Dr. Sandra Truli Springer, Holistic Vet House Call Services
Truli Holistic Veterinary Services: 877-DR-TRULI
The diagnosis was the very best thing a bloody, red lump can be…
A big, 45 kilo (92 pound) tan Labrador Retriever mix smiled at Doc Truli and wagged her tail. A smallish, 2 cm (1 inch) round lump covered with tan fur popped up out of the middle of her left front leg.
Annual check-ups can be interesting. Nothing is routine in veterinary medicine, and Lucinda proved to be just the interesting case of the day your Truli enjoys helping. Continue reading “What’s That Lump on My Dog?”
Yes, the little charger fully implemented his plan to forbid the two-ton family vehicle from pursuing a course out of the driveway! How did Henry carry out his scheme?
Ever meet a calm, quiet, reasonable Jack Russell Terrier (err, Parson’s Russell Terrier?) Okay, I have, too. Once in a blue moon. But usually, the JRT’s are like Henry, the 3-year-old male intact sport-utility-vehicle-stoppin’ JRT in my emergency room.
Henry ran around his mom’s legs and knotted his leash around the waiting room chair legs at 5 pm on a busy Saturday afternoon. The problem?
“Let’s see that tooth,” said Doc Truli.
“Grrrr,” said Henry. Then his little stump Jack Russell Tail said, “Wag, wag, wag.”
(Now Doc knew Henry was all show and no go.)
“Open up, Henry,” said the Doc as she placed her thumb into the side of the Jack’s dental arcade behind the canine tooth and before the big carnassial molar in the back. Henry’s mouth popped open. “There’s the problem! And it’s not nearly as bad as we thought,” said the Doc.
So here’s what happened:
Henry’s mom went into her garage to pull the SUV out into the driveway before loading the family for a drive. Henry took great offense at the SUV rolling out of his garage, busted between some hapless child’s legs at the kitchen to garage passage door, and shot out into the driveway to stop the SUV.
Yes, the little charger fully implemented his plan to forbid the two-ton family vehicle from pursuing a course out of the driveway! How did Henry carry out his scheme? By biting and holding the right front truck tire, of course! (Why didn’t my dog think of that? Oh! Because he weighs 10 pounds (5 g) and the car weighs 2 tons!) Henry succeeded in stopping the vehicle because the kids started screaming, “Stop, stop, stop!”
There was Henry, about 1 1/2 feet up in the air, his canine tooth stuck in the black rubber of the truck tire. So, in a sense, he did stop the SUV. The tooth disengaged and Henry slumped to the tarmac, stunned for 10 seconds, just long enough for the kids to bundle him into the SUV for his journey to the doggie ER.
“Well, considering what he attempted to do, he suffered minimal damage. His upper canine tooth is crooked, but it will heal almost in a normal position. I can;t wiggle it, so he has a chance of a normal recovery,” said Doc Truli.
Henry took his painkillers for 2 days, then he ignored all attempts to feed him the non-steroid anti-infammatory medication and went back to his sentry duties without the doctor’s permission to return to work.
Please remember, any time your dog pulls a trick like this, you must prevent it from happening again! Amazingly, dogs seem not to learn from these “mistakes.” I suspect the dogs do not consider them mistakes at all, but rather, “missions accomplished!”
Well, we finally made our dogs as needy, neurotic, and fat as the average American! 65% of American dogs are fat.
Well, we finally made our dogs as needy, neurotic, and fat as the average American! 65% of American dogs are fat. Many are obese. No one seems to either 1) know it, or 2) think it’s a big deal.
Simple.
If your dog is fat, he or she will:
2-4 years to a chihuahua or a labrador is like 20 years for us! Imagine that!
The Class IV Lasers are stronger. Class 1’s do things like guide CD players. Class 5’s make surgical incisions. The 4’s penetrate deeply enough to go clear through a German Shepherd Dog’s knee or into the hip area
“Doc, I was just stopped to aid another car that was pulled over on the side of the highway. Thank goodness I wasn’t in the car, but Maxx was in his kennel in the back,” said Maxx’s dad.
“Next thing I knew, I heard car tires screeching from about 200 yards away. Judging by the skid marks in daylight the next morning, he must’ve been going at least 100 mph. He hit the back left tire. The axle of his car stuck in my back tire and he just crushed the side of my car. Would you believe the guy tried to run?”
A healthy six-year-old German Shepherd, Maxx was in the back passenger compartment of the car at the time. He bounced around inside his vehicle as the forces of the oncoming car reverberated through the stopped car and through his German Shepherd body.
Just by looking at Maxx, you would not guess he had been through an excessive automobile trauma. Until you saw him try to get up and walk. Continue reading “German Shepherd Injured During Auto Collision”
Read the world’s first published description of a canine preputial flush procedure.
Veterinary medicine presents constant new challenges. Franklin was one of those challenges. A handsome, happy 11-year-old Boxer undergoing successful chemotherapy, he had a problem that kept flaring up about 2 days after each chemotherapy treatment. Franklin would start leaking and dripping gooey green pus from his prepuce. The prepuce is the skin pouch the penis lives in. So basically, he was dripping pus from his penis. But not exactly, because the penis was okay and his bladder was bacteria-free.
Franklin was a typical hyperactive Boxer which made holding him still for a detailed examination impossible. Doc Truli sedated the old boxer gentleman and proceeded to attempt a prepuce examination.
Normally, the prepuce can be reflected back and the penis extruded for a thorough exam. We needed to be sure Franklin did not have a metastatic tumor in there, or foreign material like a plant sticker or awn. But, because of the recurring nature of the problem, the prepuce was stuck, and would not reflect back far enough for a complete examination.
That’s when yours Truli got an idea. Continue reading “World First Report: Endoscopic Prepuce Exam in a Dog”
Candy-apple green glow diagnosis the ringworm circus. Read why triclosan antibacterial soap is bad and why weekly ringworm cultures can save you money!
A tiny, short-haired white green-eyed kitten with a grey smudge on the top of her head toddled across the examination table and butted her head into my outstretched palm. What a sweetie!
“I found her starving in the mangroves by the State Park,” said her new daddy. “We call her Sissy.”
Sissy had fleas, earmites, a huge belly full of worms, and a round reddish-sore almost bald spot on the underside of her belly. A quick turn out of the lights and turn on of an ultraviolet “UV” Wood’s lamp, and a few seconds later, there was our answer. Sissy glowed from a fungal infection. 50% of ringworm infections glow; 50% do not! Continue reading “Ringworm Circus”
VirtuaVet answers, “What actually is pus?”
“I just noticed a lump on June’s neck on the left side below her chin. Last night, it was bigger and she was sleepy and didn’t want to eat dinner. Today the bump is smaller and she looks brighter, but she can’t meow anymore,” said June the Kitten’s worried mom. “What is going on?”
A hot spot of this size and intensity can continue to spread under the fur and infect the whole body.
Cash was a two-year-old male Golden Retriever with a crusty problem.
“He kept going in and out of the pool all weekend, and no one had time to dry him off. Then we noticed him scratching and we felt a wet spot under his ear,” said Cash’s 20-year-old (human) brother.
“Well, let’s take a look,” said Doc Truli.
First, your dog is itchy.
Super-duper obsessively itchy. And it can happen fast. Within a few hours.
Second, hot spots are usually on the cheeks, under the ears, on the haunches, on the sides, on the middle or base of the tail, or maybe anywhere else!
Third, you might see a clump of fur and feel a wet spot, or a crusty spot if it is a few days old.
Fourth, the problem is waaay bigger than you think!
Save money and help diagnose your cat’s itchiness or rash by doing two things right now:
Sheila was a four-year-old spayed orange-black -and-white short-haired cat with a nasty red bumpy rash on her stomach.
Sheila also had tiny red bumps lining the edges of both her ears. She licked her belly throughout most of the night and had barbered the fur on her belly down to a fine fuzz. She hated having her ears, paws, or back touched, and was generally, difficult to comfort or show affection to.
Like most cats with her symptoms, Sheila ate well. Occasionally she would vomit just foamy liquid, or a little hair from licking too much. She liked to sit and look at birds outside the living room window and liked to rub against her people’s legs in the kitchen to meow for food.
“Doctor, this rash just showed up,” said Sheila’s mom.
“Let’s take a look,” said Doc Truli. Continue reading “Red Cat Belly Rash”
“Bumps with that much blood supply have easy and ready access to the bloodstream. They can travel if they want to. That’s not good for the body,” said Doc Truli.
Anastasia smiled up at Doc Truli and wagged her tail. After 8 years of annual check-ups, Anastasia still thought Doc Truli had nothing to do with the shots and blood draws. What a sweet, trusting, simple Basset Hound. What a doll!
A soft fatty lump lived in the middle of the basset girl’s tail. Recently, it had begun to grow larger. So large, it might circumnavigate the tail. If this happened, and the lump continued to enlarge, Anastasia might need a tail amputation just to control the locally invasive, benign tumor. Continue reading “13-Year-Old Basset Hound Bump”