Marty and Laura tackle the big itch of ear mites, how to prevent, diagnose and treat them in your cats (and even dogs.)

“There are hundreds of mites in these cats ears, so it's no question that they are intensely itchy,” Marty said, while Laura opined the image was the stuff of nightmares.

“When we see an ear infection in a cat,” Marty said, “it's ear mites or somehow related to ear mites. And in a dog it may start as ear mites, especially if it's a young dog. But almost always the ear mites on a dog go yuck. I'm not living here, it’s not where I want to be.

“You're going to know they have mites because they're scratching all the time and they get discharge that looks like coffee grounds in there. It's not blood, but it can look like blood. But the cats can be so intensely itchy, pyritic, that they will literally scratch the back of their ear raw.

"I don't understand why, but it leaves a residual problem. I can look at a cat's ear and look at the owner and say, did she have ear mites when she was a kitten? And they go, ohh, yeah...

“As soon as you bring a new kitten into the house, you want to keep them isolated. So put them in a separate room, a few garages warm enough. You can do that, or you can put them in a bathroom or laundry room or somewhere. Even a dog crate is at least some kind of seclusion until you get your first appointment with your veterinary clinic to test the kitten for leukemia and FIV to make sure that they're not exposing your cat.

“We want to check for mites. So very quickly we're going to want to get those kittens in and get them treated, dewormed, put on Revolution, or other flea and tick products.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura tackle the painful topic of cruciate ligament ruptures in dogs. They talk causes, prevention, treatment and new research that’s giving hope to eradicating the painful condition specifically in Labrador Retrievers.

“Statistically, five to 10% of Labradors will end up with a cruciate tear,” Marty said, “although there's a lot of variables in that. Certain breeds like greyhounds and corgis, they don't tear cruciates. Sometimes it's the age of spaying or neutering, sometimes there's definitely differences within the line of dogs. So there's a lot of variables.

“If your dog is 3-legged lame (in the rear) and it's persistent, you should seek veterinary care. But you don't have to go in on emergency over a weekend or at night. Now, if it's a dangling fracture, you need to go in,” Marty noted, but a cruciate tear is not an emergency.

“You can have a flat out tear, you can have a fray, you can have a partial tear. Eventually a fray or a partial tear is going to turn into a full tear. And so you can see these degradations, these changes inside the cruciate ligament that we don't still fully understand or need to understand better, and we will, but at this point we don't really have a great understanding of some of these dynamics because there are so many differences.

“Spaying and neutering definitely has a relationship in a lot of large breed dogs with the severity and the likelihood of which they're going to develop cruciate disease. So we know if we spay or neuter dogs before skeletal maturity, which is somewhere between 15 and 18 months depending on the breed, we're going to increase their risk of torn cruciate. In Labradors that increases by 20%.”

https://puredogtalk.com/captivate-tag/cruciate-ligaments/

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura tackle a huge subject with kidney diseases, symptoms and treatments. From diabetes to poison to communicable diseases, kidney health is critical to your pet.

“A lot of people take kidneys for granted,” Marty says, “because they heard you can donate a kidney, so you must not really need to have two kidneys. You really do need the reserve of an extra kidney in case something goes wrong with one or both. Just like almost all of our organs, they're duplicated, so we should have two and they should both work effectively. So we need to take good care of our kidneys and that of our dogs.

“The most common (symptoms) are changes in water consumption and changes in urination. Now, other things that frequently cause that are going to be diabetes, which happens in dogs and cats, Cushing's disease, which happens in dogs, which is an adrenal gland dysfunction, and other things like pyometra, high calcium that can be related to different forms of cancer. So there can be other things that we're looking for.

“But we're going to start looking at kidneys, diabetes and Cushings disease in the dog most commonly. And so you're basically going to go in, tell the vet that your dog is drinking too much, urinating too much. We're going to get blood work and urinalysis as our basic starting point. But that's not the only place we're going to go. We're going to start with those two things because if the dog is still able to concentrate their urine, well then that tells us something different than if the dog’s urine was really dilute and the BUN and creatinine start to go up.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura bust out on myths around “natural” products for our pets, whether they are useful, safe or actually hazardous.

