All right. It is time for the Gang for Pet Chat to get your pet questions stored. I want to say gang. There's usually no I in team, but there is a Fiona in team. Just you, Fiona. Good morning. Good morning, Mark. How are you? Look, ready to fire all of those pet questions your way. Bring it on. You ready for them? In the middle of all that, we'll also give people a reminder of this time of the year and how that can be affecting our pets too. Absolutely. Easter Sunday is coming up. Easter Bunny will deliver some delicious goodies and what not to do with those chocolates. All right. Sounds fantastic. Maybe not for the pets though. We don't want the dogs to eat the chocolates. More for me, I say. All right. We're looking for your calls.
Dr. Fiona is part of Pet Chat this afternoon. She's ready to answer your pet questions now. The sort of things you can cover, Fiona, dogs, cats, horses? Do you have a crack at horses? I could do my very best. Bees, probably not buzzy bees. Look, there's probably people that would be much more knowledgeable than me. Pet snakes? Pass. Pet husbands?
I'm good at that. You're good at that. I got one of those. Opening up another avenue for you ladies. All right. No, but that's the number to give Fiona to recall right now. Well, look, we're on the precipice of Easter. It's only a couple of days away. That means all the Easter goodies coming in and that's where we have to be super careful. Very much so. I would say, yeah. So as we all know, hopefully chocolate is very toxic to our dogs and cats. It's got a product in it called theobromine.
that is an active ingredient within the caffeine or the chocolate component. And cats and dogs can't break that down like people can. So it is incredibly toxic to them. They can get mild symptoms like gastrointestinal type signs like vomiting and diarrhea. And then that's with low exposure. And then moving up, we can get tremors, we can get seizures, we can get heart-related arrhythmias, breathing issues. So it can be very much life-threatening, but it is dose-dependent. So if you've got a cat, for example, or a chihuahua, they are going to...
get sick from a much smaller amount than a Great Dane or a Labrador. That doesn't mean it's safe to give you Great Dane and Labrador chocolate, but it means your smaller pets are much more likely to show toxic side effects. And that's the trick, isn't it? Because, I mean, this chocolate that comes out, it's nice, it's bright, it's shiny, you're all excited about it, it smells nice, and you can't explain to your pet that this is not for you. That's off limits, yeah. And that's assuming also that, you know, if they swallow the foil, for example, that then becomes a foreign body potential obstruction issue. And it's just a bit tricky because so often people might be visiting and might bring chocolates around, so it might be in the handbag at the front door, or it might be dropped in the Woolies bag in the spare bedroom. So you just have to be...
so vigilant with what's around, particularly if you know you've got a real sniffer dog on your hands that will ferret out and find any sort of food object. And then I guess the other component to remember is the amount of that toxic theobromine in chocolate depends on the type of chocolate it is. So the darker the chocolate it is, the more dangerous it is. So white chocolate is less dangerous than milk chocolate. Did I say that right? Basically, dark chocolate is the most dangerous. Yeah, with white chocolate, I guess the lighter it is.
less real chocolate it is. Correct. Yeah, exactly. In a weird kind of way, it's the reverse for us and the pets, isn't it? Yeah. If you think about it. Yes. So just keep the chocolate away. There's enough excitement and movement and surprises and special guests that it's just one more thing to think about, but just be really vigilant. Keep that chocolate out of the way. If your pet does eat chocolate and you catch it within the first 30 to 60 minutes, call the vet straight away because we can give the pets medicine to make them vomit and then other medicine to decontaminate their gastrointestinal tract.
If they eat it, call the vet straight away. Now, obviously, heading into a bunch of long weekends, there will be less vets available, but there's emergency centres in Newcastle and also the Central Coast who will be available 24-7. And being that this is not a new phenomenon for our veterinary community, I'm sure you're all prepped for it anyway. Very much so. Yeah, this weekend at the emergency centres, you know, tongue in cheek, there'll be a chocolate toxic line and there'll be an everything else line.
So if you don't want to join the line, just don't give your pets chocolate. Good start. All right. 49216216, if you have a question for Dr. Fiona, as Pet Chat rolls on from One Mile, it's Margo. G'day, Margo. And you're talking about feeding a dog. What's your question there? Yeah, so thanks very much for taking my call. Hello, Dr. Fiona. Hi, Margo.
