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KITTIES! with the Checkout Vet · Ask The Experts

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Eight thirty nine thirteen ten WIBA and asked the experts with doctor Marty Grier of
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Checkout Veterinary Clinic in the website checkout vet dot com. I should say clinics
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plural doctor. How you doing this morning? I'm doing great. What beautiful
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weather we have? I know it's perfect, isn't it? Oh man?
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Oh man? What a great day and it's a great data. If you
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haven't had a chance to check out checkout vet, it's a good day to
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get on in. And of course they're right at twenty seven to ten Prairie
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Lake's Drive. You can of course get a call for the appointment. Six
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so eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven
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hundred. Mentioned a great day. Today's you're off day. You guys are
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open though Monday through Wednesday and then Friday through Sunday, which includes weekends nine
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to five, which is so very very cool. So the website checkout vet
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dot com a lot of great information before we get rolling. We started last
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week a little bit of a conversation about feline health, but we were talking
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just about pet medications and other things before we came on the air. You
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can get those ordered, and get those pick them up right at the clinic,
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can't you You can, And we have an online store, so you
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can order them through the online store for those refills that you need, so
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you don't have to drive in, pick up your pet food, pick up
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your prescriptions heartworm flee and tick the prescription medications your pet may be on.
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So we have an online store and that keeps all of your prescriptions under one
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roof, where you know you're getting the right refills, you know it's safe.
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And there's been an increasing concern with counterfeit drugs, drugs that are maybe
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not really the real drug, and it happens on the human side, it
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happens on the veterinary side. So we definitely want to make sure that your
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pet's getting the quality medication that they should directly from the manufacturer and not through
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some third party that might have altered it. Yeah, and you mentioned too,
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not only the convenience of all under one roof, but having access your
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vet, having access to action, because like a lot of things in life,
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folks aren't always great about following through really yeah, yeah, a little
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bit, a little bit, or you know, last time you went in
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your pet may have been a younger dog or a cat and it's gained some
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weight, and so we've got a different weight range for your medications, so
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you want to make sure that you're on the right dose, the right medication
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that and there's no incompatibilities. So it's really important that we do all those
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things. So I think that's a really important thing for you to realize this
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your veterinary and can then really oversee the whole program and make sure everything is
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safe. One thing too, we've got to mention I've noticed, with as
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beautiful as it is is, it is out the past few weeks or months
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has been wet and humid, and the mosquitoes are exploding. Heartworm important,
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isn't it? Absolutely? Heartworm? And of course there's other mosquito born diseases,
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so trying to protect your pet from mosquito bites is really important. There
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are some really nice topicals like Vectra three D. It's a prescription medication and
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it's actually safer than some of the over the counters and it does a fabulous
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job of protecting against mosquito bites. So you've got that double defense. You've
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got them on heartworm preventive to prevent the heartworm disease, and you've got the
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protection of the mosquito repellent as well. You know, one of my doctors
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has Bernie's Mountain Dog and he puts vector on the dog and when he sits
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outside in the evening with the dog, if he sits close enough to the
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dog, the mosquitoes don't bite him either because the vectra like has this bulloon
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around him and it protects him. So he'll sit out and have a drink
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and sit with the dog and he's safe. What about also this type of
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weather. Ticks love this stuff as well. And I've noticed for humans and
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I'm going to guess for pets as well. You used to think just lime
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disease, not to say that, not to minimize that that's serious, but
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other diseases, bloodborne, other diseases are now being spread as well. Did
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you I think I remember a few weeks ago you recommend you say, we're
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talking about flee and tick preventative year round. Yes, yeah, the recommendation
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is year round. Believe it or not. Ticks are moving in January.
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If we have a nice forty degree sunny day, the ticks can be out
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and so our pets are picking up ticks in every month of the year,
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and you get better protection if they're on it annually, you know, the
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entire time. If it's Provecto, it's every twelve weeks. If it's the
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others, it's month. And by keeping those blood levels high, it actually
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gives you better protection. So you don't want to stop just because it's January.
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We still see all those diseases and the heartworm preventive it's the same thing
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as we don't see mosquitos carrying heartworm disease in January in Wisconsin. But it
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also has intestino parasite control medication in it. Some just do round worms and
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hookworms, some do whipworms, some do tapeworms, so some actually control fleas.
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So those medications are multipurpose and they give you a much more complete parasite
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protection project product than it is if you just do bits and pieces of it
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here and there. A lot of people try to kind of cheap out on
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it and it doesn't pay. You end up paying in the long run because
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your petands up with some disease that we could have prevented easy. And I
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know dogs love their your pets in general love those little treats there. So
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while talking with the Veterinarian of the Year with Wisconsin Kina Club, doctor Marty
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Greer. Doctor Greer, we started last week talking about cats and all these
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things we talked about when it comes to pets and preventatives and other things,
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these are just as important vaccines for kiddies, and you had pointed out we
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kind of left off last week. A lot of folks are a little less
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persistent with their cats as with their dogs. Is just some of that just
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the way I think of you know, I've got a couple of kiddies at
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home. Their behavior, they're very independent, they're very like, they're confident.
