Latest / Ask The Experts / How Does Your Pet Perceive the World Around Us with Dr. Greer or Checkout Veterinary
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Eight thirty six thirteen ten WIBA. The doctor is in
- 0:05Speaker 1: doctor Marty Greer, recognized as Veteran Veterinarian of the Year
- 0:10Speaker 1: by the way Westminster Kennel Club. Of course, doctor Greer
- 0:13Speaker 1: comes to us from Checkout Veterinary online. Check out vet
- 0:18Speaker 1: dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Great website and
- 0:21Speaker 1: resource to learn more about. Checkout Veterinary. Also while you're there,
- 0:26Speaker 1: I noticed this doctor redesigned. We got to get doctor's
- 0:30Speaker 1: gotta get her headphones, headphones on here and we'll get
- 0:34Speaker 1: doctor Greer on in just a moment and wave to
- 0:37Speaker 1: her to let her know to that. Gets some headphones
- 0:40Speaker 1: on and get going with the with the show. And
- 0:41Speaker 1: as we look at the website check out vet dot com,
- 0:44Speaker 1: doctor Greer, did I am I seeing this right? Am
- 0:47Speaker 1: I seeing redesigned updated website?
- 0:51Speaker 2: Yeah, finally it's beautiful. Thank you.
- 0:54Speaker 1: I love how And we're actually going to talk about
- 0:56Speaker 1: some of the things that resources pet owners should have.
- 0:59Speaker 1: It looks like really convenient ways to contact and schedule appointments.
- 1:04Speaker 3: It's a.
- 1:06Speaker 1: It's a new age for veterinary care in a number
- 1:10Speaker 1: of ways, isn't it.
- 1:11Speaker 2: It is? And we've been working on this website since
- 1:13Speaker 2: December of last year. It took eleven months to get here,
- 1:17Speaker 2: so I hope you like it. We did something completely
- 1:20Speaker 2: novel with it so that it was animated and a
- 1:22Speaker 2: little bit easier for people to understand the process. I
- 1:26Speaker 2: worked hand in hand with our web designer. They did
- 1:28Speaker 2: a fabulous job.
- 1:29Speaker 1: It looks beautiful and I mentioned it's a fantastic resource
- 1:33Speaker 1: for you, and again check it out online the website
- 1:36Speaker 1: checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. It's
- 1:39Speaker 1: a great day to start that relationship with a vet.
- 1:42Speaker 1: And of course the cool thing too, check out Veterinary.
- 1:44Speaker 1: The concept itself is great. Drive up base, drive through base,
- 1:47Speaker 1: You drive your vehicle with your pet right into the clinic.
- 1:50Speaker 1: Doctors are there to take care of you and more
- 1:52Speaker 1: importantly take care of your pet and a low stress,
- 1:54Speaker 1: no stress environment. Also, they are open Monday through Wednesday
- 1:58Speaker 1: and then Friday through Sunday now until five. Yes, they
- 2:00Speaker 1: are open on weekends as well as opening to say,
- 2:03Speaker 1: well what about Wednesdays, Well, check in Veterinary is open
- 2:06Speaker 1: uh Monday through Friday, so they've got you cover every
- 2:09Speaker 1: day of the week at checkout vet. Again, you can
- 2:12Speaker 1: learn more online checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet
- 2:16Speaker 1: dot com. The clinic. It is so easy to get to.
- 2:18Speaker 1: It's right in sun Prairie on Prairie Laks Drive, just
- 2:20Speaker 1: off the highway, just near the interstate there. If you're familiar,
- 2:23Speaker 1: I got one fifty one and and it's right in
- 2:25Speaker 1: that area. It's very convenient to get to. And Doctor
- 2:27Speaker 1: I was going to ask you this week a couple
- 2:29Speaker 1: of things, and we'll get to those in just a moment.
- 2:31Speaker 1: Big thing though, this week, is we're gonna start taking
- 2:33Speaker 1: calls and questions. And obviously we've got a number of
- 2:35Speaker 1: pet owners that listen to the program and oftentimes have
- 2:39Speaker 1: questions about some of the things going on with their pets.
