Pet Connection Canada Aug/Sept 2021 Issue

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Canada’s Natural Health Magazine for Pets

The Myth of 100% Complete Pet Foods

Blood Tests

ACUPUNCTURE

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2021

ENERGY HEALING Mercury & Ingredient Testing

E-Cigarettes are Toxic to Pets $4.95 Display until September 30, 2021

What is Genome Editing?

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GETTING THE SCOOP ON CANADA’S PET CULTURE VOLUME 14 • ISSUE 3 • AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

Inside: What is in commercial cat and dog food?

The case for mercury and ingredient testing

by Sarrah M. Dunham-Cheatham and associates The Myth of 100% Complete Pet Foods

by Dr. Randy Wysong

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Blood Tests 28

by Dr. Moira Drosdovech Sometimes you need a sharp poke to feel better

by Dr. Carla Wilkie

36

Reiki Energy Healing for Pets

by Rose Mainprize

Electronic Cigarettes are Toxic to Pet

by Dr. Sharon M. Gwaltney-Brant Terrific and Sometimes Terrible Teens!

by Valerie Barry

32 Ranger & Yogi

40 42

IN EVERY ISSUE Letter from the Editor Mark Your Calendars!

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Cross Canada Photo Contest

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Cover Photo: Dream Stellardens Above the Dream Photo Courtesy of Kovaleva Irina Petrovna

Phoebe

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What is Genome Editing?

by Lucy Sharatt

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Letter from the Editor PUBLISHER BC’s Pet Connection Ltd EDITOR Leslie Kennedy Tel: 604-220-5346 info@petconnection.ca www.petconnection.ca GRAPHIC DESIGN Britton Design Services CONTRIBUTORS Valerie Barry Dr. Moira Drosdovech Sarrah M. Dunham-Cheatham Dr. Gwaltney-Brant Rose Mainprize Lucy Sharratt Dr. Carla Wilkie Dr. Randy Wysong

Pet Connection is published 6 times a year. Founded in 2008.

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Pet Connection 2443 Beacon Avenue Sidney, BC V8L 1X7 Pet Connection does not disclose its subscribers list to anyone.

PET CONNECTION does not assume responsibility for any claims made by its advertisers, or for any information dispensed. The articles and information presented are for information only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Publisher. Permission to reproduce any part of this publication must be approved by the publisher. All pictures, articles or emails sent in become the property of Pet Connection.

All Rights Reserved © 2021 - BC’s PET CONNECTION LTD

PEFC 4

Be a consumer advocate!

For you and your pets!

Pet owners who want to provide their pets with the best nutritional value in the food they feed them, just have to remember one thing.

There really is no such thing as ‘pet food’ and ‘people food’.

Real food is real food, for them and for us.

Fresh is always better, for them and for us.

Nature knows best, for them and for us.

Variety is vital, for them and for us.

“All Disease Begins in the Gut”, (Hippocrates), for them and for us.

It is disturbing as there is just so much GMO fake food out there. The unregulated pet food industry has no way of stopping GMO’s from getting into regular mainstream pet food. For your health and for that of your pet, please feed as close as possible to real fresh food.

‘Genone Editing’ is coming…(see page 52)…More sneaky techniques to create new GM foods. Be on the look-out.

To your pets health,

- Leslie Kennedy Editor

“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.

You are his life, his love, his leader.

He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.

You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.”

- Unknown

OUR MISSION: To save innocent companion animals from any type of harm.

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AUGUST - SEPTEMBER •2021 www.petconnection.ca AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2019

CONTRIBUTORS Valerie Barry, KPA-CTP, Valerie has been working with people and their dogs for almost 20 years. Accredited by the BC SPCA AnimalKind Program, Dog Partners (formerly In Partnership With Dogs) uses Positive, and Force-Free training methods. Valerie was one of the first dog trainers to recognize the need for classes designed specifically for the adolescent dog. She really enjoys working with puppies, young dogs and their families. She also specializes in Behaviour Modification for dogs with all levels of aggression, reactivity, fear and anxiety. Valerie enjoys learning and finding new educational opportunities to further her goal of helping pet owners build true partnerships with their dogs.

Dog Partners: www.dogpartners.ca / hello@dogpartners.ca / 604-868-5145

Dr. Moira Drosdovech, DVM After practicing conventionally-based veterinary medicine for the first 13 years of practice, my practice philosophy took quite a turn to one that encompassed a more holistic bent for the past 15 years. At Pawsitive, our modalities include homeopathy, raw diets, herbal medicine, nutraceuticals, chiropractic, laser, BodyTalk for Animals and more. I can honestly say, subjectively, that those individuals who follow our recommendations for minimal vaccines, raw diets, and choice of treatments for their pets ailments have some of the healthiest pets I have ever seen on the whole. www.pawsitivevetcare.com

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Sarrah M. Dunham-Cheatham, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, whose research focuses on how hazardous materials behave in the environment. She has over 14 years of analytical laboratory experience and specializes in mercury quantification methods.

To view more of Sarrah’s research, including results from her recent research on mercury concentrations in and adulteration of commercial cat and dog foods, visit her website: sarrahdc.com

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Dr. Gwaltney-Brant has two board certifications in toxicology from the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology and American Board of Toxicology, plus a PhD in veterinary pathology. In addition to being a consultant for VIN, she also is an adjunct faculty member at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, and the department of pathology at the University of Florida. She has also been in private practice, was the medical director of the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center, and did a post-doctorate at the National Animal Disease Center.

Rose Mainprize is a CRA Registered Usui Reiki Master Teacher and Practitioner. She was raised in the beautiful rural surroundings of the Shuswap in British Columbia, with her family and many animals on their property, which facilitated a lifelong commitment to nurturing animals. Rose works in Vancouver, BC with animals and their humans alike. She and her cousin Willow offer classes and sessions through rosewillowreiki.ca

Lucy Sharratt is Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN). CBAN brings together 16 groups to research, monitor and raise awareness about issues relating to genetic engineering in food and farming.

CBAN members include farmer associations, environmental and social justice organizations, and regional coalitions of grassroots groups. www.cban.ca

Dr. Randy Wysong (BS, DVM) is author of thirteen books, numerous scientific articles, and newsletters on the origin of life, philosophy, logic, self-improvement, fitness, nutrition, prevention, alternative holistic health, embryology, and surgical techniques. He has practiced veterinary surgery and medicine, taught college courses in human anatomy, physiology, and the origin of life, directed research in health education and product development, and is an iconoclastic free thinker, natural health and fitness advocate, athletic competitor, and do-it-yourselfer. www.asifthinkingmatters.com

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

Dr. Carla Wilkie is a 1992 graduate of the Ontario Veterinary College, who also has certifications in veterinary acupuncture through the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society, and in Veterinary Spinal Manipulation Therapy (veterinary chiropractic) and Rehabilitation (veterinary physiotherapy). She works at Ambleside Animal Hospital in West Vancouver and Points East West Veterinary Services in Squamish.

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What is in commercial cat and dog food?

The case for mercury and ingredient testing.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

By Sarrah M. Dunham-Cheatham, Kelly Klingler, Mary Peacock, Michael B. Teglas, Mae Sexauer Gustin

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Abstract Commercial pet foods should be safe for long-term feeding. However, recent recalls and lawsuits have eroded public trust in pet food companies and products.

Recent studies have identified high concentrations of mercury, a potent neurotoxin, in pet food products. Here we posit that pet food products require independent testing to verify safety and compliance with developed Food and Drug Administration and Association of American Feed Control Officials standards, and initiate a discussion as to why including quantification of mercury and methyl-mercury, as well as the identification of adulteration, are important to such testing protocols.

The outcomes of these discussions will be multifaceted: initiating the impetus to investigate the quality and label accuracy of pet foods; ensuring product safety; promoting transparency within the pet food industry; informing veterinary practices regarding pet food recommendations; providing data for evidence-based policy and regulatory enforcement; and working toward fulfilling the National Research Council's call for

research that identifies levels of contaminants in animal feeds and residues in human foods.

1. Regulation of pet food in the United States Consuming foods that meet nutritional needs is the basis of sustained health for all living organisms. Because pets, henceforth referring specifically to domestic cats and dogs, are typically fed the same food daily, often for long periods of time, it is critical to ensure that these foods provide the nutrition needed for a healthy life and do not pose a health risk. As such, most pet owners depend on the pet food industry to manufacture products that are nutritious and safe.

In the United States, the commercial pet food industry is regulated at the federal level by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as at the state level by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). The FDA is responsible for overseeing the

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source ingredients used in the Animal Feed Safety System that includes both animal feed (products produced for animals, including livestock) and pet food (products fed to pets, largely cats and dogs, which have stricter regulations than animal feed), while AAFCO regulates the sale and distribution of pet foods. In 2011, The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into U.S. law, and the final rule was published in 2015 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). The FSMA added regulations for current good manufacturing practices (CGMP), hazard analysis, and preventative controls (PC) for animal food facilities, and facilities of all sizes must comply with both the CGMP and PC rules (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). The CGMP and PC rules set forth by the FSMA are designed to ensure the safe production of animal food by focusing heavily on preventing potential risks and taking into account the unique nature of pet food manufacturing, thus allowing flexibility for facilities of all sizes (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2017).

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Though the FDA has a strong safety record since it began regulating the production of pet food in 1906 under the Pure Food and Drug Act (updated in 1938 by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act), issues affecting safety of pet foods still occur (Center for Veterinary Medicine, 2016). In 2007, a largescale recall was issued for melamine-contaminated pet foods that caused large numbers of pet deaths, spurring Congress to pass the “Ensuring the Safety of Pet Food” law that required

by September 27, 2009 “the Secretary of Health and Human Service…[to] establish: 1) ingredient standards and definitions with respect to pet food; 2) processing standards for pet food; and 3) updated standards for the labeling of pet food that included nutritional and ingredient information” (U.S. Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of, 2007); the first requirement was stricken from the law in August 2018 (H.R. 5554, 2018). More recently, in 2018 multiple pet food recalls were announced by the FDA due to risks of Listeria, Salmonella, Escherichia coli, botulism toxin, pentobarbital (a euthanasia drug) contamination, elevated levels of thyroid hormone, and toxic levels of Vitamin D (American Veterinary Medical Association, 2018; U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2019).

Additionally, a few very public lawsuits were litigated

with pet food companies as the defendants in 2018.

