All right, as we get ready to fire up the phones with you on Pet Chat today, it's Dr Fiona. I haven't seen you for a little while, mate. How are you, Mark? Good to see you. I'm ready for you to just dive in and take those calls. You can handle dog calls, yeah? Yes, dogs and cat calls. Bring them on. Snakes? No.
Husbands, yes. Pet hubby. We'll get you sorted. And also I thought being school holidays, if there's any kids that have got any questions, I thought they can give us a call as well. Oh, the two things I say not to do with pets and kids. She wants to do them both. All right. Also a dog of the week today and every call that goes to air is in a chance for a prize. Absolutely. $50 dozer and co gift voucher. Get something yummy for your cat or dog. It's Pet Chat this afternoon on 2NU RFM 103.7. Dr Fiona is here and you are here with us as well, Carolyn, there at Rutherford. Your dog, about 18 months old and is chewing his paws. What's the story, Carolyn?
Oh, I'm beside myself. He even wakes me up. Oh, hi, Fiona. How are you, Carolyn? Poor little cookie. He's 18 months old. And I thought it might be an anxious thing when I'm out at work. He's in a pen with a lot of toys and treats. But even when I'm home, he's chewing his paw. And underneath of his paw, he's bad. And my last dog, Mr. T, I'll get upset. He also used to do the same thing. I spoke to my vet and they gave me some anti-lick.
But Cookie's too smart for that. He waits for the smell to go and starts again. So tell me, Carolyn, is it front feet, back feet, just one foot? It's front, and it was mainly his left. He's now starting on the other one as well. Okay, and how long has he done it for Carolyn?
Oh, months. I've been beside myself. I don't know what to do for the poor little thing. Okay. I'm odd-dicking. I thought, because Mr. T used to do it as well, I thought it maybe had something to do with the Shih Tzu part of the dog. Look, Carolyn, from what you've described, I definitely think we've got two things that are possible. I think you're right. It could be anxiety. But the other thing it could be is allergies, okay? Because dogs licking and biting and chewing their feet is often a sign of allergies.
So there are a number of things that your vet can recommend. There are some soothing shampoos. Sometimes the oatmeal-based ones are really helpful, but other times we need medicated shampoos. But if that's not enough, there are some really fantastic allergy medications out there that are really quite successful. Right. So I would encourage you. I live up here. Sorry? I live up in Rutherford and I still use my vet down in Sydney.
Oh, well, if you want to take the trek, you can, but there'd be plenty of vets locally to you, Carolyn, that would be able to help, I would suggest. Right, so you think it could be medication? Look, very possibly, yeah, because you can imagine yourself, if your feet were that itchy, that they were constantly being licked and chewed, there's probably quite a bit of discomfort involved, so I'd encourage you to get them checked and see if there's something we can do to help him. All right, I'll find someone. I'll have a chat to my lady at Pet Barn. Great idea, Carolyn. All the best with everything there, Carolyn. I wonder if this is kind of the animal equivalent, Fiona, of just biting your fingernails.
Look, if it's anxiety related, yes, definitely. So it's almost a subconscious thing that they don't realise that they're doing. This time of year, Mark, it's so often associated with allergies as well, which is why getting it checked out and getting a bit more of a history and actually examining those feet can help. Is this something we're seeing a lot or more of with dogs? Oh, good question. I would say yes. And the reason I'd say yes is there is a big genetic component to it. So lots of our Labradoodles, Cavoodles, Groodles, they're such popular breeds. And because it is often a genetic or inherited component to it.
we are seeing more and more of those dogs with allergies. Good times. Great music at 2NEWRFM 103.7. Dr Fiona is here and she's ready to answer your call. A couple of moments there for you now if you have a pet question. And Fiona, as you said, dogs, cats, you're fine with those. Pet hubby, you'll deal with those issues. I'll try. You won't give me the right answer. Holidays, winter school holiday mode at the moment and also public holiday weekend, all of that. Of course, a lot of folks may very well be taking their pets on holidays with them or putting them into a suitable accommodation while they go off and have a bit of a time. Some tips around both of those for us. Yeah, definitely. Number one would probably be...
