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VetInfo Digest January 2005

Table of Contents:

Caring for more than one dog or cat at a time.

Proper vaccinations and good flea control are the first steps.

Planning for health care is absolutely necessary when caring for more than one pet

This Month's Note:

I graduated from a veterinary college, Iowa State University, with a strong emphasis on food production medicine. This gives me a perspective on "herd health" that I don't get to apply in day to day work as a small animal veterinarian. There are definitely some clients who have small herds of dogs and/or cats, though. These folks often have problems with their pets that are the direct result of keeping larger numbers of pets than the average pet owner.

In production medicine the solutions to herd health issues often involve trying to follow a few simple rules. Things like getting all of the animals that will be raised in a specific environment at the same time, so that you are not constantly introducing new problems. Making an effort to do everything possible to keep from importing a new disease is helpful, as well. This can involve things like having all visitors wash their shoes with an antiseptic solution prior to entering the animal's environment and using quarantine periods whenever it is absolutely necessary to add a new animal to an otherwise closed environment. These types of rules can work very well in production environments. They are not so applicable to households with multiple pets, for a number of reasons. Not many houses come equipped with foot baths that you must walk through to enter, for instance.

Many of my clients with multiple pets have larger numbers of dogs or cats because they breed them. Others have multiple pets in order to have a hunting pack or because they can't resist feeding stray cats and end up with twenty or thirty cats hanging around the house. Some of my clients start out with the best intentions to have only one or two pets but end up with a litter of puppies they just can't part with or they adopt a cat only to find out that she was one or two days from giving birth to a litter of kittens and find themselves with a cat and five kittens instead of just a cat. However multiple pets are acquired, there is a huge difference between the medical care necessary in a one dog or one cat household and a household with five dogs or cats. This issue is devoted to advice on caring for groups of pets.

Caring for more than one dog or cat at a time.

Where do you start when thinking about the care of more than one dog or cat? After meeting the bare minimum legal requirement of ensuring that each pet has a proper rabies vaccination the next most pressing concern in multiple pet households is flea control. It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of eliminating fleas from the house, kennel or cat condos. The advent of the new flea control products such as Frontline Topspot tm) and Advantage (tm) has cut the flea problems in single pet households a great deal. These products can be expensive to use when there are six large dogs or ten cats in a household, though.

Even when it seems almost too expensive to even consider using one of the better flea control products the cost of not treating for fleas should be factored in when making decisions about whether or not to use them. The cost of not treating for fleas is pretty high and this is even more true for a multiple pet household than for a single pet. Paying your veterinarian to treat two or three pets with flea allergic dermatitis and all the secondary problems related to it is often far more costly than using a good flea control product to keep these problems from occurring in the first place. There are a number of other diseases that occur due to flea transmission or secondary to the damage induced by fleas.

If it just isn't possible to buy Advantage (tm) or Frontline Topspot (tm) for a whole herd of dogs or cats there are some other alternatives to consider that can work nearly as well. The first thing to consider if you have several small dogs or a handful of cats is the use of Frontline Spray (tm) instead of the topical product. The spray treats 90 to 180 lbs. of body weight and usually costs about the same as three tubes of Frontline Topspot (tm). This means that it is often possible to treat 9 short haired 20 lbs. terriers or 10 long haired cats for the same price as applying a topical product to three pets. Of course this also means that a single twenty pound dog can be treated once a month for the entire flea season in most parts of the country for the price of one bottle of spray or that a single cat can be treated monthly for a year for the same cost. The big disadvantage is having to spray a pet thoroughly (one pump of spray per pound for short haired pets and two pumps per pound for long haired pets), which can be a real chore. Regardless of which form of these flea treatments you try it is critical to understand that you must treat ALL the dogs, cats and other pets who might have fleas in a household to eliminate flea infestations.

If it just isn't possible to use any form of Frontline (tm), Advantage (tm), Revolution (tm) or Program (tm) along with Capstar (tm) there are still more things that can be done. In this situation it is usually better to put your money into treating the household or kennel environment than to try to treat individual pets with less effective flea control products. Don't fall into the trap of assuming that a product works well simply because it is applied topically and claims to work for a month. None of the inexpensive "look alike" products that are sold to compete with the brand names above work really well to control fleas all by themselves. These less expensive products can be helpful in an overall flea control program once the fleas in the environment are under control, though.

To treat the pet's environment the first step is to figure out what that really means. It is necessary to treat any area of the house that pets frequent. Some people make the mistake of skipping rooms that don't have carpet because they think that fleas can't live on wood floors or linoleum tiled areas. The flea larvae are very small and can often thrive in very small cracks, making it possible for them to live in these types of flooring. It is necessary to treat the yard, at least the areas of the yard where pets spend time. It is possible to spot treat yards successfully in most cases. It is helpful to treat for about 10 feet around the foundation of the house even if pets don't seem to spend a lot of time in this part of the yard. Treating any runs, kennels, dog houses and cat habitats is also necessary.

There is some risk in using any flea control product but based on the changes in the type and frequency of skin disease and several other diseases that we have seen since the advent of the new flea control topicals and tablets it is clear that fleas are a major cause of disease and death in dogs and cats. I have no question that it is a risk/benefit ratio and cost/benefit ratio that favors the use of flea control products for anyone who isn't willing to live with chronic skin disease affecting one or more of their pets.

I think that most people who have more than one pet have almost no idea how much each additional pet adds to the risk for developing diseases, behavioral problems and injuries. This is true for households with lots of dogs, lots of cats or a mixture of both.

The biggest complaints from owners of multiple cats usually revolve around recurrent upper respiratory disease and inappropriate urination or defecation (generally not using the litter box). In dogs the complaints tend to run more towards skin disease occurring in more than one dog at a time and fight wounds.

Veterinary behaviorists generally use the rule of thumb that if there are more than 3 cats in a household it is likely that there will be urine marking by one of the cats (about a 25% chance) and if there are more than 10 cats in a household it is almost 100% certain that urine or fecal marking behaviors will occur at some time. There are a few things that can be done to help avoid this problem but none are completely successful.

The most important single thing that can be done is to have adequate litter pans for cats who are in large groups and can't go outside. Ideally there should be one more litter pan than the number of cats, but this can become almost impossible to arrange when there are more than 4 or 5 cats in a household. Most cats prefer uncovered litter pans and it is very helpful if the litter pans are spread out around the house enough that aggressive cats are sometimes separated from less aggressive cats so they have time to use the litter pan without fear of being hassled or even attacked.

Some cats respond well to the use of synthetic cheek pheromone sprays or "plug ins", which emit the pheromone that cats rub on things with their face to signal friendly territory. This can be very helpful in some cases in lowering the levels of aggression and also in decreasing urinary marking. Feliway (tm) is currently the only brand name for the synthetic pheromone products that I am aware of. While the success of these products varies I have several clients who are convinced they help a great deal in their houses.

It is possible to help control urine marking behaviors in cats using medications such as fluoxetine (Prozac Rx) or buspirone (Buspar Rx) but it is necessary to identify the cat or cats who are urine marking in order to decide who to medicate. When this is difficult it can be helpful to use fluoroscein dye to make the urine of the cat who is marking fluorescent so that it can be detected. This is usually accomplished by cutting up fluoroscein dye strips made for use in detecting corneal ulcers into small bits and stuffing the bits into a capsule that is given orally. Checking the urine with a blacklight will allow detection of the cat who is urinating because the urine of the medicated cat will fluoresce under blacklight illumination. Sometimes it is just green or greenish-yellow enough to detect even without the use of a blacklight.

People usually fail to understand a number of things about how dogs in groups interact and this often leads to anxiety over behaviors that are actually normal. One example of this is the tendency for dogs to play roughly with each other and to make a lot of noise, even some scary noises, while interacting. As long as the dogs aren't doing actual damage to each other it is probably best to just let them play hard and work things out among themselves even if there is a lot of growling and aggressive posturing.

