Money woes

This is a tad off topic but...everyone is having money woes lately. I read a book last night that I could not put down: Wealther Than You Think by Paul Squires (Silver Bird Publishing, 2007).

The book has a very simple premise ie stop spending, start saving, but behind it is a philosophy of anti-consumerism and anti-wastage which I really liked. It touches on the impact of spending, racking up debt and retail therapy on our mental as well as financial health. One paragraph that made me stop and think (although you accountant-types out there will roll your eyes because this is so obvious):

"Remember: every dollar saved is 100 yours! Whereas every dollar you earn to replace every dollar you've spent is not 100 per cent yours, as taxes and expenses are attached to those earned dollars". p37.

Some parts of the book had me in hysterics, like the chapter on spending at least one night a week with all lights and appliances off (a "black out" night), which superficially seems so tight its absurd. But when you realise how much less you might consume, how much of a shift from the routine this represents and how environmentally friendly it is, it makes a lot of sense. Okay, off my financial high horse now and back to vetty matters...

Fat Cats

A study I worked on aaaaaaaaages ago has just been published in the Australian Veterinary Pracitioner, revealing that at least 26.2% of Australian cats are overweight and 6.6% are obese! Shocking but true. Pet obesity seems to be one of those diseases of the greedy Western world. There's a dedicated pet obesity clinic in the UK. Obesity in cats, as with people, can lead to diseases like diabetes. In male cats, obesity increases the risk of feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD) which can result in a life threatening urinary tract obstruction if not treated.

One of the points made in the discussion is that "in the absence of reliably effective means of increasing exercise in cats, it is appropriate to consider ways in which [food] intake can be modified."

Great point! Exercising cats is hard work. When I try to exercise mine they widen their little eyes but thats about all it amounts to. But it still might be helping. I watched a fantastic documentary on obese pets in the UK and there was a huge cat whose owners were told to play with him every day. Well, play they did, although he couldn't be bothered. But he lost weight anyway. I think the fact that they were giving him attention and involving him might have burnt some extra calories so I don't think playing with cats is a dead loss when it comes to weight reduction - and lets face it, spending time with your moggy is never time wasted.

The study did confirm that desexed cats are at a greater risk of obesity (thought to be due to reduced activity, increased intake and a decreased metabolic rate), so they require fewer calories than their entire counterparts.



At my house we have "big cat, little cat" syndrome. ie one cat gorges herself on the food and the other doesn't. Dieting cats in multi-cat households can be tricky, as cats tend to graze on meals and thus there is often food available. Big Cat did lose some weight when she was put on a commercial weight loss diet (Hills r/d) - but I've no doubt that sporting those extra kilos will see her develop a more severe form of osteoarthritis in her old age than Little Cat. (FYI I've started her on glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate "Joint Guard for Cats", and she'll be given acupuncture and analgesics in later life if and when required).

But the take home message is: feed less calories to your desexed cat, and PLAY WITH HIM (or her) MORE!

Full reference: McGreevy P; Thomson P; Pride C; Fawcett A; Grassi T and Jones B (2008) Overweight or obese cats presented to Australian Veterinary Practices: risk factors and prevalence. Australian Veterinary Practitioner 38(3):98-107

Dog doctor

A few months ago I was examining a dog which was accompanied by a father and son. The kid looked absolutely crushed when he saw me and said to his dad "its not a dog". His dad explained to me that he'd told his son they were visiting "the dog doctor". His son was disappointed that the dog doctor turned out not to be a dog at all - but a run-of-the-mill human being. For that moment, so was I.

It's not a tumour, okay

Lumps that appear on older pets are always alarming because of the possibility that they may be cancerous. That said, one of the most common lumps we see are lipomas, a benign fatty-type mass. They can present a problem by insidiously growing so large they present a mechanical obstruction - hindering an animal's movement. I saw a small patient last week with a large lump behind his forearm that was impeding his mobility. The problem was the lump had become so large (the size of a football on a very small dog) that it would require radical sugery to remove. Associated Professor Geraldine Hunt at the University of Sydney has been pioneering liposuction techniques to remove these lumps in older dogs without removing half of the dog with it. This technique is still in development but it may present a viable alternative to radical surgery in the future (nb it is definitely not cosmestic). Obviously its even better to remove them when they are small. Lipomas can also turn malignant.

Anyway, my Aunty's mature-aged Rottweiler, let's call him B, recently sported two lumps which appeared quickly on his flank and doubled in size within a week. Fine needle aspiration of the lump revealed some pus but it wasn't an abscess. Aggressive masses like this in an older dog are always a concern. She booked him in for surgery to remove the lumps and had them sent away for histopathology (its one thing to have a lump removed but its always helpful to spend the extra money and get it analysed by a pathologist - this tells you what the lump is, if it is cancerous what type of cancer, how aggressive or malignant it is and how it might behave in the future, and whether the surgeon got clean margins). The pathologists identified "necrotising granulomatous steatitis" - nectrotising means dying, granulomatous refers to inflammation and steatitis is inflammation of fat. B had been kicked by a horse and developed a blood clot, which was essentially rotting as it was breaking down. No doubt painful, but surgical removal is curative and his prognosis is great.

