As much as you and your children might enjoy Halloween, this particular holiday can be a stressful one for pets. They don’t understand why you have decorations and carved pumpkins with candles in them around the house and naturally feel curious enough to investigate. Your dog or cat may end up swallowing something inedible or even starting a fire by knocking over a candle. These are just two of several Halloween safety concerns to keep in mind. Lancaster Veterinary Clinic wants to provide the following safety tips to help keep your pets safe and happy during the month of October.

CLIENT APPRECIATION PARTY

Most of you will already have enjoyed our annual Client Appreciation Party by the time you get this newsletter in the mail.  We hope to see all of you at the clinic on Friday July 28 from 3-8 pm.

 We will have free food and beverages and fun and door prizes and lots of things for kids to do.  We are planning on having food and activities in a tent on the south lawn, so everything will be easy to find.  In case of rain, we will move into the clinic garage.

Of course, you are welcome to tour the clinic and see the new tile in the kennel and the exam room improvements.  Kids will be able to bring their stuffed pets and practice bandaging them.  We will have a duck pond and bounce house and a cow to milk.  You may even win a prize! 

CLIENT APPRECIATION PARTY

You and your family are invited to our annual Client Appreciation Party at the clinic on Friday July 28 from 3-8 pm. We hope that having the party on Friday this year will make it easier for people to come.

We will have free food and beverages and fun and door prizes and lots of things for kids to do. We are planning on having food and activities in a tent on the south lawn, so everything will be easy to find. In case of rain, we will move into the clinic garage.

Of course, you are welcome to tour the clinic and see the new tile in the kennel and the exam room improvements. Kids will be able to bring their stuffed pets and practice bandaging them. We will have a duck pond and bounce house and a cow to milk. You may even win a prize!

We will have some special visitors from the Humane Society and lots of kittens to see. You can also tour the new dog park taking shape north of the clinic.

Everyone is welcome! Please bring the family, have supper with us and join in the fun.
 

GET READY FOR THE FAIR!

It doesn’t seem like it should be time for the fair already, but here it is. Sally will be helping check in animals on Thursday August 17. Please call if you have any questions about the paperwork that you need. Sally will be taking care of on farm pig inspections, so just call and make an appointment for her to come out and look at your pigs.

Good luck to all fair participants!
 

NEW TETRACYCLINE SCREENING IN MILK STARTING JULY 1

Starting July 1^st, a new pilot program will start to test bulk tank milk for tetracycline type antibiotics. Currently, all bulk tank milk is tested for beta-lactam type drugs such as penicillin, ampicillin and cephalosporins. The number of bilk tanks testing positive for beta-lactams has dropped to only 0.011 percent last year. That is only 1 out of 10,000 samples! Milk testing positive is never used for human consumption.

Antibiotics in the tetracycline family include oxytetracycline, tetracycline and chlortetracycline. Under the pilot program, if a bulk tan is found to have violative residues of tetracyclines, a trace back to the farm of origin will occur. The offending farm will be responsible for the value of the dumped milk and may temporarily lose their milk license.

Please review which tetracyclines you have on your dairy and make sure that you have accurate dosing and withdrawal information. You may have bottles of LA200, LA300, or Oxytet100. These all have different doses, uses and withdrawal times. Another use for tetracycline is treating hairy heel warts. This use is extra-label and so requires a vet prescription.

Sally would be happy to answer any questions you might have about how to avoid having tetracycline residues in your milk. You can have an individual cow tested before putting her in the tank if you have any question about the drug withdrawal. If you have any doubt about the presence of a drug, hold the milk and test the cow.
 

HEAT STRESS CAUSING PROBLEMS

We have been treating a number of animals suffering from heat stress. Animals can start seizuring and lose consciousness and die if their body temperature gets too high for too long. Some animals never completely recover from the brain damage caused by the high fever. Half of affected animals will die.

Animals like dogs and pigs cannot sweat and must rely on panting to cool off. Horses and cattle can sweat, but they also increase their respiratory rate for evaporative cooling. If animals cannot get out of the sun or don’t have enough to drink, they can get overheated in a hurry.

If you have an animal with a temp of 105 or higher, if possible, move the animal to a cool place in the shade and soak the animal’s body with cold water. Make sure the animal has plenty of water. Provide air movement with a fan or breeze. Animals that are not drinking may need IV fluids. A calf that Sally was treating died despite the IV fluids.

You can prevent heat stress in your animals by providing shade with a high roof, air moving and plenty of water. Feeding a high quality forage 2 hours after peak temps will help cattle and horses generate less internal heat. Minimize stress and handling and work animals early in the morning or later in the evening after things have cooled off. The same preventions work for people!
 

DAIRY BREAKFAST BACK ON THE FARM

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the Dairy Breakfast this year at the Todd Fischer farm in Bagley. It was great having the breakfast back on the farm instead of at the fairgrounds where it has been for the last 16 years or so. The event was well organized and the weather cooperated to allow parking at the farm. Sally helped serve seconds during the early shift. More farms have offered to host the breakfast in the future, so we can look forward to future Dairy Breakfasts served on the farm.
 

FENCE UP AROUND THE DOG PARK

The city has been making great progress on the new dog park north of the clinic. The fence is up, the pathway is done and the water fountain on the north end is ready to go. Now they just need to get the area reseeded so the grass can grow back. You are welcome to have a look at the park when you come to the Client Appreciation Party, but unfortunately, no dogs will be able to play in it until probably next year when the grass is established. We don’t want to end up with a mud hole.
 

STRANGLES IN HORSES

We have been seeing a few more horses with strangles this spring and answering a lot of questions about the disease. Strangles in horses is similar to strep throat in people-mostly occurs in the young, can be self-limiting to very serious. We recommend the intranasal vaccine against strangles for horses under 5 years old who will be going to a trainer or attending events with other horses. Any horse that is traveling and exposed to many other horses is also at risk and should be vaccinated.

Horses that are infected may ran a fever, have swollen/abscessed lymph nodes, snotty nose and cough. Some horses get dehydrated or go off-feed because their throats are too swollen to swallow. These horses need rapid, intensive care. Please call if you have any questions about strangles.