- I'm veterinarian Dr. Molly McAllister,
and this is my dog Jack.
Today, we're here to answer your questions on Twitter.
This is "Vet Support."
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@dontforgetchaos asks,
"Why don't we keep squirrels as pets?
We keep rats, rabbits, mice, et cetera.
Why not squirrels? I'd like a pet squirrel."
No, you wouldn't. Squirrels do not make good pets.
They are destructive.
They have teeth and claws and they will chew things up.
Squirrels are not social animals.
In fact, they will turn on people,
including handlers who have raised them from babies.
And number three, squirrels are not able
to be litter-trained or trained
in any way, shape, or form.
All in all, squirrels don't make good pets.
Stick with your dog, your rabbit, your mouse, or even a rat.
@santeisha asks,
"Where do these [beep] hairballs come from?"
If you own a cat, you've certainly seen them grooming.
They spend hours of their day, quite literally,
grooming themselves by licking the fur.
That takes the loose hair,
and oftentimes they tend to swallow that.
And rather than digest it,
the cat's GI system enables them to gather that hair up
and regurgitate it.
So they do spit it back up.
And that ends up being the nice hairball
that we find probably on our nice carpet.
And that is just the nature of cats.
So @loremercad asks,
"What causes obesity in cats and dogs?"
It's when the calories
that they consume exceed the calories that they burn.
So it's a mismatch in how much we feed them
and how much activity they get
because we control that.
And then let's make sure
that they get lots of exercise, as well.
Because it's good for all of us.
All right, @xxuemei asks,
"Why my sugar glider have so many problems?" Crying face.
Sugar gliders, you know, they are an exotic animal.
They have some husbandry challenges.
They require a unique environment.
So that's number one.
Here's another big thing about them.
You know, sugar gliders glide.
Therefore, they love playing,
and you've gotta have a safe enclosure
or space for them to play because otherwise,
one of the most common things that happens
with sugar gliders is trauma.
They glide into a curtain and they break a leg
or they get strangled.
They end up somewhere they're not supposed to be,
and they get stuck, they get scratched, they get hurt.
So you've gotta make sure you've got
a safe place for your sugar glider.
The other piece
is they're pretty sensitive little critters.
They can dehydrate in a matter of hours
if they don't have access to enough water.
They're also very susceptible to toxins.
And so they eat a variety of fruits and vegetables.
And if you don't clean what you buy
from the store well enough,
you can actually poison your sugar glider
by giving them food that's contaminated
at levels that wouldn't impact you or I
but that do impact the sugar glider.
So at the end of the day,
if you're gonna have a sugar glider,
you gotta make sure you know what you're getting into,
and you gotta make sure you partner
with a veterinarian who can help you make sure
you're providing that sugar glider
with the right environment and the right home and lifestyle
to keep them healthy and safe as long as possible.
@natehankz asks,
"Why are hedgehogs banned as pets in New York City,
yet people keep finding tigers in apartments?
You know Taylor Swift has at least two full jaguars
and a goose."
Now hedgehogs in particular,
they are are illegal in the five boroughs of New York City.
The reasons are because number one,
they can carry diseases that can be transmitted
to other animals.
Foot and mouth disease is the big one.
And number two, oftentimes exotic animals are prohibited
because if they were to escape,
they could do significant harm
to the native wildlife in the area.
And that's the case with hedgehogs in New York City.
Here's the thing. Exotic pets are a handful.
You gotta be careful with what you're getting
into because they have unique needs
in terms of the environment they need to live in.
So whether T Swift is doing it or not,
we all should think twice or maybe three times
before we adopt an exotic animal as a pet.
@KolourfulGurl asks, "Is cat urine toxic?
I think it is."
No, I wouldn't recommend drinking it.
I wouldn't recommend injecting it.
But it's not toxic. It's just urine.
@lpush_oldpeopl3 asks,
"How do dogs get cancer?
Like, I'm sorry, but are they smoking or sum?"
