The Marty & Laura Show

“Howloween”: Costumes and Doorbells and Chocolates, Oh MY!Marty and Laura are joined by Glinda the Good Witch to talk about Halloween and the fun, as well as potential pitfalls, for our pets.“Everybody wants to address their pet up in a cute little costume,” Marty noted. “And you know, some of them are fine and the pets are comfortable in them and they're not scary and they're really cute. And sometimes we're expecting just a little too much of our pets, depending on the pet and what they like.“We have to respect there are some pets that are happy to wear clothing. And they're cute and they are comfortable in it and it's adorable. And then there are pets who are not, especially if it covers their head or it makes weird noises or it's crinkly or it's weird or anything.“And so you have to really be thinking about whether this makes your pet comfortable or uncomfortable. And if they're not comfortable in it, don't scare them. Put it on like for two seconds. Get a quick picture, put it on Facebook and then put the costume away. Your pet will tell you.“If you're expecting your pet to be part of the group that goes trick or treating, then get them used to the costumes in advance so that they know what you're going to look like. Usually if you're wearing something over your face or on your head, it changes your profile and your pet really identifies a lot, not by looking just at your face, but how you look in profile.“You have to acclimate them so that they're comfortable with that kind of situation if you're expecting them to go skipping down the street with them on a leash while you're taking the kids trick or treating. They're gonna see other strange creatures and zombies and you know, I think it's really important to have realistic expectations of our pets.”The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Fear Free Handling for Vets and GroomersMarty and Laura talk about the concept of fear free handling of pets by veterinarians and groomers. A concept popularized by veterinarian Dr. Sophia Yin, the reality of working with pets to lower their stress in new situations isn’t all that new, Marty noted.“I think fear free and low stress handling are important techniques. But this isn't new. And that's part of the frustration that I have with this, is we've always done things this way. It didn't have a name back then, but we've always put peanut butter on cookies and we've always put cheese out and we've always gotten out the chicken baby food for the cats and the puppies. So to me, a lot of this isn't as new or revolutionary as it would lead you to believe.“(Yin) started teaching techniques for veterinary staff and veterinarians to handle pets that came to the office so that they would have an easier time accepting the care. The people that owned them would have an easier time seeing what was happening and the veterinarians and veterinary staff were safer. So I think those are all really important things to consider. Those are all real things. Cats like to bite and scratch veterinarians. Dogs get a little panicked sometimes.“It's important to veterinarians that we have our staff safe, that we're safe, that the clients are safe. I think it's really important that we look at the psychological effects of our staff because they don't want to force pets to do anything. And we look at the psychology of the pet. And that's where it really becomes important is that every time that the pet has a bad experience at a veterinary clinic, it can remind them the next time that they come in, then it's unfavorable.“What I don't like about ‘fear free, low stress’ is that those sentences lead off with a negative term. And personally, that sort of rubs me the wrong way. And it's not that I think the philosophy behind it is bad. I think the terminology is problematic for me because I don't want anybody to say, well, what do you mean it's fear free? Was there something they were supposed to be afraid of? It sets up the expectation that the veterinarian is a scary place and that shouldn't be the expectation, right? And that's my concern is that it leads with a negative.”The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Diabetes is Manageable with Early DetectionMarty and Laura discuss the challenges of diabetes in pets, how to prevent, diagnose and manage the disease."Dogs that develop multiple episodes of pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas, they will oftentimes then become diabetic because there's so much scarring of the pancreas from the pancreatitis," Marty said."If you have a dog that's diabetic, they're going on insulin or you're not going to be able to keep them going," Marty added. "So you have to make a hard decision in a day or two. You can't wait a couple of weeks to make this decision. If your dog has high glucose and they're diabetic, you need to decide sooner rather than later, yes, I'm willing to give insulin injections. Yes, it only comes as an injectable form. Yes, you will have to give two injections a day. And yes, there will be ongoing expenses for monitoring the dog and keeping them on insulin. You have to buy the syringes, you have to buy the insulin, and that's just life. "Now, I