Canine Influenza, New Products, Raw Food
Raw Food:
We are considering adding frozen raw food to our retail store section. These foods are difficult to find in our area, and ordering online usually involves a wait, shipping cost, and sometimes difficulty finding a source among the many options. We’ll keep you posted but right now we are looking at Primal and Tucker’s as possibilities. If you have an opinion about this, we would love to hear it! Call us or comment on our Facebook page.
Links here: Primal: http://www.primalpetfoods.com/
Tucker’s: http://www.mytuckers.com/
We would probably start with just a few options, increasing depending on interest and sales. Please let us know your thoughts!
Canine Influenza:
If you haven’t heard, Canine Influenza is still making the rounds. Like all influenza viruses, this one can be expected to mutate readily so here at Whole Health Pet Center, we question the effectiveness of available vaccines that were developed several years ago. But in some cases, you may want to find a clinic with the bivalent vaccine (both strains included, called Nobivac Canine Flu Bivalent) if your dogs are shown or boarded frequently or will be exposed to dogs which travel to affected areas of the country. In order to keep up with the latest news, here are some resources for you:
General Overview: http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/features/dog-flu-canine-influenza#1
http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/Canine-Influenza-Virus-Beyond-Two-Show-Dogs/
AVMA: https://www.avma.org/public/PetCare/Pages/CanineInfluenza.aspx
Incidence Map and good info from Cornell: https://ahdc.vet.cornell.edu/news/civchicago.cfm
Texas A&M: https://tvmdl.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ED-Canine-Influenza-0617.pdf
Dr Jean Dodds: https://drjeandoddspethealthresource.tumblr.com/post/46796991064/canine-influenza-h3n8#.WV6xlojytPY and https://drjeandoddspethealthresource.tumblr.com/post/144765258211/h3n2-dog-dodds#.WV6ydYjytPY
University of Florida: https://vetmed-hospitals.sites.medinfo.ufl.edu/files/2017/05/UFCVM-Canine-Influenza-Statement-May-31.pdf
And a viewpoint from the other side of the coin: http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/dog-flu-vaccine/
Please don’t panic about influenza. We do not feel vaccination should be mandated, or even added to the regular vaccine regimen for most dogs. We invite you to read the above information and make your own decision about your pet’s risk and likelihood of exposure. There is a great deal of information floating around out there and much is being rather sensationalized so we felt it appropriate to give you some trustworthy resources for your own education. At this time, we don’t intend to carry the vaccine. If flu shows up in the Kansas City area in significant numbers of cases, we may reconsider. You may wish to review our very old newsletters (on the last page of the section on our website) for one about Oscillococcinum—we suspect it may be useful for dog flu as well as human flu. Dosing instructions are the same.
If your dog is ill, and you suspect influenza (high fever, cough, nasal discharge, depression, recent chance of exposure), please CALL our clinic before bringing your dog in. We will make special arrangements for examination to avoid clinic contamination.
Expanded product lines:
We’ve added more products in the Adaptil/Feliway pheromone family. We now have room diffusers, bandanas and crate pads, Snuggle Buddies, and plenty of travel sprays. Feel free to ask our staff about appropriate usage of these products to help ease your pet’s anxieties and help them tolerate noise, travel, new pets, or household upheaval more calmly. We also now have a more complete selection of Douxo products for skin problems. Everything from medicated shampoos, mousses, and sprays to pads and pipettes for local treatment, all containing phytosphingisine (PS) to help rebuild skin barriers. We have found this line to be very effective and with so many options it’s possible to have success in treating even if shampooing your pet regularly isn’t an easy thing to do.
Upcoming Events:
Canine Massage, July 14, please call 816-331-1868 to schedule an appointment
Dr Leonard will be out of the office on Friday, July 21 and August 11 and 25. She is leaving the office early July 28. Please plan your appointments accordingly.