The moral of the story is that as a vet it is almost impossible to tell what a lump is unless you remove it and send it to the lab - and the news isn't always terrible.

(There seems to be an unintended equine theme persisting in this blog!)

Pony madness

What a crazy morning...last night I felt like there was no hope for a pony lost in the burbs, this morning the radio stations were onto it, the RSPCA and council got on the job, and the owner of the blow-in pony was located. Of course by then there was something of a media frenzy and the moment the pair were reunited was captured on TV. Apparently he is always keen to get into the house, which explains some of the late night door-knob fiddling and wall-hoofing we witnessed. His owner was absolutely thrilled to have him back and had been driving the streets searching for his steed. All credit should go to my cousin Adam and his colleagues in the State Emergency Service who got this horse off the road before he got wounded - or wounded an unsuspecting driver. We wish the pony all the best for the future.

Hooves on the deck

...is the sound we heard all night. I called a bunch of radio stations and finally spoke to a producer who loves animals, so she organised for an interview on Vega and then Nova radio. The idea of course was that the owner of the pony would be listening and call in right away to claim their beloved pet. Sadly the phone hasn't rung once. Surely it can't be that easy to lose a pony in the city!

Meanwhile the pony paced for most of the night, with the longest intermission lasting 40 minutes (I was awake counting them). I am going to have to beg for my neighbour's forgiveness. Our guest kept itself busy ripping out my plants and depositing steaming piles of manure all over the deck, such that it is now covered in a thick paste of the stuff. I hand-picked a few bags of grass from our nature strip, which seemed to go down well (albeit rapidly) and provided more hay. Enchanting as it was having a cup of tea out on our verandah with this magestic herbivore, I'm hoping that we'll be able to find more suitable accommodation today.

Recognise this face?

Here is the stray pony that rocked up last night. We're doing some late night bonding.

Not horsing around

Its 2am, nobody is sleeping here - not the pony who is pacing on the deck, not the neighbours, not the guinea pigs, not the husband...we're watching bad movies and waiting for the sun to come up. Which is at least another three hours away.

Anyone missing a pony???

I was at Cult Sinema [sic] at the Mu Meson Archives this evening, oblivious to the drama unfolding in my backyard. Unbeknownst to me my cousin Adam was desperately trying to get hold of me because he'd just spotted a pony causing traffic havoc down a main street near our place. Since I'm a vet, he assumed I'd know what to do. He walked the pony to our place and put it in the courtyard which wasn't exactly designed for housing horses. I arrived back from movies and to hear the thud of hooves on the deck. My husband had already coralled it onto our very tiny grass patch and fed it hay (we keep this in stock for the cavies we are fostering for the RSPCA).

So what does one do when one is presented with a stray horse on a long weekend? Great question. Turns out no one knows the answer. Not in the burbs, anyway. The "small" in "small animal veterinarian" actually refers to the range of species I treat, not how much my patients weigh. A St Bernard, for example, is a "small animal", a piglet is not. The practice I am based at is not equipped with a stable and we certainly don't have horse floats at our disposal.

I called Triple-O to try to get hold of the Mounted Police Unit, assuming they'd have a float and a place to bed a tired equine overnight. I was told that they could not help but not offered an alternative. I called the RSPCA but because resources are stretched they can only assist with injured animals. I called the local council, who paged the ranger. A polite but surprised bloke rang back and said whilst he'd love to help he was only equipped to transport dogs and cats, not horses or any other hoofed creature for that matter. An exhausted colleague on-call at a prestigious equine clinic said she couldn't do anything until morning, and maybe not even then. So I called the paper in the hope that they might put the word out. Obviously this pony is well loved. We've had mixed responses from the neighbours thus far: one popped over to take some photos for his family who might not believe him otherwise; the other threatened to call the police. As I type our temporary lodger is clicking up and down the deck. Its going to be a long night (we might all have long faces in the morning).

We'll keep you posted on this surreal little chapter as events unfold. We're hoping to reunite this pony back with its owners pronto. Meanwhile if you happen to read this and know someone in the Inner West who might be missing a pony, please call the police or Marrickville Council.

Who wants to live forever?

The worst thing about living with animals is that their lives are so much shorter than ours, which almost inevitably means that we are faced with losing them. The one positive in this is that your average human lifespan accommodates a number of companion animals. One passes away, but there is room to give a loving home to another animal.

This week a colleague forwarded me an email describing the way a six-year-old justified the short lifespan of animals: (apologies to the author/s - there was no credit on this)

"He said, 'People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?'

The Six-year-old continued, 'Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.'"