“All the eucalyptus and citronella and lavender and whatever it is that you want to spray on your dog is not going to actually successfully prevent external parasites,” Laura asked.

“They may help a little bit,” Marty said, “but don't forget just because it says natural doesn't mean safe because there's a lot of things that are natural that aren't safe. Chocolate’s natural, it's not safe for your dog. There are lots of things that we can put on our dogs or in our dogs that simply aren't safe.

“Somewhere in the early ‘90s, ivermectin came to market as Heart Guard and it's still on the market as Heart Guard and then there are some other newer ones that have come along that are in similar drug classes. Ivermectin was a mold found in the soil in Japan… So I think that's pretty natural. It's a mold from the soil. It's not like somebody made this up in a laboratory. Now, of course they've synthesized it, but essentially that's what it is. So, if you're looking for something natural, ivermectin is great.

“The diseases that fleas carry, that ticks carry, heartworm, intestinal parasites, all of those are really bad diseases. If you're looking at, well, you know, could I be OK if my dog got heartworm disease? Well, most dogs live through heartworm disease, but it's thousands and thousands of dollars and it's really hard in the dog.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura drop their recs for all the best toys for your pets, from cat trees to “indestructible” dog chews. Plus, Marty delivers a round up on cat food and why cats eat what they do.

“There's some nuances to cat food that are different than dog food. Cats apparently like things that are pointy and sharp in their mouths. Apparently cats like to eat little mice that have little sharp body parts, and so they like these little sharp kind of kibbles, so a lot of the foods are pointy or sharp or not necessarily just a round kibble.

“Cats are obligate carnivores. So dogs can be an herbivore or a carnivore. Dogs can get by on a no meat diet. For those of you who are having cats out there that want to be vegan, cats cannot live a vegan lifestyle. Certain amino acids that they have to get from meat.

“To effectively scratch, a cat needs to fully extend its front legs and its back legs. So however long your cat is from its tippy toes fully standing to its other tippy toes is at least how tall the cat tree has to be. The other thing about cat trees is that they need to be really hefty. Because when your cat comes running across the room and hits the cat tree, if it falls over, that's the last time the cat's ever going to go on the cat tree. If you ever thought you were going to keep your curtains in your furniture safe for the cat, you just blew it.

“I'm not sure for some dogs that there's anything indestructible. There are lots of things labeled that way, but you never want to assume that and leave your dog alone with that indestructible toy until you've proven to yourself in the dog that it truly is indestructible.”

Recommendations:

https://www.purina.com/dogs/shop/dentalife-plus-immune-support-large-dog-chew

https://www.kongcompany.com/

https://jollypets.com/products/teaser-ball-dog-toy

https://mountainvalleyantlers.com/

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura share the love for brachycephalic breeds with information about feeding, managing their environment, health testing and more.

Managing Feeding and Environment for Brachycephalic Dog Owners:

What are brachycephalic dogs?

Brachycephalic dogs are dogs with a short, wide skull. These include French Bulldogs, Pugs, English Bulldogs, Olde English Bulldogs, Boston Terriers, Shih tzus, Lhasa Apsos, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and the American Bully and American Bulldog breeds.

The very thing that makes us love them and makes them popular also puts them at risk for certain conditions including respiratory difficulties (loud breathing) and associated digestive and eating disorders.

With some understanding of these syndromes and techniques for feeding, offering water, exercise and managing their environment, you can minimize the health consequences and not only save yourself money, but you can help your dog live more comfortably and longer.

A short, widened muzzle and skull with more prominent eyes is an appealing look for dogs. It has been described by some as infantile – they may look like a human baby who never grows up. Many owners are attracted to this appearance. Additionally, these characteristics are not only cute, but these dogs also have personalities and activity levels that are appealing for pet owners. Many of these dogs are less active and more sedate. They are also frequently funny and entertaining to live with.

