The Vetpodcast - Veterinary Podcast

There is a whole industry based on catnip. What is so special about this plant?

Vet nursing is a very rewarding and challenging career. It does however require a lot more attributes than just the love of animals.

A really common reason for visiting the vet is the thought that your animal may be drinking more than it should. In this episode we examine what may be causing this.

Some dogs seem to spend their life at the vets with skin and ear problems. One of the underlying causes of chronic skin problems in dogs is Food Allergy Dermatitis

The benefits of micro-chipping have come to the fore following the recent Christchurch earthquakes. Animals that have been chipped can be easily reunited with their owners. There is more to micro-chipping than animal identification though.Do you remember Star Trek when Bones would run a machine over the body of a patient and make a diagnosis? Well guess what, Destron are working on chips that can detect hormonal changes, blood pressure and eventually even disease processes. This is no longer science fiction. It’s a new world.

One of the hardest decisions both veterinarians and owners have to make is choosing the right time to euthanase an old or sick cat or dog. I am afraid there is no easy answer!

If someone calls your dog mangy, they are probably right. Although usually not causing any clinical problems, most dogs carry demodex. This podcast looks at the ones where demodex does cause a problem.

Most veterinarians strongly advocate spaying or desexing female dogs. One of the nastier conditions we see in non spayed bitches is called a pyometra. After seeing this podcast, if you haven’t done so already, you may want to get your girl spayed.

As vets, we get the odd case that although we are sure of the diagnosis, and the treatment we have prescribed should be working, the animal just isn’t improving. It may not be that we have got it wrong. We could be looking at something that is known as “poor compliance” This podcast firstly shows how to give a pill or tablet to a cat and dog, then discusses ways to improve client compliance with medication.

Although they look like small adult dogs, puppies actually have different dietary requirements to adult dogs. In the final of our series on nutrition, Dr Danielle Bernal discusses good puppy nutrition.

Are the senior pet diets available necessary for your pet? Dr Danielle Bernal, the veterinarian for Eukanuba pet foods in Australia and New Zealand joins us for the second programme in our series on pet food to explain the different food requirements for our older pets.

Half of all dogs and one third of all cats in Australia and New Zealand are considered to be obese. Why, and what can we do about this? I discuss pet obesity with Dr Danielle Bernal, veterinarian for Eukanuba pet foods in Australia and New Zealand.

As long as there are cats and dogs and as long as there are cars there are going to be injured animals.

Dr. Carla Litchfield has a PhD in Animal Psychology, is a conservationist, an author and is a former zoo inhabitant. We discuss, amongst other things, The Human Zoo, tourism and the Great Apes, zoo design and how we can enrich our pet’s lives Carla's Homepage is http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/staff/homepage.asp?Name=Carla.Litchfield Carlas publisher, Black Dog Books can be found at http://www.bdb.com.au/authorsandillustrators/index.php?creator=litchfield_carla

For thousands of years, it has been reported that animals can predict earthquakes. Following the recent Christchurch earthquakes, I thought I would see what actual evidence there is for this.