Internet Myth #14: Knowing whether your pet has a cold, wet or dry nose is important information to assess his/her health.

In reality, this isn't true. Although a highly trained Veterinarian will use all the subtle information they can gather to piece the puzzle together there generally is very little information that can be gleaned from the status of a dog or cat's nose. In addition, sometimes that information can be very misleading. For example, I have seen a pet have a very high temperature and suffering from pneumonia have a slightly damp and very healthy looking nose. The temperature and moistness of a dogs nose can even vary hour to hour or day to day and depends on the environmental temperature and humidity.

Internet Myth #13: “All Life Stages” Pet food can be fed to your puppy or adult dog and is a great food for any age.

The reality: Stay away from “All Life Stages” pet food. There is no single food that can meet the requirements of all dogs from puppy through to senior. These are a bad idea. IF the food states that its for all life stages it is in reality a puppy food and has been tested to meet the requirements of puppies. Feeding puppy food to an adult or senior dog can lead to issues including obesity.

Internet Myth #12: "My pet had an anaesthetic 2 months ago and now needs another. Won't that be too hard on her "system".

Although it would be wrong to state that there isn't any risk during anaesthesia, I'm going to provide an interesting example of how this fear is generally unfounded. At the University of Guelph, Ontario Veterinary College they have a radiation unit for treating certain types of cancer. The pet must be perfectly still for the treatments meaning they have to be anaesthetized. One of the protocols that I am aware of involves 16 treatments over a 21 day period. That means that the patient undergoes 16 anesthetics in a 3 week period! And they do just fine. Again, today's anaesthetics are far superior to those of previously and we tailor fit the anaesthetic to the needs of the patient.

Internet Myth #11: "You're telling me my pet needs an anaesthetic but she's 13 years old. She won't survive"

The reality... As long as a pet is healthy (meaning the internal organs are all working properly) there is no reason that they can't have an anaesthetic procedure. Today's anaesthetics and the way we monitor the patients is far superior than "yesteryear". The oldest pet I have personally anaesthetized quite successfully without any trouble at all was a 19 year old dog.

Keep something in mind... the Queen Mother (now deceased) had reportedly a total hip transplantation (with anaesthesia) at the age of 95 years of age. As stated previously, old age is not a disease and is not a reason for avoiding a necessary procedure.

Internet Myth #10: Veterinarians don't know anything or very little about Nutrition. They are in the "pockets" of the Pet Food Companies and are brainwashed by them.

This one makes me angry. It is insulting to all of us that devote our lives to improving the health of the animals we love. It is used by people who have an agenda. Usually that agenda involves the promotion of something they are trying to sell. What better way to make your product or goods look better than to attack those that are considered the experts in the field?

At University I took two semester-long courses dedicated to animal nutrition. They were in depth, comprehensive, and difficult. I worked hard in those courses to take in as much as I could. They were taught to us by University professors and despite some of the ridiculous accusations I have seen, they were NOT taught to us by Pet Food Companies. In fact, much of the content was in regards to agriculture and large animals. However, Vitamin B12 does the same whether its in a cow, a horse, or a dog or cat. In addition to the nutrition courses, almost every other course touched on nutrition in some way or another. For example, patients with kidney disease have different nutritional needs and its imperative to be familiar with those to treat a patient properly.

When I went to University I spent 7 years learning about my craft. That was just the beginning of my education process. Every summer I worked in Veterinary Hospitals for minimum wage gaining experience. Then, since graduation 29 years ago, I have consistently and regularly kept up with continuing education. Last year I spent over 350 hours reading, going to conferences, mentoring and voluntarily teaching Veterinary Technicians. And, there rarely is a lecture or conference that I attend that doesn't in some way directly address nutrition in some manner or another.

Do I sell pet-food at the hospital? Yes. The majority of the food we sell is prescription food for patients that have medical problems. Do I make a lot of money on the foods I sell? No. Do I counsel our clients to buy kitten, puppy or adult pet food from us and only us. NO. I am NOT a salesman. I have no interest in becoming one. I do not own shares in certain pet food companies. In fact, I don't care what you feed your pet as long as its nutritious and you are seeing the benefits from it (ex good stool quality, healthy condition and growth, excellent hair coat quality, etc). Let me give you an example of how I run my business. Often I have clients who come in with pets with haircoat issues. There is a particular food that I recommend for otherwise normal healthy dogs with coat issues. Do I sell that food? NOPE. Do I get a kickback from my recommendation or is there any financial benefit to me for doing so? Definitely NOT. I do it for one reason and one reason only. The dogs that come to me as patients with THE best haircoat are almost always eating this particular food. It seems to have the perfect balance of essential fatty acids and that is why I recommend it.

