ANIMAL WELLNESS
DECEMBER 2009/JANUARY 2010
AnimalWELLNESS For a long, healthy life!
Holiday
Living pawsitive!
ISSUE
DOGS WHO
GREAT
EAT
GIFT IDEAS!
ANYTHING
Rocks, cloth and plastic should not be part of her diet
ANIMAL WELLNESS MAGAZINE
TIPS FOR AGING GRACEFULLY
OMG,
HE’S NAKED!
STRESSED
The needs of hairless breeds
OUT?
WHY IS HE ANTISOCIAL? You may need to change your own responses
Meditate with your dog or cat
FENG SHUI FOR FUR BABIES
SPICE UP HER DIET VOLUME 11 ISSUE 6
DECEMBER/JANUARY Display until Jan. 12, 2010
$5.95 USA/Canada
VOLUME 11 ISSUE 6
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Contents December 2009/January 2010
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FEATURES 18 AGING GRACEFULLY
Dogs and cats age gradually, so changes in health or behavior may not be obvious. Find out what to look for and how to help your senior adapt and stay comfortable.
22 PLAY IT SAFE
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They look fun, but not all those dog toys on store shelves are good for your canine. With the market flooded by cheap imports, check you’re getting a product that’s safe and non-toxic.
26 STRANGE TASTES
Does your dog try to eat rocks, cloth or plastic? This condition is called “pica” and can be caused by medical, behavioral or lifestyle issues.
30 SPICE UP HIS LIFE!
Flavor and nutrition – spices offer the best of both worlds. This holiday season, add some zest to your dog or cat’s diet with these healthy recipes.
34 PEACE ON EARTH
The festive season can be a stressful time for you and your companion. These three meditations will help you both find inner serenity.
44 MAKING THE SWITCH
Changing to a holistic or integrative vet? Here’s what to expect – and ask – during your animal’s first visit with his new doctor.
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50 SOLID FOUNDATION
68 THE SKY’S THE LIMIT
58 SOOTHING SEIZURES
73 OMG, HE’S NAKED!
62 LOOK UNDER THE TREE!
80 IS HE ANTISOCIAL?
64 FENG SHUI FOR FUR BABIES
88 THINK YOU HAVE A COVER CANINE?
A strong background in holistic health care led this naturopathic doctor to start a company of her own.
Epilepsy and other seizure disorders can be frightening and their causes hard to nail down. Acupressure is a gentle and simple way to alleviate them.
Giving your dog a new toy this festive season? Ask Santa to bring him a safe and durable quality product that will stand up to lots of play and fun.
This ancient Chinese art of placement isn’t just for people. It can also enhance your dog or cat’s health and happiness.
How two Canadian women promote healthy canine nutrition, from coast to coast.
From the Chinese crested to the Sphynx, hairless breeds are gaining in popularity. But they have special needs and characteristics that furred animals don’t.
Helping a fearful or “unfriendly” dog involves more than training. It also means changing your own behavior and responses.
Enter our Cover Dog Photo and Story Contest and you could win!
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30 COLUMNS 14
Yakkity yak
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Warm & fuzzy
52 Dr. Martin Goldstein 84
Communication
86
Passages
89
Book reviews
98
Tail end
22 DEPARTMENTS 8
Editorial
12
Mail bag
25
Product picks
69
Animal Wellness resource guide
34
78
The scoop
91
Ad spots
96
Events calendar
97
Classifieds
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Play
IT SAFE They look fun and colorful, but not all those dog toys on store shelves are good for your canine. With the market being flooded by cheap imports, you need to check you’re getting a product that’s safe and non-toxic. BY MARTA ZARASKA
D
id you know the average American dog lover spends over a hundred dollars a year on treats and toys? At the same time, though, reports of potential hazards presented by dog toys are mushrooming, partly because there’s no agency overseeing the $40 billion dog toy market. These hazards can include anything from needles left inside stuffed toys to chemical-laden paints and choking dangers. With the holidays approaching, you want to make sure the toys you buy for your companion won’t harm him or make him sick.
GET THE LEAD OUT In 2007, Texas lab ExperTox tested four dog toys sold at Wal-Mart. The list of chemicals found in them was quite impressive and included lead, chromium, arsenic, cadmium
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and mercury. One toy had what the lab described as “elevated levels” of lead – almost one part per million (ppm). Lead is the toxin dog lovers should be most concerned about, according to Dr. Sharon Gwaltney, Vice President of the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center. Lead poisoning can cause abnormal behavior, vomiting, diarrhea, hiding in dark places and convulsions, which in younger dogs might be mistaken for distemper. In chronic form, lead poisoning results in anemia and weight loss. If not treated, it can cause death. According to the American Pet Products Association, many American manufacturers make their toys in accordance with the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s
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(CPSC) guidelines for lead content in children’s toys. Products intended for kids can’t contain more than 300 ppm of lead. This is way above the 1 ppm that ExperTox called “elevated levels”. Although this sounds scary, veterinarian Dr. Steve Marks of the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine hasn’t seen even one dog ingest lead via toys in his 20 years of practice. In most cases, dogs get sick after eating or sniffing lead-based paint (which may be applied to some toys), or chewing on scrap metal or leaking batteries. Dr. Gwaltney adds that just because a toy contains lead doesn’t mean it’s dangerous to your dog. “Tests these days are so sensitive that pretty much everything you are going to check will have some tiny amount of lead in it,” she says. “There was a warning on the Internet about 30 ppm of lead in some dog toy. We figured the animal would have to eat a toy like that every day for 16 years to get a dose that would be a problem.” But what about a pocket-sized dog? Surely what is safe for a ten-year-old child wouldn’t necessarily be okay for a Chihuahua, especially since kids don’t spend the majority of their playtime chewing and licking their toys. “CPSC has built in so many safety margins to their risk assessments that the difference is not going to be significant even if we are talking of a very tiny animal,” says Dr. Gwaltney. Still, you should be careful when choosing a toy for your dog. Imported products don’t follow CPSC guidelines and some may contain as much as 100 times the amount of lead that’s considered safe. The ones to watch out for are toys with painted surfaces, as it’s the paint that usually contains the lead. If you are worried one of your dog’s toys might have lead in it, purchase a home test kit (the reliable ones require you to take a sample and send it off to a lab). If the amount of lead found is significant (over 300 ppm) you can ask your vet to test the dog’s blood. Since lead poisoning is not a common disease, your veterinarian might not suspect it right away, even if the dog has all the symptoms. But don’t worry – once treatment begins, the prognosis is good.
DON’T CHOKE ON IT When it comes to safety, think choking hazard. Although tennis balls are a common dog toy, for example, they are often a problem since dogs can chew them in half and try to swallow the bits. The rule of thumb is to know your animal wellness
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