When we ask cat owners why they struggle with bringing their cats for regular veterinary care and check-ups, the number one answer seems to be that their cat gets stressed, which stresses them. Here are some tips that might help minimize the stress you and your cat feel when you visit your veterinarian:

• Wrangling your cat up and shoving them into the “dreaded carrier” is no way to start your trip to the veterinarian. To help your cat become accustomed to the carrier, leave it open and placed in your house, so your cat can become comfortable with it. You can create a positive feeling about the carrier by keeping toys in and around it, as well as a comfy towel or blanket that smells like “home”.
• To prepare for the car ride to the veterinarian, take your cat for occasional rides in the car (in the carrier, of course). You can make them short trips around the block, or a little further if you like. The key is to prevent a negative association with the car ride. You can do this by rewarding your pet with a special “treat” at the end of each car ride. Keeping your cat’s carrier covered with a towel or blanket during the car ride will also help, as it will make them feel more cozy and safe.
• On the day of your cat’s veterinary appointment, do not feed right before leaving in the car. This can help prevent bouts of motion sickness. It will also set your cat up to have a positive experience of receiving yummy and enticing treats during the exam.
• Bring a towel from home with you. Many veterinarians will use a towel during the exam, and having one that smells “like home” will ease your cat’s anxiety.
• Once you arrive home, gently place the carrier in it’s “spot” in your home, open the door and allow your cat to come out on his or her own terms. Once they do come out, offer lots of treats and cuddling to reinforce the idea of a positive experience!

We hope you’ll try some of these techniques to enhance your cat’s experience, as their health is important. If you have additional questions, or would like to schedule your cat for an exam, please call us at 317-257-5334. Preventative care is the key to a long and happy life with your furry companion!

What to do if your pet is afraid of thunderstorms…

Have more specific questions? Brad can be reached via email at b.phifer@bracpet.com

If you already have a dog, Canine Colors will help you better understand and communicate with your dog, as you discover what your True Colors Spectrum is as a dog owner. If you are currently looking for a dog, we highly recommend you pick up a copy of this book. It can assist you in finding a true match, so you and your future dog will experience a long and happy relationship.

You can get your copy online at Canine Colors, or stop by either of our locations or Bark Tutor School for Dogs to purchase a copy and save yourself the shipping fee. We hope you enjoy this great new tool as much as we do!

We asked our clients to share their weight loss success stories with you, and here’s how they were able to succeed:

• Carol C’s story starts with Caoimhe, who was relinquished at the age of 5. When Carol rescued her she had been diagnosed with anxiety and she was obese. She is now 30lbs down from 42lbs. A combination of good food and exercise cured the weight and the anxiety. That is a 28.6% loss in excess pounds. Way to go, Carol and Caoimbe!
• Dara N’s story began when at age one, Molly (Bull Mastiff/Newfie Mix) blew out her knee. She was 130lbs. Once she recovered from knee surgery, the weight needed to come off. Nice long walks turned into short runs for exercise. Dara also replaced half of Molly’s food with green beans and carrots. She was soon down to 101 lbs. and the knees are doing great! She is now five and running up to a mile a day and is keeping her girlish figure under control. Molly’s 22.3% reduction in weight not only has her feeling better, but Dara’s probably in great shape as well with those daily runs.
• Karen R. reduced her pet’s dog food and added green beans to each meal. She also found the Royal Canin High Fiber food to be a big help in keeping her full. Her dog lost about 20lbs…hmmm, are we onto something with these green beans?
• Jenny A. says she did the same thing…green beans!!! And lots of walking/running. Her dog lost 11 pounds!
• Victoria W. used another magical whole food. Under the guidance of BRAC’s Dr. Gardner, her dog Rufus lost 10 pounds with just a minimal change to his food volume. He also gets 1/4 cup of fresh organic blueberries each morning. He is in great shape now!
• Lisa P., who works with Beagle Buddies shared Hank’s (ACD/Beagle) story. Hank bulked up after surgery/steroids and mixing wet food in with the dry to get him to start to eat again in 2005. She lives near the Monon so she upped her walks with Hank from 2 mi/day to 3 or 4 mi/day. Additionally, she added  tossing his frisbee into a pond for him to swim to and running free in the woods, and put him on 3 Dog Bakery Lo-Cal Chicken (dry). He dropped from a roly-poly 56 lbs in May to a smokin’ hot 40 lbs. by mid-Sept. Another 28.6% weight loss…incredible!

According to Dr. Elizabeth Murphy, weight loss in dogs can be very difficult to accomplish for several reasons. Spaying is a very important thing to do for the overall health of female dogs, but it does decrease their metabolic rate by about 35%, and dogs naturally have a decreased activity level and decreased calorie expenditure as they become adults. Dogs don’t take these two factors into account, because, as dogs,they have a very strong food drive and have the natural instinct to acquire as much food as possible. This is a great instinct in the wild, where dogs have to hunt for food but, for domestic dogs, this can be a good instinct gone bad! Many dogs put on the appropriate number of calories for their size and activity level will still act as if they are starving and do whatever they can to get more food, by begging, getting into the trash, even eating feces! If you are unsuccessful in reducing your dog’s caloric intake or sating their hunger, one other suggestion is the weight-loss drug for dogs, Slentrol. Slentrol decreases the appetite, which really helps in cases where there is a food drive problem, and it decreases the absorption of some of the calories from the food. It can really get a dog to their weight loss goal over a few weeks or months, and then the dog could go to a lower, maintenance dose for a while. Once a dog is at the maintenance weight for a few months, he or she will very likely be able to be taken off the drug as eventually the food drive will match the dog’s new weight.