Two class action lawsuits were filed against Champion Petfoods USA, Inc. and Champion Petfoods LP for, among other things, “…[their] negligent, reckless, and/ or intentional practice of misrepresenting and failing to fully disclose the presence of heavy metals and toxins…” in Champion brand dog and cat foods sold in the United States ( Jennifer Reitman et al. v. Champion PetFoods USA, Inc. et al., 2019; Leppert et al. v.

Champion Petfoods USA, Inc. et al., 2019). Another lawsuit resulted in a pet food ingredient manufacturer and a commodities broker paying a total of $7 million after admitting to replacing poultry meals with cheaper feather and bone meals and omitting ingredients altogether (Cima, 2018).

Despite the federal and state regulatory structure and recent emphasis on preventive controls, hazards may still be present in pet foods. Even when products meet standards, there may still be concerns about product safety as potentially toxic metals and other harmful, adulterant ingredients may be present in the foods. Mercury, for example, is not an explicitly identified hazard under the FSMA and CGMP, and PC rules are not in place to monitor for mercury in pet food ingredients and products, though long-term consumption of low concentrations of mercury can result in serious health issues. Additionally, pet foods are commonly mislabeled, including omission of ingredients in the product that are included on the packaging label and inclusion of ingredients that are absent from the label (Olivry and Mueller, 2018). When considering recent questionable actions by select companies in the pet food industry together with numerous recalls, a severe erosion of trust in the pet food industry as a whole may develop. Consumers should be confident in the quality and safety of commercial pet foods. Here we discuss the importance of monitoring for mercury and adulteration (using molecular genetic techniques) in commercial pet foods.

2. Testing for mercury and methylmercury Both academic studies and those conducted by independent laboratories have identified potentially toxic metals in pet foods at concentrations above the

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maximum tolerable limits (MTL) set by the FDA for Contaminants in the Food Chain, 2008), it is critical to humans and pets (Atkins et al., 2011; Adb-Elhakim quantify the total mercury content as well as the form et al., 2016; Luippold and Gustin, 2016; Clean Label of mercury present in pet food in order to better predict Project, 2017). Potentially toxic metals and metalloids the potential effects of long-term consumption of food (e.g., arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, selenium, products containing mercury. mercury, etc.) can be Mercury is a naturally occurring introduced into pet food Studies have revealed that metal that is present in soil, through a wide variety many pet foods contain some water, and air. Plants uptake of ingredients – meat, mercury from air through their animal by-products, plantamount of mercury,... leaves (Arnold et al., 2018), and based ingredients, fillers, aquatic species bioaccumulate preservatives, coloring agents mercury they are ex-posed to – as well as during production from the processing in the water (Watras et al., 1998; Ullrich et al., 2001). equipment. In 2017, the Clean Label Project®, an If these plants and aquatic species (e.g., fish, seaweed, in-dependent, nonprofit laboratory, analyzed 1000+ algae) are used as ingredients in pet foods, they can commercial pet foods for 4 toxic metals (i.e., arsenic, contribute mercury to the final pet food product. cadmium, lead, and mercury) and purportedly found Mercury contributed by these ingredients will likely be that several pet foods contained these at concentrations decreased in the final product as a result of dilution from above the established MTLs for pet foods (Clean Label other ingredients; however, even low concentrations Project, 2017). These results are concerning, as both of mercury in the final pet food product can lead to acute and chronic ingestion of these metal/metalloids longterm health effects as a result of the propensity of can lead to adverse health effects in animals, including mercury to bioaccumulate in animals. death in severe cases.

There is no established regulatory MTL for cats and Here we focus on one metal in particular, mercury, dogs, and reported MTLs for mercury in both species which is extremely toxic to animals (Takeuchi et al., vary depending on reference and country. For example, 1962; Chang et al., 1974; Farrar et al., 1994; National values of 267 μg mercury per kg dry food (μgkg−1) for Research Council, 2005; Ackerman et al., 2016). nonreproducing cats (67 μgkg−1 for reproducing cats) has Mercury is a potent neurotoxin and exposure to all been reported by the FDA, but are not action levels (U.S. forms of mercury may result in a range of symptoms, Food and Drug Administration, 2011). In their overview including ataxia, loss of balance, abnormal movements, of mercury poisoning, Merck, publisher of The Merck uncontrolled howling, and seizures, as well as changes Manuals and The Merck Index, reported that mercury to visual, cognitive, and emotional functions, and death concentrations in animal feed, including pet foods, b100 in severe cases (Chang et al., 1974; National Research μgkg−1 (based on wet food mass) are normal (Blakley, Council, 2005; Farina et al., 2011; Farina et al., 2013).

2019). However, a MTL value of 100 μgkg−1 (based Symptom severity depends on the dose and duration on dry food mass) was reported for mercury in pet food of exposure, as well as the form of mercury. Elemental “materials”, with the exception of fish and carbonates that mercury is easily removed from the body relative to may have mercury concentrations of 500 and 300 μgkg−1, organic mercury compounds, and thus small doses of respectively (EC, 2012). Many of these reported MTLs organic mercury compounds can have disproportionate for pets are based on the Mineral Tolerance of Animals effects as they bioaccumulate in organisms (Boyer et (National Research Council, 2005), despite the fact that al., 1978; Chang and Reuhl, 1983). Organic mercury the MTLs reported in this reference are for non-pet compounds are common in fish/aquatic animal tissues species. Toxicity studies are needed to determine MTLs that are widely used in pet foods, especially cat foods; for mercury and organic mercury compounds for both because cats are particularly sensitive to low doses cats and dogs that would allow regulatory agencies to set of organic mercury (Takeuchi et al., 1962; Chang safe limits for mercury in pet foods. and Reuhl, 1983; Opinion of the Scientific Panel on

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Studies have revealed that many pet foods contain some amount of mercury, and that some foods contain mercury concentrations above the suggested MTLs mentioned above. Luippold and Gustin (2016) analyzed 101 commercial pet foods from the U.S., including dry and wet foods, and found 5 of the foods contained mercury at concentrations above the 267 μgkg−1 MTL and another 11 foods were above the 67 μgkg−1 MTL; all of the foods above the non-reproducing cat MTL were cat foods, most of which were wet food. Kim et al. (2018) analyzed 51 dry dog foods from the U.S. and found that fish-based dog foods had the highest mercury concentrations and that poultry- and red meat-based dog foods had lower mercury concentrations. The authors also re-ported that fish-based pet diets can have up to 8 times higher mercury concentrations, measured as daily intake, as compared to a human diet. In another study, cat foods had higher mercury concentrations than dog foods, though none of the 58 analyzed cat and dog foods contained mercury at concentrations above the 100 μgkg−1 MTL (Atkins et al., 2011). Sires et al. (2019) reported that 3 out of 24 analyzed commercial dog foods contained mercury at detectable concentrations (2 of which did not contain any fish-based ingredients), and none of the foods contained methylmercury; however, the samples in this study were heated to 100 °C to dry the samples, that may have led to loss of mercury from the samples via volatilization and bias in the study results. Paulelli et al. (2018) quantified mercury concentrations in commercial pet foods from Brazil and reported that mercury concentrations were highest in canned foods. Because mercury is not regulated in pet foods, independent monitoring is needed to ensure that all pet food products contain safe concentrations of mercury.

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Analytical techniques that have been used to quantify mercury, atomic absorption (AA) and inductivelycoupled plasma spectroscopies (ICP), are not ideal for determination of mercury in pet foods due to high detection limits, inefficient recoveries, interferences and memory effects within the instrument, high cost to operate, and the need to process or pretreat samples prior to analysis ( Jian et al., 2000; Ferreira et al., 2015). Direct measurement, cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy (CVAFS), or ICP-mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) techniques are preferred for low-concentration mercury and methylmercury analyses to overcome the limitations of AA and

ICP instrumentation. Though direct analyzers (e.g., Milestone DMA-80, Nippon MA-3000) and CVAFS are mercury-specific and are relatively simple and inexpensive to operate, many laboratories do not have access to these instruments. ICP-MS instruments are more common, but are more expensive to operate and require extensive training.

In 2005, the National Research Council (NRC) stated there has been “increased evidence for potentially toxic levels of mercury, cadmium, lead, and other minerals in the diet of humans and companion animals”, and that “… there is a need for additional research on safe levels of organic mercury for companion animals, especially cats because of their high consumption of fish” (National Research Council, 2005). In the 13+ years since this publication, little progress has been made to address this concern in companion animals. The current FDA action levels for mercury in animal feed, including pet foods, are non-existent for many feeds (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2000). Standards for mercury exposure exist for humans and some agricultural animals, but these standards cannot and should not be extrapolated to other animal species due to differences in metabolism among species. By testing for mercury and organic mercury concentrations in pet foods, along with toxicity studies in pets, a rubric can be developed that identifies exposures of concern for pet species and establishes standards for both mercury and organic mercury in pet foods to ensure pet safety.

3. Using molecular techniques to identify pet food adulteration Adulteration of foods can lead to many potential consequences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the potential costs of adulteration in the global food supply chain has been in the number and frequency of dietrelated hypersensitivities or allergies suffered by pets in recent years (Gaschen and Merchant, 2011; Vogelnest and Cheng, 2013; Mueller et al., 2016). Considering the importance of accurate food labeling for pets with mild to life-threatening allergies, accurate detection of mislabeled or undeclared animal species is of importance for ensuring pet safety. In fact, many commercial pet food brands now offer allergen-free food products specifically designed for animals with immunologically

based adverse food reactions (Okuma and Hellberg, 2015). However, several studies have documented that these putatively “safe” diets are equally at risk of species substitutions (Raditic et al., 2011; Ricci et al., 2013).

This is especially concerning since diagnosis of an allergy within pets is typically determined by an elimination diet (Verlinden et al., 2006; Okuma and Hellberg, 2015), with protein sources tested individually to reveal whether they elicit an immunological response.

Consequently, the presence of undeclared protein types in a product may inhibit accurate diagnoses and lead to life-long health issues endured by the pet. In addition to undeclared meats, another complicating issue in the mislabeling of pet food products lies within the ingredient listing itself. Often, generic or purposefully vague meat ingredients are given (e.g. meat by-products, chicken “meal”, animal plasma). Since the source and composition of such ingredients likely vary depending on current market prices and availability of components (e.g., variation between lot or batch number), consumers are largely unaware of the exact proportion of these “fillers” in each package of pet food purchased.