can teach almost anybody to give an injection. Even if they think they can't. Most of the time, we want to do it when the cat or the dog is eating for two reasons. One is we want to make sure that they're eating before you give the insulin. Because if they're not eating and you give insulin, their glucose drops too low. That's bad. And secondly, you can give them something to do to distract them while you're giving the injection. And the needle is itty bitty, teeny weenie. It's not hard to use. It's easy to administer."Whatever you do with a diabetic patient, exercise and food wise, has to happen every single day. And if they are typically on the twice a day insulin, which most dogs need to get good control, they need to have insulin at 12 hour intervals. "I don't care if it's six in the morning and 6:00 at night. Or noon and midnight, but it can't go one day 6:00 at night and the next day midnight. So whatever you do for your schedule has to be the same. And that's the hard part about managing a diabetic patient is some of us have schedules that we can really control."We have two oral medications that have come to market in the last couple of years for cats with diabetes. And this is like a huge breakthrough because it only has to be given once a day.The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Heart Healthy Ideas for PetsMarty and Laura share heart healthy ideas for our pets from weight management to fitness to genetics.“We can't really talk about prevention without talking about genetics,” Marty said, “because from the very inception of a puppy, we can control their genetics to a certain extent. There are DNA tests. And there are phenotype tests that we can do for cardiac disease.“I think it's really important if you're buying a dog from a breed that tends to have cardiac disease, that we start off with the foundation of do the very best you can to select a dog that is less likely to develop cardiac disease than others in its breed category.“There's a really fabulous website called the Cardiac Education Group. It is absolutely spectacular. It's written for veterinarians, by veterinarians, but there's a whole section in there for pet owners. So if you have a dog that's been diagnosed or a cat that's been diagnosed with cardiac disease, you want to go to the cardiac education group and then find the little menu and Scroll down and click on the For Pet Owners.“Many puppies under 12 weeks of age will have what's called a functional murmur. We can hear it. It doesn't sound very loud. It sounds like it's probably innocent. And many of them will go away as the dogs get older.“Most veterinary cardiologists won't echo a dog or cat until they're at least 12 to 16 weeks old for two reasons. One is it's hard to see anything on the echo when they're that little. And two is because so many of them go away on their own that we don't worry about it.“Now, the one thing I tell a lot of people is that puppies have a physiological murmur because all puppies are anemic. All kittens are anemic. You are born with a certain number of red blood cells and when your body grows faster than your bone marrow can keep up with, you are anemic.”The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

ITCH! Ear Mites Cause Scratching and Permanent DamageMarty and Laura tackle the big itch of ear mites, how to prevent, diagnose and treat them in your cats (and even dogs.)“There are hundreds of mites in these cats ears, so it's no question that they are intensely itchy,” Marty said, while Laura opined the image was the stuff of nightmares.“When we see an ear infection in a cat,” Marty said, “it's ear mites or somehow related to ear mites. And in a dog it may start as ear mites, especially if it's a young dog. But almost always the ear mites on a dog go yuck. I'm not living here, it’s not where I want to be.“You're going to know they have mites because they're scratching all the time and they get discharge that looks like coffee grounds in there. It's not blood, but it can look like blood. But the cats can be so intensely itchy, pyritic, that they will literally scratch the back of their ear raw."I don't understand why, but it leaves a residual problem. I can look at a cat's ear and look at the owner and say, did she have ear mites when she was a kitten? And they go, ohh, yeah...“As soon as you bring a new kitten into the house, you want to keep them isolated. So put them in a separate room, a few garages warm enough. You can do that, or you can put them in a bathroom or laundry room or somewhere. Even a dog crate is at least some kind of seclusion until you get your first appointment with your veterinary clinic to test the kitten for leukemia and FIV to make sure that they're not exposing your cat.“We want to check for mites. So very quickly we're going to want to get those kittens in and get them treated, dewormed, put on Revolution, or other flea and tick products.”The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

