From Southwood Valley Animal Hospital

Howdy! In honor of Valentine's Day we at Southwood Valley Animal Hospital would like to give you 5 things you can do at home to keep your dogs and cats heart healthy!

Diet and Exercise: Just like us, pets with higher body condition scores are more prone to heart disease. Keeping them at a good weight and keeping them active are some of the most important things we can do as pet parents. Oftentimes the cause for obesity in our pets has nothing to do with their everyday food, but actually has to do with all the additional treats and table scraps we give them every day. Cats are often notorious for being overweight because of their lack of exercise and free-feeding tendencies. One of the highest calorie treats you may not even be thinking of are raw hides! They are extremely high in calories and we often give our dogs multiple of these a day. Take a look at this chart below that was made by Royal Canin to show how many doughnut equivalents a lot of the things we give our pets truly are. My favorite tool to determine how much my pet parents should be feeding their dogs/cats can be found at these links

(dog- https://www.purinainstitute.com/centresquare/mer-calculator-for-dogs)
(cat-https://www.purinainstitute.com/centresquare/mer-calculator-for-cats). I send this home with many of my clients trying to get some weight off of their dogs and cats!

Heartworm Prevention: This monthly medication is probably the single most important thing you can give your pet throughout its lifetime. Texas ranks #3 in the country for heartworm disease and positive cases are increasing year over year. Heartworm prevention is completely safe for pets, is nearly 100% effective at preventing heartworm disease, and is affordable. If your pet gets heartworm disease, that can ultimately lead to right sided heart failure and death if left untreated. Treating heartworm disease is much more expensive than preventing it and is taxing on your pets body as well. If your pet has not been on prevention, it is important to recognize signs of heartworm disease including lethargy/exercise intolerance, coughing, and increased respiratory rate and effort. Even dogs and cats (yes cats can get heartworms too and there is no treatment for it!) that are strictly indoors can get heartworms! It just takes one mosquito flying in through an open door and biting them to transmit the disease. As of now the American Heartworm Society does NOT recognize any "natural" remedies for heartworm prevention and some such as garlic can actually be harmful to your pet.

https://www.heartwormsociety.org/veterinary-resources/incidence-maps

Annual Physical Exams: Annual exams are extremely important for both your canine and feline companions. While many times these exams can seem silly and pointless especially with otherwise healthy pets at home, they are extremely important for your pets continued health. Keep in mind that even though to us it "has only been a year" since we last had our pet examined, your pet has actually aged anywhere from 5-10 years depending on their size. A lot can change in that amount of time and dogs and cats are extremely good at hiding abnormalities from us until it is a serious problem. Also at your routine physical exam it is recommended to have your pet heartworm tested every single year. We often get the question: Why do I need to have them tested if they are on prevention? While our preventions are excellent and nearly 100% effective, they are just like any other preventative strategy and sometimes mishaps happen. Heartworm testing ensures that your pets' prevention is working effectively. Additionally, most heartworm prevention manufacturers will cover the majority or all of the cost of heartworm treatment if your pet gets heartworms while on their product. But they will not honor that unless your pet gets their annual heartworm test! So think of the heartworm test as an insurance policy on your pet!

Dental health: More and more studies are confirming that dental disease is one of the top contributors to heart, liver and renal disease in animals. Bacteria from your pets mouth can travel through the bloodstream to these other organs and cause damage. Teeth brushing is the most effective tool at home to prevent dental disease, but just like us it must be done daily to be effective. If teeth brushing is not an option, then dental treats and water additives can be helpful if given daily. We recommend looking for dental treats that are approved by the Veterinary Oral Health Council. Ultimately your pet will likely need routine dental cleanings. We highly recommend this be performed by experienced veterinarians under general anesthesia. Anesthesia has become significantly safer over the years and on most occasions outweigh the risk of dental disease. We do NOT recommend anesthesia free dental cleanings for 2 main reasons. 1) your pet's airway is not protected during those procedures which can result in aspiration pneumonia from the water sprayed out of the cleaning instrument and 2) if a tooth is diseased to the point it needs to be extracted, these facilities are not capable of doing that and you will have to have another procedure done.

Avoid Grain-Free/Boutique Diets: These diets have grown in popularity over the last decade due to good advertising and mis-information. Food allergies affect a very small population of pets with the most common allergen being protein sources (primarily chicken and beef). The reason we are recommending avoiding these diets is because some of them have the potential to cause dilated cardiomyopathy. While we do not believe that these diets have ingredients that are harmful to your pet, we believe it is actually due to what they lack. A Lot of these diets lack taurine which is an important amino acid that is critical for heart health. While we do not think all grain-free/boutique diets have this potential, it is difficult to know which ones are at risk with hundreds of new pet foods hitting the markets every single year. Both the FDA and American Veterinary Medical Association have issued cautionary statements regarding these diets until ongoing research is complete and determines if there is a true causal relationship between the diets and DCM. One common misconception is that just because a food is more expensive or claims to have "fresh" ingredients, that it makes it a higher quality food choice, but this is often not the case. Most veterinarians recommend companies such as Hill's Science Diet, Royal Canin, Purina, Eukanuba and Iams as good food options for your pet because all of these companies do extensive research to ensure your pets food is as nutritious and balanced as possible. All of these companies also have board certified veterinary nutritionists on staff who work to ensure these diets are nutritious. This article (https://sites.tufts.edu/petfoodology/2023/09/19/stalk-about-nutritious-its-corn/) that discusses the use of corn in dog food is a great resource from Tufts University College of Veterinary Medicine. Petfoodology is a great resource that has a ton of articles on a variety of nutrition based questions for your pets!

We at Southwood Valley Animal Hospital hope this information has been helpful and gives you some tools that you can do at home to keep your pet's heart healthy! We hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day and as always we would love to serve you and your pets!

Thanks and Gig'em!
Justin 'Casares, DVM '15 and Lauren Casares '14
https://southwoodvalleyvet.com/
(979) 693-9898