The Howie Carr Radio Network
UNLEASHED with Dr. Matt the Vet | 6.27.24 - The Howie Carr Show Hour 4
Today's podcast is brought to you by Howie's new book Paperboy. To order today, go to howiecarshow.com and click on store. So I'm standing at one podium and I'll ask Phil to come in and take the other podium. And so let's say I'm answering a question. My light is green and I'm speaking. Phil's microphone is off and his green lights are not illuminated. There is no stopping in the white zone. No, the white zone is for moaning and unmoaning. And there is no stopping in the red zone. Don't tell me which zone is for stopping and which zone is for moaning. Listen buddy, don't start up with your white zone again. Live from the Matthew's Brother Studios. Or a bullied because of an LGBT team. Well, like father, like daughter. The LGBTQ plus people's LGBTQI. I am so tired of acronyms. Who do you love Howie Car? For instance, Joe Biden has a child stuttered badly. And we're below $60 million. Rump swabs, hacks and moon bounce beware. It's... Howie Car. Dr. Matt is in the house. He just bought me a lovely gift. A lapel pen for Boston 2024. Reminding me that sometimes we do dodge a bullet in this life. Think of President Dukakis, or President Kerry, or Boston 2024. Oh my God. What a disaster that would have been. They were going to do the rowing events in the Deerfield River because, you know, it was going to be a walking Olympics. 90 miles to the rowing in the Deerfield River. The marathon in Bangalore. Oh my God. Okay, listen, before we bring up, Dr. Matt, if you've got a question about your pet, give us a call at 844-542-844-542. And you can text questions to Howie at 617-213-1066. Text Howie to 617-213-1066. We will be at FunSpot tomorrow. 603 says, "My five and three-year-olds love playing ski ball at FunSpot." We'll see you there tomorrow. I hope it's going to be a great time. We're just posting now all the court documents in the case, the murder case of illegal alien jusseline gweedus, who stabbed her ex, allegedly stabbed her ex-boyfriend to death. And among the documents we're posting is the affidavit of counsel in support of motion for, you guessed it, funds. She's indigent. Can you imagine that? An illegal alien who doesn't speak English is indigent. So the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, meaning you and me, are going to give her a lawyer, an interpreter, and an investigator. Lord, the defendant state she has been found indigent by the court and is thus unable to pay the fee required to retain an investigator. This is all going to be posted. There'll be a Twitter link to the website HowieCarShow.com. We also have the entire arraignment report, very, very complete report. So check it out. You will not be reading this story in the Cape Cod Times tomorrow, I dare say. At least not in this detail. And there will be no mention of her being an illegal alien getting free, getting freebie legal services, interpreter services, investigator services, et cetera, et cetera. So anyway, 844, and you'll be reading about this in the Herald tomorrow. We're going to have a good story on it. And we'll have a good story on the illegal alien rapist taken off after getting his case roomed basically by the judge, the Charlie Baker judge. All right. Having done all that. And by the way, we also have a few flip locks left, the original flip lock. It's a great product. It's an inner lock that you can use. And make sure that your room, any room in the house is safe. It withstands 10 times more pressure than a regular deadbolt lock. And it usually goes for 50 bucks. You can get it at the Howie Car Show store, howiecarshow.com. Click on store $50 value for just $25. You can, it's a limit of three per order. Three per order because they're going to go fast. They are going fast, but we had some to go, but we got a few left. All right. Having said all that, Dr. Matt is in the house for his monthly trip here. Good to have you here, Dr. Matt. Nice to be here. Dr. Matt is the house vet of the Howie Car Show. Tell us about your practice, where it is, and how people can reach you. Yeah. I run the Ipswich Animal Hospital on Route 1 at the Ipswich Rally Line on the North Shore. And we do pretty exclusively dogs and cats. We saw Guinea pig this week, but pretty exclusively dog and cat practice. And people can reach us at 978-948-8189. 