Ask the Vet
Ask the Vet
Heal the Beast: A Jaunt Through the Curious History of the Veterinary Arts with Dr. Philipp Schott
In this episode of "Ask the Vet," Dr. Ann Hohenhaus welcomes Dr. Philipp Schott, veterinarian, bestselling author, and storyteller, to discuss his new book Heal the Beast: A Jaunt Through the Curious History of the Veterinary Arts. Together, they explore surprising and quirky stories of animal healers across cultures and centuries, while reflecting on what these traditions teach us about the bond between humans and animals.
Topics include:
Why caring for animals has been universal throughout human history
- How wars and plagues helped spark the foundations of modern veterinary medicine
- The scourge of rabies from ancient Egypt to today
- Superstitions, misguided cures, and the return of alternative approaches
- The emotional, practical, and spiritual reasons people treat animals
- What the history of veterinary medicine reveals about its future
Also on this month’s show:
- Viral trending animal story featuring Maple, the retired police dog who now protects honeybees
- Animal news, including radioactive rhino horns to fight poaching, U.S. cities ranked by pet-friendliness, and TSA warnings about transporting pets
- Pet Health Listener Q&A on moving cross-country with cats, managing recurring ear infections in dogs, and knee problems after a common orthopedic surgery in dogs
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.
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, the podcast for people who love their pets and also want the latest in pet health and animal news. I'm your host, Dr. Ann Hohenhaus. I'm a senior veterinarian and director of health information here at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center in New York City. Where we're coming from today. Also today, we're taking a fascinating journey through time, exploring the history of one of my favorite topics in medicine and the extraordinary people who've devoted their lives to caring for animals, from ancient healers treating elephants and camels to modern veterinarians on the frontlines of wildlife conservation. This story of veterinary medicine is as diverse and remarkable as the animals, and I would say the veterinarians themselves. My guest for this episode is Doctor Philipp Schott. He's a veterinarian, bestselling author, and storyteller who brings that to life in his new book, Heal the Beast A Jaunt Through the Curious History of the Veterinary Arts. Through vivid portraits of healers from around the world, he shows how our relationship with animals has evolved over thousands of years. I'm really excited to talk with Doctor Schott about the surprising and sometimes quirky and always inspiring moments he's uncovered about veterinarians and what we do, and also what lessons the past can teach us about the future of veterinary medicine. The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center is the only level one veterinary trauma center in New York City, and we've got 115 years backing us up as being the very best place for pets. Now, if you're seeking advice on maintaining your pet's health, I'm here to help. Just send me your questions to AsktheVet@amcny.org, and I'll answer your questions on next month's show. And if you don't have a pen or pencil, get one during the break because I'll give that email address again later 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. Researchers at Michigan State University have enlisted a retired law enforcement dog to help protect one of nature's most important and delicate species, honeybees. The pollinator performance Center in East Lansing is developing a program that trains dogs to sniff out American foul brood, a bacterial disease that threatens honey bee larvae and can devastate entire colonies. Leading the effort is Maple. She's a nine year old English springer Spaniel who previously worked as a human. Remains detection dog after an injury ended her law enforcement career. Maple found a new purpose sniffing out infections in beehives. She wears custom made protective gear, a yellow suit, booties and a bee proof veil. And yet, she's trained to work safely in active bee yards. This project is part of a larger effort to protect pollinators whose numbers are declining due to disease. Pesticides, climate change and loss of habitat. And if you're interested in learning more about how veterinarians are protecting bees, don't forget to listen to Ask the Vet episode number 35, entitled The Buzz About Groundbreaking Bee Vaccines with my friend and veterinarian Doctor Nigel Swift. And now it's my pleasure to introduce today's guest, Doctor Philipp Schott. Doctor Schott is a veterinarian, bestselling author, and storyteller. And in his new book, Heal the Bees, he takes us on a remarkable trip through the history of veterinary medicine, from ancient healers to today's wildlife protectors. It's full of fun, surprising and quirky inspiring stories. So Doctor Schott, thank you so much for joining me here on Ask the Vet. Oh, thank you for having me. So first I always ask people that are on ask the Vet about their current pets, pets you have at home. We have a eight year old Siamese cat named Lily. She started friendly and would be in this room if I hadn't close the door. And we've got a nine month old Shetland sheepdog named Newton, named after Isaac Newton, because we thought he was really smart when he was a little tiny puppy. Turns out maybe not so much, but that's okay. He's. He's lovely. He's sweet. That's that's what counts. Anybody is really pretty. What color is he? He's a sable. Yeah. So he's he's gorgeous. He gets a lot of comments. So your book for our listeners out there, the book has 23 chapters, which might be intimidating to some, but I'm going to tell my listeners that each one of these chapters is a standalone, essentially a short story. And I tend to read in bed and then fall asleep and then forget where I am. And these are, in my mind, the perfect before bedtime reading stories. So you get yourself away from that screen because you can easily read one a night. And my two favorites are chapters 21 and 22. So 21 is commuting and commuting. I recognize the name because he was the first real cat veterinarian, but what I didn't know until I read the chapter was he was a house call vet in New York City, which was way ahead of his time way, way in the 50s. And then the other chapter that I got attached to right away was blood, because I thought it would be about blood, but it wasn't about blood. It was about a very famous large animal internal medicine specialist whose last name happened to be blood. And when I started reading chapter, I recognized his name from that textbook from veterinary school. Not that I've touched any large animals in the recent past. So those are two of my favorite chapters. But I want people to think of this not as a book that you read from cover to cover. You can pick whatever chapter has a title that catches your fancy and read that one, and then pick a different one the next night. So it's a perfect before bedtime book. Okay, so your book spans from 14,000 B.C. to today. Yeah. I mean, how did you decide you were going to write such a wide history book? You know, some people write a history of four years, and the book is just thick. So how did you come up with this plan? Well, I wanted to go as deep into history as I could. So that takes me to the 14,000 BC story. And I wanted to do that because one of my themes, one of my purposes is to describe the universality of that early medicine, that this is not just some kind of a suburban, modern North American phenomenon, but rather something that is innate in humanity to want to care for animals that are close to us for a variety of reasons. And, it covers the entire sweep of history. And it covers, every continent, every culture, really. I mean, my book doesn't necessarily, but I try to touch on as much of that as possible to to really bring that message home, that this is universal. Well, and it veterinarians span or people who care for animals span the entire history of human kind. I. Oh, absolutely. You know, and and even even kids, they don't want to be veterinarians are looking to take care of that sick animal or that injured bird or, you know, the the sick salamander that they find when they're out in the backyard. Yeah, it's an instinct, really, I think for us. Yes. I agree with you. Yeah. So you highlight healers from many cultures, ancient Indian elephant doctors, modern wildlife veterinarians. What do you think those traditions teach you about what's common across cultures? Caring for animals. And then the reverse of that is what's culturally distinct. There's a lot in common. I mean there's I describe three basic reasons why we would look after animals medically. There are emotional reasons because of our emotional attachment to certain individual animals. They're practical reasons. Because these animals provide us with food or transportation or muscle power, those sorts of things. And then there are spiritual reasons because, we feel that these animals have some sort of higher value, higher purpose that's beyond just the practical and our immediate emotional. So the practical and the emotional, I think, are pretty common through across cultures. What's different is the spiritual. So when you look at some ancient cultures, a large part of the motivation may have been spiritual. And that's not something that we really connect with very much today or in modern veterinary medicine, although perhaps it's coming back talking to some clients. But but yeah, that's, that would be the, that would be the primary difference. And depending on the time in history, the practical outweighs the emotional and and vice versa. And depending on the culture at that time. Well, I think the practical is really highlighted in the chapter on the wars where the winning side had more horses or better horses, and they realized they had to take care of their horses in order to, to win wars. That's one of the two sparks that founded modern medicine. Was this realization after the Napoleonic Wars, that where they were chewing through horses at a horrendous rate. I mean, what happened at the Battle of Waterloo really grabbed the attention of the British public. I mean, not only mass slaughter of humans, but mass slaughter of horses and, and from it. So there's that emotional thing there. But from a practical standpoint, the British military looked and said, this is not sustainable. You can make a cannon in a matter of a week. You can't make a horse in a matter of a week, right. It takes some time to raise them. So, looking after the wounded horses to return them to the battlefield, as terrible as that sounds, that was one prompt. The other was, was plagues, you know, mass dying of cattle, causing potentially famine among humans. That was the other practical reason to, to start a sort of less organized scientific approach to bettering medicine. So just for the listeners who might not know, I have to confess I've forgotten how long the gestation of a horse is. But