(light music) - [Announcer 1] Support for "Conversations Live" comes from the Gertrude J. Sandt Endowment, the James H. Olay Family Endowment, and the Sidney and Helen S. Friedman Endowment, and from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(music continues) - [Announcer 2] From the Keiko Miwa Ross WPSU Production Studio, this is "Conversations Live."

(light upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to "Conversations Live."

I'm Carolyn Donaldson.

We are coming to you live from the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross WPSU Production Studio.

Caring for a pet is a real commitment, requiring time, patience, and tender, loving care.

It can sometimes be challenging to know what's best for your animal and who to turn to for those questions.

Tonight, we're talking with two local veterinarians who will give us insight on caring for our loved ones, our pets.

And you're gonna have the opportunity to ask our guests the questions you have.

Let's meet our guests.

Dr. Kim Ferretti is the owner and veterinarian at Happy Valley Veterinary Hospital.

She's a familiar name in the local veterinary community in Centre County, as she has spent several years working in general and emergency hospitals.

She earned her degree at Virginia Tech and resides with her family in Millheim.

Dr. Deb Smart is co-owner and a veterinarian of Centre Animal Hospital.

Originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she graduated from Princeton University and then earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University.

Dr. Smart has some special interest in dentistry and feline medicine, and she treats those pocket pets as well.

The guinea pigs, gerbils, and hamsters and rabbits.

And whether you're watching us on TV, streaming us online, or listening on the radio, we wanna hear from you.

Call us with your questions at 1-800-543-8242, it's right there on the bottom of your screen, or email connect@wpsu.org.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We are back in person and live here in the studio.

And I have to say, Dr. Smart and I were together by Zoom last year during COVID, and Dr. Ferretti, welcome.

I understand your practice- - Thank you.

- Is a little newer in our area, but of course, a familiar name in veterinary care.

So let's start with that all-important...

It's been riding us for two and a half years now, the COVID pandemic, and how that changed so much of how we live and care for those things we love, and including practices like veterinary care.

How has the last two years brought about the changes, and what are we seeing going forward with some of the care that you've been able to do?

And Dr. Kim, let me start with you.

- Well, it's interesting for me, because my practice is only a year old, so we came into the scene when COVID was at the all-time high, and it's been interesting for me.

I definitely think that curbside, where we needed to not have clients in the building was a challenge, and it really did challenge the veterinary staff too, because it's way easier to be able to talk to people in person and interact with the pet owner, so that was a very big challenge.

The other big challenge is with COVID, pets weren't getting socialized as much, and that's been a hard thing.

So I don't have a lot of experience as far as my practice being smaller with the challenges of being...

Which is a very real challenge, being understaffed because of sickness, being overbooked because...

I think I wanna say about over a million pets were adopted as an increase from before COVID.

- Sure.

- That's a huge amount, and we really didn't increase veterinary staff, so that was a huge challenge.

Dr. Smart probably knows.

I mean, you probably know even better, because you had your established clientele, and then you had to deal with COVID, whereas I was lucky enough, I guess, that I didn't have the established clientele, so I was able to help out a little more.

But I can't even imagine how hard it was for people like Dr. Smart that had to deal with it, already having 20 years with clientele, trying to take care of them, and then they have this additional pressure, plus staffing shortage.

I mean, it's been hard.

- We talked about that last year.

You were in the heart of it then with those curbside visits.

- Older veterinarians have been retiring, people have needed to spend more time at home with families, with kids who weren't always being...

Always able to go to school.

People get sick, and we need to take time off.

We made a lot of changes, and some of them, I think, are really for the better.

We have more time off for our staff, but it's just scheduled in.

That was something that we needed to do for them.

We needed to reach out to our colleagues who were doing emergency medicine, and rely on them sometimes, and have open communication about when they could help us and when we really needed to pick up the slack because they couldn't help us.

So those kind of communications, I think, have gotten better.

I'm so happy to have people back in the clinic.

I mean, that's just...

It was probably a month ago that I first had a kid back in with her pet, and I could say, "Do you wanna listen to the heart," and we could put the stethoscope on, and they could listen to the heart, and we could talk about what we were hearing.

And that's stuff that I've just taken for granted for 20 plus years of practicing that we couldn't do.

We've gotten better, like some things have gotten better.

I think the curbside where people will wait in the car a little bit and we can talk to them on the phone... Our clinic is still pretty small, we have six doctors, so for the six doctors, we have to use our space carefully.

We're able to bring them in in a way that's a little more fear-free for the pets, so that they come in and they're not gonna meet somebody who's scared or anxious.

They can come in, they can see us, we can do some things in the room.

I think we're a little more comfortable.

We draw blood in our exam rooms more often than we used to, and we're cautious with our cats about where we take them.

We avoid having them around the dogs, and use a lot of pheromones and things like that that we did when clients weren't coming in to make our animals relaxed and comfortable.

We'd pull out all the stops there a little more than we did before COVID, so I think COVID taught us some things that helped us to get a little better.

- Definitely.

- That's great.

And those pet owners, I assume, have come a long way in their changes and how they value your service that you're providing to their loved little pets, but also, the scheduling you mentioned, Deb, it's much more structured now, right?

So that you still have the quality time, but it's structured out, so it's planned for your staff to be able to accommodate those needs.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Like we used to have availability.

So you could call, and you could expect that you might get in the same day or that you might be able to schedule a vaccine next week, but that's just not the case.

Even with our six-doctor schedule, you have to forward book.

So if you have a new puppy and vaccines need to be scheduled at certain times, we're really good about getting those appointments scheduled for you, but you just can't call the same day and get in, unless it's a real emergency.

Then we're definitely gonna see you, but for things that are routine, our staff has to be able to go home.

People can't work 14-hour days.

- That's right.

That's right, and that covers many industries, but certainly it's- - Yep, absolutely.

- On the veterinary industry, and collegial-ness, I can see that you guys work together as best you can.

We'll get into some more specific.

We wanna hear from you, though, too.

Those of you that are watching the program right now, or listening online, or streaming us, please give us a call with your questions.

I've got lots here, but I'd love to hear your questions.

We'd like to get to as many as possible in the next hour.

Again, 1-800-543-8242.

So we talked about the socialization and the nurturing from adopting pets during COVID.

Have we edged that... Have we gone over the tipping point on that?

Are the pets getting a little better?

Are they back to being socialized, or is that also still a little bit in flux?

- Definitely in flux, because, as we call them, the COVID puppies and cats, they still have issues that we need to deal with.

The newer puppies and kittens, there's not as many social constraints, so it is easier for them to start adjusting, but there's definitely... And as a mom of humans, it's been like that with humans in school.

So we need to think about the fact that humans need socialization, so do puppies and kittens.

So, they missed that whole thing, so it's playing a little bit of catch up.

And it's not that it's something we can't deal with, but it takes a little bit of that extra effort and time to get them to where they need to be.

- Very good.

We have our first caller tonight.

Let's hear from Lois from Ebensburg.

Lois, you're on the phone with our veterinarians.

Your question tonight?

- [Lois] Okay, I have a female cat.

She's probably about four years old.

Very nice, very colorful, but she urinates wherever she pleases.

- All right, so we have a little behavior problem, and I know you've got some feline care here.

- So this is a problem that we see a lot with kitties.

It can be related to several different things.

The first thing that I'd recommend doing would be checking a urine sample, 'cause if there is a bladder stone or a urinary tract infection, we need to address that source of pain and discomfort for that cat.

'Cause they're gonna associate discomfort when they urinate with their litter box, and it's gonna be really hard to get them to use their litter box.

Is she an only cat, or do you have other kitties?

- [Lois] No, I have another cat, a male, and he is very good.

He uses the litter box.

- Okay, so usually, if we have two cats and we have a cat who's reluctant to use the litter box, we'll recommend having at least two litter boxes, or maybe one plus the number of cats, so maybe three litter boxes.

That might let you try different substrates or different types of litter in the box.

And what I recommend doing is not just doing one thing, but with this problem, 'cause it's such a serious problem, and it can be a learned behavior, you wanna do a lot of things all at once to try to fix the problem, and then we can go back and figure out which pieces actually work.

So I'd get your kitty into her veterinarian.

Let's make sure she doesn't have an infection or a stone in her bladder.

If she doesn't have an infection, she may have cystitis, which can be sterile.

It can be very painful when they urinate, and they can associate that pain with the litter box.

So again, we wanna do the things that we need to do to deal with a sterile cystitis.

Your veterinarian could help you with that.

Maybe a diet change or some pain medication.

Then offer some different textures and different appearances in your litter box so that if she's afraid of the one, she might be willing to go into the other and use it.

Have anything you wanna add, Kim?

- Thank you.

- No, it's just what you said.

It's, what I would say, multimodal.

It's not gonna be just one thing that's gonna fix the problem.

It's ruling out the physical problems, figuring out if there's some sort of mental block with using the box, and then finding ways between pain management and natural solutions to get her where she needs to be.

But it's a process.

It's not gonna just... You gotta get the physical stuff ruled out and then go from there.

- Thanks, Lois.

We've got two more calls.

This is great.

Michael from Woodland, you're next.

Can you ask your question or your comment to our vets tonight?

- [Michael] Yes, I just bought a puppy recently.

He was born July the fifth and vaccinated September the 20th, the day I picked him up at 10 weeks, and I got him registered to have him vaccinated, his update, four weeks later.

When that happened, the day after, he got sick.

I went back to the original... To the vet that did the second shots and asked them to take him.

They couldn't, so I had to find another vet.

That vet told me he had parvo.

Is there any recourse that I have to go back to that owner that sold that dog?

- Oh, that's a tricky one, Michael.

Would anybody have some general comments about that?

- Oh, I mean, I can go ahead and start with that, just 'cause as an emergency- - [Michael] I've got about 4,000 in vet bills.

- Well, and I mean, my background is emergency medicine, and I have seen a lot of parvovirus.

It is a nasty disease.

It's 50% fatal, even with aggressive care.

And unfortunately, until a puppy is vaccinated every three to four weeks up until they're over 16 weeks old, there's no guarantees with a vaccine.

So you need to be persistent with the vaccines, and even with that, there is some wiggle room.

I mean, it takes time for the body's immune system to build up that immunity, and it's definitely a tough situation for you, for sure, but there's no recourse in that.

As long as the puppy was getting vaccines, that's really the best you can do.

And it is a very, very tough disease, because other than trying to keep them protected and safe until they're up over four to five months old, there's a very real possibility they can still get it.

- [Michael] He- - Michael, followup?

- Seems a little better, but he has this constant diarrhea.