In an effort to promote greater traceability and transparency in the pet food industry, ingredient lists should be scrutinized to the same degree as is done for human food (Flores-Munguia et al., 2000; Ayaz et al., 2006; Ozpinar et al., 2013), and pet food companies should be held accountable for accidental or intentional mislabeling. Typically, the detection of multiple meat sources in processed feed samples is accomplished molecularly by taking advantage of differences in DNA

sequence variation that have accumulated among species over evolutionary history (Tautz et al., 2003). Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based species-specific primers, or short, standardized genetic regions known as “barcodes”, it is possible to amplify target DNA sequences from a single gene and designate a species identification (Valentini et al., 2009; Galimberti et al., 2013) by comparing sequence data from unknown samples with a reference library of known nucleotide variation per species of interest (i.e., Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) Animal Identification Request Engine [http://www.boldsystems. org/], the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) in GenBank [http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/Blast.cgi]) (Hebert et al., 2003; Valentini et al., 2009; Galimberti et al., 2013). In practice, barcodes are designed in two parts, with the center portion containing a variable genetic region that can differentiate among species, whereas the outer flanking regions consist of priming sites that are highly conserved across taxa and allow for consistent amplification using a “universal” primer pair (Valentini et al., 2009; Deagle et al., 2014; Dobrovolny et al., 2019).

Traditionally, DNA barcodes have required two steps; first, DNA samples undergo PCR amplification of the barcode-specific sequences present and then these PCR products are analyzed using Sanger sequencing for comparison with known reference sequences (Ivanova et al., 2012; Kress and Erickson, 2012; Dobrovolny et al., 2019). Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers (for animals, primarily the gene that codes for the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (CO1); Hebert et al., 2003) are often a good option because

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mtDNA is present in higher copy numbers in tissues and is typically more preserved than nuclear DNA despite industrial processing (Galimberti et al., 2013; Kane and Hellberg, 2016). However, since the degree of DNA degradation and fragmentation that occurs in highly processed food samples is often quite high, PCR amplification of large full-barcode fragments (N 600 base pairs (bp)) common in standard mitochondrial markers remains challenging for mixed species samples (Goldstein and Desalle, 2003; Hajibabaei et al., 2006; Meusnier et al., 2008; Sarri et al., 2014). A popular alternative, especially for highly processed samples that have undergone the industrial cooking process, is DNA mini-barcoding that still enables species identification but optimizes the use of shorter mtDNA sequences (~100–300 bp) that may have greater amplification success with fragmented or low quality DNA (Hajibabaei et al., 2006; Hellberg and Morrissey, 2011; Sarri et al., 2014). Mini-barcode genetic markers have been designed as both singleplex PCR assays (i.e. single primer pair reaction) (Kesmen et al., 2007; Sarri et al.,

2014; Shokralla et al., 2015) as well as multiplexed PCR assays. Multiplex assays tend to be more cost-effective since they incorporate several species-specific primer pairs to enable simultaneous identification of multiple meat species per reaction (e.g., 12SrRNA, tRNA Val, and 16sRNA for bovine, caprine, ovine, avian [chicken, goose, turkey], porcine, and equine identification) (Dalmasso et al., 2004). Real-time PCR screening is also often used in complement with DNA barcoding in order to quantify each of the protein sources in the analyzed samples (Cawthraw et al., 2009; Yancy et al., 2009).

Recently, there has been increasing interest in applying next generation sequencing (NGS) approaches to food quality and control research through DNA metabarcoding that combines high-throughput sequencing technology with traditional DNA barcoding (Tillmar et al., 2013; Bertolini et al., 2015; Littlefair and Clare, 2016; Staats et al., 2016; Dobrovolny et al., 2019; Xing et al., 2019). Through the use of short oligonucleotides that can index individual samples,

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CLC Genomics Workbench, Galaxy workflow) that will likely facilitate regular use of DNA metabarcoding methods in future meat adulteration studies (Afgan et al., 2016). In this era of unprecedented DNA sequencing technology, we can evaluate the relative degree of mislabeling that occurs by surveying a broad range of pet food products for sources of animal proteins and inform efforts demanding greater accountability in each step of the commercial pet food supply chain.

4. Next steps What should we be doing, as scientists, veterinarians, and pet owners? First, we need to better understand the contents of commercial pet foods in order to better predict possible effects on animal health and to help consumers select a food that will not cause harm to their pet(s). This will require that scientists scrutinize pet foods for a list of potential harmful components, including potentially toxic metals and non-disclosed ingredients. Second, the results obtained should

suppression by acids. Fresenius J. Anal. Chem. 366, 48–53.

Kane, D.E., R.S. Hellberg. 2016. Identification of species in ground meat products sold on the U.S. commercial market using DNA-based methods. Food Control 59, 158–163.

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2008. A universal DNA mini-barcode for biodiversity analysis. BMC Genomics, 9, 214.

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BMC Vet. Res. 12:9.

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DNA metabarcoding significantly increases the multiplexing capacity per sequencing run (i.e., 96 samples simultaneously) while also enabling differentiation of species present at relatively low proportions (Arulandhu et al., 2017; Dobrovolny et al., 2019; Xing et al., 2019).

The ability to thoroughly detect all species present at varying proportions in a mixed sample without a prior selection of a species-specific set of full length or minibarcodes will enable greater accuracy and more detailed analysis of pet food composition. In fact, although minibarcode sets have been thought to generally out perform full length barcodes in studies testing highly processed petfoods, recent work has indicated that this may not be the case across all sets of mini-barcodes (Hellberg et al., 2017). Therefore, traditional DNA barcoding and Sanger sequencing approaches may fail to capture species present in low quantities. While NGS data analysis still represents a bioinformatics challenge and is associated with a unique set of technical issues (i.e., PCR bias, sequencing errors, alignment issues), there have been remarkable developments in user-friendly software packages (e.g.,

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be shared with: scientists to help improve future experiments on pet foods; veterinarians to inform their pet food recommendations to clients and to open a discussion of effects of contaminated foods on animal health; policy makers to ensure the pet food industry is held accountable for the quality of their products; and consumers purchasing food products for their pets.

Because symptoms of exposure to some toxic metals may not manifest for months to years, and because pet food formulas change through time, a singular survey of pet food quality is insufficient. Therefore, long-term monitoring programs should be formalized with the ultimate focus on setting limits of exposure and standards for pet food and ensuring compliance and safety of pet foods to the established regulations.

Studying pet foods should segue into assessing animal feed and eventually animal products for human consumption for non-disclosed ingredients that could be harmful to animal and human health. Though the NRC stated that “research that identifies the level of mercury in feeds that

result in mercury residue levels of concern for human health are greatly needed” (National Research Council, 2005), we assert that research on all contaminant and toxin residues is equally needed and challenge our community to actively work toward this goal.

Acknowledgements The authors had no funding to write this article.

We thank a donor to the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources of the University of Nevada, Reno for providing funding to support optimization of our methods, as well as numerous citizens who contributed to our crowdfunding initiative.

These limited dollars have allowed us to continue to improve and refine our methods for measurement of mercury and protein sources in pet foods. We also thank the reviewers for their valuable feedback that helped to greatly improve this article.

Copyright @Elsevier Printed with permission

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THE MYTH OF 100% COMPLETE PET FOODS

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By Dr. Randy Wysong

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Companion animals were once fed table scraps and also ate whatever they could find or catch in the barn or fields. This was fine until leash laws were enacted and pets became more urbanized and house bound. As we became swept along with consumerism and convenience, it was only natural that we would seek convenient pet foods from the grocery store. Alert entrepreneurs in the food processing industry noted this and saw an opportunity to convert waste (much of it still highly nutritious) in the growing human food industry into pet food. These converted scraps proved to be an efficient use of resources otherwise wasted and a profitable solution to keeping the pet’s bowl full.

There are now extruded, pelleted, baked, canned, freeze-dried, semi-moist, frozen, lifestage, breed specific, high protein, low protein, natural, holistic, USDA approved, human grade, organic, fortified, anti-allergenic, and disease treatment processed pet food formulas. In a race to create new market niches, profiteers roll out an endless array of purported ‘special’ ingredients, and demonize a growing list of ‘bad’ ingredients. Each manufacturer argues that their food is the best and can offer either unsupported claims playing to myths and public ignorance, or proofs such as analyses (% protein, fat, water, etc.), successful AAFCO (American Association of Feed Control Officials) feeding trials, digestibility studies (how much comes out compared to how much is fed), and testimonials and endorsements. All such claims and proofs constitute a fallacious life

support system keeping, as you will see, a very dangerous idea alive.

The commercial pet food imbroglio is confusing and frustrating for consumers trying to make conscientious choices. After all, how can food A be better than food B, while B is better than A, with each side providing proofs? Rather than get into the confusing debate, most people just go with the flow and swallow current marketing razzle-dazzle. Myth, lore, faith, convention, clever advertising, convenience, trust, and tales of pet food ingredient dos and don’ts have become the basis for

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he pet food industry has been running in place and causing immeasurable harm to pets for at least 75 years. It presents an egregious example of scientific hubris and commercial irresponsibility.

Whether you have pets or not, what follows will underscore and substantiate everything the book has said thus far regarding how wrong society can be. Only in this case, our wrongness falls upon innocent pet victims.

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pet feeding. But virtually every processed pet food claim intended to lure consumers is found to be deceptive upon close examination.

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For example, “human grade” ingredients sound good, but virtually all pet food ingredients come from human grade processing facilities. (There are no “pet food ingredient” factories.) “No by-products” sounds good, but the trimmings, organs, and scraps you and I can't find at a meat counter turn out to be some of the most nutritious elements for pets. “No corn, soy, or wheat” is a common scare tactic, but the brands that omit them usually use some other ingredient that is just as starchy (sugary), and often nutritionally inferior.

Some brands, in an attempt to scare people into their coffers with a “no-grain” claim, use tapioca for their

starch. But that can contain the poison hydrogen cyanide. Some make boasts about being holistic, natural, and the like but are essentially the same as all other brands. The “no preservatives” claim would mean that the nutrients are unprotected from oxidation and would generate toxins worse than the preservatives that have been left out. One brand, implying by its name that it is “raw,” lists the raw ingredients it contains after fifty or so ingredients that are heat processed (ingredients must be listed in order of quantity), and below an ingredient that is in the food at one ten-millionth of an ounce in a normal meal. The raw part of the food could be at billionths of an ounce, trillionths, or just a few molecules per twenty-ton truckload.

