Heather Fraser

When they bite, mosquitoes can transmit heartworm infection, and those heartworms can wreak havoc on your dog or cat. These parasites can severely and sometimes fatally damage the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. Some pets may not show any signs of infection; in those that do, symptoms can vary widely.

In dogs, signs of heartworm disease can range from coughing, fatigue, and weight loss to difficulty breathing and a swollen abdomen (caused by fluid accumulation from heart failure). Canine heartworm infection can also lead to a life-threatening complication called “caval syndrome” (a form of liver failure); without prompt surgical intervention, this condition usually causes death.

Although often thought to not be susceptible to heartworm infection, cats can indeed get heartworms. Cats can suffer from a syndrome referred to as heartworm-associated respiratory disease (HARD); the symptoms can be subtle and may mimic those of asthma or allergic bronchitis. Signs of respiratory distress, such as rapid or difficult breathing, wheezing, and panting, are common. Other symptoms include coughing, vomiting (typically unrelated to eating), and loss of appetite or weight. Heartworm infection is more difficult to diagnose in cats than it is in dogs.

Treatment for heartworm infection is far more expensive than prevention—and it can actually kill your dog. There is no approved treatment for cats. Some cats spontaneously rid themselves of the infection; others might not survive it. And even one or two adult heartworms in a cat can cause serious problems.

Fortunately, there’s a way to keep your pets safe: by administering monthly heartworm preventives. Most heartworm medications also protect your pet against other parasites, such as roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, ear mites, fleas, and ticks. There are many products available nowadays, so please contact the clinic for more information,

Easter Lilies are beautiful and they’re always a sure sign of springtime and, of course, Easter. Nothing is a pretty as a dining room table or kitchen counter decorated for Easter with a lily as a centre piece.  Pretty, and deadly to your cat.

There are benign and dangerous lilies out there, and it’s important to know the difference. Benign lilies include the Peace, Peruvian, and Calla lilies; these contain insoluble oxalate crystals that cause minor signs such as tissue irritation to the mouth, tongue, pharynx, and esophagus. Clinical signs of drooling, pawing at the mouth, foaming, and vomiting may be transiently seen.

The more dangerous, potentially fatal lilies are true lilies of the Lilium or Hemerocallis species. Examples of some of these dangerous lilies include the tiger, day, Asiatic hybrid, Easter, Japanese Show, rubrum, stargazer, red, Western, and wood lilies – all of which are highly toxic to cats! Even small ingestions (such as 2-3 petals or leaves) – even the pollen or water from the vase – can result in severe, acute kidney failure.

Other types of dangerous lilies include lily of the valley. This type does not cause kidney failure, but can cause life-threatening heart arrhythmias and death when ingested by dogs or cats.

If your cat is seen consuming any part of a lily, bring your cat (and the plant) immediately to a veterinarian for medical care. The sooner you bring in your cat, the better and more efficiently the lily poisoning can be treated. Decontamination (like inducing vomiting and giving binders like activated charcoal) are imperative in the early toxic stage, while aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, kidney function monitoring tests, and supportive care can greatly improve the prognosis. Do not wait to see if your cat gets sick-he undoubtedly will and waiting greatly reduces his chance of survival.

The Easter Lily is not toxic to dogs, or most other species. As gorgeous as they are, it’s probably best not to bring Easter Lilies into your home if you have a cat.

Poisonous to: Cats

Scientific name: Lilium longiflorum

Alternate names: Lilies, Easter lily, tiger lily, rubrum lily, red lily, wood lily, Western lily, stargazer lily, daylily, Japanese show lily, Asiatic lily, Asiatic hydrid lily, peace lily, calla lily, lily of the valley, Lilium longiflorum, Lilium tigrinum, Lilium speciosum, Lilium auratum, Lilium lancifolimu, Lilium umbellantum, Hemerocallis

Level of toxicity: Generally moderate to severe

Common signs to watch for:

• Inappetance
• Lethargy
• Hiding
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Halitosis
• Dehydration
• Inappropriate urination or thirst
• Seizures
• Death

There are benign and dangerous lilies out there, and it’s important to know the difference. Benign lilies include the Peace, Peruvian, and Calla lilies; these contain insoluble oxalate crystals that cause minor signs such as tissue irritation to the mouth, tongue, pharynx, and esophagus. Clinical signs of drooling, pawing at the mouth, foaming, and vomiting may be transiently seen.