Of course, all overweight or obese pets need to be checked for any underlying health problems that could lead to weight gain, such as a low thyroid production or an adrenal gland problem – solving those problems would keep pets healthier and may keep them from needing the drug to begin with! Weight loss is hard work! Work with your veterinary team to help you and your pet meet your personal goals. We’d love to share more success stories to inspire other pet lovers, so please leave your stories in the comments section below:)

by Elizabeth Murphy, DVM

Everyone knows that doing a crossword puzzle every day helps keep our brains sharp as we get older. But what about our pets? Well, taking your older dogs for a walk every day is the canine equivalent of getting them to do a daily crossword puzzle. Dogs “read” the environment on their walks by sniffing the ground or the closest lamppost for information on the other dogs that have passed by, such as their age, their gender, their health and even the amount of adrenaline coursing through their veins! Dogs have 200,000 olfactory, or smell, receptors, in comparison to the human number of 20,000, so they get a great deal of information from their environment, which their minds must then process and interpret.

The world outside their yard is their crossword puzzle, and olfactory stimulation translates into brain stimulation for them. Just being let out into the yard is not challenging enough to their brains, and aerobic exercise is important anyway for good blood flow to the brain, so walks, even slow ones, are the way to go. What else can we do to keep our old dogs learning new tricks? Keep them learning new tricks, or at least practicing old ones! People that retire need to make the effort to stay involved with their former professions, or to develop new hobbies, in order to keep their minds active, and dogs need jobs and hobbies, too. If there are tricks that your dog enjoys doing, or that you enjoy seeing, keep doing them. If both of you are bored with those tricks you have been doing all these years, teach new ones! Dogs of any age will learn new things readily as long as the right rewards are given. Dogs can “hunt” around the house as a new hobby, too – hide favorite rawhide bones, Greenies or treat?stuffed toys around the house, and encourage your dog to find them, then make a big deal of applauding and petting him when he accomplishes that great feat!
There are many other ways to keep your older dog’s brain healthy – most can be extrapolated from human geriatric research. Social involvement with family and in the community is important for humans: for dogs, frequent daily interactions with all the human family members and frequent visits to see favorite canine and human friends would be equally important. Play time at the dog park or at doggie daycare, or just being at those beehives of canine activity and simply watching the other dogs play, would be protective for the aging canine brain.

And what about cats? Few of us can take our cats for a walk, and there are definitely no “cat parks”! We can, however, keep their brains and bodies toned up by playing with them often – even the oldest cat can usually be lured to chase a feather or a mouse on a string. Enriching the indoor environment of cats is important at all ages, too. Cats in the wild need a high perch to keep track of their predators and prey, and research has shown that indoor cats thrive if they have a “cat tree” or other human approved high perch to keep track of the other members of the household.

In addition, bird-watching is a great hobby for cats. Having a bird feeder outside a window is very stimulating to cats and amusing for their owners. No birds available? No problem! There are many bird-starring cat DVDs to play on the TV which greatly magnify the sound and images of birds, chipmunks, squirrel, etc and catch the attention of even the most sedate cat. Try “Video Catnip”, for example, and watch your cat dive for the bird that “flies” off-screen and, in your cat’s mind, out of the TV. Playing with your older cat provides exercise as well as some of the social interaction needed to keep your cat’s aging brain healthy – and don’t forget to add a little extra petting time, too!
The moral of this story is: DON’T let sleeping senior dogs (or cats) lie! Their brains might rust if they are allowed to rest too much.

Did you know: Dental care has saved the lives of more pets than any other advance in the field of veterinary medicine in the last 25 years?

• Smaller dogs and cats live 15-20% longer if they receive dental care as needed throughout their life.
• Larger dogs live 10-15% longer if they receive dental care as needed throughout their life.
• Bad teeth and gum disease can trigger serious, even life-threatening health problems including heart, kidney, liver and joint disease.
• In human medicine, a link between gum disease and heart conditions has been well established. Research shows the same thing happens in pets. A recent study by Dr. Larry Glickman of Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine (JAVMA, Feb. 2009) showed that dogs with gum disease had more heart problems (study included 59,296 dogs).

If you’re not currently brushing your pet’s teeth, or you’ve had bad luck trying to brush in the past, we want to help get your pet’s dental care back on track! Give us a call at 317-257-5334 or 317-726-2711 to schedule a complete oral examination and we’ll teach you some stress-free ways to care for your pet’s teeth and gums.

