That camera? Sorry. Hi, I'm Dr. Paula Dupuy.
I have been a veterinarian for 31 years. That is a long time.
I've practiced on many species,
although these days my focus is more on companion animals.
Today I am gonna answer some of your best questions from YouTube.
Olympic grade lurker. That's who it's from.
I have a Yorkie mix and was told to not use a collar with the leash because they
can get tracheal collapse.
My puppy pulls regardless of a collar or a harness. That's a good question.
Tracheal collapse is a hereditary disorder that is found in
many of the toy and small miniature breeds.
The Yorkshire Terrier probably being one of the most common that is
caused by their genetics in their breeding.
It is not at all caused by the collar.
If there is a problem with the collar and you think that it might be hurting
your dog's neck,
I don't think the problem is the dog. It's probably where you need some more
training. Sam Poke, you have a question which is, please clarify,
my puppy doesn't have all his vaccines yet. Only his first round.
How is it that you're already taking him outside?
The vet says they aren't supposed to be outside yet. Sam,
they're not going to contract a disease from the outside.
They contract diseases from other dogs,
particularly the feces of dogs that are infected with
worms or parvovirus or distemper. If you keep your dog clean,
if you keep your dog around a good crowd that has already been vaccinated,
stay away from off-leash dog parks where you don't know if those dogs are sick
or well then that's how you can prevent disease. But going outside,
that's simply good for all of us. Okay, this next question is another Doozer,
um, Naomi Lambert.
What shots do we really she has bolded need?
Well, um, that's a great question. So there are things we call core vaccines,
and we're gonna call them vaccinations, not shots. Um,
and core vaccines are those things that every pet should have
regardless of where they live. A great example is rabies vaccination.
Rabies is a disease that is contagious through all
mammals by bite and to humans,
and it can infect humans and it does not have a treatment.
It is invariably fatal.
So for public health protection and for protection of our pets,
every dog and cat should be vaccinated for rabies. And most,
most provinces and states have laws regulating that.
The other core vaccines are parvovirus and distemper virus.
Parvovirus in particular is still a problem.
These are diseases of young dogs and they can get very,
very sick and they can be fatal. Um, and they're contagious between dogs.
The ones that become a more of a question would be ones that
are optional vaccines. An example would be the kennel cough or Bordatella
vaccine. If your dog is not going to a kennel or doggy daycare or dog school,
they might not need it. So that's one you could discuss with your veterinarian.
A favorite one of mine is leptospirosis. Uh,
that vaccine itself is controversial for historical reasons,
which is a whole other question, but today's leptospirosis vaccine is very safe,
it's very effective, and in some regions like Southern Ontario,
the disease is very devastating.
I hope that answers your question from Deidre D. Long.
When is the best recommended time to fix your dog?
Most people seem to do it as young as possible,
and I've heard waiting till they are year old is better for their development.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. That is a fabulous question. First of all,
let's not call it fixing. Let's call it neutering. They're not broken usually.
Um, so what we do is we, uh, remove dogs,
ovaries,
or testicles to remove the hormone influence on them and to prevent them from
breeding and certain behavior issues.
And that's become a very normal thing to do in our pets.
It used to be done early because the people would be able to get
their dog license cheaper if the dog was spayed or neuter.
That's where the six month thing came in.
And the s SPCAs tended to do early age spaying and neutering because it would
decrease pet population problems. However,
what has been definitively learned and there's scientific evidence beyond, uh,
behind this is that waiting until a dog is full
grown, meaning that the growth plates,
the bits of cartilage in the ends of their bones that get them to reach their
size have closed because the closure of those growth plates is under
the influence of their hormones, estrogen and testosterone. And if you,
uh, spay or neuter before that happens, it can lead to joint problems.
I recommend spaying and neutering your dog when they are full grown.
Our next question today is from Ariana Huff Myer.
I would love to ask, what is the best way to feed our dogs?
I hear lots of different advice on raw versus kibble. Oh boy, it's a big one.
Grain versus grain-free keto diets, et cetera.
And would be interested to hear a veterinarian's perspective on facts and myths
in dog nutrition. Well, Ariana,
I do not have all day to do this cuz it would really take more than a day to
answer all of these questions.
But if I think about the best way to feed a dog,
I think we have to use our common sense.
Anything that is extreme from one view point to another
raw versus kibble, keto versus not, um,
none of that makes sense really, does it? What we need to do is feed our dogs,
perhaps similar to how we feed ourselves with a whole balanced diet.
Dogs do not necessarily have to have raw food.
They don't necessarily have to have kibble. There are lots of things in between.
They can have cooked food.
What they do need is a balanced diet that provides all the nutrition and
ingredients to get them through.
One example that I like to give people is if you're feeding the same thing to
your dog every morning and every night, every day, every week, every month,
every year.
