Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Vet Josh Davis Q&A from September 23rd, 2026
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Dr.
- 0:01Speaker 2: Josh Davis is here. He is a veterinarian, and he
- 0:05Speaker 2: is the founder and chief veterinarian at Trilogy Veterinary Clinic
- 0:10Speaker 2: in Sandy, and he's here to answer questions about your
- 0:13Speaker 2: puppies and kitties. Free advice about something that may be
- 0:18Speaker 2: illing with your pets. You can also text questions, but
- 0:22Speaker 2: calls are better because we need to maybe do ask
- 0:25Speaker 2: sort of follow-up questions. Good morning, Dr.
- 0:28Speaker 3: Davis.
- 0:29Speaker 4: How are you?
- 0:29Speaker 5: Good morning.
- 0:30Speaker 6: Doing great.
- 0:30Speaker 2: How are you guys doing?
- 0:30Speaker 3: Good, good.
- 0:31Speaker 6: I have a question.
- 0:32Speaker 5: Ooh, bring it on.
- 0:34Speaker 7: So my older dog, Riley, and that's the question about
- 0:37Speaker 7: her getting older, I'm wondering about things to make her
- 0:42Speaker 7: aging a little easier for her.
- 0:44Speaker 6: Like I worry about.
- 0:45Speaker 2: Her- Advil.
- 0:47Speaker 6: Well, that's, I'm worried about like her- her joints.
- 0:51Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 0:51Speaker 6: And I was concerned about Hudson as well.
- 0:54Speaker 8: Oh, okay.
- 0:55Speaker 6: So could you talk about joint support for older dogs,
- 0:58Speaker 6: what we.
- 0:58Speaker 5: Can do to help them?
- 1:00Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
- 1:01Speaker 9: And no matter the breed or size, there's always, you know,
- 1:05Speaker 9: if they live long enough, they're probably going to get
- 1:07Speaker 9: some arthritis and some joint disease. And What we often
- 1:11Speaker 9: see that is they're, quote, slowing down a lot of times,
- 1:15Speaker 9: but it's often because they're in pain and their pain's
- 1:18Speaker 9: not managed that way.
- 1:18Speaker 6: I'm worried about stairs and stuff for her, that she's.
- 1:21Speaker 2: Hurting going up the stairs. Move to a patio home.
- 1:25Speaker 5: Yeah, get those chairs that wheel them up the stairs.
- 1:28Speaker 9: But most important things, there's kind of a group of
- 1:31Speaker 9: things you want to think about. So number one is
- 1:34Speaker 9: weight management. If they're overweight, they definitely suffer more from
- 1:39Speaker 9: that when they get arthritis. Now they have to carry
- 1:41Speaker 9: all that extra weight on top of sore joints. So
- 1:44Speaker 9: staying at an ideal body weight is always really important.
- 1:46Speaker 9: And throughout their whole life, that's important, but especially when
- 1:48Speaker 9: they get old. And then when it comes time for it,
- 1:52Speaker 9: proper use of anti-inflammatories, just like for us, I think
- 1:55Speaker 9: that's important too. And some dogs will get to the
- 1:57Speaker 9: point where daily is a good thing to do for them.
- 2:01Speaker 2: How about diclofenac? Um, and said that you rub on.
- 2:06Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 2:06Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 2:06Speaker 5: We use that a lot and like eye drops and
- 2:08Speaker 5: things like that.
- 2:09Speaker 9: But, um, there are other safe options for dogs, um,
- 2:13Speaker 9: especially oral options and there's injectable options and then joint
- 2:17Speaker 9: supplements or, um, some dogs will benefit greatly from that too.
- 2:20Speaker 5: So.
- 2:21Speaker 9: There's oral daily versions of that. There's injectable versions of that.
- 2:25Speaker 9: So I think the best thing is to kind of
- 2:27Speaker 9: have a plan together with your vet because we can
- 2:31Speaker 9: help you monitor along the way because sometimes they need
- 2:33Speaker 9: blood work checked and sometimes we have to take x-rays
- 2:36Speaker 9: and look at how their joints are looking and all
- 2:38Speaker 9: of that.
- 2:38Speaker 7: I don't want her to be uncomfortable if I can
- 2:42Speaker 7: help it.
- 2:43Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely.
- 2:44Speaker 9: It'll change their whole outlook, their whole behavior when they're
- 2:47Speaker 9: in pain.
- 2:48Speaker 2: And we got some phone calls here. Shaughnessy is here. Hey, Shaughnessy,
- 2:52Speaker 2: what's your question? Shaughnessy?
- 2:56Speaker 8: Hello, can you hear me? Yes.
- 2:58Speaker 5: Go ahead.
- 2:58Speaker 2: We can hear you now. Oh, there we go.
- 3:01Speaker 8: So my cat has been sneezing and kind of snotty
- 3:05Speaker 8: for the last couple of days.
- 3:06Speaker 2: What's your cat's name?
- 3:08Speaker 8: No, her name's Clover.
- 3:10Speaker 2: Okay.
- 3:12Speaker 8: So she just turned a year old in August.
- 3:14Speaker 4: She.
- 3:15Speaker 8: Hasn't ever had any issues before. We didn't change her food.
- 3:18Speaker 8: Nothing's changed with the environment. But recently, I think it
- 3:22Speaker 8: was since last Saturday, she's just been really sneezy and
- 3:25Speaker 8: kind of snotty and her nose is really runny. We
- 3:29Speaker 8: got her an appointment, but I was just wondering what
- 3:31Speaker 8: you think.
- 3:32Speaker 9: Yeah, for especially a young, healthy cat, if you haven't
- 3:36Speaker 9: changed anything in the environment, especially introducing a new cat
- 3:39Speaker 9: or something stressful, because sometimes that can cause flare-ups of
- 3:44Speaker 9: viral diseases.
- 3:45Speaker 5: That kind of hang out in the background for some cats.
- 3:48Speaker 9: And so if none of that seems to be on
- 3:50Speaker 9: the menu, then also I definitely have had an uptick
- 3:54Speaker 9: in patients just this time of year with the seasonal
- 3:57Speaker 9: transition and seasonal change that we're seeing. Sometimes there can
- 4:00Speaker 9: be an allergy component to that, just some irritation in
- 4:03Speaker 9: the environment. And not really anything you always have to
- 4:06Speaker 9: do about it unless they start to get, um, where
- 4:10Speaker 9: they've lose some energy, lose some appetite, or if that
- 4:14Speaker 9: snotty nose gets really thick and gunky, or if their
- 4:17Speaker 9: eyes start to get really crusty or irritated, then I
- 4:19Speaker 9: worry more about that. But, um, hopefully it's something straightforward
- 4:23Speaker 9: and most of the time it is, and either no
- 4:26Speaker 9: therapy or just some simple therapies.
- 4:29Speaker 5: Sometimes we'll get them through that.
- 4:30Speaker 9: So, But with a young cat, you just, you know,
- 4:33Speaker 9: you pay attention now because maybe next fall, if the
- 4:35Speaker 9: same thing happens, we start to make those patterns out
- 4:38Speaker 9: of that, too.
- 4:39Speaker 2: All right.
- 4:40Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 4:40Speaker 2: All right. Thank you for calling. Thank you. All right.
- 4:44Speaker 2: Talk to Dr. Josh. Bob is here. Hello, Bob. Hey, Bob.
- 4:47Speaker 2: What's your question?
- 4:50Speaker 10: Yeah, hey, we've got a wiener dog, and he's a
- 4:53Speaker 10: little bit older. He's got some lumps kind of on
- 4:56Speaker 10: his body. We call him the lumpy wiener.
- 5:00Speaker 2: Wait a minute. Now, wait a minute. What's his real name?
- 5:04Speaker 10: His real name is Chuck.
- 5:06Speaker 4: Chuck?
