The Howie Carr Radio Network

UNLEASHED with Dr. Matt the Vet | 6.6.24 - The Howie Carr Show Hour 4

You'll be sure to leave this episode more knowledgeable than you started in the ins and outs of veterinary medicine. Dr. Matt Callahan answers callers' questions about their pups and kitties. Call the Ipswich Animal Hospital at 978-948-8189 to get ahold of Dr. Matt the Vet during the day.

Duration:: 40m
Broadcast on:: 06 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Today's podcast is brought to you by Howie's new book, Paperboy. To order today, go to howiecarshow.com and click on store. Better strap yourself in. It's time for the Howie Car Show. And you can't trust Joe Biden. So the dude is lying all the time. So he said his uncle was eaten by cannibals, he said he was raised in a black shirt. I used to go down to the black church. I go to 730 mass. He said that he was, uh, grew up in a Puerto Rican community. I, uh, was sort of raised, uh, in the Puerto Rican community at home. I'm not sure what's next. I've known him for over 40 years. He's been serving for 40 years. Live from the Matthews Brothers Studio. Winston Churchill called what happened here. Just don't make up anything. Quote, "The greatest, most complicated operation ever." End of quote. Here in this place, where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Rump swabs, hacks, and moon bats beware. It's Howie Car. I guess Biden said tonight in France that if Hunter is convicted, there'll be no pardon for him. I'm gonna call BS on that one. Is there a poll? Is there a poll on that? If I was doing a poll question right now, that would be, do you believe him? What's more believable that he's known Putin for 40 years, or that he's not going to pardon his son if he's convicted? Neither are very believable. All right. With us now, a week late, because of the verdict last week, is Dr. Matt Callahan. He's the house vet of the Howie Car Radio Network, and he's here to answer all of your questions about your pets. And Dr. Matt, thanks for being with us here tonight. My privilege. And, you know, people have been asking, we're gonna get to the calls and everything very quickly, but people have been asking, you're a vet. And, you know, one of the bones of contention, so to speak, bone, get it, dogs. And the Caron read trial is these cuts on the deceased cop's arm, John O'Keefe, and I just showed him to you. Do those look like they could have been made by a dog? I would, we were talking earlier, and I said, unless it was a Belgian Malinois that had just lost it, I would guess I would say no. No, yes. But I mean, that dog had a rap sheet of biting people. Well, you know, it could be what was Joe Biden's dog. Commander. Yeah, I mean, dogs can attack. I mean, I've gotten bitten pretty well myself, so. Yeah. It doesn't look like something that would be caused by getting dragged by a car. No, but looking in the background, there's a lot of other damage to that guy. Yeah. All right, so we're gonna take your calls here. Dr. Matt, where do you practice, and where can people reach you? Yeah, I practice at the Ipswich Animal Hospital on Route 1, just north of the Ipswich Rally Line, and my number is 978-948-8189. 978-948-8189. And you can, you'll take a call right there. Absolutely. Talk to people. And, you know, you, you, you shamed me last time. You saw Roscoe when you tell me he was fat. Even though you said he's small, I thought I took that at meeting in weight, but you just meant in stature, he's a small pug, but you think he's, you think he's heavy? I, I do. I, I think one of the things in, you know, dogs, I always, like, jokingly say, or half jokingly say, the dogs bring out the Italian mother and all of us. And I'm definitely the Italian mother and my family. The dogs know who to go to when they want to treat. Yes. They come to me. And, but one part of that is, is, is like the Italian mother, you want, you know, she wants her kids to be filled out. And once they fill out and they sort of look aesthetically pleasing to you. Yeah. I mean, just look at the dogs at the, at the Westminster Dog Show. They're enormous. And some of them are, you know, I remember the Labrador coming out and they said, this is the Labrador Retriever. And I said, no, that's the double wide Labrador Retriever. Well, they have a picture of five pugs on the front page of the Wall Street Journal at the, at the Westminster. And they, they all look like they were weight lifter pugs compared to, compared to Roscoe. Yeah. So, but when they look normal, and that's one of the features of some of these big studies, the University of Pennsylvania, did a 16 year study funded by Purina. And what they found was is that when people think and when veterinarians think the dog is a normal weight, they're actually overweight dogs. And that only the thin dogs, not emaciated, but thin, that at least bother you aesthetically a little bit. When I walk in and I go, that dog bothers me a little bit, a little too thin. I go, your dog's about right. And it's frustrating because they don't give you a lot of latitude. Believe me, I'm always looking for, for, you know, a loophole in the study. But there isn't. It's just that these dogs are either ideal weight