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It's hard to tell, like our chihuahua, if anything's weird's yeah,
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that's the dramatic exactly. I mean. Is that part of why we may
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not see cats getting in as often as owners don't recognize it is partly many
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of them don't go outside. Partly it's they just seem like they're fine.
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It doesn't seem like you need to do anything. They don't go out.
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Why would I vaccinate they don't go out. Why would I give flea and
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tick medication? But my sister in law had fleas on her cat. The
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dog brought them into the house. The cat wasn't on a preventive. They
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didn't stay on the dog because the dog tasted bad, but the cat was
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unprotected, so she ended up with flees on her house cat. So you
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do want to make sure you're giving that full protection of vaccines, the flea
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and tick control. We rarely see ticks on cats, but fleas are a
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big problem. Ear Mites are a concern. Cats are resistant to some of
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the diseases that we protect dogs from, but like rabies. You know,
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people don't think about giving a Rabi's vaccination to their cat. But my sister
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lived in the Twin Cities number of years. Well she still does, but
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a number of years ago she lived in an apartment down by Lake of the
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Aisles, and you know, she had a third floor apartment and it seemed
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like everything was great. And she called one night at eleven o'clock hysterical because
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a bat had gotten into her apartment and the cats were playing with it in
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the bathroom, and so she called in hysteria because she's very smart but not
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very good with common sense, and we had to explain to her how to
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catch the bat and you know, protect herself and protect the cats and all
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those things. And I said to her, so, what are you wearing
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And she's like pajamas. I'm like, okay, you need to put on
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shoes. She's like shoes. I said, yeah, put on shoes because
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if you have to put your foot on the bat, I want your foot
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protected. And then I said, you need gloves and she said, I
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don't have any gloves. And I said, and you live in with in
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that Minnesota you have gloves, oh, gloves. Yeah. So you know,
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those are things that you don't always think through. So your cat can
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be exposed to rabies without ever leaving the house, so it's important that they're
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vaccinated. If you end up with an exposure, the state of Wisconsin will
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tell you what your next steps will be. You don't get to pick.
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The state of Wisconsin decides those things. So you want to make sure that
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your pets are protected against all those things because rabies is a very serious disease.
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We're talking with things. Raby shots are mandatory for cats in the city
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of Madison in Madison, but not in all communities, so in general,
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across the state, they are not required but yes, Madison does have that
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requirement. It's interesting too with the communities with requirements down in my town,
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I had inquired about pet registration cats and dogs. Strangely, in a town
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of seven thousand people, we've got two registered cats. Yeah, they're both
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mine, no one else. Listen, there's more cats in your community than
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two. So with bat bites, for example, these are I think sometimes
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because of movies and we see, like you know, bats are very tricky
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critters because their puncture wounds are not apparent, So you want to be really
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on top of the preventative, right. I mean, we all know the
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Gena Geezy story, the little girl from Fondilac. She was actually a high
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school classmate of my kids, so I know Gina personally, and she is
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the only person that has survived rabies with that protocol. She had a very
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astute physician in Fondilact that picked that up immediately. But you know, she
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picked up a bat in church one day and took it outside because she wanted
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the bat to be safe, and in the process was exposed to rabies.
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And no one had put two and two together until she became ill. So
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she's a very fortunate young lady that she's still with us. That's a miracle
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and an amazing story too, folks. And as you mentioned doctor, of
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course, talking with doctor Marty Greer, things like, of course rabies are
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very very serious and taken very very seriously, and of course there are steps
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you can take and prevent it and ways to protect your pet and protect your
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family and everybody. As well. As we talked with doctor Marty Gribbs,
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we'll talk a little bit more about cat health and get some more details on
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somethings for cat owners, things to be looking out for, and of course
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some of the common ailments and illnesses that Kat's experience. I haven't been to
9:05
the website yet. Checkout vet dot com. Definitely check out the vet website
9:11
because there's a lot of great information there about what makes checkout Veterinary so unique.
9:15
Transparent pricing mentioned of course, open on weekends. Also your first your
9:20
first visit is free. The office visit will not cost you a thing.
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Of course, obviously with meds or other testing, those type of things there
9:26
are again going back to the transparence pricing, you'll know exactly what they're going
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to cost you. But again, it's a great day to check out check
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out vet the website checkout vet dot com. That's check out vet dot com.
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We'll get into our conversation with doctor Breer. Will do that next as
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ask the experts with Checkout Veterinary continues right here thirteen to ten. Wib E.
