The Parasite Problem: How to Protect Your Pet with Dr. Craig Prior Artwork

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The Parasite Problem: How to Protect Your Pet with Dr. Craig Prior

April 15, 2025 • The Animal Medical Center

Parasites are a year-round threat to pets, and some can pose risks to human health as well. In this episode of Ask the Vet, Dr. Ann Hohenhaus speaks with veterinarian Dr. Craig Prior, former president of the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC), about what every pet owner should know. From tapeworms, hookworms, and roundworms to giardia and ticks that transmit diseases like Lyme and ehrlichiosis, they cover the most common and most concerning parasites. Tune in as they discuss:

What are parasites and how do they affect animals?
The upcoming parasite forecast
CAPC's parasite risk maps
Ways to keep animal companions (and humans) safe from parasites
Why ticks are formidable
Do dog parks harbor parasites?
How people traveling with animals is spreading parasites
Are indoor cats at risk?
The increasing problem of hookworm resistance and how it was exacerbated by the greyhound racing industry
Do any natural cures work against parasites?

Also on this month's show:

Viral trending animal story of the month featuring Aggie the cat, who went missing after the palisades wildfire destroyed her family home
Animal news, including the newly identified genetic mutation causing blindness in Labrador retrievers
Pet Health Listener Q&A, where Dr. Hohenhaus answers listener questions about giving a cat chemotherapy drugs, next steps for a dog with a persistent cough, and ideas for reducing a cat's severe anxiety in carriers.

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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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, or 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 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 a senior veterinarian and director of pet health information here at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center on the Upper East Side of New York City's Manhattan island. It's spring, and with spring comes longer walks and more time outdoors. But that also has a risk of an increase in exposure to parasites, from fleas and ticks to heartworms and intestinal worms. These unwelcome gaffs can cause serious health issues for pets, and some of them even pose risks for us humans. So, to help you understand the latest in parasite prevention and control, I have a great guest today. It's Dr. Craig Prior who's a veterinary parasite expert, and he's also the former president of the Companion Animal Parasite Council, which is called CAPC for short. We'll talk about what to expect in parasites this year and what every pet owner should be doing right now to keep their animal companions safe. This is going to be great up to the minute information, and it will be so impactful for both you and your pet. The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center is the only level one veterinary trauma center in New York City, and for 114 years, we've been the very best place to bring your pet. If you are seeking advice on maintaining your pet's health. I'm here to help. Just send me your questions at this email. Ask the Vet, one big word, @amcny.org, and I'll answer those questions on next month's show. If you didn't have a pen or pencil to write that down, or you couldn't type into your phone fast enough, don't worry, I'll give the address 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 animals. More than two months after the Palisades wildfire destroyed her family's Los Angeles home, Aggie the Cat has been found alive, but soon injured and somehow surviving on her own. Aggie's owner, an 82 year old Kathleen Kiefer, had feared the worst. But thanks to a microchip, the West L.A. animal shelter was able to bring them back together. Aggie required blood transfusions and specialized care, but she's recovering well. Kiefer says the experience is a powerful reminder of the importance of microchipping, and also of not giving up hope. Probably we should also remember not to underestimate cats. And now I'm excited to introduce today's guest, Dr. Craig Prior Born and raised in Australia. Doctor Prior represented his country at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee before earning his veterinary degree from the University of Queensland in Brisbane in 1984. He moved to the US in 1985 and has been Nashville based ever since. With over 40 years of experience in companion animal medicine, Doctor Pryor serves on the board of the Companion Animal Parasite Council and is past president of that organization. The council plays a key role in guiding veterinary professionals and pet owners on how to prevent parasites in our animals. And just a side note is caps Vet is my go to veterinary website for looking up information on how best to manage parasite problems in my patients. We're thrilled today to have him here on the Of, and he's going to talk us through what we need to know and why this topic matters more than you may already know. Doctor Prior welcome to Ask the Vet and thank you for joining me. It's my absolute pleasure. Glad to be here. So I'm looking forward. I have a trip planned to Brisbane, in September, and so I will be heading in that direction. And I'm very much looking forward because that is a part of Australia that I haven't been to yet. Well, you have to call me and I'll give you some, recommendations. Okie doke. I will do that. So I always start out with my guests by asking about their pets. So tell me about yours. Well, we've seen the ranks, actually, which is down to one dog at the moment. So it's, kind of sad. It's a sort of an empty household, but, we've had, you know, she's a little Boston terrier and, you know, lost. Not last year, the year before