or they're overweight. Well, I'm sorry, Roscoe is in here tonight. We had to put him in the kettle for a day or two because we're going down to New York early in the morning. So, but you'll see him next month. I've been trying to keep him on a little bit of a diet and take a little weight off, so it's not to be a shame. All right, let's take some calls, 844-542-42. Ellen, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Ellen. Hi guys, I have a quick question. We just got a, our third black pug, kind of like Howie. Yeah, right. She's eight months old. When should I think about getting her space? Well, the studies on that are, you know, traditionally we always did six months and you still can do six months. There's nothing really wrong with that, but the, the, I guess the data has changed some opinions. It's certainly changed mine. You want them to be fully grown. And the, the fancy word for that is skeletal, skeletal immature. And so pugs probably reach skeletal maturity around eight to 10 months. A golden retriever or a Labrador probably 10 to 13 months and an English master of probably 18 to 24 months. So the bigger, the bigger the longer it takes. Yeah. And you want them under the influence of, in this case estrogen, you want them under the influence while their skeleton is maturing. And supposedly that gives them oddly enough, those dogs grow a little bit smaller. You would think they would grow bigger, but they do not. They grow smaller, but they live longer. Okay, thanks, thanks for the call, Ellen. Good luck. Gene, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt, the vet. Go ahead, Gene. Hi, Dr. Matt. My cat, Rocky, he's 13 years old. And last week at his vet appointment, just a checkup, they did blood work. And they said that he has, he's going to, he's got one of the thyroids, but hyperthyroidism. Okay. And they, they first told me to switch to food. I was getting them wet food. I'm dry, wet in food. Okay. And they told me then that change it to low phosphorus, wet, so I chance it to kill science. Yeah. But then they called me yesterday and said that the hyperthyroidism, I should be given something to that with high protein, but I've checked all the brands in the stores online. And it's hard to tell on the cans, which one is right? Right. And so I've had them once, kill science, stomach, science, incentive stomach, and others. Okay. Have you, let me ask you a couple of questions. Has your cat been eating more recently or losing weight or anything like that? He's lost like four pounds in the last three months. Okay. That's a long way. Yeah. So, um, yeah, there's lots of ways to manage thyroid disease in cats. There is a diet called YD that Hills makes that I don't know that any veterinarian really recommends. I'm sure some do. I just don't know them. Um, I don't personally recommend diet. What could she get online that you recommend? Well, yeah. I mean, I, I think if you're going to take care of a cat with hyperthyroidism, I would use the drug, Methimazol, or get them radioactive iodine treatment, both, which both work very well. Um, certainly if you have your cat on some form of kidney diet, and I noticed you said low phosphorus, are you worried about the cat's kidney function, or is that normal? Um, no, she said he doesn't have it full blown right now, but he's on the way to which he goes, well, check his blood in six months. Okay. So I just, they don't really tell you much. Yeah. I'm not sure she's what she's getting at. So the cat may have a thyroid higher in the normal range, but if you can feel, if the she can feel a thyroid tumor and the cat's thyroid is in high, high normal range, I would treat that cat for hyperthyroidism. I wouldn't wait. All right. Good luck, Gene. Eight, four, four, five hundred, forty, two, forty, two, I wanted to take Gene in between the two Pug College. So people wouldn't think that I was, you know, yeah, we pugbed by us. Wally, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Wally. Good afternoon, Dr. Matt and Howie. Thanks for taking my call. So I called last week on the one that has the fat nine month old, 18 pound puppy. And he's just doing great, but he's getting these pimples on his face. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And everyone I hear says, oh, yeah, they're just, you know, it's normal. They'll grow out of them. Some people say wipe it off with a chlorohexidine wipe or something like that. And another symptom he has, he tends to get kind of, you know, the eye boogers. I call them for lack of a better term. That's pug boogers, you might call them. Every pug gets those. I wouldn't worry. Dr. Howie says, don't worry about those things. But how about they, Roscoe got thrown out of the daycare for a while last summer because he had those pimples. Yeah. You know, the facial acne on pugs is actually pretty common. I do usually do recommend like a chlorhexidine wipe or even I've had a lot of clients use just witch hazel on those wipes that the maker of all witch hazel products seems to make. It seems to work just fine. I don't think it's really temporary, although it can come and go. Like canker stores and human beings. It's probably they're getting, first of all, if they're really bad, I would first check to make sure that your pug doesn't have any of skin mites, demodex or scabies or sarcotic mange mites because that can help, that can cause that too. And then I usually right after they eat, I would go ahead and just wipe them with a witch hazel wipe and that seems to work just fine. Okay, great. Dr. Matt, what's your phone number if people want to call you off air? My number is 978-948-8189. So you can text us. We'll take some text calls and questions in the next segment, text Howie to 617-213-1066. You don't have to wait once a week for your favorite TV show to come on the air anymore. You just stream what you want when you want it on demand. You also don't have to keep your favorite radio station on all day to hear a particular song or show. You can just play me or Grace when you want it to click of a button on your phone. The same rule applies to real estate. You don't have to list your property at a price and then start negotiating. You don't have to wait an unknown period of time to sell. You don't have to listen to negative comments arising out of a home inspection. You can now choose to sell your real estate in a well marketed auction event with JJ Manning under your terms and best of all with no contingencies. Times have changed. Processes evolve and people do things differently. The way to sell your real estate is changing, too. JJ Manning uses their own 30-30 marketing plan, 30 days of marketing and 30 days to close. They have refined this process over 48 years. 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Oh, Dr. Matt, what's your phone number if people want to get in touch with you? They can call me at 978-948-8189. All right. 617, I'm a big pharma weary, is Brevecto a safe medicine to give for ticks. I've read some stuff online that's concerning. Yeah. We read them too, and a lot of these products, you read all these terrible things and then veterinarians, certainly me included, go on these veterinary information networks and stuff like that so we can talk to other veterinarians and Brevecto is one of those drugs that almost every veterinarian loves, even though there's stories out there. This story is virtually about every product. I have not really seen any huge problems with Brevecto. I've seen people that stop using it. Hey, my dog threw up a couple of times after I gave it to him or didn't seem to feel good after he got it, but I use it in my dog. So I guess I believe in it. Dr. Matt, my 12-year-old Maltese suffers from chronic ear infections. That has tried various medications. They keep coming back and now at a higher rate. Any suggestions on what to do or is it just one of those got to live with it's situation? No, there's a couple of things that you can do and certainly we've talked about this before with regards to ears, there's managers and slackers and I'm a classic slacker. I want to do nothing if I can do nothing and do as little as I possibly can, but that does not mean that dogs don't need more care and they need graduated care. So first of all, you need to know what is causing the ear infection because there's lots of things that can cause it and then try to figure out the underlying cause. Most underlying ear infections are either anatomical or moisture or allergy. And in the Maltese, I'd probably guess that it's anatomical. I'd certainly make sure all the hair is plucked out of the ears and that you're cleaning it regularly with an aseptic solution with the drug that we talked about a few minutes ago, chlorhexidine. My eight and 10-year-old dogs are starting to slow down and stiffen up. The vet gave us a supplement called regenza, but it is expensive and can only be purchased through them. Would you recommend any other joint supplements that don't cost an arm and a leg and are readily available over the counter? Yeah, there's lots of them. So there's a one called Dazoquine. That's a very good one. Dazoquine, how do you spell that? D-A-S-Q-U-I-N. Don't make me spell stuff on it. I'm not a good at that. People get frustrated when they go to it and you know they can't find it. So Dazoquine is a very good one. I think it's made by a very good company. They fund a lot of research. So it would seem incongruous that a company that would be funding a lot of research would make a terrible product. So I do like them. D-A-S-U-Q-U-I-N. Gee, not even close. Thank you. Begin with a D though, right? That'd be swearing at me, not at Dr. Matt. All right. But real quickly to end that, essential fatty acids can really help dogs. There's a new product out called Undenatured Type 2 Collagen. So you can look at that. It's not your average collagen that you buy at the health food store, but those are all good things and weight control, as we talked about earlier, weight control, weight control. Arden says, "Our cat Riley had the radiation treatment for hyperthyroidism and the result was excellent. We looked at all the options before he made a decision on treatment and a really happy deal with radiation." Yeah. Almost everybody is very happy because it's an excellent, it's a true Trojan horse sort of treatment. It's really cool. They give a cat radioactive iodine because the tumor is so greedy for iodine because thyroid