Healthy Paws

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

So many pet owners have been there…

You’re sitting in your living room watching TV while snuggling with your best bud, when all the sudden you hear a startling noise. You both jump with fright, but soon realize it was just a car backfiring outside. The next thing you know, you’re overwhelmed by what smells like a garbage full of raw fish or a pair of old unwashed gym socks.

You look to your right and see your furry pal — back arched, hackles up and a guilty look on his face. What is that?! That, my friend, is the smell of anal gland secretions. (Flip to the next photo in the gallery below to see where they come from.)

Most mammals have anal glands, which secrete a scented material for varying purposes. Skunks use them to create their characteristic stench as a weapon against their predators. Opossums use them to add a scent factor to the illusion of “playing dead.”

Dogs and cats use them as a means of marking their territory and identifying each other with their own unique “perfume.” This is why most introductions between dogs start with a good sniff of the derriere.

Dogs and cats have anal sacs, little pockets that store this foul-smelling sebaceous secretion from the anal glands. The anal sacs are located just inside the anus at the 4 and 8 o’clock position and are about the size of a pea to a small marble, depending on the size of your pet.

The material in the glands is watery, beige to brown-tinged and it is meant to express naturally on a regular basis during normal defecation. Sometimes, it can also be excreted unintentionally when your pet tenses when startled.

Many pets don’t need any help expressing their anal sacs if nature is doing its job. There are several factors, however, that might impede this natural process. With all the anatomic variation among breeds of dogs and cats, some may have slightly unusual hind end anatomy.

Also, stools must be regular, formed and large enough to facilitate expression. Pets with chronic soft stools may have a harder time expressing their anal sacs naturally. Lastly, sometimes the sacs become inflamed and abnormal due to an underlying allergy.

If the anal sacs aren’t able to express, they can become impacted or infected, and this will require treatment by your veterinarian.

Symptoms to watch for that would indicate your pet is having an anal sac problem include excessive licking around the rear, brown staining of the fur around the rear, red and irritated skin around the rear, a swelling or discharge around the rear, a very continuous foul smell from the rear, or the dreaded obsessive butt-scooting (always seems to be when you have company over, too).

Unfortunately, the occasional slip when a car backfires outside your window is actually normal and one of those things we have to endure as the price for our pal’s unconditional love.

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Chances are that, in addition to chasing squirrels and keeping watch over the Amazon package delivery man, one of your dog’s favorite pastimes is chewing.

Bones, rawhides, sticks, your most expensive pair of shoes… you name it — your dog can demolish it in a matter of seconds. While chewing is a natural behavior for dogs and a great way to keep them occupied, it is important to remember that their teeth are not indestructible.

Many chewing materials are hard enough to break or wear your dog’s teeth or damage your dog’s gums, putting them at risk of oral pain and infection.

Keep in mind that even if a chew is sold at your local pet store, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is safe. There are plenty of products on the market that have less give than your furry friend’s fragile teeth. Antlers, natural bones and nylon or plastic toys without any flexibility can all cause a tooth to break.

If you would be concerned about breaking your own tooth while chomping on the toy or chew, then you should be equally as concerned about your dog’s teeth. A general rule of thumb to use when selecting an appropriate chew for your pet is to try to bend it with your own hands to see if it has any flexibility and indent it with your thumb. If the chew is too hard to do this, then it is too hard for your dog’s teeth.

In addition to fracturing teeth, some chewing materials can cause significant dental wear as well, which can also eventually lead to pain or infection if the wear extends far enough into the tooth.

The surface of a tennis ball can act like sand paper and wear down teeth over time, especially when it accumulates dirt and sand. Devoted retrievers are more prone to dental wear from the friction of a tennis ball or a Frisbee rubbing against their teeth over time.

If you aren’t sure about the safety of a product, ask your veterinarian before giving it to your pet. You can also access helpful information and approved products from the Veterinary Oral Health Council and the American Veterinary Dental College’s websites.

We suggest a Classic Kong toy appropriate for your dog’s size and age. We recommend spreading a little bit of peanut butter or canned pumpkin on the inside to keep your dog occupied.