it's it's around a year. It's around many months. Probably I'm also a small animal, but. Yeah, but I think it is a year. It's a long thing. Then you you can't a baby horse, you can't ride, and you certainly can't ride it into battle. And so you're probably three years away from being able to take a horse into battle from conception to ride ability. And maybe it takes even longer than that to train a battle worthy horse. Fortunately, we don't do that these days, but it's not a quick process at all. And so that spins back to the practical of, of the horse situation. And then the disease that was causing famines with cows is called rinderpest. And I, I just like that name. I think it's I think it's the right word. Render I think means cattle or, or cattle in German. And then past of course, is just pestilence on top of it. But I've always thought that was a great name. Just. Yeah, it sounds like something you don't want to get even if you don't know what it means. So you said that the human animal relationship is more cyclical than linear. Where do you think we are in that circle today? And what lessons of the past should we not be forgetting? So the, the empathy part, the emotional part is definitely coming back. You know, I, in my 35 years in practice, I've seen that ramp up and certainly before then, it was already on the increase. So when we look at the past, we think only through the lens of practical. We don't really think that they would have had close to emotional bonds. But if you go far enough back. Yeah, they were very close emotional bonds. You look at a medieval peasant living with the one cow the family had. Yeah, that cow was the foundation of their, of their survival. But you can't live in such close quarters with an animal. They often lived in the same building as the animal and not develop an emotional bond. Or the very first story to tell about 14,000 B.C., a couple young, young man and woman skeletons found with the skeleton of a puppy buried in a ritual fashion. These weren't bones that just accidentally ended in the same pit. We know they were buried together on purpose. You know, people carry grave goods with them that were practical, like, swords and pots and whatever that would serve them in the afterlife. But we know this puppy actually died of distemper. We can tell from the teeth the enamel of the teeth. A sick puppy is not something that's going to serve you well in the afterlife. So there must have been, there must have been, an emotional bond there, a connection to for them, to the family to want to bury this puppy with this young couple. So we know that the emotional was important in the past. And we also would know that the people didn't die of distemper because people don't get distemper. Exactly. It's a dog disease. Some raccoons get it, too, I think. But it wasn't that they all died in some distemper outbreak, because I can't explain the situation based on what we know about distemper. Yeah, there there was a long period during Industrial Revolution and the expansion of the modern capitalist economy, when really the practical was at the forefront. And so that's what we've seen start to change somewhat again in the last 50 to 80 years or so. Well, and I think AMC got its start in practical veterinary medicine because the ladies who founded the Women's League for animals, which was the precursor to the Animal Medical Center, they were concerned about the welfare of the horses that worked in New York City, pulling wagons with people and goods and supplies, up and down. Manhattan, to most people, looks pretty flat, but it's actually not that flat. If you ever have to walk anywhere and the horses had to work very hard to pull people and belongings around New York City, and they were very concerned and had things like a horse parade and gave awards to, well cared for horses to encourage better care for, the horses of New York City. So that was an example of practical veterinary medicine. I practice what is probably more on the emotional side of veterinary medicine these days. So one disease that appears throughout your book is rabies. And I don't know about you, but as a young veterinarian, you know, we talked about rabies, and you need to do everything you can to prevent rabies, because if you get rabies, you're probably going to die from it. So it's it's an important disease from our standpoint as veterinarians because we can protect people by vaccinating dogs. So why do you think that rabies has loomed so large in history? Because I think the first go round of rabies is is like ancient Egypt. There are hieroglyphs that that talk about rabies. So why why is rabies been so important over the years? Even even today? Worldwide, close to 60,000 people die of rabies every year. So in the developing world, primarily, you know, South Asia, Latin America, we don't have statistics from the Middle Ages, but we know from written reports that it was considered a scourge and it was terrifying. You could die all kinds of horrible ways in the Middle Ages, famously. Right? All kinds of nasty things happened to you. But rabies is especially nasty, because people affiliated with rabies would lose complete control of their minds and their bodies. And, you know, appear mad in some way. And it's horribly painful, distressing way to watch somebody die. And it was quite common. Again, we don't have the statistics. So for that reason, really, it plays a plays a prominent role, ancient writers again and again. I mean, in the book I there must be a dozen different bizarre rabies cures that people tried. They were desperate to find something that would work for this. I think we're still desperate today. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, if you die, if you get rabies, Your whooped. I think there was, the move very recently. I might be wrong on this. I think it was the first ever case of somebody, a human with neurological signs from rabies, actually, having it reversed, like. Yeah, one time. Oh, yeah, one time. And I think they've tried other times to repeat that same protocol without success. So yeah, I think there are very few people that have ever survived rabies. Which is is probably why veterinarians since were on the forefront of being exposed, are always worried about rabies and probably drilled into our heads as veterinary students about asking yourself, could this animal have rabies? What precautions do I need to take? Right. I got vaccinated in school. Did you get vaccinated? Yeah, I got vaccinated. I still amazingly, I've got titers. I've got protection from that vaccine. Like 40 years later. Yeah. So do some of my colleagues need to be boosted constantly. So do parents. Yeah. I, my doctor said don't you think we should check you. And I said well that's probably a good idea and I, I to have a good titer 40 years later personally more than 40 years. So besides the rooster cure, was there another historical treatment that really stopped you in your tracks either because it was wildly misguided or surprisingly, ahead of its time? Well, let's go with wildly misguided, because that's much more entertaining. I love the story of, of animals that were considered to be shot in England in the early medieval period. People sometimes called the Dark Ages since after the Romans left the 500 607 hundreds. So people would be plowing and they would find these little tiny arrowheads, little stone arrowheads, and they had no conception of history. That a vague idea. The Romans were around at some point, but nothing about that. There would be prehistoric peoples living on the same land. So the explanation they reached for they jumped right to the explanation that, there must be invisible elves. That's where there's these arrowheads are coming from. And these invisible elves. No. Moreover, not only are there invisible elves, but they're out to get our livestock, so they are going to shoot invisible arrows. Except the arrowhead at our livestock and make them ill. So if, for example, you had, a cow with bloat, you'd call the. You'd think it's been shot and you'd call the cow leech. That's. But the veterinary equivalent would be called in those days. And the cow bleats would come and perform this bizarre ritual to rid the cow of this curse of being shot, a suspect on the side. He also gave some practical advice about and maybe take them off the fresh grass or something like that. But, but the main thing was that the people believed that invisible elves were causing illness in their cattle. Well, sometimes you feel like that when you practice medicine that there must be invisible gremlins. You can't figure out what's going on. Certainly. So thinking back historically, what approach or mindset for veterinarians today should be brought back? I wish, and I think the economics mitigate against this. You mentioned the Louis community earlier. The but that first house call cat vet in New York. I wish we could take the time that way. Even when I started in 1990, it was slower paced, more time to develop relationships with the animals and with the people. And I think that was, it was very positive. I mean, the science has come a long way, and we're doing wonderful things now because of the science. But if we could marry the science that we have now with the kind of moral you're not exactly leisurely, it was still kind of chaotic, you know, with the more relaxed approach. That's also the wrong word. But the slower approach that we had in earlier in the 20th century, that would be lovely. I would love to be able to somehow make the economics work out. We could bring that back because I think we're missing something. There is the word you're looking for personal touch, I think so, I mean, we try. I think we all do. But it's compressed, right? I could talk fast if I want to, and that's what I do sometimes our can, you know, or offload to the tax rate to the vet nurses and rather than that that enhanced personal touch there that that we had back then. Yeah. Yeah. For me sometimes it would be easier if, if some of the patients weren't quite so sick that I see when they're really sick, you, you don't have a lot of time to relationship build, you know, and to chitchat with the client about right. What's going on or what else or there other pets or something you really have to focus very hard on that sick pet so that you can figure out what the best plan for the pet and the family are. And that's absolutely, a challenge I think, these days. So when researching this book, did you ever come to the point where you said, wow, I think we're going backwards, or we could make this mistake again? Well, I don't know about we as a profession, but the larger we, the animal owning public, the society in general, I fear the return of superstition. I've seen it in my time in practice, the denigration of science, the erosion of trust in science and medical authority, if you will. That sounds terrible. But, the, But I think there's a little bit of that. I don't know that we're going to be having people bring in their dog saying they've been shot, but it wouldn't totally shock me either, because where I think we're seeing a return and the, you know, some of the blame lies with us and with science in general, not, explaining things properly and not being maybe, as, I don't know, as open, but helping people understand the process in a way that helps build the trust. But it I'm just starting to see it happen. It's certainly 90% of clients or 95% are fine. But there's a 5 to 10% where I see the superstition coming back. So. And you think some of the superstition is due to the availability of less than correct information on the internet? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Don't get me started on the internet. Not just Doctor Google, but the internet in general. Yeah, absolutely. The democratization of information is a wonderful thing in some ways, but it's a very dangerous thing in other ways as well. So what is your advice as a veterinarian? You have a client in the exam room and they're like, I'm going on the internet to look stuff up. What what do you tell them? Do you give them advice on how best to look stuff up? We direct them to websites that are kind of that approved or at least approved by by my colleagues in my hospital. And if they go sort of off the reservation and go find their own stuff, we encourage them to bring it in or just email it and, and let's have a look. And we try not it have to be very, very careful not to sound in any way judgmental or patronizing and having these conversations. But yeah, we try to gently guide people in the right direction because there's good information too. It just hard to sort the wheat from the chaff when you're not trained. Well, that's that's exactly right. It's just that there's lots of information out there. And if you're not a veterinarian, how in the world can you really sort through that information? It's it's the same thing when I'm trying to hunt for my own personal health care issues. Then you go you down a rabbit hole that doesn't give you good information. Yeah. Now, I was also wondering. You said superstition. So what kinds of superstition do clients come to you with? So I'm using the word, and I kind of a very loose, broad way. I'm talking about, non science based approaches to, medical problems. I'm probably going to offend some listeners here, but I consider homeopathy to be a superstition, for example. But, so there, you know, the modalities that really don't have a scientific basis are based on anecdote or, false correlation, etc.. I mean, there's all kinds of logical traps you can wander into if you're not careful. That's what I call superstition in this case. So did you have a favorite chapter in your own book? You know, I, I do like the Oswald that's, the upshot one. I like the one of Sinopah, who was... And this is a made up. We don't have evidence. We don't know who this person would be, but she's indigenous. North American, like a a Blackfoot, healer. Attempting to heal a horse using, yellow cornflower. I like that chapter because that's the part of the world I live in, western Canada. Yeah, I like all of them. I like the I love the Indian guy, you know, the Palakapya and the giving an enema to an elephant. That's awesome. Like, I use primary sources as much as possible. That's a good thing. With the internet, you can find all these documents and translate them easily. And, you know, this whole elaborate process for giving an enema to not just an elephant, but a big bull or elephant, I thought that was amazing. Well, I think veterinarians get asked to do some very amazing things. You know, when when zoos often have animals that have a particular problem, they often will call on AMC doctors with expertise in that area. And then it's a team effort between the zoo veterinarians and the AMC expert veterinarians to address that problem. So it's a big collaboration between those particular kinds of veterinarians to make the whole thing work, because AMC doesn't have expertise in say elephants. But we know a lot about fixing legs or fixing G.I tracts. And so that is create some very interesting collaborations in this hospital. And one time a museum had a bunch of animal mummies. And so we see a lot of animal mummies trying to help them identify what was inside the mummy without undoing the beautiful mummy. Wrap that these animals had on them. So there's just all kinds of great things that veterinarians get to do and see, because we're trained in more than one species, and we're we're also trained to be very adaptable because like one day you see a horse, and then the next day you see a dog and then you see someone's guinea pig, and you're supposed to be able to manage all of those. So it creates very adaptable people, at least in my opinion. Anyways, to say, how can we solve this problem now? I agree, it's one of the beauties of practice I hope doesn't go away. I mean, things are changing a little bit. There's a tremendous amount of freedom. I can walk in and say, I'm going to be, you know, pull a tooth today or I'm going to take an X-ray or do an ultrasound or I'm going to, you know, this is for any broad range, let's say, different species of ultrasound and wolverines and pelicans. Pelicans don't work so well because they have a lot of air under their skin. It turns out that's a bad thing for ultrasound. Snow leopard cubs that came from the zoo all but like except in the zoo. All kinds of stuff are. A little kid brings in a bird with a broken wing in a shoe box. Right. And what do you do? I mean, there's no human doctors I don't think have an equivalent of that kind of broad broadness of practice where we have to be