- That would be something I definitely think a veterinarian should check out, because there can be other issues like parasites.

There can be long-acting issues with the GI tract that may be some probiotics, or something simple or diet change can help him.

But it's good he's doing better, because it's a very nasty disease, so it's actually a good thing that he's still with us.

But I would check in with your primary care veterinarian and make a plan for the diarrhea, because it's good he's doing better, but you can do some other things to help him out.

- All right, thank you.

Thank you for calling from Woodland.

Now, another caller here, Melissa from DuBois.

Melissa, your question tonight?

- [Melissa] Hello, and I wanna thank you both for the hard work that you do, as well as all vets.

My question is, I have two males that were litter mates, and occasionally we... (coughs) Excuse me, find them licking each other's ears, and then because of the drool, their ears can get red and irritated.

I was just wondering if there was anything that we could be doing to help clean their ears out just to help keep them from getting more infected that we would need to make a trip to the vet.

- So, Melissa, are these cats or dogs?

- [Melissa] Dogs, I'm sorry.

- Okay.

So I would be suspicious that they may have some underlying infection in their ears to start with if they're licking each other's ears that much.

We see a lot of yeast infections and bacterial infections in the ears of dogs.

We see a lot of allergies that show up, as these kind of infections and allergies tend to be familial.

So it's possible that two related dogs could certainly both have allergies.

I would get them in to the veterinarian and let somebody have a good look down in their ear canals.

Our dogs have really long, twisty ear canals, so that's why the veterinarians have really long ear cones.

If you go to the doctor, the ear cone is just a centimeter or two long, but our ear cones are closer to two inches long, 'cause we have to go down and around a corner to see down to the eardrum in the dog's ears.

I'd wanna make sure that they get a sample of the material that's in there and that they are treated appropriately with an antifungal or an antibacterial to take care of any infection that's there.

Then possibly use some kind of cleaning solution.

I use a lot of cleaning solutions with a little bit of antifungal in them long term to decrease the risk of reinfection, but I also don't wanna be cleaning their ears every day or twice a day long term, 'cause I think there are some natural protections that are there.

So I'd wanna get that infection cleaned up, and then see what you have.

- All right, thank you.

If you're just joining us, I'm Carolyn Donaldson.

This is "Conversations Live: Ask a Veterinarian" on WPSU.

Actually, two veterinarians joining us tonight.

We have Dr. Kim Ferretti, owner at Happy Valley Veterinary Hospital, and Dr. Deb Smart, co-owner of Centre Animal Hospital.

Our toll-free number, and we're getting calls, this is great, 1-800-543-8242.

We're ready to take your call.

You could also send us questions by email at connect@wpsu.org.

We'll get to as many as we can.

And speaking of that, we have Lisa from Brookville who has been waiting online to ask her question.

Hi, Lisa.

- [Lisa] Hi, Carolyn.

I just wanted to ask a question about when your veterinarian feels that it's the best time for euthanasia.

I have a wonderful veterinary hospital in DuBois that I go to, and whenever it was time for my kitty with kidney disease to be put to sleep, they helped me so much.

So if they could just explain the process so that people aren't afraid to take their cat whenever it comes to be that time that they just need a little help to cross over.

- Oh, that's a- - Thank you.

- Thank you for posing that, and I'll let Kim start.

- Yeah, I mean, gosh, it's such a personal decision.

I really think it's something that a veterinarian, it's their responsibility to sit with someone and be discussing, what quality do you think your pet has?

Do we have more bad days than good days?

Are we eating?

Are we drinking?

Because it's not always just one big thing, it's the sum of the parts.

So that's where having a relationship with a veterinarian is super important, because with that, you can sit down and say, "Listen, my pet is doing these things, "and I'm really concerned, "and I think there's a quality of life issue," and the veterinarian can walk you through it.

I will also say, if euthanasia is even on the table with a quality of life issue, I've never had a client come to me and say, "I wish I waited longer."

It's always, "I wish that I knew sooner "that it was time to let them go."

So it's always really important for you to have that comfort level with your veterinarian to say, "Listen, I'm really concerned about this, this, and this.

"Do you think that it might be time?"

And it's super personal, but having that open line of communication, I think, is really important.

- Deb, 20 years in the business, it's never easy.

- No, it isn't, and everybody has different things that they're looking at with their own pets, and a lot of times there's family involved, and different people process information differently.

We have a lot of people, a lot of Penn State professors and engineers and people who are really technical and numerical, and so for some people, I have like little score sheets, which sounds kind of strange, but you just write down, like you talk about those things that Dr. Ferretti was talking about.

You talk about happiness and hygiene and appetite and energy and more good days than bad days, and you make a list, and you add up a number, and then you do that tomorrow and you do that the next day, and you see where you think your pet is.

Sometimes things happen really suddenly, and there isn't time to think things over that much, but sometimes it's just a gradual change where your old friend is not having the quality of life that they deserve.

And I really feel like our pets deserve to have good days, and if we can't find ways to give them days that are good days... And there's not gonna be more good days down the road.

So I think it's worth doing things that might cause them some discomfort, like surgeries and things like that.

Those things, fixing a broken leg, taking out a foreign body or obstruction, removing a cancerous mass.

If I can give an animal good time coming forward, we wanna do those things.

But if they're really not gonna have good time, that's where those lines of communication come, and everybody does it differently.

Some people just know, like you can say... Like they can look at their pet and they can say that they're not okay.

But other people, like I can look at their pet and go, "This pet's not okay," but they need to see something differently.

They might need to have that list.

They might need to have a conversation with another family member, and they can be scared of the process.

So for us, and every veterinarian or hospital may have a different procedure, but when we do humane euthanasia, the first thing that we'll do is we'll give an injection that will allow the animal to fall asleep, be heavily sedated while their people are present.

So we give that injection, and most of the time we leave the room, and we just let our owners sit with their animal while they fall asleep.

And their hearts are not gonna stop, they're not gonna stop breathing, but they're gonna fall asleep so they're unaware of anything that's uncomfortable.

And their people just sit with 'em while that happens, and talk with them till they're not hearing their voices anymore.

And then they can stay for a final injection that's an anesthetic.

It's not gonna be painful, and the animal doesn't feel the needle prick, they don't feel being held still, and then they can pass peacefully.

So we try very hard to make that a peaceful thing where people are welcome to stay if they want to.

We'll go outside, we'll do house calls, but we try to make it what people need.

And nobody has to stay.

If you can't stay because you can't, and it's never that people don't want to, but it's that people just love their animals so much, they can't be there for that last minute, we'll stay, and our technicians will be there, and we'll be there, and that's okay.

That's what we do.

- That's part of the practice.

We're getting a lot of calls, so I appreciate- - Okay, I'm sorry.

(laughs) I'm talking too much.

- No, no, no.

Those are very important issues, and real life stuff.

I mean, we need to be better at... We have a documentary called "Speaking Grief."

We need to be better at speaking grief for all forms of life, you know?

And this is one way.

- Absolutely.

- Judy from Altoona, you are next in our queue for questions for the veterinarians tonight.

- [Judy] Good evening, and thank you.

I have a longhaired chihuahua that I adopted from a shelter in March.

I knew she had some neurological problems at the time I adopted her, but it's... She circles, she will not eat regular dog food, she will not eat canned, she won't eat dry, she won't eat anything that you've made.

I know this is going to sound horrible, and I accidentally found two weeks ago that she would eat cat treats.

She will stand and dig at my leg when I'm getting treats out for the outside...

I have a cat that comes to visit, and I feed it, and she just jumps and wants fed these.

I've had lots of lab work done, and they found out about a month ago she was in liver failure.

They didn't tell me how far along it was.

(sighs) I have tried so many things to see if I can get her to eat healthy.

I can't, and I haven't found anything.

She will put it in her mouth and spit it out.

- Okay, Judy, so we appreciate your concern and how you voiced that, and I'm not sure which... We were gonna get into the whole idea of diet and all of that, so this might lend itself to some of that.

Who would like to start?

- I mean, I can jump in, nutrition not totally my forte, but I guess my big concern would be why your veterinarian... What type of liver failure?

(crosstalk) And that's a very big thing, because liver failure, if it's terminal, there's a lot of different nutrition options, but it usually needs to be prescription foods and things.

So I don't know if you've tried anything.

- And we've tried that, but she won't eat it.

- My other recommendation is I don't recommend homemade diets without veterinary supervision, but there are veterinary nutritionists that your veterinarian can consult with.

There are online services that can help you to figure out homemade diets that can maybe be something that your pet would be more amenable to, and I definitely don't think cat treats is the way to go.

- I know, it's hard to comply.

- Yeah, it's hard.

- And Chihuahuas can be- - You have no idea.

- Very fussy, yeah.

I would recommend a nutritional consult through your veterinarian, because those are the best way to figure out what's gonna be best for her.

- Okay, we're gonna keep going.

Judy, I don't mean to cut it short, but we have a lot of callers in the queue here, so let's just keep going.

Thank you for calling in, Judy, and again, consult your veterinarian, or perhaps a nutritionist.

Carla from State College, your question tonight?

- [Carla] Yes, thank you.

I have actually two questions.

One, I have a six-year-old English bulldog who chronically licks his feet all the time.

And I talked to my vet about it, and the vet thought that maybe the dog had an allergy to something, but we haven't done any tests, but he constantly licks his feet.

The other dog has a spot where he had gotten a vaccine about a week ago, and keeps licking that spot, and has it all raw and red.

- Okay.

- So, as far as the dog that's licking his feet, I would think about...

I would agree with your veterinarian.

I think it sounds like some kind of allergy.

You need to treat infections that appear.

So if you have skin inflammation, and they get a yeast infection or bacterial infection at that site, you need to use medications or shampoos to treat, or spot on, we use mousse or spray, something to treat that infection on your dog.

But then, longer term, you need to try to figure out what's causing it.

And we can do that either with a diet trial...

This is a great time of year to do a diet trial, 'cause there's snow on the ground, and the ground is frozen, and there's nothing green.

So if you do a diet trial and your pet improves with a hypoallergenic diet at this time of year, food allergies can cause itchy feet and itchy ears and itchy behinds.

So, it may be a food allergy.

If it's not a food allergy, if you do a good diet trial with a hypoallergenic diet, you can try some medications for allergies.

So we've got some great medications to give orally for inhalant and contact allergies, one called Apoquel and another monoclonal antibody that's given by injection called Cytopoint.

These are amazing new drugs that have come out in the last five to seven years.

And if you've addressed the infection, and then you tried those drugs to try to decrease the inflammation, you can most often get these things under control.