Here's the thing with dogs.
They get cancer for a lot of the same reasons we do.
First of all, genetics. They can just be predisposed.
Certain breeds are predisposed to certain types of cancers.
For example, we know that German shepherds
and boxer dogs have a much higher likelihood
of developing a cancer called hemangiosarcoma.
We also know that, for example,
dogs with short hair can be more prone
to developing something called a mast cell tumor.
But also, just like us,
dogs are a recipient of what's
in the environment around them.
So we know people sometimes get lung cancer
even though they never smoked a day in their life.
Same thing happens with dogs.
They live in the household where someone is smoking.
They're close to contaminants or toxins.
Think about where a dog's nose is.
All day they're down on the ground.
So we don't always know why a dog gets cancer,
but what we do know is they're exposed
to the same kind of environments that we are.
And so the same things that cause cancer
in people can cause cancer in dogs, unfortunately.
Okay, for this question,
I'm gonna need to call in the expert.
Let's call in Jack.
Jack, come on!
So @ItsMeLexie1 asks,
"Are you supposed to brush a dog's teeth?"
And the simple answer to that question is yes.
We find that about 80% of dogs
that come into our hospitals and 85% of cats
between the ages of three and ten come in
with evidence of dental disease.
So Jack here is a great example
of a dog who will let you brush his teeth.
And it's something that you can start
with any dog or cat from a young age.
Jack, sit. Good boy.
So one way, if you've never done this before,
is to use a finger toothbrush.
So what's important is we call it flip the lip.
You flip the lip up, you take a look at their teeth,
and you do a gentle scrub.
And then with bigger dogs or pets who are used to it,
you can actually use a special modified toothbrush
that fits a dog's mouth.
You flip the lip,
and you go ahead and brush their teeth
to remove that bacteria and that early source
of dental infection or dental disease
that we might find in our own teeth.
The teeth provide a really great surface area
for bacteria to grab hold.
And as they begin to climb up under the gums,
they have really easy access to the circulatory system.
And once those bacteria get into the circulatory system,
they spread throughout the body.
So here's the thing when it comes
to taking care of your pet's teeth.
The reality is that they lead a shorter life than us,
a more accelerated life.
And so we should be taking care of their teeth
to the same degree as we take care of our own,
if not even more.
The next question from @PetsQandA is,
"What's the best way to cut a dog's nail?"
What's really important is that you get your dog used
to having their nails trimmed.
And this is something that you can start as a puppy
because many dogs don't normally,
don't naturally like to have their paws touched.
So to cut a dog's nail, you want to look closely
and differentiate between the pink living flesh
of their nail and the white part,
which is the same as the white part of our nails,
as it grows out beyond the blood vessels.
Now, this can be much harder to do
in a dog with a dark nail.
And it's also important to recognize
that the more often you do it,
the more frequently you trim their nails,
the easier it becomes.
They that helps the blood vessels to recede,
so you're less likely to do what we call quicking them,
which means that you've cut it too short
and you've actually cut into the sensitive tissue.
But I can show you here just a little bit where
you find just the tip of the nail,
insert it through the trimmer, quick trim.
His are so short that all I'm having
to do is just scrape off the very edge of them.
Make sure your dog gets used to you holding his paws
and gets comfortable with that idea
and do it on a regular basis.
@YubaVetTech posts a question of the day.
"How is heartworm spread? And what is heartworm?"
This is a fascinating question
because heartworm is preventable.
It is extremely serious if dogs and cats acquire it,
but it is preventable.
So heartworm disease. What is it?
Well, it's a parasite that's transmitted by mosquitoes.
A mosquito bites a dog,
it picks up some baby parasites,
they develop within the mosquito
and the next dog or cat that mosquito bites gets
that heartworm disease.
Those worms then spend about six months living
in that animal until they take up residence in the heart,
where they mate, they reproduce,
and they produce their own little baby parasites.
When a dog or cat acquires heartworm,
it is fatal unless treated.