People are easily led and deceived because they tend to

believe anything on a label and assume pet feeding is mysterious and needs high tech solutions. Let’s think about this for a moment using the same common sense we would use in choosing our own best foods.

substances with health effects). Any health food store and grocery has foods and nutraceuticals approved for humans that are banned from inclusion in commercial pet foods.

Because of the nondescript nature of the mush and nuggets in cans and bags, pet owners must extend a lot of trust to manufacturers. But the balm of blind trust and faith never turns out to be a solution for anything. For example, consider the following approved ingredients from the official AAFCO regulatory publications:

This sad state of irrationality—approving feces and garbage but banning chondroitin—can only be explained by the fact that regulators are trained in old school nutrition using textbooks parroting 100-year-old nutritional ideas. They are taught and come to believe that the nature of the food makes no difference, just the percentages of protein, fat, vitamin A, and the like. If dehydrated garbage and feces is made sterile (safe?) and has 12% protein, then to them that equals nutritious food. Similar thinking can be found in human hospitals where old school nutritionally trained dieticians feed diseased and starving patients instant potatoes, Jell-O, canned meat, and Diet Coke. Any claim about special merits of natural ingredients is voodoo to them.

• polyethylene roughage (plastic) • hydrolyzed poultry feathers • hydrolyzed hair • hydrolyzed leather meal • some 36 chemical preservatives • peanut skins and hulls • corn cob fractions • ground corn cob • ground clam shells • poultry, cow, and pig feces and litter • hundreds of chemicals • a host of antibiotic and chemotherapeutic pharmaceuticals • a variety of synthetic flavorings • adjuvants • sequestrates • stabilizers • anticaking agents This is not to say these ingredients are commonly used, just to point out that they can be. Obviously these ‘approved’ ingredients prove it may not be such a good idea to blindly trust regulators, manufacturers, and nutritionists, and assume they know better about how to feed your pet than you do.

The absurdity of official nutrition deepens because at the same time regulators approve dehydrated garbage, they ban natural ingredients like pollen, chondroitin, Coenzyme Q10, and other nutraceuticals (natural

Both human and animal nutritionists can be so caught up in their science of percentages that no room is left in their brains for common sense. If that’s the way they want to eat, that is one thing. It’s quite another for consumers to follow along just because nutritionists and regulators promote themselves as expert, authoritative, and immune from error.

In a classic case of government run amok, pet food regulators carefully purge the industry of natural ingredients that may have health benefits, and then call manufacturers to task over picayune matters on package labels that have nothing to do with nutrition, health, or safety.

Here is just one example of how regulators fill their time policing pet foods. A commercial food that had chicken and organs in it claimed on the label that it had “meat.”

The regulatory Gestapo swooped down and declared it illegal. They considered neither chicken nor organs to be “meat” because of a terminology technicality they had created. It took thousands of dollars and months of work for the manufacturer to make the changes to the packages. For what? So the public would not be ‘misled’ to believe that the “meat” mentioned on the label was chicken and organs (even though the ingredient label clearly identified what was in the product). This was

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• dehydrated garbage (you read that right)

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an action taken by the FDA, the same regulatory body that permits drugs into the market that maim and kill hundreds of thousands of humans and animals every year. In contrast, never has the word meat on a label harmed a pet. And most certainly, no pet has ever been harmed if their owner understood meat to be chicken and organs.

Pet food regulators busy themselves refereeing precise label verbiage, size of print, where on packages certain things must be said, and promoting the diseaseproducing “100% complete” label claim I will get into in a moment. They are stuck in their own deep bureaucracy, oblivious to the real world, and convinced of their selfimportance by monitoring silly nonsense.

earth would we ever think of doing it to our pets? Yet virtually every pet owner feeds the same processed food, meal after meal, day after day, and does so thinking they are doing their pet a favor because the label says “100% complete and balanced.”

Recognizing this contradiction and then using the same intuitive sense to feed our pets as we do ourselves is the key to healthy pet feeding. It also provides another striking example of the fact that what the majority thinks and does—including all the experts— is usually wrong.

Aside from the fact that the singular feeding of processed foods spawns illness and disease, it is a cruelty to force a captive animal to eat the same food at every meal. Try eating a bowl of dry Cap’n Crunch After countless generations as the only food at every on the new fangled diets, meal for the next 15-20 years, the lifetime of pets. pets are plagued with Or eat a can of Spam at every manner of modern every meal for the same time. degenerative disease,...

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In the meantime, against such a massive background of agreement among industry, regulators, medical professionals, and nutritionists, how could the public help but be bamboozled into thinking that pet food manufacturing is some sort of high tech wizardry their pets need. Yes, processors can soup-up their twin-screw extruders and make things like white flour, textured soy vegetable protein (TVP), dye, and flavoring look and taste like a real pork chop. But the best of technology is being used to fool owners and pets and to make profits, not to create truly healthy foods.

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The results speak for themselves. After countless generations on the new fangled diets, pets are plagued with every manner of modern degenerative disease, including obesity, cancer, dental disease, and the whole list described in previous chapters that plague humans on their fare of processed foods.

The exclusive feeding of processed pet foods takes advantage of people’s desire for convenience and their unwillingness to trust themselves or take personal responsibility. As for the pet industry perpetrators, it all began innocently and well-intentioned enough. Entrepreneurship is the American way. All pet food producers needed to do was convince the public to throw their “non-nutritious and imbalanced” table scraps in the garbage, and to feed their pet the new modern way. But heat-processed, starch-based foods had all sorts of nutritional imbalances and deficiencies. Pets were dying, developing rickets, and going blind, just like starving children do in a third world country.

The tragedy is greater for pets because people can at least choose foods for themselves; pets can’t. Even though people may think they are being really smart by relying on the pet expert industry, stop and think about this for a moment. Nobody in their right mind would ever eat the same processed food, meal after meal, day after day for a lifetime. Nobody would make his or her child eat the same processed food at every meal. So why on

To save the day, regulators stepped in to force manufacturers to balance the foods better. So manufacturers consulted nutritionists who hold the belief that almost any mix of base ingredients can be made whole by adding protein and fat from virtually any source, along with synthetic vitamins and minerals. (The recent massive pet food recall of products containing an ingredient that was evidently spiked with toxic

It goes like this: If after a few weeks of eating the specific diet to be proven, the caged experimental animals don't die or show signs of deficiency, toxicity, or sickness, the

food passes. The manufacturer can then claim “100% Complete and Balanced” on the label. Monitoring this claim and making sure manufacturers meet the standards surrounding its presentation on labels is pretty much the central focus of pet food regulation: the FDA, USDA, AAFCO and every state feed control agency.

With a passed AAFCO test certificate in hand, the manufacturer can tell everyone that their new ‘scientifically proven’ food is all that a pet owner should feed and if they feed anything else nutritional imbalance and disease may result. If the manufacturer

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melamine to boost its nitrogen percentage—interpreted as protein—is an example of the danger of a focus on percentages.) They ‘fortified’ and ‘balanced’ the foods so they would meet the ‘known’ standards. To prove that the resulting foods are wholesome and healthy they decided to devise an experiment, known as the AAFCO feeding trial. This is an example of something called science that is not that at all.

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flashes scientific looking graphs and charts in front of veterinarians, some of them might endorse the products as well. (Veterinarians, like physicians, get little if any nutritional education. What they do get comes primarily from the biased “100% complete” pet food industry.)

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By performing such testing, all was supposed to be well and science served. But as it turns out, the claim of “100% complete” is a pretense of science because it assumes that which cannot be true—100% complete knowledge.

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Nutritionists, caught up in their cognitive chauvinism about percentages, totally miss the fact that nutrition has long-range impact that cannot be measured in a several-week AAFCO feeding test. Measuring such things as body weight, general condition, and a few blood values only gives the process the flavor of science, not its substance. They forget that prisoners have been known to survive for years on little more than water and a little rice or bread that is deficient and imbalanced by every nutritional measure. They overlook the body’s ability to adapt to and tolerate all kinds of nutritional abuses—for a time. Their so-called proof of a food’s perfect completeness is a mockery of logic, evidence,

and science. Since AAFCO science and experiments are really not worth doing, they are not worth doing well.

The commercial gambit of claiming 100% completeness is nothing new. It was also attempted in the baby formula industry. After all kinds of assurances that scientifically designed baby formulas were the “100% complete” smart choice for modern moms, the breast was retired to its 'proper’ place as a cosmetic appendage.

Physicians were indoctrinated by industry propaganda to push baby formula as the new, advanced, modern way. Then disaster struck. Hundreds of thousands of babies suffered serious nutritional diseases. When the breast was brought out of retirement, health was restored. Surely with such a terrible lesson, food processors would not again try to supplant nature.

But they have, and on a grand, worldwide scale. With clever subterfuge the pet food industry—under the tutelage of official nutritionists and regulators—is doing exactly the same thing the baby formula industry did.

The difference is that it is now illegal for mothers to be told that baby formula is better than natural food (in this case, breast milk), or that formulas should be fed exclusively. Why? Formula can cause disease and death.

But the lesson learned has not been transferred to pet feeding. The “100% complete” claim is now the bread and butter of a multibillion-dollar pet food industry and pays the salaries of countless nutritionists and pet food regulators. The scam has caused disease and death from its beginning, but it continues unabated while regulators harass manufacturers about how to place words on package labels.

Think about it. Our world is complex beyond comprehension. It is not only largely unknown, it is unknowable in the “complete” sense. In order for nutritionists and manufacturers to produce a “100% complete and balanced” pet food, they must first know 100% about nutrition. But nutrition is not a completed science.

In fact, although nutrition is rapidly being developed as a science, it has always lagged behind the other sciences.

This is in part because it is a field of study that has not stood side by side with the other sciences in universities.

Rather, nutrition has more or less been considered an incidental branch of homemaking or some other applied field such as animal husbandry. Additionally, because of its almost infinite complexity, the science of nutrition is not easily developed.

The fact of the matter is that the “100% complete” claim is actually 100% complete guesswork. At best, one could say that such a claim is the firm possibility of a definite maybe.

