Go Fetch Fitness Day 6

Day 6 brought us another very experienced speaker in the area of fitness and the physiology of exercise. Paulette Herold is a Registered Nurse Practitioner and has received her MA in Cardiac Rehab and Exercise Physiology from UNI. Paulette has worked in Occupational Health for 14 years. She taught at Allen College, worked in the Vascular Lab and in Cardiac Rehab.
On Friday April 23rd, Paulette discussed the health benefits of walking your dog and of regular exercise in general. Paulette discussed Type 2 diabetes and how regular exercise helps to stabilize blood sugar. This is true for humans and for dogs. So if you or your dog are overweight and are prone to diabetes or already have diabetes, regular exercise a the same time each day will be very beneficial for both of you.
In addition to exercise, keeping a close eye on our sugar intake is important. Watching sugar intake before diabetes is even a concern, helps train our bodies in how to utilize sugar and how to produce insulin. Choosing low sugar, high fiber and roughage type snacks helps keep our insulin production from occuring in great surges and swings and maintains a more even level production. This protects the organ that produces the inuslin, the pancreas.
I appreciated Paulette's suggestion for low-sugar snacks, especially for kids. Cut up veggies with low or no fat ranch dressing, peanut butter, mozzarella cheese sticks, wheat think crackers, yogurt, fruit and Kashi cereals and granola were great suggestions. I have tried these with my own kids with great success!
The common nutrition message that we have been receiving from all of our speakers so far this Go Fetch Fitness season is to avoid processed foods and foods made with bleached or unbleached white flour and foods with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. these so called foods, either have no value to us or have a negative impact on our health. They either raise our cholesterol or drive us toward diabetes.
Again, the theme for Go Fetch Fitness is that by exercising with our dogs, we help thwart off the major debilitating diseases that occur in Americans and American dogs such as diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. If we can consistantly watch our diet and exercise, we can live longer with a better quality of life with the ones we love.
Elizabeth Bixby, DVM

Go Fetch Fitness Day 5

On the fifth day of Go Fetch Fitness, we turned the focus from what we can do for the outside of our bodies to what is going on inside. Heidi DuCharme from Allen Hospital's HeartAware program came to the clinic to perform cholesterol and glucose tests for all of the participants who wanted to have a check. Teresa Elverum, an Allen home health nurse came to perform blood pressure checks for everyone as well. Heidi came back to class and explained just what all the numbers meant. She reminded us that the HDL or high density lipoprotein is the good cholesterol that actually helps clean the cholesterol out of our arteries. The bad cholesterol is reflected in the LDL or low density lipoprotein that tends to clog up our arteries. Heidi reminded us that some factors that contribute to high cholesterol are age, gender and genetics. We cannot change these factors, but she also pointed out the factors we can change such as smoking, obesity and poor diet choices. Exercising with your dog qualifies as a cholesterol fighting tool!! It is recommended that we get 45-60 minutes of exercise 5-7 days a week. This can be split into two 25 minute sessions if that works better for your schedule. Increasing your activity level is reported to increase the good cholesterol (HDL).
Heidi had so much information to share, it is impossible to report it all to you today. I encourage you to go to allenhospital.org to take the HeartAware questionnaire and seek out the information on this website or consult with the nurses in this program.
We have many more tremendous speakers that we will be reporting to you about this Go Fetch Fitness season. To extend the quality time that we have with our families - both two legged and four, is the goal of Go Fetch Fitness. Watch for more upcoming articles as we keep you informed about the journey this courageous group is taking together with their furry friends!!
Elizabeth Bixby, DVM

Go Fetch Fitness

Image by Skwishy via Flickr

We are enjoying a great start to Go~Fetch~Fitness this year! Week one was absolutely packed with information for all of us - two legged and four!! On day one we calculated the daily energy requirement for each dog. This helped our owners determine the exact amount to feed their pets according to their body condition scores and their activity level. We will be increasing our walking time by five minutes each week. For the first week we started out at 20 minutes with about five minutes of warm up stretching before the walk.

On day 2 we special guest who volunteered to join us from Des Moines! Nicole Schumate is a representative from the Delta Society. She explained that the Delta Society helps prepare pets to become service dogs. These service dogs help in nursing homes, hospitals, physical therapy and in school reading programs. This is a national society and because of this status, when a pet becomes a Delta Society dog, the dog is insured with liability insurance through the Delta Society when they are performing their service activities.
Tyson Burton was our special guest on day 3 and continued to day 4. Tyson is the General Manager of our local Snap Fitness gym. Tyson has a Masters Degree in exercise science and has worked with athletes at all levels, from high school through the professional level! We are so lucky to have him with us as he and his associate calculated the body composition scores for all of our participants and took us step by step through a discussion of the Five Elements of Fitness: Nutrition, Cardiovascular Fitness, Supplementation, Resistance Training, and Personal Assistance.