Approved rawhide chews are safe only when used under your direct supervision. Your dog should chew the rawhide slowly and soften it as he chews, and you should remove the chew when there is only a small piece remaining to prevent choking or gastrointestinal disease. Happy chewing!

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Can I catch that from my pet? This is a common question we hear as veterinarians, and as such have made this a recurring topic. This week we debunk some myths and talk about stuff pets are sometimes blamed for — but are highly unlikely to have been obtained from your pet.

Zoonotic diseases are infectious illnesses — think viruses, bacterial infections, fungal infections, or parasites — that can be spread between animals and humans. Zoonotic diseases can be spread both ways, from animal to person AND from person to animal.

In veterinary medicine, we take zoonotic diseases very seriously to keep both the pets we care for and their humans healthy! That said, we have had, at times needed to field questions about diseases that perhaps a misinformed friend, “Dr. Google” and on occasion human medical doctors have blamed on the pets.

Pinworms & Head Lice 

Pinworms is an intestinal worm that is commonly found in young school-aged children. The primary symptom is having an itchy rear-end and they are passed easily from child to child — mostly because children don’t think to wash their hands after scratching their bums.

Sandboxes can also be common places for pinworms to pass between children. The important thing to know is that pinworms do not infect dogs and cats, so your pets are innocent.

Head Lice are tiny insects that love to live on human heads and hair, feeding on human blood. They often cause an itchy scalp and the lice or eggs may be visible on close inspection. There are many types of lice that exist, but the human head louse only wants to live on people. You won’t find these lice on other animals, so no need to inspect Fluffy.

Strep Throat

Streptococcal pharyngitis or “strep throat” is caused by a bacterial infection from Streptococcus pyogenes (group A strep). The natural host for this bacteria is humans. Some people even carry this bacteria as part of their normal flora without having symptoms. This bacteria is not found on our pets, except very transiently — i.e. for a day or two, but it doesn’t truly colonize in dogs.

The reality is that if you catch strep throat, you got it from another human. Some human doctors will request that dogs in the household be treated in family situations where people are repeatedly getting infected. The only time this remotely almost makes sense is if all the humans are also treated at the same time — but even then, the human carrier in the family will likely continue to be a carrier and continue to be a source of repeated infections.

Strep throat: https://www.cdc.gov/groupastrep/diseases-public/strep-throat.html

Lyme Disease

Lyme disease can infect both dogs and humans, but you can’t catch it directly from Fido. Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease, meaning that ticks carry this disease transmit it to a dog or person that they bite for a blood-meal. This is one of the many reasons we recommend year-round flea and tick prevention and annual screening for Lyme disease for all dogs!

It’s also why people should check themselves thoroughly for ticks after spending time in the woods… ticks are very skilled at crawling up under a pant leg or sleeve.

Lyme disease in people: https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/index.html

Lyme disease in dogs: https://www.avma.org/public/PetCare/Pages/lyme-disease.aspx

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Can I catch that from my pet? This is a common question we hear as veterinarians, and as such have made this a recurring topic. This week we cover antimicrobial resistance.

MRSA is a term many people have heard, but what does it mean? How did I get it and what role might this adorable furball, sleeping in my bed, possibly play?

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. Wow. That’s a lot of big words.

Staph aureus is a bacteria that is normally found in the skin and nose of healthy people and it usually does not cause a problem. The dog equivalent of Staphyloccus aureus is Staphylococcus pseudointermedius and it acts the same way as it’s cousin (and is normally found on their skin).

Because they are so closely related, these cousins can occasionally swap places; you may transiently have some of your dog’s Staph pseudointermedius and Fido may have some of your Staph aureus. Again, it’s important to remember that in most cases, this is not a concern and is a normal part of life.

Human physicians and veterinarians become concerned when there is an underlying illness or injury, when the bacteria can take advantage of the break in the normal immune system and cause an infection.

This is of special concern in hospitals, nursing homes and in the homes of immunocompromised people. The treatment for this infection is antibiotics, but unfortunately, like Frankenstein’s monster, this treatment can lead to something much more serious.

