Special 50th Episode: Pet Behavior with Veterinary Behaviorist Dr. Vanessa Spano

For our special 50th episode of Ask the Vet, Dr. Ann Hohenhaus welcomes Dr. Vanessa Spano—AMCs first-ever veterinary behaviorist and the only board-certified veterinary behaviorist in New York City. Dr. Spano’s expertise spans a wide range of behavioral challenges, including anxiety, aggression, trauma recovery, and compulsive disorders. Tune in as they discuss:

• The difference between veterinary behaviorists, trainers, and general veterinarians 
• What are the most common behavior issues among pets?
• How Dr. Spano determines if a behavior issue is medical or psychological
• Body language clues for dogs and cats
• How anxiety in pets can be managed
• The role of medication and training in treating animals with behavioral issues
• Managing aggression in animals
• Are shelter pets different from other animals?
• Dr. Spano's advice for pet owners struggling with behavior issues
• How to make an appointment with Dr. Spano

Also on this month's show:

• Viral trending animal story of the month featuring the opossum who ate an entire Costco tuxedo chocolate mousse cake
• Animal news, including how the birdwatching app eBird is helping protect vulnerable species from bird watchers
• Pet Health Listener Q&A, where Dr. Hohenhaus answers listener questions about urine crystals, different types of diagnostic imaging, and how to effectively apply ear drops

Do you have a pet question for Dr. Hohenhaus? Email askthevet@amcny.org to have your question answered on Ask the Vet's Listener Q&A.

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Transcript

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We want to remind our listeners that this program is for informational and educational purposes only, and not intended to substitute for professional veterinary medical advice, diagnosis and treatment. The Animal Medical Center does not recommend or endorse any products or services advertised by Sirius XM. Welcome to Ask the Vet with Dr. Ann Hohenhaus. This is the place to talk about your pets and get advice for the top veterinarian from the Animal Medical Center in NYC. Hear from the leading authorities on animals and give us a call to ask your questions. Now here's your host, Dr. Ann Hohenhaus. Hello everyone, and welcome to Ask the Vet. It's a podcast for people who love their pets and want the latest in pet health and animal news. I'm your host, doctor, and ho and house. I'm the senior veterinarian and director of pet health information here at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center, right in New York City. This month, the podcast just having a major milestone. This is our 50th episode since asked the Vet launched as a podcast. We are so grateful to all our listeners who've been with us along the way, and we're excited to continue bringing you expert insights, meaningful conversations, and the latest in pet health and wellness news. For this special episode, I'm thrilled to welcome Doctor Vanessa Spann on AMC's first ever veterinary behaviorist and the only board certified veterinary behaviorist in New York City. She's going to join me to break down the science behind animal behavior, debunk common myths, and explain how specialized behavioral care enhances our pets well-being and strengthens the bonds between animals and their people. I'm really looking forward to our conversation today. The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center is the only level one veterinary trauma center in New York City, and we have 114 years of being the very best place for pets. If you're seeking advice on maintaining your pet's health, I'm here to help. Just send me your questions at our very easy to remember email. It's AskTheVet@amcny.org, and I'll answer your questions on next month's show. If you don't have a pen or pencil to write that down, get it? When we take a break and I'll give it again later on in the show. And now it's time for our trending animal of the month. It's time for the internet's most talked about animal. An Omaha, Nebraska woman got an unexpected visitor and a big mess when a hungry opossum helped herself to an entire Costco tuxedo chocolate mousse cake sounds delicious. Kim Doggett stepped outside to find the cake destroyed on her porch. Brown paw print streaked across her new beige couch and the opossum panting and stuffed, sprawled on top of the sofa. Now, I don't think it's any surprise that there's a possum couldn't move. I checked Costco's website, and the opossum had consumed 4480 calories of chocolate mousse cake containing ganache, brownie bits, chocolate nibs, and a little bit of vanilla mousse added in there for variety. So Ms. Doggett attempts to shoo the positive away failed. That's because it's just eaten 4000 calories. And she was concerned about chocolate toxicity. So she called the American Humane Society, which retrieved the now infamous cake Bandit and took her in for evaluation. The opossum quickly went viral, with fans flooding Nebraska Wildlife Rehab Facebook page. We've all been there, girl, one commenter wrote. But in a surprising twist, the feast may have saved the opossums life because veterinarians discovered she was suffering from lead toxicity, a potentially fatal condition. Now receiving treatment, she's expected to make a full recovery and be returned to the wild in the spring. Good ending to the