last. My a cat and dog and bad circumstances for both. It's one of those sad things, veterinarians when you can't save your own animals when they get sick. Had blasto in my cat. That's horrific. But yeah, I lost my dog. That was, No, she was the love of my life. Besides my wife and, best dog I ever had. And now we got this little 18 pound Boston terrier, or should I say Boston terrorist. But she's truly the ambassador of dogs. Says, she's not a dog or a human she doesn't love, and she's just a delight. So, Well, that sounds great. So veterinarians always managed to find these pet that have challenging diseases to manage. I don't think any of us ever have. Just, like a normal, healthy animal. No, we don't. So how did you get involved in the Companion animal parasite Council? You know, I got involved and probably 13 or 14 years ago, in my practice in Nashville. I just put a very high priority on protecting all my patients from parasites. And it got the attention of some pharma companies out there who said that, you know, you all are doing a kind of a amazing job with the parasite prevention compared to. Seems like everyone else around you. And, this is organization code cap say that you need to be aware of. And they became aware me and they asked me to come on the board and I said yes. And it's been just a wonderful, wonderful journey with with Companion Animal Parasite Council. So I just love, what we do. It's a, it's a companion. And Parasite Council is a national nonprofit. Although we are funded by industry, we keep ourselves totally independent from the industry. And, it's just, you know, we provide the guidelines for that insurance on how to, protect our patients against parasites. And we do a lot of more than just that. We do a lot of mapping as well. So we map prevalence, we map prevalence far better than CDC ever can. CDC would love to get their hands on maps, and, and, they can see them, but they can't have them in us because, in human medicine, you have to actually ask permission to run tests and map it. And what's where we get the access to the lab tests that all the major labs do. So we go from the major veteran labs, and we publish prevalence of these on these, parasites. And so, our maps are the go to to see what the risk is, because if it's, you know, it shows what's happening in your backyard. And that's the biggest thing I think to say is what's happening in your backyard. Well, we don't really know. Well, we don't think we know what we do to us because we can show you, thought one. We can show you intestinal parasites, different, you know, hookworms alone, sweat, lungs, giardia and tapeworms. Now, which which most people find quite astounding vector borne diseases. We do ehrlichia and a plasma and Lyme, and Lyme’s huge up in your area, up in New York. I mean, that's, you know, there was actually a couple of studies out now that shows that, dogs are central to the risk of human infections. So if you look at our maps and see that 1 in 10 dogs in your county is affected by Lyme disease, humans are 1 in 10 risk of becoming infected with Lyme as well. It's a direct relationship there that we can show you. So it's, so I wanna I want to step back a little bit, and I'm not sure that our listeners necessarily understand what you mean when you say we get all the information from the labs. So can you expand a little bit on what do you mean by the labs? And those are not blond, chocolate or, or, black things with Tails Labs or something completely different in this situation, you know, as you do in your practice, when we have patients come in, you know, at least once a year. We do what we'd like to consider wellness test. It's like when you go in to see your doctor for your yearly exam, and they do all the full examination and do all the bloodwork and everything else that needs to be done. Well, we do the same thing for our patients as well, and part of what we do is we draw blood from them and we send it off to the, national laboratory. And we are not just looking at all their blood counts and all their liver and kidney enzymes, everything like that. We are also testing for different parasites. So we get a stool sample and test for intestinal parasites. We'll get a blood sample test for vector borne diseases. And so we'll send that off and we send it off to major very specific laboratories. And so there's three major companies that provide that in the US. And the companion animal care side actually pulls monthly the results on all these different tests and aggregates them on our website, on our maps. And so you can actually go there and see what's happening. And we do it on a monthly basis. So you can look at what's happened in the last 30 days. And you know the amazing thing about it? It's local, it's timely, it's accurate, it's motivating because you see what the riskiest for your cat, what's going on in your backyard. So most veterinarians in the U.S use one of these three major laboratories that cap see gathers information from. And that's why this data is so powerful is because it captures a big portion of pets that are being tested for parasites of a variety of types. So we'd say parasites. And and you know, Craig, you and I, it just like rolls off our tongue. I'm not sure that pet owners always know what parasites are. So how would capsid define a parasite? So to me, a parasite is an organism that lives on or in another organism, which is. And that organism is called the host. And the parasite benefits by deriving nutrients, shelter, or other resources at the host's expense. So it's this means the relationship is typically one sided. The parasite like gain, something like food or place to reproduce. The host is harmed in the process, and the harm can range from either mild to severe or even death. And, I understand the parasites come in many different forms. Some are microscopic, like certain protozoa or bacteria, but others are larger, like worms or most, most ugly one that we all think about as ticks. Oh yeah. People hate ticks. Yes. Just hate ticks. Yes. So all right. So that helps I think people to understand what a parasite is and why a tick and a roundworm are both parasites. So then why is prevention of parasites so important for our pets? It's actually probably important for us to what? Because so so firstly is we are helping to detect parasites that might either transmitted disease or produce disease in that animal. And by early detection, we have the ability then to treat or prevent these infections or the harm that's happening. And so but also I think the other important thing is that's one of our huge key missions of, Cassie, is that we feel that by protecting the pet, we're also protecting the human family, because many of these parasites are either zoonotic or they are, transmit zoonotic diseases or infections. And what is this zone? Ptosis a zone ptosis is a disease. Infection that can be, transmitted from animals to humans and, affect and produce harm in humans. And I think the easiest way for people to think about this is think of rabies. Everyone knows what rabies is. A rabid animal bites a human. They get a virus called the rabies virus, and they could potentially die. That's a zoonotic disease. And I think people, you know, we have really good drugs these days against parasites. And so there are parts of the country where I think animals die frequently of parasites. If you're in New York City, we don't have a lot of parasite deaths, but we will definitely see little kittens who've been outdoors. You know, maybe feral kittens, and they're covered in fleas. And those kittens need, like, a little kitten sized blood transfusion because the fleas can consume so much blood of those kittens. And so that's a very, a very severe example of how the fleas thrive. And the poor kitten, is near death sometimes when, when they come into our emergency room, as well as the diseases that the flea can transmit as cytokines plug it, it can transmit things like Bartonella, which can kill that kitten as well. So every year, CAPC releases a pet parasite forecast. What's your forecast for 2025? Unfortunately, our forecast is not doom and gloom, but it doesn't get any better. And because we know that the parasites well, parasites are dynamic and ever changing, they can adapt really well and they're on the move. And so, and the other problem we're seeing with this is human movement. So people are a very mobile now. They take their animals with them. They're living closer to nature so that, you know, living and encroaching on, on, forests and things like this. And so what we're seeing with our forecast is that Lyme is continuing to, to move down from the northeast. Ehrlichiosis, another tick borne disease, is continually to increase its, its geographic spread from the south southeast. Heartworm is continuing to spread across the country. You know, and we we see that is related to massive movement of these stray and rehome dogs out of the southeast. And that's so in about only about 30% of these dogs now tested or treated or put on prevention before they, moved in, adopted out. And so often these dogs, have heartworms. And they moved from the southeast and then maybe moved to upstate Maine and maybe new upstate, new York. That may be moved up to the to the northeast. And they take us with them. And so we see this spread as well. We absolutely see that in New York City is we don't see very many dogs with indigenously acquired, heartworm disease. Almost all the dogs I've seen are dogs that have been brought from the south to the north to be adopted. So it is it is real. This is not just Craig from Nashville talking about this thing that happens is that and from New York City sees that this is happening on our end of the transport of these dogs as well. So I just had to have a conversation with a client today who's moved to New York City from the UK, where the parasites are different than here. And so we had to have a conversation about fleas and ticks. Because that's not as important a set of diseases in the UK as it is here in New York City or people that go to the suburbs around New York City also see more fleas and ticks than we do in Manhattan. So what should owner pet owners be doing now? And can you talk a little bit about the recommendation for year round flea and tick prevention? Yes. So, you know, we're moving into warmer months of the year. So people start becoming more aware of parasites, you know, and I think we can sort of write it down a little bit into the different types of parasites. But, you know, fleas tend to be fairly seasonal. You tend to like find that warmer where the ideal temperature of fleas is 70 degrees and 70% humidity that love that. So, you know, winter time is not a great time for fleas. Ticks, though, truly are a year round issue. We know that ticks don't feed 365 days of the year. The ticks feed 12 months of the year. There's always a life stage of a tick that is feeding, and the reason for that is we deal with, we used to say, for major ticks in the US for dogs, we get the brown dog tick, the American dog tick, the, tick and the Lone Star tick. We can now add to that the Asian longhorned tick, because it's invasive and it's now in over 20 different states in the US and continuing the moves. And these are all three stage life stages. And so not to get too much detail, but make people understand the average life expectancy of a tick is about 3 to 4 years. All of that time, only 10% of it is spent on the animal. Most of it is out in the environment. So if you have a flea problem, I can solve your flea problem because fleas are obligate parasites. Once they get on their host, the very rare for them to lead. That's their free meal, that's their home, this stain, their