Occasionally, Staph can become resistant to the antibiotics, and once it’s accumulated enough resistance to enough antibiotics, it turns into Methicillin-Resistant Staph. This doesn’t mean that it’s a stronger or more infectious bacteria, it just means that it’s harder to treat in the instances where it is causing a problem.

We are becoming more and more concerned about antibiotic resistance and now there is a growing movement of Antibiotic Stewardship, where physicians and veterinarians try to use antibiotics only when absolutely necessary.

Since you and your dog may share normal Staph between the two of you, can you also share the methicillin-resistant Staph? The short answer is yes, but in most cases, this is not a huge problem because remember, it’s not inherently a stronger or more infectious bacteria.

However, it becomes a concern if the 2-legged or 4-legged family members are very young, very old, immunosuppressed or pregnant. If this is a concern in your household and your pet was diagnosed with a skin infection, please discuss this with your physician.

Prevention 
So, since “rarely doesn’t mean never” — the risk of getting resistant infections from your pet are low, but they are not zero… and I’m sure we’d all rather not have an infection with a highly drug-resistant bacterium. Accordingly, the use of proper hygiene and infection control measures, particularly around an animal with an active infection, is always important. These measures include:

• Frequent hand washing after contact with the pet.
• Avoiding contact with the infected site.
• Keeping the infected site covered with an impermeable dressing, whenever possible.
• Reducing contact with the nose of the infected animal, since it may also be carrying the bacterium there. In general, reducing close contact (e.g. snuggling, nuzzling, hugging, kissing) during the period of infection is a good idea.
• Regular washing (in hot water with hot air drying, whenever possible) of pet beds and other items that come into close and frequent contact with the pet.

Is all that overkill? Probably. But it’s also an easy and practical plan, and a reasonable approach to reduce the already-low risks.

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

A few weeks ago we started a new series in our column aptly named, “What Is That?!.” Our goal is to shed light on some of the anatomical oddities that veterinarians are frequently asked about.

This week we’d like to highlight the third eyelid, which is also known by its proper, and much harder to pronounce, name — the nictitating membrane. Although this is a normal structure in every dog and cat, you shouldn’t really notice it at all unless there’s something wrong.

The third eyelid is a smooth fold of tissue tucked into the inner corner of the eye, beneath the lower eyelid. Despite its inconspicuous existence, it serves three important roles that are vital for eye health.

First, it offers the eye protection by being a physical barrier in harsh weather and mechanically clearing debris off the cornea. Second, the gland of the third eyelid is a major contributor to tear production. If this structure is damaged, the eye’s ability to produce tears is diminished leading to an irritating medical condition called dry eye. Finally, the third eyelid is home to a portion of the body’s lymphoid tissue, serving an immune function.

So what does it mean if the third eyelid is elevated? Well, it depends. Let’s start with an easy one first. The third eyelid normally covers the surface of the eye when a dog is asleep. As they wake up, it may stay in this position for a short period of time.

You’ll see something similar after sedation or anesthesia. What’s important to note in these cases is that the third eyelid will return to its normal position once the pet is fully awake.

But what does it mean if the third eyelid continues to be prominent long after the dog is clearly awake? In these cases, there may be an underlying medical cause. Although the list of potential causes is long, they can be split into the overly simplified categories of “eye problems” and “not eye problems.”

The most common “eye problem” occurs when the tear-producing gland of the third eyelid prolapses — you might hear this called cherry eye. Tumors or cysts of the third eyelid can look similar. And ultimately, a wide range of conditions that cause ocular pain or inflammation can lead to an elevated third eyelid.

Outside of the eye, any illness that causes severe dehydration or drastic weight loss could be the culprit by causing the soft tissues behind the eye shrink, sinking the eye backwards. And sometimes the third eyelids are elevated just because the dog is generally not feeling well.

Ultimately, there are a dizzying number of conditions to consider — and if your pet has an elevated third eyelid it’s best sorted out by a veterinarian.

Our hope is that this article encourages you to take a good, long look at your pet’s eyes and get familiar with what’s normal. Because in order to recognize something abnormal, you need to know what’s normal first!