978-948-8189. Okay. 844-500-4242. Anything people need to be watching out for at this time of year with their pets? Well, for right now, we're sort of getting through the end of the spring allergy season, so we're not seeing as many allergic dogs, but we had a heat stroke dog in this week. So... A heat stroke dog? Yeah. Dogs are very... A dog with no nose like Roscoe? It wasn't. It was a retriever. So no dogs are very good. I think we've discussed this. Dogs are not as good as humans at managing their body temperature, especially in the heat. And when they're out there inhaling air that's 90-95 degrees, they really struggle to maintain a healthy body temperature as it starts to go up. Yeah. You know, I've noticed with Roscoe, even if it's just over 80, you know, if I take him on a two block around a circular walk, he's panting pretty good. Even though, even when it's not 90-80. Right. And it's not really, you know, people think, well, they're getting out of breath because it's an oxygen thing. It's not. It's a heat thing. And Roscoe is a little bit behind the eight ball, but as that gradient, if they're breathing in 60-degree air, they have no problem managing their body temperature, but when it gets up closer to their body temperature, which is about 100 degrees, so when they get up closer to that temperature, when the air temperature gets up closer, they struggle. Think of a golden retriever as having those problems. You think of it as a bulldog, pug, Boston terry-type. And I have seen almost every breed of dog suffer, shepherds, even greyhounds, which should be fantastic at it. Really? You get them in the right situation, they're going to struggle. So watch out when there's a heat dome. Yes. The new phrase for heat wave. Yeah, the last week I made note of that, the heat dome. Yeah. I'd say it's taking the place of these new phenomena like snow thunder. Right. But if there's thunderstorms, there should be thunderstorms. Yeah. Roscoe, as the thunderstorms were rolling in last night, Roscoe was getting a little nervous. Yes. So was I, actually. All right. Okay. Let's take some calls for Dr. Matt again. What's your number if people want to reach you? People can reach me at the Ipswich Animal Hospital at 978-948-8189. All right. Carol, you're first tonight with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt the vet. Go ahead, Carol. Hi. Thanks, guys. I have a 11-year-old female beagle. She is asking me to be her interpreter tonight. Thank you. Oh, free of charge. As a taxpayer, I thank you. Dr. Matt and I both do. She is on, you were just talking about the entity. And she's on 5.4 milligrams of applicants. One time a day, she's about, I don't know. I probably don't want to say like a 28-pound beagle. So I took it to the vet and they told me to give it to her twice a day. Yeah. With the, it wiped out all the itching. Yes. And then they said for a week. And then they said if it's soft, and then if it comes back, we can give her a shot. And I don't know the name of the shot. Yeah. The shot is called cytopoint. And it's a monoclonal antibody that blocks interleukin 31, which is the chemical in your body that heightens the sensitivity of your itch nerves. So the apoquel and cytopoint, we use it together very frequently because they work great together. Okay. So she should be okay. Thanks for the call, Carol. But you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt, go ahead, Robin. Yes. Thank you. I have a rescue dog who's a four-pound chihuahua mix. And he's three years old. He's been impossible to feed him. He will not eat dog food. I've tried every brand type recommendation. And I end up having to feed him like chicken or meat or something that's human food. And I'm not so sure that's continuing to be healthy for him. And I'm a little concerned about that. Yeah, I think you're exactly right. You know, just feeding dogs, human food exclusively. They're missing out on some nutrients. And, you know, no one likes to pick on people like Purina or companies like Purina as much as I do, but Purina knows how to make dog food. They've been studying it for 75 or 80 years. So they add things to their dog food that the dog needs in very small amounts that you're just trying to get by feeding just a people food diet. Yeah, these dogs are tough. Certainly you want to have your vet check the dog out. Make sure they're otherwise healthy. And then you can, you know, you can try maybe like a fresh pet type of dog food, a fresh dog food or a canned dog food. What were you trying to feed before you just gave up and went to people food? I did try like that fresh pet. Yeah, farmers dog, which worked for a little bit. Farmers dog was good for gooner. Gooner loved it, but it was bad for this digestion. He couldn't, it was too rich. Yeah, yeah. Well, every, you know, there's an old saying, there's horses for courses. And in the case of dog food, you can find what might be otherwise very good dog food but isn't good for your dog. Now, having said that, if your dog eats the food and then doesn't, you can try getting, you know, with, I have a very finicky dog and she gets different