Most people want their dogs to have similar social values to theirs, with fair play and equality somewhere high on the list of desired traits. For owners of one dog and sometimes even two dogs, this is often an achievable goal since dogs are reasonably good at adapting to human behaviors when the incentive is high enough -- such as when humans are the primary companions. Unfortunately, this isn't the way that dogs interact on their own and when people have more than 2 or 3 dogs there is almost always some "pack" mentality among the group. Dogs tend to develop relationships based on a hierarchy, with a leader and then with every dog underneath him or her finding its own spot in the pack's order. Sometimes dogs who aren't at the top or bottom of the pack do have a fairly equal relationship with another dog similar to them in pack position but this is about as far as dogs generally take equality. This system works fine for dogs in most cases, as long as people don't mess it up too much. Of course, people often do cause problems because they see the system as unfair. Understanding your dog's point of view can help to keep the household in order.

Dogs will sometimes hurt each other when playing or interacting and then something does have to be done. It isn't uncommon for dogs in groups to have friction between two members of the group that leads to frequent fighting and real wounds on one or the other of the dogs. This is where it can be really hard to figure out the situation and to work within the bounds of group canine psychology to come up with a game plan. Simply keeping the dogs who initiate fights separate is a reasonable solution when it is possible. This solution works for both the canine and human social systems. If this isn't possible it can make sense to figure out which dog is winning most of the fights and support it. This is usually the exact opposite of what most people want to do -- they want to support the dog who is getting beaten up. An example of how this might work is a dog threatening another dog at a doorway. The normal person wants fairness and so they usually yell at the dog blocking the doorway. The alternative is to tell the dog who is trying to pass "NO" in an obvious manner. This removes any hope of you aiding the dog in its effort to overcome the threat and enforces its position as the lower member of the social order. This often seems cruel to people but it frequently works better at resolving conflicts.

Just like teenagers, dogs who travel in packs cause more trouble then dogs traveling alone. Two dogs probably get in three times as much trouble as a single dog, three dogs probably get in five or six times as much trouble, and so on. There just seems to be at least one member of the pack who sees an opportunity to get in trouble and everyone follows along. In most circumstances it just isn't a good idea to let a pack of dogs roam free unsupervised.

Infectious diseases are more of a problem when dogs and cats live in "group homes". This is particularly true for cats. Feline infectious peritonitis is rare in single cat households but can occur much more frequently when there are more than two or three cats in a household. The incidence of chronic upper respiratory infection is much higher in cats who are housed in places where there are more cats. The biggest problems with disease in dogs in multiple dog homes occurs when there are a lot of newcomers into the household and the most common diseases that occur are tracheobronchitis (kennel cough) and parvovirus. We still see distemper on an occasional basis, as well. Heartworm disease is common when heartworm prevention medications are not used, at least in areas in which heartworm disease is endemic. This is a completely controllable illness at this time and where cost is a major factor looking up the actual transmission period for your area and using the preventative medications only during those times can save money. In most areas of the United States it is only necessary to use heartworm prevention medications for 6 to 8 months of the year. The extreme southern areas such as Florida and Louisiana require all year use.

The first step in preventing infectious disease is to assess the situation in the household. After making sure that fleas are under control the next step is to determine what infectious diseases are likely to be present. For cats this may involve testing for feline leukemia virus, feline immunodeficiency virus, dermatophytosis (ringworm) and possibly feline corona virus. Dogs housed in groups are more likely to have internal parasites such as hookworm and whipworms and it is best to monitor for these parasites occasionally. There is less chance of a chronic illness that might be transmitted to other dogs from carriers of disease, although it really might be worth testing for vector borne diseases such as ehrlichiosis and babesiosis, especially if adopting retired greyhounds or rescuing fighting dogs. Once it is clear what diseases are already present in a group it is easier to make a plan to avoid these or to prevent transmission to dogs and cats added to the household.

If after the disease assessment it seems reasonable to add dogs or cats to the household it is a good idea to establish some type of quarantine period when a new pet is adopted. New additions should be separated from the rest of the household pets for at least a week and it is much better to wait a month or more, especially when adding a cat to a stable household. Failure to arrange for a quarantine period is an almost universal problem among owners of multiple pets. I suspect that fewer than 10% of my clients who own pets even think about taking this step when adding a new pet to a household. Mixing a new pet into a group without disease can lead to sudden illness in most of the group or, less commonly, an illness in the new pet from exposure to something that the household pets are harboring. It is difficult to make arrangements for quarantine periods but it is a good idea, even when a regular member of the household returns from a show, trip to the kennel or other situation in which there might be new diseases introduced into the household.

Most of my clients concentrate on trying to protect their pets through vaccination. Using appropriate vaccines to provide protection to pets is a good idea but it can't protect against a number of diseases and it is pretty hard to totally protect against some of the more common ones, such as parvovirus or feline leukemia. This is particularly true for breeders trying to protect puppies. Some of the vaccination schemes that we see in puppy records are truly astounding for the number of vaccinations given and the lack of understanding of how vaccination works.

When using vaccines for puppies and kittens it is necessary to understand when the vaccines are likely to be necessary and how frequently to repeat them. They are not magic and it is possible to prevent vaccines from working properly by giving them too often. It is unlikely that any puppies who were not orphaned at birth require vaccination for parvovirus or distemper prior to six to eight weeks of age. It is unlikely that any kittens not orphaned at birth require vaccination for upper respiratory viruses, panleukopenia or feline leukemia prior to eight weeks of age. Giving vaccinations for the same diseases at intervals closer than two weeks apart has been demonstrated to interfere with immunity from the vaccines. There does not appear to be much benefit to giving vaccines at intervals closer than 3 weeks apart. While most kittens and puppies appear to tolerate more frequent vaccination without much problem it is a waste of money and some puppies and kittens do suffer ill effects from the overuse of vaccines.

It is a good idea to carefully consider which diseases to vaccinate for and the most effective type of vaccine for the situation, as well. Vaccines are relatively easy to produce and there are a number of vaccine manufacturers. Quality varies significantly among these vaccines and it is a good idea to have some knowledge of the vaccine manufacturer's reputation for quality prior to purchasing vaccines. If you are not able to assess the quality of a vaccine and its manufacturer it is probably best not to purchase them yourself.

Most kittens who will be raised in a single cat home are at very low risk for developing feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus and should not be vaccinated for these diseases. Vaccination for rhinotracheitis (feline herpes virus), calicivirus and panleukopenia is recommended for all kittens. In multiple cat environments it may be better to use the intranasal vaccines for rhinotracheitis and calicivirus. Many vets avoid the use of these vaccines because they have a tendency to cause sneezing and muscle soreness for a few days after use and this can be upsetting to pet owners. They do seem to provide more protection against chronic illness with feline herpes virus, though. This can be a really important factor in a household with multiple cats in reducing the chance for a carrier cat to cause persistent illness in the group. It is also much more important to consider the use of feline leukemia vaccine in group situations and in some circumstances the use of feline immunodeficiency virus vaccine may also make sense. At this time almost all of the infectious disease specialists appear to agree that the use of feline infectious peritonitis vaccine is not recommended even in multiple cat homes.

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is an illness in cats caused by a mutation of a very common virus, feline coronavirus (FCV). This illness occurs when the more common virus has infected a cat and then mutated into a form that can cause more serious illness. It is thought that the mutated virus is spread rarely, if ever, from cat to cat. For this reason, the only way to really eliminate the possibility of feline infectious peritonitis in a multiple cat household is to identify the cats infected with feline coronavirus and keep them separate from other cats entirely. If these cats are used for breeding their kittens must be separated from them by six weeks of age in order to prevent infection with the virus. No new cats can be admitted to the household or used for breeding purposes unless they are tested negative for feline coronavirus. Since 30 to 50% of cats in single cat households have been exposed to feline coronavirus and about 80% of cats in multiple cat households have been exposed, it is quite difficult to keep this virus out of a group of cats entirely. Feline coronavirus causes a mild diarrhea and most people whose cats have been infected with this virus are not aware that an infection occurred. Due to the need for a mutation in the feline coronavirus to occur to induce FIP, there is no major increase in risk to other cats in a household when a cat in the household dies from FIP. Since the currently available FIP vaccination provides no benefit for cats already exposed to feline coronavirus there is no reason to vaccinate other cats in a household when a cat dies from FIP.

In most households with more than four or five cats on a continuous basis there will eventually be a death in the group from FIP. While it is hard to accept this there is no way to decrease the risk substantially other than to make a concerted effort to prevent feline coronavirus transmission by testing for FCV and isolating uninfected cats from infected ones until the entire group is FCV free. Reinfection can be hard to prevent and so this approach is often difficult to justify since even a major effort can be fruitless in the long run.

In groups of cats there are frequently one or more cats who suffer from chronic upper respiratory disease. These cats may have runny noses, sneezing, mucus accumulation in their eyes, frequent dental infections, larger accumulations of ear wax or other problems on a chronic basis. There is some evidence that the use of the intranasal rhinotracheitis/calicivirus vaccines can help these cats significantly. The vaccine is used in a slightly different manner than the label suggests, with 1 drop of the vaccine being put in each eye and the rest in the nose when used for chronic infections. The vaccine should be repeated in one month. Dr. Ford at North Carolina State University thinks this will eliminate the clinical signs of chronic infection in about 40% of affected cats and lessen the signs in a larger percentage than that.

Multiple cat households frequently have problems with dermatophytosis (ringworm) infection, especially if the cats in the group are long haired cats. Once a problem with ringworm has been identified in a household it should be assumed that there is a carrier cat. The only way to eliminate ringworm long term is to treat all cats in the household for the disease until ringworm cultures from all cats have been negative for at least two weeks and to take steps to eliminate ringworm from the environment. Cleaning all possible household surfaces with dilute chlorine bleach, vacuuming daily and throwing out the vacuum cleaner bag (or disinfecting the canister) and changing air filters in the household frequently are all helpful in eliminating ringworm spores from the environment. Treating all the cats and eliminating the spores from the household can be a very long process but it can be successfully accomplished. It is important to recognize that it is difficult to eliminate ringworm with topical treatment only. In almost all cases it is necessary to combine topical therapy with oral medications to succeed in eliminating this infection.

In groups of dogs the biggest current risk to puppies is parvovirus infection, which causes a bloody diarrhea that is fatal about 80% of the time if not treated and about 10 to 20% of the time even with treatment. This is a disease that causes severe illness primarily in young and growing puppies. It is rare for adult dogs to develop clinically apparent signs of parvovirus. Unfortunately, an adult dog can be infected and can shed the virus without any visible clinical signs. The virus is stable in the environment for a very long time and can be brought into a household by pet owners or dogs who have walked through a lawn or park where the virus has been shed. This makes parvovirus an almost constant risk and one that is hard to avoid entirely.

The current "low passage / high titer" vaccines for parvovirus are very effective at providing immunity but even the best of these vaccines, used appropriately, can not protect a puppy completely. There is a short period of time, usually about one to two weeks, when maternal immunity to the virus has weakened but not enough for the vaccine to break through that immunity and protect against infection with the virus. No alteration in vaccine scheduling can prevent this short period of risk to the puppy. Most puppies experience this period of risk when they are between 8 and 10 weeks of age but it can vary significantly depending on how much maternal antibody they actually got from their mother. With this in mind, we recommend vaccinating puppies starting at 6 to 8 weeks of age and then every three to four weeks until the puppies are 12 weeks of age if using high titer vaccination or 16 weeks of age if using one of the older vaccines. There just doesn't appear to be any benefit to vaccinating more frequently. There is a major benefit in preventing exposure of puppies to any adult dog who may have been exposed to parvovirus recently, such as a dog that has just been taken into the household, a dog who has been to a show or even just a dog park to be walked. This precaution should be taken until the puppy has been successfully vaccinated using the guidelines above. While parvovirus is a major problem and the risk of infection can not be fully eliminated there is no reason to be irrational in the use of vaccines when confronted with this problem.

It is clear at this time that the core vaccinations in both dogs (distemper, adenovirus, parainfluenza, parvovirus and rabies) last at least three years and the same is true for the core vaccines in cats (panleukopenia, rhinotracheitis and calicivirus). Having yearly physical exams done but going to every three year vaccination saves money without increasing risk.

Intestinal parasites are more common when pets live in groups. Dogs are most commonly infected with roundworms, hookworms, whipworms and tapeworms. Tapeworms are transmitted by eating fleas or rabbits, most of the time. Roundworm larvae can be transmitted to the puppy while still in the mother's uterus or in milk, as well as from contact with infected soil. Hookworms and whipworms are transmitted from contact with infected soil. If whipworm infection becomes a problem in a group of dogs housed in dirt pens it is almost impossible to stop the transmission without moving the dogs to an entirely different area or digging up several inches of soil in their pens and replacing it with uninfected soil. Routinely checking random stool samples for the presence of worm eggs and periodic deworming can keep the problems associated with intestinal worms to a minimum. Puppies should be dewormed for roundworms starting at 2 weeks of age and every 2 weeks until they are 6 to 8 weeks of age and then every 4 weeks for two to three months. The combined heartworm/intestinal worm products such as Heartgard Plus (tm) or Interceptor (tm) are sufficient for controlling hookworms and roundworms so it is not necessary to use these and another deworming product at the same time unless there is evidence of tapeworms.

Cats are most commonly infected with roundworms, hookworms and tapeworms. The transmission methods are the same for dogs and cats except that transfer of roundworms to kittens in the uterus doesn't occur. Kittens should be dewormed with a product such as pyrantel pomoate, that can kill roundworms and hookworms, starting at 4 to 6 weeks of age and then every 2 to 4 weeks until they are 12 to 16 weeks of age. Cats who defecate outside frequently use a specific area over and over again so it is pretty important to make an effort to eliminate roundworm infection through routine deworming of cats who live in groups.

Coccidiosis and giardiasis are intestinal parasitic illnesses that are more common in groups of pets. In most cases it is nearly impossible to eliminate these parasites form a group of dogs or cats if they get established in their environment. These diseases cause diarrhea, most commonly in young pets but sometimes in adults. They are fairly easy to treat if present and it is a good idea to monitor for them by checking stool samples and to treat infected puppies and kittens if diarrhea occurs. While the litter is intact it is best to treat all the puppies or kittens even if only one or two have clinical signs. Maintaining good sanitary standards is helpful in limiting the problem with these diseases but usually will not completely eliminate them. Giardiasis is potentially a zoonotic disease (can be passed from pets to people) so it is particularly important to use good sanitary practices when it is found in your pets.

People who have more than one pet have to deal with fight wounds much more commonly than people who have a single pet. Most of the time these wounds are minor and can be treated at home but if there is any question of the severity of a wound it is best to have it examined by your vet. This is particularly true for bite wounds inflicted by dogs because there can be a tremendous amount of damage under the skin that isn't visible without surgically exploring the puncture wound.

