Animal Care

HERE COMES TROUBLE

Mark Newton-Clarke MAVetMB PhD MRCVS, Newton Clarke Veterinary Surgeons

Dogs, as we know, come in all shapes and sizes. Not so much cats, which is just as well because if there was a similar size variation in our domestic felines as in pet dogs, we could have 80kg cats roaming around. Pure breeds apart, our domestic pussy cats are an outbred population which has mixed up genes for generations. As a result, inherited disorders are rare in the moggy cat and with modern nutrition and veterinary care, our cats’ longevity is clearly significantly increasing.

The same cannot be said of our pure-breeds, neither dogs nor cats. In fact, certainly for the short-nosed (brachycephalic) and short-legged (chrondrodysplastic), the anatomical challenges facing these pugs, Persians and dachshunds are getting worse, not better. The Kennel Club, who set breed standards for dogs in the UK, are making some efforts to write healthier breed descriptions in the hope that these improvements will filter down the generations and eventually result in healthier dogs. It’s going to be a long process and their task is made much more difficult with the unregulated and uncontrolled breeding that has gone on in the past couple of years, driven by record-high puppy prices.

So what is it about pugs and Persians that causes so many problems? It centres on the squashing of tongue, larynx, nasal chambers and eyes into too small a skull. The effect on breathing is obvious and this gets markedly worse with age and obesity, the former inevitable but the latter not so. Dogs and cats should not make a noise when they breathe, even ones with short noses! A scoring system has been developed by vets at Cambridge University for the disability suffered by brachycephalic dogs, giving grades from 1 (least severe) to 4 (in need of surgery to restore some quality of life). By only breeding

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from dogs with grades 1 and 2, it is hoped the direction of travel for pugs and others is reversed and new-style no-snorting future generations result, which is in fact the old style. In the meantime, as a profession, we need to raise awareness of the disability some shortnosed dogs and cats suffer and offer ways of helping. Sometimes just widening the nose can make a difference, as it can with human snorers who use those nose-spreading devices (they really can work well!).

If the respiratory tract is one Achilles’ heel, the pug eye is another – too big to fit into its socket and exposed to the point of not even being covered by eyelids during a blink. This can be a massive problem as the tear film is not renewed efficiently in the centre of the eye, causing the cornea to dry out. The resulting ulcer can develop over a few hours and many go into melt-down, literally. The ‘melting ulcer’ is not unique to pugs but it really is an eye-threatening issue for any animal, especially those with a short nose. The process of ‘melting’ is one of self-destruction, caused by enzymes that can destroy and perforate the cornea. Early and intensive medical treatment can prevent surgery but many eyes are lost or permanently impaired as a result. Next time your pug is asleep (hopefully not snoring) have a close look at their eyelids and if you suspect even the slightest gap between them, it’s definitely time for eye lubricant. Even if you don’t see a gap, it will never do any harm to lubricate anyway. We can advise you on the best ones to use as waxier preparations are better at night and clear gels by day.

Just like a minor nose-job can be helpful for breathing, a little eye-lid shaping can work wonders for bulging eyes that refuse to close properly. All it involves is making the gap between the eyelids (the palpebral fissure) smaller so reducing the exposure of the cornea. Almost every pug could benefit from this procedure but it almost never happens until an ulcer has developed and by that time, it’s often too late.

I know I’ve focused on one very small item, the pug head, but it contains enough medical and surgical conditions to fill a textbook. I should not overlook anatomical issues in other breeds, some of which can be fixed with surgery and some that perhaps, should not be. A defect that affects an animal’s quality of life or that causes a high risk of significant harm is arguably one that should be pro-actively addressed for the individual and be the target of genetic improvement in the long term. Other ‘defects’ are questionably due to fashion or tradition, such as long tails in working dogs of certain breeds. The tail docking debate continues within the veterinary profession as it does among breeders and owners and will probably never be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. Is there a real difference in doing corrective eyelid surgery on a pug to prevent an ulcer compared to shortening a working dog’s tail to prevent trauma on a shoot? Well, as a practice, we think there is, as retrievers with long feathered tails are never docked and almost never suffer tail injuries as a result of retrieving! The consensus is now in favour of only shortening tails that have suffered trauma, to help prevent recurrence. Other forms of cosmetic surgery, such as ear-cropping, are illegal in the UK and rightfully so. Surgery is a powerful tool and must be used selectively, wisely… and very skilfully.

DAY IN THE LIFE OF A VET

A Trip to Groundswell Regenerative Agricultural Show and Conference John Walsh, Friars Moor Vets

You may have read last year, that on the dairy farm at home we have started to implement regenerative agricultural techniques enabling us to grow the crops we feed to our herd in a more sustainable way. We have been growing cover crops to protect and enhance the soil over the winter months and trying new ways to grow maize with minimal soil disturbance. The trials are continuing, and we still have a lot to learn. As a result, I am always trying to find sources of information and to meet like-minded people who are further down the road with these methods. If you just stayed on the farm and didn’t venture out to see other farmers, you would literally only have forty harvests to learn all you need to learn in your working life. By accessing information and attending conferences you can learn from thousands of people’s mistakes, successes and experiences to put these into practice on your farm. In fact, someone once told me, ‘I have learnt so much from my mistakes that I am planning on making a few more!’

Groundswell Agricultural Show is held on a mixed farm in Hertfordshire, growing crops and keeping beef animals. The farm’s owners, The Cherry family, converted their farm to a ‘No Till’ system in 2010 and have been running the show for the past seven years to help bring like-minded people together to learn about regenerative farming techniques. The show runs over two days and attracts people from all over the UK and the world.

There were so many interesting talks this year, it was impossible to make them all. I learnt about dung beetles from Claire Whittle, a vet who used to work at Friars Moor but since has moved to work in Cheshire. Dung beetles provide useful services to farmers by helping to recycle the dung, taking nutrients into the soil and reducing the parasite burden on the pasture.

I also learnt about a new fertiliser that has been made from digestate potato peelings from a crisp factory and uses 90% less CO2 production. With the crisis in Ukraine, the price of fertiliser on farms has tripled but adopting this new method would mean we could produce much more here in the UK and in a significantly more sustainable and cost-effective way. The same product was also featured on the BBC’s Country File.

The show is getting busier every year and the regenerative farming movement is growing. If you would like to know more about regenerative farming there is a lot of information available online and in print. One such book, Gabe Brown’s Dirt to Soil, is a must-read in my opinion.