A Pet's Ten Commandments

A PET'S TEN COMMANDMENTS.........


1. My life is likely to last 10-15 years. Any separation from you is likely to be painful.


2. Give me time to understand what you want of me


3. Place your trust in me. It is crucial for my well-being.


4. Don't be angry with me for long and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment, but I have only you.


5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I do understand your voice when speaking to me.


6. Be aware that however you treat me, I will never forget it.


7. Before you hit me, before you strike me, remember that I could hurt you, and yet, I choose not to bite you.


8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I have been in the sun too long, or my heart might be getting old or weak.


9. Please take care of me when I grow old. You too, will grow old.


10. On the ultimate difficult journey, go with me please. Never say you can't bear to watch. Don't make me face this alone. Everything is easier for me if you are there, because I love you so.

Using Internet for Pet Information

The internet can be a very valuable resource when trying to find information regarding pets. However, because anyone can post anything he or she wants, not all websites contain accurate information. Books and journals, on the other hand, have frequently been peer-reviewed and edited by scholars and publishers to assure that each article is credible and based on fact.
On the World Wide Web, there is no similar filter. When researching, it is important to develop skills that will help determine which websites contain reliable content.
Consider the following:
• Is an author listed? What are his/her credentials on the subject?
• Is there contact information available for the author or site creator?
• Is a publisher noted? A publisher would have screened and verified the content.
• Look for signs that the site is academic or scholarly, such as organization name and logo, headers/footers, or a watermark.
• What is the point of view used throughout the site? If it seems opinionated or argumentative, it may not be factual.
• Does a “last updated” date show that the content is current?
Care must also be taken when ordering products from internet sites such as online pharmacies. Some claim to provide information about pet prescriptions and deliver pet medications at a lower cost than veterinarians, and even go so far as to say that you can ‘avoid a trip to the veterinarians’ office’. The facts are that a veterinarian can’t legally or ethically prescribe medication for a pet he or she hasn’t seen recently for the specific condition, or alternately, is not familiar with the care and keeping of the pet. Online prices might be lower because they are very close to expiration date or are coming off the gray market. Or, in some cases, they’re actually no lower. Most medications need to be in a temperature-controlled environment and there is no proof that the online pharmacy is following these regulations, especially since temperature can vary as products are shipped through the mail. Also, because most animal health care companies do not sell to online pharmacies, they will not guarantee medications purchased thru those pharmacies. At least one prominent online pharmacy will not disclose where their products come from, meaning that they could be made to the regulations of a country other than the United States or could be coming from the gray market. As you can imagine, it is easy to get false information from sites like this.
There are a number of credible sites available to pet owners that provide helpful information on a variety of topics. American Animal Hospital Association (www.healthypet.com), American Veterinary Medical Association (www.avma.org), Iowa Veterinary Medical Association (www.iowavma.org), Pfizer Animal Health (www.pfizerah.com), Merck (www.merckvetmanual.com), and Bayer Health Care (www.petparents.com) are just a few animal health companies and organizations that have pet care libraries available. Veterinary Hospitals may also have websites that provide useful information as well as features that help make your pet’s health care more convenient, such as online scheduling and links to current issues. Our website, www.TaylorVet.com, provides our clients with a variety of current pet health topics, links to other useful sources, online scheduling, prescription refill requests, behavior forum, links to past “Pet Talk” articles and many other great features. Google your veterinarian today!
Sam Dugan, Accounting Intern - written in 2008

Bogey Wyborney - Pet of the Month - April 2010

Bogey was a stray who arrived in the coldest part of winter in early 2009. It had been below zero for days and Bogey was yowling from beneath my car, eager for food, milk and attention. When he squeezed out from beneath my car, he was drooling and so bloated I thought it was a pregnant cat. I took him to see Dr. Smith expecting that he was too sick to treat, but to my surprise, every test came back negative. The good news that he was not suffering from anything untreatable meant Bogey could join our household. Unfortunately this was far from the last word on his health concerns. He suffers from a rare gum disease that caused him to lose all his teeth. He had frost bite which claimed both ear tips, hair and whisker loss, a heart murmur, a benign (non-cancerous) tumor in his ear, and diabetes. His whiskers (when he had some) and his fur are brittle and sharp like porcupine quills. In spite of all his troubles, he is a very happy cat and very thankful to be inside, warm and well-taken care of. He doesn't even mind his insulin shots!