The biggest problem we see from cat fight wounds is abscessing that occurs several hours to as much as two to three weeks after a bite wound. Abscesses are generally painful when touched, appear to be swollen areas of the skin and are warm or hot when touched. Sometimes abscesses are nearly inapparent and other times they are quite obvious. When an abscess has occurred it is important that it be opened and drained. In some cases this occurs naturally but in many cases the abscess must be opened surgically. Flushing out the pus and cleansing the wound with an antiseptic such as diluted betadine solution helps a great deal but it is usually best to use an oral antibiotic for several days to prevent recurrence of the abscess. Treatment of abscesses from fighting is the biggest expense that some of our cat owners have for their cat or cats. Taking preventative steps to avoid fighting, including neutering all male cats not intended to be used for breeding and the use of behavioral medications such as buspirone (Buspar Rx) or fluoxetine (Prozac Rx) can be helpful in reducing the costs and pain associated with abscesses. In cats these medications do seems to work often enough to control fighting to make them worth consideration. Cleansing all bite wounds with an antiseptic solution such as dilute betadine and applying an antiseptic or antibiotic medications such as Neosporin (tm) can be helpful in preventing abscess formation. It is particularly important to treat bite wounds that are over a joint or in the lower legs where the bones are very close to the skin because infection of a bone or joint can be quite difficult to resolve if it becomes well established.

Dog bite wounds are often minor because of the way that dogs interact. Most confrontations in dogs are a lot of noise and aggressive actions without too much biting. When real fighting does occur the wounds tend to be much worse and can be life threatening. We have less success with medications in controlling fighting in groups of dogs but there is some evidence that fluoxetine and paroxetine (Paxil Rx) can be helpful when given to dogs who are fighting. Some of the wounds in dogs that appear to be minor can be deceptive, though. We see dogs every now and then with tears in the margins of their ears that have been bleeding for days and a couple of these dogs had lost enough blood to be close to death when their owners finally brought them in. There is an artery in the margin of the ear and if this artery is torn when a bite occurs it may not stop bleeding on its own. Even though the artery is small and the blood loss may appear to be just a trickle of blood it is important to monitor these wounds and to take your dog to the vet if the bleeding doesn't stop within two to three hours. It is often necessary to suture these wounds to get the bleeding to stop. We see a similar problem when dogs are bitten close to the pad that is in the region of their carpus (wrist). There is a small artery here that may also continue to bleed for several days if the wound is not sutured. An even bigger problem in dogs occurs when a wound that appears to be a simple puncture wound actually has extensive damage under it where the tooth knifed through underlying muscle causing a wider area of destruction under the skin than on the surface. If your dog has a puncture wound that appears severely bruised, swollen or is more painful than it looks like it should be, it is important to have your vet check the wound. This is one of those situations where it is better to be cautious because these wounds can be fatal if ignored.

Owning several pets can be a great deal of fun but it is also much more work. It is important to keep in mind the change in health risk factors associated with owning two or more pets compared with owning a single pet. If you are new to your veterinarian it is a good idea to make sure he or she knows that you own a number of pets rather than just one, as this information can make a big difference in the treatment plan. If you own multiple pets it is much better to put your money into preventing problems than into treating them. One of the saddest things we deal with in practice is watching a client with good intentions collect more and more pets until they have exceeded their ability to care for them properly. The first sign of this is often neglect for yearly physical examinations, flea control and other preventative health measures. Eventually the situation can reach the point where it is too expensive to take care of the serious illness of one pet without impacting on the health care of all of the other pets in the family. At this point, despite the good intentions, the reality becomes a life of dealing with chronic illness for many of the pets in multiple pet homes when health care costs exceed the available funds for pet care. Don't let this happen to you and your pets. Keep only the number of pets you can really afford to care for. Work with your vet to come up with a disease prevention program that works and remember that even if it means a little more in up front cost it will almost always save money over the long haul to provide preventative care if you are serious about providing a healthy life for your pets.

If you are already in a situation in which there are chronic problems, concentrate on the things that you can control first, such as flea control, control of other parasites and perhaps the use of the intranasal rhinotracheitis/calicivirus vaccine to reduce chronic upper respiratory illness in groups of cats. By gaining control of the things that lead to secondary illnesses it is surprising how much you can reduce chronic illnesses. Don't be discouraged by setbacks at first. It takes a little bit of time to get over the existing problems and get to the point that most illness is controlled and you can begin to save a little money for the inevitable crises that occur. In the long run, though, taking care of the little things and planning for good health care will save money and reduce the stress in your life and in your pets' lives.

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The opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of Michael Richards, DVM., author.