- 2:42Speaker 1: And it's a great opportunity. If you've got a question
- 2:44Speaker 1: for doctor Greer, we'd love to have you get on
- 2:46Speaker 1: the air this morning. All I got to do is
- 2:47Speaker 1: pick a phone dial and six oh eight three two
- 2:50Speaker 1: one thirteen ten. That's six oh eight three two one
- 2:53Speaker 1: thirteen ten. If you've got a question about your pet,
- 2:55Speaker 1: the phone lines are open for you right now to
- 2:58Speaker 1: talk with doctor Greer too about some great pet resources
- 3:00Speaker 1: out there. But first, doctor I thought it would be
- 3:03Speaker 1: interesting to talk about how the pets set. You know,
- 3:06Speaker 1: how your pet senses the world. And I thought about
- 3:09Speaker 1: this yesterday. Is I'm sitting on the couch with my
- 3:13Speaker 1: dog and the fat X guy pulls up out front
- 3:15Speaker 1: and just sits there, doesn't get out of the car,
- 3:17Speaker 1: doesn't move. I don't know how my dog knows that
- 3:20Speaker 1: they're out there, but he's well aware and making it
- 3:23Speaker 1: very clear there's somebody sitting outside our house. Let's talk
- 3:26Speaker 1: a little bit about Obviously, pets do perceive the world
- 3:29Speaker 1: different ways. They have obviously some significant strengths over humans.
- 3:33Speaker 1: They do perceive the world quite differently, don't they.
- 3:35Speaker 2: They do. Their sense of smell is really good. Their
- 3:39Speaker 2: vision in the dark until they start to age is excellent,
- 3:42Speaker 2: so they definitely hear and see things that we don't.
- 3:45Speaker 2: I have people all the time that say, oh, he
- 3:46Speaker 2: barks in the middle of the night at nothing. Oh no, no,
- 3:49Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure there's something there. I just think you
- 3:52Speaker 2: can't see it, hear it, or smell it, so you're
- 3:55Speaker 2: not really aware of it. The other thing I think
- 3:58Speaker 2: that's really interesting about your experience is Number one, the
- 4:02Speaker 2: FedEx driver probably comes at a fairly similar time every
- 4:05Speaker 2: day based on their route, so they probably the dog
- 4:09Speaker 2: probably has it sort of built into their schedule that
- 4:11Speaker 2: they will need to be watching. And then of course
- 4:14Speaker 2: they bark when the truck pulls in, and they're very
- 4:18Speaker 2: successful because when they bark, the truck pulls away, and
- 4:22Speaker 2: so they very successfully fend it off that intruder, and
- 4:26Speaker 2: so they feel brave. Every day, they feel a little
- 4:29Speaker 2: braver and a little braver. So you're a little bitty
- 4:30Speaker 2: dog just scared off that big truck with the big
- 4:34Speaker 2: driver in it. And I think that's really kind of funny.
- 4:36Speaker 2: We have to look at it from that perspective to
- 4:38Speaker 2: really understand what they're thinking. And it's hard to completely
- 4:42Speaker 2: think like a dog, but you have to kind of
- 4:43Speaker 2: put yourself in their shoes.
- 4:45Speaker 1: What about when it comes to things like I think
- 4:47Speaker 1: of two is taste and dogs are very and we'll
- 4:51Speaker 1: get I think we'll break down cats too, because I
- 4:53Speaker 1: think all these areas Cats have a very fascinating worldview
- 4:56Speaker 1: as well. But kind of the taste dogs seem to
- 4:59Speaker 1: some bre and some dogs in particular seem to have
- 5:03Speaker 1: you know, they're pretty much open at anythings if it
- 5:05Speaker 1: fits its ships kind of thing is whereas some dogs
- 5:09Speaker 1: are a little finicky, but they do have their tastes
- 5:12Speaker 1: are a little bit different from humans, aren't.
- 5:14Speaker 2: They right, And it's hard to know exactly because not
- 5:17Speaker 2: every dog likes everything. I went to a dog camp
- 5:20Speaker 2: many years ago for a couple of summers with Patricia McConnell,
- 5:23Speaker 2: who used to be at dog's best friend, and we
- 5:25Speaker 2: would have a contest of what would your dog eat?
