the time.
OH! And here is what else you can do to stay healthy and fight off bad germs and bugs and stuff. Don't forget that even though it is getting colder outside, you should still be exercising. That is important to do year-round. Make your people take you for a nice long walk at least 5 times a week, and if you are an inside pet, make your people throw a ball or use one of those cool kitty feather toys on a stick to make you jump and play. (Here is a hint that works well with Moms: run and grab your leash, then sit in front of her and look up at her with big sad eyes. Whine just a little. And if you have to, mention to her that her butt looks like it is a little bigger. I bet you will get more walks!)
My dog friends, for now, you may want to be careful about being around too many other dogs a lot. I know that dog parks and play groups are so much fun, but please remember that they are also about the best places to pick up worms and respiratory diseases, from piddly ones like kennel cough to bad ones like this H1N1 bug. And that doggie influenza bug (dog flu), too. How would you know if your dog just has a common kennel cough or something bad like H1N1 or dog flu? The most common sign of anything more than kennel cough is a cough that won't go away. Kennel cough usually goes away in 10-14 days but the flu bug can last 3 weeks or more! And dogs with flu can have a fever and yellowy or white or green crud coming out of their nose, too. Some dogs can even get pneumonia and be really sick and not want to eat or move around. Kennel cough dogs usually just have a drippy nose. But even a really sick dog will usually recover if they get to their vet. They may need to be in the hospital a couple of days, though. REMEMBER, friends: Whether you are a dog, a cat, a ferret, a bunny, or ANY pet, if you have a cough that doesn't go away, or if you feel really sick and don't want to eat, or if you have a fever, or have a cruddy, snotty nose, tell your people to take you to the vet. I don't want any of my Knollwood friends to be the first H1N1 case in Illinois!
Last of all....if you have any dog or cat friends who have diabetes, you need to know that the most common insulin out there, the one called Vetsulin, is going through some testing and might not be available pretty soon. I heard our Nurses talking about this today. The Vetsulin stuff does not have the same amount of active stuff in it from batch to batch, someone found out, so the FDA is going to make the people that make it do more testing on it. You know something? It makes me MAD that you can still google "Vetsulin" or "Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health" (who make the stuff) and this news comes up way down on the bottom of the page instead of the top. I just googled it, and I got a bunch of cheap prescription places that will sell the stuff to you and do they warn you about it? No, they don't! Just like, if you buy stuff from them and you have a problem with it, they never have anyone who can help you with medical advice. Did you know that some of those companies that sell veterinary drugs on line have been called into court dozens of times for selling their stuff illegally? Well, it is true. Mom says I can't name any names, but their initials are "P", then - wait, she says I can't say that, either! But you should be getting your medicines from your vet anyway, that's all I am going to say. Because they know all about every medicine, and they can tell you what to do if there is a problem with yours. And they will help you, and will not tell you that they don't know. Vets spend 8 or more years learning their stuff so they know a lot more than someone answering the phone or e-mail at an on-line pharmacy, I can tell you!
But I digress.......sorry, friends, but I am a Terrier, and that is what my Mom calls one of our "issues". Because there are so many things that are interesting to us in the world, it is hard for us to keep our minds on one thing for a long time. Or even a short time. What time is it, anyway? And where was I? Oh! If you know anyone who uses Vetsulin, you might want to warn them. We have called all our clients and have checked their diabetic pet's fructosamine levels (that is a test that tells you if your blood sugar has been OK for, like, the past MONTH) and now we are switching the insulin on some of them. So please, run quick and e-mail or call your diabetic friends and tell them to tell their people to ask their vet to check and see if their blood sugar is OK and if they need to change their insulin. I will sleep better if you do that. I really worry about all of you dog and cat friends and readers out there!
OK. I promise to have more NEW news for you next month, and to be better about writing to you more often. To tell you the truth, it made me feel GOOD to know that I was missed.....
Your friend,
LIZZIE