molecules have a lot of iodine on them. They basically greedily take up all the iodine and then it concentrates it in the tumor and then the iodine kills the tumor. And once the tumor dies, it releases all the iodine and then the cat is better. Is it expensive? Oh, yeah. That's... Yeah. Miracle drugs usually are, aren't they? Yeah. I would imagine 2,000, 2,500, somewhere in that range. Wow. Okay. But it is one of the few cures. Brian, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Brian. Hey, Howie. How are you doing? I'm Dr. Matt. Hi. How are you guys? Dr. Matt, I've been trying to reach you. I talked to you guys a couple of months ago. I have two dogs. I'm sorry. I'm at the playground. Okay. My green dog, so I lose ya. I did try to call you back though. Is that correct? No. Okay. I spoke to your receptionist the other day. She said you were great at me emails. I shouldn't get her in trouble. I have two dogs, 15 years old, a variety of ailments, and it's just that time. Okay. You know, I talked to you and you had made a lot of sense about quality of life, quality of my life, the life, all that, and since I spoke with your last regular vet who always tried to push, you know, a new treatment, this, that, he's gone out of business. Yeah. You know, but I'm looking to bring them in something. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think call around. I mean, certainly we'll help out if it needs to be. Call. Yeah. Yeah. Leave your number. Leave your number with, uh, with Emma. Yeah. We'll be right back. I'm highway car. Looking to give a mom in your life the gift of peace and quiet this Mother's Day, maybe you can't help mom run away from all her responsibilities, but at least you can help her tune them out with a brand new pair of Raycon earbuds. Raycon's everyday earbuds are the perfect way to tune out all the noise around you and tune in to something great. Their audio quality rivals all the big audio brands you know and love, at a price you'll love even more. With custom gel tips for a comfortable in-air fit, eight hours of playtime, and a 32-hour total battery life, Raycons are perfect for all day lists, Raycon everyday earbuds also come with three customizable sound profiles, noise isolation, and awareness mode. Maybe that explains the tens of thousands of five-star reviews. Right now, get 20% off your Raycon order plus free shipping when you go to buyraycon.com/howie. It's 20% off and free shipping at buyraycon.com/howie by raycon.com/howie. With us is Dr. Matt Callahan and he's here to answer your veterinary questions, any questions you've got about your pets, and he is available for your own services, whether you've got the sad problem that Brian does or something that can be treated and the pet can survive. So what's the number if people want to call you, Dr. Matt? Yeah, people can call me at 978-948-8189. But you know, regarding Brian's call, you know, there's a physician, a holistic physician that talks a lot about health care problems and people, and he got up at a speech this must be 10 or 15 years ago, and he said, "I've given up the immortality business." You know, and I said, "Boy, what a great line," because I'm pretty sure that most physicians and nurses and veterinarians and vet techs, we all want our patients to live forever. And that just doesn't happen, right? And you've got to be prepared. A lot of what we do is, you know, care around death and euthanasia, you know. And euthanasia, you know, means good death because there's lots of lousy ones, you know. Yeah, I was talking to a friend of mine, a lawyer I hadn't talked to for a while, and I knew he had dogs, and so I said, "How are the dogs doing?" He drove them back and forth to Florida, and he said, "Dogs." He said, "You know, dogs have an expiration date, and I thought I'd never heard it put that away. But that's as... That's who we are." Right. Right. But you don't want to think about it for your pet. Right, but you want to take the best care of them because you want them to live long, healthy lives, and that's just what Mark Hyman is the name of the guy who said this, and he said he wants his patients to live long, healthy lives, and right at the end get sick and die. And I mean, you know, that's a pretty good deal, you know, that anyone that would sign up for that, you know, if you got to, you know, if someone said, "My, your dog can live to 14 or 15," and right in the last few weeks of life, he's not going to feel very well, and then he's going to pass away, you go, "I'll sign that contract." Yeah. Yeah. Gunner, Gunner lived to be 18, died in his sleep. Right. I mean, that was... Pop away for me to wake up, seeing it, but it was better for him, for sure. Yeah. I mean, in a way, it's the power ball lottery of dog ownership. You know, they lived this long, healthy life, and you know... And then you don't have to, you know, hit yourself over the head that I can put them down. Yeah. Exactly. 508, Dr. Matt, is it better? Is it worth it or, and/or better, to give your dog simparica trio versus heart guard and vector a three-day? We have a lot of deer ticks in my neighborhood. My shitsu was 15 months. I talk about this all the time. Simparica trio is a great product. It is, you know, it is very expensive. So for the convenience of giving one product that does everything, you can give two products that does everything for markedly less money, and if you, you know, play it out throughout the dog's life, you might save $1,000, $1,200 simparica trio versus using something like credillio or next guard in interceptor or heart guard, you know, so do out the pricing. Simparica trio is a terrific product, however, I like it very much. I just don't, I don't advocate for it because of the cost. All right, 844-542, and again, your phone number, I like to keep giving it out. 978-948-8189. Andrew, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt, go ahead, Andrew. Hi. I got a question. My dog, it's 11-year-old King Charles, and it's got congested parts from the cardiologist and maybe a couple of other minor things, but by vet and the cardiologist, when I try to explain to them that usually at night when he's sleeping, she's sleeping, she'll wake up quick, can't breathe, kind of run around a little bit, lay down, gather her thoughts a little. Sometimes that spits up a little foams in the mouth, whatever, and then it's kind of fine. Sometimes it does it two or three times a night, sometimes once in the day, it's always at night. Yeah, so first of all, and you know this, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels almost always die of heart failure because they have a disease, a disease of one of their heart valves. It's called mixominous mitral valve disease, and so their heart valves aren't working very well, so they start to struggle, their heart starts to struggle to pump blood as well as it should. One of the things that the heart does is pump blood from the lungs to the body, and when your dogs asleep, the heart doesn't do as good a job of that, so they start to build up fluid in their lungs, pulmonary edema while they're sleeping, and that's why they get up and cough and have to move around a little bit. Then they get the fluid off their lungs and they can go back to sleep, so probably what you need to be doing is giving, I'm assuming you're giving a diuretic, probably Furosemide, am I guessing right? Yeah. Yeah, so give, I would have asked them to increase the dose of Furosemide at night, and give it as close to bedtime as possible, that should buy you a few hours to sleep. Those dogs are really popular. They are so sweet, they're really wonderful dogs, and they love to be sick, and someone's like that. I swear, you know, I think they're more of them in Palm Beach than there are French Bulldogs. Yeah. You know, I always said I've never met a bad King Charles than two weeks ago, one tried to buy me a song. I met one bad King Charles. Was it named Chloe or a commander? All right, thank you, Andrew, good luck. Matt, you're next with Awakar and Dr. Matt, go ahead Matt. Hi, I have a 10-year-old Swawa terrier mix, and she has a lapoma, kind of like a skin where their back leg meets their abdomen, you know, that kind of slap a skin there. Yeah. It's like a fatty lump, and I took her to a vet once, and they said it was a lapoma, but they don't know unless they test it, what it is, I guess, but it's squishy, it's not connected to anything, but I just don't know if I should remove it. They gave me a price to remove it and said they could test it after they removed it, it was cancer, but they didn't seem to think it was, and if it wasn't inhibiting motion. Yeah. Yeah. I think they've given you, I don't know, I think they've given you pretty good advice. Normally what I do with these things is we'll do something called a fine needle biopsy. We take a very small needle, a little bit bigger than an insulin needle, and just poke it in there. And if fat comes out, it stands about a 99% chance of being a lapoma. Occasionally it can be something called a nerve sheath tumor, but this doesn't sound like that. So lapomas are very benign, they're certainly the most common, subcutaneous, or under the skin tumor we see in dogs. I think they gave you good advice. I wouldn't bother to take it out unless, you know, unless it's behaving badly, which means it's getting really bigger or causing them to have trouble walking, and even then it's probably not that big a deal to remove, and they probably wouldn't even biopsy it. 844, 500, 42, 42, 844, how does Dr. Matt think about supplements like tough greens, et cetera? Yeah, I'm actually, you know, I'm actually a pretty big fan of supplements. So some of these greens, I think, are pretty good for dogs. Some of the vitamin supplements, I think, are pretty good for them because I can't imagine that the vitamins that they add to some of these dry foods and stuff like that last a really long time. And while, oddly enough, I'm not a huge fan of joint supplements early in life because they don't seem to show a prevention of joint disease, joint supplements are very good for treating joint disease. So I'm actually a fan. 844, 500, 42, 42. I've been holding off on Margo, but we have to have one of these, it seems like every hour. Margo, go ahead. You're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Margo. Yeah, thanks for that intro, how I am going to copy my lines and say, "Stop me if you've heard this