make sure they're up to date with flea and tick protection. You might be travelling somewhere where ticks are more of an issue. I mean, Newcastle, we 100% want everything to be on some type of tick protection because they are nasty. They can be fatal. They can be very expensive to treat. It's much easier to just prevent. And of course, this time of year, I know they've always thought of about, but particularly maybe if you're going north where it's that warmer, it's moist. Definitely. Anything coastal and anything north of Newcastle.
definitely you want to be making sure it's on some type of tick protection for cats and dogs. So that would be my number one tip. My number two tip, make sure your pet has a tag on its collar with its name and your contact phone number. Oh, yes, because last thing you want, the pet's in an unfamiliar environment. It doesn't know that it's gone up the coast for a year old time. No, exactly. It just thinks I don't live here. Yes, yes. So you want to make sure if worst case scenario happens, your pet runs away, that someone can fairly easily contact you. Obviously, the best tip is if you find a pet that's lost, take it to your local vet for them to scan the microchip. But if your microchip details are not up to date.
You may not be able to logistically change them in time to go on holidays, but getting a pet tag printed should be something that's fairly quick and easy to do. Sometimes the low-tech solution gets you through, doesn't it? Yes, gets you out of trouble. I'll throw this one as well. Perhaps it's the first time you've decided to take Fido with you. That's the standard dog name, I guess. Yeah, we'll work with that. And you don't know, but it becomes evident that your dog doesn't travel well. I mean, what do you do if you're kind of halfway through a trip and all of a sudden you realise that, hang on, this dog's not really great in the car? Not great at travelling. A couple of good tips. As you say, if you're sort of halfway through and it's a bit late for a vet visit, a couple of things that can definitely help. Don't feed them before.
your car travel, and then also try and travel with them so that they can see out the window. Because if you've got something, for example, in the footwell, it's a bit like going on a rollercoaster ride, that you get that sort of sense of motion sickness. But often if they can actually see out the windows, that will make them a little bit less nauseous. I would be a hopeless dog. If I was a dog, I'd be happy. I've got cussing off my own driving.
Yes, I don't have any tips for you. I do apologise. No, they're really the same. Just make sure you can see what's going on. Yes, donate before you drive, look out the windows, all sense airflow, same principles. All good stuff there. G'day, Michael at Merriweather. You have a bit of a dandruff problem with your whip it, Michael. What's happening? Well, that was actually...
It's resolved, but it came on immediately. Yeah, brilliant. Tell me more, Michael. Well, we've got her with it. And we wash her beds and her clothes and coats and things once a week. And then she doesn't mind having a wash. I don't know how often we should wash her. Last time she hopped in the shower, my daughter puts on her swimmers and hops in and gave her a shower with the oatmeal-based shampoo. Yes. And then when she came out, very soon, immediately thereafter, when we were drying her, she almost looked like she had dandruff. Okay.
flaky skin and we thought, what have we done? It wasn't boiling hot, obviously, because my daughter was in there with the dog. But it resolved very quickly, but it begs the question, how frequently should we walk? And how warm or cool should you make it? Bearing in mind that...
This dog does feel a cold. Yeah, being a whippet. Yeah. How often should you wash a dog? Look, if they go and roll in something disgusting or they're particularly smelly, go for it. Definitely an oatmeal shampoo is a great one. Other than that, Michael, really every two to four weeks would be all that's required. Okay. And definitely always making sure it's a dog shampoo because dog skin and human skin has different pH. So we can actually upset their skin if we use a human shampoo. It's possible if the... I mean, I just wash my dogs in lukewarm water. Nothing special. The other thing that's a possibility that's just sort of...
I've just thought of with the history that you've given is sometimes if they've been in a coat for a really long time or particularly being a whippet, if they've had some sort of skin covering, more often than not, you just don't get the usual shedding of that skin. So it looks like it's building up. I see. So that could be something that's happened as well. But it doesn't sound too problematic, the situation, Michael, but I think possibility of a combination of the coat being on. And it doesn't sound like you're washing it too frequently. No, it's about every four to six weeks. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, there are certain medical conditions where we certainly need to be doing it more than that, but I don't think that's applicable in this case. Okay, yeah, no, we just got a bit of a shock when she sort of suddenly started shedding skin flakes, and we thought, I mean, I was listening to you just a little while ago about the dog with an allergy. Yeah. And both our dog and her best friend, another whippet, have been sneezing, and our little friend, she actually gets itchy eyes. Yeah. It's funny to watch, but...