Chocolate Bandit story. And now I'm excited to dive into today's conversation with my brand new colleague, Dr. Vanessa Spano. Dr. Spano is New York City's only board certified behaviorist and the first ever veterinarian behaviorist at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center. Part of the reason that this is our first one is that there are only less than a hundred board certified behavior veterinarians in North America. So Dr. Spano is part of a very select group of experts dedicated to understanding and improving animal behavior. She earned her veterinary degree from the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, Canada, and completed a rotating internship here in New York City at the ASPCA, where she worked with animals involved in humane law enforcement cases. She then pursued a residency in veterinary behavior and became board certified in 2023 by the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. Her expertise spans a wide range of behavioral challenges, including anxiety, aggression, trauma recovery, and compulsive disorders. She has a particular interest in shelter, medicine, and psychopharmacology, and the psychological effects of trauma in animal cruelty cases. Before joining AMC, she served as a medical director of the ASPCA Adoption Center, working closely with rescue animals and pet owners navigating complex behavioral issues. Now at AMC, Doctor Spano is expanding access to specialized behavioral care and helping pets and their families better understand and manage your behavior challenges with a science based, compassionate approach. Thank you so much, Doctor Spano, for joining us here today on Asks a Vet. I always want to start by asking my guests about their own pets. So tell me about yours. Thank you, Dr. Hohenhaus for that wonderful introduction. I'm excited and humbled to be on this show, as well as now practicing at the esteemed Animal Medical Center. To answer your questions. So I have two very loving cats of my own, little prince and dancer. Little prince is the black and white kitty, with no eyes that you might see in my photograph on the AMC website. And he was adopted from the kitten nursery at the ASPCA in 2017. And then a few months later, I adopted his sister, dancer, who's not actually his litter mate. She's a beautiful Siamese kitty, also from the ASPCA. And then I do share with my family an adorable miniature poodle by the name of puppy. Or puppy. He was previously from a cruelty case that was very sad. That we're very happy that he's with us. And then finally, we also share another white cat, a beautiful kitty by the name of Princess. And she's a tripod. She's missing her front legs. So we're very busy with our pets. Well, and and for the listeners out there, Dr. Spano’s menagerie is absolutely typical of veterinarians. We never quite exactly have perfect pets because they just kind of. They're in the hospital and they need a home. And then you fall in love with them, and it doesn't sort of matter if they don't have eyes or they're missing a leg or something like that, because somehow they just, like, speak to you. And then the next thing you know, they're in your house. So this is a typical veterinarian’s set of pets at home. So I'll start with our first question for today. Vendor behavior is a growing field. There's room for a lot more people to become board certified behaviorists because there are so few of you. So how did you end up in this, this almost niche specialty? I was always very interested in psychology. Even in high school. I also was very particularly interested in science. And growing up, when I realized I could combine practicing science with my love of animals, going into veterinary medicine made a lot of sense to me. Once I found out shortly prior to being accepted into veterinary school that there was a specialty, although small, that specialized in psychology for animals. I knew from the beginning that that is really ultimately what I wanted to do upon graduating. And, you know, I think as veterinarians and veterinary professionals were all really interested in animal welfare. And I just felt that for me, the best way I can improve an animal's welfare was through really, understanding their mental state and trying to make their behavioral well-being as good as possible, because that is, you know, we all have behavior and as a result can have behavioral abnormalities. So I just thought that was the best thing that I could do to help improve their welfare. So you are board certified veterinary behaviorist. And that is a different classification between a trainer. And then there's general veterinarians. So how how do these people all work together. But what makes each one of them different. And you raise a good point. They should all work together on behalf of the pet in question. So a trainer, first of all, there's a lot of different trainers out there. There are some trainers that are really good with obedience training, almost like puppy and kitten kindergarten. The trainers that I really work with are more like behavior consultants that are well-versed in behavioral problems and helping pet owners navigate that with their pets, and so they should be well-versed, not only in the different disorders like anxiety, aggression, and fear, but also understanding why those disorders develop. And so having a background in psychology, in learning theory and applied