OUCH! Cruciate Ligament Rupture Prevention and RepairMarty and Laura tackle the painful topic of cruciate ligament ruptures in dogs. They talk causes, prevention, treatment and new research that’s giving hope to eradicating the painful condition specifically in Labrador Retrievers.“Statistically, five to 10% of Labradors will end up with a cruciate tear,” Marty said, “although there's a lot of variables in that. Certain breeds like greyhounds and corgis, they don't tear cruciates. Sometimes it's the age of spaying or neutering, sometimes there's definitely differences within the line of dogs. So there's a lot of variables.“If your dog is 3-legged lame (in the rear) and it's persistent, you should seek veterinary care. But you don't have to go in on emergency over a weekend or at night. Now, if it's a dangling fracture, you need to go in,” Marty noted, but a cruciate tear is not an emergency.“You can have a flat out tear, you can have a fray, you can have a partial tear. Eventually a fray or a partial tear is going to turn into a full tear. And so you can see these degradations, these changes inside the cruciate ligament that we don't still fully understand or need to understand better, and we will, but at this point we don't really have a great understanding of some of these dynamics because there are so many differences.“Spaying and neutering definitely has a relationship in a lot of large breed dogs with the severity and the likelihood of which they're going to develop cruciate disease. So we know if we spay or neuter dogs before skeletal maturity, which is somewhere between 15 and 18 months depending on the breed, we're going to increase their risk of torn cruciate. In Labradors that increases by 20%.” https://puredogtalk.com/captivate-tag/cruciate-ligaments/The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Why is My Dog Peeing So Much? Critical Kidney Care InfoMarty and Laura tackle a huge subject with kidney diseases, symptoms and treatments. From diabetes to poison to communicable diseases, kidney health is critical to your pet.“A lot of people take kidneys for granted,” Marty says, “because they heard you can donate a kidney, so you must not really need to have two kidneys. You really do need the reserve of an extra kidney in case something goes wrong with one or both. Just like almost all of our organs, they're duplicated, so we should have two and they should both work effectively. So we need to take good care of our kidneys and that of our dogs.“The most common (symptoms) are changes in water consumption and changes in urination. Now, other things that frequently cause that are going to be diabetes, which happens in dogs and cats, Cushing's disease, which happens in dogs, which is an adrenal gland dysfunction, and other things like pyometra, high calcium that can be related to different forms of cancer. So there can be other things that we're looking for.“But we're going to start looking at kidneys, diabetes and Cushings disease in the dog most commonly. And so you're basically going to go in, tell the vet that your dog is drinking too much, urinating too much. We're going to get blood work and urinalysis as our basic starting point. But that's not the only place we're going to go. We're going to start with those two things because if the dog is still able to concentrate their urine, well then that tells us something different than if the dog’s urine was really dilute and the BUN and creatinine start to go up.”The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Myth Busting for Our Pets: “Natural” Does NOT Equal SafeMarty and Laura bust out on myths around “natural” products for our pets, whether they are useful, safe or actually hazardous.“All the eucalyptus and citronella and lavender and whatever it is that you want to spray on your dog is not going to actually successfully prevent external parasites,” Laura asked.“They may help a little bit,” Marty said, “but don't forget just because it says natural doesn't mean safe because there's a lot of things that are natural that aren't safe. Chocolate’s natural, it's not safe for your dog. There are lots of things that we can put on our dogs or in our dogs that simply aren't safe.“Somewhere in the early ‘90s, ivermectin came to market as Heart Guard and it's still on the market as Heart Guard and then there are some other newer ones that have come along that are in similar drug classes. Ivermectin was a mold found in the soil in Japan… So I think that's pretty natural. It's a mold from the soil. It's not like somebody made this up in a laboratory. Now, of course they've synthesized it, but essentially that's what it is. So, if you're looking for something natural, ivermectin is great.“The diseases that fleas carry, that ticks carry, heartworm, intestinal parasites, all of those are really bad diseases. If you're looking at, well, you know, could I be OK if my dog got heartworm disease? Well, most dogs live through heartworm disease, but it's thousands and thousands of dollars and it's really hard in the dog.”The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

