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Tribeca Pet Services Newsletter
MAY 2, 2010
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ITS SPRING TIME EVERONE! | |
| Dear clients,
Warm weather is a time for both you and your pet to enjoy the sunshine outdoors, but along with the fun, the season also offers up situtations that can endanger your pet. We are going to focus on Heat safety, flea & tick prevention(which will help to prevent LYME disease) & heartworm prevention. |
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HEAT SAFETY
All pets, even canine athletes, are potential victims of summer heat. But , extra care needs to be taken with our senior pets,short-nosed dogs (like our little pug guest in the picture above) and those with thick coats. Dogs and cats dont sweat, and they dont have an efficient way to cool themselves down. You should always be aware of the Signs of heat stress which include failure to salivate, excessive panting , increased heart rate, loss of apetite,a staggering gate,vomiting,a deep red or purple tongue and your pet may become unresponsive to you.
Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke and if allowed to progress, heat stroke can be fatal, so its important to act at the first sign of of heat stress:
Get your pet out of the sun and into a cool, shady place
Immerse him in or rinse him down with cool, not icy cold,water
Offer him cool, not cold, water and encourage him to drink
Most importantly, get him to your vet immediately
Prevention First: The best treatment for Heat Stress is prevention. Exercise your pet during the coolest times of the day, morning or after the sun goes down. With our clients we change a playgroup schedule to a walking schedule when the temperature is too high outside |
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SEBASTIAN'S STORY
Meet Sebastian, an 18 month old Labradoodle. Sebastian has been a frequent (boarding) guest at our farm since he was 5 months old. This past March, Sebastian came to stay with us while his family was on vacation. Before his stay, Marlane, Sebastian's 'mom' told us that he was not acting quite like himself. She said he appeared a little depressed at times and skipped a meal here and there, but nothing consistent. We (Matt & I) observed Sebastian very closely when he came to visit and immediately recognized his change in behavior: there appeared to be lethargy, decrease in appetite and one incidence of vomiting. We called Marlane, expressed our concerns about Lyme disease and immediately brought him in to the Tribeca animal hospital to be evaluated. Sebastian was diagnosed with Lyme disease and began treatment. I know from speaking with a lot of pet owners that they do not apply a flea & tick preventative during the winter months. I was curious to see if this was the case with Sebastian. After Sebastian returned home, I asked Marlane how Sebastian was doing and if she had been using preventatives throughout the year and this was her response:
"Sebastian is Much better. He's still taking his medicine. But the medication had clearly started to work within days, because by the time he came home on April 3, he was a totally different dog than he had been for the week or two before we left!! It was like night and day. He was so much happier, more energetic, more affectionate. We DID do the 1x/month Frontlne treatment, starting last fall. He was not wearing a flea/tick collar. As you know, we spend weekends out in Northern Westchester County, and there are a lot of deer around. About 4x/year, someone treats the property with some stuff that's supposed to reduce the presence of ticks (while being safe for kids and dogs)--but we're not sure its very effective (as evidence by the fact that our dog has Lyme disease!!)"
Sebastian was on a preventative, but as you will read in Dr. Yoshida's article below, using Frontline alone may not be enough.
Testimonial from Sebastians mom: "We feel incredibly lucky to have found Diane and Matt at Tribeca Pet Service. Since Sebastian was 5 months old, Diane and Matt have cared for him while we're away. I truly can't imagine enjoying a vacation without them! Whenever we're travelling. we know that Sebastian is enjoying his own break from NYC, running with his friends at the place my children call "the dog farm". How can we be sure he's happy? Matt and Diane email us photographs, and we can see for ourselves that he is in dog heaven. The peace of mind is priceless.
The high level of care Sebastian receives while boarding at Tribeca Pet Service was particularly evident during his most recent visit. He became ill while we were away, and Diane's experience as a veterinary technician was both relevant and hugely comforting. She and Matt noticed immediately that our usually energetic 18-month-old Labradoodle was not himself, and they called us with regular updates. We were quite concerned, but knew Sebastian was in the best possible hands. Diane and Matt suspected that our dog's lethargy and loss of appetite might be a manifestation of Lyme Disease -- so they drove him to see Dr. Koprowski, a wonderful vet at Tribeca Soho Animal Hospital. Her diagnosis confirmed their suspicions. For the next several days, Diane and Matt diligently administered Sebastian's medication - and by the time we returned, he was well on the road to recovery. We couldn't have asked for more attentive, responsible and loving care!"