behavior analysis. And a lot of it is I hear from clients, they say, oh, wow, this is very similar to what I learned for my children. It's very much similar to child and human psychology, ultimately. And so because child psychology is really moving towards applied behavior analysis, environmental management, positive reinforcement, a lot of the trainers that I really work with are reward based and science based training only. The difference between a trainer and a veterinarian behaviorist is essentially the veterinary degree. So the trainer is there to help you with training protocols. Whereas I sort of explain it to clients like I'm the psychiatrist and the trainer is the talk therapist. So as the psychiatrist, I make the diagnoses after like a history taking and behavioral observations based on the diagnosis, I come up with a treatment plan. And part of that treatment plan always comes with behavior modification or training to teach the patient coping mechanisms, which is what the trainer can guide the client towards after the appointment. And then if indicated, I can be the one to prescribe, you know, behavioral medications. As a veterinarian. And in terms of the difference between a veterinary behaviorist and a family veterinarian, there are some family veterinarians that are, you know, more comfortable than others in navigating behavioral problems. But more often than not, when it's an intense issue, they would refer to someone like myself, similar to, you know, if a pet has cancer and they need to be referred to an oncologist or cardiologist for heart disease, and so I can start some problems, like cats don't lose their litter box. I know what questions to ask those clients. Like how many litter boxes do you have? How many cats do you have? Did you change the litter? Lots of things like that that I can at least start asking the questions and then have the answer to all my questions is no, then I don't, I don't know. The next step was kind of a more general veterinarian. So what behavior issues are most common in your practice? I think one thing to highlight about that is the nature of where I practice. Being in New York City, I believe that my caseload is a little bit different than in some rural areas or residential areas. For example, it can be a hard place to live for animals because it is very chaotic outside, especially dogs that go on walks. There's lots of little traffic. It's fortunately a dog friendly city, so there's a lot of other dogs, there's loud noises and smells and that can just be really unnatural for a lot of dogs, especially if they were bred in areas outside of the city or coming up from shelters, elsewhere in the United States. And so what I'm alluding to is one of the biggest issues that I see, which sometimes clients don't even necessarily realize it's an issue until we talk about body language, is conflict and fear. Walking outside in the city. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of dogs that love going on walks in the city, but those dogs are not going to come see me. So the dogs that come see me, they may have some reactions towards the leash coming out in the home, like they're just not running towards the door, they're running away. Or sometimes they're like, well, my body language isn't clear, so I need to be aggressive to get my point across. I don't want to go outside, and that can be a root issue for a lot of problems that I see, because dogs, understandably, are walked multiple times per day, and so they're constantly getting triggers stacked. Beyond that, of course, I do see my fair share of separation anxiety, which I think, you know, doesn't matter. Regardless of location. And then I do also see aggression, which I understand. Family veterinarians may not necessarily feel comfortable with that because there's a liability that comes with it. I perform risk assessments, and some of the more common aggressive motivations that I see, it's a lot due to fear. But there's also, territorial behavior, protective behavior of the owner. And minus the walks, cats can see everything of what I can. I have everything of what I just talked about separation anxiety, fear, fear, aggression. So I primarily see dogs and some cats. Well, I think that cats, though what we forget about is hardly anyone in New York City lives in a single person dwelling. And so I don't know. But I think the apartment upstairs for me is having construction going on. And if I were a cat living in my apartment, I would be unhappy because there's this buzzing noise that seems to be going on all the time. And if I was a cat that wasn't used to children, there's quite a noisy toddler next door. So if I was a cat, I would not want to be living in my apartment. And it's it's due to noise. And then there's a parking garage across the street from us, and there could be a lot of honking in the morning when people are in a rush to drop off their car. So those we know bother dogs, and especially when they're out on the street, the honking at the dog is just a quivering mess. But I think cats probably are affected by noise as well. It's a little more subtle, I bet, to pick up on it, but one of my patients, she was having window issues in the whole building and that cat was peeing outside the box. Not because the box wasn't clean, not because she changed a litter, or not because she moved the box or anything. But he peed outside the box on days when the workmen were jackhammering the windowsills, and he was very unhappy about that, very unhappy. And if I might add, that's a really good point. And I'll even say on a personal level, my cat, Little Prince, that you see in all the photos, he has the touch of separation anxiety. And when I have clients that bring their dogs in for separation anxiety, one of the first signs that they notice is because their neighbors are complaining about the barking. And cats are really very quiet. And so the one clinical sign that I noticed for my cat was separation anxiety, similar to your patient, was that it was only when I would leave the home out of routine that he would urinate outside the box. Yeah, yeah. And so I think that living in our multiple family dwelling situations in New York City makes some of these behavior things really challenging, because when you go to work in the dog house, barking in the apartment below you, above you, and next door, call the doorman to complain you're in hot water when you get home. So these can be much more acute in the city simply because of how we live. Where if your dog barks and you live at a house on an acre, there's no neighbors to complain about it, you know, and you maybe don't even know the dog barking the whole day until you come home and find that the dog has ripped up the sofa, or on stuffed all the pillows or something like that, because it was distressed. Correct? Absolutely. So being in the city changes change. I bet it changes the clinical signs that you see of some of these behavior disorders. I just personally think there's a lot of trigger stacking that goes on in the city because of the nature of where we live. Like you said, there's lots of people, so it's just so much easier for cats behavioral disorders to unravel sometimes. Well, and I have patients that are fine in the country on the weekend, and they come back to New York on Monday morning and they've got diarrhea. And I think it's it's stress in those animals. They prefer the country house, you know, more space, less people, less noise kind of thing. Okay. So you're now Mickey's first ever veterinary behaviorist. So what is the most exciting thing about joining the team here at AMC? It's hard to sum up in one answer, but I have to say, as a New Yorker, because I grew up in New York and having growing up with pets, I always knew of the Animal Medical Center as the place for your pets to go. If there's an emergency, if they need specialized care. It's an esteemed hospital with really incredible veterinary staff, both technicians and veterinarians that, continue their education, produce research, get additional certifications, post their training. And so ultimately, it's just very humbling for me to be surrounded by some of the best of the best. The AMC team. For those people who haven't been here, if you've been here, you get it. If you haven't been here and you're just a listener. This morning when I was coming in early, the, the person in front of me was someone who was blind. And we see a lot of seeing eye dogs because people need them to get around the city. And the security guard swooped in, got the lady the right sticker for where she was going in the hospital. Because our clients wear these stickers. So, you know, they're on the right floor where they're supposed to be swooped in, sat her down, called the team that was supposed to be taking care of her, and made sure that this lady who can't see and was probably there either to drop her dog off or to have her dog looked at, was, was taken care of. And so that the the level of care that happens at AMC all across this team that that Doctor Spano’s talking about it was it was really cute this morning. The dog was really cute too. So when you see a behavior case, how do you determine if the case is a medical problem that's making the animal misbehave or a psychological problem? Or maybe it's a little of both. How do you sort that? An important point to remember is, and I tell this to your referring veterinarians all the time, behavior is a diagnosis of exclusion. There is no diagnostic blood test or urinary test that I can submit to say, oh look, your pet has a neurochemical imbalance. This behavior that you're seeing is truly behavioral in origin. So it is important to rule out a lot of the relevant medical issues. Part of it does involve a very detailed history in terms of seeing what the pet is communicating, what is their body language, are they showing signs of fear, anxiety, and how this escalated over time? But it's important, you know, to do a thorough physical exam, baseline bloodwork, because there can be metabolic disturbances like liver dysfunction that might cause some aggressive behavior in certain pets. We see a fair amount of what I call pathophysiological, aggression or anxiety. And that could be aggression or anxiety that is truly rooted in something psychological. But when the pet physically doesn't feel well because they have itchy skin or an upset stomach or, you know, their back hurts, they have a slipped disc, that makes the behavior even more intense because not only are they dealing with the behavioral issue, but now they're also triggers from physically not feeling well. And that happens in people too. If I'm upset one day and then on top of that, my back hurts. Everything is going to seem a little bit more worse than if my back didn't hurt. So and if we