The Vet Blog

By Dr. Susan Barrett, D.V.M.

A few months ago I wrote a blog about The Bimini Bullet, a young pit bull mix that a team of us rescued in Bimini. Last month I was fortunate enough to join another team that traveled back to Bimini to spay and neuter all the dogs we could. I thought you might like an update on Bullet and the RAVS (Remote Area Veterinary Services) efforts in Bimini.

We assembled a larger team this time: five veterinarians, as many veterinary technicians and several specialists in trapping and handling feral dogs. We flew to Bimini on a Tuesday afternoon, set up our clinic Tuesday night, and our trappers went about setting traps late that night. Wednesday morning, we had several feral animals as well as a reasonable number of owned animals to spay and neuter. We set about our work, and then a very special patient arrived: The Bimini Bullet.

As you may remember, Bullet was in pretty bad shape when we met her on our first trip to Bimini last October. Someone had tried to crop her ears by tightly wrapping fishing line around the base of her ears. Several hours of work were required to clean up and amputate the dead ears, and much more TLC was required to get her back to health. We were worried about how we were going to find a home for her, when the Bimini Biological Research Station (the ‘Sharklab’) came to the rescue. They have several resident pets, and they volunteered to take the little pit mix in and gave her the name ‘The Bimini Bullet.’

Bullet looked great. She had filled out and grown into a beautiful, blue pit bull mix. Her personality was as we remembered – quiet, sweet and very tolerant. This time we spayed her, and her family at the Sharklab anxiously awaited her recovery. Bullet rejoined her Sharklab family later in the day no worse for wear.

All the dogs we spayed and neutered on Bimini this trip received a florescent green collar. Towards the end of the trip, the rate of new patients slowed, and our trapping team again went out around the island to see of they could find more feral dogs to trap. This time, as we drove around, we saw dog after dog with the bright green collars. We actually ran out of patients. If only we could have this problem everywhere!

By Dr. Shawn Messonnier, DVM

Acupuncture is one of the many alternative therapies now available to help sick pets. This therapy can be used to treat many different conditions in people and in animals; I use it primarily for pets with musculoskeletal problems like arthritis, or back problems like disk disease.

Traditionally acupuncture is done by painlessly inserting tiny needles into acupuncture points, but other techniques may also be used. These include stimulation of acupuncture points by low-intensity or cold lasers or electric currents; by the injection of tiny amounts of fluid; and by implantation of beads made of gold, silver or stainless steel.

While it is hard to say exactly how long acupuncture has been around, evidence indicates that it is easily more than 4,000 years old and was commonly used in ancient Asian and Indian cultures. For those skeptics who question the effectiveness of this popular complementary therapy, there is a large amount of empirical evidence as well as experimental information and studies showing its effectiveness.

Though it has been studied a great deal, the exact mechanism by which acupuncture works has still not been explained. What we do know is that acupuncture points lie over free nerve endings, which are wrapped in connective tissue or within the walls of blood vessels. There is a high concentration of tissue secretory mast cells in and around acupuncture points. The needle may cause the release of histamine (and probably other chemicals) in this tissue, which in turn causes dilation of the surrounding blood vessels and stimulation of the surrounding nerve terminals.

There are many theories that attempt to explain how acupuncture exerts its effects, but no one theory fully explains how acupuncture works. The actual mechanisms are complex and likely interrelated. Suffice it to say that acupuncture ultimately works by stimulating the nervous and immune systems to allow healing, reduction in pain and reduction in inflammation.

Regardless of how it works, most pets respond quite well to acupuncture. In many instances the response is equal to or better than conventional medical therapies, depending upon the condition being treated.

If your dog is suffering from arthritis or any type of joint problems, I suggest you talk with your veterinarian about acupuncture therapy. It can’t hurt, and it may help a great deal.

In my health and wellness article this week I talked about diabetes in dogs. In our ER, complications of diabetes and its treatment are something we see quite a bit. Two of the most common complications are hypoglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis.

Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Glucose)

When a diabetic dog gets too much insulin, her blood sugar drops too low. Generally this is caused by the dog’s body changing insulin requirements, for reasons that are not always clear. The symptoms of this are sudden weakness, disorientation, lethargy and seizures. Some dogs will suddenly act blind. If not treated quickly, low blood sugar can be life-threatening.

If you have a diabetic dog, keep some white corn syrup on hand. If she shows sudden signs of weakness, rub some corn syrup on her gums and have her checked right away. With prompt treatment, we can usually stabilize these patients overnight, sometimes in just a few hours. An adjustment in insulin dose is needed afterwards.

Diabetic Ketoacidosis

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a complicated, severe systemic consequence of unregulated diabetes with potential effects on many body systems. We see this in three types of situations:

·         A previously undiagnosed diabetic dog. Most often these patients have been showing signs that are consistent with diabetes for some time, such as polyuria and polydipsia (excessive urination and thirst), or the dog exhibits a good appetite with weight loss, but started acting sick only recently.

·         A previously regulated diabetic who has developed some concurrent illness or just has poor regulation. Other illnesses, such as an infection someplace in the body or cancer, can cause the diabetes to become less regulated even on previously appropriate doses of insulin.

·         A dog with pancreatitis, (inflammation of the pancreas). It often occurs without warning, and can cause mild, moderate or severe illness. A dog with pancreatitis and DKA is a critically ill patient with a very guarded prognosis.

Basically, DKA is caused by too little insulin in the body. The effects of this are widespread and complicated, but the thing we measure is something called ketones in the urine or the blood. Ketones are produced when the body is burning fat for energy because it cannot use the glucose from the diet effectively. The ketones cause an often profound increase in a dog’s urination and drinking. The dog will have nausea and sometimes profuse vomiting. The ketones also suppress the appetite, so DKA patients have no appetite, whereas most diabetics have ravenous appetites.

Dogs with DKA can rapidly become very ill. Once they stop eating and start vomiting, they can get dehydrated very quickly. Often these dogs come into the ER unable to walk, vomiting copiously and sometimes nearly comatose.

Diagnosis is generally made reasonably quickly by testing the urine or blood for glucose and ketones. However, full blood work, a urinalysis and urine culture must be done in all cases. Additionally, a search for underlying disease with X-rays or ultrasound may be needed.

Treatment of the sick DKA patient is intensive, and therefore often very expensive. These patients generally require round-the-clock care for several days. Intravenous fluids, antibiotics and various insulin therapies are required, as well as intensive monitoring of the patient, blood glucose levels, serum electrolyte levels, kidney function and other parameters depending on the patient.

Now the good news: Treatment of DKA is often rewarding. There is nothing better than seeing the dog that was too sick to lift her head when she came into ER gobble down a bowl of food just two days later. Of course, once DKA is controlled, the diabetes must now be regulated.

Your local ER is there to help your diabetic dog if you need it, but we really hope treatment is going so well that you won’t!