Living With Dogs (16 page)

Allergic reactions to vegetation can cause two sorts of dermatitis in dogs. The first is from direct contact of the skin with a particular sap of a creeper or grass, and the second is caused by the dog inhaling the reproductive pollen of the plant. As with hay fever in humans, this form of vegetative dermatitis is usually seasonal. Couch grass and paspalum are the two grasses that most commonly provoke a reaction, while Wandering Jew
(Trandescantia
spp.) often irritates dogs’ skin. Pollen from the wattle
(Acacia
spp.) can upset many dogs.

Parasites, like mites and ticks, and hormonal deficiencies are also common causes of dermatitis (see pp. 130–132).

Superficial cancers, which occur on the surface of the skin, or just beneath it, are the most easily identified because they form noticeable lumps, or sores which don’t heal. The lumps that are clearly defined, soft, loosely attached and slow growing are usually benign. Those that are irregular in shape, hard, and growing rapidly, are almost certainly malignant. All cancers that have reached the stage of ulceration to the surface are malignant.

Internal cancers are just as difficult to diagnose in dogs as they are in humans. There are no specific tests for tumours in dogs, and the diagnosis is done by the elimination of possibilities, by locating an unusual lump in the abdomen, or by recognising an unusual mass on an X-ray. Breeds that are most susceptible to internal cancers include Boxers, German Shepherds, and terriers.

If you notice any of the above warning signs of illness or injury in your dog, you should consult your vet. The vet will take a history of the complaint, and after conducting a full clinical examination, will make a provisional diagnosis of which system of the body is affected, and what the specific problem is. Wherever necessary, a provisional diagnosis is followed by tests, to confirm the diagnosis, and to ascertain the likely outcome of treatment.

Vets can use two alternative methods of treatment: medical or surgical. Medical treatment consists of the use of specific drugs to augment the body’s own healing system. For instance, the function of antibiotics is to kill bacteria that overpower the body’s defence system. Surgery is used to repair damaged tissue, such as a broken bone, or to remove diseased tissue, such as a tumour, or foreign objects which may have been swallowed by the dog. Where the surgery is likely to be complex, a veterinary general practitioner will refer the case to a specialist.

When I first went into practice in Balwyn, one out of every two pups that I vaccinated would be killed within a year in motor vehicle accidents. Hardly a day went by without treating a serious car accident victim. A large number died, and a large number of those that survived had fractures. Nowadays, most of the dog-owning public understands the undesirability of their animals being hit by a motor vehicle, and I only see a couple of cases a year. We’ve come a long way, and there’s no doubt owners have become more responsible. For the animals that do still get hit by cars, and suffer broken bones, the prognosis is generally excellent.

There has been an explosion of knowledge in veterinary science since the mid-1960s, with medical and surgical advances matched by a huge development in pharmaceuticals. When I graduated there were only two antibiotics available, and now there is a vast range, with quite specific applications for particular conditions. There are better painkilling drugs for osteoarthritis, giving quicker, long-lasting relief, and safer anaesthetics have removed the risk from many surgical procedures. We have reached the point where the only barrier to the medical and surgical treatment of dogs is expense. Of course we can do kidney transplants on dogs, but who’s going to pay up to $50,000?

In a practice which treats companion animals, people are purchasing veterinary services with recreational dollars, and the work done by the practitioner depends on the availability of those recreational dollars. In difficult economic times, the much-loved family pet won’t always receive the ideal treatment. In my practice during the last recession I saw dogs coming in with diseases which would have been prevented if the owners had been able to afford the proper preventative treatment. In many cases owners did not replace the animals they lost.

It is essential that owners do not delay the seeking of treatment when they notice that something is wrong with their dog. Delaying treatment often means the condition is allowed to deteriorate, and this can entail more expensive treatment, or owners may find the animal has reached the point where treatment can no longer be successful. Owners recognise the warning signs quicker these days than they did 30 years ago, but we still see acute cases where the severity of the situation has not been recognised.

Look beyond the immediate symptoms. A dog suffering from a primary upset bowel or stomach will usually experience short-term diarrhoea or vomiting, but the dog is generally bright and alert. If the symptoms continue and the dog is not bright and alert, it is usually a sign of something more sinister. Assess the whole of the dog’s condition and state of mind, or you may misinterpret its real condition.

Often I see dogs that are quite sick where the owner will explain away the illness as being caused by the weather, or something the dog has eaten. Animals do not speak, but they also do not hide what is wrong with them. While dogs may accommodate pain and suffering because they can’t ask for veterinary treatment, they never disguise what’s wrong.

It is dangerous to make your own interpretation or diagnosis of your dog’s condition. A lady came in to see me with a dog that had its left eye swollen and closed. She had decided that the dog had been stung by a bee, and that it would get better by itself. She went to work early the next day, and when she got home the following evening she noticed that the swelling was much worse, and that there was a stream of tears and some pus discharge between the eyelids. The dog was in considerable distress.

When I examined the dog I found there had been a penetration through the cornea and an infection had been introduced and it had become so acute that the dog’s sight had been destroyed. Antibiotics cleared up the infection but ultimately the eye had to be removed. Had treatment been given earlier, the sight may not have been saved, but the eye would have been.

In another case I saw a three-year-old terrier which was losing hair on both flanks. The owners had correctly observed that the hair was slowly thinning, and that the problem was not accompanied by scratching. They delayed coming to me because they’d decided the dog was pulling its hair out by scratching itself underneath the car. It was only when the hair had fully dropped out, revealing two large bald patches, that they sought my advice.

When I diagnosed the condition as thyroid hormonal baldness they refused to accept the diagnosis because they believed the dog was self-mutilating. The dog grew its hair again, but the delay in seeking this diagnosis meant many months of treatment were needed.

An elderly lady brought in a little Dachshund because the dog was coughing. It turned out the dog had been coughing for three months and it clearly had respiratory distress and was lethargic. The owner admitted that the dog had been getting worse over the past three months, and no longer wanted to go for its usual daily walk. She and her housekeeper had decided the dog had a cold, but it was only when it became much worse that they sought my advice.

Examination of the dog revealed that it was suffering from left heart failure, and the coughing, breathing problems and the lack of interest in food and exercise were all due to the fact that the dog’s lungs were seriously affected by a fluid build-up due to the heart failure. Very little of the lung tissue was functioning normally, and the dog was severely starved of oxygen.

I expressed the view that the dog would not respond well to heart treatment, but fortunately the response to a newly released drug for cardiac therapy proved amazing. The issue, though, is how long will a drug keep sustaining a dog with a badly damaged heart?

Another case involved a young Labrador with pancreatitis, where the delay in treatment could have cost the dog’s life. The pancreas, like the brain and kidneys, does not regenerate even after successful treatment, so once it is damaged, it is damaged for life. The dog had been vomiting for five days, was depressed, and not eating. It took four days of intensive treatment before I was sure that the dog would live. It survived, but great damage had been done to the pancreas, and the dog is now required to live on a special diet, together with supplementary pancreatic enzymes. The owner said it had eaten something that disagreed with it.

The cardinal rule is that if the dog vomits for more than 12 hours, go to the vet. Sometimes people delay going to the vet because of the expense, but most of it is due to ignorance, backed by a belief that the animal will get better by itself. Plenty of people believe in soldiering on; some even don’t come because they’re afraid Dr Wirth will roar at them!

A minority, when confronted by their own failure to be responsible, put the blame on the vet by saying, ‘You never told me to do that.’ I’ve even been blamed for a dog being involved in a car accident, because I never warned the owner the dog might get out.

People are often keen to seek a ‘quick fix’ for their dog from the vet. The veterinarian should provide advice on dog welfare issues, and rapid diagnosis of all health problems, followed by medical and surgical treatment. But the primary responsibility for the health and welfare of a dog lies fairly and squarely with its owner. It’s their responsibility to feed and house the dog, but also to recognise when the dog is not well, and to then seek advice. The emphasis in dog ownership is always that prevention is better than a cure. We live in an age where there is an abundance of information about dog care, and there’s no excuse for the continuance of old myths, supposition, and conjecture.

My first exposure to cruelty to dogs came when I was a child, through the Australian and Silky Terriers that were bred by the woman who lived next to us in Ivanhoe. The breeder’s daughter broke up a long-standing romance with her boyfriend, and he came back one night through the paddock where we kept our Shetland pony and threw strychnine baits into the runs of the dogs, to exact revenge on the girlfriend who had jilted him. In the morning the breeder found most of her dogs were dead, including her champion show dog. It was the first of many occasions when I have seen a human problem resolved by making innocent animals the victim.

Professionally, I came head-to-head with animal cruelty for the first time when I was a 22-year-old, fourth-year veterinary student, and I have never forgotten it. I was spending time doing work experience with the Balwyn veterinary practice which I now own, and one of the vets there, who regularly did work for the RSPCA, was called to attend a case of suspected cruelty at a farmhouse in Doncaster. All we knew was that the woman had dogs, but when we went into the house we were confronted by room after room containing dogs in tea chests with grilles on the front. The chests were stacked one on top of the other, and they contained 45 dogs, all of which were suffering from distemper or starvation. Most had to be put down.

In my view, the woman wasn’t mentally sound, as is the case with all animal hoarders, and like so many of the cruelty cases involving neglect which I have subsequently been involved with, she couldn’t explain why she neglected the animals.

I felt intense anger as I helped the vet destroy the dogs and then dumped all the bodies outside for the council to pick up. There had to be something wrong if we had to slaughter all these animals, and I kept asking myself, why weren’t the dogs vaccinated, and why couldn’t the RSPCA have prevented their suffering? I’m a veterinarian, and I believe the principles of veterinary science can improve the health and wellbeing of animals, but at that moment I was suddenly exposed to the fact that veterinary science had done absolutely nothing for those 45 dogs in tea chests. This was one of the defining moments in my veterinary career.

When I was at school at Xavier College we had been taught the importance of doing work for the community, and each week I used to go and help the down-and-outs. From the time I was 14 I felt with growing conviction that my community work would be for animals. The feeling strengthened when I went to veterinary school in Brisbane, and the lecturers instilled in the students the idea that veterinarians were professional people with an obligation to the community. Incidents like the one at the farmhouse in Doncaster all had an influence on me, and from the time I went onto the RSPCA (Victoria) Board in 1969, I was determined that the principles of veterinary science would be used by the RSPCA to prevent the death of animals. There was something evangelistic about it: I believed I had the answers to help animals, and I wanted to tell people.