Do you ever give dogs antihistamines? No. Look, good question, Michael. If people are stuck, we can often offer it as something that they can do over the counter themselves. But they don't work effectively often in our pets the same way they work for us. The statistics on them are fairly poor and there's much better options as well. But certainly the itchy eyes, sneezy dog does sound like it's got to be the hay fever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's allergy related. Yes, it's been very grassy and blowy and everything.
Very much appreciate that. No worries. Thanks so much. Very interesting. Thanks, Michael. Bye-bye. All the best, Michael. 49216216. It is a season for it, isn't it? Yes, definitely. And look, if you're not sure if it's allergy season, ask someone you know that's got hay fever because they'll tell you quick smart if it's allergy season. No, they'll know. Just look at their nose or their eyes. That's all you need to know right there. Absolutely, yep. Good times. Great music at 2NEWRFM. As we continue with Pet Chat, Dr Fiona is here. And Debbie at Toronto, your 11-year-old border collie, staying to see a bit of wear and tear on the front legs. What's happening, Debbie?
He's just starting to limp around and, yeah, I think he's starting to get a bit old and chasing too many birds. Yeah. And when is it that you notice that limping, Debbie? Most of the time now. Okay. Okay. Has he had a vet assessment any time recently? He went to the vet because he had an ear infection. He had buildup in the ear, so he cleared that up. And the vet said, yeah, because the joint, you know, he's like, I suppose, his wrist joint. Yes. It's quite swollen. Okay. And that's what she said. He's got arthritis in those joints. Yes.
They were talking about using like a steroid injection, but I just don't like, I'd rather try and get something else rather than the steroids if I can. Sure, okay. Like cortisone. Yeah, look, I'm not 100% sure. If it's one joint in particular, Debbie, sometimes we can do an injection of steroid into the joint, but it's not actually one of our, I would say, top six go-tos. There's other things we definitely normally try first. Is he on any type of joint supplement? Well, I had him on the Rose Hit Vital, but he tends to, it doesn't seem to be doing much.
Yeah, okay. And then I tried him on glucosamine. Yes. With chondroitin, but he hasn't been on that for very long, and I'm just wondering if that would help him. Look, there's often with these elderly dogs that end up with arthritis, we need what's called a multimodal approach. So we need lots of different things that work in different ways to have a good result. So I think a joint supplement is part of that. I definitely probably think we're at the stage of needing some kind of anti-inflammatory pain relief. There's also different types of joint protection injections that actually you administer them like a vaccination. So they're an injection under the skin, but they work to improve the quality of the joint fluid and the health of the joint. And there is also another fairly new to market in the last probably four or five years injection, which is a monthly arthritis injection.
which is really brilliant for elderly dogs with arthritis. So lots and lots of options on the table, Debbie. More than likely, you'll be recommended to do a blood test because we want to make sure liver and kidney function is stable before we start those medications to make it as safe as possible. So I would definitely encourage you to make an appointment with your vet, Debbie, and they can discuss all the options and the pros and cons, but it sounds like I think moving forward, some pain relief would be a good idea. Yeah, that's a lot. I was just looking at it. Just something to, because I was thinking about strapping it just to see if it had immobilised a little bit, but he's getting lazier. He's just getting older and lazier.
And look, it's amazing, actually, once you do start some treatment, Debbie, sometimes they really do have a new lease on life. So I would encourage you, yeah, to get it checked out. All right, best of luck with everything there, Debbie. Thank you so much for that. And Helen at Greta, your eight-year-old staffie, Helen, is basically giving you a lot of cleaning up to do. Something like that, yes. Hi, how are you? Hi, Helen. Dr. Fiona here. How can I help? When I go to work, when I go out, I come home and my staffie has pulled all the linen all by the bottom seat down to the bottom of the bed.
Oh, so she hasn't torn it to pieces. She's just taken the sheets off the bed. Yes. She'll discard the pillows. When I come home, there's a bundle at the end of my bed, and she knows. I come home, and I walk in, and I say, what have you done? She's put three years down, so she knows. I was just wondering whether you had a nice explanation for me.
Sure. So I'm going to ask you a couple more questions first. So is she the only dog at home? Yes. Okay. And has she always done it? No. No, it's only the last couple of years, say the last 18 months, two years. Okay. And will she tolerate a certain length of time at home without doing it? Or when does it happen? Do you know? It doesn't seem to matter. If I'm gone for an hour, hour and a half, something like that, she's only done a small amount of destroying or rearranging. But if I'm gone for going to work, yeah, the bed's destroyed. Okay. So she's not eating things. She's just removing the sheets.
Okay. I'll admit, Helen, I've never had a dog try and strip bed linen before and not eat it, but I'm going to start with saying it's very good that she's not eating it. Well, thank you. Have you ever tried locking her out the bedroom so she can't do it? That has been suggested. I haven't been game enough to do that because it's just she and I at home. So she sleeps on the bed with me. So it tends to be a bit of her bed as well, but she does have another bed outside. Okay. All right. I mean, it is more than likely due to, call it what you want, but basically separation anxiety. Okay. Okay. And it's her either expending nervous energy or passing the time or...
trying to distract herself so that she's not so anxious about you being gone. Does she ever chew or destroy anything else or does she bark a lot or anything else that she's doing? Not really. Nothing has really changed other than that. She's getting a bit older. I live on a dog alley and I have people walk behind my back fence. So there tends to be a chain reaction of dogs barking. She gets heavily involved in that, but she's not usually a yapper per se. And not chewing furniture or?
No, no, don't even go there. No, no, thank you. No, I don't want to give her any ideas. Yeah, so look, more than likely it's a behavioural thing, Helen. So there are a number of things really that we can do to try and help her. There are different what we call nutraceuticals or pheromones, so more your naturally derived options to start with. That can be really good to just decrease stress levels a little bit. So there are plug-in diffusers. It's called dog appeasing pheromone and it's released in the same way that sort of ambiper.
diffuser plug-in diffuser works so it works the same way for dogs so that can be really helpful there's also some sort of new uh dog foods actually that have calming um amino acids yeah to try and just take the edge off a little bit so they're things that you could try at home yourself maybe leaving the tv on leaving the radio on those sorts of things maybe they help chew toys that have um you know that require her to use her brain you know they can they can help pass the time and keep them mentally stimulated and just sort of distract them a bit and if those things aren't working then i would highly recommend having a chat to your vet okay okay and seeing whether we are at the point where anti-anxieties might be a good idea or whether it's getting a dog trainer in that's reputable, that can work alongside you. There's sort of some things that will hopefully get you started and give you some ideas of where to move. Okay, yeah, because just listening to you, she has of late, she's not liked the wind and a couple of mornings ago we had a thunderstorm and that distressed her, which is the first time that's ever occurred. So you may be right on the money for the anxiety management. Yeah, and interestingly you say that, we're sort of heading into storm season as well.
So if it does become something that's of concern, I definitely recommend having a chat to your vet, Helen. Best of luck with everything, Helen. 49216216 if you have a question for our pet chat team, which, of course, is Dr. Fiona today. We'll also, Fiona, we'll be doing shortly our Dog of the Week. So what do you reckon a great way to start the, well, to sort of be in the middle of the holidays? Brand new dog at home, what do you think? Look, I don't think that I'm going to spoil party. That's not a good enough reason to get a dog. No, but I mean, no, not the only reason, but there could be some other reasons. Oh, look, yeah, Dog of the Week, he's, she, super cute. And, yeah.
come up with that later. We certainly will. Also, everybody that does make it on the radio with Dr Fiona today will be in the draw for $50 to spend at Dozer & Co. Good times. A great music at 2NEWRFM 103.7 Pet Chat continuing for the next couple of minutes. You may have the next 30 seconds to call if you'd like to have a chat to Dr Fiona. Just as Chris from Shoreland has done, Chris, you have a dietary dog question for Fiona today. Yes, I do. And thank you for taking my call at such short notice. No problem. What can we do to help? About three weeks ago, I adopted a nine-year-old shih tzu rescue. She's a shih tzu cross.
