Anyone who has ever used treats or praise to train a canine companion knows that dogs respond to incentives. I’m sure you’re aware from your own experience that humans do, too. For many of us, one of the greatest incentives is money, which is being used to inspire us to find a solution to one of the most intractable problems for dogs, cats, and the people who care about them: canine and feline overpopulation.

Could potentially dangerous surgery become a thing of the past?

Throwing money at a problem rarely solves it; cash has a way of being used up without results being attained. However, a new model of incentivizing scientific progress has shown that money can motivate true changes, if it is in the form of prizes.

The X Prize Foundation has shown that offering large sums of cash, along with heaps of prestige, can spark rapid scientific progress. Most famously, the Ansari X Prize motivated massive leaps forward in the exploration of space by nongovernmental entities.

Therefore, I was very happy to see that veterinary medicine now has its own version of the X Prize. And it’s aiming big.

The January/February issue of Animal Sheltering (a publication of the Humane Society of the United States) published an article on the Michelson Prize and Grants program. The program is named after Gary Michelson, a billionaire with a strong interest in animal welfare. Here is a quote from the article. (At the time of writing, the article was not available online so I was unable to link to it.)

In late 2008, the [Found Animals Foundation] announced an eye-popping brass ring: the Michelson Prize and Grants in Reproductive Biology. The prize promised $25 million to the first entity to develop a low-cost, single-dose, nonsurgical method of permanently sterilizing cats and dogs. The project made another $50 million available in grants for related research.

People have been discussing an alternative to spaying and neutering for decades. Many experts see it as a massive step forward in large-scale animal welfare. But finding an almost mythical alternative has proven devilishly difficult.

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When I first met Percy*, he was in serious trouble. The 2-year-old cat came to the emergency clinic exhibiting profound weakness. He was having trouble breathing. His gums, eyes, and skin were pale but tinged yellow. He had a mild fever. His coat was unkempt, and occasional bits of flea feces were present in the fur. Despite his symptoms, he was markedly stressed by his presence in the hospital — he hissed, attempted to scratch and bite (although he was too weak to do this effectively), and was visibly agitated.

In this type of situation, I needed to prioritize my actions in a process called triage. Several patients were waiting to be treated. Percy was deemed the most critical, so he jumped the line.

Although Percy had many serious issues, two of them needed to be addressed immediately. First, his respiratory distress could be imminently life-threatening. Second, his agitation was exacerbating his breathing problems. Agitated individuals require more oxygen. If they can’t breathe properly, they may panic and become more agitated. This leads to ever-increasing oxygen demand and a potentially catastrophic feedback cycle.

I put Percy in a special cage that could provide an enriched oxygen environment, administered a sedative to reduce his anxiety and oxygen demand, and avoided handling (and stressing) him until the sedative had taken effect.

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Dr Barchas,

Jeanie

Your dog certainly seems to have suffered from an episode of intoxication. Given the symptoms you describe, and the fact that your ex-husband pretty much copped to it, I’m strongly suspicious of marijuana intoxication. I say this despite the two negative drug tests (more on drug testing in a moment).

The background and symptoms you describe fit marijuana ingestion perfectly. A typical case looks like this: An otherwise healthy dog suddenly becomes visibly lethargic and disoriented and may have trouble walking. The dog may (or may not) dribble urine. The dog may overreact to tactile, auditory, or visual stimuli. All vital signs will be normal. Gum coloration (a sign of circulation) will be normal. Pulses, blood pressure, and bloodwork will be normal. The dog should recover fully within 24 to 48 hours, depending upon the quantity of marijuana ingested.

There is good news about marijuana ingestion.

First, there essentially is no fatal dose, as long as you can avoid complications such as dehydration or vomiting with aspiration (inhalation) of the vomit. I have seen dogs survive after eating pounds of high-potency Humboldt buds. I have treated hundreds of known or suspected cases of marijuana ingestion, and not one of these patients has died — or even suffered any real complications. They generally do require veterinary treatment, but with treatment the prognosis is excellent.

Second, once dogs recover from marijuana ingestion, they recover fully. There are no long-term effects. This means that if marijuana did cause your dog’s symptoms, there should be no problems moving forward — as long as no more exposures occur.

As for your dog’s negative drug screens — veterinarians generally employ standard human urine drug test kits that are generally highly accurate for most drugs, although they have two flaws. First, certain medications can cause false positives for drugs such as amphetamines. Second, and more important in your case, false negatives are common for marijuana.

Marijuana often takes a few days to show up in urine drug screens, so many dogs that have consumed marijuana will test negative at the time of treatment. I suspect that’s what happened with your dog. However, marijuana metabolites are notorious for staying in the body for a long time — up to six weeks.

If you really want to know what happened to your dog, you could try drug-testing him now. Your vet should be able to run the test, or you could do it yourself. The tests are available at drugstores.

If your dog tests positive, you have your answer. If not, remember that false negatives still are possible. Marijuana may or may not be the culprit in the event of a negative result. Either way, however, I am very optimistic about your dog’s future.