flavors of dog food all the time. But I also trust her, you know, if she doesn't want to eat, I'm not going to sit there and, and dance around the food bowl to try to make her eat or spice it up or anything like that. I've stopped doing that. So if I, I might, you know, sprinkle a little cheese on it or throw a couple of pieces of chicken in there to get her started. But if she doesn't want to eat, pick up the food and try again when the cafeteria opens in 12 hours. Speaking of a kibble and all that, pre-uriness stuff, 401 says, what's the doctor's opinion on grain-free kibble for dogs? My vets suggested I take my dog off a grain-free diet. Right. So grain-free, you know, makes you think that dogs are primarily carnivorous but they can eat carbohydrate. But grain-free makes you think it's carbohydrate-free, which it is not. It's carbohydrates from another source. So if you're getting your carbohydrate from potato, okay, grain-free food. Do you think dogs do better on potato than corn or potato than rice? I would think it doesn't make much difference. Right. I don't think so either. So there's some dogs that also struggle. There's been a heart disease associated with dogs that are on grain-free foods. Now I'm sure it's a very small number of dogs. So I don't necessarily tell people not to do it just because of that. But I think the health benefits of grain-free food are overrated by a lot. All right. Thanks, Robin. We'll take more calls when we come back 844-542-48. Dr. Matt, what's your number again if people want to get in touch with you at your clinic? 978-948-8189. We'll be right back. I'm Howie Carr. Howie will be right back after this short break. He's Howie Carr, and he's back. Today's poll question is brought to you by the burn-a-less lethal pistol launcher for those who want a powerful self-defense option without resorting to death. Without resorting to deadly force, visit burna.com/howie to save 10%. It's a great product that my daughter Charlotte loves hers. She's going to get some training in it, too, down in Dallas. B-Y-R-N-A, it's legal in all 50 states, though. You don't just have to be in Texas. B-Y-R-N-A.com/howie, burna.com/howie, and check out the podcast with Brian Gance, the owner and CEO of Burna, if you want to learn more about it. Matt, what's the poll question? What are the results thus far? Which words would you most like to hear from Trump tonight? The 2020 election was rigged. Lake and Riley, Rachel Moran, Kate Steinley. Are you better off or worse off? My vice president, Chopick, is I will end the war in Ukraine. Are you better off or worse off? Are you better off or worse off? First off, has 56% followed by Lake and Riley, Rachel Moran, and Kate Steinley at 29%. Some of you are texting me in messages. You'd like to see him deliver, but I guarantee he's not going to deliver them. That's why they've put in a delay. I know the delay isn't on the level, but he's not going to say those things. As much as you and I might want him to. 844, 500, 42, 42, 844, 500, 42, 42. Let's see, Dr. Matt, I recently took in two cats. One is 10 years old, the other is two. My brother abandoned them. They were living in a one-bedroom apartment. They now live in a house with a three-season porch that they have. So one of them refuses to pee in the litter box. That's along the street. Stress can do that in cats. That's a really common stress response. Obviously, the cats are on a new planet in a totally new environment. That's what I mean from the cat's perspective. So there's lots of things that you can do. First of all, you can increase the number of litter boxes, at least until you get the cat using the litter box. So have a litter box out on the porch, a litter box on the-- He says the cat does some of his business in the box, but not the other thing. So trying new litter boxes, there is a drug that you can use that I really like for. We always have nice medical terms for this. So this is called aberrant urination. And the drug I most commonly use for it is an anti-anxiety drug called amitriptyline. It comes in 10 milligrams. You give it once a day. I would say it works in 75 or 8% of the cases. How expensive, though? Incredibly inexpensive. Okay. That's the key. All the time. All the time drug. All right. 844-542-42. What's Dr. Matt's opinion on John O'Keefe's autopsy photos, dog scratch? We asked you about this last month, but you didn't seem to know as much about it. Well, yeah. The-- looking at the-- speaking for the pathologist, I think the pathologist made the right determination that this is what this looks like, scratches and bites. As opposed to tail lights. Right. As opposed to tail lights, right? Yeah. So have you seen many dog bites? I mean on humans? Well, yeah. Sometimes on me. But yeah, I mean, we deal with a fair number of dog bites. Sometimes on dogs. I've seen dog bites ending in the death of one of the dogs. So, yeah. You can have really severe dogs. So when you get bitten, it's more with those slash marks. Yeah. What's going to-- Right. So what's going to happen is dog has five weapons, really, the four feet in their mouth. So if you're trying to protect yourself against their mouth, they can scratch you. And then if you have a dog that is trying to-- I mean, there's defensive dogs that are trying to bite you to get them away, that's typically what we deal with, right? But then there are dogs that are trying to attack you and they will grab and pull. You know, so that's different because they're locking down. That was Chloe's MO apparently with multiple victims. Human and dog. Yes. And if you think you can open a dog's mouth in that situation, you cannot. It does not have to be a pit ball. You will not open their mouth. Yeah. They will lock down and not let go. Okay. That's good to know. What number can people reach you at if they're bitten by a dog or-- They should call the emergency department in the emergency room at the local hospital. But if you want to talk about your dog or cat, you can call me at 978-948-8189. Richard, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Richard. Yeah, Dr. We have a sheltered dog. He's healthy, et cetera, Adam, for about 11 years. He's around 70 pounds, probably hard to tell, boxers and hound. Right. Yeah. Great dog. We went through the terrible tools with him now, and he's a big, playful thing. But right now, he barks all the time, apparently he barks with puppies and, you know, other people, dogs, animals, et cetera. We're short on time. What should he do for the bark? Yeah. So you can train dogs for barking. There's a good book. It's out of print. It's called Play Training Your Dog. If you want to spend the time doing the training, you train them at a bark, and then you train them to be quiet. You can also-- there's a million bark collars on the market. They're very sophisticated. Oh, I see one every night with Roscoe. The guy just-- he runs through the edge of the lawn. And then he just cuts. Yeah. And so, you know, you can use-- Biden needs one of those. Yeah. Well, I'm sure they'd like to put one on him. So you like barking collars? Yeah, they do work. All right. That's a good point. That's a good answer, Richard. We'll be right back with Dr. Matt on Howie Car. Live from the Matthews Brothers Studios. 844-542-42, it's debate night, but we're taking a little break from the debate, pre-game coverage here to be with Dr. Matt, the house vet of the Howie Car Show. Dr. Matt, what's the phone number if people need your services during the week? People can call me at the Ipswich Animal Hospital at 978-948-8189. All right. Let's say we have a lot of text messages today. To question for Dr. Matt, we have a shelter dog who's eight months old with a mix of five large breeds. He seems to have a-- he's got anal problems. Any ideas, he says? If it's anal gland problems, first of all, you should consult your vet. They have-- you know, sometimes they need to be expressed, and sometimes relatively frequently. The first step with these guys, for me, is a higher fiber diet, or more exercise, or weight control, or any one of those sort of husbandry things that you can do to help them eliminate more or more completely. Some dogs have just anal gland problems, and they have to be addressed medically, or under very rare circumstances, they can get their anal glands removed. 978-- can you ask the doctor if I should be concerned that I can feel my dog spleen on the left-hand side when I feel just past the ribcage? There's a hard golf ball-sized lump. Well, if I don't know that it's the spleen, I mean, that's kind of where the spleen is, so if you're going to feel the spleen, that's where you'll feel it. If it's under the skin but outside the dog's body wall, it's probably a lipoma. If you have an older dog and you can feel a lump on the spleen, first of all, you're a better veterinarian than I am, I can feel a big spleen sometimes. And I can feel it if the thing is a baseball or bigger, but smaller is hard, so it can be something as simple as a lipoma, but if it is a splenic mass, you have to have that addressed because sometimes it's one strike in your out. You think it's got to be go to the vet? Well, I mean, if you want to find out whether it's a spleen or something else, you've got to have a veterinarian put their hands on the dog, so. 508, we rescued a female Greyhound, had her for four years. She's still very skittish. We love her, but I guess this is her disposition. Is it a Greyhound tendency to be skittish and to, let's