I think what has happened in her previous life is that she's been fed from the human's plate, which I know is sometimes pretty common. But for us, that doesn't work. So what I've been doing is when I've been cooking our meal, so she's in the kitchen with me while I'm doing it, I've been giving her vegetables and putting it in her bowl from like out of the pot and straight into her bowl. What I was wanting to know is are there any vegetables that she can't have? Like are they any no-no vegetables? Yeah, okay, okay. Well, my first comment would be,
So potato and sweet potato, they're your sort of higher carb vegetables. So if you're worried about her weight or you want her to lose weight or you don't want her to gain weight, there's no need for her to be having those potatoes, sweet potatoes. Well, we don't have them anyway. Okay. All right. Well, that works. Often they'll actually prefer raw rather than cooked, Chris. Okay. I think they like the texture and the crunch of them. You know, peas, corn, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower. Oh, right. That's what she's been getting. Yeah. They're all fine. There's none that are big no-nos other than really onion and garlic.
No avocado, no macadamias, but they're not vegetables. But, yeah, everything that you sort of have as your bog standard go-to veggies are fine. Oh, beautiful. Okay, I just wanted to check. Now, as her reward, she doesn't like kibble. Okay. So I'm trying to give her sort of three small meals a day and make it more healthy for her, like ground chicken and ground beef and ground lamb and stuff like that, mixed with a bit of vegetable or something else in it. Yes.
Is three small meals a day going to be enough? She is a bit cudgy. She has got quite a round tummy. And I'm trying to make the rest of her life as pleasant for her as I can and as happy without sort of ruining her and sort of making her overweight. Yeah, look, if she's a bit...
On the return side, there's certainly no need for her to be having three meals a day. I'm quite happy with two. If you're needing sort of further advice with regards to feeding, certainly have a chat to your nurses at your local vet clinic. They can be really helpful to give you some advice. If you are sticking with sort of some kind of protein and veggies, just be mindful that that's probably not giving her all the nutrients and vitamins that she needs. So by all means, either have a chat to the vet staff or you can get access to things like a veterinary nutritionist and there's vitamin and mineral supplements, that sort of thing that you can get to add into her food.
Right. Beautiful. That's what I wanted to know. Excellent. Best of luck with that, Chris. All right. Best of luck. Yeah, for you too, Chris. And that's almost us done, Fiona. But first we have to unload the $50 to spend at Dozer & Co. And just randomly throwing a dart at the wall. Congratulations, Helen. Helen was the lady that had the dog that was tearing apart the bed. Yes. While taking the bed clothes off. Yes.
Helping Helen strip the sheets on the bed, shall we say. That was the one. Congratulations, Helen. We'll be in contact with you very, very shortly. About a minute to go, and our dog of the week is Rosie, four-month-old, Kelpie Cross Staffing. And great, massive big photo of her head. The photo is super cute, yes. There's not much on the photo except for her head. You can adopt the head alone. But super cute, young puppy, so plenty of room to learn and mould them to be a good fit for your family. She's an active breed, crossed with an active breed, so obviously that comes with someone who's going to need to be...
Outdoor playing with her. I have, you know, active young family, plenty of trips to the park or lots of walks to take. She'll want to be involved in her family. So having her inside, continuing her training, making sure you've got a dog-proof backyard, all the kind of usual things that you'd want with any type of dog, really. But she looks like a good one. Absolutely. If you'd like to learn a little bit more about Rosie, head up to our website and check out the Pet Chat page and find the Dog of the Week. Fiona, that's it. We are done. Thank you so much for coming. My pleasure. Thanks for everyone for calling. Absolutely. And another Pet Chat coming your way next week at 2NURFM. Thanks for listening to this podcast from 2NURFM.
University of Newcastle. Topics range from gardening to health, well-being, pet care and travel. You'll find them all at 2NURFM.com