- 5:28Speaker 2: So they would take a paper plate and put all
- 5:30Speaker 2: kinds of really weird things from the cafeteria. It was
- 5:33Speaker 2: a kid's camp. We'd put pickles and olives and you know,
- 5:36Speaker 2: all kinds of strange things onto the plate, fruits and vegetables,
- 5:39Speaker 2: everything that was safe, of course, And it was really
- 5:41Speaker 2: interesting because some dogs literally would mow through everything and
- 5:44Speaker 2: other dogs would be like ew no. So we don't
- 5:47Speaker 2: really know exactly what every dog's preference is going to be.
- 5:51Speaker 2: The other thing that's tricky is when you're trying to
- 5:53Speaker 2: medicate them very quickly. If they bite into something that's bitter,
- 5:57Speaker 2: like a capsule of antibiotics, they're going to then make
- 6:01Speaker 2: a very strong negative association with that food. So we
- 6:04Speaker 2: have to be incredibly careful with how we medicate our pets,
- 6:07Speaker 2: how we get those sneaky little meds into them, And
- 6:10Speaker 2: so there's some thing, some kind of tricks that you
- 6:12Speaker 2: can do. Of course, everybody knows peanut butter and liver sausage,
- 6:15Speaker 2: but marshmallow cream, spray cheese, cream cheese, you know, there's
- 6:20Speaker 2: a lot of things that we can do. And you
- 6:22Speaker 2: do have to cover up the taste of things. So
- 6:25Speaker 2: if you're using a bitter medication in particular, something like
- 6:27Speaker 2: metronitisol or thailand or cephalxen some of them are bitter meds,
- 6:32Speaker 2: we have to flavor them so that the pet really
- 6:35Speaker 2: gets the medication down without biting into it. So I
- 6:39Speaker 2: usually recommend that if you're going to start something new
- 6:41Speaker 2: like that, you give them a spoonful or two of
- 6:43Speaker 2: it with no pill in it, because the first spoonfill,
- 6:46Speaker 2: they're going to look at you like, okay, I've been
- 6:48Speaker 2: to the doctor and I know you're trying to pull
- 6:51Speaker 2: something off and you're trying to kill me. So no,
- 6:53Speaker 2: I'm not going to take that. So the first time
- 6:55Speaker 2: you give them marshmallow cream or spray cheese, you want
- 6:58Speaker 2: it to be just the tree. And then the second
- 7:00Speaker 2: time they're going to take it a little faster. By
- 7:02Speaker 2: the third or fourth bite, they're going to be like, Okay,
- 7:04Speaker 2: this is pretty good. I'll trust you, and then they'll
- 7:06Speaker 2: go put down. Now, cats are different, and there's a
- 7:09Speaker 2: lot of discussion that cats don't taste sweet things. I
- 7:12Speaker 2: don't know if that's true or not, because I don't
- 7:14Speaker 2: really have a way to ask them. But there are
- 7:16Speaker 2: definitely cats that if you put a loaf of bread
- 7:18Speaker 2: and a doughnut on the plate, they would pick the doughnut.
- 7:21Speaker 2: So I have a suspicion that some cats do have
- 7:23Speaker 2: the ability to taste sweet. And cats are funny because
- 7:27Speaker 2: I think cats fall into two categories, the cats that
- 7:29Speaker 2: eat poultry and the cats that eat fish, and those
- 7:33Speaker 2: may not cross over. So you may have a cat
- 7:34Speaker 2: that has to go onto a prescription food, or you
- 7:36Speaker 2: may have to put medication into them, or they're not
- 7:39Speaker 2: eating well, and so you have to go to the
- 7:40Speaker 2: store and try and find something that they'll eat. So
- 7:43Speaker 2: the poultry cats will eat chicken baby food, turkey baby food,
- 7:46Speaker 2: turkey or chicken flavored pet food, and the other ones
- 7:50Speaker 2: will eat fish. So you can buy tuna or salmon
- 7:52Speaker 2: or anchovy paste. It comes in a tube. It's a
- 7:54Speaker 2: really nice way to medicate a cat that likes fish.