see here, and I think they're coming so fast. She constantly shakes her head, especially after being petted. Is this neurological freaks out over thunder? Well, all dogs freak out over thunder. Yeah, I'm freaking out over thunder. Those blankets work, he says. Thunder shirts work in some dogs. I don't know that it's the first one that I would go to, but certainly you can try it. You can try herbal anti-anxiety. There's a bunch of them. Reggie makes one, Zaukeen is another one, so this soliquin is another one. Some of those work. You can also advance to pharmaceuticals, trasadone, Xanax, which is Alprazolam, or dexmeditomidine, which there's several trade names for that, but you can try a bunch of those. Greyhounds are kind of high-strung. There's a whole, they really run the gamut. I mean, there are some Greyhounds that are just so laid back. It's ridiculous, and then there are some that are wound up a little tighter. I see as many Greyhounds now since the track shut down. No, not nearly as much, because we actually had a wonderful person, Marilyn Walkovitz, who's passed away. She ran the Greyhound Adoption Service up in Salisbury, and so we saw them all the time. And I still see quite a few, but not nearly in the number that we once did. I have a nine-year-old Husky that's definitely slowing down since 781, feeding him a fairly well-reviewed dog food all his life. I see ads that say this fresh dog food will reinvigorate him. It's asked Dr. Matt if it's legit. It's not cheap. I think when you see the studies on dog food, the frustrating thing I think from every aspect is there's no proof that one particular type of dog food is better for your dog than another. Dog food's relationship to health is through weight, so if you're weight controlling your dog with whatever food you're feeding as long as it's a fully nutritious dog food, then you're going to be okay. I would love to say I believe there's better dogs than dog foods than others, but I'm very careful to use the word "believe" because there's not a ton of science behind what I just said. All right, Dr. Matt, what's your phone number if someone wants to call you for help for their pets? 978-948-8189. And where's your clinic? Ipswich Animal Hospital on Route 1 and Raleigh. Barbara, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Barbara. Hi. Dr. Matt, my sister actually has a restaurant in Raleigh, so I know exactly where you are. So I have a seven-year-old, 118-pound German, and if I get upset, you'll understand who has degenerate myopia. Yes, yes. And I bought the wheelchair. Is that the hips? No, this is a different problem? Yeah, it's Lou Gehrig's disease. Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, so my question is, when do I go to put it down? Yeah, this is a very, very tough one because the dogs willing usually, their front end works well, their brains working fine, heart and lungs working fine, but their spinal nerves aren't working as well anymore. Myelin, for those of you that don't know, myelin is the lining of the nerves, so it's like the insulation for an electrical wire. And so when you lose the myelin, the nerve just does not work as well. And it works from the outside in, so they start by losing their ability to know where their feet are, and then it starts to affect their motor nerves so they can't walk, they become incontinent. So if your dog's using the wheelchair okay, and you're managing okay, and you get a sense, and I really will tell you, do not use logic here. Trust your intuition, and if you feel the dog's still living a good life using the wheelchair, I've seen several degenerative myelopathy German shepherds that just are living their best life, even though they have to drag themselves around the house. If they have to go out, they pop them in the wheelchair, and off they go. So I would definitely recommend putting a harness on them. I'd like to help them up harness, help AGLP, M-E-M-U-P, help them up harness. It's a very good one to help manage them in the house and manage them getting them in the wheelchair and stuff. But as far as euthanasia, you have to trust your intuition. If you're really struggling and you feel like the dog's just getting through the day kind of miserably, then it's probably time. I'm sorry, Barbara, good luck to you, and we feel like we've all been, what most of us have been through things like this. Thank you, Barbara, thanks for calling. 