don't find out the pathophysiological contributions, we can be treating the behavior all we want. But it's never going to get where we can be until we do a comprehensive treatment plan of everything that we could think of. So twice now, maybe three times you've mentioned body language. So I'm not sure that our listeners necessarily recognize body language clues in their animals. So can you give a quick dog and a quick cat example of a body language that tells you something about that pet? Yes. Body language is how they communicate. And so obviously body language, when the pet would come to see me is lunging and growling and snapping and biting. That's the pet saying I am uncomfortable with whatever's going on, get away from me. But there's also more subtle signs to, both cats and dogs will yawn when they get stressed or show the whites of their eyes when they get stressed. Yeah, I have a lot of yawning pets that come to see me in the paper like, oh look, he's tired. And I'm like, oh, I don't think he's tired. I think he's stressed. Yeah, he doesn't want to be here. And he's yawning. So let's talk about anxiety for a minute. What do you do to approach anxiety in dogs and cats? Or are are owners who bring you a pet and say, my dog is anxious? Are they actually right, or is the diagnosis something else? Anxiety is really just a label. So, kind of like what we were just saying. I'm going to ask the client. Okay, well, give me the contexts in which you feel that your pet is anxious. Describe objectively the body language. And if you know the dog is, they need to go outside and the dog is yawning and putting on the brakes, I would say, okay, that dog is fearful about the context of going outside. Whereas if a person comes into the home and the dog is barking, growling, lunging, I would say that might be territorial aggression. So it depends on the context and the motivation behind what the issue is. And we've talked a couple of times about medication. So when does the when do you say, oh, you don't need a trainer. You need drugs. Yeah I will almost always say you need a trainer. But on top of that, medications would be indicated a few different reasons. Number one, if there is an immediate, issue with the pet's welfare, like they have panic or phobic issues, training. Training is really important because medication doesn't teach the patient anything about how to cope with their environment. That's what the training is. But just like talk therapy and people training is not going to happen overnight. It's going to take months. And so if there's an issue with the pet's quality of life and welfare, I'm going to say ideally we should start your pet on medication now to give them some relief while we work on training. But that's not the only reason why I would recommend medication. The biggest reason why I do is because the right medication will restore a healthier neurologic environment to support learning, and it can help expedite the training. So it usually should be used hand in hand with the training. So a few minutes ago you talked about some trainers who were good with puppies and kittens. Yeah, puppies and kittens for like kindergarten. So how important is that in raising a healthy pet? That's a great question. I think it is really important if you have the chance that you get your pet, you know, when they are still in puppy hood or kitten hood, that during that period we call it the critical period of sensitization or socialization. And there's a lot of neurologic development going on, and that neurologic development dictates partially the behavior of what the pet is going to exhibit later on in life. And so if we can enhance that neurologic development in a positive way, with positive associations with novel things, novel people, novel pets, noises, environments, that can really help set your pet up for success in the future. And that's why foster care programs are so important that shelters is that you hope that every kitten and puppy is going to get adopted to a nice home. And if you raise those puppies and kittens in the shelter, they're totally comfortable in the shelter environment. And you put them in a home and the dishwasher turns on and they have a nervous breakdown because they've never heard a dishwasher before, or the telephone, or the vacuum cleaner, or the family coming home and slamming the door. And so that's why having a good foster care environment is so important for these little squirts that are abandoned and end up in the shelter system. Yeah, and 100%. You said that very well. And, you know, sometimes we'll sadly see puppies and kittens with infectious diseases that need to be hospitalized in isolation. And if that happens right around the time that their critical period of socialization, it's really tough because now they're stuck in an isolation ward being treated for however long, and we don't know when they can get out and hang around other animals and people. But I think that that is a testament to what you're saying of how important it is to socialize them around that time. Yeah. And that, you know, if they could see a dog, people and small people and meet a couple dogs and maybe another cat, and it just really makes a very big difference in having an adaptable pet, you know? And so my foster kittens always have like two kinds of litter, because, well, what if they don't like one? Or what if their new family doesn't