Go ahead, have you tried any of those medications?

- [Carla] No, because basically... Actually, they wanted to do a bunch of tests and so forth, and I begged off on it and was just soaking his feet in Epson salts, not knowing- - So, so- - Exactly... - Soaking his feet is a good idea.

I might get a medicated shampoo.

And sometimes that's all you need, is you need to take care of the infection, and then especially this time of year, if he's allergic to the grass, and the grass is covered with snow, or dead, he may be fine until March.

- Okay, so- - And if he starts itching again in March, if you've taken care of the infection, and he starts itching in March, then I think- - [Carla] Then we know it's grass.

- Then you know it's probably grass, or something that he inhales.

- Okay.

- All right.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And the dog that keeps licking the spot where he got the vaccine.

- I'd go back to the veterinarian with that.

That's not normal.

Like, that's not typical.

And I would consider that a complication of the vaccination.

Usually when that happens, I report that to the vaccine manufacturer, and I figure out why that area is inflamed or uncomfortable.

That's absolutely not normal.

So you should go back- - All right.

- To your vet.

- All right, I'll do that.

It's been about a week.

- Yeah.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Carla.

We are less than a half-hour left in this show.

This is great, we're getting lots of calls, and we are getting some of the regular things.

We do hope to cover just a little bit about pet insurance, that's coming up.

We'll spend a few minutes there.

Also, we want to meet their pets, of course.

Our veterinarians have their own loved ones.

But let's get to the next call real quickly.

We have Carol from DuBois.

Carol, your question tonight?

- [Carol] Hi.

I'm calling to ask, I have a small toy poodle, and just seems like over the past few weeks, she's approximately a year and a half old, that she has terrible bad breath.

- Bad breath.

- Don't know if there's something homeopathic or... - How old is your poodle?

- [Carol] She's about a year and a half, a year and eight months.

- Okay.

- [Carol] I don't notice anything else different from her, any illness or- - Okay.

I mean, my first recommendation is to go to your veterinarian, just because there could be a bad tooth in there that's causing the bad breath.

Poodles are a little bit more prone to dental disease, even at a young age, because they have so many teeth in their smaller mouth that sometimes, we will see dental problems.

They can have abscesses, they can have just tartar buildup.

So a full dental exam from a veterinarian is the first way to go.

If that all looks normal, then some dogs do get more bad breath from lower stuff like reflux, where things like pepsin can help.

So certainly, a dental exam is the first way to go.

- Okay, and we have a- - Okay, thank you very much.

- Yeah, we've seen- - Thank you, Carol.

- Retained teeth, too.

That's the other thing I'd mention in a year and a half old dog, is sometimes, all their baby teeth don't fall out.

Like Dr. Ferretti said, their teeth are very crowded in these little dogs, and sometimes when they're coming in, the baby teeth don't fall out.

And so your veterinarian will know which teeth are the normal adult teeth and which teeth are the baby teeth.

And sometimes in those little poodles, I've seen baby teeth like literally just sitting on top of the adult teeth, and that'll make a nasty, stinky infection, so I'd go in and have somebody look.

- Good point.

If you're just joining us, I'm Carolyn Donaldson.

We're "Conversations Live: Ask a Veterinarian" here on WPSU, and joining us tonight, we have Dr. Kim Ferretti, owner at Happy Valley Veterinary Hospital, and Dr. Deb Smart, who is co-owner of Centre Animal Hospital.

Our toll-free number's on the bottom of your screen.

We're getting calls, and we also... You can send, we haven't gotten emails yet, but people are in the queue for phones.

That's fine.

Connect@wpsu.org if you'd rather go on... We're gonna keep going, 'cause we still have got about a half-hour... Little less than a half hour left, and we will get to some of the questions that we put as an overview here around the holidays as well.

Amy from State College, thanks for joining us.

Your question for our veterinarians?

- [Amy] Hi, I have a cat.

She has been itching like crazy for the last two, maybe two and a half months.

I took her to the vet, they gave her a shot of antibiotics.

We were giving her oral steroids for a while.

It hasn't gotten any better.

I was hearing your conversation about treating dogs with shampoo.

Should I give my cat a bath with medicated shampoo?

What are my next steps?

- Deb?

- Wow.

So, cats hate baths.

I mean, in case- - We all know that, if you've ever tried.

- They really hate baths.

I use a lot fewer shampoos and topical medications on cats.

Cats are super clean, they clean themselves up really well.

The dogs are stinkier and messier than kitties are.

If I had a cat that was itchy like that, I would definitely be checking for fleas.

So I'd make sure that we don't have fleas.

We see flea allergies in cats, and if you have a second cat in the house, that's actually the cat that I would check for fleas.

Our flea allergic cats are hyper groomers, so we talked about how clean they are.

The flea allergic cat will groom themselves all the time, and you might have trouble actually finding the fleas on those cats, but if you have a second cat and you find fleas, you have a flea allergic cat.

So I would look for fleas for sure.

If we're not seeing fleas, there are some food allergies and other kinds of skin inflammation that have real characteristic patterns in cats.

They're linear granulomas on their legs and on their lip folds that can be really itchy.

Sometimes we'll do a diet trial.

We might do a skin scrape to look for certain kinds of mites.

So I have a little rule-out list that I run through when our kitties come in and they're itchy.

And the first time, I might do what your vet did, treat with some antibiotics, treat with some steroids.

