Teeth - A dog's communication tool

Dog body language is such an interesting language. Our dogs are so much better at reading us than we are them. Context is so incredibly important. Now, the context in which I see a lot of behaviour is the visit to the hospital. So many dogs have not had the best time at their vets.

My goal, as the white smock, is to make THE room a more enjoyable experience. I am constantly watching the dog’s body language and try to change my body/facial expressions accordingly. Since most owners watch their dogs as I enter, they may not see me giving the dog subtle side body language, softening of my facial features (making sure I am not frowning, smile without being too teethy) and using a ridiculously silly voice to change the emotional feeling of the situation. If we can change the emotional feeling of the dog in this context, everyone will feel better. This should also make the next visit and the ones after even easier. This is also where puppy “crack” aka Pill Pockets come in very handy as treats.

Once in a while, I run into a dog that is so scared that it can’t help but show aggressive behaviours. The behaviour I will focus on here is the agonistic pucker or the lip curl. No matter what you call it, you know you are on thin ice when you see it. When a dog bares its teeth, it is saying “back off” in no uncertain terms. If you try to punish this piece of communication you will likely get bit.

In the upper picture, the dog is trying to tell me it is scared, wants to get away but will bite if provoked. Got it!!! Since it will not take treats, it is hard to change the emotional context of the situation. The compromise is for the owner to hold the dog while I quietly and gently touch from the shoulders back.

Now, I want this on the record. This dog is NOT trying to dominate me! He is trying to back away, has dilated whale eyes, ears back and kinked. The list of stress behaviours goes on. He does not want me to come near him because he is scared!

The lower picture shows Reason (black Lab) telling Kodak (ECS puppy) to stop chewing at her feet. Her look and teeth were all that were needed for him to get up and walk away. A few minutes later, he brought her a toy so they played tug-of-war for a while. A much more appropriate behaviour.

Freaky feet

When I say this dog has freaky feet, I'm not kidding. It progressed over a couple of months from an area on one of the pads of the feet "not being right" to hard horny growths. We ended up having to anesthetize him to remove the thick horny growths as he was very painful just walking on that particular foot.

The picture on the left is the growth that I removed using both a dremel and scalpel. The picture on the right is how all the pads of the feet look on a regular basis.

So, you ask, what in the world is this condition? It has a nice long name - idiopathic nasodigital hyperkeratosis. Idiopathic (we have no idea), nasodigital (can affect both the nose and feet), hyperkeratosis (overgrowth of the keratin layer of the skin).

When dealing with a mild case (if the feet just looked like the picture on the right) then we would just need to monitor. When dealing with moderate to severe cases such as this one, the feet need to be trimmed back (easiest with a dremel), soaked and finally a softening agent like vaseline.

The positive aspect of this incurable disease is that it does not affect any other area of the body and it can usually be easily controlled.

Heroes

I did something yesterday after my appointments that was fun but scary. I was interviewed by Pet Heroes. They wanted to get my opinion on some stories. I never have a problem giving an opinion but I have never had a camera focused on me while giving them.

The episode is about two dogs that did some pretty cool things. Both dogs had disabilities. One was deaf and one was an amputee. The prep questions really got me thinking. For me, the really cool thing about about a dog who has lost a leg is that they do not have any idea they are disabled. They have no psychological hangups about their looks. Once they have recovered from surgery, adjustments are made to their gait and off they go. They seem to have an easier time going quickly rather than slowly walking.

The other dog in the episode had lost her hearing due to old age. The other most common reason for deafness is congenital (born that way). One of the questions related to teaching dogs sign language. I have personally found it very easy to teach deaf dogs using operant conditioning. Rather than a clicker, a flash of light is paired with the treat. Plus, most of us unconsciously use our hands and body to signal different tasks to our dogs. If there is a toy on the ground, I can point to it and one of the dogs will get it. I have a certain hand signal to ask the dogs to come to me (at a joyful run).

A dog's sense of smell is their dominant sense so being deaf really isn't a big deal. Dogs can smell about 100,000 times better than humans. Let's put it in perspective, a dog can smell one bad apple in a billion bushels of apples. They can detect odours 40 feet down in the ground. Little wonder they are being trained to monitor underground pipelines, ovulation timing in cows, drug detection and detecting certain cancers. Some studies have shown the accuracy of cancer detection of hospital scanners is between 85-90%. Dogs trained for the same cancers have a success rate of 88-97%!

After the interview I was surprised at how emotional I felt. My own pet hero was Magic. I lost her about five years ago. I was finally able to put her picture up in the hospital this year without crying. The picture was taken on her thirteenth birthday. I had a flower collar made to look like the collar she wore as my flower girl at my wedding.

Magic was only nine months old when she protected me. We were out for a walk in Victoria Park (Truro, NS). I was in an area of the park that one shouldn't really be walking in by themselves. I also should have turned back when I saw the guy trying to hide behind some bushes just off the path. I started feeling pretty nervous. When we got within 10 feet of him, Magic hit the end of the leash, jumping and growling. She didn't try to get close to him, she simply stayed between him and me until I got past him. As we continued to walk (somewhat quicker) she trailed behind me and kept looking back. I hit the first path that went down to the main safe) part of the park and started running. I'm pretty sure I outran her the whole way!!!

I never again heard her growl like that yet I always knew I was safe when she was around.

She's gonna blow!

This is the week of things that look like they want to blow up. Earlier this week, I had to do a lumpectomy on a dog. The owner and I had decided to monitor the mass instead of removing due to the dog’s age. Well, the mass looked like it had a mind of its own when I saw it. I know it’s a gross picture but I also think it is very cool. You can actually see the mass outgrowing the skin.