844-542, 42, is that mainly a German shepherds? Mainly German shepherds, but some Labradors get it too. Mac, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Mac, go ahead Mac. Hello, thank you, Howie and Dr. Mac, I think. Okay, yeah, with litter boxes, I've had many cats in my life and I've had trouble with cats, multiple cats using litter boxes. Of course, you're going to add extra litter boxes, but sometimes what you can do is get your shovel, go out in the yard and dig up a clump of grass with a dirt and add that to the litter box. And it's like cats really like to go into the grass and do their business in there, so sometimes that could correct the problem. Alright, alright, thanks for that tip, Mac. 844-542, 42, Dottie, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Mac, go ahead, Dottie. Hi, Howie, could you talk to you at last? I'm from Boston originally, but now I'm in Florida, so I'm a neighbor for both of your sons. I'm part of it. Okay, but my family's still up there. So I have 8 to, sorry, 10 to their 12-year-old rescue for three years. I've had him a little copy on him. He's beautiful. I love him dearly. Last time I listened to you, we talked about Next Guard Plus is a lot cheaper than Stemperica. Well, yeah, there's Next Guard, which is just a fully in tick preventive and then there's Next Guard Plus that has the heartworm preventive in it. I don't know, I haven't priced them out, so I don't know which is more expensive, but Next Guard used with a separate heartworm prevention, like interceptor or heart card is quite often cheaper than the combo drugs like Next Guard Plus or Stemperica Trio. Okay, I just talked to my vet text down there and for 183, no matter which one I get. Yeah, yeah. For six months, right? Yeah, 30 bucks a dollar a day, pretty impressive. What is it? Well, there's several products, right? I mean, the heartworm and flea and tick prevention. Oh, these are the pills. Right, so once upon a time, we had just flea and tick preventives and heartworm preventives. They were separate, but now there's combination products that do all three. But the problem is you pay a really steep price for that convenience of giving them one chewable as to two chewables. So how much would the two chewables cost today? Yeah, usually a lot less. I mean, so when we price it out for moderately sized dog, people spend $100 to $150 more per year for the convenience of having them on. So what would you tell Dottie to do? I tell my clients to buy separate products. I'm dealing with dogs in the Northeast. I do have a couple of snowbirds sitting next to one. But for dogs that are wintering in Florida, they're on year-round heartworm preventative and year-round flea and tick. So I would just buy separate products. You can buy next-guard. It's a monthly flea and tick. And you can buy interceptor or heart card, which is the monthly heartworm preventative and you will wind up paying less. All right. Thanks, Dottie. And thanks for listening down there in Florida. Let's see here. Brian, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Brian. Hi, Howie. Hi. I used to have a Dalmatian and he used to chase bats. Okay. No health problems. Just used to like to chase bats. I thought it was cute. All right. Thank you, Brian. I used to have a place in Casco Bay on Great Diamond Island. And at night, the bats would come out. We were on the top. And so we would throw. We would just take those little pebbles, throw them up in the air. The bats would come in. It was cheap amusement. You're not for long. You're not for long. Not for long. But it was amusing at nightfall. Marcy, you're next with Howie Carr. Go ahead, Marcy. Hi, Howie and Dr. Matt. Hi. My dog and I were romping around in and along the edge of the pond. And somehow my dog ended up with a split toenail. Right. And it was bleeding. Right. I wanted to ask Dr. Matt, what causes split toenail right up the middle? Right. Is there a way to prevent, is there a prevention for that? Well, the best prevention is keeping your dog's nails really well trimmed. Because I rarely see well trimmed nails getting split. So when they grow out, then you have enough nail to get caught on something and get it twisted. Yeah, split nails are kind of a little bit of a nightmare because they're very painful to the dog. And my comment about split nails is the worse they are, the better they are. You know, so if they tear their whole nail off, it's over. Now they just need to grow a new nail. But when they split them up the middle like that, you have to have them. Usually we sedate them or, you know, in some cases actually anesthetize them. So I can trim them back and repair that nail because it's just really painful. Roscoe gets his nails cut at the doggy daycare center. Good. You could do that, right? Right. No, that's the best way to prevent it is trim your dog's nails. Get them trimmed or trim them. Okay. So she's got to do something. It's not going to get better by it. Yeah, it will not. No. All right. 844-542-844-542-442. One more segment with Dr. Matt. And again, what's your phone number, Dr. Matt? How many people need your services? People may call me at the Ipswich Animal Hospital at 978-948-8189. All right. Thank you. We'll be right back. I'm Howie Carr. The "Holly Carr Show" returns after this. The emperor of hate, "Holly Carr," is back. Hey, Roscoe is in the house. You say, I was holding him during the break. I put him down. He's running around now. Does he look like he's-- He looks better. He's looking better. Yep. Absolutely. So how he just said he resisted giving him sausage, which I think is-- Oh, man. Man, Monica's makes the best Italian food. He was looking at me with those big brown eyes last night. Well, I just adopted a Labrador, a former seeing eye dog. And that dog is food focused, calorie focused. All right. Well, I'm doing the best I can. You fat-chamed me last time I saw you with him. I did do it privately, though. I didn't do it in public. I did. You did. Absolutely. Okay. We got some more calls to take, and Dr. Matt will stick around. I think we can wrap up most of these, but he'll stick around in it and take the last of the calls. 844-542-42. That's the number, but the lines are closed now. But if people need your services, what line is open? Yeah. The line-- people can leave messages. They often do. But they can call me at the Ipswich Animal Hospital, which is 978-948-8189. All right. And Scotia, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Scotia. Hey, Dr. Matt. I've got a cat named Norton, who you've talked about and helped me with before, but this dilemma is just too weird. He will not stop eating grass. He only goes out on a leash. Yeah. And I bought him some store grass, you know, the leek grass in the pet shop. Right. He wouldn't touch it. Yeah, exactly. And he just comes in and throws up his grass everywhere. Yeah. Well, I'm not sure I'm going to really be able to help you here, because it's just a bad habit. I mean, eating a little grass isn't bad, though. No, not that long. It's like in salad, right? Yeah, it's getting a little fiber. Yeah. But you're overdoing it. Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Scotia. Gail, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Gail. Hi, Howie. Hi, Dr. Matt. Hi. I have a four and a half year old German Shepherd. And I've only owned four boxers previously. This is my first German Shepherd. But he seems to me, I mean, I've had him since a puppy. Like he yawns a lot. Does he have an issue? Is his name Biden? Right. Sleepy Joe. I don't think yawning per se. Is anything wrong with that? Otherwise, fine. There are some conditions, actually, some liver diseases where yawning is actually one of the symptoms. So, I don't think it would be wrong for you to mention it to your vet or just have some basic blood work done. But I would give you probably a 99% chance that he's totally normal. Thank you, Gail. Elizabeth, you're next with Howie Carr and Dr. Matt. Go ahead, Elizabeth. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, Dr. Matt. I have a five month old Glen of the Mall Terrier. And I've had him since he was born in January. I also have a Tibetan spaniel. And the Tibetan is a wonderful dog, but he has incredibly gotten incredibly food focused and they get into these wrestling matches. And I go crazy and I've consulted these dog trainers and everything. Is there anything that the Tibetan is on. Yeah, I would feed the dogs totally separately. I would feed them completely, totally separately. I had dogs that I have fed in separate rooms for 10 years. And that works the best. I don't think trying to desensitize them. It's a resource management resource protection problem from one or both of the dogs. And it's just not worth the fight because it can turn into a really awful fight. So feed them and feed them completely separately. How many dogs are not food focused? There are a few. I have one that has virtually no food focus whatsoever. And then my Labrador, which is intensely calorie motivated. Like this one that I'm holding in my hand, the little baby. Mark, thanks for the call, Elizabeth. Maureen, you're the final caller tonight with Dr. Matt, what's your phone number one more time? 978-948-8189. Go ahead, Mark. Oh, we don't have time for, for Maureen? Okay. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. Maureen, hang on. And Dr. Matt, we'll talk to you off the air, 844-542-42. So the debate starts at nine o'clock tonight. And I hope that tomorrow we'll be freedom Friday down in Dedham. This thing has gone on too long. Right. Do you think we'll ever see Chloe again? No, I think we've seen the last of Chloe. She won't be down for breakfast. She's no longer food focused. Hold on, Maureen. Thank you, Dr. Matt, 978-948-8189. You need his services. I'm Howard Carr. (dramatic music)