Veterinarian here: ask me anything!

[monika_k9]

Hi,
If a dog has two partners, is it possible that it can transmit venereal diseases from one woman to the other?

 

[lusta24]

So there’s strong feelings on this from both pro and anti sides of the camp. The data is especially hard to gather here in the US, where so many of our animals are neutered as a matter of course.

I think it’s primarily a deep seated cultural narrative, and it comes down to being informed that neutering will be the decision equated with “doing what’s best for your pet.” In the US, there’s kind of a single minded fixation on sterilization as solving way more problems than it actually can.

For example, capturing large quantities of cats and sterilizing them all is lauded as the single best thing we can do to control overpopulation of them—in reality, though those cats are no longer part of the breeding pool, additional intact colonies simply move into the now empty niche, and the problem continues.

As another example, many folks in the US see an intact male dog as aggressive, unpredictable, and completely untrainable and the owner of said dog as irresponsible. Cultural peer pressure like this is very difficult to change or resist.

This is so so true. I feel like the pressure to spay and neuter early really has abated in the last ten or twenty years, but there is still such a clear cultural belief that intact dogs are particularly wild and aggressive and troublesome. One can see populations of intact dogs who do seem to coexist in relative harmony...in Europe...at dog shows...and this seems to show that not all intact dogs are a menace. Lots of well adjusted intact dogs sitting quietly with their humans in French cafes and mostly pretty calm dogs by the hundreds at dog show.

 

[Schuppentier]

This is so so true. I feel like the pressure to spay and neuter early really has abated in the last ten or twenty years, but there is still such a clear cultural belief that intact dogs are particularly wild and aggressive and troublesome. One can see populations of intact dogs who do seem to coexist in relative harmony...in Europe...at dog shows...and this seems to show that not all intact dogs are a menace. Lots of well adjusted intact dogs sitting quietly with their humans in French cafes and mostly pretty calm dogs by the hundreds at dog show.

Here in Germany, there are rarely any neutered dogs. I think it's illegal to do here, without a serious medical reason.

 

[knottylover2376]

Do you think dogs get pleasure fucking people or getting fucked by them.

 

[lusta24]

Here in Germany, there are rarely any neutered dogs. I think it's illegal to do here, without a medical reason.

Here in the US there are legitimate issues of dogs roaming unsupervised and breeding leading to unwanted puppies, but there is now such a pressure for everyone, even people who keep their dogs very responsibly, to neuter their dogs just in case their dogs might become responsible for canine over population! It is very silly, ive had dogs for thirty years and most of mine have been intact and NONE of them have ever impregnated other dogs or gotten pregnant. They have all always been supervised and looked after. And none of them have been unruly or dangerous! I am sure that the intact dogs of Germany are perfectly lovely and usually well behaved

 

[Schuppentier]

Here in the US there are legitimate issues of dogs roaming unsupervised and breeding leading to unwanted puppies, but there is now such a pressure for everyone, even people who keep their dogs very responsibly, to neuter their dogs just in case their dogs might become responsible for canine over population! It is very silly, ive had dogs for thirty years and most of mine have been intact and NONE of them have ever impregnated other dogs or gotten pregnant. They have all always been supervised and looked after. And none of them have been unruly or dangerous! I am sure that the intact dogs of Germany are perfectly lovely and usually well behaved .

Street dogs are not a thing in Germany. There are rarely any free roaming dogs.
Mass neutering is not very effective at combating dog overpopulation.

 

[lusta24]

Street dogs are not a thing in Germany. There are rarely any free roaming dogs.
Mass neutering is not very effective at combating dog population.

I completely agree.

 

[Goattobeloved]

Hi @Deagle113

Are you aware of any advance in treating goat CAE?

Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (CAE) – Goats

I am sure if that was for dogs or horses they would have found an antiviric long ago, but there is not enough farmacy business in cheap production animals ?

Holding arthritis with ginger now, which has proved way more effective than farmacy products. And yes. I am aware that will only buy some extra time to prepare myself

 

[GlenDog]

Here in Germany, there are rarely any neutered dogs. I think it's illegal to do here, without a serious medical reason.