- 5:06Speaker 2: Chuck the lumpy wiener. I think you ought to just
- 5:10Speaker 2: be kind and start calling him Chuck.
- 5:15Speaker 10: Chuck's not as funny as the lumpy wiener, though.
- 5:17Speaker 2: Well, that's true. It is true.
- 5:19Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.
- 5:20Speaker 2: So just lumps here and there? Where about?
- 5:24Speaker 10: Yeah, he's got some on his shoulder area. He's got
- 5:27Speaker 10: them kind of on his haunches and just, you know,
- 5:30Speaker 10: all over. I mean, there's not a ton of them.
- 5:31Speaker 10: They're just kind of here and there.
- 5:36Speaker 9: Yeah, for older and aging dogs, especially babies. growths and
- 5:41Speaker 9: lumps and bumps do become more and more common. And
- 5:44Speaker 9: especially I do find, yeah, the weenie dogs, they, they
- 5:47Speaker 9: like to get often, um, what are called lipomas or
- 5:50Speaker 9: fatty tumors. And if for any pet in general, as
- 5:54Speaker 9: they get older, if they're overweight, they do, we do
- 5:56Speaker 9: tend to see a lot more lipomas developing for, for
- 5:59Speaker 9: those types of dogs. So, um, the best thing to
- 6:02Speaker 9: do is if they are growing or growing fast, It's
- 6:06Speaker 9: definitely worth getting them looked at. And we do what
- 6:10Speaker 9: are called needle biopsies where we take some small samples
- 6:13Speaker 9: of cells and send them off to the lab and
- 6:16Speaker 9: just make sure it's not something that we should be
- 6:18Speaker 9: concerned about. And then I usually don't remove them unless
- 6:21Speaker 9: they start to cause trouble where they're irritating or they're
- 6:24Speaker 9: in an area that makes it hard to walk or
- 6:27Speaker 9: lay down or things like that.
- 6:28Speaker 2: Okay. There you go. Awesome.
- 6:31Speaker 10: All right.
- 6:32Speaker 1: Thanks, Doc.
- 6:33Speaker 2: Thank you very much. The lumpy wiener. The lumpy wiener.
- 6:36Speaker 2: Let's see.
- 6:37Speaker 11: I'm going to be moving soon. What is the best
- 6:39Speaker 11: way to make the move easier for my two cats?
- 6:42Speaker 5: That's a good question.
- 6:43Speaker 9: Yeah, cats are always an adventure, how well they want
- 6:47Speaker 9: to travel. So if they are healthy cats, I'm always
- 6:51Speaker 9: a big fan of a little bit of medication to
- 6:53Speaker 9: help that go easier. So gabapentin is most commonly what
- 6:57Speaker 9: we'll use for them. And it just helps with being
- 7:00Speaker 9: kenneled and car rides and just... Also, that transition when
- 7:04Speaker 9: you get to the new home because that kind.
- 7:07Speaker 5: Of freaks them out sometimes.
- 7:08Speaker 6: Yeah, you understand what's happening.
- 7:10Speaker 5: They have no idea what's happening. Yeah, they have no idea.
- 7:11Speaker 9: So a little bit of help and also just trying
- 7:14Speaker 9: to make the move as fast as possible, get them
- 7:17Speaker 9: set up and that routine as fast as possible.
- 7:20Speaker 2: They do understand what's happening. They understand that you're trying
- 7:22Speaker 2: to kill them.
- 7:24Speaker 6: Like, why can't we go home?
- 7:25Speaker 5: This isn't home.
- 7:27Speaker 11: What we always did whenever we moved home, With the
- 7:31Speaker 11: dog was we took our clothes that we had worn
- 7:34Speaker 11: and left them spread.
- 7:36Speaker 6: Out on the carpet. Oh, to try to get the smell.
- 7:38Speaker 11: And then the smell, you know, it's like it still
- 7:40Speaker 11: smells like us, so it must be okay.