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I don't think she never tells me that. That's the experts talking this
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morning with doctor Marty Greer of check Out Veterinaria. The website checkout vet dot
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com. That's checkout vet dot com. Tellphy number six. So eight three
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one eight sixty seven hundred, that's three one eight sixty seven hundred. Before
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we get back to some some cat talk real quick. You were mentioning during
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the break some changes. The CDC is making some changes for international travel for
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your pets. Exact something to know about exactly. So dogs coming into the
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United States need to have a certain amount of paperwork. They need to have
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a rabies vaccination done by an accredited veterinarian, not just a licensed veterinaryan.
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So that needs to be checked if you're traveling with your dog outside the US
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and coming back in. So you can leave the country, but you can't
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get back. So if you have a dog that you're traveling with if you're
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going to Canada, that's where most people in Wisconsin are going to take a
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dog. They're not typically going to fly outside the country with a dog,
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but driving into Canada, if you want to come back, you have to
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have that RABY certificate. And then there's a form that the Center for Disease
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Control just put up on July fifteenth. It's brand new, so if you
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google it you'll find it. And the regulations are changing fairly quickly because this
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has all happened fast. That your dog has to have this receipt that you
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fill out the form and they send the receipt to your device, your phone
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or your iPad or whatever, and then you have to show that at the
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border, and if you don't do that, you can't come back in.
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And all dogs coming into the US need to be at least six months old,
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so there are a few people that import dogs. But more importantly here
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in Wisconsin, if you're traveling with your dog, you need to make sure
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that coming back into the country, you're prepared for that or you will not
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be coming back in without seeing a veterinarian in Canada. And this is all
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brand new, it's just started. The CDC has done this specifically because of
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rabies. There have been too many rescue dogs coming into the country with counterfeit
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papers or no papers at all. They've been shipping them out of high risk
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countries into Canada and Mexico and then driving them across the border. And the
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Center for Disease Control, in an effort to support human health and protect us
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from rabies from our dogs, has enacted this very quickly. So it's not
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something a lot of people were prepared for, and you may not be made
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aware of it until you get to the border and can't get back into the
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US. So I want people to know. It reinforces to the importance of
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having that relationship with your vet. Is I know, obviously the pets you
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see in the families you see, you know a lot about them to know
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this is somebody that we definitely want to want to alert to that. And
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it's interesting when you bring that up too. I'd seen the story and some
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one of the websites on USA today or one of those, and I hadn't
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even thought about Canada because when I think of like crossing borders, you know,
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especially here in northern you know, Wisconsin, in the North. We
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always just think that Canada's right now, it's gold there, doesn't seem like
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a border. Butterpazey, Yeah, it's like going over to Minnesota exactly.
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Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary. The website checkout vet
12:39
dot com. That's check out vet dot com and great website to learn more
12:43
about checkout Veterinary. What makes it so unique? And of course you can
12:48
learn all about pricing and other things on that website. Checkout vet dot com.
12:52
Telh number six away three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's three one
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eight sixty seven hundred. But again, the eistherest way to make contact is
12:56
through checkout vet dot com Andctor. We're talking about some cat issues cats,
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and I know mine are not unique to this. Every cat I've of our
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own they have very finicky bellies, like when it comes to their tummies,
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like what they consume, what they return. Yeah, that's a nice way
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to put Yeah, how do you know what's normal and what's abnormal there?
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Well, unfortunately for a lot of cats, they may vomit up to once
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a week. It's just like it's just a thing. And of course it's
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always either on your pillow in the middle of the night when you hear that
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noise and you flail around trying to push the cat off the bed quickly,
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or it's next to the bed so that when you get up in the dark,
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you step right yes on it. It's lovely. So hairballs are a
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big concern. Sometimes it's a food sensitivity, so there's a lot of things
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that you really need to pay attention to. There's some really great pet foods
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on the market that you can get even without a prescription that are hair ball
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control that are for sensitive skin and stomach. So you just need to shop
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very carefully for the pet food that you're getting, and it may not be
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the least expensive, but it may save you a lot of grief in the
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long run to buy the food that's most appropriate. Hairball is a big deal
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in many cats, especially the long haired cats. The more you comb them
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and combing rather than brushing, the more you comb them, you can get
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that hair out and prevent some of that. But there's some really great pet
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foods out there, and if you're just really careful with talking to your veterinary
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professional, your vet tex, your veterinarians, they can give you some guidance
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on what pet food might be most appropriate to try and cut down on that.
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But those are very common, and of course diarrhea is always unfortunate and
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pleasant. So again, those are the diets that we can use to help
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control those things. So carefully shopping for the pet food and then once you
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find one that the cat likes and it agrees with them, stick to it.
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Yeah, don't just buy the new one that's on sale. You had
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mentioned the other week about some products. I think this was specifically for dogs.