If that diet has any little bit of deficiency or a little bit of excess,
that will become amplified over time and the dogs will suffer the effects of
that. Whereas if you eat like we do, which is a different meat each day,
a little bit of a different vegetable or different colored vegetable,
we naturally provide ourselves with all the ingredients we need. Very good
kibbles already do this for you. They already have that balance,
but outside of that,
you do have to be a little bit careful if you're feeding your dog the same thing
every day. All right, the next question comes from Nicholas Gomez.
Is it true that grass and leaves eating cause diarrhea
in puppies? Well, that's actually a little bit out of order.
The eating grass and leaves, I guess too doesn't cause diarrhea.
Um, maybe if they ate a lot or they ate a kind of leaf that was toxic.
But dogs do commonly eat grass.
And one of the occasions where dogs will eat grass is when they are
nauseous feeling if their stomach is upset, they will go and eat grass.
And if they eat enough grass, it can make them vomit.
Yet sometimes dogs just like to nibble on grass, whether they're sick or not,
they're not the complete carnivores that we think they are. So does eating
leaves and grass cause diarrhea? Not entirely, no. Okay.
The next question is from mega person.
I am leery of letting my puppy on the floor at the vet. Last time I was there,
I didn't see them sterilizing anything.
Where another dog had been like on the weigh scale was the big one I noticed.
I am concerned about this as it doesn't take,
doesn't it take a while to get a pup fully vaccinated?
I don't want my investment to die or get sick because I am trying to do the
right thing. Taking him to the vet. Yes,
he's going to the vet despite that fear.
But what can I do to keep my puppy from contracting diseases before he is fully
vaccinated? Wow, that is a really great question. Um,
so what we might not clean on the scale after every dog,
but we also know how disease is transmitted. So let's take an
example. Parvovirus, that's one that is transmitted between young dogs.
That virus is shed in diarrhea.
If a dog eliminates in our clinic on or near the scale or in the waiting room,
urine, feces are otherwise we will disinfect at that time.
But your dog walking on the scale after another dog has walked on the scale,
there isn't actually a disease that's transmitted that way.
All of our surfaces are able to be disinfected,
and that's actually a requirement that we are regulated to have when you're in
the park or on the street and your dog is sniffing in the grass where another
dog might have defecated that you're not able to clean that,
that's a higher risk for you. But that was a great question. Okay,
the next question today is from Mariah, the poodle.
You should be careful with the time of dinner and play though. You say he has
dinner, rest half an hour, and then plays.
Veterinarians say that you should wait two hours to play after a meal to avoid
health problems, especially dangerous problems like bloat. Okay,
that's a good question. Um, I'll give you some of the facts on this one.
So there is a, uh, issue that dogs with deep chest,
like standard poodles,
great Danes Dobermans get called gastric dilation and
volvulus.
So what happens is the stomach fills up with air and then somehow that
air and this way where the spleen is sitting and the stomach rising causes them
to flip. And when the stomach is flipped,
it is a very short matter of hours before that dog will die without surgery.
There have been many,
many studies that were done to look at how do what increases the
risk of this problem. Is it what you feed? Is it how high you feed? Is it,
do they have exercise before eating after eating?
One of the biggest studies that was done in this showed that the only factor
that really made a difference in the outcome of a dog with a bloat and a
twist was how quickly they got to the vet.
And not one factor could be, uh,
sort of proven statistically to have a greater incidence before of causing this.
The only factor really is the breed of your dog and the shape of their chest.
Is that how it was worded? The most common problem that would be preventable?
Oh, just recently,
I have to say Lyme disease because we're overrun and there is tick prevention
out there,
and it's really sad when I have a dog coming in sick that's not been on tick
preventive,
th that comes to me right away just because I'm dealing with that now. You know,
recently I have seen, uh,
two situations where owners have, um,
removed growth from their dogs at home that caused hemorrhage,
which would've been preventable had they not done it at home and had they come
in. That's kind of a specific example.
The bigger picture is we're here for you and your pets.
That's myself and I'm sure other veterinarians feel the same way.
I love this job and I'm happy to help. Um, we're here to help.
So ask us, call, make an appointment.
Don't try and do things at home because it's,
it's not quite as easy as you think.
After listening to all of these great questions and providing answers, um,
I I just wanna reiterate that, uh, utilize us,
use your veterinarians and your veterinary team,
the technicians and the front office staff to answer your questions.
We are here to help you and can give you accurate advice rather than relying on
outside sources, Google and the like. So, hey,
I had so much fun answering all your best questions today and working with
McCann dogs. On that note, I'm Dr. Paula.
Happy training and happy day seeing your veterinarian.
That's it? Okay, good. That's fun. Thank.