That might clear up 80% of the problems, but when the problem is more persistent, I would do skin scrapes, I'd be looking at the distribution of the lesions, thinking about whether it might be a food allergy, and we might want a food trial, but I probably wouldn't start with a bath.

- Okay.

- [Amy] Thank you.

She thanks you.

- Thanks, Jamie.

(people laughing) Hey, we'll get to Diane.

Just a second, Diane, but we've been talking a lot about food and pets, and I know that this is a topic that is very high on a lot of people's priority lists, that we're seeing a lot of food trends among pets.

Real briefly, what are some of the good things and not-so-good things that is out there?

You've got grain-free, gluten-free, raw protein.

Any of this trending good, bad?

What should we do?

- I mean, the good thing is that people are interested in nutrition for their pets now.

That's probably my big thing is that people care.

But the big thing is that they need to talk to their veterinarian, 'cause grain-free diets, especially for dogs, are not safe.

There are things in them that cause heart problems.

Feeding a raw diet is not safe either.

It can cause salmonella infections, e coli, and those aren't always things that the pets have.

Those are things they carry, and they can make humans sick, especially children, immunocompromised people, elderly.

So it's super exciting that people want to find that special food that's gonna work, but the current trends, and even the gluten free, if dogs have sensitivities, it's usually to the proteins in their food, and gluten free, I mean, that's definitely trendy, in my opinion.

- It's being sold, right?

It's being marketed.

- Oh, yeah.

- It's not an issue for dogs and cats.

I mean, they can have specific food allergies, most often to the proteins, but it just doesn't apply.

It's a crossover from human concerns.

- Okay, yeah, 'cause that's a big trend, of course, for humans now, to go gluten free.

All right, let's get back to another question, Diane from Johnstown.

Thanks for holding on.

Your question tonight?

- [Diane] Yes, hi.

I have a cat, she's about 14, 15.

Her belly keeps filling up with fluid, and I don't know what to do.

She eats and everything okay, but she's so uncomfortable.

I don't know how to get the fluid out.

I went to the vet, and they took all kind of tests, but is there a way to drain it, or... - So, yes, I mean, you can drain the fluid out, that is an option, but when you drain that fluid out, you're draining protein and electrolytes that your cat needs.

So you have to do it with a knowledge of what the metabolic status is of your cat.

So we might wanna look at blood work, we might wanna look at an x-ray or an ultrasound, to figure out why that fluid is appearing.

And it may be something that we can drain to give your cat comfort as a palliative thing, but it may also be that there's an underlying disease process that we can treat.

There are some amazing new treatments for some of the things that cause fluid in the abdomens of cats.

We have great new drugs for heart disease, and we have some interesting new experimental treatments for a condition called feline infectious peritonitis that you could talk with your veterinarian about.

And those are more common things that might cause fluid in the abdomen.

- Do you see that in the hospital?

- Oh, absolutely, yeah.

Yeah, and I mean, the fluid is there for a reason, and the most important thing is to find out the reason and then treat that cause so the fluid doesn't keep accumulating, or that the fluid can be more manageable for the pet to be comfortable.

- Okay, Diane, we hope your little one gets better there.

- [Diane] All right, thank you.

- Sure, thank you for calling.

All of this costs money, and we're not in the business to make money.

You guys, this is a passion.

This is a ministry, I almost wanna say, for veterinarians that I talk with, but pet insurance.

What's good, bad?

What should or shouldn't pet owners do, and at what point do you buy it, and what's the best alternatives out there right now?

- I think pet insurance is very important, because the veterinary profession is moving in a way which is great, but we can do more testing, we can do more care, but it costs money.

And there are so many plans out there, and you can go from wanting a plan just for major emergencies to the preventative care, dentistry.

It really just depends on how you wanna budget.

But at minimum, even if you don't do pet insurance, there needs to be a pet savings account that you have, because they're our responsibility, and we need to make sure that we have an allotment to be able to take care of them in an emergency, because they happen.

Accidents happen, pets eat things they shouldn't, pets get sick, and it's very hard, coming from an emergency background especially, seeing those clients that really wanna help, but they just can't financially.

And if you have these backup plans where you either have pet insurance, or a health savings account, or something called care credit, all of those things make a huge difference with the ability for you to deal with an emergency and not feel handcuffed financially, 'cause that's very hard.

I mean, I feel for people when they have to deal with that.

- And Deb, you mentioned in earlier conversations, the time to get it is when they're healthy and young, right?

- Absolutely.

- Deb, and you've seen that.

- When they come in as a puppy and kitten, when they get that first exam and I tell you you have a healthy puppy, go get some insurance, because they can fall off the bed and break their leg next week.

And they just... Like Dr. Ferretti said, accidents happen, and with all the care that people give, things happen.

And we have board-certified veterinary surgeons.

These people are so talented.

They have amazing training.

I might use... Maybe 20 years ago, I might amputate a leg or put a leg in a splint and have it not heal correctly, and these surgeons can come in and fix things so that these animals have great function for their whole life.

I mean, it's super, but what it costs for a board-certified veterinary surgeon is not something that a lot of people have sitting in their checking account to spend this week.

And when you need it, you need it now.

And in my opinion, that's why you get health insurance.

The other thing, we talked a lot about COVID and changes in veterinary practice, and one of the things is that we've come to recognize that our staff needs to go home at the end of the night, that there is a compassion fatigue.