choose this kind of litter? They've been my kittens have seen, like the yesterday's news litter and, you know, the traditional clay litter or some clumping litter or this or that. And so I try to change it up for them so that they learn that it's not always one way that it might be different someday. That's exactly right. Life is different outside of the shelter. Yeah, yeah. Or outside of my office. Yeah, I have to. We need to get some kittens. Got to work on that. They should. There should be kittens coming any day now. So I'm going to work on getting some kittens. So maybe we'll put the kitten cam back on. Well, please let me know when they're there so I can see them. You can come play with them. So how about aggression? That's, I think, one of the scariest behavior problems to deal with. And I have clients who've got these animals that are kind of unpredictable, and they've taken a chunk out of multiple people. So how do you deal with that? And it also adds, like, have an owner dealing with the pet with a behavioral issue in and of itself is really tough because this is more often than not, a chronic disease that requires long term treatment, which can be time consuming and, sometimes costly. But when you add aggression into the mix, you're now dealing with the issue of liability. And so aggression is something I see very commonly. I think that we need to get to the bottom of the triggers of why the pet is being aggressive. Avoid those triggers in the short term for safety purposes. And so the pet doesn't have the chance to rehearse that aggressive body language. All the while, we put them on the right medications to decrease the intensity and frequency of that behavior. In conjunction with training to teach them coping mechanisms. So how are shelter pets different from pet pets? Because you work for the SPCA for a long time now, your shifting to more pets that are owned by families. What do you think's going to be the difference? There? It's a different frame of mind because with, pets in the shelter, we are trying to make them as adoptable as possible, whereas in the home they're already owns. That being said, we want to make sure we can retain the pets in the home to avoid owner surrender or relinquishment. And and in saying that, unfortunately, it's very well known that behavior is the number one reason for pet relinquishment to shelters. So it is not uncommon at all for a lot of the shelter animals to just automatically come in with behavioral issues. It's hard to be consistent in a shelter in terms of carrying out training protocols and management protocols, because there's so many different staffs. And the poor animals just don't have a routine. So it's different. And how we carry out the protocols. But the diagnoses are essentially the same. So that's something I think that might be important is routine. I don't think dogs don't like things to change. We actually cats probably don't either. You change the litter, they're going to pee outside the box. So is that a piece of advice for pet owners? Is change as little as possible? Exactly. I tell my clients all the time, just like us dogs and cats, especially anxious dogs and cats, thrive on predictability and routine. And it's not like we're trying to create this sterile, unrealistic environment so that you can't live your life, but just try to implement predictable and consistent routines and social interactions when we can. And that in and of itself is almost like a medication. So that's one piece of advice. But what other what's your best advice for pet owners who are struggling with behavior issues and kind of don't know where to start to try and sort out that issue? I would say my biggest piece of advice that I say in every single one of my consults is behavior is a function of the environment. So it's much more effective to try to change the environment than it is to try to change the patient. We may never get a territorially aggressive dog to love having guests over his home, but if we can manage it by having him in a separate room with treats and toys and all of that, or, you know, small little toy dogs that just don't want to walk outside as much, I think you'll overcome a lot of grief, of trying to fight the dog, to get them outside by just training them. Okay, so change the environment. Don't change the animal. Now, finally, if people have listened to what you have to say and realize that they need your services, how would they go about doing that? That's a great question. So, if you go on the Animal Medical Center website amcny.org, you could go to, the section for pet owners and then the drop down menu which says Specialties and Services. And then the next drop down menu which is behavior service. And on their the behavior service page is all the information on how to request an appointment online and all the different types of disorders and animals that I'll treat and see. So I would say also that our search engine on that website is very robust. And I think if you type in behavior or Spano, you might get a hit on that as well. Because that's what I do. I don't I know where things are and I could use a dropdown to I just use a search bar. So this has been such an insightful conversation, and I really appreciate Dr. Spano being here and sharing her expertise with us and want to just one more time, welcome her to the Animal Medical Center. If you out there in listener land want to learn more? Mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 19th at 6 p.m. Eastern Time and that will be Eastern Daylight Time as well. When doctors panel will host a webinar through the Use Dan Institute called Behavior Solutions for Pet Owners. Like all of our Usdan Events, it's free, but you need to register in order for us to send you the zoom link. You can sign up by going to www.amny.org/events. Again, Dr. Spano, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. I know that keeping your pet healthy is very important to you. And with that said, I hope you'll reach out to me if you have a question about your pet's health and I'll respond to your questions on next month's asks of that podcast, just email me at our easy to remember email. It's Ask the Vet, one word, at amcny.org. We have a short break coming up, but stay tuned because there is lots of interesting animal news when we return. We're back with Dr. Ann Hohenhaus on Ask the Vet. Welcome back to Ask the Vet. It's time for the animal news. It's time for animal headlines, the biggest animal news from across the world. This winter, Minnesota's bogs and shores have become a prime destination for northern owls, and birders have arrived in droves. Among the species attracting attention is the boreal owl, which is classified as a sensitive species due to the risk of human disturbance, capture or harm. Social media has made it easier than ever for birders to share the exact locations of rare sightings, and this can be disruptive to not just owls, but any birds behavior. So to counter this, the birdwatching app eBird has taken steps to promote protection of vulnerable species by concealing the precise locations instead of pinpointed coordinates. The app now displays only a shaded area, indicating general regions where sensitive species have been spotted. Birders are also encouraged to delay reporting sightings of at risk species until the season has passed, helping to minimize human impact on these birds that we so much love to look and see. Our second story is about smaller animals like mice, bats and frogs. For decades, scientists believe that smaller animals had higher cancer rates, but a new study challenges that assumption. Researchers from the University of Redding, University College London and Johns Hopkins University analyzed cancer data from 262 species and found that larger animals develop tumors at higher rates than their smaller counterparts. However, not all big animals are equally vulnerable species that evolved rapidly into larger sizes, such as elephants, appear to have developed stronger cancer fighting mechanisms to compensate for their large size. These findings provide valuable insights into cancer prevention and treatment, and give us clues about how nature has evolved. Defenses against cancer. And our last story is about humans and dogs. We know that humans and dogs have coexisted for about 30,000 years, and selective breeding shaped modern dog breeds over the last 15,000 years, but really mostly since the time of Queen Victoria. But the first 15,000 years of dog evolution, when the dog evolved from the wolf, the question is did they self domesticate themselves without human intervention? So a team of mathematicians and statisticians ran evolutionary simulations to explore this question. Their models showed that wolves could evolve into dogs in as little as 8,000 years, with the probability of self domestication ranging from 37% to 74%, depending on variables like how much food there was available and what the mating patterns were of wolves during this time. This study strengthens the theory that wolves, rather than be forcibly tamed, may have gradually adapted to human environments on their own, ultimately leading to the devoted dogs that we know and love today. And now it's time for questions from our listeners. The first question is from Rosina T. Rosina asked. My five year old 2 pound mixed breed dog is prone to strew white crystals in her urine. Could a fresh food diet impact your condition and if so, how so? Rosina, if there are special diets that are formulated to decrease the minerals that end up in the urine, that turn into struvite crystals, and then stuvite crystals turn into stones. So if your dog has had stone problems, a fresh diet, it's not whether a diet is fresh or cooked, it's really the mineral composition of the diet that impacts the development of struvite crystals leading to stones. And so you want to check with your veterinarian before you change your dog's diet, because if the diet she's currently on is one designed to prevent you, right, you might not want to change to a diet without good veterinary advice, because it could increase your little dog's propensity to developing bladder stones. So a little bit of veterinary advice will go a long way in keeping this little cutie pie healthy. Thanks so much, Rosita, for reaching out. Our next question is from Ron K. How can I tell if my pet would benefit from a CT scan or MRI instead of an x-ray? So, Ron, our veterinary radiologists have a lot of different imaging capabilities. Not only do we have x rays, but we have ultrasounds. We have heart ultrasounds called echocardiograms. We have CT scans, MRI's, and a movie type of x ray called fluoroscopy. And it's really the disease that dictates which of these imaging modalities is the best for your pet. So we tend to use MRI for central