In my many years of research on U.S. canine veterinary care trends I am begining to notice some things that I find disturbing. First of all is the alarming takeover of veterinary medicine by large investment firms. Second is the resistance of U.S. veterinray medicine to take heed of the ever growing number of scientific studies that suggest disturbing the balance of the endocrine system is a very bad idea wrought with lots of negative conseqeunces <likely because it throws egg in the face of the whole "fix your dog because its healthier" BS that has been the mantra of most vets, the AVMA and every one with a social voice, since the 70's> <Bob Barker ect>
But the thing that concerns me the most is that its not at all hard to draw lines connecting to flow of money to certain things, such as "drug marketing detailing" of the vets and the colleges alike<google that>. So first you get a dog, and you shell out money at the big chain store for all the stuff a young dog needs < bed crate vaccinations chew toys treats training aids ect> then you are convinced to do a surgey to " be a good owner" then not long later your dog begins to gain weight, have joint troubles, have increased aggression issues or fear issues, have urinary incontinence, and a whole laundry list of other issues associated with disturbing the balance of the endocrine system
. BUT WAIT! we have a whole multicolor universe of drugs and diets and treatments for all that ails your beloved k9. < All of which cost vast sums of money that can be traced back to investment firms, such as MARS CO ect>.

Follow the money. It didn't start out like this, but now that this is the "norm" the folks with the control dont want it to change. They like the fact that your dog will have more ailments and live a shorter life because it makes them more money. Even the shelters make them money one way or another < tax write offs, meds, toys, treats surgeries..... all the same stuff. Distressingly I am beginning to conclude that dogs are now seen as furry dollar signs to the investor controlled market. The more " fixes" they can sell you on , the bigger their bonus is . If they can sell you on a fix that actually breaks your dog so you now "need treatments" then they love that.

Not all vets are falling into this mess. But sadly, it is getting worse at an alarming rate. MARS now owns about one quarter of all vets globally in the markets I've studied.

Thank DOG for the likes of Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the others who demonstrate and educate on the right way to live with dogs.
I had a situation recently where I had need for Alizin treatment, something I could easily get in most other countries, but was very difficult to get here in the states. But one I found a clinic with clearance from the American FDA to have it, it saved the life of my dog without surgery.

I would say it was nothing short of miraculous. But its not made locally, so no one lobbies the FDA to allow its use here in the states.

FYI the 16th letter of the alfabet doesn't work on this old junker< amongst other keys as well>. I had to get creative in my grammar.

 

[Deagle113]

The CDC says it is possible for humans to get infected with hookworms from dogs: https://www.cdc.gov/zoonotic-hookworm/about/

Also roundworms: https://www.cdc.gov/toxocariasis/about/

What are your thoughts @Deagle113 ?

That's exactly right, but neither of these pose an oral risk from kissing a dog.

You're looking at different routes of infection for both of those parasites. Hookworms are released as eggs into the soil from dog feces, hatch, and then burrow into your skin via the soles of your feet or other exposed areas -- in the US, hookworm burden in children was dramatically decreased from a public health standpoint once folks could afford to buy shoes for everyone! Human infection usually involves the confused baby worm wandering around inside your skin (we aren't their natural hosts) making little tracks that itch.

Roundworms are released from the dog in feces and are invective via ingestion, meaning children, putting stuff they shouldn't in their mouths once again are the highest demographic -- high risk situations are areas with poor sanitation where poop is lying around presenting a perfect opportunity for the parasites. Once ingested in humans, they also migrate around searching for their natural host, but for a reason we don't precisely understand, they make it to the eye a lot more often, causing permanent blindness usually in one eye.

Two excellent reasons why we recommend always picking up dog poop and keeping your dog on a good parasite monitoring plan and prevention as needed!

 

[Deagle113]

How many kilos does a bitch need to have to try to have a sexual act?, and what would be the minimum and maximum size that the person would have to be?