- 7:57Speaker 2: It's always in the aisle that has the two and
- 8:00Speaker 2: the salmon, the canned the tinned products, and it's either
- 8:03Speaker 2: on the very top shelf for the very bottom shelf,
- 8:05Speaker 2: because I don't think it sells very well, but for
- 8:08Speaker 2: cats it can be a really handy way to medicate.
- 8:11Speaker 2: So it's something that if you know your cat when
- 8:14Speaker 2: she's young likes fish, start teaching her to eat things
- 8:18Speaker 2: like anchovy paste, so that when they get to be
- 8:20Speaker 2: twelve years old and diabetic, if you have to start
- 8:22Speaker 2: them on medication, you have some way to medicate the
- 8:26Speaker 2: cat that you've already kind of out foxed them by
- 8:28Speaker 2: teaching them those things when they're young and periodically doing it.
- 8:31Speaker 2: I mean a can of it, a tube of anchovy
- 8:33Speaker 2: paste is like four dollars. So you know, we're not
- 8:35Speaker 2: talking a big investment here, not.
- 8:37Speaker 1: A big break wall upbreaker this morning, as we talked
- 8:39Speaker 1: this morning with doctor Marty Greer. Of course, doctor Greer
- 8:42Speaker 1: comes to us from Checkout Veterinary the website check out
- 8:45Speaker 1: vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. If you've
- 8:48Speaker 1: got a question for the vet Love to have you
- 8:50Speaker 1: join us this morning. All you got to do is
- 8:51Speaker 1: pick a phone gifts call six so oh eight three
- 8:53Speaker 1: two one thirteen ten. That's six's soh eight three two
- 8:56Speaker 1: one thirteen ten. We'll get you right on the air
- 8:58Speaker 1: with doctor Marty Career. Let's talk about vision. And I've
- 9:03Speaker 1: seen videos of folks sharing online with dogs, for example,
- 9:07Speaker 1: as say age, get cataracts or other things in their vision.
- 9:10Speaker 1: Some of them are quite impaired when it comes to
- 9:14Speaker 1: visually impaired, still able to kind of get around.
- 9:17Speaker 3: Do dogs use their.
- 9:19Speaker 1: Eyesight as much as maybe other senses or as much
- 9:22Speaker 1: as humans, or how does that work? They just are
- 9:24Speaker 1: we just underestimating their ability to kind of remember or
- 9:28Speaker 1: layouts and spatial things.
- 9:30Speaker 2: No, they're very visual. I think they have a hard
- 9:32Speaker 2: time with depth perception. I think sometimes going down a
- 9:35Speaker 2: flight of stairs can be a little startling to them.
- 9:37Speaker 2: When they're young, they haven't learned that depth perception. But
- 9:41Speaker 2: they're very, very visual. They can see things at a
- 9:43Speaker 2: distance that we can't. Now, there are some dogs that
- 9:46Speaker 2: are near sighted and some dogs that are far sighted,
- 9:48Speaker 2: and nobody really thinks about that. And of course we
- 9:50Speaker 2: don't have corrective lenses for them, but we'll see a
- 9:53Speaker 2: lot of dogs that are labrador's, Golden retriever's, field trial,
- 9:57Speaker 2: hunt test, hunting kind of dogs. I have clients come
- 10:00Speaker 2: in and say, well, she doesn't have much talent. I'll
- 10:03Speaker 2: be like, you know, she's probably really talented because genetically
- 10:06Speaker 2: she's pretty good, but I suspect she doesn't see the
- 10:09Speaker 2: market five hundred yards. Have you ever thought about the
- 10:11Speaker 2: possibility she's near sighted? And they're like, I have no
- 10:14Speaker 2: idea that that could even happen. So doctor Chris Murphy
- 10:18Speaker 2: at the Vet School in Madison a number of years ago,
- 10:20Speaker 2: actually was able to test this. He went out to
- 10:22Speaker 2: one of my clients' facilities, built a tower and they
- 10:25Speaker 2: were able to test that dogs were near sighted and
- 10:27Speaker 2: far sighted. And believe it or not, you can if
- 10:30Speaker 2: you have a veterinary epthymologist that's a really good one.
- 10:33Speaker 2: They can predict by looking in your dog's eye at
- 10:35Speaker 2: a dilated pupil eye exam if the dog is near
- 10:37Speaker 2: sighted or far sighted. So that's kind of useful. But
- 10:40Speaker 2: a lot of dogs, as they lose their vision as
- 10:42Speaker 2: a age, they are very adept at memorizing their surroundings,
- 10:46Speaker 2: and so we'll have people come in and say she
- 10:48Speaker 2: just suddenly went blind, and in reality it was probably
- 10:51Speaker 2: a very slow progressive disease that caused the blindness. But
- 10:54Speaker 2: you didn't really notice it because the dog was really
- 10:57Speaker 2: good at hiding it because their memory is good, and
- 11:00Speaker 2: until you put up the Christmas tree, or leave a
- 11:02Speaker 2: box of Christmas decorations out, or you know, don't push
- 11:04Speaker 2: the chair in from the table, and they're accustomed to
- 11:07Speaker 2: having that memorized, you don't really notice. My son had
- 11:10Speaker 2: a Corgie that lived to be nearly sixteen and was
- 11:14Speaker 2: visually impaired from about age seven on. So lived seven
- 11:18Speaker 2: years with visual impairments. Finally, at the very end, completely
- 11:21Speaker 2: lost his vision. But he was incredibly talented. He'd go
- 11:25Speaker 2: into the ophthalmologists and they'd say he's blind, and Carl
- 11:27Speaker 2: would say, no, no, he's not. He'd roll a ball
- 11:29Speaker 2: across the floor, he'd run over and pick it up.
- 11:31Speaker 2: So dogs can fake it really well, so they can
- 11:35Speaker 2: surprise us.
- 11:36Speaker 1: And when you were as a vet, when you're looking
- 11:37Speaker 1: at a dog's eyes, you know, looking in there obviously
- 11:41Speaker 1: signs of cataracts. All the things you can notice those
- 11:44Speaker 1: type of things are are cats. Cats see, and my
- 11:50Speaker 1: naivete is odd dogs, don't you know. I just I
- 11:52Speaker 1: don't have this this mental And I thank you for explaining,
- 11:55Speaker 1: because I never thought too much of dog's vision and
- 11:57Speaker 1: I didn't realize how important it was. What about with cat? Cats,
- 12:00Speaker 1: on the other hand, I always think have got to
- 12:02Speaker 1: have just stellar vision?
- 12:03Speaker 3: Are they? Is that true?
- 12:04Speaker 2: Yeah, they're pretty good and they hardly ever develop cataracts
- 12:07Speaker 2: and some of the other retinal and eye diseases that
- 12:11Speaker 2: we see in dogs. They have their own sets, but
- 12:13Speaker 2: they tend not to go blind as they age, and
- 12:16Speaker 2: they tend not to lose their hearing as much as
- 12:17Speaker 2: they age as dogs do, So those are definitely differences.
- 12:21Speaker 2: For instance, diabetic dogs, almost all of them, if they're diabetic,
- 12:25Speaker 2: will lose their vision because of cataracts. Cats. We still
- 12:28Speaker 2: see diabetic cats, but they rarely become blind because of cataracts,
- 12:31Speaker 2: So there's definitely differences. Cats are not small dogs and
- 12:34Speaker 2: dogs are not big cats. They're completely different species, and
- 12:38Speaker 2: as veterinarians and owners, we really need to tease that
- 12:41Speaker 2: apart so that we're not lumping everybody into the same category.
- 12:44Speaker 1: Somebody once said to me, a fox as a canine
- 12:48Speaker 1: with cat software.
- 12:51Speaker 4: That's funny.
- 12:53Speaker 2: That's really good. That's a good way to put it.
- 12:55Speaker 1: As we talked this morning with doctor Marty Grew talking
- 12:57Speaker 1: about some of the senses and sensory things when it
- 12:59Speaker 1: comes to pets, how they interpret the world around them.
- 13:02Speaker 3: Fascinating stuff. Don't forget.