Here’s a list of items you should have on hand:

• Pet food, especially any prescription diets for medical conditions. Always have an extra bag or case of cans around in case roads become too treacherous for traveling.
• Litter for your pets, again keeping a back-up bag on hand in case you get snowed in. In the winter, keeping a 20-pound bag of cat litter in the trunk of your car can come in very handy. The weight of the bag can help with traction on slippery roads, and should you slide off the road, you can spread the litter on the icy ground to help in getting your car back on the road again.
• Bottled gallons of fresh water is a must for you and your pets should you become stranded at home without power. Keep several gallons in your basement, rotating them regularly to keep your supply fresh.
• Keep plenty of soft, warm bedding available for your pet at home and in the car. Some homes become draftier in the winter and your pet will appreciate the extra layers of bedding.
• If your pet takes regular medication, refill them a full week before you run out. Waiting until the last minute could coincide with a winter storm, making it impossible to pick-up your pet’s supply.

Stay ahead of the winter weather by preparing now for the future! If you have any questions or concerns about your pet’s winter safety, please contact us at 317.257.5334.

Unless your dog is a Husky, Samoyed or Malamute, he’s probably not all that thrilled with winter weather and being outdoors for too long. Going on walks will be more challenging, but with a few precautions, you and your dog can continue to enjoy exercising outdoors.

Foot Care

Snow and ice will accumulate between the pads of your pet’s feet, especially if the hair is longer between the pads. These “ice balls” need to be removed from your dog’s paws whenever they come in from the snow. Lingering ice balls will scratch and irritate the pads, causing pain and discomfort.

Salt and De-Icers

When walking on sidewalks and driveways that have been treated with salt or de-icers, it is important to clean your pet’s paws as soon as you are indoors. Don’t give your pet the opportunity to start licking their paws, as these ice treatments can cause gastrointestinal upset. Use a damp cloth or towel to clean your pet’s paws before the de-icing agents cause chapping and drying to the paw pads.

Arthritic Pets

Pets with arthritis will be affected by cold, damp weather. Be sure to approach icy walkways with caution, so your pet doesn’t risk slipping and falling. In colder weather, cushioned and even heated bedding will benefit and relieve your arthritic pet.

Outdoor Cautions

The warm engine of your parked car may become a refuge for outdoor cats who are seeking warmth. Avoid injuries to them by knocking on the hood of your car or honking your horn before your put your car in gear.

Antifreeze is a lethal poison to animals. A few licks of spilled antifreeze can cause antifreeze toxicity, and a trip to the emergency hospital. Keep your antifreeze locked up in your garage and be sure to thoroughly clean all spills immediately to protect your pet.

If you suspect your pet has suffered a cold weather injury or illness, please call your veterinarian immediately. Broad Ripple Animal Clinic and Wellness Center support staff are happy to answer your individual questions at 317.257.5334 or 317.726.2701. Next week, our post will discuss emergency preparedness for the winter weather. Enjoy the winter months!

One American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) member veterinarian is chosen each year in recognition for their outstanding efforts to positively influence the lives of animals and people. This year, Dr. Heinz was nominated by one of her clients. This nomination was supported by two more client essays, telling the stories of their relationships with Dr. Heinz over the past few years.

Dr. Christine Heinz received her DVM degree from the University of Illlinois College of Veterinary Medicine in 2006. Before becoming an Illini, Dr. Heinz was a proud Spartan, earning a B.S. in Animal Science and graduating with honors in 2002 from Michigan State University- Go Green!

Christine is a native of suburban Chicago, where her immediate family and most of her extended family still reside. While she greatly misses deep-dish pizza, Christine is very happy to call Indianapolis her home. She lives in the Broad Ripple area, not too far from BRAC, with her husband, Aaron, and their two dogs, Kodie and Staley. Kodie was a blood donor dog at the teaching hospital at Michigan State before Christine was lucky enough to be able to take him home. Staley came from the Indianapolis Humane Society and became a wonderful addition to the family and is a great “brother” to Kodie. Christine loves to be outdoors with Aaron and their dogs, will jump on the chance to do a little downhill skiing, and enjoys cooking and trying different ethnic cuisines.

Dr. Heinz’s philosophy of veterinary care: ” I love talking to people about their pets! I want people to understand what is going on with the health of their pet, so that they can feel secure in the decisions they make regarding their little ones. I think that everyone has a different and unique bond with their pets and it’s my job to treat not only their pets, but also their owners with the care, commitment, and compassion that they deserve.”

Dr. Heinz will be recognized at the AAHA Long Beach 2010 Conference in March 2010. She would like to thank everyone who supports her, and entrusts their pets’ care to her as a veterinarian.

• Monthly text reminders to give your pet their heartworm & flea prevention
• Pet health alerts (remember the pet food recall of 2008?)
• Special text offers
• Club member text discounts

We promise not to text you “willy-nilly”! We will use this service to enhance your experience as a loyal Broad Ripple Animal Clinic & Wellness Center client, offering a higher level of service and attention. To join, simply send the text message: bracpet to 69302. You can opt-out at anytime, if you wish to discontinue the service.