@Cookiecaretaker hit the nail precisely on the head! My guess is you're trying to choose a future dog based on weight, which is a great consideration for including them on car rides and adventures, or for the amount of food you will eventually need to provide them, or for tracking healthy development, but not for sexual engagement. I'm happy to provide tips on selecting a good companion, but they won't be centered around "fitting" since it's impossible to predict.

 

[Deagle113]

Hi,
If a dog has two partners, is it possible that it can transmit venereal diseases from one woman to the other?

Absolutely. Though the major bacterial culprits for stuff like Gonorrhea aren't infective to dogs, they theoretically absolutely can hitch a ride on the mucous membranes of the penis and colonize a new human if both engaged with the same dog shortly after each other.

 

[Deagle113]

Do you think dogs get pleasure fucking people or getting fucked by them.

Yes on both points.

 

[Deagle113]

Here in the US there are legitimate issues of dogs roaming unsupervised and breeding leading to unwanted puppies, but there is now such a pressure for everyone, even people who keep their dogs very responsibly, to neuter their dogs just in case their dogs might become responsible for canine over population! It is very silly, ive had dogs for thirty years and most of mine have been intact and NONE of them have ever impregnated other dogs or gotten pregnant. They have all always been supervised and looked after. And none of them have been unruly or dangerous! I am sure that the intact dogs of Germany are perfectly lovely and usually well behaved

Which means that the campaign of sterilization isn't the primary culprit for all these stray dogs. If it worked, we wouldn't have them.

 

[Deagle113]

Hi @Deagle113

Are you aware of any advance in treating goat CAE?

Sadly, you are exactly right. There is no known treatment that I am aware of, nor is there even a vaccine for it. Based on the way goats are treated and managed for CAE, I don't think there's any motivation for pharmaceutical companies to even try and develop one. I'm so sorry to hear about your girl -- it's a hard thing to manage and watch, and keeping her comfortable with things like regular hoof trims and supportive care is the best you can do for her.

 

[Deagle113]

Good points and thoughts for consideration! Thanks for chiming in. I love forums for exactly this long form type of discussion!

First of all is the alarming takeover of veterinary medicine by large investment firms.

Combined with the tremendous amount of school loans post vet school, and the high starting salaries at these places. It's a difficult situation to navigate for new graduates.

Second is the resistance of U.S. veterinary medicine to take heed of the ever growing number of scientific studies that suggest disturbing the balance of the endocrine system is a very bad idea wrought with lots of negative consequences

Europe has always been ahead of us in scientific advancement and veterinary medicine. It's hard to change something that is culturally ingrained and has been traditionally black and white into a grey area. Put yourself in the shoes of a US vet for a bit -- incredibly overworked and exhausted, when will you have the time to even read the science and data about all but a smattering of the many different medical issues you deal with from day to day -- unless you have a personal interest in the sterilization debate and a client base who are supportive of that. Ultimately, we are a service industry, and I can't do things that the owner doesn't agree to. I can provide advice and counseling, but at the end of the day, the decision to spay or neuter isn't ours.

But the thing that concerns me the most is that its not at all hard to draw lines connecting to flow of money to certain things, such as "drug marketing detailing" of the vets and the colleges alike.

Human medical schools don't allow pharmaceutical companies to put on events and provide free food and information about using their products to students, though they once did! Veterinary schools still do. The hope is that students continue to exercise rational decision making and thinking when making veterinary recommendations in the future -- sometimes though, there is only a single medication or product on the US market for treating a certain condition, and there aren't other options even if we wished for European medications that do the job better.

Follow the money. It didn't start out like this, but now that this is the "norm" the folks with the control dont want it to change. They like the fact that your dog will have more ailments and live a shorter life because it makes them more money.

I disagree. From a purely cynical financial perspective, a dog living longer not shorter, will make more money as they rack up stuff for the management of all of the diseases that come with a less robust immune system and time.

Distressingly I am beginning to conclude that dogs are now seen as furry dollar signs to the investor controlled market.