ALLLLL the Best Toys for Your Pets + Cat FoodMarty and Laura drop their recs for all the best toys for your pets, from cat trees to “indestructible” dog chews. Plus, Marty delivers a round up on cat food and why cats eat what they do.“There's some nuances to cat food that are different than dog food. Cats apparently like things that are pointy and sharp in their mouths. Apparently cats like to eat little mice that have little sharp body parts, and so they like these little sharp kind of kibbles, so a lot of the foods are pointy or sharp or not necessarily just a round kibble.“Cats are obligate carnivores. So dogs can be an herbivore or a carnivore. Dogs can get by on a no meat diet. For those of you who are having cats out there that want to be vegan, cats cannot live a vegan lifestyle. Certain amino acids that they have to get from meat.“To effectively scratch, a cat needs to fully extend its front legs and its back legs. So however long your cat is from its tippy toes fully standing to its other tippy toes is at least how tall the cat tree has to be. The other thing about cat trees is that they need to be really hefty. Because when your cat comes running across the room and hits the cat tree, if it falls over, that's the last time the cat's ever going to go on the cat tree. If you ever thought you were going to keep your curtains in your furniture safe for the cat, you just blew it.“I'm not sure for some dogs that there's anything indestructible. There are lots of things labeled that way, but you never want to assume that and leave your dog alone with that indestructible toy until you've proven to yourself in the dog that it truly is indestructible.”Recommendations:https://www.purina.com/dogs/shop/dentalife-plus-immune-support-large-dog-chewhttps://www.kongcompany.com/https://jollypets.com/products/teaser-ball-dog-toyhttps://mountainvalleyantlers.com/The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Love for Brachycephalic BreedsMarty and Laura share the love for brachycephalic breeds with information about feeding, managing their environment, health testing and more.Managing Feeding and Environment for Brachycephalic Dog Owners:What are brachycephalic dogs?Brachycephalic dogs are dogs with a short, wide skull. These include French Bulldogs, Pugs, English Bulldogs, Olde English Bulldogs, Boston Terriers, Shih tzus, Lhasa Apsos, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and the American Bully and American Bulldog breeds.The very thing that makes us love them and makes them popular also puts them at risk for certain conditions including respiratory difficulties (loud breathing) and associated digestive and eating disorders.With some understanding of these syndromes and techniques for feeding, offering water, exercise and managing their environment, you can minimize the health consequences and not only save yourself money, but you can help your dog live more comfortably and longer.A short, widened muzzle and skull with more prominent eyes is an appealing look for dogs. It has been described by some as infantile – they may look like a human baby who never grows up. Many owners are attracted to this appearance. Additionally, these characteristics are not only cute, but these dogs also have personalities and activity levels that are appealing for pet owners. Many of these dogs are less active and more sedate. They are also frequently funny and entertaining to live with.What is “BOAS”?But there is a price to pay for some of the dogs who suffer from a more extreme form of this skull shape. This price has been defined as “Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome” or “BOAS” for short. To be clear, not all brachycephalic dogs have this syndrome. There are dogs in this breed group that are quiet, comfortable breathers.The good news is that breeders of these dogs are working with OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals www.ofa.org) to breed dogs with the desirable appearance without the negative respiratory and GI signs. OFA has used a system developed by veterinarians at Cambridge in England called the “Respiratory Function Grading Scheme” or “RFGS”. In this application, “scheme” means a system or assessment, not something sneaky and underhanded – using the British utilization of the word.This BOAS system is a method for veterinarians who are specially trained to assess the dog’s airway by listening to their breathing with a stethoscope positioned over the chest as well as on the throat, with the dog at rest and after 3 minutes of brisk walking. It also includes a visual inspection of the shape of the nostrils. The dog is then given a score of BOAS 0 to 3, by the attending veterinarian. This helps the owner and breeder of the dog to determine which dogs are good breeding candidates to help produce fewer BOAS affected puppies. You can locate a veterinarian or health clinic where there is BOAS testing available at www.ofa.org. At this time, there are only a handful of veterinarians trained to BOAS test but this number is likely to increase.So what are the concerns about the brachycephalic dog’s health?1.       Breathing2.       Digestion – processing food and water.Breathing concerns are the most obvious. Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS) consists of a number of structural abnormalities when compared to “normal” dogs, dogs with more typical head and muzzle shape. Some are the very definition of a brachycephalic – which literally means short head and some are secondary...

