The Vetpodcast - Veterinary Podcast

Rabbits have been kept as pets since Victorian times. It is reported that Rabbits are the third most popular pet in the UK. This episode of The Vetpodcast discusses the care of your pet rabbit.

Trying to hide their pain is a natural behaviour for a lot of animals. It is not in their best interest to let predators or even social competitors know of their discomfort and potential weakness. Dogs are no exception. This can make it quite difficult to tell if your dog is in pain. If you look closely though, there are a few tell tail signs we use to detect pain in dogs.

I don’t know if it is a case of the grass is always greener or not, but I seem to be dealing with a lot of clients at the moment who are relocating to other countries and are taking their pets with them. As New Zealand in an island nation, this invariably involves air travel. In this episode of the Vetpodcast, we discuss transporting your pet on a plane.

We all know this old folk song "The cat came back the very next day". It begs the question though, how do cats find their way home. We have all heard stories of cats that have travelled amazing distances to find their way home. Are the homing abilities of cats a folk myth to go with the folk song, or is there science to go with the observations.

I often get the comment from clients that they find it harder to cope with the death of their pet than they did with the death of a close family member. We have already discussed making the decision to euthanize your pet in a previous podcast. In this episode we talk to Kathy Landsman, a grief councillor who, after the loss of her own dog Putzi, realised the very strong emotions people have after loosing a companion which represented so much in their life, and now specialises in pet loss and pet grief. For more information, visit Kathy's website at: http://www.griefsupportauckland.co.nz/

Death by Chocolate. A great name for a desert, but a real possibility if your dog eats too much chocolate!

There is a saying, “my stomach felt like it had a knot in it”. This is usually said when someone is very nervous. In the dog world, this may be more than nervousness. There is a condition seen where the stomach literally does tie itself in a knot. This is a syndrome known as gastric dilatation/volvulus. It comes on very quickly, and if not diagnosed and treated immediately, the dog may well die an agonising death. Sounds a bit theatrical? I don’t think so, this condition is a killer! In this episode, we catch up with Craig Macpherson, a veterinary surgical specialist from Sydney, Australia and discuss this nasty condition.

The animal/human bond is strong, but it appears to be even stronger in Senior Citizens. In this episode of The Vetpodcast, I have a closer look at the relationship between senior citizens and their pets.

A lazy obese dog sitting in the sun all day. Does it need a diet, or could there be more going on. Hypothyroidism, probably an under diagnosed disease.

For those of us males "of an age", I am sure we know exactly where our prostate is. Our doctors gloved finger has pointed it out. Prostatic disease is common in older male dogs, but usually, once found, there is a happy ending.

As a young pre veterinary student, I remember making an absolute idiot of myself by going to my doctor and asking for worm tablets to treat the ringworm lesion I had. It was then that I learned that ringworm was not caused by a worm at all, but by a fungus. In this episode of The Vetpodcast, we take a closer look at ringworm.

Often an owner will find a round lump under the skin of their dog, and quite rightly, bring it to the clinic for us to check. Although there are some nasty skin tumours that dogs can get, luckily, one of the most common causes of these lumps it a benign tumour called a lipoma.

Increased thirst, increased urination, increased hunger while losing weight, lower activity and thinning, dry or dull hair can all be signs that your cat or dog is suffering from diabetes. As this month has been designated Diabetes awareness month, I thought it would be a good time to have a talk to Doug Passmore, a veterinarian with MSD Animal Health about diabetes. For more information on diabetes visit the following links: www.petdiabetesmonth.com www.pet-diabetes.com

Enter any pet shop, supermarket or veterinary surgery and you will be faced with a wall of flea products. How do you decide which one is right for your pet? Perhaps a little knowledge of the creature we are trying to kill may help.

Do you have a disaster plan for your cats and dogs if there is a natural disaster? After seeing what happened in the Christchurch earthquakes I think you should!