This morning we had a cat dropped off because she had white discharge on her vulva. These owners had been told their cat was too old to have an ovariohysterectomy (spay) two years ago. Well, the thing is that the cat (now seven years old) wasn’t told and now she had pyometra. I’ve previously blogged about this condition but I got a bit of a surprise when I started to bring out the uterus. There was a very large area on the left side of the uterus. If the owners had waited 24 hours, I would have been doing a much different (sadder) procedure.

I wonder what's going to walk in my door tomorrow!

Stumped but learning!

Periodically I get requests to answer questions from students. I always try to be accommodating as it is fun to share my passion for veterinary medicine. Well, I got completely stumped on Thursday by a young man in grade six. I couldn’t answer either of his questions!!

Question number one: how heavy is the human’s brain compared to a dog’s brain? Question number two: if human’s only use 10% of their brain, how much of their brain would a dog use? Holy cow!!!

Here is what I have learned:

The average brain size of a human is 3lbs or 1,400 grams. Dolphins have roughly the same size while elephants’ brains are five times larger. On average, the dogs’ brain is 72 grams in size. There is a large range on this as Chihuahuas certainly have a different brain size compared to Great Danes.

The concept that humans only use 10% of their brain is a myth. There has been significant research using brain imaging techniques such as PET (positron emission tomography) scans and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) showing we use 100% of our brain. So, dogs do too!!

Let’s compare our brain function to our muscles function. While typing on my computer I am only actively using my fingers and arms to type. When trying to do yoga, I use many different muscle groups during the hour (and feel many others the next day!). We use a variety of areas of our brain for different behaviours. Not a lot of brain power is required for watching TV but when learning a new language many areas of the brain are used.

I also learned that if you were to lay out all the neurons in your brain out end to end it would cover 600 miles.

Parvovirus

I would like to start by saying that we are not in the middle of a parvovirus epidemic. In Calgary, the puppies who were euthanized at the Calgary Humane Society were all from one "breeder". In Okotoks, it was one family who lost two puppies. It is sad that twelve lives were lost to this disease.

Canine parvovirus is a highly infectious virus that attackes the intestines of puppies and adolescent dogs. Once an unprotected puppy is exposed to high enough levels of the virus, there is a 3 to 7 day incubation period before getting sick. If you have a puppy with vomiting and diarrhea, you must go to your local veterinarian as soon as possible. The virus attacks the intestines (vomiting, diarrha) and this also allows bacteria to leak out of the intestines into the blood stream (septic shock).

Infected dogs shed the virus in their stool for two weeks after exposure. In general, they shed 35 million viral particles per ounce of stool!

Diagnosis:
Sometimes, when we as veterinarians enter a room, our suspicion of parvo is easily set off. Picture this: you walk into the appointment and the puppy is laying lethargically in the corner. Your first question needs to be "has your puppy had any vaccination?" The answer of "No" will cause you to quickly leave the room to get your handy ELISA test. In less than 15 minutes after swabbing the rectum of the puppy, you will have an answer.

Treatment:
There are no antivirals for the parvovirus. This means we must admit the puppies into a quarantined ICU and give supportive treatment. This can include IV fluids, IV antibiotics, anti-nauseants, anti-emetics and plasma transfusions. Bloodwork, specifically CBC is also used to see how well the body is producing the white blood cells needed to fight the infection. It can take anywhere between 3 to 7 days of hospitalization to get the puppy back on its feet. The sad part is that we cannot save them all. One out of every four puppies will not make it out of the hospital.

Decontamination:
Indoors, the virus takes approximately one month to lose its ability to infect. Shaded areas will be contaminated for 7 months while areas having good sunlight will be contaminated for 5 months. Freezing will completely protect the virus so one must wait for the appropriate times after thawing before introducing a puppy to the area.

The best disinfectant is bleach as it kills the parvovirus. You dilute one part bleach to 30 parts water and leave on for ten minutes. Do not do what I have done in the past which is to wash in undiluted bleach. Your arms will feel "soapy" - this is not a good thing!!!

Attempting to protect a puppy from exposure to the virus is completely futile. The virus is literally everywhere (yards, parks, sidewalks, houses and stores). Don't let this fact cause you to think you must keep your puppy cooped up indoors until (s)he is fully vaccinated; more dogs will die due to behavioural issues than will die of parvovirus. So socialize your puppy, and don't forget one of the safest places to do so is your local veterinary hospital!

That odd picture is a real parvovirus particle.

Not a chance!!!

So, we get a call today from someone looking to euthanize their pet. As always, if it is a new client, we need to know the pet's age and medical issues. When I overheard the conversation (the staff accuse me of having freakishly good hearing), I got a sense that all was not as it should be.

This is where I started listening to what my receptionist was saying. So,the dog is only six years old. Hmmm, okay, what kind of medical issue does it have?

There are no medical issues, we've been getting complaints from the neighbours.

Okay, so has he bitten anyone? (It is illegal to euthanize a dog within ten days of having bit someone - Rabies could be a possible issue)

No, he hasn't. I just need to euthanize him.
I'm sorry, our doctor has a policy of not euthanizing otherwise healthy animals.

Look, I don't have time for this dog so I need it euthanized.

Sir, we will not be able to euthanize your dog.

*&^%&$$ and the line went dead.

Yes, there are certain situations where we do need to euthanize younger animals and there has to be a very good reason for it. I have always and will always refuse to do convenience euthanasias.

The picture is of my second oldest, Kodak, who has four different kinds of aggression that are under very good control. His aggression is not convenient but I have taken the time to help relieve his anxiety.