Veterinary medicine is very much a business model and for profit, even historically when it was all small businesses owned by individual vets. Like it or not, dogs have to be afforded before you have enough demand to begin developing medications for conditions and treatments. Every veterinarian has to decide ethically where they fall on the scale of needing to make a salary to afford to feed and house themselves, and taking care of animals. That's why it's important to be empowered that YOU are responsible for managing your dog's health and well being, and your vet is part of the team devoted to that with a lot of other folks, rather than an authority delivering statements from on high like the 70s. I think this dynamic change has led to better accountability for vets as well as lifting the curtain on our profession for the general public and allowing them to participate in their dog's care.

Not all vets are falling into this mess. But sadly, it is getting worse at an alarming rate. MARS now owns about one quarter of all vets globally in the markets I've studied.

Vets can still be devoted to what's best for your animal and you while also working for somewhere big. It's a lot more nuanced and difficult to navigate than simply following the ownership. But when the choice is to take a corporate buy out or fire your entire staff of 20 years, many of whom are like family and have children who have gone to school together because you can't find an associate veterinarian to take over a practice because they are all working in the big attractice hospitals in larger cities -- what's the best move then? Do you go down with the ship and put everyone out of a job? The problem is huge and has a lot of nuances, but I feel your frustration.

Thank DOG for the likes of Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the others who demonstrate and educate on the right way to live with dogs.
I had a situation recently where I had need for Alizin treatment, something I could easily get in most other countries, but was very difficult to get here in the states. But one I found a clinic with clearance from the American FDA to have it, it saved the life of my dog without surgery.

Or the case of human insulin, that so many people depend on for life saving treatment -- patented by its creator at $1 because he strongly believed that nobody should not be able to afford to treat such a pervasive condition as diabetes. Price of a vial in the US currently? Over $200. We can't even straighten out human medications in our nightmare of a health care system -- not to even mention veterinary stuff.

FYI the 16th letter of the alfabet doesn't work on this old junker< amongst other keys as well>. I had to get creative in my grammar.

And ya did an excellent job with it XD

 

[lusta24]

Which means that the campaign of sterilization isn't the primary culprit for all these stray dogs. If it worked, we wouldn't have them.

exactly so.

 

[NCGuy]

Howdy zooville!

I work as a mixed animal veterinarian, and am willing to answer any and all animal health questions you may have to the best of my ability. Keep in mind that I’m only one person, and my medical opinion is just that—an opinion, however well informed it may be.

Anything you’re curious about?

Edit: feel free to Dm me if needed!

Little patches/pumps, very small and widely dispersed, of dry skin that eventually flake away. Tried different shampoos. Feed home made, natural foods rather then pallets. Groom 2 to 3 times a week.
Any suggestions?

 

[Deagle113]

I was making the assumption that an infected dog licking their butt (without the owner knowing) then kissing shortly after would transmit roundworms via the fecal material. Or licking the ground picking up larva of hookworms and then kissing the owner. It's not common to hear about zoonotic hookworm infections from zoos so I tell people it's rare but it seems possible.

Good points, but hookworms are deposited in the soil and must hatch into a larvae who then develop from one form to another over a series of weeks before becoming infective. Round worm eggs also sit and develop with the worm still inside the egg for 4-5 weeks before being transmitted as infectious. Neither of these guys can complete that development inside a human being directly post ingestion.

I would still firmly place hookworm infections in adult zoos at the cause of the environment.

 

[Deagle113]

Little patches/pumps, very small and widely dispersed, of dry skin that eventually flake away. Tried different shampoos. Feed home made, natural foods rather then pallets. Groom 2 to 3 times a week.
Any suggestions?

Seasonal? Itchy? Skin problems are difficult to solve in person, much less via forum. What does your vet say about it? How have you gone about formulating the homemade diet, and are you sure it’s nutritionally complete?

 

[Goattobeloved]

Sadly, you are exactly right. There is no known treatment that I am aware of, nor is there even a vaccine for it. Based on the way goats are treated and managed for CAE, I don't think there's any motivation for pharmaceutical companies to even try and develop one. I'm so sorry to hear about your girl -- it's a hard thing to manage and watch, and keeping her comfortable with things like regular hoof trims and supportive care is the best you can do for her.

Yes, two ladies came together. One I had to kill when she was just one year. Joint problems, big pain and later organ failure.
I suspected this one could be affected, but after a decade I was rightfully hoping she was either resistant or asimptomatic.

Using some horse hoof oil as It *might* still be just very dry hoof cracks. But the "clack" sound is not good omen

Q: She seems to take well on some store (animal based)collagen + hilauronic acid supplement. Would that be if any help for the arthritis?

-- just some memories, backstory here --
My vet had no cattle knowledge but loves her job (that is why I have her as vet ) and is open to "experiment". At first I pointed without much hope it *could* be joint problem by vitamin / mineral deficit so we tried a suplement.
I mean... CAE test are not 100% reliable individual wise. So I went Gregory House way. Two options. One is dead patient, lets treat for the second. Did not work.

Later, when organs collapsed told me to call and ask the zone cattle vet, who told me he had never seen such case of anemia through bleeding in the urine clots and all.

 

[Goattobeloved]

I'm confused. The article said that humans can get infected by hookworms from soil and roundworms from feces. If the infected soil or feces takes a short ride in a dog's mouth before getting on/in the human, does that prevent the infection?

Unless I got it wrong, it seems easy.

No direct infection from the dog.
BUT if they sit for x weeks on a suitable ground, then that ground is infected with viable parasites and the moment you put that on your moith, you can get infected.

At that point, sure, I do not think it will make a difference if you put the dirt on your mouth directly, or the dog picks it with his mouth and transports it to yours ?

But in the latest, the culprit is not the dog, but the lack of higiene for not cleaning in weeks. Also, preventive deworming your dog will go a long way to avoid it

 

[NCGuy]

Seasonal? Itchy? Skin problems are difficult to solve in person, much less via forum. What does your vet say about it? How have you gone about formulating the homemade diet, and are you sure it’s nutritionally complete?

Diet has been reviewed by Vet. Have not mentioned the pumps yet to Vet..... appt on Friday though

 

[Deagle113]

I'm confused. The article said that humans can get infected by hookworms from soil and roundworms from feces. If the infected soil or feces takes a short ride in a dog's mouth before getting on/in the human, does that change if the infection happens?

Right on, @Goattobeloved. The soil is infective, yes, but not immediately so. (And the hookworms in the soil ultimately came from feces!) It takes time for the egg to develop to a stage to infect before it’s possible. In feces it’s the same way.

 

[shepherdsshadow]

Two questions, 1. Are you male , Female, 2nd, active?

 

[Deagle113]

Two questions, 1. Are you male , Female, 2nd, active?

Based on my time here, I feel like this is a loaded question, so let me establish a couple things before I answer. If you didn't mean this question in this way you've nothing to worry about, and you can feel free to ask follow ups -- perusing your post history you may not. I don't think being zoo changes the way that one interacts sexually online or otherwise -- it doesn't suddenly make me any different than I normally would be as a hetero-normative person.

No I will not share photos, nor will I consider sharing my location without knowing folks for a good while first. I also don't share my dogs -- I don't swing that way. I'm male, and an active and very happy zoo, yes.

 

[shepherdsshadow]

I meant no disrespect or harm I was/am curious I have no other interest where you live etc. I actually think it is a plus to have the knowledge here.

 

[Deagle113]

I meant no disrespect or harm I was/am curious I have no other interest where you live etc. I actually think it is a plus to have the knowledge here.

Wonderful! That’s why I prefaced it with those things. Glad it was in good faith—I agree! Even though we should be careful about what we share on here, a small bit of knowledge goes a long way towards beginning to foster connections and potential friendships.

 

[lockeliberal]

How to become a vet tech without going to a university? Do they have trade schools?

 

[Deagle113]

How to become a vet tech without going to a university? Do they have trade schools?

They sure do! You may not reach as high a level as you could if you had a degree, however. It also depends entirely on the practice you work for, and the country you work in as to if you work as a vet tech or a vet assistant (salaries and duties between the two differ). Right now the US market is in desperate demand for veterinary technicians, and this has driven salaries up, but they still aren't to the level that I think they should be for employing folks with such a broad range of knowledge and skill.