before." So my dog eats poop, so she's five-year-old Australian shepherd. She hike all the time, she's off-leash all the time and does really well. But you know, we're hiking and she'll go into the woods and find out where somebody pooped and I call her and she doesn't come and I know, "Uh-oh, I call her a second time, no show." And I go, "She's found dinner." So she's done it like four times this week, you know, I just am beside myself. And she, you know, my son says they either roll in it or they eat it. So fortunately she hasn't rolled in it, although she did that a couple weeks ago, rolled her neck in it. Yeah. So there was bath on it. But the eating, I just, I can't, I was driving me crazy. Yeah, I've heard a million different reasons for why dogs eat poop. I think it goes back to their more primordial selves and they're trying to hide their scent so they can hunt or something like that. Dogs are always hungry. Yeah, that's true. And, but, you know, some dogs, I had a golden tree over years ago and she was, we called her an in-veterate poop eater. She was just crazy about it, anything cat poop outside. She was always on the hunt. And I knew, I mean, the really the thing to do, if you really want, is put a cage muzzle on them and they can't put stuff in their mouth. You know, Greyhound spend a lot of their life with a cage muzzle on, you know, because if they-- Yeah, I see dogs all the time, not all the time. Yeah, it's not in pretty good. So, but for my dog, I didn't want to do it, so I was willing to accept it. You know, I solved that problem of the day, I put her to sleep because she just would not be stopped. And I don't think they're missing some secret ingredient in their diet. I just don't think that. I think these are relatively normal dogs and this is relatively normal behavior, even though you hate it. What about rolling? Because I had a shetland cheap dog who used to roll. Yeah, I think it was the same thing. You know, they're trying to hide their sense so they can go, you know, kill something. Of course, they have no idea how to kill anything. It's like my dog turns around 48 times before she gets in her dog bed. I think she's trying to flatten the grass. I mean, I just think that's what she's doing. You know, it's just a primitive behavior and, you know, luckily my dog doesn't need poop. She just, you know, turns around a lot before she lies dead. Margot, would you put a muzzle on your dog? You know, I don't think so. I'm going to put a bow on her to try and keep better track when we're out in the way. Yeah, I mean, you have to be because they're one of those doggy edible toothbrushes. Oh, no. And I wash your face. Yeah, you're doing actually a pretty good job because that was me too. I mean, I wasn't able to walk my dog. You know, I didn't want to concentrate on my dog beeping through the woods while I walked her every day. So I just accepted the fact that she was going to eat poop. Yikes. Thanks for the call, Margot. Johnny, you're next with highway car. Go ahead, Johnny. All right, so my West Highland Terrier turns 15 next week. Nice. And outside of the, he has a cataract in one of his eyes and is hearing things to be going but then again, so as well. Yeah. Yeah, me too. I always gave him, yours for a treat is smoked salmon. You love smoked salmon. And I'm not, not a massive amount, but can, is that all still good? I think if he's, if his kidneys are functioning otherwise okay. I think smoked salmon is a perfectly good treat. I mean, it's like asking, you know, me, you know, for a 95 year old person, should they stop smoking? You know, he's already done, you know, he's already made it to a great old age. I think he should enjoy himself, so give him the smoked salmon. Thanks. Thanks, Johnny. You know, it could be farm raised though. It's okay. Right? No. Wow. Only. No. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's why you're here to make the, to make the professional call on this. All right. 844-500-4242. Dr. Matt will be with us for one more segment and you'll hang on for a, if we have a couple of extra ones. Really? Well, we get close to the top of the hour, hang on if you're on the line because Dr. Matt will stick around and answer your question. What's your phone number if people want to get in touch with you? People can call me at the Ipswich Animal Hospital and my number is 978-948-8189. I'm Howie Carr. The Howie Carr show returns after this. The emperor of hate, Howie Carr, is back. I'm going to keep Roscoe on the diet so, you know, you'll be back in three weeks because you're in a week later at this. So you'll be back in three weeks and I hope he's going to, I hope he's going to be in fighting trim. Excellent. You probably, what I would probably start doing is because he doesn't come into my clinic a lot. I see him a lot but it doesn't come in, is start to weigh him, start to get a feeling of what he weighs. Like so you stand on the scale with him and then, and then weigh yourself. So you're getting a feeling of, he's losing weight. That's a good idea. Yeah. Of course it could depress me. Yes. Oh, are you? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I'm okay after the operation. There's only so much damage I can do to myself anymore which is the way I like it. Good. 844-542-42. And again, hang on everybody if we get close to the top of the hour because Dr. Matt'll hang around and take your questions if you're on the air. Peter, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead Peter. Hi, I've got a two-year-old Norwich terrorist, a great, great little dog. Yeah. On San Paraca, I just started buying it at Costco at the pharmacy and you don't need to be a member. Correct. Yeah. It's going to save me a couple hundred dollars a year. Absolutely well. Yeah. Membership pharmacies in Massachusetts are illegal so anyone can go into a Costco pharmacy and I recommend them all the time. Oh wow. That's interesting news. Yes. That's news you can use. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for telling us that Peter. We appreciate it. 844-542-42. Martha, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Martha. Yeah. Hi, how are you, Dr. Matt. I have a healthy three-year-old healer, lab mix. Let's dig rodents out from under the ground. And she did. And then she did so full. Then she sticks her nose in and inhaled deeply to try to see if she can smell what's down there. And then she did more and inhaled some more. And then today, she sounded like she had asthma attacks. Yeah. She was like having a high-time breathing. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know how to let her keep digging both hands. Well, right. And, you know, again, we're talking about poop eating earlier. This is a very natural behavior for a healer. You know, clients, clients, you know, sometimes get upset that their great Pyrenees doesn't come when called, but their bread not to come when called. And that their Labrador is malthy. They're bred to be malthy and the healers are bred to dig and to hunt. So, you know, you're right in that, getting that upset about the behavior. We say healer. I'm not familiar with that, right term. What is it? There's lots of healer-dog, blue healers are the most common ones that we see. They're hunting dogs usually from the south. They call them healers. Yep. H-E-E-A-L-E-R. Healer. Taylor. Gonna have to have that. Dazzquin. Dazzquin. All right. Thanks. But anyway, the, probably, you know, dogs, I don't, dogs do get a form of asthma, but this is probably getting particles up into the sinuses. And so, you know, frustrating as it is, probably you shouldn't, if, if this is the result, I don't know, in the Northeast, we don't get a lot of fungal infections. That's the big risk of having dogs dig and sniff in the south and get fungal infections like blastomycosis or histoplasmosis, but not in the Northeast, not nearly as much. So, I don't think you're having a problem that way, but I do think probably they're getting dirt and particles up into their sinus. Thanks for the call. What's your phone number? My phone number is 978-948-8189. Dave, you're next with HawiCar and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Dave. Hey, Hawi for a long time, first time. Thank you. Hey, doctor. So, I got a, I got a, I got a two-year-old bingo, you'd be two in August, two in August. Well, two-year-old. Two-year-old. And I know it goes to the heartburner. Cat. Oh, thank you. Yeah, you got two-year-old bingo cats. Okay, got it. You're a bingo cat. For Cincinnati. For the heartburner. Yeah. We've taken the cat shows in the CFA. Yeah. Yeah, so, here's the situation that you're in, there's sort of two types of heart murmurs. One are pathological heart murmurs that, where there's a heart problem. And then there's functional murmurs, where the heart's working just fine, just making it a little extra noise. And functional heart murmurs, you know, if we went to the, to the start of the Boston Marathon, probably 20% of the runners would have significant heart murmurs, but they don't have any heart disease. Their hearts are working terrific. So in the case of cats with heart murmurs, you have a couple of different choices. Two out of six is pretty mild. We rate them out of six. So one is barely audible, two is you can hear it, but not loudly, then obviously worse along the way. So if you said this cat had a four, five or a six, cat absolutely needs to go to the cardiologist and get an echo or cardiac ultrasound. In this case, you can, you can do one of two things. You can do nothing, which is perfectly appropriate, or you can call around, find a veterinary cardiologist, what time do you live in? Their day. Okay. Yeah, so look around, look around in the area, see if you can find a veterinary referral clinic or a veterinary cardiologist and out, and they'll just do an echo cardiogram and they'll tell you if there's a real problem or not. I mean, it's pretty, they can diagnose it pretty quickly. Now they may want to see you in six months too, but, but if you want to rest at night, go ahead and get them ultras on. Thank you, Dave. Pam, hang on. Dr. Matt, we'll take your call in a moment. Just very quickly, 978, my dog has been wheezing and sneezing the last few days, is calling a problem. Yes. It is. Just like it is for humans. Just like it is for humans. All right, Dr. Matt, give it the number one more time. 978-948-8189. See you Monday. Hang on, Pam. I'm Howie Carr. (upbeat music)