Aug 04, 2020
FULL VIDEO: You can find the full video in CAM MemberZone.
Internal medicine and nutrition specialist, Isuru Gajanayake, joins CAM’s Esme Howells to discuss the nutritional needs of dogs with osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases. All dogs need a balanced diet and their requirements differ depending on their age but also on their medical issues and body score. Isuru talks us through protein and energy requirements at different life stages and provides guidance on how to choose the right food from the huge range available. Viewers are encouraged to visit the WSAVA site (https://wsava.org/global-guide…/global-nutrition-guidelines/) for further information.
Isuru Gajanayake is an American, European and RCVS specialist in small animal internal medicine, and an American specialist in small animal nutrition. He works at Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service in Solihull, seeing referral cases in both internal medicine and clinical nutrition (https://willows.uk.net/).
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Canine Arthritis Management (CAM) is a veterinary driven initiative, set up by vet Hannah Capon who was becoming overwhelmed with the number of dogs she was having to put to sleep having “gone off their legs”. This was often seen by the owners as a sudden incident, when in truth that dog had probably been suffering in silence for a long time prior to that day. In fact, we believe that as many as 1 in 5 dogs in the UK, and 80% of dogs over the age of 8, will have some degree of osteoarthritis. Unlike humans, dogs are unable to express their pain in words. Chronic pain is no doubt something most people will understand and empathise with, but it can be difficult to tell when a dog is suffering in the same way. We want to challenge the preconceived notion that “just getting old” or “slowing down” should be accepted in our four-footed companions. Ageing in itself is not a disease! Here at CAM we think that by changing owner, vet and public perception of arthritis, we can improve and extend the lives of dogs.
dogs can they can read the other dogs emotional state so they can say Well he seems nice and relaxed so now I can relax when they do it with people it’s obviously not very successful because we can’t read each other’s pheromones but when dogs do it to us we completely misread it as them being really happy and excited yeah or disobedient yeah oh yeah absolutely yeah lots of people will get really frustrated with them jumping up but they might get frustated when they jump up strangers but then when they walk home and the dog does it to them they might really like it which is a a whole another kettle of fish oh my God that’s just a whole mixed bag isn’t it can you imagine how confused that poor dog is where they’re allowed to do it then but not then and actually just never know when it’s okay oh yeah absolutely and so this is that they give they trying to get all this information but then they also give information in two ways which again then we completely misread so the first one is they might urinate and this happens a lot with lots of puppies people will say oh I walked in and and puppy did a we on the floor and uh people get really frustrated because the puppy maybe they weed on your brand new shoe and so then they’ll often Shout at the puppy the puppy was already worried and you’ve just made it more worried so actually tomorrow it’s more likely to we even more and even quicker for you um which then frustrates people uh but we don’t think of it as being um anxiety a lot of people will think they was just excited that they weed and that’s a all the time you know an excitement we but if your dogs got normal bladder control they shouldn’t be weeing because they’re excited that’s not something we see and when we look at their body language we can see that they’re actually quite worried in those interactions yeah yeah I see this um I do see it a lot as a first opinion vet in that you’ll have the dog that kind of comes into the room and then almost over voluntary they they the owna quite often interprets it as the dog loves coming to the vets and they they come into the room and they’re all over the vet um and you you can’t help but feel that you’re liked you’re loved they they’re happy to see you but now that I know more than I did before um I realize that they’re they’re coming in and they’re trying to assess the situation as quickly as possible aren’t they absolutely we see people say oh you know what my dog loves vets they drag me in from the other side of the street they’re desperate to get in there and actually that makes no logical sense you know I think vets are lovely people I’m going to say that because I’m one um but we we do things to help dogs absolutely and it’s vital the work that we do but it’s not very nice for dogs and that’s you know I I’ve always worked trying to reduce all the stress possible but nobody gets that excited to go to their GP or to the dentist you know you shouldn’t be thinking I’m desperate it’s that desperation to get in there as well as their body language that gives it away that it isn’t excitement because that and it is quite funny because when you say it like that you know in the horror movies they said never go in the basement never in the basement like the room that has no no exit point to Bar the stairs and that’s the same for most consult rooms isn’t it you know the dog runs into a