- 7:44Speaker 9: And you've got your cat beds and your litter boxes
- 7:46Speaker 9: and all that's still kind of homey.
- 7:48Speaker 5: So, yeah, stuff like that I think definitely helps.
- 7:51Speaker 2: So if you're traveling cross-country in a car, put the
- 7:53Speaker 2: litter box in the back seat.
- 7:55Speaker 11: Wow.
- 7:55Speaker 2: Yeah. All right, we're back with Dr. Josh Davis from
- 7:59Speaker 2: Trilogy Veterinary Clinic in Sandy. You can call and ask
- 8:04Speaker 2: questions about your little house pets, your little cats and dogs. Please,
- 8:10Speaker 2: if you do call or text us, we'd like to
- 8:12Speaker 2: know the name of your animal and what breed it is.
- 8:16Speaker 2: Let's go to line one.
- 8:18Speaker 5: So is here.
- 8:19Speaker 8: Hello.
- 8:20Speaker 2: So, good morning.
- 8:21Speaker 10: Good morning.
- 8:23Speaker 2: Hi. Good, you have a cat? What's your cat's name?
- 8:27Speaker 3: Yes, I have a couple of them. My cat that
- 8:31Speaker 3: I'm calling about is Miss Puss. She's 20. And, yeah,
- 8:37Speaker 3: that's what I was calling about because I was just
- 8:40Speaker 3: curious about her life stage right now. And when they
- 8:47Speaker 3: get so old, I'm just wondering how to tell what
- 8:50Speaker 3: is really like an end of life story. kind of
- 8:53Speaker 3: behaviors and what's just an old lady yeah.
- 8:57Speaker 1: Does that make sense yeah absolutely kind of lethargic and
- 9:00Speaker 1: and she's slow and i know she's got a little
- 9:03Speaker 1: bit of arthritis and she doesn't really let me trim
- 9:06Speaker 1: her nails anymore so that might be getting uncomfortable okay
- 9:09Speaker 1: try but she's.
- 9:10Speaker 3: Really kind of mean about it.
- 9:12Speaker 5: Yeah what do you i noticed yeah go ahead.
- 9:15Speaker 3: Well, I noticed she had some blood in her urine
- 9:19Speaker 3: earlier in the year, and I took her into the vet.
- 9:21Speaker 3: And I got her some vitamins, but the vet kind
- 9:25Speaker 3: of just told me, you know, we're not trying to
- 9:28Speaker 3: get this plane to take off the runway. We're just
- 9:30Speaker 3: kind of slow the crash.
- 9:31Speaker 4: Okay.
- 9:32Speaker 3: So that's why I'm just wondering if it's how– I
- 9:34Speaker 3: don't want her to stay uncomfortable. I've never had to
- 9:37Speaker 3: put a pet down, so that's what my– I just
- 9:41Speaker 3: don't know.
- 9:42Speaker 5: All right.
- 9:42Speaker 1: Let Dr.
- 9:43Speaker 2: Davis– I think you've covered it pretty well, Dr. Davis.
- 9:47Speaker 9: Yeah, that's a common scenario, and I feel you. I've
- 9:51Speaker 9: got two cats, 18, going on 19 as well.
- 9:53Speaker 7: Oh, really?
- 9:54Speaker 9: Yeah, things will, just like for us, it starts to
- 9:57Speaker 9: catch up with you, and I think for your kids,
- 10:00Speaker 9: it sounds like we need to differentiate, you know, are
- 10:02Speaker 9: we just in pain and arthritic and having a hard
- 10:05Speaker 9: time or are there other things that are in the
- 10:08Speaker 9: background causing trouble? Because, cats at that age, kidney disease,
- 10:13Speaker 9: thyroid disease, there's lots of diseases that can be a
- 10:16Speaker 9: factor and they're often manageable and pain and arthritis is manageable.