It is treatable in dogs,
although quite expensive and quite risky.
It is not treatable in cats.
So the end of the story, we need to prevent it.
This is a really important question this year
because we know that because of temperature
and climate changes that are expected in 2022,
there will be a higher instance of heartworm.
So if you aren't using heartworm preventative
for your dog and cat today, go talk to your veterinarian.
Every pet should be
on heartworm preventative every month of the year.
@gracerasner asks,
"Why the hell would you declaw a cat?"
Do you know what declawing a cat actually is?
It's amputation of the end digits of their fingers
to remove their claws.
And that actually has been shown to result
in long term chronic pain for cats who have been declawed.
You know, the veterinary hospital that I work for, Banfield,
along with many others does not condone the practice
of declawing cats anymore.
It does not generally solve the problem
it's intended to solve, which is cats scratching or clawing.
And it is painful and harmful
to the long-term wellbeing of our cats.
So let's not declaw cats.
Let's talk to veterinary teams
about what other options are available for them.
@KJyoung428 asks the question,
"What are the benefits and negative effects
of neutering a male dog?"
Number one, minimizing overpopulation.
If they're neutered, they can't reproduce,
so we won't have unwanted puppies.
There are a couple of other benefits.
One being that neutering a dog causes some behavior changes.
Primarily important to most pet owners is
that it diminishes their likelihood of roaming.
The other thing that's related
to that sort of wandering behavior is
that unneutered male dogs are more likely
to be hit by a car.
That's really just secondary to the fact
that they're out wandering about.
But there are a couple of reasons like that
that make it wise to neuter a dog,
if you don't have any intentions of breeding them.
@PetMD asks,
"What is grain-free pet food really?"
Logistically, grain-free pet food means
that the pet food has taken traditional ingredients,
like wheat and corn,
and replace them with something like legumes or potatoes.
So the food still has a carbohydrate source,
but it's been changed from a grain to a non-grain.
Here's the thing we really have to get
at with this question is, is grain-free actually better?
And the reality is that what is most important
in any pet food is the nutrients that are conveyed
to the pet.
The fat, the protein, the carbohydrates,
the minerals, the vitamins, et cetera.
So what you wanna look at for a food
is not whether it's grain-free or not,
but you wanna look at the overall nutrient profile
and definitely talk with your veterinary team
to find the right diet
that suits your pet's unique nutritional needs.
@mooseandriosmom asks,
"If I gave my horse worm medicine in June
but I do not believe it was a good brand,
can I give him another dose?
I think he needs it.
If I can find any with all the weirdos buying it."
Humans should not be buying horse medicine for humans.
It's for horses.
If you dewormed your horse in June and it's July,
for example, you don't need to deworm them again.
Horses generally need to be dewormed
in the spring and the fall.
Worse comes to worse,
your vet can run what we call a fecal examination
on your horse's feces, on their poop, on their manure,
and find out if it does indeed have parasites
and need to be dewormed.
That's a foolproof way.
You can cause harm
by deworming a horse when they don't need it
because we can actually cause resistance against
the medications that we use to deworm horses
in those parasites that do exist in the environment.
So @SurvivorKitty asks,
"Okay, advice.
What's the best way to get a cat
to take its medication without being attacked?"
First of all, if you're lucky enough to have a dog
or cat that will take their medication in their food,
make sure you talk to your vet
and get something that's suitable to provide
to them in that form.
They also make some great treats that you can buy
over the counter that have little holes
in them that enable you to put a pill
or a little bit of liquid,
so you can give your pet a treat as you medicate them.
And many pets will take that.
Some require the use of a little more intervention.
For example, we make something called a pill gun,
which helps you to take the pill,
get it to the back of your pet's mouth,
and kind of shoot it in so that they swallow it
without too much resistance.
So if it's not working, talk to your veterinary team,
and there's definitely alternatives out there.
So those are all the questions we have time for today.
But Jack, those were some great questions, weren't they?
Yeah.
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