adaptable and think on our feet and innovate. It's wonderful. Why do pelicans have air under their skin? I never took care of a pelicans. Yeah. So it feels like sub-q emphysema. You know it's it's crackly sensation. And with the zoo I had no idea this was going to happen. I didn't know until I started the ultrasounds. This is all just white fuzz. It's like looking through lung. It's so they float because they've got a significant mass for a bird, yet they have to float. So it's to help them float, apparently. So it's so just for our listeners, a dog or cat, if it has air under its skin, there's a big problem. And often it means the animal's been injured in some way, and it's created a leak so that there's air under their skin and they feel crunchy, like, and bobbly like like they got plastic, a plastic bag under their skin. But it's really air. But this is normal in pelicans. I guess the other thing is, if you're a pelican and you have a bill full of fish, you're going to sink like a lead balloon. And so you probably need extra buoyancy while you eat those fish, that you've just scooped up from the water. So I had no way just learning new things. And yeah, that's great. So I want to go back to the history of veterinary medicine. And if somebody, like your grandson decided to write a history of veterinary medicine 100 years from now, what do you want them to be saying about us? I hope they see that we're finally doing a good job. We're finally able to marry these threads that we've got the emotional part figured out that animals have value, have inherent value. So I don't know whether that's emotional, but the in part, animals have inherent and value in a right to medical care and as much as we're able to provide it, marry that with science that we're now able to actually do something about it because we have medical science by our side. We've been playing catch up with the human profession for a while. We've caught up, I think, and I'm going to say quietly surpassed in some ways what they're able to do on the human side because of the freedom that we have. So I think, yeah, we're in a golden age, you know, long we can persist that we don't stumble in some way, but I think we finally, finally got it. So we just have about a minute left. Tell me, give me your elevator speech so that readers will want to read your book. So my elevator speech is that this is the first history of veterinary medicine written for the general public. This is a book, as you said, you can pick up and read a little bit before bedtime. It's meant to be as entertaining as a subject matter permits. Okay, so here are some limits to how entertaining the history of veterinary medicine can be. But it's meant to be that way because I think you can inform through best through entertainment. It's meant to be a relatively easy read, and there's bibliography if you want to take deeper dives, but just to introduce you to this important facet of humanity, we as people, as human beings, care for animals. We always have, always will, across all cultures, across all time. So I think that's a great way to end this conversation. I want to thank Doctor Philipp Schott for joining us today on Ask the Vet. This has been a wonderful conversation and everything he just said about his book I 100% endorse. So I hope that my listeners will enjoy reading his book. Thank you. Thanks again for being on, asked the vet. Thanks very much. I know 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, I'll respond to your question on next month's Ask the Vet podcast. Just email me at Ask the Vet @amcny.org We have a short break coming up, but stay tuned because there are lots of interesting animal news stories when we return. We're back with Doctor Hohenhaus on Ask the Vet. Welcome back to Ask the Vet, everyone. Now it's time for the animal news. It's time for animal headlines. The biggest animal news from across the world. Scientists in South Africa have a bold new weapon against rhino poaching. They're making the horns radioactive. This is part of the Rhisotope project. What a great name. Rhisotope combines Rhino and Isotope into one word and it's done out of the University of Witwatersrand. A tiny dose of radioactive isotope harmless to the rhino is injected into the horn, but it's enough to trigger radiation scans at airports, ports and border crossings. Poachers can't tell which horns are radioactive, and that's the whole point. Tests last year proved that this works, even setting off alarms through the walls of a shipping container. Now the team is scaling up to protect more of South Africa's 16,000 rhinos, the largest population in the world. A century ago, there were half a million rhinos worldwide. Today, there are just 27,000, and about 500 of those rhinos are killed every year. So the mission of this group is to make every horn too risky to smuggle and give rhinos a chance to supply. Our second news story comes from the personal finance website WalletHub. It ranks the top US cities by pet friendliness, so this is a top 100 U.S. cities. And they've made a mistake because New York doesn't fit in here. So the leading the list are Scottsdale, Arizona and Tampa, Florida. So it might be pet friendly, but they're so hot. I can't imagine that your pet really wants to be out in the hot air like that. And then comes Cincinnati, Ohio, another hot city, Las Vegas, and then Portland, Oregon. These rankings evaluated factors like veterinary costs, access to care, pet friendly housing, and park availability. Notably, some of the country's largest and most iconic cities ranked near the bottom. New York City placed 93rd, which is a mistake, I'm sure. San Francisco 69th and Chicago at 74th. While these cities offer abundant services and amenities. They were brought down by high veterinary costs, limited green space, and dense urban environments that can be stressful for less accessible pets. And our third story is about the TSA, our friends at the airport. The TSA has issued a very specific travel reminder on its Facebook page. They say in italics, please, and they cannot emphasize this enough. Stop hiding animals in strange places on your body. The post followed an incident at Miami International Airport, where a woman tried to get two turtles to security by concealing them in her bra. Sadly, one of the turtles died from this episode. The other turtle got turned over to the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife, who are taking very good care of it. The TSA says small pets, which includes turtles, are allowed through security but must be removed from their carrier and carried through the checkpoint. They also urge travelers to check with their airline's pet policies before flying. From a veterinarian's perspective. Before you travel with a pet. Schedule a pre-travel checkup to confirm that your pet is healthy enough to travel is up to date on vaccines. And if you're traveling internationally, get that health certificate. Be sure to choose a carrier that secure and ventilated, and put in familiar blankets and pillows to reduce your pet's stress. Also, check your airline's website if you're flying with your pet, because certain airlines have very specific carrier requirements. While some people ask about sedating their pet for travel, most of the time we don't recommend that because sedation can interfere with your pet's breathing, temperature control, and ability to respond to a stressful event like travel. Also, watch the weather because certain times of the year when it's really hot or really cold. Airlines will not let pets fly because it's too risky while they're being loaded into cargo on the tarmac. And then if you have a squashed face dog also called a brachycephalic breed. Some of those are on the no fly list because of the risk of overheating with these snub nosed dogs. And then finally, give your pet a little drink of water before and after security and plan bathroom breaks when you're at the airport by checking that airport map to see where the pet relief area is. Bottom line, it takes a lot of planning to keep your pet safe when you travel. Keep them visible, keep them comfortable, and keep them out of your clothing. And now it's time for questions from our listeners. Our first question comes from Evelyn, a Evelyn wants to know we're moving cross-country with our two cats. How can we make the experience less stressful for them? So thanks, Evelyn, for emailing us that question. It's a little hard to know what my answer should be, because as I just gave airline travel things, if you're moving across country, maybe Evelyn's flying with her pet, in which case you should rewind and she can listen to suggestions for air travel. But some people don't want their pets to fly, and so they would drive across the country with their pet. And so before you start driving, be sure to load one of the apps that will help you identify pet friendly hotels so you and your pet have a place to stay overnight. I think if you're traveling with two cats and they're best friends, then I would get a big carrier, the biggest carry that would fit in the back of my car so that the cats have a little bit of room to move, stretch their legs, and maybe have a water bowl attached to the side of the carrier, and maybe even a small travel litter box. You go on Amazon or any pet supply company, you can find disposable travel litter boxes that will help the animals have a place to relieve themselves. But also you can relieve the smell in the car if they decide to poop in your travel litter box. And then keep in mind never, never, never leave your cat or any pet alone in a car because cars heat up. And every year there are many people whose pets are die from being too hot in a car. And then I think the one thing I didn't mention about flying with your pet is that I didn't say you have to take them out of the carrier to go through the X-ray machine, but be sure your pet has a leash and harness because they might get scared when you take them out of their carrier and then walk through that big X-ray machine with them in your arms. So be sure they've got their leash, harness, collar ID tags on so that if they were to jump out of your arms, there's an easy and quick way to capture them again so they don't go running through the airport and hide somewhere where you can't find them. So I hope your move goes smoothly. Avalon. Our next question is from Allie in Manhattan. Yes, and my pup has the same problem as her dog. So Allie asks. My goldendoodle keeps getting ear infections. Is there a way to prevent them, or is he just prone to it? So ear infections ears are really just an extension of the skin. And in dogs, the most common cause for ear infections is allergies. And whether those allergies are to something in the home, like wool or feathers or dust, or whether it's a seasonal problem and occurs every August. That helps you to know how to manage those allergies. So if your dog gets itchy every August and then gets an ear infection. Good idea. Towards the end of July, to make an appointment with your vet and see if your dog couldn't get an allergy shot as a preventive