ticks go off and on to different animals, at least three different animals in their life stage. And so it's impossible to get rid of all ticks. You just have to manage it and kill them before they transmit disease. And that's the biggest issue, is we got to kill them before they transmit disease. And when you've got a life stage that's always hungry and always looking for a meal, it's important to do a year round strategy. With ticks. Now, a lot of people say, well, you know, there's two inches of there's two feet of snow on the ground. Snow acts like a natural insulator for ticks. They'll stay put at the top, layer of snow. It acts like an insulator for them. In fact, some ticks have unnatural antifreeze, so they won't freeze. And as soon as the temperature gets over 40°F, they are out and active and looking for a meal. Now, we tend to see more ticks in the spring and the fall, but they're out year round, so it's important to protect them year round. And also the nice thing is our preventive. Now we like to call them multi combos. Now we've got preventives out there now that are really good that do fleas and ticks and heart worms and intestinal parasites. So there's two major parasites the zoonotic hookworms and roundworms. Zoonotic means again remind you they can be transmitted to humans. Roundworms about 20% of the of the US population is seropositive for having been exposed to mumps. And about 5% of the US population have roundworms. So that's kind of a nasty statistic. But the getting in the from the pets more than likely. And roundworms tend to peak in the winter months. And hookworms tend to peak in the summer months again. But these multi combos treat year round. So we're catching these different parasites as they are emerging. So don't think that I'm just protecting against 1 or 2 protecting against multiple parasites. And you can put hot ones in there as well. I'll add to that that most places, including New York City, have dog pox and dog pox. I'm sorry to tell you, one of the nastiest places on earth, for for pets. There was a study done that looked at over 300 dog parks across the nation. 80% of dog parks carried one or more intestinal parasites in the dog park, and 20% of dogs positive. So it's there's no rules about taking dogs to dog parks Any person can take any dog to a dog park, but dog toxic equal opportunity, in fact, is. So I'm not telling you not to take your dog to a dog park. What I'm telling you is that if you take your dog to a dog park, monitor your dog, and if to have if they defecate in the dog park, they take a poop, pick it up. It's really important. And oh, and I'm also tell you, if you're going to let your dog play with the ball at the dog park, take your own ball. Let your dog play with that ball, and when you're finished, take it home and wash it. And you're can help to protect your cat from picking up parasites and protect from spread to other pets as well. And and then people take their dogs to dog parks year round. You know, it's there. I see people at our local dog park. It could be raining, snowing, freezing and the dogs out there very happily playing ball. And so that's another reason why your dog needs to be on year round preventative is that they could pick up something in that dog park. Right? Any, any day of the year that they're out there. Yes. So you've talked a little bit about zoonotic diseases, meaning parasites that can be passed from pets to people. Can you talk about what the biggest risks are and what pet owners can do to protect themselves from getting a zoo, not a disease? You know, I don't know if you remember, your grandma used to tell you, wash your hands for you. Wash your hands when you come in from flying. That's one of the biggest human things you can do is wash your hands. It's good hygiene. I would always pick up the poop off. You dog's gone, so you should be scooping the poop out of the backyard. Minimum weekly, preferably daily. As far as cats go, cat litter box needs to stay clean. And I'm talking daily cleaning, the daily scooping, and at least weekly, you know, completely cleaning that litter box. You need to if you go hiking in the woods. So your pet needs to be on tick and flea preventive, especially take preventive preventions. If you go out hiking in the woods and when you finish your hike and you come back, you need to do a tick check on your dog. And you know you need to do a tick check on yourself. That's incredibly important. We know Lyme disease. It takes time. It takes about 72 hours exposure or a tick attached for it to start to transmit that, Borrelia organism. So it's important that you do tick checks and get those ticks removed. Incredibly important, to wash your hands. Good hygiene. Come back to that. No, no, handwashing is so important. And and I'm sure that at the end of the day, your hands are dry and craft like mine are from washing your hands, you know, between every pet and every time you touch some pet. That's a little bit on the skeevy side. So with climate change and shifting weather patterns, are you at capsid that seeing changes in parasite risks that might catch an owner off guard. You know I come back to I said dynamic and ever changing. And it doesn't matter what the climate is going to do, they're going to change and they're going to adapt and they're always going to be there. They are the greatest adapters out there. I think that the biggest risks is not so much. The climate change is the movement of people and taking their animals with them. Used to be about only about 30% of people travel with their animals now, so about 80% of people travel with their animals. And so you actually it's not the climate changing, it's that you're taking your pets into areas that you don't understand. The risk of. And so if you travel with your pet, I would be going. So we have a website called Pet Disease Alerts, Pet Disease Alerts. It's taken our yearly forecast. We have so many data points now we can now give you a 30 day forecast 30 days in advance at the county level for the whole nation. And we can do this full of vector borne diseases. So ehrlichia anaplasma Lyme heartworm and intestinal parasites. So if you traveling you can look at where you're traveling to on our maps on pet disease alerts and see what the full cost is for that area going to. So if you're going from, for instance, from New York City, you're going to say, I want to go to the North Carolina for the spring. If you look at the maps, you'll see that the risk in North Carolina, in certain areas, North Carolina, you've got ehrlichiosis, you've got lot and you've got hot swamps. You can go to your vendor and say, this is where I'm going have that. How can we best protect my pet? And that's one of the best things you can do. And I would also say that caps event is a U.S. data set. It's not international. All right. It's us in Canada. Okay. But when people travel internationally, various countries have all kinds of rules about what your pet needs to be protected against. Then does the pet need to be treated for fleas and ticks or heartworms or something before it travels? And that's simply because those countries are trying to either protect your pet or protect their country against diseases that are exotic, meaning don't happen in that country from being brought in. And so that's another example where parasite control is so important is international travel of pets. Yes, yes. So let's talk about the cat. This is a classic New York City thing for me to hear. My cat never goes anywhere, doctor. It only comes to see you. So what should I be telling those cat owners? Yeah, they're at risk. Absolutely. There was, you know, there was, this was years ago. I read a study that. So fussy indoor cats. What to do with them specifically? Indoor cats are at risk. Indoor cats are not indoor cats. They just happen to live inside. But the inside is still outside most of the time. And the what I'm saying by that is that bugs still flying through windows, mosquitoes. You'll see there's over 20 different mosquito species, a species of mosquitoes that transmit hot ones. And these mosquitoes, this different species that like to hang out around doors and windows. And when they open, they're going to get in, they're going to come in on humans. Some mosquito species can start to squeeze through screens because they can sense the animal on the other side, and they're going to get to that animal. And you may be on the 12th floor of a high rise. There's still mosquitoes up there on your back porch waiting to come in to get your cat. So you've got that type situation. Most people have house plants. And what does that house plant in? It's in the soil. And there was a study that showed 15% of potting soil from big box stores has parasite eggs in it. It's you just brought the outside indoor as most cats love to hunt. And so when they hunt, what are they going to hunt? Well, they can hunt things like cockroaches and just Google cockroaches and roundworms. It will curl your toes. Cockroaches can carry parasites that can affect your cat. There was a case I think was probably about ten years ago of a two cats living on a high rise in Chicago. It's like the 10th or 11th floor, and a bat flew in the window and the owner was at work, and the owner came home to find the cats and haunted the bat and played with it and eventually killed it. And the bat ended up being positive for rabies course. It was also the people thought that the cats could never be exposed to anything. The cats never went to the vet, never had a rabies immunization in this case with quarantine for six months. Yeah. Now the other thing I would say is that people maybe bring the outside in, but your dog can also bring the outside in. And so there are plenty of cats who never go anywhere. They get fleas because the dog brings the fleas in. And so the dog is taking flea preventative and the fleas don't bother the dog. But then they need to bother someone. And so they either head for your ankles or your cat. And so, if you have a dog, it's another very good reason that your cat needs to be on preventative is to protect them against what the dog brings home for them. So CAPC have been providing guidelines for more than 20 years. What's changed and how are things different? We're adding more guidelines. We're adding more, of the less common parasites because we, you know, veterans need to be aware of them. We're updating parasites, guidelines on a regular basis. So we update them on an ongoing, regular basis. We just had a massive meeting about guidelines and updated a bunch of them. So they done a rotation where when we feel they need to and we're seeing things like giardia, you know, giardia is becoming more and more problematic. We're seeing hookworm resistance now. That's important. People need to understand that there is a, hookworm resistance is out there where it's resistant to the Atlantics. The drugs we give to treat that dog. And it's nasty. The hookworm resistance is terrible. And so it's something that everyone needs to be aware of. And it's all over the country. It was started the greyhound industry in Florida when the greyhound industry got shut down. They adopted these greyhounds out all over the country, and unfortunately they took hookworm assistance with them. It's in the general dog population now, so that can be devastating. It's difficult to deal with and it takes a lot of work to deal with it. So again, it comes back to you have to scoop your poop daily. I mean, immediately this all goes if you got hookworm resistance, it's just terrible. So we're seeing things like that. We're seeing some possible tapeworms, resistance showing up, and we're seeing some nastier tapeworms showing up around the place. So there's a, you would know, kind of carcass multi like it is mainly seen in wildlife. This is another zoonotic parasite. More of a concern in Canada. But it is now showing up not just in wildlife but in dogs in the United States. So things are changing where of aware of it. And we're making sure that we've got the guidelines updated so that areas can be aware of it so they can better protect their patients. But because protecting the patients again protects the family. And that's what we're all about. Let's go back to the hookworm resistance. Thing is, I think there might be a test now that you can test us dogs, hookworms, to see if they're resistant. So what I'm remembering correctly. Yes. You are. I don't like to mention companies and, specific names of tests that would be talk to you, but hearing about that. But there is one of our veterinary companies, lab companies has a PCR test that will test for, to markers for human resistance. Actually, for the benzimidazole resistance marker. There's two markers for that. And so that is available and it is a very cost effective test. Just need to ask your vet nearing to test for that. And I would be testing all my patients routinely for that because it is in all the major metropolitan areas, including New York City. Okay. So if your dog's having a chronic relapsing hookworm problem, then there might be something that your vet can do to help sort that a little bit more, which is very important because knowing that the pet resistant to the typical drugs then gives your veterinarian a heads up to switch to a different set of drugs. So, how about natural parasite prevention? Lots of people don't like chemicals. What are you going to tell clients about? I understand, no garlic, for example. And, you know, I empathize. I understand, I mean, I get it, but I've been practicing for 41 years, and you name it, I've seen it given to pets. And the bottom line, it doesn't work. I've never seen a single natural treatment ever work. And I've seen it all. And I've seen some of them make pets more sick than they were in the first place, because they had to try it. And, you know, I didn't go through all this education and hardship to get where I am to steer people awry. I'm always going to look at the evidence. I'm always going to look at the papers. I'm always going to look at what's there, and I can find a better way. That's got the minimal risks, minimal harm to the patient. I mean, first they do no harm. You know, I'm going to take it. And so I'd love to be able to say, hey, there's some great natural cures out there and just use this, this and this, and it's going to work great. I've yet to see one work. Well, I, I'm kind of with you on that. The meds we have now are so much better than when you and I started taking care of dogs and cats. That meds for parasite prevention. I used to see pets all the time with bad infestations. Yes. So to our listeners, if you want to learn more about parasite prevention and you can view the 2025 Pet Parasite forecast, you can go to CPC website, which is www. petsandparasites, petsandparasites.org I want to thank Doctor Prior for joining me today. This has been a fascinating conversation and I hope helpful to our listeners as well. My pleasure. I know that keeping your pet healthy is very important to all our listeners. And with that said, I hope you'll reach out to me if you have a question about your pet's health. I'll respond to your question on next month's Ask the Vet podcast. Just email me at Ask the Vet at amcny.org. We have a short break coming up, but stay tuned because we've got Animal news when we return. We're back with Dr. Ann Hohenhaus on Ask the Vet. Welcome back, everyone to Ask the Vet podcast. It's time for the animal news. It's time for animal headlines, the biggest animal news from across the world. A newly identified genetic mutation may help explain a rare form of blindness in Labrador retrievers. And that could be especially important for service dog programs. The discovery was made by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Padua in Italy. It came after three Labrador littermates, all bred to be guide dogs, began losing their vision. Genetic testing pointed to a mutation in a gene called GTP b p2. Say that fast a whole bunch of times, which plays a role in how the retina or the seeing part of the eye functions in these dogs. The mutation led to progressive retinal atrophy, a condition that causes gradual vision loss and can lead to blindness. So far, the mutation has only been found in dogs from a single breeding line, suggesting it's rare. But with a reliable test, breeders, especially those working with service dogs, could screen for it and help to avoid passing this genetic mutation on. Interestingly, people have the same gene, but the mutations in this gene in people are linked to much more severe effects, including neurologic issues. In contrast, the dogs with this mutation showed only vision loss. So it's a reminder of how the same gene can behave differently across species. And we'll hope that this research turns out to help protect future generations of service dogs, and also adds to our understanding of genetic diseases, both in animals and in people. Our second story is another study, and that study suggests that just 15 minutes with a friendly dog could reduce your stress and the dog's stress as well. Researchers at the Chiang Mai University in Thailand observed 122 college students during exam time after measuring their baseline stress levels, including heart rate, blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol. They gave the students 15 minutes to interact with one of six friendly dogs. The dogs weren't trained therapy dogs, just everyday dogs. Students could choose how they interacted, whether they pet or played or fed treats, or simply hung out with the dog. And afterwards, the