Sawyer the Office Cat's Outbox at Pittsboro vet [Hill Creek Vet]

Monday, April 23rd

Thanks for having a spot in your heart for Spot!

Hey everybody! Sawyer here. Sorry I’ve been out of touch with you, I’ve been hiding a bit from some of the crazy people here at work. They seem to think I’m some sort of cover model; they keep dressing me up in crazy costumes and snapping pictures of me. I can barely keep up with my scheduled havoc-wreaking. Whew!

Anyway, I just wanted to send out a big thanks to everyone who helped us with our “Have a Spot in your Heart” fund. For those of you who haven’t been by lately, the folks here started this fund through our Animal Relief Fund to raise money for a dog named Spot. Spot was removed from some pretty awful living conditions, and has been a ward of the Chatham County Shelter. He is in need of a good home, but he has heartworms and needed to be neutered. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, we raised enough money to take care of his medical needs.

Spot was neutered here the other week. I personally checked on him to make sure he was comfy during his stay. Once he’s recovered from that procedure, we’ll be starting his heartworm treatment. Never fear, I’ll be supervising that as well.

Now that Spot’s been taken care of, if anyone is looking for a worthy cause I am in desperate need of some Hill’s t/d. Anyone? Anyone? Tax-deductible!!

Editor’s Note: Please do NOT give Sawyer any t/d; he’s on a strict diet because of his food allergies. At least, we try to keep his diet strict, he’s constantly trying to break his diet.

Sawyer on 04.23.07 @ 06:05 AM EST [link] [No Comments ]

Tuesday, April 17th

Recall update

Hey Everybody!

Sawyer here, on the prowl. Wanted to update you cool cats (and OK dogs) about this whole food recall thing. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little frustrated with it all. When we last chatted, I told you that a rat poison, aminopterin, was the cause of the problems. Well, unfortunately only one laboratory was able to find this compound in the food. So now the “experts” are saying that the problem is a contaminant of the wheat gluten called melamine. Melamine is a chemical used to make some plastics and fertilizers. What’s confusing about this is that melamine is not really toxic to cats; it doesn’t cause the kidney failure that’s been seen in affected pets. We don’t know if the melamine is causing the problem, or if it is a marker of the contaminated food and something else in it is causing the problem.

You may have heard that some additional foods have been added to the recall list, including some dog and cat treats, Alpo prime cuts in gravy canned food, and one of the prescription diets, Hill’s feline m/d dry. Another prescription formula made by Royal Canin was recently added to the recall, but this particular food was only sold in Canada. Websites with complete lists of the recalled foods are www.menufoods.com and www.fda.gov. If you have trouble finding a food in question, give us a call and we’ll be glad to help you.

So as you can see, we have a lot more questions than answers right now. So far, the doctors tell me my food is OK. A survey on VIN (a veterinary information source) has shown that veterinarians have seen over 1000 cases of animals with acute renal (kidney) failure. Most of these cases responded to treatment. The majority of affected animals have been cats.

The most common question we’ve been hearing from people here is “what do I feed my pet?”. Because we still don’t know exactly what caused this, we cannot tell you that a food is perfectly safe. For now, you may want to avoid foods with wheat gluten in them. Some people want to cook for their pets. This can cause problems if the food is not balanced (dogs and especially cats have special vitamin and mineral needs). If you want to make a balanced home-made diet for your dog or cat, the website www.balanceit.com can help you. If you enter the promotional code “VIN” you can download a free recipe. We don’t recommend this for long-term feeding, but this may help you with peace of mind until we get more answers.

All this talk of food has made me hungry. I think I hear an unattended food bowl calling me, so I’ll have to be going. Safe eating!

Sawyer

Sawyer on 04.17.07 @ 06:43 AM EST [link] [No Comments ]

Monday, April 2nd

Aminopterin

Hey Everybody! Sawyer here. I wanted to give my peeps an update on the pet food recall. You may have heard they identified the toxin in the food. It’s a drug called aminopterin, a rat poison that is banned in the US. It works differently than the rat poisons used here in the US (which cause bleeding or neurologic problems). It is similar to a chemotherapeutic medication (what they use to treat cancer). They believe it was in the wheat, which came from another country, China. It causes kidney disease and can cause bone marrow suppression. The bone marrow makes our red and white blood cells and platelets. These cells do important things, like carry oxygen, fight infection, and help stop bleeding. So far, we’ve seen a few cases of kidney disease but no bone marrow suppression. However, this can take longer to develop. So if you start feeling poorly and seem to have a lack of energy, come see the doctors here.

The doctors here tell me that there have been over 200 cases seen around the country, at least according to what veterinarians have posted on VIN (an online resource for veterinarians). A good website for information is www.avma.org.

Here’s hoping you are all feeling well and eating safe!
Sawyer

Sawyer on 04.02.07 @ 07:29 AM EST [link] [No Comments ]