People can't work all the hours of every day, and as much as we love doing this, we have to share the burden of these emergencies with our colleagues, and to staff an emergency clinic and to have veterinarians and staff that stay up all night, that work all the weekends and work all the holidays, those places have costs that we don't face in day practice.

And they charge accordingly, so what they'll charge for emergency care is much higher than you pay if you come in my clinic with an emergency during the week.

And you have to be prepared for that, and that's where having that pet insurance just makes you able to say yes.

You're like, "Yes, I can take care of my pet now.

"Do what you need to do.

"I have insurance for them."

- Yeah, "I love that little guy or girl," and preventive, and being responsible.

So, we have an email question.

Let's get to that one here.

We'll put it up on the screen.

Erica writes, "My 20-pound miniature cream dachshund, "Taco Tuesday, went in for his wellness checkup this month, "and our vet commented he needs to lose "another two pounds to be at healthy weight.

"What type or brand of dry dog food "should we be giving Taco, "and how do we make sure Taco gets enough exercise," we haven't talked about exercise, "if he's not able to go outside?"

So playing up some of the food question, but also the exercise, which is, I'm assuming, part and parcel of what you do as a responsible pet owner.

- I would say that the information on most pet food bags is designed to sell more pet food.

So if you look at the amount to feed a 20-pound Taco Tuesday, it's gonna be way too much food.

- [Carolyn] Is it?

- So what you wanna do is you wanna look at the ideal weight for your pet, and you can check with your veterinarian, and let's say Taco Tuesday's ideal weight is 16 pounds.

So you wanna feed Taco Tuesday like he's a 16-pound dog, not like he's a 20-pound dog.

And there are some prescription diets.

One of my favorite diets, Science Diet, has a medicated... Or, a "Metabolic and Mobility" diet.

So it has some anti-inflammatory components to help with mobility, and the metabolic component is designed along the Atkins diet thinking that you wanna have good protein, and you wanna have good nutrition in your diet, even when your pet is eating less of it.

And so some of those prescription diets can actually be great for weight loss, and those are some of my favorites.

- Okay.

Let's show your pets.

We gotta hear your story.

We got about 10 minutes left.

I don't wanna forget to get your cute ones out there, so let's start.

I don't know where our director has them cued up, but Kim, maybe you wanna start with, who's your important people, beyond your human people at home, your pets?

- Oh, so I have two pets right now.

I have my dog, Stanford Blatch.

- Looks like- - Oh, that's Fletch.

We'll go with that.

(people laughing) That's Fletch.

He is a nine-year-old kitty that literally was at a... We were at a bow shooting club, and he just walked into the car.

- [Carolyn] Oh, boy.

(crosstalk) So he adopted you?

(laughs) - He was like, "Free room, board, and healthcare.

"I'm on board."

He just jumped in the car, and we named him Fletch because he's from a bow club, and bow and arrow, they have the fletch on the end.

- Very nice.

- He's a great cat.

He was a blood donor, which is awesome.

So I used him a lot to help save a lot of cats, so... - [Carolyn] Oh, that's great.

- [Kim] And then that's Stanford Blatch.

He is my 13-year-old Beagle-Greyhound mix, which is a weird combo.

That's why he has those long legs.

And he's a super special dog.

He just went through a bout with cancer, and he's been doing great.

He's in remission, and he's my little soulmate.

He's my little buddy.

- [Carolyn] Oh, look at the pose he's struck there.

- [Kim] Oh, he's a southern gentleman.

(people laughing) - [Carolyn] All right, then we've got Deb's.

- [Debra] All right, so I have these little rough-coated basset hounds.

They are called peebie-jeebies, kind of like the heebie-jeebies, and they're little French bass hounds.

I have Evie on the left there and Allie on the right, and they are happy, happy, happy dogs.

They are just happy, and we love them, and they're not very well behaved.

We've had other breeds that care about obedience and care about listening, and these dogs love to run around our yard, and chase bunnies, and they like to go for hikes in the woods, and they're always kind of messy.

And our kids have moved out, and my husband and I just love these dogs.

They're fun for us.

And there's our little kitty, Pipsqueak.

She came home from a Halloween party with my youngest child about seven years ago.

And we thought she was about eight weeks old, and she was actually six months old.

She was very thin and kind of teeny.

And this is my mental health and therapy- (Carolyn laughing) The horse on the right with a little white star is named Leo, and I've had him since he was a year, and he will go anywhere and do anything for me.

He's just a wonderful trail partner and companion, and there's his good friend, Reggie, on the left.

- [Carolyn] Wow.

Do your pets know that you're veterinarians?

(laughing) I have to ask.

- I mean, I feel my cat does, because every time I take him to the clinic, it's usually 'cause I need to do a blood donation.

- Aw, that's wonderful.

- I mean, they just love.

I mean, that's why they're so wonderful.

- Universal love.

- They're just therapy in fluffy form.

- I constantly am examining them, so I think they know that I'm a veterinarian.

They're like, "Just stop, just stop."

(people laughing) They can find somebody else who won't give them an exam.

- All right, we've got a few minutes left, and we're between questions, so I'm gonna ask one here, because we've talked about this in other programs.

The recent research-based evidence around spaying and neutering with some new recommendations, we understand.

Depending on breed and timing, there's new research out there that shows what perhaps people should or shouldn't do with the spay and neuter question.

