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North Dekalb Veterinary Clinic

News and Events

North Dekalb Veterinary Clinic offers Microchipping.

Microchips are tiny computer chips with
unique identification numbers programmed
into them. They are implanted under the
skin and provide a great way to safely and
permanently identify your pet.
This type of I.D. can't be lost,
altered, or easily removed. The chips are
encased in biocompatible glass and are
small enough to fit into a needle for
insertion.
Once inserted, the chip can be read with
a special scanner that sends a radio signal to the chip. The microchip
then sends its number back to the scanner. The chip has no power
supply or moving parts and has an operating life of over 25 years.
We can implant these chips at anytime since anesthesia is not required. If
you are interested in finding out more about microchips, please contact
the office or visit the AVID website by clicking on picture above.
NEW- We now have eurochips - These chips are recognized by
scanners in many overseas countries as well as here in the US.
We recommend them for anyone planning future international
travel with their pets.

Updates regularly

Vaccination Update

Anyone who routinely surfs pet related websites or reads

pet

magazines has likely been exposed to the myriad of

vaccine

controversies currently surrounding this

common

medical

practice. Vaccinations have been a

boon to

health

care

reducing illness and

saving countless lives. Until

vaccination

became routine, infectious disease was a

leading

cause of death

in both the human population as

well as the

pet/animal

population. On the human side,

disease

such as

smallpox and

polio have been well

controlled

by widespread

vaccination

, and

many

lives are saved by the yearly

influenza vaccines

For

dogs,

Distemper and Parvovirus

were

both major sources of

illness throughout the 70's and

80's

but have become much less

frequent due to

widespread

use

effective vaccines.

Cats, too,

have benefited from

vacci

ations t

hat

have

decreased the

incidence of Feline

Leukemia and

Panleukopenia. In truth, the

effectiveness

vaccines

and the

benefits of vaccination are not

really part

of the current

vaccine controversy. Vaccination is

now,

and will

continue to be, a major component o

f any

preventative

health care program.

The real issues in the vaccine controversy are safety and

duration of immunity. Are vaccines safe? Do benefits

outweigh

risks? How often should vaccines be given?

Are

yearly

boosters really necessary? These are the

questions

that

veryone should

be asking about vaccinations.

Are vaccines safe?

accinating pets

should be

considered

a medical procedure

and

must be treated

with

respect. Like any medical

procedure,

both

the risks and

benefits

eed to be

evaluated.

Vaccines are drugs

and

as such,

drug reactions may occur.

Allergic reactions,

fevers,

lethargy, and other adverse

reactions

occasionally

occur

following the administration of

vaccines

. There may also

a link between

certain vaccines

or vaccine additives and a

form of

cancer termed

fibrosarcoma (this issue is under

investigation and has lead

to changes in

many

vaccines

currently in use for pets).

Vaccine safety may also be

influenced by a patients overall

health. Vaccination may

risky for individuals with

autoimmune disease, cancer

and

other illnesses affecting

their immune systems.

Vaccinations

may also be dangerous

for patients with

undiagnosed diseases

or organ

dysfunction. For this

reason,

the physical exam is the

most

important part of

pre-

vaccination assessments for

patients.

Clients should

look to

their veterinarians to help

identify

risks

improve safety

and maximize the benefits of

vaccinations

. Those without

training should proceed

cautiously when attempting to

vaccinate their own pets.

An equally important way to improve vaccine safety is to

choose the appropriate vaccine based on the patients

risk of

exposure to an

illness. If we consider vaccines to be drugs

and

vaccination a medical procedure, it only makes sense to

evaluate each patient individually to determine which

vaccines

they should really receive. The lifestyle,

environment, and

health of each pet must

all

be considered

to accurately

determine

he appropriate vaccines

Clients

should be wary of

vaccine approaches that

simply offer

every available vaccine to

every patient.

There are

potentially 10-12 different vaccines

available

for dogs and

cats

but it is unlikely that any patient

would

need every

one.

How long do vaccines last and are boosters

really

important?

The other aspect of the vaccine controversy involves

something called duration of immunity. For many years,

the

vaccination schedule was dictated by manufacturers.

Most

vaccine labels still advise annual revaccination

and

one is

certain how long vaccines actually last. In

order to

accurately

test this, large groups of animals

must be kept

under laboratory

conditions for extended

periods of time

and then exposed to

disease causing

organisms to determine

protection (blood

antibody

levels are also monitored but

this does not always

correlate with protection from

disease). Because of

costs, this

time period was generally 1

year. Only

recently have studies

gone beyond 1 year but

frequently

involved only small

numbers of animals. In

addition, of

all the different vaccines

available, only a small

number

have undergone any long term

testing. Some

vaccines

are thought to confer protection for a

number of

years

while others such as those called bacterins

may only

protect for 6 months. To complicate matters further,

issues

such as the health of the patient at the time of

vaccination,

the method of administration, and the

frequency

exposure to diseases

all combine to affect the

duration of

expected protection from each vaccine

component.

isk

assessment means evaluating

each

patient individually to

determine the appropriate vaccination

schedule

For some

pets this may

mean a 3-year schedule for certain

components

such as

panleukopenia or distemper

, but for

others, yearly

vacc

inations

may

still

encouraged.

Remember, each pet, each vaccine, and each

situation must be evaluated on an individual

basis

those trained to do so. If you have

questions,

please

do not hesitate to discuss your

pets vaccine

requirements with his or her

health care providers.

View the current vaccine recommendations
for dogs at: canine vaccination guidelines
and cats at: feline vaccination guidelines

Pet Hospice Care
It is not unusual when health care services for
people are modified for our veterinary patients.
Hospice care is no exception. While most are
familiar with the term hospice, many are unfamiliar
with what it really means. Hospice care is essentially
care for the terminally ill. The focus changes from
treating disease to treating the patient. In other
words, treatment is aimed more at comfort and
support rather than an attempt to cure. Hospice is
reserved for patients were a cure is unlikely and the
pet owners have opted to keep their beloved
companion comfortable. It is very important to note,
however, that hospice is not an alternative to
euthanasia. In some cases, the pets do pass away
on their own, but frequently there are situations
where the pet can no longer be kept comfortable and
euthanasia is the only humane alternative.
Hospice care generally involves relief of pain or
discomfort, supportive care, and lots of TLC.
Sometimes the distinction between treatment and
hospice is vague such as with kidney disease
patients. Fluid therapy, anti-nausea medication, and
nutrition continue through-out the transition from
treatment to hospice. For other illnesses, it may be
more dramatic. Many cancer patients stop all drugs
except for pain medications once they transition to
hospice care.

Do Cats Cause Mental Illness?

A recent news report about possible links between mental disorders and a parasite of cats has left many cat owners
wondering if the family pet may be more of a hazard than a companion. Unfortunately, the news report was heavy on
sensationalism but weak on facts. The report served only to scare and confuse pet-owners and may have given some
owners the wrong impression about keeping cats as indoor pets. The report went so far as to suggest keeping cats inside
may not be a good idea especially if children are in the house. We fear that this bad advice will not only cause some people
to put their indoor cats outside but in doing so may ironically increase health risks to family members as a result.
In an effort to set the record straight, we would like to offer the following information:

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite. The life cycle of this parasite requires a cat or other felid (called the definitive host) as well
as an intermediate host such as rodents, rabbits, and other mammals. Cats become exposed to the parasite by predation or
hunting. When they eat an infected mouse, the parasite moves through their body and is shed in their stool thereby
spreading the parasite in the environment for other mammals to ingest. People can get exposed by accidentally ingesting the
parasite after cleaning litter boxes or while gardening in soil frequented by stray cats. People can also get exposed by
ingesting the parasite on unwashed vegetables from gardens frequented by cats, and by eating undercooked meat from
other intermediate hosts such as pigs or cattle (much in the same way cats are infected by eating mice). In case you are
wondering, pigs and cattle become infected by eating grain or grass contaminated by infected cat feces from barn cats that
hunt the infected mice. Therefore, exposure is much more likely to occur via contamination of our food by outside cats that
hunt and less likely to occur from exposure to a strictly indoor pet that isn’t allowed outside to hunt. The news report would
have done a much better service to viewers by advising them NOT to let their cats go outside especially if there are children
in the household. Preventing predation/hunting is the best way to avoid toxoplasmosis in pets. As for kittens, regular
veterinary visits will decrease the possible threat of this parasite as we routinely screen stool samples.
Toxoplasma infections in humans are an important cause of abortions and stillbirths when women are exposed for the first
time during their pregnancy. The organism can also cross the placenta and infect the fetus. Symptoms may include birth
defects, deafness and blindness, and mental retardation. In addition, some acute cases in adults are associated with
psychiatric symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.
In cats, Toxoplasma infections may cause blindness, meningitis, pancreatitis, and gastrointestinal problems or may be
completely asymptomatic (not cause identifiable illness).

The news report in question actually concerned studies on schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a neuropsychiatric disease of
uncertain cause that affects approximately 1% of the adult population in the United States and Europe. Genetic factors are
thought to play a significant role in the development of the condition which is most commonly diagnosed in early adulthood.
Environmental factors have also been determined to be important risk factors. Some risk factors that have been linked to
schizophrenia include marijuana use, social stress and adversity, social isolation, city or urban living, child abuse, bottle
feeding, fatty acid deficiencies, wheat allergies, nicotine use, exposure to x-rays, and head injuries. Over the past 100 years,
scientists have also attempted to clarify the role of infectious agents in the development of schizophrenia. As for
toxoplasmosis, most studies have evaluated the association between pre/perinatal exposure in women and the subsequent
effects on children as they mature. One study published in 1997, however, suggested a link between childhood infections
and adult onset psychoses. To date, studies evaluating the frontal cortex of deceased patients diagnosed with schizophrenia
have failed to identify Toxoplasma DNA in any samples but a link is nonetheless suspected. Many of these studies are
decades old so this is not really new information as was suggested by the news report. One frequently quoted study,
published in 2005 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, suggested a higher risk for the development of schizophrenia in
children born to mothers that had high maternal antibody titers to toxoplasmosis. The same study also indicated that “there
was no association between moderate Toxoplasma Ig antibody titers and the risk of schizophrenia”. Interestingly, researches
studying the same group of people found a possible link between exposure to influenza during pregnancy and the later
development of schizophrenia but this remains to be investigated. The final conclusion of all of this is that maternal exposure
to Toxoplasma organisms may increase the risk of schizophrenia in children as they mature. This does not change the well
established guidelines of avoiding undercooked meat and unwashed vegetables during pregnancy. Pregnant women should
also avoid gardening and should allow someone else in the household to scoop the litter box especially if the family cat has
access to the outside. Kittens should be taken to the family veterinarian for their entire exam/vaccine series.
If you have any questions about toxoplasmosis we encourage you to contact your veterinarian and your family physician. In
addition, the CDC is an excellent resource for information. Please click on the link below for more information on brochures
available from the CDC.
http://www.cdc.gov/toxoplasmosis/brochures.html

Attention
New flea products are on the horizon to help in the war
against those pesky little blood suckers. Please check
back as we update our site, and remember, fleas don't
just take your pets blood. More and more diseases are
being linked to them. Bartonella, the cause of cat
scratch disease, and Mycoplasma are but two of the
more common and more serious organisms carried and
spread by fleas. Here in Georgia, protection is
important year-around.