Health Watch

Advice from our In–house Vet, Simon Bailey

Although most people love the summer months, this time of year does have its advantages and disadvantages for Dogs and Cats. For Dogs especially, the sunny weather means more runs on the beach, and school holidays mean lots of companions to chase around said beach. Unfortunately, seasonal hazards may also mean more time spent at the vets and an early end to outdoor fun. In this edition we will briefly discuss a few of the most common problems we see at the vets during this time of year.

By far the most common presenting complaints from our patients at the moment involve grass seeds. Grass seeds in their ears, grass seeds in their eyes, grass seeds in their nose, grass seeds in their feet...

Because of their shape, grass seeds tend to move in one direction and worm their way into everywhere and can be very painful for the affected individual. As well as causing discomfort they have the potential to cause a lot of damage. Those caught behind the third eyelid can damage the surface of the eye and those in the ears can damage the ear drum. Most grass seeds latch on when they become trapped in the fur during a walk in the fields. Therefore we would advise that all dogs should be checked thoroughly on their return home, paying particular attention to between the toes and around the ears. If there are any visible and easy to remove then do so, if very sore or difficult then get them checked at your vets as soon as possible.

There has been a lot of news coverage about dogs being left in cars this summer, as there appears to be every summer. We’ve been lucky enough at our practice not to have encountered any cases of heat stroke so far. The advice is always the same, but it easy to forget how hot it can get inside a car and how quickly. Temperatures can reach over 50(C and dogs can die from heatstroke in as little as 20 minutes. It is very important never to leave a dog unattended in the car in warm weather, even with the window open and water they can still suffer with heatstroke very quickly. When embarking on a car journey with a pet on board, make sure they have somewhere to sit away from the sunlight, allow them plenty of access to water and take regular breaks for fresh air. The same applies for exercising dogs; try to do this at the coolest part of the day i.e. the early morning or evening. If it is hot for us to exercise or sit in the sun it will be so for your dog also.

Harvest mites are small in stature, but around late summer these cause untold misery for cats, dogs and humans. They are bright orange, just visible to the naked eye and are often found as clusters in the animal’s paws, ears and face, although they can attach themselves to any part of the body. They go by many different names, chiggers, berry bugs, harvest bug, but their correct name is Neotrombicula autumnalis and are closely related to ticks and spiders. Like ticks they have several stages to their life cycle; passing from egg, to larva, through nymph before becoming the adult. Most of these stages occur in vegetation but it is only the larval form that bites us. They are active from late July to mid September and will crawl onto any warm–blooded animal, bite and take a feed. Once full, they fall off and complete their life cycle. What we generally see on our pets is that they are very itchy and some may groom so hard that they damage their skin, cannot settle easily and may even lose weight because they as so bothered. Obviously these signs can be seen with a number of conditions, however once diagnosed they can be relatively easily treated by your vet. Most of us love a barbecue and so do most dogs. Lots of social activity, frivolity and falling food can be great attractions. Even an unattended plate of food or barbecue grill (with injury risk) might crop up! Some of the guests may even be mug enough to share, if beseeched sufficiently. Look out for accidental ingestion of cooked chop bones, fish bones, chicken bones etc. Also be on your guard if your dog is on a special diet for medical reasons, as the enthusiastic canine foraging may result in dietary disasters.

Britain is traditionally a nation of gardeners and although our summers are usually short this is the time most people do most work in their gardens. Please remember if using chemicals for your plants some do not mix with your pet’s health. Please be careful with products like weed killers, slug pellets, some fertilisers and poisons etc. And keep out of easy access for pets, or ideally use products which are labelled pet friendly. In the event they get access to anything get veterinary advice as soon as possible. Please ensure when you contact the vets you have details of the product they have had access to i.e. its name concentration etc. So the best advice can be given quickly because as with any type of poisoning speed is the key.

This was just a brief look at some very common problems we see in general practice during the summer months, if you have any questions regarding these or any related points please contact your vet or Ardmore Veterinary Group, 57, Cornard Road, Sudbury on (01787) 372 588.