Kim, do you wanna start?

- Yeah, it's very much another thing to converse with your veterinarian, because everyone's different.

But there is evidence, especially in larger breed dogs, that waiting until their growth plates have closed, which means that once the adult bones are fully fused, giving them that time allows for some hormones in their body to take effect.

It can help with joint health.

It can also, in certain breeds, prevent types of cancer.

So there is definitely a conversation, because there are pros and cons to waiting versus pros and cons to doing it early.

But for the most part, I'm usually making it more optional, especially with large breed dogs, to wait to spay and neuter until they're at least a year and a half old.

- And Deb, you've also seen that similar reason.

- Yeah, absolutely.

There's been some great research that's been done over the last five years.

A lot of it's come out of UC Davis.

And there was a paper in 2020 that listed 35 breeds of dogs with recommendations about when to spay and neuter, and then a why.

So, does this "why" apply to your pet?

I think we have to take it on a case-by-case basis.

Everybody's situation is different.

For years, we spayed and neutered at five to six months of age for just about all pets.

And that really helped to decrease the pet overpopulation problem, and I don't wanna underplay that, because it's an issue, but there's a difference between a responsible pet owner who's gonna keep their pet on a leash and not let that pet wander and somebody who's gonna let their female dog run off and get pregnant if she comes into heat.

And in our area, we are very blessed with a very educated clientele and a very responsible clientele who take, in general, really good care of their pets.

And so I think we have this luxury of saying, "Okay, given that this animal's not gonna get pregnant "and contribute to the pet overpopulation problem," "Given that this male dog is not gonna wander "and get hit on the road like our male dogs "were doing 20 or 25 years ago, "we can make some decisions "about what's the best for your individual pet."

And I think it's a luxury of the kind of place where we live.

I think in other parts- - Judging by the calls we got, we do have these responsible pet owners who love their pets.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- And we're getting one more email, we have less than five minutes left, so let's get to Nealene, who has written, "Hello, my dog of 10 years, still playful, loves to chew.

"He's on dry dog food with 34% crude protein.

"He's no health problems.

"Do you believe that bully sticks are too high in protein?

"What would you suggest that he chew on "to satisfy that need?

"I'm concerned the elk antlers may be too hard."

Can anyone quickly maybe address this question?

- I would love to tell you I know the protein content of bully sticks, but I don't, but what I do know is any time a pet's chewing, whatever they're chewing, if you knock it on your knee and it hurts, that's too hard.

They're gonna break a tooth.

- Too hard, that's a good- - Yeah, and dental health is a real thing.

Dogs are very prone to fractures in their molars and their premolars, which can cause major health issues.

So I don't know much about bully sticks as far as... What do you think?

- I mean, I think if your dog can chew it, and if it's soft enough, and some of them are, I think that it might be okay.

I think the elk antlers, yeah, those are way too hard.

And we usually say that if you can dent it with your fingernails, it's the same idea, like if you push it with your fingernail and you can make a dent in it, it's probably okay.

But if you can't indent it with your fingernail, it's probably just too hard to be a good chew toy.

I think dogs need to chew, and you've gotta take your dog to the pet store or try different things, and then you have to be vigilant, because they'll chew things, and you'll think it's fine, and then you realize they're ripping a piece off it that's just the size that might cause an obstruction.

And I let my dogs chew rawhide chews, and I get chews that are made in the United States so that they don't have certain chemicals in them, and I watch them, because they need to chew, it's good for their mental health, it's good for their dental health, but I don't wanna have an obstruction, so I'm careful with it.

- Okay.

We've got less than two minutes left, and I...

Robust conversation.

Thanks for all the calls, but I'm gonna give you guys one minute each to say that last takeaway that maybe, as a responsible pet owner, as a wonderful veterinarian here in the community, you wanna give folks a little inspiration or- - I think my big thing is that as a pet owner, have an open line of communication with your veterinarian.

That's what we're here for.

We're learning, as we get further into all of this, that every pet's different, and we need to treat them differently, and everyone has specific needs, whether it be vaccines, health treatments, preventative care, everyone is different, and we just need to tap into that more, and I hope that pet owners can be comfortable and have that open line.

That's the most important thing to me.

- Great, and Dr. Smart?

30 seconds or so.

- Wow, that was hard to follow.

- Well said, yeah.

(people laughing) - Yeah, so I think we live in a real special area.

Our dogs love to go outside.

Make sure that you're preventing tick disease for your dogs when you're outside.

It is the most preventable thing that we see around here, and it can help save their lives and save some serious kidney disease if you prevent those ticks.

And then, keep your kitties indoors.

Save the birds, save your cat's life.

Keep your kitties indoors, prevent ticks on your dogs, and reach out to us.

We love to talk about these things- - These guys are great.

Boy, I don't have a pet currently, but I know where to go to when my next one comes up in my life.

Thank you so much.

And we have been talking with Dr. Kim Ferretti, owner and veterinarian at Happy Valley Veterinary Hospital, and Dr. Deb Smart, the co-owner and veterinarian at Centre Animal Hospital.

I'm Carolyn Donaldson.

Our next episode of "Conversations Live" will be December 15th, where we're gonna be talking about another important issue this time of year, seasonal affective disorder.

From all of us at WPSU, thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks for those questions, and best wishes for a happy, healthy holiday season for you and your pets.

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