- 10:21Speaker 9: So I do think that it's worth, and I would be,
- 10:25Speaker 9: you know, I'm always happy to do it, but I
- 10:26Speaker 9: think it's worth getting looked at and making sure that
- 10:30Speaker 9: we're making the right decisions because quality of life is
- 10:33Speaker 9: very important. And if there's things that can be managed
- 10:36Speaker 9: where they can still be in pretty good shape, I
- 10:38Speaker 9: think it's worth talking about. And We can also talk
- 10:41Speaker 9: about what are the things where it's like, you know what,
- 10:43Speaker 9: we're kind of not, you know, we're not in a
- 10:45Speaker 9: good spot and we need to start thinking about that. So,
- 10:48Speaker 9: you know, making that decision and trying some things if
- 10:51Speaker 9: we can. And you'll be surprised sometimes how they can
- 10:55Speaker 9: do and how they can feel.
- 10:56Speaker 2: They can bounce back. All right. Is that good?
- 10:59Speaker 8: That help?
- 11:00Speaker 2: Okay.
- 11:01Speaker 4: Yes.
- 11:01Speaker 2: All right. Thank you. See you later. Let's go to Cody. Hi, Cody. Hi.
- 11:08Speaker 2: What's your dog's name?
- 11:11Speaker 4: Her name is Charlene, and she's L-E-A-N.
- 11:16Speaker 2: She has three legs. Oh, Charlene.
- 11:20Speaker 4: I like it.
- 11:23Speaker 2: My brother had a dog, a three-legged dog. He named
- 11:25Speaker 2: it Skip. Anyway, go ahead.
- 11:32Speaker 4: She has this rash on her chin, and it looks
- 11:35Speaker 4: like the follicle almost is inflamed so much that like
- 11:41Speaker 4: a whole patch has become inflamed and raised. And I've
- 11:45Speaker 4: been putting this, I wish I had it in front
- 11:48Speaker 4: of me, but it was something with an X and
- 11:50Speaker 4: a Y and S3. And it's this mousse that I
- 11:54Speaker 4: put on it. And it worked for the first, like
- 11:56Speaker 4: I put it on for 10 days and it went away.
- 11:59Speaker 8: And then it came back, but.
- 12:00Speaker 4: It came back so much worse. And now I'm not
- 12:03Speaker 4: sure if it's like, yeah.
- 12:07Speaker 3: I wish I knew.
- 12:08Speaker 2: I think you laid it out. Go ahead. Yeah.
- 12:11Speaker 9: No, I think that I know what you're talking about.
- 12:13Speaker 9: It's called Duxo mousse. We use it a lot for
- 12:16Speaker 9: superficial skin things, and it's very effective for.
- 12:20Speaker 5: Those superficial things.
- 12:21Speaker 9: If you get deeper in the follicles, you can get
- 12:25Speaker 9: folliculitis or cellulitis. And for some patients, we have to
- 12:30Speaker 9: sometimes go to antibiotics to get that kicked out and
- 12:33Speaker 9: then go to that superficial maintenance like you're talking about there.
- 12:38Speaker 9: and perpetuating things often is things like water. So if
- 12:43Speaker 9: they're really drooly or slobbery dogs, that could be a factor.
- 12:47Speaker 9: Sometimes even contact things. So always trying to feed out
- 12:51Speaker 9: of stainless or ceramic. Don't use plastic if you can
- 12:54Speaker 9: help it. And then dogs who like to, if you
- 12:57Speaker 9: have dog doors, that can be a factor. And then
- 13:00Speaker 9: dogs who like to dig or root around in the dirt,
- 13:02Speaker 9: that also doesn't help. So But, yeah, if it's deeper,
- 13:05Speaker 9: you may need a course of antibiotics just to get
- 13:07Speaker 9: it out and then maintenance after that.
- 13:09Speaker 2: All right.
- 13:11Speaker 6: Okay.
- 13:12Speaker 8: There you go.
- 13:12Speaker 4: So it would be for maintenance?