measure for that ear infection that occurs usually at the end of summer. I have some pets that are itchy in the spring, and so I put a note in my calendar to remind those clients they should come in and get an allergy shot before the pet gets itchy, which helps to prevent ear infections. So allergy management is the most important thing you can do to prevent those ear infections. And our last question is from Janice in Michigan. And the question is I have a ten and a half year old lab husky mix who's had two TPL surgeries in the past two years. Recently, she's been a bit lame in her back end. X-rays show her hips looks fine, but there are unusual arthritic changes in the left knee. My veterinarians, at the next step would be a joint tap to check for a bacterial infection. But she isn't showing obvious pain, and her blood work was normal. Should I go ahead with the joint app or keep treating with anti-inflammatories which were only recommended as needed? So Janice, I want to explain the surgery that your dog had so our listeners understand. So a TPLO, is a surgery to fix a torn ligament in the knee. In people, it often happens to football players who tear their cruciate ligament. And a TPLO is a surgery to fix that torn ligament. It's the most common surgery that our orthopedics do, and it's the most common problem in the dog knee. So in a TPLO surgery, little plates are put in the knee to replace that torn ligament. And even months after a successful surgery, the TPLO site can get infected. And so if your veterinarian is worried that that surgery site might be infected, even though the surgery was a couple of years ago, it still can happen that late. And a very small percentage of dogs who get an infection in their their implants or the the little plates that are put in the knee need those plates removed to resolve the infection. So I think that your veterinarian is giving you really good advice, and I would continue to follow his guidance or her guidance, in getting your pet's knee back in shape. Thanks to all the listeners who emailed in, and we'll look forward to answering more great questions next month. And now we're going to take a short break. And when we come back, we'll have important information from AMC's Usdan Institute. We're back with Doctor Ann Hohenhaus on Ask the Vet. Welcome back to Ask the Vet. I'm going to share important information from AMC's Usdan Institute for Animal Health Education. September is Pet Preparedness month, a reminder that emergencies can happen without warning and our pets depend on us to be ready to help them and ourselves. Start by putting together a pet go bag with 3 to 7 days of food and water medications. Copies of medical records. A collar with ID tags. Leash and a harness. Waste bags or cat litter supplies and a comfort item like a toy or blanket. Also a good time to check and make sure that your pet's microchip registration and ID tags are up to date with your current contact information. The tags and the microchip are one of the quickest ways to reunite a lost pet during an emergency. Plan ahead for evacuation by identifying pet friendly shelters, hotels, or friends and family who can take you and your pet in if necessary. Keep a short list of veterinary hospitals at near your possible destinations. So if you have an emergency when you've evacuated, you know where to go. Be sure to have a crate or carrier ready. And if your pet isn't a big fan of the crate or carrier, start getting them comfortable with it. Now put that crate out someplace kind of out of the way, but put a comfy blanket in it, or maybe cover it up with a towel so that it feels cozy and nice, and get your pet used to going in and out of the carrier. When it's not an emergency. The other thing to do is to practice leaving quickly, leaving the apartment or house quickly and safely with your pet and your go back. A little preparedness can make all the difference in keeping you and your pet safe when the unexpected happens. And for more trusted pet health information, visit the Usdan Institute at amcny.org/usdaninstitute. If you're in the New York area, please join us on Wednesday, September 17th for our second annual concert for canines and their companions. It's happening from 4 to 7 p.m. on the 25th Street Plaza. That's East 25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues. It's a free event and features live music from a string quartet, a photo booth, and other activities for you and your dog to enjoy. For details, visit us at amcny.org/events. For this one, you don't have to sign up at all. I want to thank Doctor Philipp Schott for joining me today and talking about his wonderful book. Don't forget, if you want to know more about your pets health or well-being, or just simply looking for pet health advice, email me at AsktheVet@amcny.org and I'll answer your questions on next month's Ask to Vet program. The rest of that podcast is available on the Sirius XM app, across all major podcast platforms, and also on AMC's website. All of this thanks to AMC's long standing partnership with Sirius XM. We'd love it if you followed us on social media at facebook.com. It's the animal medical center. One big word. On X formerly Twitter and Instagram. It's @amcny. It'd be great if you could take a moment to give the vet podcast a review a like and also subscribe so you receive new episodes as soon as they're available. I hope you're all join me again on next month's Ask the Vet show for another episode of Great Pet Health Information. Thanks everyone and have a wonderful September!