I've got two Labradors, and I saw on a TikTok thing that some pet dog nutritionist was saying that you really only should feed a dog once a day, that because of their digestion and because of cancer and pancreatic issues, that two, you know, several times a day, and you should really, if you have to feed them twice, just give them a six-hour window that they eat between. But then some dogs, if they get a big meal, like a big breed, that might be bad, their digestive system as well. So I was just wondering what your thoughts are on feeding dogs. Yeah. Great question, Margot. I guess in theory, what you've described probably is the same way we should eat. We should probably all have large periods during the day that we don't eat, but it doesn't often quite pan out that way. I think there's some merit in that information, but I guess I'll just tweak it a little bit. I think having periods of time without food is totally acceptable and totally fine. In terms of the side effects of having access to smaller meals, I think probably our pets don't live long enough for us really to see any major negative side effects from...
eating more than once a day. You know, you mentioned like cancer and that sort of thing. I'd be sceptical if there's data to show that. I generally say to people, whatever works for you and your family. You know, if you've got...
Kids that have a big meal in the morning and a big meal in the evening and the dog's hanging around their feet begging for food. I don't have a problem with the dog being fed twice a day. My dogs get fed twice a day and they don't have food in between. They just eat their meals and then they're done. Some dogs aren't particularly hungry twice a day. They're only hungry once a day. So that would be the sort of dog that it would be appropriate to feed one main meal. There are some breeds where I would say small meals.
are better. So our really deep chested dogs, I think Great Danes and Ridgebacks and Weimaranas, they're at increased risk of gastric bloat and a twisted stomach. And that is more likely to occur with big meals. Okay. So they would be some situations where it would be more appropriate to definitely feed two or three times a day. But yeah, I don't really have a straight answer for you, Margot, as to kind of do what you want.
The latest, you know, things that you understand about that and having a Labrador, you know, they don't have an apistat and they're always starving and looking for food. I'm retired and they're not overweight. They're all, one's only 20 kilos and the other's only 23. They're small labs and they're very lean. We live on an acre and they get plenty of exercise, so they enjoy their food. So I thought you might know the latest thing. Sometimes there's stuff on TikTok, you know, what list of this stuff is all crap. I'll just go back to their two nice meals a day and they'll enjoy it. Go back to basics. Yeah, I don't have a problem. Yeah, I don't have a problem with two meals a day, Margot. It sounds like they're getting plenty of physical and mental stimulation, which is super important. So well done. Yeah, all the best. I think that might be one of the points Fiona that Margot did bring out, that they're on the property, the dogs are getting all the exercise they need. So that's different to one that might be just living in the lap of luxury on the lounge all day in the city. Yes, yeah, very different. Again, let's confer back to people, well, we probably shouldn't all be sitting on the couch all day. We should be out hunter-gathering and
one meal a day, but it doesn't quite happen that way. So we'll just do our best. Supermarkets and drive-thru. There's your hunting and gathering. All right. Thanks for that, Margot. 49216216 if you have a question for Dr. Fiona. A little bit of time left for you. Also, the dog of the cat of the week will get a new one your way. Victoria from Rayworth. Victoria, your poodle, 14 years old and the hearing is not that great. What's happening?
I don't know if it's just senior years. I mean, she's a gorgeous little thing, but you have to yell at her a few times for her to respond. She goes through, has a yearly check with our vet. Yes. And they check their ears to see there's no blockages or anything like that. And I'm just inquiring, is it just her seniority? I mean, she's black, but she's got little grey eyebrows. I'm grey under the muddle. And is that just a...
Part of the seniority. Short answer, yes, it is. So if she's had a check by the vet and the vet's assessed her ears, there's a lot we can rule out by doing that. We can rule out ear infections. We can rule out masses within the ear canals and any abnormalities within the eardrums itself. But essentially, yes, it is fairly common, not all the time, but with elderly pets to lose their hearing. She's a gorgeous little thing. We refer to her as a child. Yes. Oh, bless their socks. Yeah, the last...
dog that we lost that was elderly, his hearing wasn't very good. So the kids ended up having to sort of tap their foot on the ground if he was sleeping so that he didn't get startled. So it sounds like she's definitely not at that stage, but it will probably continue to deteriorate. And you've just got to adjust those lifestyle factors as best you can to keep her comfortable. Yes. Thank you very much for that. Makes me feel a lot better. Yeah. Yeah. Just enjoy her in her old age. Thank you very much. Thanks, Victoria.