Confessions: ALLLLLL the Ways Our Dogs Have Embarrassed UsMarty and Laura share their most embarrassing stories with their dogs. From obedience exercises gone wrong to inappropriate public ejaculation, and many more incredibly awkward humiliations.“Dogs don't process things the same way we do,” Laura said. “If it feels good, it's good and so whatever it is that makes them feel good, which might be eating all of your entire ham roast that you had for dinner. Dogs live in a perpetual pleasure zone. That's their gig.”“We have to just realize that dogs don't think like we do,” Marty said, “and they never will and we don't want them ever to really because the whole point of being friendly with dogs is that they're dogs.”“Dogs do terrible things, not because they think it's funny, but because it feels good to them,” Laura noted. “And it entertains them and it makes them happy. And so while we are often mortified, terrified, devastated, you know, all the emotions that we go through, dogs are just smiling. Their ears flying and their nostrils flaring and they're having a grand old time.”Check out the author Laura mentioned, Patrick McManus, HERE.“And we really should appreciate dogs for that,” Marty added. “They live in the moment. They don't plan for the future. They have no recriminations. No guilt. Maybe we should be more like that. I have often thought that we should all be a little bit more like our dogs.”The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Bloat: Know the Early Warning SignsMarty and Laura give you tips and tools to save your dog’s life in the case of bloat. Minutes count in this life-threatening condition, so knowing the early warning signs is critical.Bloat, also known as gastric dilation and volvulus, is a condition that knows no boundaries. It occurs in large breed dogs primarily, but it can happen in smaller dogs as well. Gas becomes trapped in the stomach, causing it to “flip over,” cutting off blood supply to vital organs, all within just a few minutes.o  Early warning signs of bloat:·     Repeated attempts to vomit without producing any stomach contents·     Pacing, unsettled, snapping at sides·     Stomach becomes distended, looks and feels like a basketballo  Action items:·     Immediately call vet or emergency clinic and say you are on your way with a potential bloat.·     Immediately load dog and drive to vet. This condition can kill a dog in less than an hour.·     Keep GasX on hand if you have a large dog or a breed prone to bloat. Give to the dog immediately on suspicion of bloat. It will not harm the dog and may give you a few extra minutes.o  What causes bloat?·     Research is inconclusive. Anecdotally it is associated with large dogs with deep, narrow chests. Eating or drinking water too fast can be a trigger. Stress, anxiety, intense exercise immediately before or after meals have also been reported causes, but no data has been compiled that proves this. It is more common in older dogs.PreventionConsider having your veterinarian "tack" the dog's stomach to prevent the condition later in lifeThe Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Examining the Power of the Human Animal BondMarty and Laura examine the powerful human animal bond and how we can help our pets be healthier while they help us be healthier.The power of this ancient connection is documented at the Human Animal Bond Research Institute."The value that pets bring to our lives," Laura said, "is they impact whether we go out and exercise with them because we need them to lose weight. Whether it is the companionship, whether it is the social activity where we actually go into the public with our pet, where we might otherwise be cave dwelling hermits like myself.""It is enormous how much of a difference (pets) make in your interactions with other people," Marty said. "I raised dogs for Canine Companions for Independence. If I had to run into Target with a dog, it would take me 45 minutes to an hour to get back out the door because everyone would stop us and want to talk to us and ask about the program. And I actually had one dog that was placed in a family with a young man who had a disability because they met us at Target. "So it's truly incredible what these dogs do for you socially. They are social lubricant. Dogs open pathways to conversation that ordinarily you would just walk past the other person. You would kind of ignore them, you'd look the other way, you wouldn't really interact with them. But now you have a dog and they come up to you and they say, oh, what kind of dog is this?""Social life is a big part of it, exercise is a big part of it, mental stimulation," Laura said. "I am someone who deals with autoimmune disease. There are days that if I did not have a puppy lying next to my head, I would not get out of bed. I just wouldn't. And that puppy wakes up at 5:00 AM. I crawl out of bed no matter how crunchy I am and I get her outside. "And so this is a thing across the board for people with large and small health issues. A pet keeps them moving. Sometimes it's the only thing you wanna talk to. You don't want to talk to anybody on the phone. You don't want to talk to anybody at the store. You just want to talk to your dog." The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Pro Tips for Doggy DietingMarty and Laura take on the “weighty” conversation around doggy dieting. Research proves conclusively that dogs kept at a healthy weight live two years longer. How pet owners reduce or manage weight for their pets can be challenging and often requires some personal introspection as well. Our best pro tips for doggy dieting:· Move more, eat less … There’s no such thing as doggy Ozempic· Replace 50% of kibble with vegetables· Measure the food, don’t just guess· Feed two meals, don’t free feed· Use kibbles from the pre-measured meals in place of treats· Consider using a slow-feeder bowl· Ice cubes and fruits or vegetables make great snacks· Change your dog’s diet to a low-calorie, high-fiber alternative· Talk to your veterinarian