- 13:14Speaker 9: Yeah, very good for superficial things. But, yeah, if it's deeper,
- 13:17Speaker 9: it may not get what you want out of it.
- 13:19Speaker 9: But it does help, as you saw.
- 13:21Speaker 2: All right.
- 13:22Speaker 4: Okay.
- 13:23Speaker 8: All right.
- 13:23Speaker 6: Thank you.
- 13:24Speaker 2: Thank you, Cody. All right. Let's see.
- 13:27Speaker 11: My puppy Hazel itches all the time. She's recently on
- 13:31Speaker 11: an allergy pill, but it doesn't seem to be helping much.
- 13:34Speaker 11: We also give them salmon oil and probiotic bites. What
- 13:38Speaker 11: else can we do?
- 13:40Speaker 9: Yeah, for especially young dogs showing allergies, and it sounds
- 13:44Speaker 9: like we're dealing with some.
- 13:45Speaker 5: Allergies early on.
- 13:46Speaker 9: So the factors can be environmental or food. So probably
- 13:51Speaker 9: looking at food and maybe something hypoallergenic and then Um,
- 13:55Speaker 9: some dogs and, and even cats, sometimes one therapy. So
- 13:59Speaker 9: if the allergy pill, you know, I don't know what
- 14:01Speaker 9: it is, but if it doesn't do it by itself,
- 14:03Speaker 9: then often topical things like the shampoos and mousses, um, with,
- 14:07Speaker 9: with tough skin.
- 14:08Speaker 5: There's never one thing that fixes everything. It's, it's very
- 14:11Speaker 5: rare that that happens.
- 14:12Speaker 9: And And it'll be for life, so you have to
- 14:15Speaker 9: stay on top of it once we find that combination
- 14:17Speaker 9: that works.
- 14:18Speaker 11: Our dog Ripley had dry skin, and we switched up
- 14:22Speaker 11: to an oatmeal shampoo, which helped.
- 14:26Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 14:27Speaker 9: Sometimes it's simple, but it's not always simple. Skin never
- 14:31Speaker 9: wants to be simple.
- 14:32Speaker 2: I use, gee, your hair smells terrific on my cat.
- 14:37Speaker 2: Body on tap. Yeah, there's another one. Don't drink it.
- 14:40Speaker 2: Don't drink it. Any tips for feeding two cats?
- 14:44Speaker 11: One is a casual grazer. The other is a hungry
- 14:47Speaker 11: hippo and likes to eat the other's food. They have
- 14:50Speaker 11: set feeding times, but the hippo still gets more than
- 14:53Speaker 11: his share.
- 14:55Speaker 5: Yeah, I have a cat just like that too.
- 14:58Speaker 9: And so we do the scheduled feedings and we physically
- 15:03Speaker 9: separate them.
- 15:04Speaker 5: So one gets locked in one room, one gets locked in.
- 15:06Speaker 2: The other room.
- 15:07Speaker 5: And when the food You know, when you.
- 15:09Speaker 9: Give that set time, 10 minutes or whatever you want
- 15:12Speaker 9: to do, the food just gets taken away. And most cats,
- 15:17Speaker 9: they're smart enough to figure out, like, oh, man, I
- 15:19Speaker 9: better go for it. Because grazing is a habit, but
- 15:22Speaker 9: you can change the habit over time for sure.
- 15:24Speaker 11: Just separate them.
- 15:26Speaker 4: Yep.
- 15:27Speaker 2: Sorry we don't have any more time. I know somebody's
- 15:30Speaker 2: trying to get in on the phone, but... He'll be back.
- 15:33Speaker 6: Dr.
- 15:33Speaker 2: Davis always comes back.
- 15:34Speaker 6: A couple of weeks. You could make an appointment and
- 15:37Speaker 6: go see him.
- 15:37Speaker 5: That'd be the easy way, too.
- 15:38Speaker 2: TrilogyVetSandy.com. All right. Thanks for being here. Thank you very much, guys.
- 15:43Speaker 1: See you.