nervous system disorders like brain problems and spinal cord problems. And we tend to use CT scans to help us more to identify things like tumors on the inside of dogs, either in the chest or the abdomen. Sometimes an x rays will very readily identify a tumor. But then if the pet is going to surgery, they need a more sophisticated image of the inside of the dog, and then they get a CT as a follow up to an x ray or an ultrasound. So it's a complicated decision tree as to which imaging modality is the best for your pet. And that's why you need to rely on your veterinarian to help you sort which test is best for the condition that he thinks your pet has. And our last question is from Danny in Astoria. My vet prescribed ear drops for my dog, but he shakes them out immediately. Will they still be effective? And is there a trick to getting them to stay in? So, Danny, most airdrops have like a kind of a long spout on the end of the medication. That makes it easy to put that drop right down in the ear canal. So you want to take that medicine and tip the bottle upside down and put it down in the ear as much as you can. And then what I usually do is kind of rub the base of the ear to mix that medicine around in the ear canal, and then I stand back and let the dog shake, because that medicine is greasy and you don't want to get it on your clothes or your furniture. If the medicine is really flying out, you could probably slip a little cotton ball in each ear after you put the medicine in, and then the medicine will stay in while the dog shakes, and then the cotton ball will probably fling across the room. But that might be a way to contain the medicine in the ear. But I think if you just get it down in the ear canal, rub it around, and then let your dog shake its head, it's going to get enough of the medication. So we're going to take a little break. And when we come back, we're going to have important information from the Animal Medical Center's Usdan Institute for Animal Health Education. We're back with Dr. Ann Hohenhaus on Ask the Vet. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Ask the Vet. We're now going to talk about important information from AMC's Usdan Institute. Don't forget that March is National Poison Prevention Month and a time to raise awareness about hidden dangers in our homes, and our trending animal of the month was the perfect example of things that your pet can get into, where our trending animal ate the entire cake left out on the porch. Dogs will do that too as well. So one of the most unexpected and yet deadly threats to dogs is a compound called xylitol. And there was a dog admitted today to the Animal Medical Center for xylitol intoxication. Silent was a sugar substitute, and it can be found in sugar free gum mints, sugar free peanut butter in vitamins, ice cream, toothpaste, medications and other everyday products. And I'm going to tell you, if your dog could get its hands on your toothpaste tube, it would chew it up and like all that minty stuff out of there. So none of these things that contains all at all are off limits to dogs. They would be happily eat them. Although xylitol is safe for you and me. It is highly toxic to dogs. Even a small amount can trigger a dangerous drop in blood sugar, leading to weakness, seizures, and ultimately liver failure in some cases. We're unable to save the dogs if they've really ingested a lot of xylitol. The problem with xylitol is many pet owners don't even realize it's their. Xylitol often appears under other names like birch, sugar birch extract, wood, sugar, making it even harder to spot on ingredient labels. Always be sure to check the labels carefully and keep any products out of your dog's reach when they contain xylitol. Another thing that commonly contains xylitol would be Atkins diet foods. And we had a dog that eight four Atkins diet muffins one time full of xylitol, and it ended up in ICU for several days. So if you think your dog has adjusted xylitol, grab whatever contain or of xylitol containing snack food or medication that you think your dog ate and had immediately to the emergency hospital closest to you, and let the veterinarians know that you think your dog has ingested xylitol. It's a bonafide emergency. I want to thank Dr. Vanessa Spano for joining me today, and I want all of you who loved her as much as I did, to be sure to go on to AMC's website and sign up for her webinar, Behavior Solutions for Pet Owners. You just need to go to amcny.org/events and sign up. It's free like all of our events. Don't forget, if you want to know about your pet's well-being or are looking for pet health advice, just email me at AskTheVet@amcny.org and I'll answer your questions on next month's out of that program. The Ask the Vet podcast can be accessed on the Sirius XM app, across all major podcast platforms and through AMC's website. All of this thanks to AMC's long standing partnership with Sirius XM. We've been doing this for 50 broadcast. Follow us on social media on Facebook. It's the Animal Medical Center on X, formerly known as Twitter and Instagram. It's @amcny it would be really great if you folks could take a moment to give Ask the Vet podcast a review and be sure to like and subscribe. So you receive all our new episodes as soon as they drop. And don't forget, I'll be back again next month with another episode of Ask the Vet. Thanks everyone and have a great week!