- Marlane Melican
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INTRODUCING: DR.KYOKO YOSHIDA
 Hello! My name is Dr. Kyoko Yoshida, and I've been working at Tribeca Soho Animal Hosptial since June 2002. I can't believe 8 years have passed already - they have been fantastic years....thanks to my clients! I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. My family moved to southern California when I was 15 years old. I realized that becoming a veterinarian was my true passion when I volunteered at a local animal hospital during my high school years. After graduating from the University of Missouri with a BS in Biology and a minor in Animal Science, I went to the island of St. Kitts to attend Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. Then I went to Indiana to complete my clinical year at Purdue University.After graduation I completed a small animal internship at Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center in Norwalk, CT. After that I found my home at TSAH! My special interests are surgery, dentistry, and oncology. When I'm not at work I enjoy spending time with my 7 month old daughter, Maya, 2 dogs, and 3 cats! (My husband Chris is also a veterinarian so our love of animals is reflected by the number of our furry children!) I am fluent in Japanese and in my spare time I am learning French. Cooking, traveling, scuba diving, and enjoying wine and food are my other passions! ASK THE VET: LYME DISEASE
Cherry blossoms are in bloom, and now we are all excited about enjoying the outdoors for the upcoming Summer! But, before you take your dogs out to the country to enjoy the weather, let me talk about one of the common diseases that we see at our practice in the warmer seasons.
Lyme Disease - it is one of the most common tick-borne diseases that we see in the Northeast. Dogs and people can become infected by a bite from a deer tick. The most common symptoms we see in our pets are: lameness from joint pain, lethargy, fever, and loss of appetite. Rarely, the kidneys can become affected, a syndrome called glomerulonephritis (GN). If GN progresses, pets can go into irreversible kidney failure. We also have several other tick-borne diseases to worry about. Anaplasmosis, Ehrlichiosis, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) are a few. Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichiosis are transmitted by Brown Dog Ticks. RMSF is transmitted by the Lone Star Tick.
People cannot get the tick-borne disease directly from the infected pet (you always have to be bitten by infected ticks to get the disease). But, dogs can bring back the ticks and drop them in your environment which would be a threat to your family.
Although tick borne diseases are treated easily with a course of an antibiotic, prevention is obviously the best protection. Unfortunately, there is no way of preventing ticks from biting our pets 100% of the time, but we certainly have recommendations to protect them. First, applying topical medications are very helpful. At our practice, we carry Frontline, Revolution, and 3D Vectra. These are the medications that you apply directly on the skin. Frontline and Vectra 3D are labeled to repel all the ticks that I mentioned previously. Revolution only repels Brown Dog Ticks but this product also protects our pets against Heartworm disease,intestinal parasites, and some mites so it is very convenient for the pets that are "City dogs"!
Recently, we have been seeing a decrease in efficacy of Frontline in certain regions. We think this may be because it has been used for a long time and some of the ticks may have developed resistance to it. So, using a tick collar is a good option for some. Although tick collars are effective, I strongly discourage you from using them if you have young children who may touch them or place them in their mouths as they are highly toxic. Vectra 3D is a promising new product so if you have young children and cannot use a tick collar, we recommend trying this product since ticks in your area probably have not developed resistance to it.
Thirdly, vaccinating your dogs against Lyme Disease may be helpful. We recommend it if your pets get tick exposure almost every week, but not if they visit the countryside infrequently.
Also, removing ticks within 24 hours of attachment decreases the chance of contracting tick-borne disease significantly. So, when they come back from running around outside, please do a "body check"!
I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming beautiful weather, and if you do go outside the City, make sure you remember to protect your furry children!
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EDGAR WALKING NIKKI & BRIGGS TO THEIR PLAYGROUP AT CHELSEA PIERS |
EMPLOYEE BIO'S
I would like to introduce you to Edgar Villavicencio, one of our pet caretakers at TPS. Edgar has been with us since TPS was formed and has been an amazing asset to our team! We met Edgar through his wife, Nirvani. Nirvani is a senior veterinary technician and one of my co workers at the Tribeca Soho Animal Hospital.
Edgars' professional background: A foreign DVM graduate in Ecuador (Veterinary Medicine). Edgar also works as a Veterinary Technician at a manhattan veterinary hospital on the upper west side for the past 5 years. Passion for pets runs in their family.
During his off time, Edgar enjoys spending time with his wife, 2 children, 5 cats and puppy chihuahua.
(EACH MONTH WE WILL FEATURE A TPS EMPLOYEE)
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 TPS IS A COLLECTION SITE FOR www.petsofhomeless.org |
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