The more dangerous, potentially fatal lilies are true lilies of the Lilium or Hemerocallis species. Examples of some of these dangerous lilies include the tiger, day, Asiatic hybrid, Easter, Japanese Show, rubrum, stargazer, red, Western, and wood lilies – all of which are highly toxic to cats! Even small ingestions (such as 2-3 petals or leaves) – even the pollen or water from the vase – can result in severe, acute kidney failure.

Other types of dangerous lilies include lily of the valley. This type does not cause kidney failure, but can cause life-threatening heart arrhythmias and death when ingested by dogs or cats.

If your cat is seen consuming any part of a lily, bring your cat (and the plant) immediately to a veterinarian for medical care. The sooner you bring in your cat, the better and more efficiently the lily poisoning can be treated. Decontamination (like inducing vomiting and giving binders like activated charcoal) are imperative in the early toxic stage, while aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, kidney function monitoring tests, and supportive care can greatly improve the prognosis. Intravenous fluids must be started within an 18 hour window for the best outcome.

The Easter Lily is not toxic to dogs, or most other species. As gorgeous as they are, it’s probably best not to bring Easter Lilies into your home if you have a cat.

We recognize that you live a busy life and taking the time to drive to the clinic for your pets food can be onerous. Who doesn’t love shopping from home?  With the added convenience of home delivery or pick up here at the clinic, we are proud to introduce our new webstore. You can now order your pet’s foods and medications online through our webstore 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

To sign up for the webstore follow the link on our website or call us for more information at (519) 752-3431.

Our clinic cat, Zeta, put on quite a few pounds this past year so we decided it was time to put her on a strict diet, with the help of Royal Canin. Royal Canin manufactures most of our therapeutic diets and their weight loss diet, Feline Satiety, was the perfect choice for Zeta. Like any diet, being hungry all the time is the hardest thing to overcome. This particular diet has psyllium fibre added to it which helps to keep pets feeling full and has all the important nutrients that are needed while reducing calories.  It definitely works because we noticed a big difference in Zeta’s begging habits.

Zeta started out at 6.30 kg on November 25, 2015 and her target weight is 4.50 kg. Royal Canin has an awesome on-line program called “Slimfit” with a special calculator that veterinarians can use to easily determine a patient’s target weight and calorie allowance.  After plugging all of Zeta’s information into the program it told us how much Satiety Diet to feed her (50 grams total per day in divided meals) each day.  We actually weigh her food to make sure she doesn’t accidentally get overfed. It’s easy to add a few extra kibbles to a measuring cup, but by weighing the food she gets exactly the amount prescribed.  The program figures everything out for us; the calories, how much to give in cups and in grams. All we needed was a kitchen weigh scale.

Zeta’s progress has been steady, with the exception of a little stagnation around Christmas time, but that’s to be expected.  We know it’s hard to resist good food over the holidays, right?  With each weigh in we also add her body condition score (BCS)to the program so it helps to control the rate at which she’s losing weight. Her BCS in November was 8 out of 9.  Now she’s 7 out of 9.  When we first changed her BCS to 7 the program told us she was losing weight too fast so for a week we fed her a few grams more.  It would be awesome to see her with a BCS of 5!

Today she’s 5.60 kg and we are very proud of her.  Dieting is never easy, but Zeta is a trooper!

Overweight cats and dogs can suffer from a variety of ailments, such as arthritis, heart disease and lung disease that can be managed and possibly eliminated if we can get the extra pounds off of them.

Zeta’s next weigh in will be in a couple of weeks so we’ll keep you posted.