ANIMAL WELLNESS
AnimalWELLNESS For a long, healthy life!
Understanding
heartworm How it helps you make
The benefits of
integrative
the BEST decision for your dog
veterinary care
6
RAW FOOD DIETS -- busting
TIPS for successful
the myths
housetraining
It’s easier than you think!
Discover the
healing powers
of OZONE THERAPY
Integrative care for
SEIZURES
7 ways to BEAT
FIGHT FLEAS
without chemicals!
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This sweet and spunky French bulldog has thousands of fans worldwide, his own website, and even his own clothing line
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AnimalWellnessMagazine.com
BONUS INSIDE!
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Contents April/May 2014
28 FEATURES 18 ALL ABOUT HEARTWORM – PART 1 A thorough understanding of this disease will help you protect your dog.
22 GLUTATHIONE – KING OF ANTIOXIDANTS
This tiny but powerful nutrient is vital to his cell health, liver function and immunity.
24 MOVING HOUSE?
It can cause a lot of stress to your dog. Help calm him (and yourself!) with this simple acupressure session.
28 SEPARATION ANXIETY
Could you be making it worse? You may be contributing to his fear without even realizing it.
32 OZONE THERAPY
It’s not widely available yet, or even approved for medical use this side of the Atlantic, but it shows promise as a healing modality.
34 HE’S HAVING A SEIZURE!
It’s scary, but don’t panic. Many of these conditions can be managed successfully with an integrative approach.
38 THE TRUTH ABOUT RAW FOOD
A lot of myths still surround the safety of raw meat diets. Here are the real facts.
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44 6 TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL HOUSETRAINING
Teaching your new pooch where to go potty is easier than you might think.
48 MANNY’S MAGIC MAKES HIM FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD
Meet a famous French bulldog with personality plus and fans around the world.
56 ARE YOU STRESSING HER OUT? Stress is a fact of life for us, but did you know your feelings can have a negative impact on your cat?
58 CAN CATS GET LYME DISEASE?
They’re less vulnerable to infection than we are, but it’s still important to take precautions.
60 MAKE YOUR OWN KITTY HARNESS
Soft, stylish and safe, these colorful “vests” are the cat’s meow!
68 FIGHT FLEAS!
Keep your dog itch-free by taking a well-rounded holistic approach to pest control.
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70 ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE
How is it impacting our animals? Alternative therapies can help combat the issue of antibiotic overuse.
73 REPELLING INSECTS, NATURALLY
How fly and flea allergies in her animals prompted one woman to create her own green repellent.
76 7 WAYS TO BEAT ARTHRITIS
Early intervention and a multi-faceted treatment plan can help get the better of this common condition.
82 VIRTUAL TRAINING – PROS AND CONS
Online classes and consultations offer advantages, but can only do so much, and shouldn’t replace in-person training sessions.
85 IT’S ALL IN THE INGREDIENTS
A supplement is only as good as what it’s made of. For this company, a superior knowledge of ingredients and a commitment to quality mean effective products that work.
88 FRACKING – IS IT HARMING YOUR DOG?
Used to reach oil and gas deposits deep within the earth, this procedure is causing a lot of controversy and health concerns.
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34 SOCIAL MEDIA Tips, contests and more! Like us /AnimalWellnessMagazine Updates, news, events! @ AnimalWellnessMagazine Product reviews and tutorials! AnimalWellnessTV
COLUMNS
46
12 Yakkity yak 43 Beyond the label 42 To the rescue
DEPARTMENTS
63 Cat chat
8 Editorial
64 FWM tail end 80 Warm & fuzzy
31 Social media
86 Passages
51 MUTTS comic strip shelter contest
91 Book reviews
52 Animal Wellness resource guide
98 Tail end
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65 The scoop 74 Product picks 92 Marketplace 95 ClassiďŹ eds 96 Events calendar animal wellness
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ALL ABOUT
HEARTWORM – Part 1
By Shawn Messonnier, DVM
A thorough understanding of this disease will help you protect your dog.
If
you have a dog, you already know something about heartworm. But there are several misunderstandings surrounding this disease that need clarification. In the first of this two-part article, we’ll look at the difference between heartworm infection and disease, risk factors and symptoms, and how heartworm is diagnosed.
Infection or disease? To start with, it’s important to know the difference between heartworm infection and disease. Heartworm infection occurs when an infected mosquito deposits immature larval heartworms into the dog while feeding on him. These dogs are not clinically ill, do not act sick, and appear totally normal. Usually, a
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animal wellness
diagnosis of heartworm infection is made through the dog’s annual blood work. People are usually shocked to discover that their healthy dogs are infected with heartworms and are at risk of developing heartworm disease. Most dogs I see with “heartworm” have heartworm infection, not disease. Heartworm disease results when a dog infected with heartworms develops clinical signs (see next section). Fortunately, I very rarely see dogs with heartworm disease. Treatment requires much more aggressive and expensive therapies; dogs with heartworm disease are more likely to suffer side effects from the traditional medication used in treatment than those with heartworm infection.
Signs and symptoms Clinical signs of heartworm disease usually represent pathology of the heart and lungs. In fact, “heartworms” are really “lungworms”. In most cases, the worms are found in the large blood vessels of the lungs, not the heart. The worms only “back up” from the lung blood vessels in severe infections, in which
case they end up in the chambers of the heart (right side) and caudal vena cava blood vessel. When the disease was first discovered, so many worms were found in animals that they had in fact backed up into the heart, so the disease was named heartworm when it would be more accurate to call it lungworm. Clinical signs, especially early in the disease, involve coughing, most often when the dog is active. The coughing is due to the presence of worms in the pulmonary blood vessels, and the associated inflammation the worms produce. With time, the disease may progress and cause more severe signs of lung and/ or heart infection and inflammation, such as weakness, more serious and constant coughing, weight loss, decreased appetite, and fluid accumulation in the chest and abdomen (signs that predispose the dog to sudden death). In some cases, however, the only sign of heartworm disease is sudden death.
Often, heartworm prevention is only needed during the warmer months. Diagnostics have improved Heartworm infection is usually easily diagnosed with a simple blood test. However, there is still some confusion among veterinarians and their clients on what the “best” test is. Three types of blood test can be used to diagnose the presence of heartworms in a dog’s body. When heartworms were originally discovered in animals in the 1970s, the blood test for it involved simply examining a drop of blood under the microscope for the presence of heartworm microfilariae (baby heartworms produced by female worms in the dog’s body). While this test would often reveal the presence of microfilariae, there were two limitations. First, another species of microfilariae (most commonly one that does not cause disease in dogs) was often found.
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