Good times and great music at 2NURFM 103.7 Pet Chat is the name of the game. Dr Fiona, has she been able to handle our first few calls so far? So hopefully we get something that can sort of tie you up in knots a little bit. Oh, I'd love another call. Or five. Oh, yeah, we could probably do five. 49216216. In the meanwhile, if you've been having the conversation at your place thinking it's time to expand our family, well, we've got the dog and the cat of the week, which you can find up at our website. And firstly, Fiona, we've got the one-year cattle dog by the name of Ripley. Ripley does look pretty cute. One-year-old cattle dog cross female.
is in search of her forever home. She's enjoying her time in her foster family, loves snuggles, is the life of the party, happy and snuggly and will play with her toys quite a bit. She's making good progress with her toilet training, but she is a little bit scared of loud noises and a little bit standoffish with new people. So she's just going to need people that can invest in her training and her socialisation, just taking things really slowly and also just learning some. Learning some new commands and, like, not to jump over the couch, for example. Yeah, that's a good one. Or not to jump up on the bench and steal Easter eggs. Definitely that one more important. But she loves car trips and is crate trained, so that's fantastic as well. All right, a lot of good stuff there for Ripley. We move on to our cat of the week, and this time we're talking about Tilly. And tell us a little about Tilly, Fiona.
So Tilly is a four-year-old female tabby. She's had a rough start to life, the poor little thing. So she's just starting to come out of her shell at her foster family, enjoying cuddles, loves a chat, which is pretty cute, and likes running around and exploring. She is not a cuddle bug. So if you're after a cuddle cat that's going to sit on your lap and you can pick up and carry around, this is not the cat for you. But she's super food motivated. It would be great for a family.
with no kids or with older kids. She's just not that fond of little kids getting in her face and that sort of thing. But if she does currently live with a foster dog, who she gets along really nicely. So some cute photos and some good bios up there if you've got any questions or if you're interested further. Absolutely. So you can check out Ripley and Tilly, our dog and cat of the week, at our pet chat page at our website, 2NURFM.com.au. In the meanwhile, there is a bit of a chance for you right now. A little bit of time left.
Good times, great music, and a little bit more of Pet Chat on 2NURFM with Dr Fiona. And you'll probably notice, Fiona, it's starting to get a little bit cooler. And just like us, our pets are starting to feel that as well. Yeah, definitely. I don't know about you, but for the last few mornings, I've had my dressing gown on over the morning. It has certainly cooled quite nicely overnight. Yeah, if that makes sense intro, I don't actually feel the cold at all, to be honest. Well, I definitely do. The rest of you do. Yeah, so I've definitely noticed. Our two dogs that we have, they sleep outside. They've got raised beds.
warm blankies and then a coat each. But I've certainly been noticing when I go out to get them in the morning and feed them and that sort of thing that the air is noticeably cooler. So what we need to be mindful of for our older pets is whether their arthritis is perhaps starting to flare up a little bit. Because we know in people, if you've got arthritis yourself, you will vouch for this, that when the weather cools off, joints do get a little bit stiffer and sore. And our pets are very, very, very good at hiding pain and hiding being uncomfortable. So the things that we would see that might indicate that our pets are struggling a bit with arthritis is, let's start with cats, for example. So if your cat normally bounds up onto the kitchen bench or bounds up onto their back of the couch or something, and instead of...
doing that quite easily. Maybe they're going to this chair first and then walking along the chair and then going up onto the bench. So they're sort of looking for an opportunity for a smaller jump or maybe they're spending a lot of time eyeballing where they want to go and sort of concentrating and thinking about it before they actually do it. And sometimes with cats as well, they might jump and miss. So a cat is not going to jump and miss unless something's up. So yeah, that would be signs for cats. And then for dogs, things to notice is if you notice when they get up in the morning and they might be stretching more than normal. So some dogs will stretch.
Normally, some dogs will shake normally, but if you're noticing, maybe they're stretching a little bit more or the stretching's taking a little bit longer or stairs in particular. If normally they bound upstairs, they're just taking those stairs a little bit slower. It could be up or down, depending on whether you've got front limb or hind limb arthritis. They're just going a bit more slowly and steadily on stairs. And then also maybe after they've gone for a nice walk or a nice run and they've come home and laid around for a bit, if they're a little bit stiff and sore or you're noticing some limping or they're not quite symmetrical in the way they walk, they might be some signs that we're showing a bit of arthritic discomfort. All right. And some of the best things we should be doing once we...