When we graduated from veterinary school, my classmates and I rose to take the veterinarian’s oath. As I recall, it contained some phrases about protecting food safety and public health. But the meat of the oath, as I apply it to my daily life, boiled down to this: It is my duty to try to heal animals, prevent animal suffering, and to always act in my patients’ best interest. I have tried to live by these principles throughout my career, because I otherwise would not be able to sleep at night. (Although as I reread the oath now, I see that healing animals is barely mentioned, and that acting in animals’ best interests isn’t covered at all. No matter — I will continue to live by my interpretation.)

Euthanasia is, in some sad instances, the only way to alleviate animal suffering and act in the patient’s best interest. However, there are some situations in which owners believe euthanasia is needed, and I strongly disagree. Blindness is one of those conditions.

Start with this: Most “blind” pets actually have some visual function. Older cats and dogs may have significant vision loss, but often have sufficient residual visual capacity to function in normally, although they may have difficulty walking without guidance in the dark.

However, even fully blind animals can lead high-quality lives. And why wouldn’t they? Humans with no vision are able to lead rich and fulfilling existences, and vision is our number one sense. Pets rely first and foremost on their noses; eyesight comes second.

Full blindness occurs in dogs most frequently as a result of glaucoma that irreversibly damages the retina, the portion of the eye that actually senses light. It can be painful, and many dogs require removal of both eyes to relieve the pain. Full blindness in cats most often occurs due to high blood pressure that causes the retinas to detach from the surface of the eye. This can be reversed if it is caught and treated early; if not, it may lead to permanent blindness.

Owners of animals that suddenly go blind often initially have trouble imagining their pet leading a good life. But they soon discover that blindness does not pose an insurmountable challenge. Blind animals generally memorize the layout of their dwellings, and rarely run into walls or furniture unless the house is rearranged.

Blind dogs should be escorted by an owner on walks. Blind cats should not be allowed outside (although in my opinion, neither should sighted cats). No blind animal should be allowed near cliffs or open windows or other obviously dangerous circumstances. Blind animals should be approached cautiously because they may be easier to startle than their sighted brethren. And, as far as special care goes, that’s about it.

Blind animals are on my mind because of Nikko, a dog I treated a few weeks ago. When I first met Nikko (he had been admitted to the hospital by another doctor; I took over his care when I came on duty), I was advised by a sign on his run that he was blind, so I assumed he had weak vision due to aging. I approached him carefully, called his name to let him know I was in his run, and then evaluated him. He was fully blind — both eyes had been surgically removed. And he was definitely suffering, but not because he was blind. He was suffering because he was afflicted with a raging case of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (severe gastrointestinal upset leading to profusely bloody diarrhea).

Over the next 24 hours, with IV fluids, painkillers, antibiotics, and gastrointestinal-protecting medications, Nikko’s condition improved dramatically. A spring came into his step when he was taken out for walks (and yes, he was walked normally, like every other dog in the hospital). His appetite returned. The vomiting and diarrhea stopped. He was a friendly, lively, sweet, adorable dog. He went home to his normal, high-quality life.

If your pet goes blind, do not despair. A good quality of life is not only possible, but is almost certain.

My 4-year-old calico started with some bad coughing about three weeks ago. She has seen the vet and we have had her on azithromycin, then Baytril. She had X-rays and the vet said her lungs and trachea were clear and perfect! They ruled out asthma, but I am not so sure.

Marcy
Brooklyn, NY

Like you, I am not convinced that asthma is ruled out. More on that in a moment.

In cats, the most common cause of coughing is irritation of the bronchi (air passages) in the lungs. This inflammation is called bronchitis and comes in two main forms: infectious (caused by bacteria) and allergic (also known as asthma).

I would have been highly suspicious of an infectious bronchitis as the cause of your cat’s coughing since she has a history of upper respiratory infection. Upper respiratory infections, which affect the nose, sinuses, and eyes, can sometimes spread into the throat or the lower respiratory tract to cause bronchitis or even pneumonia, which can cause coughing.

The antibiotic trial was a wise first step. You describe two of them: one with azithromycin and one with Baytril. Your cat’s failure to respond, even slightly, to these drugs makes an infectious process much less likely.

So, working through the process of elimination, we are left with one other common cause of coughing (asthma) as well as a few rare causes: lungworm, which aren’t common in my experience; cancer, which is very rare in four-year-old cats, and which often shows up in X-rays when it is severe enough to cause coughing; foreign body in the trachea or lungs; and a couple of other also-rans.

I strongly suspect that asthma is causing your cat’s symptoms. It is by far the most common cause of situations such as yours.

And what about those clean X-rays? Many mild cases of asthma are not visible on X-rays. The inflammation of the airways has to be quite severe for it to cause the classical radiographic appearance of asthma. Milder inflammation can lead to symptoms with normal X-rays.

Although feline asthma is also known as allergic bronchitis, it does not respond well to antihistamines that are used to treat allergies in humans. The failure of your cat to respond to Benadryl is thus not surprising.

The treatment for asthma involves use of bronchodilators, inhaled steroids, or oral steroids. You may want to consider treatment (although be aware that oral steroids in particular might exacerbate the upper respiratory infection). Or you could ask your vet about a tracheal wash with cytological analysis.