student's stress level dropped over 30% with improvements in heart rate and cortisol. But the surprise dogs benefited too. A week later, their cortisol levels had also decreased, suggesting these interactions had a lasting calming effect on the dog's as well as the people. This study reinforces what we all already know, and that is this power of the human animal bond. Even informal settings. Whether you're a student, a health care worker, or just having a rough day, a few minutes with the dog might be just what the doctor ordered. And chances are, the dog's doctor also would order that too. And our last story is about poop. Seems like today we're talking a lot about poop. There's a lot of information that you can get from an animal's poop. You can figure out what they're eating. You can find parasites, as we already talked about today. And you can learn what the gut microbiome is or the bacteria that live in the intestine of the pooper. But did you know that poop also contains live cells from the animal that makes the poop, at least while it's fresh? In a research project called the Poo Zoo. Scientists are now beginning to explore ways to use cells from feces to boost the genetic diversity of endangered species. Researchers are hoping to use these cells to produce a genetic twin of the original animal, or possibly reprogram the cells to become any cell type, such as a sperm or eggshell. And if this technology is possible, then IVF type techniques could be used to prove genetically diverse offspring from the animal the poop was collected from. Biobank cells typically involves taking cells or tissues from the animal itself. But with this new method of collecting live cells from wildlife, then we would be able to increase the genetic diversity of the wildlife without having to capture them and collect cells from the living animal. Efforts to prevent species from going distinct is still a number one priority for many wildlife organizations. And having a repository of living cells with intact DNA will help our understanding of the genetic diversity of species everywhere. And now it's time for questions from our listeners. Our first question is from Pat gee. That question is I just received a chemotherapy drug to administer to my cat. He is terrible about taking meds. What suggestions do you have on how to calm him somewhat so I can get the dosage in? So chemotherapy drugs are especially challenging to give because they're not amenable to making them into liquids that are easier to give. You can't make them into transdermal drugs and paste them in your cat's ear. And so you have to be very creative about how to get those meds in the cat. First would be I saw this great kind of wrapping thing that seems to have a lot of Velcro on it, on Facebook. And so you might want to get some sort of wrap for your cat because you inevitably, you're trying to get the pill down and say, flick the pill out of your hands with their front paws. It might be possible to use a medication to decrease the pet's anxiety. So the pet was less anxious and therefore maybe easier to pill. And so ask your cat oncologist about what they would recommend in that that would work well for your cat, and also go along nicely with the cat's chemo. Other things you can try would be to try and discourage the pill. Although I have to confess, cats seem to be able to find medicine in just about anything. But you can try it in case of pill in a pill packet or Velveeta cheese, or maybe some cream cheese or some butter. I had a client who seemed seem to like olive oil, and she dipped the medicine in olive oil and thought it went down easier that way. So anything you can use that's kind of gummy and you could wrap around the pill. Also, lunch meat is another popular thing. Liverwurst, a little bit of turkey. Then, you can also try what's called a pill gun. I really don't like the name of that, but it's really a long tube with a plunger that allows you to slip the tube in the cat's mouth and then pop the pill with the plunger. So that might work. Also consider reinforcements, meaning ask a friend to come over and help you give the pills. Because if someone's holding the cat, then you can focus more on getting the pill down your throat. And don't forget to ask your veterinarian if you could have a lesson in giving pills. Sometimes just a simple lesson from an approach pill giver will make all the difference. And then at the end, I'm going to give you information about an upcoming Use and Institute webinar that you might want to attend to help you manage your pet's cancer better. Good luck to Pat G and I hope these tips help. Our next question is from Leslie in Manhattan. Leslie wants to know. My 13 year old lab has had a persistent, dry, raspy, throat clearing cough for a year, but no expectorant. X-rays at AMC air were clear and my local vet found nothing wrong. I considered seeing an internist, but further testing may require anesthesia, which I'd prefer to avoid. Cough suppressants haven't helped an episode. They're brave. She's up to date on all vaccines. What should I do next? Well, I think that since this is an AMC patient, I'm going to talk kind of specifically about what AMC has to offer. So I suspect that this lab has been recommended to see internal medicine, who would do a respiratory workup. And in order to evaluate the respiratory tree, the the lab needs to be anesthetized so that we can look down the lab's throat and see how its larynx is working, the voicebox. And then if that is a okay, then they might proceed with bronchoscopy to look inside the breathing tubes leading to the lungs themselves to try and characterize why this dog is having this raspy, throat clearing cough. Keep in mind that AMC is incredibly lucky to have board certified anesthesiologists. These are specially trained veterinarians. We also have specially trained anesthesia