Hi, my name is Travis and I’m a vet at a referral practice in Cape Town, dealing exclusively with dogs and cats. I’m a catlover, and proud cat-dad to two rescues named Natsu and Falcon. In a world filled with conflicting veterinary information, Pet Prints has given me a chance to try and make sense of some of the muddle. So, if you have anything you want to ask, send it through and I’ll do my best to help you out.
Q: Hi Dr Travis, this is more of a general question. I’ve got a lot of medication in my fridge and in the pet drawer in the kitchen from previous vet visits. Some of them have expired and I’m not sure if I should throw them out. For instance, the eye drops we got when our cat hurt his eye. It was very expensive, but I’ve been keeping it in case we have a similar injury again. There’s also some Petcam that expired a year ago. What’s the best practice here, would it still be safe to use, or does it depend on the medication? And if I need to throw it away, can I just throw it in the bin or flush it down the drain?
A: The expiry date of a medication tells you how long you can be sure that medication will be safe and effective for. The time is determined by the manufacturing company by testing the product at a set time after manufacture date, for example after one or two years. In general, the product isn’t tested after this, so the drug may still work, but we don’t know for sure. We also don’t know if there is any bacterial contamination of liquid medications such as eyedrops. For this reason, no medical professional would advise using any medication past the expiry date, which can be frustrating when the medication is expensive or difficult to source.
Medication shouldn’t be disposed of in dustbins as this could result in uncontrolled use by another member of the public. Ideally, the medication shouldn’t be flushed down the drain either as medication can contaminate the water supply, which could have a negative impact on human and aquatic life. If you have any expired medication, you should drop them off at your local vet, where they can be disposed of in the medical waste disposal.
Q: Dear Doctor Travis, my mom recently heard over the radio that there is a certain food you can feed your cat that will make them hypoallergenic. Is this true? What is that food’s name?
A: When a food is labelled as “hypoallergenic”, it means that the food is considered to be less likely to cause an allergic reaction. The term is loosely defined when it comes to veterinary diets and it can be used to describe foods with a single
protein source, or with protein sources that are believed to be less likely to cause a reaction. There isn’t any diet that would make a cat hypoallergenic to humans, if that is what you are asking.
There are also “hydrolyzed” diets, and this term is more specific than the term hypoallergenic. If a diet has been hydrolyzed, it means that the protein source has been broken down into a smaller size that is small enough to avoid detection by the immune system. In this way, the diet can more predictably avoid triggering a food allergy. These diets play an important role in detecting and treating food allergies in dogs and cats, and should be considered in patients showing chronic skin or digestive issues.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a fairly common disorder that can occur in cats of any age, although usually in cats older than 9 years old. Cats with IBD are frequent vomiters, and some can have chronic diarrhoea. Weight loss is a common clinical sign as well, as these cats battle to digest their food. In cats, showing these signs, a diet trial is an important diagnostic step to determine the role that food has on the digestive tract. A diet trial involves feeding a
hydrolyzed diet for at least eight weeks and monitoring the response. It’s hard work, as the patient can only consume the diet and water; nothing else is allowed. With gastrointestinal disorders, a positive response can be seen within three weeks, in skin cases the response can take the full eight weeks.
Hydrolyzed diets are prescription diets, so they are only available to purchase at your local vet. If you have a cat (or a dog) that is battling with chronic itching, vomiting or diarrhoea, then I would suggest you have a chat to your local vet about whether a diet trial is something you could consider trying.
Q: Hey Doctor Travis, I hope you’re doing well. This is a weird question, but I thought it might be worth asking. Why is it that my dogs don’t respond to my instructions over the camera system when I’m not home? I can see their ears perking, so they do hear me, but every time I’m gone, they go to lie on the coach, where they are not supposed to and when I tell them to get down from the camera system, they just lift their heads and ignore the instruction.
A: I think we sometimes forget that our canine companions can’t actually understand English (or any other language). It’s easy to believe they can when we mention the “W-word” and they go running to the door in excitement, but
dogs rely a lot on our tone and body language to understand what we’re saying. When you are comunicating with them via a camera system, they will still recognize your voice, which is why they will perk their ears and look around, but your smell and body language will be missing so they will be less likely to do what you’re trying to tell them to.
Q: Hey Dr Travis, What are the most important health checks or screenings my pet should have at the start of the year, and how can I keep track of them? Does the medical aid pay for them?
A: All dogs and cats should be getting a health examination once a year at their local vet. These examinations are important to check dental health, weight and discuss diet. This is recommended for pets of all ages, but it becomes particularly important in older animals as it’s often in these visits that we detect the early signs of issues such as arthritis or heart disease. In animals older than eight years, blood tests are also a good idea to detect the early stages of diseases that might not be apparent on examination. These blood tests include checking blood glucose, liver and kidney values. I usually recommend checking thyroid hormones and blood pressure in elderly cats as well, as hyperthyroidism and high blood pressure can be common issues that are sometimes missed.
Usually, health examinations were done with annual vaccinations, but not all animals are vaccinated annually, depending on their risk level. In these animals, annual health examinations should still be done to ensure they stay healthy. As always, be sure that you are keeping your pet’s tick and flea control, as well as their deworming up to date, especially in the summer months!