about prescription metabolic diets· Walking, swimming and other gentle exercise will help burn calories· Altered dogs automatically need 25% less food as their metabolism slows downCheck out our earlier episode on helping our pets live longer HERE.Remember to help us out and like, share and review the show. And find the new audiobook HERE.The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura tackle the high cost of vet care, everything from WHY the cost is so high to pro tips on ways you can help keep costs manageable.Laura said, "I ran across (an article) in a magazine called Money Wise, and it says that half of America's 87,000,000 pet owners have decided against vet treatment. And it it continues that for many Americans, the cost of caring for their pets has become unbearable. A Gallup poll found 52% of US pet owners say that they've had to put off veterinary care because of the cost. A whopping 7 in 10 also say they forego pet care due to financial. Reasons. That's scary.""There's a few things that have played a role in this," Marty said, "and certainly one is the corporatization of veterinary medicine. I think we should talk about the overall cost of pets. It's not just veterinary care, but it's also the overall cost. How much are you spending on your pet food? How much are you spending on your other stuff? Doggy daycare? Another thing that I thought was a really important thing for us to talk about, it was mentioned kind of briefly in this article, is that veterinarians can do more for pets today, but those machines and those processes and those tests cost more money."About half of the veterinary clinics now are corporate and that means the other half are still owned by your local small practice owner, your small business owner."You don't have to go to a veterinary clinic that's corporate owned. There are lots of them out there that are. And it doesn't make them bad, it just makes them different. And it means your prices are probably going to be higher. "They have protocols that they're required to follow. So if your dog goes in with diarrhea, they have a specific protocol they're supposed to follow instead of being able to craft the kind of medicine that is based on what your pet needs are what your needs are. "In our practice, we have a guarantee, like our guarantee is that we will provide you a care plan that fits your needs and your pet's and your resources. So we don't have to go through an algorithm where we say these are the things we have to do. If you look at me and say I can't do that, then we come up with Plan B and Plan C."The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Foxtails and Algae and Snakes and Alligators, Oh My!Summer vacation with dog as co-pilot, as Marty and Laura discussed last month, is well under way. Today they bring important information to help keep your pet safe in the late summer at various locations around the country. Whether it's foxtails, blue green algae, poisonous snakes or alligators, your pet can encounter a variety of environmental challenges.Skunks and porcupines also get rolled into this wide-ranging conversation about what to avoid and what to do if you can't avoid some of these dangers for your pet.Deskunking formula: One box of baking soda, a pint of hydrogen peroxide, 2 tablespoons of Dawn dish soap and you mix it all up. Lather mixture all over the dog. Do NOT get the dog wet first. Use the whole batch because if you try to put a cap on it, the peroxide and the baking soda foam up and they blow up the container.Doctor recommended: Keep your dogs safe from foxtails and other potential injury with an Outfox mesh hood. The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

A Day in the Life: Answers to Your WTF Questions at the VetMarty and I talk a lot. Like we talk pretty much, maybe not daily, but we talk every week. And I interact with people on a daily basis who work in veterinary clinics. I think it's really hard, sometimes, for us as clients to appreciate what's going on in the veterinary clinic. 'The receptionist just snarked at me. I've been sitting here for 45 minutes, like, what the F?'So I thought it would be really great if Marty would talk to us about what the F? Like what's going on? What's a day in your life like and your staff? And if perhaps we as clients can then come with that extra grain of compassion that knowledge should bring. I think that that benefits everybody."Clients pull in, they may see one or two cars in the parking lot, but they may not know that that means it's a C-section with 14 puppies, which is what we just did on Friday. Or they may not be aware that there's a hit by car or a bloat or, you know, some really terrific trauma that's happening or something really awful that's happening. "And if we only have one doctor working, there's only one place the doctor can be in at a time. And so it may not look to you as a client that it's very busy. It may look like they're just sitting around having coffee and gabbing in the back. But in reality, there's probably something pretty significant going down if you're having to wait, and that's the important thing. "We don't have HIPAA on the veterinary side. But from a confidentiality perspective, I'm not going to walk into the exam room and say what just happened. It may have been a euthanasia. It may have been a critical diagnosis of something that's really terminal, and we had to do some counseling for the client, it may be a litter of puppies that are being born. And quite literally, we'll have sometimes 16 or 17 puppies in a litter, which means all hands on deck. It means everything else gets dropped. And in our practice, because we do a lot of reproduction, C sections are a priority, but so are major traumas. So are bloats."It may not look to you like as a client's perspective that there's that much going on, but if you're waiting, either they forgot about you, which doesn't happen very often, but I'm not going to tell you it's never happened at any veterinary clinic or something bad is