As proof, consider that each time regulatory agencies convene to decide how much of which nutrients comprise “100% complete,” debate ensues and standards usually change. This not only proves that what they claimed to be “100% complete” before was in fact not, but should also make us highly suspicious about what they now claim to be 100% complete.

So don't believe the claim on any commercially prepared pet (or human) food that it is “100% complete and balanced.” It is a specious, unsupported boast intended

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AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

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AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

to build consumer trust and dependence on commercial products—not create optimal health. It is a marketing slogan and nothing more.

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Occasionally there are disastrous failures in commercial foods such as with taurine, and more recently with “100% complete” and “natural” foods containing the toxic plastic, melamine. In this latter case, although the Modern, heat processed, food-fraction-based, additivepoison was purposely added to an ingredient imported laden pet foods sold as supposedly “100% complete” from China, only those animals being fed the same foods to be fed exclusively have caused serious illness and food meal after meal received a lethal dose. This tragic the death of untold thousands. Take the case of cats fed situation, affecting thousands of animals and a variety thoroughly approved, AAFCO proven, “100% complete of brands, resulted in an almost hysterical reaction by and balanced” premium branded foods. These poor cats the public. Their trust had been violated. Unfortunately, ended up with eye maladies and dilated failing hearts most pet owners just (dilated cardiomyopathy), searched for a food without The only safeguard is to among other things. the poisoned ingredient and Science, perhaps the most ignore the "100% complete" went about feeding the new prestigious of all scientific brand meal after meal. claim and do the common publications, prefaced a sense thing: vary the diet. study of this disaster with The lesson to be learned this: “Thousands of pet cats from such disasters is that die each year with dilated cardiomyopathy…” no food can be totally trusted. The only safeguard is to ignore the “100% complete” claim and do the common When such nutrient problems strike, the exigencies sense thing: vary the diet. of public relations and profits prompt the industry to quickly search out a solution. In this case, to make up for More often, deleterious results from feeding singular the damage heat processing was doing, they added the foods meal after meal are not immediately apparent. synthetic amino acid, taurine. This action had the virtue Subtle nutritional problems can cast long and insidious of being relevant to the matter at hand (animals dying shadows. Many of the degenerative diseases striking from taurine deficiency) but was generally unimportant animals—particularly in their middle and later years in that it did not fix the underlying cause: the pompous after perhaps years have passed with no apparent mindset that all is known and that good nutrition is just problems—are directly related to following the “100% about percentages. This intellectual cul-de-sac creates complete” pet food myth. Since these degenerative mental cobwebs preventing the understanding of the diseases are the primary reason people flood veterinary single most essential element of health: nature cannot offices with their pets, this is no small matter. The pain be replaced nor improved upon. and suffering for both pets and their owners, and the financial loss, is a tragedy of incalculable size. It will not In spite of the continuing disasters, the pet food end until the “100% complete” claim is banned from industry—including nutritionists, veterinarians, and labels or people recognize it for the fraud it is. regulators—continues mired in its wrong thinking and parading out before the public an endless array of new When people are no longer under the assumption that brands that are heralded as the fix to all the pet disease a packaged food is perfect, they will hopefully begin and dying going on. The market is flooded with “100% to think and find a better way. It will have little to do complete” diets by prescription, for life stages, for specific with nutritionists and regulators pretending they have breeds and sizes, and those featuring high protein, low complete knowledge, and everything to do with applying protein, no-carb, low-carb, organic, no corn, no soy, the SOLVER principles (Self-responsibility, Open no wheat, high fat, low fat, lamb, potato, rice, avocado, mindedness, Long view thinking, Virtue, Evidence, persimmon, tapioca, quail eggs, buffalo and on and on.

Reason). It also will have to mean respecting and But they all miss the point: a heat-processed food cannot listening to nature, and gaining the courage to be ‘wrong’ be “100% complete” and should never be fed exclusively. when everyone else is ‘100% complete’ right.

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AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

BLOOD TESTS

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

By Dr. Moira Drosdovech

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why vets do them and what information can be gleaned?

T

he why of blood tests isn’t terribly complicated.

Following a really thorough physical exam, there may still be questions about the health of your pet. After all, they aren’t super communicative in ways we can always understand (begging might be fairly clear...) so they are rather unable to help much towards their diagnosis! With blood tests, veterinarians can “see” the inner workings of the pet’s organs and body parts more clearly.

We can get hints from our history taking and physical exams.

Vets should ask a LOT of questions during the course of the appointment about your pet’s habits and changes that might have been observed. For instance, are they still eating and drinking the same as they always have or are they eating less and drinking more water? Maybe they are both eating more and drinking more! Are they losing weight? These are critical bits of info that make it much easier to come up with a plan. Another example is when your pet's skin and mucous membranes such as their gums are yellow-tinged, this can often point us towards something going on with the liver.

Doing a blood panel will help guide our decision on what further tests are needed to aid in making an accurate diagnosis more quickly.

Other types of blood tests are done on perfectly healthy pets to get more information unrelated to illness. For example, I have done tons of vaccine titre testing in the last 2.5 decades to check the Distemper and Parvovirus immune status in dogs after their 4 month vaccine and over the next several years. This has enabled me to comfortably recommend to my dog owners that a booster is not needed the vast majority of the time. Breeders might want to do a nomograph on their females which is basically a titre test with a twist as it also

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

Some blood tests are done as a routine before an operation on an otherwise healthy pet just as in the human field primarily so veterinarians don't get any surprises during surgery or recovery. Very occasionally, some disorder is discovered that needs further attention before surgery is done. I will not soon forget a young Shih Tzu puppy from way back when I first started in 1987 that was in for a neuter and we did some blood work only to find out he was suffering a terminal case of congenital renal dysplasia (poorly formed kidneys that just sadly did not work well at all). Shortly after this diagnosis, the puppy had to be put to sleep as his kidneys were shutting down and I found this very distressing. There have been others of this nature, but this one was most memorable as it was the first for a young impressionable vet.

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BLOOD TEST RESULTS Sample

WBC (White Blood Cells) Helps defend the body against infections

RBC (Red Blood Cells) Supplies oxygen to your pets body HGB (Hemoglobin) The protein inside the red blood cells, that carries (or binds) the oxygen MCV (Mean Cell Volume) Measures the volume of the individual red blood cell Glucose is the basic nutrient for the body, and highly regulated

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

Primary Lab Tests for Kidneys BUN (Blood Urea Nitrogen) CREA (Creatinine)

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Primary Lab Tests for Liver ALP (Alkaline Phosphatase is a diagnostic marker) ALT (Alanine Aminotransferase is an enzyme) GGT (Gamma-Glutamyl Transferase is an enzyme)

predicts at what age the puppies will need to have their first vaccine. Breeders are often interested in titres for certain bacteria such as Brucella that can wreak havoc in a breeding program or to rule out issues with immunerelated platelet diseases. If you want to move to Australia or New Zealand, your pet will need to get a vaccine for Rabies and this is followed by mandatory Rabies titre testing as some countries, like these two, have no Rabies cases at all and incoming pets must be tested to prove they are free from this virus.

Prior to surgery in a particularly vascular region such as the liver, it is prudent to know if the pet can clot in case of hemorrhage during or after surgery so a coagulation panel is needed. And should there be bleeding, blood typing of both donor and recipient is required before transfusion.

Some pets are on medications that require monitoring either of the drug levels themselves in the bloodstream to make sure they are at therapeutic levels (eg.

Phenobarbitol for seizures) or of the molecule(s) that the drug is altering such as in Canine Cushing’s Disease or Hyperthyroidism in cats. These tests are primarily ordered to check on the effectiveness of the medication, but also to make sure it is not causing damage to the target organ. The same goes for Diabetes Mellitus which requires fairly regular monitoring of glucose levels to make sure the Insulin dose is just right.

Mostly we have been discussing chemistries which are basically the different molecules in the bloodstream released by the various organs or as breakdown products

of metabolism. What about the blood cells themselves?

Why is it important to get information about these?

A Complete Blood count or CBC is a very commonly performed test that gleans a lot of information. This test is an actual count of the various types of blood cells in circulation such as red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs), and platelets and it also gives information on protein levels. These numbers give us a hint as to whether there is an active infection, autoimmune issues, leukemias, platelet abnormalities, tumours of some organs, the status of the bone marrow and more. RBC’s often become misshapen depending on disease processes and detecting these changes can help detect certain types of tumours or deficiencies.

A time we definitely want to run a CBC is if your pet’s gums are very pale as this could mean any one of a number of things such as internal bleeding from rat poison, autoimmune anemia, immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (platelets being destroyed), cancer of the bone marrow, other chronic diseases, some viral infections, and more, but something for sure is causing a low RBC count. Blood tests will narrow down which of the myriad of illnesses could be causing the paleness.

I really have barely touched on the different types and purposes of blood tests, but it is easy to see how important they can be for the health and longevity of your pet(s). The biggest issue with some pets is getting the blood out of them so practice various forms of restraint with them starting at an early age so they just think it is another one of those strange human hugs!

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AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

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Sometimes you need a sharp poke to feel better!

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

By Dr. Carla Wilkie

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I

’ll freely admit; I used to be a skeptic. After all, I’d things I’d been taught should help. So, being a curious, been thoroughly trained during 7 years of veterinary open-minded person not willing to accepting defeat, I college, in the ways of allopathic, or Western started investigating “alternatives”. medicine. Evidence-based treatment was a mantra.

I initially considered herbal medicines as a possible way Scientific studies had to support what we recommended to further assist my patients, and took some training in the way of treatments for our patients. Prescription in that avenue. I was intrigued to learn there is, in fact, medications were supposed to help fix almost anything. a lot of available research into the chemical makeup Then, about 10 years into my career as a small animal and therapeutic properties of many Western herbs. clinician, I got frustrated by my Proof of the efficacy , however, limited ability to address certain What acupuncture is complicated by the fact an things. Chronic issues such as herb’s multiple unpatentable seemed to offer arthritis pain, digestive issues components make it hard to and allergies were all alleviated included relief or at study in a “placebo-controlled, only to a point (no pun double-blinded” scientific way. least improvement from intended, in this case) by my Nonetheless, one tool was go-to ministrations. I noted that many frustrating chronic added to my growing arsenal some pets suffered from side conditions. of patient aids. effects from pills; others had co-existing medical conditions The biggest shift in my focus precluding them from taking the standard treatments occurred though, when a stunningly successful personal I suggested. Another group simply failed to respond to experience with acupuncture blew my skeptic’s mind. I

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AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

creating micro-trauma to the local tissues, that could stimulate a cascade of responses, all working in concert to help nudge the animal toward healing or at least better health. For instance, the stimulation from a VERY thin acupuncture needle, we now know through research, can influence nerve endings that signal chronic pain, down-regulating their firing patterns, thus reducing or stopping the pain sensations the animal feels. Internal organs’ function may be influenced by stimulating points close to spinal nerves that send signals to an upset stomach and intestine, for example, helping to quell nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.

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had to investigate further. I chose to pursue certification in veterinary acupuncture though the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society. This intensive training gave me a new, holistic way to view animal health and illness. The Chinese Medicine training focused on acupuncture but taught that diet, lifestyle and emotional influences affect health as well. What acupuncture seemed to offer included relief or at least improvement from many frustrating chronic conditions. Again, studies showing efficacy of acupuncture were available, and my clinical experience was that some animals responded profoundly to treatment through needling.

I learned that through insertion of TINY needles into highly specific anatomical points on the pet’s body, I was

As it turns out, through research, traditional acupuncture points, which were mapped thousands of years ago in China, are usually located at points richly populated by nerve endings and capillaries, at the junctions of “fascial planes”. Fascia is tissue that surrounds and connects all parts of the body, acting as a flexible “information superhighway” that facilitates communication between cells both near and far. Along conduits of fascial tissue, signals pass from cell to cell, influencing processes like blood flow, neurotransmitter release, hormone balance maintenance.

Placing a needle in an acupuncture point allows us to influence inflammation, pain, and discomfort from many conditions. Endorphins, the body’s natural pain-relievers, can be stimulated to release in higher quantity.

Typically we use metal needles to “stimulate” an acupuncture point, and can further refine treatments by moving the needle in the tissue, or by turning it one way, or the other. Needles may be left in for 10-20 minutes, depending on our desired effect.

Although most of my patients enjoy or easily accept their acupuncture treatment (this still amazes me!), some

In the hands of a trained veterinarian, acupuncture can be a very safe and effective treatment. Certain conditions shouldn’t be needled, such as directly over a cancerous tumour, or into infected skin. Certain areas of the body must be needled with care to avoid complications.

So, what can we treat using acupuncture? I’ve seen remarkable responses in patients suffering from arthritis pain, intervertebral disc disease and myofascial pain (muscle spasms and stiffness, especially in older animals).

The National Institute of Health developed a consensus statement saying there is compelling evidence for the use of acupuncture in managing osteoarthritis and musculoskeletal pain. I’ve also been pleased to see patients with internal illness such as kidney disease respond really well to acupuncture combined with herbal medicine. In treating these patients, laboratory testing is used to document the severity of disease and can also be used to follow their response to therapy. Sometimes owners of pets suffering from cancer seek added support to chemotherapy for their animals’ illness, reporting improved energy levels and appetites during treatments. Elderly dogs and cats suffering a variety of ailments and ageing changes regularly demonstrate renewed energy and appetites as well, after needling. Owners report long-ignored toys being dragged out of retirement for play by their senior

pets after treatments. Although some placebo effect may be involved, it is possible quantify positive changes via lab results, or owners may note (via video/photos or note-taking) a pet’s ability to run further/longer, play harder, climb more stairs or “surf ” higher countertops in pets once treated with acupuncture.

The number of treatments needed to see changes varies with the condition. Not surprisingly, acute conditions may respond quickly, in one or two visits.

More chronic issues may take 3-4 visits to improve.

In cases where no improvement is noted after 2-3 treatments, I’m once again skeptical that acupuncture will help the particular problem or patient, and will recommend ceasing our efforts.

Acupuncture isn’t a cure-all for everything, and I love to combine it with everything else I’ve learned over the decades to provide my patients with the best care that I can. I’m still regularly amazed by the positive results I can both see and document when I add acupuncture to help heal my patients, using a safe, side-effect free method that’s well-tolerated by many.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

don’t love it. I’ve had some dogs shake their needles out vigorously, sending one or two flying across the room-nobody’s ever been hurt, mind you. If a pet hates needles, it’s possible to stimulate acupuncture points using a finger (called acupressure), or a therapy laser instead. Longer-lasting effects from acupuncture can sometimes be achieved by adding electrostimulation (a small current) between needles, or by actually injecting saline or Vitamin B into acupuncture points (called aquapuncture), once they’ve proven helpful in a particular case.

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Reiki Energy Healing for Pets

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

By Rose Mainprize

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What is Reiki?

Reiki is a Japanese energy healing technique that can be used in a variety of ways to balance and harmonize our energy systems. Reiki is a gentle yet powerful energy that is beneficial for both humans and animals, among many other things. Reiki is a traditional form of hands on healing that results in feelings of relaxation and a deep sense of calm. Over time energy can become blocked and lead to symptoms of illness or dis-ease. Similar to acupuncture, Reiki can improve energy alignment in and around the body.

gentle way to support animals by offering them healing in a non-invasive way. Reiki can benefit our pets in many different ways including: • Chronic pain • Arthritis • Abandonment issues • Separation anxiety • Recovery after surgery • Reduces symptoms of illness • Behavioral problems • Transitions (travelling, moving)

How does Reiki work?

• End of life transitions Reiki works by flowing through our energy pathways called meridians, and our energy centers called chakras.

A few years ago, a friend called and asked me to support We often have disruptions in the natural flow of our their dog Charlie who was in an end of life transition. energy due to daily stress, anxiety, trauma, physical, I immediately drove over to assist Charlie who was in or emotional issues. These disruptions can lead to an a tremendous amount of pain from years of arthritis unbalanced state within our energy field. Reiki channels and other complications. Upon arrival, he was visibly the ‘life force energy’ that is present in all living things. in distress and despite struggling to move, was pacing It facilitates the release of disharmonious or blocked around. I sat nearby in the living room and extended energies while aligning the energy system which supports emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well-being. This alignment also Enhance your pet’s vitality, naturally. promotes the bodies’ natural Handcrafted & Vet Approved. healing ability. The practitioner will place their hands on or around the body channeling Reiki through their palms. The practitioner moves their hands along the body applying Reiki energy to the areas where it is needed.

As humans, we can quickly respond to our bodies when there is a state of disharmony or discomfort.

Like us, animals can carry these disharmonious energies and require support in releasing them. Reiki is a calming energy that reduces disease in the body, and therefore is a

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What are the benefits of using Reiki with animals?

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to notice the link between a calm or stressful demeanour and the potential effects on the animals around you. The simple truth is that animals are highly sensitive and attuned to our energies, and they, like us, can absorb this energy which in turn will affect their mood, physical experiences and expressions. Having an awareness that our energy can impact the animals around us is essential to understanding that a grounded and calm energy within allows for animals to feel safe, calm, and at ease.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

I myself have two cats; Abby, 7, and Wimbly, 2. Both of my beloved kitties are rescues who came to me through a series of fortunate events and with multiple emotional needs and physical issues, many of which have been resolved with Reiki. A few years ago, I was working through high levels of anxiety. My cat Abby was very aware if I was feeling upset and would often come to comfort me. The more I continued to work on my own healing the more I wondered about how these energies could be affecting her. She is a very sensitive cat who tends to be on the jumpy side, and is frightened easily. While continuing my own Reiki healing for this anxiety, I would also give Reiki to her in order to maintain her energetic alignment and grounding.

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my hands to offer Reiki if he would like to accept it.

Charlie came over and laid at my feet. From that point I offered Reiki healing. Multiple times during the session he would roll over or adjust his body so my hands could be placed directly where he wanted them. My friends were amazed at his receptivity and calmness during and after the session. Not long after, he passed calmly and peacefully which allowed for the process to be that much easier for Charlie and his family.

How our energy effects our animals.

Animals are sensitive to the energy around them.

Harmonious and disharmonious energies can often be mirrored back to us by our pets and reveal our current state of being. Once you are aware of this, it is interesting

My other cat Wimbly was abandoned by his mother at birth, and needed so much assistance from the beginning of his life. Although the bond of our attachment was very strong, his high needs required a lot of work and patience when he was a kitten. There were visible improvements in his behaviour and even recovery time after surgery after many months of Reiki sessions together. He is now so used to receiving Reiki that almost every time a client is on my table receiving Reiki, he will invite himself to join on the table, staying there for the duration of the session.

Reiki is a helpful tool when working with animals as it can provide a deeper understanding to what may be beneath the surface of physical or behavioral issues. This perspective that connects to body, mind and spirit allows for us to support our pets in a way that encompasses most of their needs. Animals are such special and sensitive beings on this earth and deserve healing in the same ways as we do.

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AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

Electronic Cigarettes are Toxic to Pets

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

By Dr. Sharon M. Gwaltney-Brant, DVM, PhD, DABT, DABVT

URL: https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/doc/?id=8214300&pid=19239

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Glycerin and propylene glycol are of low toxicity when eaten, but the amount in the refill bottles (usually 10-30% of what’s in the bottle) is low enough to not be much of a concern; nicotine is the bigger issue. Whether any of the compounds used are toxic if inhaled long term is not known.

The nicotine levels in these e-liquids can vary in concentration from being completely nicotine-free up to 36 milligrams per milliliter (mg/mL) of nicotine.

For marketing purposes, the “/mL” part is frequently dropped, and the e-liquids are advertised as having X mg of nicotine rather than X mg/mL. In some e-cigs, the user controls the amount of nicotine delivered by adjusting the flow of e-liquid from the cartridge.

An e-cig with a full cartridge can contain up to 36 mg of nicotine, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you factor in how toxic nicotine is. Clinical signs of nicotine poisoning can be seen in dogs and cats exposed to a mere 0.5 mg per pound of body weight. For cats and small dogs, ingesting 20 mg of nicotine can be lethal.

Even more dangerous are the bottles of e-liquid that are used to recharge the e-cig cartridge: the nicotine in these bottles can range from 10 mL to 60 mL or more. So a 30 mL bottle of 36 mg/mL e-liquid will contain 1080 mg of nicotine, more than enough to prove fatal for even a very large dog if the contents are ingested.

Nicotine is readily absorbed by ingestion as well as through the skin. Pets may be exposed when they chew up the e-cigs or the bottles containing e-juice, or even when they walk through puddles of spilled e-juice and get it on their paws. The signs of nicotine poisoning may begin within 15 to 30 minutes of exposure to the e-liquid; in contrast, signs of nicotine poisoning

following eating tobacco products may take a few hours as the nicotine must be released from the tobacco.

The first signs normally seen with toxic exposure to nicotine include: • Excessive drooling (hypersalivation) • Vomiting with or without diarrhea • Agitation or restlessness • Increased respiratory rate or panting.

With severe intoxications, signs may progress to include: • Excitation • Disorientation • Tremors • Twitching • Convulsions or seizures • Increased heart rate • Increased blood pressure.

Further progression of signs may result in profound weakness, paralysis, abnormal heart rhythms (including cardiac arrest), hypotension, coma and death.

Prompt and aggressive veterinary care is required to successfully manage poisoning from e-juice exposure.

Because the e-juice is rapidly absorbed across the mucous membranes of the mouth, standard decontamination measures such as inducing vomiting are usually not helpful. Treatment includes managing convulsions and seizures, treating heart and blood pressure abnormalities, ensuring adequate respiration, and providing intravenous fluids to enhance nicotine elimination.

The prognosis for patients exposed to large amounts of nicotine can be quite grave depending on how quickly veterinary care is obtained, and even with aggressive veterinary care some patients will not survive.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

E

lectronic cigarettes, often called e-cigs, are marketed as an alternative to cigarette smoking.

They are also referred to as personal vaporizers or electronic nicotine delivery systems. These devices are a cylindrical body that holds a cartridge containing a liquid solution; some resemble a tobacco cigarette.

The solution, termed “e-liquid” or “e-juice,” contains a base material, flavoring compounds, and nicotine. The base material is generally propylene glycol and either vegetable glycerin or polyethylene glycol.

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Terrific and Sometimes Terrible Teens!

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

By Valerie Barry, KPA-CTP Dog Partners www.dogpartners.ca

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Recall practice from out of the water

I

t’s not uncommon for young dogs to start displaying some reactivity on leash as they leave puppyhood and enter adolescence. It’s also not uncommon for them to start being a bit challenging to get to come back to you when you call.

I get a lot of calls from clients whose dogs are between 6 months and 2 years of age and have suddenly started pulling on leash, barking and lunging at other dogs and/or people on leash and often their recall has also deteriorated when they’re off leash.

My own dog, Jack, started displaying some reactivity not long after he turned 6 months old. Previously, on our walks he was (or seemed to be) happy and eagerly anticipating a visit with whatever and whomever was approaching. Seemingly overnight, he suddenly felt the need to announce the appearance of every person and dog he spotted in the distance and was showing signs of being a bit fearful or concerned about them.

Thankfully, by nature he is very friendly and has some good social skills, any chance or surprise encounters usually ended with Jack happily playing with or greeting the dog or person in question. However, anyone approaching off in the distance or passing by from a distance had started to become a problem.

My Goals and My Plan.

First, I came up with some goals to work towards: • Helping Jack feel more comfortable with random changes in his environment – specifically people and dogs.

• Helping him learn to think instead of just reacting.

• Building Jack’s ability to take his attention off the environment and to focus on me both at my request and also as a voluntary “check-in” behaviour.

• Being able to walk Jack, without concern, around people and dogs – on and off leash.

Then, I came up with 4 different steps to work on to achieve my goals: 1. Change the context of “being on a walk” and help him feel more comfortable on leash.

2. Being on a walk, on leash, with dogs and people at a distance.

3. Being on a walk, on leash, among people and dogs.

4. Being on a walk on and off leash among people and dogs.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

Off leash, Jack was fine – friendly and comfortable with people and dogs and very responsive to his Recall and Stop cues. This is also pretty common with adolescent

dogs – if they were friendly before, they seem to maintain their general friendliness off leash. On leash, however, a decrease in seemingly friendly behaviour can become more of an issue during maturity.

Jack and his emotional support buddy Dreki

Jack practicing recall with a buddy

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Levi learning to calmly watch things going on in his environment

Charlie playing Look at That out in public spaces

Step 1 - Changing the context.

was too challenging – perhaps more distance was needed.

I spent a lot of time on this step and did most of it in front of our house, on our street or in a field across from a park. I started during fairly quiet times of day and I changed the context by being “on a leash, but not walking”.

The point was NOT to ask him to look at me, but rather to keep my attention on him and to reward him for observing things around him. His willingness to remove his attention temporarily away from something in order to get his treat would tell me that he’s still mentally with me and still capable of working and learning.

Consuming really good treats in these circumstances would start to help him form a positive association in that context. Additionally, the game would ultimately lead to a kind of “check in” behaviour – Jack would notice things and look to me even before I had a chance to mark or click it. When he started to do this, that became feedback for me that he was starting to feel more comfortable. Previously he may have simply stared and/ or started barking and lunging.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

Ultimately, I wanted Jack to notice something and then dismiss it without concern. His particular breed (a guarding breed) has a particular tendency to notice and stare at something (sometimes also barking) until it’s close enough for them to decide whether it’s an issue or not. This isn’t great behaviour and can cause other dogs to be reactive and people to be uncomfortable.

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My plan for this step was to find a reasonable distance away from things that cause Jack concern (people, dogs, stuff going on) and “pay” him for noticing things in his environment. This is something we call the “Look at That” game (developed by Leslie McDevitt, Control Unleashed / Pattern Games). Every time Jack noticed something, I clicked or marked that “look” and then offer a treat. If Jack didn’t respond to the click by turning to me for his treat, that was a sign to me that our set up

The “Look at that Game” is great for many things especially dogs who are very fearful. It gives them a way to stay in the environment but observe it all in small doses. This hopefully can help keep the experience from being too overwhelming – looking and then looking back at you. The treat they get helps build a better, more positive association.

This was my set-up on the front porch: • I used a body harness and 10 foot line and tethered Jack to a sturdy post on our front porch about 50 feet from the street.

• Keeping my attention on Jack, I clicked and treated him any time his attention left me and was caught by something passing by.

was a lot going on - kids directly across the street skateboarding, playing or yelling, or more than one person and dog walking by.

• If at times the outdoor activity became too much for Jack, we simply retreated into the house.

• We started doing this at times when there was likely to be little or no activity going on to ensure it was easy for him and he could quickly become comfortable.

• My goal was to keep him at a threshold where he could work with me and not launch into a fit of barking/lunging. I’m limited by the distance from the street we have available, so this was tricky at times – distance is always your friend!

• We gradually worked up to him handling more activity, but we also still sought out times that were quieter, so the task wasn’t always increasingly harder.

• I only worked on this step for maybe 5 minutes or less at a time – very small training sessions – maybe the whole 5 minutes if it was quiet; maybe only 30 seconds if there was a lot going on.

Note that how often you do this, how long you do this really depends on the dog in front of you and your skill as a trainer. Err on the side of very short and plenty of hours or even days between the next session to start.

• If I timed my click very well – clicking as he was finishing chewing his treat and making only the smallest movement to lift or turn his head – we did well, and barking/lunging didn’t happen.

Step 2 - Being on a walk with people/ dogs at a distance.

The training for this was identical to the training steps I used during the stationary sessions. The difference, of course, is that he’s tethered to me and that we’re moving.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

• The clicking and treating was often happening very rapidly, and I had to work pretty hard when there

Beautiful leash walking and engagement by Levi

Adolescent boxer Joey working on his leash skills

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Jack working on his long line recall training

I chose my areas carefully as I needed the ability to get distance when I needed it if dogs or people were getting too close.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

I enlisted the help of a friend as my helper for most of these sessions. I wanted someone to take video so I could monitor our progress. Reviewing video can be invaluable.

It’s really helpful to watch the whole session so you can see what you’re doing, what your dog is doing and make some changes or see some progress – something that’s hard to do when you’re “in the moment”.

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My helper also came in handy to keep an eye out and let me know what was coming and if we were likely to encounter a problem. I didn’t want to be the one scanning around and put Jack more on guard if he figured out I was scanning the environment looking for problems.

As much as possible, I kept all my attention on Jack, observing his body language and marking and reinforcing him for noticing any person or dog in the distance or passing by while we kept moving through the area.

Notes for Steps 1 and 2:

• At times I introduced play as reinforcement – some low key Tug or some nose or paw targeting.

• I also started to introduce recall practice during these sessions as Jack’s recall (come when called) was and still is very strong and he loves doing it. (Yes – you can practice recalls even though your dog is on leash.)

• My goal was to keep reinforcing the message that good things happen in the presence of stuff going on - especially if he can remove his attention from the environment and focus on me.

• It’s important to keep all sessions short. I started with under 5 minutes and periodically did some 15 minute sessions over time but no longer than that.

This work is very tiring for your dog and, ideally, no reaction takes place from start to finish – so shorter is better.

• In the walking sessions, I also occasionally got my helper to bring along a friendly dog that Jack knows and can walk and play with.

Once I started to see some positive changes in Jack’s behaviour (he seemed to be handling things better and the energy behind the behaviour had lessened), I took a deep breath and started to work on leash in parks among other people and their dogs.

Even though I knew Jack was very friendly with people and dogs, it’s still hard to take a barking and lunging dog right into the middle of people and dogs walking by. It feels like your dog is the only one acting up and everyone is watching and judging!

In reality I found that most people and dogs were really pretty good about just carrying on about their business or stopping and helping out by letting Jack greet them and/or their dogs if I asked them.

Again, I chose my areas carefully. I wanted places where some dogs were off leash but everyone was moving along a trail vs. lingering and playing in a dog park. It was easier for Jack to be in a slightly busier trail vs. a very quiet trail where someone appears infrequently off in the distance.

(This will be different for every dog.)

On and off leash work with friends

Working on leash is important!

I got a lot of “helpful” suggestions to simply let my dog off leash! However, it’s extremely important to do this kind of work with your dog on leash at first.

Why keep him on leash? Well, it was safer for one thing.

If I encountered what I think might be an iffy dog, I could simply move along and take my dog with me. Also, I wasn’t entirely sure yet what Jack would do with joggers moving quickly by or strollers appearing or what about the odd person on horseback – would he ignore them or follow them or, worse, bark at them? If he had a great play with a fun dog, would he carry on with them or remember that I was there, too? I had no great need to test (and possibly damage) my recall in those situations in the early stages.

Very importantly, to me, keeping him on leash initially allowed me to reinforce the idea that he’s with me and that we are working together – he’s not suddenly on his own and free to make his own choices. He was only 8 months old at that time – very much an adolescent dog with much more mental and emotional development to take place. I was also very conscious of controlling,

Stella generalizing her leash skills to walking with the family and the stoller

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Step 3 - Being on a walk among people and dogs – on leash.

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Puppy Jack long line training on the trail

to the extent that I could, any likelihood of his having a negative encounter with a scary person or dog. Being as young as he was and still going through the occasional fear period, traumatic events could have had a lasting impact on his behaviour.

No question keeping him on leash was challenging! He’s strong and working on leash skills in that environment was very challenging – so there was lots of bouncing around and pulling going on. Thankfully, despite his size and occasional barky behaviour, he looked very much like a happy, bouncy puppy and no one was terribly worried about him. However, I did do most of this work with a friend along for moral support – that was very helpful for me, and I highly recommend finding a supportive friend to help you too.

Pamela Murray of Canine Spirit dog training and her dog Dreki for their help and support!)

After several sessions of this, there was a point at which it became clear that Jack was progressing and ready to spend some time off leash. He had all but quit the alert barking - even in the parking areas when we were arriving. He could remove his attention from dogs or people when I asked him to; he had had numerous fun play sessions as well as a few appropriate dog corrections for being too bouncy or nosey and responded well.

Thanks to our numerous “Look At That” sessions, he was choosing to do occasional voluntary check-ins with me and wasn’t showing signs of getting locked into any staring behaviour. Most importantly, he had become largely unconcerned about the people we encountered – joggers, people dressed strangely or moving strangely with canes or walking sticks, strollers and young children – we seemed to have passed a lot without issue.

My friend also took the time to stop and explain what we were doing to anyone that seemed a bit concerned and coaxed lots of people into stopping to say Hi, which was great! She also brought along her slightly older puppy to help out. He had some great social skills and acted like a deflector for any dogs coming in too fast or too intensely for Jack in the early sessions. (My extreme gratitude to

Step 4 - Working off leash!

Tucker learning to focus on mom in puppy class

On and off leash work with friends

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

It was time to take an even deeper breath and let my baby off leash! We had already done lots and lots of

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Jack practicing recall with a buddy

Greyson recalling away from distractions including other dogs

work on his recall and off leash skills using his leash and progressing to a long line in many low distraction areas like our yard, our house, outside and inside with dogs he knows, and in the forest with no one else around. The new factor here would be the distraction of other people and other dogs.

to practicing his recall. I noticed that as he got more confident off leash, he was a little slower, at times, to respond as well as I had come to expect. We needed to keep that high on the list of items to keep working on!

Again, I had the help of a couple of friends and their friendly, well-trained dogs. Jack did great! He responded well to his recall, was able to check in with me on his own from time to time, didn’t stray too far when we passed by joggers or someone going the opposite way and was happy to greet a wide range of dogs and people. We had a few glitches here and there – chased a dog chasing a ball for a big run before remembering his recall, and got worried about a few dogs who were really stiff and staring at him before remembering that I was there to help him. Overall, though, it truly couldn’t have gone better the first time and only got better each and every time after.

I had to remember to keep our walks reasonably short at that point, as it was just all so exciting for him. If he got too tired, he got over stimulated, and his behaviour started to deteriorate. I also had to dedicate a lot of time

It’s important to note, too, that I still spent some of our walk time with Jack on leash even though other dogs may have been off leash. I often hear people say about their dogs “he’s way better off leash” - I didn’t want that dog. He could be equally as well behaved on or off leash with some dedicated effort regardless of the circumstances. Again, I wanted to continue to reinforce our connection and also to work on his leash skills in distracting circumstances. If we could spend very small moments working on leash skills – what a huge reinforcement opportunity I had available to be able to let him off leash to play and run free!

I also continued to work on the first 2 steps we started with. Jack was still occasionally alerting to things approaching in the distance to some degree, so it was a work in progress until he was more mature. Most people should be doing this type of work until their dogs are fully mature which can be 2 up to even 5 years for bigger breeds.

Final Note: It’s important to say that Jack’s behaviour was not extreme. He was a young, generally friendly dog of a guarding breed type and was displaying fairly typical behaviour for his age, his gender and his breed. It was, however, something that needed to be addressed, as it would not have simply gone away on its own as he matured. If you have a dog with this type of behaviour, or any extreme or concerning behaviour, please take the step of hiring a professional trainer who uses only positive methods, and who has had success solving these types of behaviour issues.

to work with and train your dog for at least this long.

Remember to keep it positive and fun – for both of you!

An experienced and credentialed professional has the training to recognize behaviour for what it is, can read dog body language skillfully and help you work at the correct pace with the proper positive methods and well thought out training plan.

Dogs are not mentally, emotionally and socially mature until they are between 2 and 5 years of age. Even if you have no issues whatsoever, you should still continue

Joey learning to be out and about in public in our Town to Trail classes

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What is Genome Editing?

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

By Lucy Sharratt

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Genome editing techniques can be used to alter the genetic material of plants, animals, and other organisms.

They aim to insert, delete, or otherwise change a DNA sequence at a specific, targeted site in the genome.

Genome editing techniques are a type of genetic engineering, resulting in the creation of GMOs. The new techniques are moving quickly in the lab to create new GM foods, even while our knowledge about how genomes work remains incomplete. The techniques are efficient but can be imprecise and lead to unexpected consequences. Despite the unknowns, the Canadian government is proposing to let many genome-edited foods and plants onto the market without government safety assessments.

What is Genome Editing?

The genome is the entire set of genetic material in an organism, including DNA. Genome editing most often uses DNA “cutters” that are guided to a location within an organism’s DNA and used to cut the DNA. This cut DNA is then repaired by the cell’s own repair mechanism, which creates changes or “edits” to the organism. The most frequently used genome editing technique is called CRISPR, but other techniques follow similar principles.

First-generation genetic engineering techniques insert a package of genetic material at random locations.

These genes then permanently become part of the host organism’s genome, creating new DNA sequences.

In contrast, genome editing techniques insert genetic material that is then guided to a specific target site to perform “edits.” This means that, with genome editing, the inserted genetic material makes changes to the genome but does not necessarily have to become incorporated into the resulting GMO and can be bred out.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

T

he new genetic engineering (genetic modification or GM) techniques called gene editing, or genome editing, are powerful and could lead to the speedy development of more genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for food and farming, and other purposes. In particular, genome editing makes it easier to genetically engineer animals.

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This also means that, unlike all the GMOs currently on the market, not all genome-edited GMOs are transgenic (have foreign DNA). The ability to create non-transgenic organisms is often stressed by the biotechnology industry as an advantage to using genome editing, and the federal government is now proposing that genetically engineered foods and plants that don’t have foreign DNA can be exempt from government safety assessments. However, as discussed below, whether or not a GMO is transgenic is not the chief concern about genetic engineering.

Unexpected and Unpredictable Effects Genome editing can be imprecise, and cause unexpected and unpredictable effects. Many studies have now shown that genome editing can create genetic errors, such as “off-target” and “on-target” effects: • Genome editing techniques, such as the CRISPR/ Cas9 system, can create unintended changes to genes that were not the target of the editing system. These are called “off-target effects.”

• Genome editing can also result in unintended “on-target effects,” which occur when a technique succeeds in making the intended change at the target location, but also leads to other unexpected outcomes.

• Genome editing can inadvertently cause extensive deletions and complex re-arrangements of DNA. • Unwanted DNA can unexpectedly integrate into the host organism during the genome editing process.

For example, foreign DNA was unexpectedly found in genome-edited hornless cows.

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021

Despite these many potential impacts, there are no standard protocols yet to detect off-target and on-target effects.

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Sometimes intended changes that are created by genome editing techniques are described as “mutations” because only very small parts of DNA are altered and no novel genes have been intentionally introduced. However, even small changes in a DNA sequence can have big effects.

The functioning of genes is coordinated by a complex regulatory network that is still poorly understood. This means that it is not possible to predict the nature and consequences of all the interactions between altered genetic material and other genes within an organism.

For example, one small genetic change can impact an organism’s ability to express or suppress other genes.

An End to GMO Regulation?

Despite these risks, federal regulatory departments are proposing to remove government oversight from some genome-edited foods and plants.

Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are proposing to exempt some genetically engineered foods and seeds from regulation if they have no foreign DNA. The new proposals would allow the release of some GMOs without any government food safety and environmental assessments.

Instead, many genetically engineered foods and plants would be assessed for safety by the product developers themselves, with no government oversight.

These changes would result in some unregulated, unreported genome-edited foods and seeds on the market. Consumers, farmers, and the government itself, may not even know that some of these unregulated GMOs are being sold and grown.

Rather than assume the techniques are safe to use, genome editing needs to be met with precaution and increased independent scrutiny. Even more fundamentally, our government must consult Canadians and consider questions of social worth before approving products of genetic engineering. Such questions are particularly important if the new techniques are going to lead to more experiments to genetically engineer animals.

The government consultations on GMO regulatory proposals continue until September 16. For information on how to participate in the consultation, details on the proposals, or to take other action see www.cban.ca/ NoExemptions For more information and discussion about genome editing, read CBAN’s report, “Genome Editing in Food and Farming: Risks and Unexpected Consequences” www.cban.ca/GenomeEditingReport For updates or to find out more, visit www.cban.ca/genome-editing The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) brings together 16 groups to research, monitor and raise awareness about issues relating to genetic engineering in food and farming. CBAN members include farmer associations, environmental and social justice organizations, and regional coalitions of grassroots groups. CBAN is a project on MakeWay’s shared platform.

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BOOK REVIEW

PILLOW the Dog Who Saved My Life

By Debora De Santanna A delightful tale about Unconditional Love and Kindness

This book is very appealing, as it is true to the heart of kindness. Young children will easily relate and they love stories that feature furry friends. The story also touches on siblings, parental love, empathy for others, and many everyday situations that kids encounter.

It is highly recommended and a must read to children everywhere. Children will want to learn to read, for they can follow his upcoming adventures.

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Oh to be a kid again! This little book is a delight to read, and explores the relationship with a young boy and his new best friend, - his adopted dog Pillow. The first book of a new series, the book's author really knows how to make the connection with children. It demonstrates about caring for someone else, being compassionate, and helping young children figure out how to solve basic everyday problems.

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