nurses, and those people are different than the people who would do the laryngeal evaluation and the bronchoscopy. So any anesthetic procedure for this 13 year old, raspy, coughing Labrador would consist of a whole bunch of people who will be totally focused on the lab and some on anesthesia, some on the cough. To make the procedure as safe as possible. So I think that you've gotten a very good recommendation on next steps, and I hope you'll think about reaching out to our internal medicine team. Respiratory workups is one of the most common things that that team does. And our last question is from Susan G. She asks. My cat, adopted two years ago, has severe anxiety around her carrier and car rides. She cries, vomits, defecates. It's overwhelming. We've tried multiple medications, but nothing works. And she won't take pills or liquid meds. Even in treats. I need to bring her on a weekend trips about an hour by car, but it's extremely stressful. My other cat travels easily, so I'm hoping to find a solution for her. Any suggestions? Oh, it does sound very stressful because the minute the cat cries, vomits, and poops in the carrier, then the cat's covered and you get to your destination needing to give a cat bath, which is always a challenge. So my first thought is, does the cat really have to come if it's just for the weekend? Can the cat stay home with the cat sitter? If you really have to take the cat, it's going to take some work to get this cat to want to go in the car. So I would leave the cat carriers out. I would not put the carriers away because the minute the cat sees the carrier coming out, they freak. And you want to make that cat carrier a very pleasant experience. Make it cozy. Put a nice fleece bed in there. Put a little blanket for them to cover up with. Hide a treat or two in the blanket. So they think that going in the carrier is a positive experience, not the bad experience that they've been having lately. And consider spritzing the cat carrier with a feline pheromones. That's something that cats can smell, but we can't smell, and it makes the cat feel happy. And then put the carrier there so the cat can go in and out as it wants, and we'll have a good experience in the carrier until you close the door and pop the cat into the back seat of the car. It's going to take a while for the cat to think this is a good thing, and maybe what you want to do is get a completely different carrier than the one you have. So the cat gets the idea that this is something new and possibly better than the old carrier. So, Susan, I hope your car rides improve very soon, but it sounds like a really tough situation. And now we're going to take a little short break. And when I come back, we're going to have important information from AMC’s Usdan Institute for Pet Health education. We're back with Doctor Ann Hohenhaus on Ask the Vet. Hi. Welcome back to Ask the Vet. I want to give you some important information from AMC's Usdan Institute. April 13th through the 19th. It's National Dog Bite Prevention Week. And this is a great time to talk about how to reduce your child's risk of dog bites, because any dog can bite. And children are the most common victims of dog bites. Bite prevention starts with understanding dog body language. Signs of stress in dogs include lip licking, yawning, turning away, or a stiff body. Children should never approach a dog that is eating, sleeping, or caring for puppies, and teaching kids how to respect a dog's space and recognize the warning signs of dog behavior can dramatically reduce the risk of dog bites. Did you know that the Usdan Institute for Animal Health Education has content specifically for children, and also includes tips on bite prevention education? Our Children's Education page is a central resource for caregivers who wish to encourage their young learners to explore topics in veterinary medicine, animal science, and responsible pet ownership. You can check out our Children's Education web page at AMCNY.org backslash Childrens Education. It's a wealth of very useful tips. It can be frightening to hear what your pet's diagnosis is cancer, but there's hope and we invite you to tune in on Wednesday, May 14th at 6 p.m. for a free webinar with my colleague, Doctor Renee Alsarraf Senior Veterinarian in Oncology at AMC and a board certified oncologist. Doctor Alsarraf will guide you through what to expect after cancer diagnosis in pets, including treatment options, how personalized care plans are developed, and how to navigate this journey emotionally and practically as a caregiver. And I think this is the seminar that our early question asker should attend. As usual. All used and events are free online, but you have to register so we can send you the zoom link. You just need to go to amcny.org and put events in the search bar. I want to take a moment to thank Doctor Craig Prior for joining me today. He was a wealth of knowledge about parasite prevention. And to read the 2025 Pet Parasite forecast. Go to pets and parasites.org. That's CAPC’s official website. Don't forget if you want to know more about your pets well-being or need pet health advice, just email me at Ask the Vet at amcny.org and I'll answer your questions on next month's Ask the Vet broadcast. The Ask the Vet podcast can be accessed on the Sirius XM app across all major platforms, and also on AMC website. All of this is thanks to our longstanding partnership with Sirius XM. Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook. It's the Animal Medical Center on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram. It's @AMCNY. And please take a moment to give us a review of our podcast and be sure to like and subscribe. So you get all our episodes as soon as they're available. Looking forward to having all of you join me again next month for another episode of Ask the Vet. Thanks everyone for tuning in.