We see some of that stuff and we take them into the vet. What can we do there? So lots and lots and lots of different arthritis options. Definitely, as you said, Mark, if you're worried, get your vet to check your pet because we can target that treatment plan and we can also give you an idea. Do we think we need to try some x-rays or are some anti-inflammatories more appropriate or have we got some joint supplements available or there's injectable pain relief?
all sorts, you know, I think of half a dozen easily off the top of my head options for helping our pets. And also possibly to rule out that there could be something else at play too. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then if you've done what you can with that, then just think about the basics. If they're currently, if their bed is on the ground, then can we lift it up a little bit so they're not lying directly on the tiles, for example, or could we get a little bit more padding for their bedding or do they need a coat or just thinking, or, you know, often for elderly pets, their hair will grow a bit longer between their foot pads. So they get a bit slippy on the, on the tiles, for example, or so, you know, grooming between the toes or looking at maybe putting some.
carpet runners down the hallway over floorboards and tiles, that sort of thing. Yeah, I guess just making life a little bit more level for them. Yeah, yeah. I've seen some people too, the people that like to have their, particularly dogs in the bed with them, but not have the little ramp. Yes. Where the dogs can no longer jump, there's like a little ramp. Yeah, ramps are great for a number of reasons. If we think about some of the breed. They're not too bad for yourself either. Sometimes you might need that ramp. Look, I feel like they're designed for pets, but sure, if you want to use the ramp, go for it.
Rams are super important for our breeds of dogs that we know are at high risk of intervertebral disc disease or back slipped discs, basically. So Frenchies and Dachshunds are probably the two big ones on the list. So discouraging them from jumping at any opportunity and using rams is a really good idea and getting them used to that from an early age so that they just know that that's how they get up and down. Rams are great. All right, a couple of things to think of there. Cooler weather and Arthur makes the return. Last name, Arthritis. Arthur, no.
Haven't heard that one, but sure. All right, you've got a couple minutes left. We head to lock and fire. Good afternoon, Anne. Your three-year-old Mini Schnauzer is a little bit excitable. What's happening? Hello, Anne. All right, looks like we may have all have lost Anne there. But Fiona, you'd like to have a couple of cracks at this one. Yeah, so obviously we don't have Anne's story, but I'll sort of, I guess, give some examples for any listeners that we might have with a young, excitable dog. A lot of the behaviour that we want to see in our pets, we have to...
train to get if it's not a naturally occurring behavior we're going to have to either train them into it or train them out of it for example barking is a totally normal dog behavior but it's not appropriate in our suburban lifestyle so we need to train them what to what is and is not appropriate to do if you're struggling yourself I would definitely recommend contacting your local veterinary clinic because they will either have someone they work directly with who might be a good dog trainer or they can give you some recommendations. Working alongside a dog trainer is really important, but often that goes hand in hand with working alongside your vet. Depending on your patient, depending on their behaviour and depending on what we're seeing, we may recommend also doing training alongside some medication, which is going to help the dog learn and help the dog understand what behaviour you want of it. And then once that training and behaviour has changed, you can stop the medication. So definitely working alongside a well-recommended dog trainer, working in conjunction with...
with medication if needed and just lots of positive training, lots of repetition and lots of reward. All right, fantastic. Thank you so much for that, Fiona. I think as well, maybe to finish up with a lot of people heading away over the Easter period. I don't know why you would do that because everyone's there. Well, let's go sit on the Pacific Highway together. It'll be fun. It'll be amazing. But eventually, after 36 hours, you may end up at a caravan park or summer camp and you've got your dog with you and there might be a whole bunch of other dogs there. Maybe just a couple of tips so that we don't end up in a legal battle because your dogs attack my dog. Yeah, keep your dog on a lead, number one. Number two, make sure your dog's got a dog tag that has your mobile number. Not much point having your address on it if you're away on holidays.
keeping a collar on at all times, making sure your dog's got your contact phone number on that collar, keeping them on a lead at all times because they're not going to be familiar with their environment. So they might be normally great at the local dog park or the local beach, but you're not at the local dog park or the local beach. You're somewhere that your dog's not familiar with. Different sights, different sounds, different noises, different other people. So just keep them close. Look after them. Make sure you've got your dog poo bags with you so you can pick up after your pets and have an amazing, amazing time together. All right. Sounds good. And you have yourself a fantastic, amazing time over east of Fiona. We'll catch you next time you're here. Thanks, Mark. You too. All right. That is Pet Chat run and done for the day.
Thanks for listening to this podcast from 2NURFM at the University of Newcastle. Topics range from gardening to health, wellbeing, pet care and travel. You'll find them all at 2NURFM.com.