- 13:04Speaker 1: Also, if you've got a question for the doctor, phone
- 13:06Speaker 1: lines are open for you this morning. Six soh eight
- 13:08Speaker 1: three two one thirteen ten. That's six soh eight three
- 13:11Speaker 1: two one thirteen ten. We'll continue our conversation with doctor
- 13:13Speaker 1: Marty Grill talk about some important resources and things to
- 13:16Speaker 1: have on hand as a pet owner. Kind of that
- 13:18Speaker 1: that basic setup of things you should probably keep handy
- 13:21Speaker 1: if you are a pet owner. One thing you should
- 13:23Speaker 1: definitely check out and keep handy is check out vet
- 13:26Speaker 1: dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. You can learn
- 13:28Speaker 1: more about doctor Greer, you can learn more about the
- 13:30Speaker 1: other doctors at checkout vet. You can also learn about
- 13:32Speaker 1: what makes it so unique. It's a phenomenal setup. Out
- 13:36Speaker 1: checkout Veterinary again.
- 13:37Speaker 3: Learn more online.
- 13:38Speaker 1: Checkout vet dot com. That's check out vet dot com.
- 13:41Speaker 1: They're telve what number six oh eight three one eight
- 13:43Speaker 1: sixty seven hundred that's three one eight sixty seven hundred.
- 13:46Speaker 1: Don't forget that first visit to check out vet. That
- 13:48Speaker 1: exam it is free. Obviously charges for testing and other things,
- 13:52Speaker 1: but the visit itself, that exam, that will be free
- 13:55Speaker 1: to you again. Learn more online check out vet dot com.
- 13:58Speaker 1: Continue our conversation with doctor Marty Greer. We will do
- 14:01Speaker 1: that next as Ask the Experts with doctor Marty Greer
- 14:03Speaker 1: and Checkout Veterinary continues here thirteen ten wib A eight
- 14:08Speaker 1: fifty one thirteen ten WIBA and check Out Veterinarian. Ask
- 14:12Speaker 1: the Experts with doctor Mardy Greer of Checkout Veterinarian. The
- 14:15Speaker 1: website checkout vet dot com. Let's check out vet dot com.
- 14:18Speaker 1: I love to have you join us this morning if
- 14:20Speaker 1: you've got a question. Six oh eight three two one
- 14:22Speaker 1: thirteen ten. That's six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
- 14:25Speaker 1: We'll get you right on the air with doctor Greer
- 14:27Speaker 1: mentioned the website checkout vet dot com. Our telephone number
- 14:30Speaker 1: six O eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's
- 14:32Speaker 1: six' eight three one eight sixty seven hundred one. Final
- 14:35Speaker 1: sense thing, we didn't talk too much about touch and
- 14:37Speaker 1: I know obviously dogs don't have hands. Cats don't have
- 14:40Speaker 1: hands either, but I do know like dogs do tend
- 14:43Speaker 1: to use they don't have thumbs. That's okay, yeah, I
- 14:47Speaker 1: pardon me, they do have, but but they they like
- 14:50Speaker 1: I think with with dogs when it comes to kind
- 14:52Speaker 1: of touching and interpreting thing.
- 14:53Speaker 3: They use their mouth for a lot of things, don't they.
- 14:55Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know there are toddlers. Everything goes in
- 14:58Speaker 2: the mouth, and so we do have to be really
- 15:00Speaker 2: aware of that and cautious when we're leaving things around
- 15:03Speaker 2: the house. If you're old enough to remember the Odd
- 15:06Speaker 2: Couple TV show, there used to be a dog trainer
- 15:09Speaker 2: in Milwaukee. Maybe she's still there, and she would say,
- 15:11Speaker 2: when you get a new puppy, you need to have
- 15:13Speaker 2: Felix's apartment, not oscars, because if you leave stuff everywhere,
- 15:17Speaker 2: the puppy's going to find it and they're going to
- 15:18Speaker 2: get into a lot of trouble. So definitely, they use
- 15:22Speaker 2: their mouths a lot. They like to chew on things.
- 15:24Speaker 2: Some dogs will swallow things, and we see a fair
- 15:26Speaker 2: number of dogs that ingest foreign bodies, things that they
- 15:29Speaker 2: shouldn't and some of you know, if they eat toilet paper,
- 15:32Speaker 2: it's okay, it's going to come through. But if they
- 15:35Speaker 2: the TV remote or your cell phone or you know,
- 15:38Speaker 2: a raizor We've had dogs eat unbelievable things floral wire
- 15:43Speaker 2: and light bulbs, it doesn't go well. So you want
- 15:47Speaker 2: to be careful what you leave around. You want to
- 15:49Speaker 2: be careful with the trash can that you keep it
- 15:52Speaker 2: covered and secure. Dogs will get into all kinds of things.
- 15:55Speaker 3: What arek with with cats?
- 15:56Speaker 1: And I sometimes wonder about like kind of like rubbing
- 15:59Speaker 1: up things, like I know with my cat, like like
- 16:02Speaker 1: she just loves like if you can scratch the lower
- 16:05Speaker 1: part of her chin and she will rub.
- 16:07Speaker 3: That's contact. What are they looking for there?
- 16:09Speaker 2: That's scent marking. Oh really, yes, she is marking you
- 16:12Speaker 2: to be hers forever. Yes, so the chin does have
- 16:16Speaker 2: scent markers in it. And you'll see cats go on
- 16:19Speaker 2: the itches of cupboards and couches and things like that.
- 16:22Speaker 2: So yes, that's definitely a way that they're marking. It's
- 16:25Speaker 2: not just that it feels good, but they're actually leaving
- 16:28Speaker 2: their scent so that another cat knows we were We
- 16:31Speaker 2: were traveling and saw some big cats and they sent
- 16:35Speaker 2: mark too.
- 16:35Speaker 3: So yeah, we should.
- 16:37Speaker 1: Mention you had a chance to well, we'll talk maybe
- 16:39Speaker 1: more in depth on a future show, but you had
- 16:41Speaker 1: a chance to visit the continent of Africa spend some
- 16:43Speaker 1: time there, so we'll talk about that because that's a
- 16:46Speaker 1: fascinating conversation in of itself. Speaking of fascinating conversations, if
- 16:49Speaker 1: you've got a question, love to get you on the air.
- 16:51Speaker 1: Six eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six eight
- 16:53Speaker 1: three two one thirteen ten. Let's get to the phones,
- 16:55Speaker 1: and Sue joins us. Sue, welcome to the program. You're
- 16:58Speaker 1: on the air with doctor Marty Grier. Check out Veterinary.
- 17:02Speaker 4: Hi, doctor, I live on a farm. I've lived out
- 17:05Speaker 4: here for a long time, and I've never really been
- 17:09Speaker 4: a cat lover, but I've always had, you know, cats
- 17:14Speaker 4: in the barn and over the years, you know, I
- 17:19Speaker 4: get so many stories. And anyway, I started feeding them
- 17:25Speaker 4: because can't foods so expensive and you get those you know,
- 17:30Speaker 4: raccoons come in and enter drim or something and the possums,
- 17:37Speaker 4: and so they liked the cat food too, and I
- 17:41Speaker 4: was I started making well, I had a lab golden
- 17:49Speaker 4: crossed dogs for thirteen years, and so I started making oatmeal.
- 17:57Speaker 4: Now I was just asking you what should what food
- 18:02Speaker 4: shouldn't cat have, Well, they're human food more.
- 18:07Speaker 2: I mean, sure, most most of the fuman foods are
- 18:10Speaker 2: fine for cats. The problem is that cats are touringe dependent.
- 18:14Speaker 2: Touring is one of the amino acids that we see
- 18:16Speaker 2: in a lot of the meat products, dark meat, chicken,
- 18:19Speaker 2: things like that. And unless a cat gets adequate amounts
- 18:22Speaker 2: of touring in their diet, they will not only develop
- 18:25Speaker 2: heart problems cardioiopathy, but also vision problems. They can lose
- 18:29Speaker 2: their vision from it. So I'm assuming if you're feeding
- 18:33Speaker 2: the cats that they're also getting cat food or they're
- 18:35Speaker 2: eating something else.
- 18:37Speaker 4: They get dry cats food. I know well, and I
- 18:41Speaker 4: do buy some canned food good adds. I usually make
- 18:45Speaker 4: oatmeal with like chicken broth and the water, and it
- 18:51Speaker 4: feeds a lot of cats, I mean, you know what
- 18:53Speaker 4: I mean. I'm mean I use maybe three quarters of
- 18:57Speaker 4: a cup or a couple of you know, meal, and
- 19:01Speaker 4: then I will I'll shave broccoli crown, you know, and
- 19:07Speaker 4: put in while the oat meal is cooking, just off
- 19:10Speaker 4: on it. Because you know, I think about the winter
- 19:13Speaker 4: time mainly is you know, when they're not getting any gleaned.
- 19:17Speaker 2: Sure, and you know those none of those things are
- 19:19Speaker 2: going to hurt the cat. But it is important to
- 19:21Speaker 2: know that even just dog food alone will not have
- 19:24Speaker 2: enough touring in it for cats. So cats are very
- 19:27Speaker 2: touring dependent. Dogs we don't think are quite as dependent,
- 19:30Speaker 2: but cats are definitely touring dependent. And that's an amino
- 19:32Speaker 2: acid that is considered essential for cats, so cat food
- 19:36Speaker 2: really does have to have that. In fact, Paul Pion,
- 19:39Speaker 2: who discovered or developed VIN the Veterinary Information Network, is
- 19:44Speaker 2: the veterinarian back in the late eighties that determined that
- 19:47Speaker 2: cardio myopathy heart diseasing cats was caused by a touring deficiency.
- 19:51Speaker 2: We've known for years that cats needed it for their vision,
- 19:54Speaker 2: but he discovered it for hearts as well. So it
- 19:56Speaker 2: has to be at a high enough level that they
- 19:57Speaker 2: don't develop cardio myopathy. And now that that's been added
- 19:59Speaker 2: to food and higher levels as veterinarians, we rarely see
- 20:03Speaker 2: cardio myopathies anymore. So for the younger veterinarians, they don't
- 20:06Speaker 2: really understand how bad it used to be in practice
- 20:09Speaker 2: when we would have cats come in with these heart diseases.
- 20:11Speaker 2: So you know, as long as the cats are getting
- 20:13Speaker 2: something else, they're probably okay. But you want to be
- 20:16Speaker 2: really thoughtful about the tourine for the cats.
- 20:19Speaker 1: So really good question. And I've got to guess they're
- 20:21Speaker 1: outside cats. There's probably a road in or two.
- 20:24Speaker 2: I'm assuming that there's a little mouse in their diet
- 20:26Speaker 2: every now and then.
- 20:26Speaker 3: Yeah, oatmeal.
- 20:28Speaker 1: By the way, I had never heard that a cat
- 20:29Speaker 1: will if you had some little chicken, they might fascinating stuff.
- 20:35Speaker 2: Yeah, cats are interesting. You know, they'll eat pumpkin, They'll
- 20:38Speaker 2: eat all kinds of weird stuff that you wouldn't really
- 20:39Speaker 2: expect them to. We always think of them as being
- 20:41Speaker 2: carnivores that they want chicken or fish or mouse, but
- 20:46Speaker 2: they will eat other things as well. And it's kind
- 20:48Speaker 2: of fun to see your cat eat doritos, for instance,
- 20:51Speaker 2: not a recommended regular diet, but it's kind of interesting
- 20:54Speaker 2: to see what cats will partake in cats.
- 20:57Speaker 1: Listening to the radio this morning, going I heard her
- 20:59Speaker 1: say I could have Yes, I'd.
- 21:00Speaker 2: Like a bag of those Nacho doritos please.
- 21:04Speaker 1: Doctor Mardi Gree of course, comes to us from Checkout
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- 21:17Speaker 1: concerns questions. Today is today, of course, to start that relationship.
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- 21:34Speaker 1: It is a fantastic site. Definitely check that out again.
- 21:37Speaker 1: That's check out vet dot com. Doctor Greer, it's always
- 21:41Speaker 1: great seeing you. You have a fantastic day.
- 21:43Speaker 2: Thank you.
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