 |
Did you know that your vet can quickly find the most up to date medical treatments or get extra help with a challenging case by joining VIN (Veterinary Information Network) for a reasonable monthly fee of only $55? If your busy vet can’t keep up by reading all the monthly journals (guilty as charged!) this information timesaver could be a lifesaver for your dog or cat! VIN offers an extensive online database and questions are answered by experts in the specialty fields of dermatology, internal medicine, surgery, ophthalmology and more.
And for those who surf the internet for pet health information — watch out for cyberspace know-it-alls! Too many times, I’ve seen clients attempt to make a web diagnosis or were suckered to buy hyped-up products promising to cure every known ailment to dog-kind. Aside from wasting time and money — your dog could suffer from not getting proper treatment. Looking for an alternative or more holistic approach is fine as long as you first know specifically WHAT problem you are attempting to treat…
So, next time you get the urge to play snoop dog detective on the keyboard, start with Veterinary Partners (brainchild spin-off of VIN) — a database that has compiled a vast amount of reliable information by veterinarians in their chosen fields of expertise. You can search this public database for free.
Here is an example of what you will find when you select Dog — as the species you want information on — and type ‘demodex mites’ into the search box:
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=630
Let Veterinary Partners be your first source of web based pet health information. Remember to bookmark: http://www.veterinarypartner.com.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Mary Jo // Apr 24, 2009 at 8:34 am
What a great website. I hopened it and it went to demodectic podermatitis. My English mastiff has been biting his feet for years. We changed his food (currently holistic duck and oatmeal), ripped up the carpet and put him on aloe vera juice to kill yeast. He’s somewhat better but still biting. I even put him on chinese herbs for allergies which seemed to make him hyperactive and he acted like he was hallucinating.
I asked my vet about demodectic podermatitis and he didn’t seem to think that is the case. He says we will have to sedate him and do scrapings to determine this. And, I’m not too excited about the treatments listed.
Is there a more natural route?
Oh, and we took the mastiff for his annual last night including the 3yr rabies which is required and i didn’t realize it til we got home and looked at the paperwork, they also gave him a 3yr distemper shot. I specifically told the vet tech no. I called the vet and he said she felt that we did want it and he justified this by telling me that their vet practice only gives them every 3 years and not annually as recommended. His file is flagged now, no distemper unless we request it.
Thanks very much for your awesome awesome newsletter.
Mary Jo
2 Dr. Terifaj // Jun 14, 2009 at 8:23 am
It sounds like your dog may be dealing with Atopy (inhaled allergic dermatitis) not demodex since you mention that only the paws are involved and that is not a typical presentation. A skin scraping is mandatory to make the diagnosis and dogs do not have to be sedated to do this unless they cannot be handled.
Leave a Comment