In summary, as a Veterinarian I am very proud of our profession and the majority of members in it. It is an honorable profession. I adamantly believe the people who go into this profession do it for the right reasons. Comparatively to other professions with the same education it is a poorly-paying one. Someone interested in making a lot of money does NOT become a Veterinarian. We are highly educated people who are on a life-long quest for information and the desire to do what is best for our patients.

I love this profession and I love the pets I treat. The staff and I work as a team to do our very best to keep each and every one of our clients happy and our patients healthy. This is not just my job. It is my life, my hobby, my outside interest. Money is not a motivator for me and I do not appreciate anyone implying that Veterinarians are somehow dishonestly or deceptively manipulating their clients at their patients expense for monetary rewards. Or, alternatively, that we Veterinarians blindly follow the recommendations of a pet food company without thought or are "bought" by them. That is complete nonsense.

Internet Myth #9: The "Bones and Raw Food Diet" (acronym: BARF diet) is the best diet for dogs.

This one is controversial. The BARF diet has become more popular in recent years despite the fact that there are several possible issues or concerns with its use.

One of the common arguments used to promote it is that its a more "natural" diet. Although this may be true, there is one very important rebuttal to this. A wild canine (ex Wolf) has a lifespan on average of 3 to 5 years. We ...hope to get 14 to 15 years of life out of one of our pets. How is this possible? Well, with improved healthcare, nutrition and avoidance of predators it is very possible.

Here are some of the concerns Veterinarians have with this particular diet:

1) Feeding bones of any type and whether raw or not have a great potential to break teeth and/or cause gastrointestinal obstruction. In the wild, a broken tooth is pretty much a death sentence. Fortunately, for pets we have solutions but the best solution is to avoid a broken tooth in the first place.

2) The feeding of raw meat has the potential to give YOU or your dog Salmonella, E-coli or any number of potentially harmful bacteria or parasites (ex toxoplasmosis). It is NOT TRUE that dogs are immune to these organisms. As stated previously, the dog's gastrointestinal system is very similar to our own.

3) Scientific investigation and analysis of some of these diets has shown that many (if not most) are nutritionally imbalanced. The major players in the pet food industry spend millions and millions of dollars in research and development and quality control to produce balanced diets. It is difficult to emulate that by feeding a homemade recipe.

4) Feeding a BARF diet can be expensive and can take considerable work/effort on the part of the owner to do well.

5) In my 35 years of experience in this field, I must say that I have not been impressed by the "benefits" of feeding a BARF diet. If one is to go to all of the effort and expense they should expect to see the benefits. To be very honest, I just have not seen the results in the patients that come to me. In fact, some of the more ill patients that I have seen have been on BARF diets. One of the dogs that came to us for years being fed the BARF diet since a puppy developed one of the worst skin problems I have ever seen. My belief is that the dog had a nutritional deficiency but despite our best efforts to try to convince the owner to try a different diet, they refused and the pet ultimately declined and passed away.

Internet Myth #8: "My pet died of old age."

Not true. Old age is not a disease (thank goodness because I am getting there). Pets (like people) eventually die due to some illness or catastrophic event. In older age their immune systems may be impaired or one of the organs starts to fail which allows the disease process to begin.

Often pet owners mistakingly believe that the reason their pet is slowing down is just due to old age. Frequently, however, there is a reason for this b...ehaviour change. I would say from experience that there are two major causes of an older pet "slowing down" The first is unrecognized dental disease which is painful and depressing to them. After treating the dental disease, a common comment from the pet owner is "wow... I have a new puppy (or kitten) again". Another reason for an older pet to "age" more quickly is Arthritis. The chronic pain and discomfort inhibits their quality of life and they just don't feel well enough to get up and move around.

If your older pet is slowing down please have them examined by a Veterinarian. Blood and urine testing will likely be needed to test and confirm that all the organs are working properly and the physical exam will help to make an accurate diagnosis. Your Veterinarian can then make recommendations that can help your faithful friend get more joy out of life.