going down. And you probably should just like sort of sort of chill a little bit."The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Bombproofing Your Pet for the Big BoomsMarty and Laura tackle the big booms of summer, fireworks and thunderstorms, and how we can bombproof our pets ahead of time.LR: You made a comment to me last week when we were together that I thought was so great. We were talking about our phobias, your fear of heights. My claustrophobia. And you're like, 'we don't know why we have these phobias. Dogs don't know why they have their phobias either.' And I just thought that was such a genius comment that I'd never really kind of spun it that way in my head. So can you expand on that a little bit for me? MG: Well, I'll try. I mean, the point is that I'm afraid of heights. I know I'm not gonna fall. I know I'm OK, I get that. But there's something really visceral and really guttural that every sphincter in my body tightens up and I get nervous and upset and there's a certain things I don't handle well. And so it's hard to explain to anybody. Because my friends around me are like, what's wrong with you? You're not gonna fall over the cliff. You're not gonna fall off the edge. You're fine. I'm like, OK, My head says I'm fine. My gut says I'm not. And so, that's kind of the thing. We have to realize that it's a real true gut reaction. And when you say you think with your gut or you feel with your gut, what's your gut reaction? I think it's really important that we realize that our gut is part of our nervous system, and it's probably a very important organ in all of that. So when you feel like you have a gut feeling, believe it and don't diss the dog by saying 'what's wrong with you, you shouldn't be afraid of that. It's just Thunder. It's just lightning. It's just fireworks. It's just, you know, whatever, it's just the vet, it's just the groomer, it's just the car.' It's whatever it happens to be. It is not "just," it is a visceral, true guttural response that you're dog or cat cannot overcome. You can try to do some training, you can try to do some counter conditioning. There's all kinds of stuff people try to undo by training, but sometimes it takes some pharmaceutical agents to sort of accelerate this timeline of getting through those things.The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Blastomycosis and Other Fungal InfectionsMarty and Laura discuss the dangers of blastomycosis and other fungal infections for our pets as well as their humans."Blasto tends to be the upper Midwest," Marty said. "It's frequently found in areas where wood chipping has taken place, so places that trees have been cut down or chipped or garden centers and you know, things along those lines. "There are other parts of the country that have other kinds of fungal infections. So it's not like if you don't live in Wisconsin that you're safe from it. So Wisconsin, Minnesota, those areas, we see a lot of it. If you go to the Southwest like Arizona, then you see coccidiomycosis (Valley Fever), which is also fungal. "And then if you go to the Mississippi Valley. Find histoplasmosis. So there's definitely regional differences. They're all nasty, wicked bad diseases, and people think of fungus and yeast as being the same thing and they're not. It is systemic. It is a bad, bad, bad disease. The commonality between histo and blasto and coccidiomycosis is that it causes fungal pneumonia and then there's other organs that are involved differently in different of those diseases."Marty walks through symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of fungal infections in our pets, both dogs and cats. She also warns these diseases can affect humans."I had a client that had two sons that both had blasto. Human sons. So you can see that kind of a typical pattern is it's from the exposure of the spore," Marty said. "You inhale the spore, it ends up in your lungs, you get pneumonia and that spreads to other organs. So it's not spread dog to dog, it's not spread dog to human. It's spread through the common source of the soil being disrupted with that kind of pH and that kind of environment that the sports can live in."The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Osteoarthritis Diagnosis and TreatmentMarty and Laura tackle the topic of osteoarthritis in our pets, diagnosis, treatment and the differences between cats and dogs with this disease."The only time we'll see a pet cry in pain is if they have either serious trauma or they slipped a disc in their neck and those dogs vocalize," Marty said. "But they won't vocalize because they've torn a cruciate. They won't vocalize because they have hip dysplasia or back problem or elbow dysplasia or 1 of 1000 other causes of osteoarthritis. And so our perception, especially in cats, but in dogs as well, is that they're not in any pain because they're not crying.""We know the dogs are in pain, even if they're not crying. If they're not walking normally, they're in pain. That's just the bottom line and something you need to just know and understand and accept."Marty walks through the various treatment options. There are multiple options for dogs, although only one for cats. Various commercial diets are formulated to provide support for pets with osteoarthritis. "(These diets are) based on increasing the fatty acids, increasing the glucosamine, trying to improve joint lubrication and just generally making the pet feel better. Dogs and cats, first and foremost, if they're overweight, get weight off of them because that is going to be the best thing that you can do for them non drug wise or drug wise. That is the one single thing that you can do to really improve their quality of life is for them to not have to carry that much weight on those sore, achy, tired joints. Every part of their body hurts, so get their weight down."Dip in to hear the rest of Marty's recommendations. Don't forget to like and follow the show and share with your friends.The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.