Monday, March 26, 2012

Homeopathy - what a ludicrous idea?

I see Rod Liddle has been pontificating in the Sunday Times about the madness of the government spending £4 million a year on homeopathy within the NHS.

He says that he swallowed an entire bottle of strychnine (nux vomica in homeopathic dilution) and lives on to tell the tale. And then proceeds to fall into the classic argument trap which runs something like this:

"I don't understand how homeopathy works, therefore it can't work, therefore it doesn't work, therefore it's a waste of money."

It's the train of thought we have to battle with all the time both within the veterinary profession and wider medical fraternity.

The problem is, I partly agree in the sense that I cannot for the life of me see how homeopathy could possibly work. It makes little rational sense, and I'm not keen on explanations that involve phrases like 'vibrational energy'.

I'ts just that we keep seeing cases where homeopathy appears to make a difference. Animal patients where their symptoms change and improve when the only thing we've done is give them homeopathic remedies.

What's that all about?

I remember years ago seeing a BBC journalist trying to crack a homeopathic doctor outside the Royal Homeopathic Hosital in Glasgow. The doctor's, with increasing exasperation finally came out with

"Look, I'm a doctor. People come to this hospital feeling ill. They have symptoms. We examine them, make a diagnosis and the only medication we give them is homeopathic. They go away feeling better, with their symptoms resolving. This is my work as a doctor. What more do you want?"

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Elderly cats and overactive thyroid glands

Hyperthyroidism in older cats typically causes weight loss, restlessness and increased appetite. Some of these cats become really grumpy and difficult to deal with, so it not only wears them out, it can wear you out, too. In addition, if untreated, it often leads to a type of heart disease that certainly is life threatening, and not a nice way for her to end her days.

Treatment usually starts with tablets once or twice a day, otherwise there is a fairly straightforward operation to remove the over-active thyroid gland, or a few specialist centres offer course of radiotherapy. Interestingly and slightly controversially, recent research suggests that restricting the iodine intake in the diet can reverse hyperthyroidism

So the short story is that hyperthyroidism is no fun. If your cat could be affected talk to us about having a blood test.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Professional training for vets in London!

Today is the first of a series of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) evenings for London's vets, given by the specialist team at Davies London.

Each month, a speaker will be sharing their cutting edge knowledge and experience with a select audience of top vets from the London area.

The theme tonight is the Ultrasound Examination of the Dog and Cat, presented by Francisco Llabrés-Diaz, DVM MRCVS DVR DipECVDI RCVS & European Veterinary Specialist in Diagnostic Imaging.

The events are at the Marylebone Hotel at 47 Welbeck Street, and are free of charge to vets. For more information, please contact Davies London at 0207 535 0444 or visit the website at http://bit.ly/yl3L7V

Thursday, March 8, 2012

How often should a pet have booster vaccinations?

Diseases that we vaccinate against include canine parvovirus gastro-enteritis which can be rapidly and unpleasantly fatal, and cat flu which can be recurrently debilitating throughout a cat's life, so it is very important that our pets are protected.

Equally, diseases like distemper are now so rare that many vets in practice have never seen them.

So how often should we vaccinate and against what? The manufacturer's Data Sheets give a recommended booster interval, and depending on the brand, this can vary from 12 months to 4 years. Oh, and to make it worse, the same vaccine can have different recommendations in different countries, so that's not much help.

The homeopaths (and no, they're not all mad) would say vaccinate as little as possible. I might also ask you when you were last vaccinated...

So what to do? You either follow the book and do as you're told, or you ask us about vaccine titre tests so that we only give booster vaccines when the antibody levels tell us that as vaccine is really needed.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Dogs in Danger

I was horrified to read that so many of our traditional dog breeds are now on the endangered list: to be on the list, there have to be fewer than 300 puppies registered with the Kennel Club in the last year.

And this is the list:

Deerhounds, Greyhounds, Otterhounds, Irish Red & White Setters, Clumber Spaniels, Field Spaniels, Irish Water Spaniels, Sussex Spaniels, Miniature Bull Terriers, Dandie Dinmont Terriers, Smooth Fox Terriers, Glen of Imaal Terriers, Irish Terriers, Kerry Blue Terriers, Lakeland Terriers, Manchester Terriers, Norwich Terriers, Sealyham Terriers, Skye Terriers, Welsh Terriers, Smooth Collies, Lancashire Heelers, Cardigan Welsh Corgis, English Toy Terriers (Black & Tan).

So stop buying & breeding so many Labradors, Cockers, Springers, Shepherds, Cavaliers and Staffies!

Be a bit more adventurous and go for some of these lovely old breeds before they diet out and we don't have the choice any more!

PS They might not be on the list, but spare a thought for the lovely English Setter...

For more information, check the Kennel Club page at http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/808

Sunday, March 4, 2012

The 10 most common health problems in pets

Another fascinating fact for you on a Sunday night: according to Petplan the pet health insurer, the 10 most common health problems in pets are:

- hyperthyroidism
- diabetes
- cystitis
- kidney disease
- kidney failure
- weight loss
- lameness
- diarrhoea
- vomiting
- abcesses

Not sure quite what you're meant to do with that information, but there you go.

Slightly more alarming is that less than half of the UK's pets get to see their vet even once a year. Now I'm quite sure that doesn't apply to any Hyde Park clients, but...

Either way, you might want to find out what the symptoms of the top 10 are so that you'll recognise them if they happen to your pet.

Just a thought.

Oh and watch this space - we'll be going over them for you in the next few weeks