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

It’s January and the time for new year resolutions. While you may have a few on your own list, have you thought about resolutions for your pet? Here we have a few ideas that you could aim to work into your 2019 routine, if you aren’t already doing so:

Tooth Brushing

Whether you have a cat or dog, setting a goal to brush their teeth on a regular basis will certainly pay off in 2019. How regular? The Veterinary Oral Health Council recommends daily brushing to disrupt the cycle of plaque mineralizing to hard tartar.

At minimum, brushing every other day is needed to make an impact in reducing tartar accumulation. New habits can be a bit scary for pets, so aim for only a few seconds of brushing at a time, then slowly work up to the whole mouth.

Focus on the outside of the teeth, that’s where all the tartar builds up, 60 seconds to clean should be enough to get the whole mouth.

Home Nail Trims

Keeping your cat or dog’s nails short can have many benefits. It can reduce damage in your home from scratching behavior, prevent in-grown or torn nails and save yourself the cost of grooming appointments.

New to trimming your pet’s nails or found them difficult in the past? There are several great online resources for how to slowly train your pet to enjoy nail trims via positive reinforcement training. Here are some nail trimming resources:

• Dog Nail Trim
• Counterconditioning for Toenail Trim Aggression
• Teaching Dogs to Love Having Their Toenails Trimmed

Exercise

You might be trying to hit the gym more often in 2019, but have you thought about your pet’s exercise too? Regular activity is important for your pet’s overall wellness.

Benefits include weight management, maintaining muscle mass, decreased stress and anxiety and cardiovascular health. Aim for 30 minutes of exercise a day — walking, running, swimming, training or play — but more is good too!

Training and Enrichment

Is 2019 the year you master a new hobby? Well, similar to how new activities make your life more exciting, they do the same for our pets.

Try starting with the basics — sit, stay, come, and leash manners — then progress to more advanced tricks. Positive reinforcement and consistency is key. Clicker training can also be a great tool for pet learning.

You would be amazed how much progress you can make with 5 minutes a day, plus you get the added bonus of creating a stronger bond with your pet. Don’t forget about your kitties either, they can learn tricks just like dogs.

Additional Resources:

• “I’ll Be Home Soon” — Patricia McConnell
• “Feisty Fido” — Patricia McConnell
• “The Cautious Canine” — Patricia McConnell
• “Decoding Your Dog” — ACVB
• “How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves” — Sophia Yin

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

One of the most important topics studied in vet school is anatomy — as veterinarians, we need to know what is normal and what isn’t.

Most pet owners, on the other hand, haven’t spent countless nights studying every organ, vessel and protuberance found on a dog’s body. So it’s understandable that when an owner notices a less obvious anatomic structure for the first time, they may become alarmed and rush their beloved pet to the vet, fearing the worst.  These situations have inspired a new series for our column called, “What is that?!”

Maybe you’ve experienced this scenario before — your happy, fun-loving pet is playing and when she rolls on her back, you suddenly notice a firm, diamond-shaped lump on the roof of her mouth, just behind her front teeth. Panic bells start ringing.

But not so fast! This is actually a completely normal structure. It’s called the incisive papilla and every dog has one, though some may be more prominent than others. The incisive papilla contributes to the dog’s intricate and exceptional sense of smell.

A human’s primary sense is vision — we understand our environment best through visual pictures. Dogs, on the other hand, rely most heavily on their sense of smell. To put into perspective just how sensitive a dog’s sense of smell is, dogs have more than 200 million olfactory receptors. Humans only have about 5 million!

And it gets even more interesting. Dogs don’t just smell with their nose. They also have a vomeronasal organ, which helps detect chemical cues called pheromones. Pheromones are important for communication and passing social messages between dogs. The incisive papilla helps collect these cues and is connected to the vomeronasal organ.

So if you’ve ever lost sleep after noticing this bump on the roof of your dog’s mouth, don’t worry — you’re not the first and you won’t be the last! The incisive papilla is one of the most common normal anatomic structures that cause owners to scratch their heads and wonder, “what is that?!”

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Can I catch that from my pet? This is a common question we hear as veterinarians, and as such have made this a recurring topic.

This week we cover Toxoplasmosis… for a few reasons;

• It’s a freaking cool parasite with a really neat life cycle and can manipulate the brain (what!?)
• You can catch it from your pet
• But you’re more likely to catch it while gardening…

Toxoplasma gondii is a microscopic protozoal parasite that is found in the environment. It’s main life cycle is between cat and mouse.

A mouse will become infected with Toxoplasma oocytes (eggs) in the soil and water. The oocytes hatch and the little baby Toxoplasma go to the rodents’ muscles and brain.

This is the cool part: Toxoplasma actually changes the way a mouse thinks and causes the mouse to become attracted to cat urine and makes them no longer afraid of cats. Basically, it makes the mouse a very easy target.

The cat eats the mouse and the baby Toxoplasma grows up in the digestive tract of the cat, so that new oocytes can be spread through the stool. In humans, this brain manipulation is being studied and there are suspected links between Toxoplasma infection and certain human psychoses.

Humans are “dead end hosts” of Toxoplasma, which means that the parasite can infect us, but cannot reproduce in our digestive tract like it can in the cat. Toxoplasma that is shed in a cat’s stool is infectious only after it’s been out of the cat for at least 24 hours.

This means scooping the litter box at the same time every day along with wearing gloves and washing hands thoroughly afterwards can decrease the risk of contracting Toxoplasmosis.

In certain cases, it can cause serious illness. Those that are more prone to the serious effects of Toxoplasma are YOPI’s: Young, Old, Pregnant or Immunosuppressed. If you or any of your family members fall into one of those categories, and you have a cat that hunts or goes outside, please discuss this with your physician.

This is especially true for pregnant women, as Toxoplasmosis can cause birth defects. Please note that if you are pregnant, you do not need to give up your cat. If you have concerns, please discuss this with your physician.

There are other much more common ways to get Toxoplasma and the two big ones are gardening and eating undercooked meat, especially pork, lamb, mutton and wild game as these are other common dead end hosts.

Wearing gloves and thorough hand washing after working in the garden are highly recommended and always cook your meat to 145 degrees or higher. Fresh fruits and vegetables should be peeled or washed thoroughly.

If your child likes to play in sandboxes, make sure to only play in ones that are covered when not in use, don’t allow your child to eat the sand and wash yours and your child’s hands thoroughly. After all, sandboxes are just big o’ litter boxes to a cat!

While Toxoplasma can be a serious illness for some people, there are ways to significantly reduce risk to you and your family. For more information, check out these additional tips from Worms and Germs Blog or the CDC.

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

It’s that time of year again! Time to embrace the season and ponder on the best gift for your fur-kid! This year we polled our staff and have some of their pet’s favorite things!

Frankie’s Favorite Things

• Duluth Grab Dog Jacket
• Old Man Bed
• Furminator

Audrey Hepburn’s Favorite Things

• PetLuv Happy Cat Carrier
• Trixie Mat Puzzle Feeding Mat

Biscoe & Peanut’s Favorite Things

• “Da Bird” cat toy

Monty’s Favorite Things

• Outward Hound Slow Feeder

Weebles’ Favorite Things

• Reindeer sweater

Moana & Heihei’s Favorite Things

• Mealworms

And some more of our favorite things to help enrich the lives of our dogs and cats who graciously share their lives and snuggles with us.

Interactive Feeding/Activity Things

• Wooly Snuffle Feeding Mat
• Busy Buddy Meal Dispensing Dog Toy
• Faougess Food Dispenser Ball
• Doc & Phoebe’s Indoor Hunting Cat Feeder
• One Fast Cat Exercise Wheel
• Spin Feeder
• Cat Digger
• Feed Mat
• Treat Ball
• The Ultimate Scratching Post

Books

• Don’t Shoot The Dog
• Click To Calm
• When Pigs Fly
• Inside Of A Dog
• Cats on Catnip
• Cat Sense

Giving Back

Perhaps you have everything your pet may need and want (food, love, safety and enrichment), perhaps giving a gift/donation in your pets name to a rescue organization in need will warm your heart. Below are a few of the groups we love and work with regularly:

• Lab Rescue, LRCP
• Animal Welfare League of Arlington
• Homeward Trails
• City Dogs
• Lucky Dog Rescue
• Lost Dog & Cat Rescue
• Lu’s Labs
• Washington Humane Rescue Alliance

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Can I catch that from my pet? This is a common question we hear as veterinarians.