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About you can actually do DNA testing and kind of the very anything like
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that for kiddies not as much. The companies that do a lot of the
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DNA testing are just now starting to tiptoe into cats, mostly because the dogs,
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we do a lot of breeding with them, and so we want to
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make sure that we're DNA testing the dogs for health, for genetic traits,
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for health. Now, there are some cat projects that are going on.
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There's a few that are starting to pop up, but the frequency of testing
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for cats is much less than for dogs. What about as far as you
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mentioned, you know, the quality of food and finding the right food overall
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cat diets. You know, I've had very large cats that it's a nice
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way of saying chunky, and others that are very very very slim, and
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oftentimes sometimes they were litter mates even and they just ends up that way.
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How do you control that? Are there are there things to kind of do
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to kind of keep your cats as healthy as possible. That's a really good
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question, because it is hard if you have a cat that just goes to
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the food dish and dominates it and just mows through the food, and the
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other cat doesn't get as much. So there's a couple of things you can
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do. One of my favorites is a product made by Doc and Phoebe's.
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It's a little mouse that's basically a food container that shaped like a mouse,
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and it measures you measure out how much food you put in it. And
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then you take these little feeding devices and you hide them around the house.
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So you put them in your shoe, you put them in the closet,
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you put him under the sink in the kitchen, you put them in all
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these places. So instead of the cat just getting up and going to the
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same bowl and back and then sleeping on the couch when their main activity is
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moving as the sun moves across the couch, they actually have to go hunt
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for their food. So it reduces some of the stress that cats have and
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it increases their activity level without because it's hard to exercise a cat. You
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can't take them jogging with you. It doesn't really Yeah, learning with doctor
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Marty Greer of checkout vet website checkout checkout Veterinary the website checkout vet dot com.
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That's checkout vet dot com. Urinary issues are big with cats too,
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and those are things that can be very scary for pet owners. What are
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some of the signs that your cat may have a urinary issue and what are
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some of some of the solutions, and how are you helping folks? Doctor
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sure and that frequent trips to the litter box that's going to be your best
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indication or urinating inappropriately. So frequently it's the bath too, the laundry basket,
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the clothes that you threw on the floor. Anytime you find a cat
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that's urinary habits have changed, either frequency or volume, you need to go
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in for veterinary care. It's very common to see that up to about two
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percent of cats end up with urinary track problems and they're usually not bacterial.
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They're usually more nutritional in a basis, and the male cats have a bigger
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problem than the females because if they do end up with crystals or grit in
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their urine, that can cause them to have an obstruction, be unable to
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urinate, and then you have a multiple thousand dollars experience at the veterinary clinic.
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So if you see any symptoms at all, if the cat's sending you
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smoke signals from the litter box saying hey, this isn't right, you need
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to go in as soon as you can to get the cat on an appropriate
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diet. And yes it is a prescription diet, and yes you will feed
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that for the rest of the cat's life because fifty to eighty percent will have
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a recurrence if you don't. And it's most common, believe it or not,
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be seen between December and March because that's when the days are shorter,
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the cats move less. If they move less, they go to the litter
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litter box less often, and so crystals form in their bladder and they developed
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these obstructions. So, especially in the winter time, we need to be
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watching our cats fascinating. Speaking of other areas, respiratory issues also seem to
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be I've never and obviously you've probably seen plenty of it. I've never known
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a dog with a respiratory issue, but I've done cats that have had that
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have had to go see the vat what are some of the common ones,
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And again, much like with urinary issues, what are some of the treatments
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and some of the more common things there. Sure, and we do see
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respiratory disease and dogs, but the ones and cats tend to be pretty significant,
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and one of them is a herpes virus. There's a rhino, there's
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a calisi, there's a herpes virus, and once again that herpes virus.
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It's just like herpies and people. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
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You never really get rid of it. It goes dormant for a while,
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and then with stress, it'll flare back up. A new cat comes in
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the house brings it in. So those are all things you really need to
18:45
pay attention to. And again, because it's viral, it tends not to
18:48
respond well to antibiotics, so vaccines are super important. If you're bringing a
18:52
new cat into the house, make sure that your established cat is all set
18:56
with their vaccines, and make sure that that new cat before they come into
18:59
the house is leukemia and FIV tested, because you don't want to bring a
19:03
cat into the household that will upset the balance of your current existing cats and
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bring in a virus or viruses that can make them really sick, really important
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stuff. You've missed any part of the program, don't forget List back the
19:11
podcast WIBA dot com. Speaking of the website, checkout vet dot com learn
19:17
more about checkout Veterinary again the website. Checkout vet dot com. Doctor Greer,
19:21
it's always great singing you enjoy this beautiful day. Thank you. Dan
19:23
o'donald has your chance to win one thousand dollars next right here at thirteen ten wi BA