What is “BOAS”?

But there is a price to pay for some of the dogs who suffer from a more extreme form of this skull shape. This price has been defined as “Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome” or “BOAS” for short. To be clear, not all brachycephalic dogs have this syndrome. There are dogs in this breed group that are quiet, comfortable breathers.

The good news is that breeders of these dogs are working with OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals www.ofa.org) to breed dogs with the desirable appearance without the negative respiratory and GI signs. OFA has used a system developed by veterinarians at Cambridge in England called the “Respiratory Function Grading Scheme” or “RFGS”. In this application, “scheme” means a system or assessment, not something sneaky and underhanded – using the British utilization of the word.

This BOAS system is a method for veterinarians who are specially trained to assess the dog’s airway by listening to their breathing with a stethoscope positioned over the chest as well as on the throat, with the dog at rest and after 3 minutes of brisk walking. It also includes a visual inspection of the shape of the nostrils. The dog is then given a score of BOAS 0 to 3, by the attending veterinarian. This helps the owner and breeder of the dog to determine which dogs are good breeding candidates to help produce fewer BOAS affected puppies. You can locate a veterinarian or health clinic where there is BOAS testing available at www.ofa.org. At this time, there are only a handful of veterinarians trained to BOAS test but this number is likely to increase.

So what are the concerns about the brachycephalic dog’s health?

1. Breathing

2. Digestion – processing food and water.

Breathing concerns are the most obvious. Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS) consists of a number of structural abnormalities when compared to “normal” dogs, dogs with more typical head and muzzle shape. Some are the very definition of a brachycephalic – which literally means short head and some are secondary...

Marty and Laura share their most embarrassing stories with their dogs. From obedience exercises gone wrong to inappropriate public ejaculation, and many more incredibly awkward humiliations.

“Dogs don't process things the same way we do,” Laura said. “If it feels good, it's good and so whatever it is that makes them feel good, which might be eating all of your entire ham roast that you had for dinner.

“We have to just realize that dogs don't think like we do,” Marty said, “and they never will and we don't want them ever to really because the whole point of being friendly with dogs is that they're dogs.”

“Dogs do terrible things, not because they think it's funny, but because it feels good to them,” Laura noted. “And it entertains them and it makes them happy. And so while we are often mortified, terrified, devastated, you know, all the emotions that we go through, dogs are just smiling. Their ears flying and their nostrils flaring and they're having a grand old time.”

Check out the author Laura mentioned, Patrick McManus, HERE.

“And we really should appreciate dogs for that,” Marty added. “They live in the moment. They don't plan for the future. They have no recriminations. No guilt. Maybe we should be more like that. I have often thought that we should all be a little bit more like our dogs.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura give you tips and tools to save your dog’s life in the case of bloat. Minutes count in this life-threatening condition, so knowing the early warning signs is critical.

Bloat, also known as gastric dilation and volvulus, is a condition that knows no boundaries. It occurs in large breed dogs primarily, but it can happen in smaller dogs as well. Gas becomes trapped in the stomach, causing it to “flip over,” cutting off blood supply to vital organs, all within just a few minutes.

o Early warning signs of bloat:

· Repeated attempts to vomit without producing any stomach contents

· Pacing, unsettled, snapping at sides

· Stomach becomes distended, looks and feels like a basketball

o Action items:

· Immediately call vet or emergency clinic and say you are on your way with a potential bloat.

· Immediately load dog and drive to vet. This condition can kill a dog in less than an hour.

· Keep GasX on hand if you have a large dog or a breed prone to bloat. Give to the dog immediately on suspicion of bloat. It will not harm the dog and may give you a few extra minutes.

o What causes bloat?

· Research is inconclusive. Anecdotally it is associated with large dogs with deep, narrow chests. Eating or drinking water too fast can be a trigger. Stress, anxiety, intense exercise immediately before or after meals have also been reported causes, but no data has been compiled that proves this. It is more common in older dogs.

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.