So, we’re going to make this a recurring topic. This week, we’ll cover some intestinal parasites.

Intestinal parasites are the most common infectious diseases that we diagnose and several have the potential to be transmitted to humans. Most of these parasites are transmitted through the feces of an infected animal.

So, whenever handling animal feces or touching potentially contaminated areas such as soil, outdoor sandbox or a litter box, thorough hand-washing and good personal hygiene are recommended.

Keeping your pet on a year-round parasite preventative that protects against some of these parasites, as well as yearly fecal screening for asymptomatic gastrointestinal parasite infections, are important to reduce infection risk.

Giardia

Giardia is the most common gastrointestinal parasite we diagnose and we diagnose it on a daily basis. If you’ve ever heard of a human with “Hikers Diarrhea”… welp, that was Giardia.

In general, this parasite is quite species specific, however there are some strains that can be transmitted to humans so it is best to handle all Giardia cases like they may be.

Roundworms

Roundworms can be transmitted in utero and via mom’s milk, as well as via fecal/oral transmission.

Humans are not the ideal host for this parasite, but when presented with a human the larval stages will make the most of it and attempt to migrate to the gastrointestinal tract. Instead , they end up in weird places and are a cause of partial blindness in children (as they are notorious about not washing their hands well and playing in sandboxes or dirt) as they like to migrate to the retina (back of the eye) instead.

Hookworm

Hookworm larvae can penetrate intact skin and then migrate to the gastrointestinal tract of dogs and cats; and while humans are not their primary host, they will attempt their life cycle.

This can lead to a very itchy skin reaction in humans called cutaneous larval migrans, which result from an intense immune reaction to the larvae as they try to migrate and then die under the skin.

Whipworms and Coccidia

Whipworms and Coccidia are not considered zoonotic parasites, meaning we really don’t see transmission to humans (well, there are rare reported cases). However, they are important parasites in dogs and cats (coccidia) and can often cause diarrhea.

Tapeworms

There are several types of tapeworms that we seen in our pets. By far the most common one we see in this area has a life cycle that requires the flea as an intermediate host; other strains of tapeworms require small rodents and herbivores as an intermediate host.

The vast majority of dog and cat tapeworms are of low risk for transmission to humans. That said there is a tapeworm called Echinococcus which is rarely seen in North America and is actually a reportable disease here.

The Echinococcus tapeworm rarely causes disease in dogs and cats, but it is easily transmitted to humans and can lead to large cysts within our internal organs that can lead to anaphylactic shock and death if ruptured!

For more information on these individual parasites and how they may affect you or your family, please visit: ​http://www.petsandparasites.org

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic and winner of a 2017 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Business Award. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Well, we couldn’t have asked for better weather last night for a little trick or treating! And we couldn’t have asked for better entries to our #caccostumecontest!

Above are just a few of the awesome costumed pet pictures that were submitted. Follow us on Instagram (@clarendonanimalcare) and facebook (@clarendonvet) to see all the entries and winners!

Now that everyone has way too much candy in their homes, let’s recap some of the many reasons we should keep it all away from our fur-kids:

• Chocolate, raisins and xylitol are all toxic to our pets! Chocolate can cause gastrointestinal disturbances, cardiac arrhythmias and neurological symptoms; raisins can cause acute kidney failure and xylitol can cause acute liver failure!
• Often, our pets are no good at moderation and eating lots of fat and sugar-filled candy can cause some pretty impressive gastrointestinal disturbances, but also trigger more severe issues like pancreatitis.
• The wrappers can lead to physical irritation and obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract.