Community Practice Rotation

Taylor Swift concert:

Kelli and Gavin's shower

Immersing myself in my new location, I've been researching festivals, food, and events in Baton Rouge for any free time that I may have.

My second rotation, Community Practice, started this week, which includes just one other LSU student and me.  It was like my old jobs again with annual vaccinations and well visits. We saw the two LSU police dogs. We discussed behavior issues and the medications to help correct them, nutrition, heartworm treatment and preventive, and toxicology.

Here are my rants for the week:

Keep your pet on heartworm preventive.  Heartworm is transmitted through mosquitoes, so yes, even though your cat is completely indoors, those pesky mosquitoes have still been know to get inside.  Make sure you are giving a heartworm pill every 30 days; the first of the month is always easiest to remember.  Even if your pet has been on heartworm preventive regularly, you should still get a heartworm test yearly in order to ensure the preventive is working correctly.  If heartworms aren't caught, it can be fatal to your dog or cat.  The treatment in dogs can even be fatal, although it's rare, and unfortunately, there is no treatment in cats.

Nutrition is very important and most vets don't stress it enough because, like owners, they don't know enough about it.  Be sure to check the AAFCO statement on the bag of food to see if it was formaulated or food trialed.  Food trial means that it was actually tested on animals, so they know it is an appropriate diet.  Formulated just means it's a receipe of ingridents.  Next be sure to check which lifestage the food is for.  "All lifestages" means it has to provide the needed ingredients for the hardest lifestages, puppy and lactating dogs.  So, if your adult dog is on all lifestages food, it's not getting the required nutrients, so switch to an adult maintenance.
Corn has such a bad rep lately because people don't think it has any nutrients and it's just filler.  Corn in fact supplies several nutrients such as protein, carbohydrate, fatty acids, and antioxidants.
Blue Buffalo has been getting a lot of attention as well.  I bet you didn't know that Blue Buffalo is the same guy that created Sobe water.  This food claims that it is all natural (natural doesn't mean organic) and is very expensive so owner's believe that it must be "good."  It is actually high in unneeded Phosphours and deficient in some vitamins.  Blue Buffalo just lost a lawsuit and admitted they were wrong about their food not containing byproducts when it does.  Several other foods, such as Beneful, have had similar issues.
And don't get me started on the BARF, raw, and homemade diets.  As a health nut myself, I can understand the appeal, but in reality it doesn't usually work for animals.
Truth is, above anything else most vets want to make sure your pet is on a balanced diet food, they don't care about the ingredients within the food.  Pet food labels are very tricky to interpret, so best advice is to ask your vet about the best food for your pet.  Of course, these are my own opinions, so please form your own opinions based on your research.

Toxicology lesson:
Toxic plant list

Some traditional Cajun cuisine: