Besides my work informing people about pet care through this column and my "Good Morning America" segments (among other media appearances), I'm a practicing veterinarian with more than 30 years of experience.
Of course, I'm also a lifetime animal lover who is always looking for breakthrough products to help pets and the people who love them.
I read the veterinary journals, check out the convention floor at the veterinary conventions – and see which lectures are crowded – and tap into a trusted network of many of the top veterinarians in North America. Every year, I ask more than 100 of these experts to help me come up with a list of the best new products launched over the last year.
What follows are some of the veterinary products that rose like cream to the top. (Next week: non-veterinary products.) We have a complete list on our PetConnection.com Web site, and I'll be talking about these products on "Good Morning America" this week.
• Making medication easier: Few things are more frustrating to a veterinarian than sending a sick pet home with medication you know the owner won't give because he finds administering it too difficult.
That's why many veterinarians are enthusiastic about the introduction of Convenia, an injectable antibiotic that lasts for up to two weeks. For a more low-tech approach, how about Greenies Pill Pockets – treats you can put pills into? Talk about putting the "treat" into treatment!
• Testing for heart disease: The same test you might receive in an emergency room is now available for cats and dogs. The Cardiopet proBNP is a simple, minimally invasive blood test that detects heart disease, even when clinical signs are absent or nondescript. This development is particularly important because the American Veterinary Medical Association says that about 3.2 million dogs have some form of acquired heart disease – and unlike people, dogs don't have physical signs like heart attacks.
Heart disease in cats can be even more difficult to diagnose and may not be known until the heart fails. And for those pets diagnosed with congestive heart failure, Vetmedin is now a choice for veterinarians working to manage the disease and improve the quality of life for these pets.
• Treating skin disease: ZoonOx is a topical oxygen emulsion that carries a full atmosphere of oxygen, releasing it gradually over time. The benefits of treating patients with difficult skin injuries in hyperbaric oxygen chambers have been understood for years, and ZoonOx offers a similar treatment approach for animals without the cost and difficulty of getting the animal into such a facility.
When applied to complex wounds, ZoonOx supplies additional oxygen to the collagen-formation process, one of the first steps in the healing and reformation of the skin structure.
In the next column, I'll share the non-medical breakthroughs: Those products that make caring for a pet easier and more fun.
Pet Connection is produced by a team of team of pet-care experts headed by veterinarian Dr. Marty Becker and journalist Gina Spadafori. The two are also the authors of several best-selling pet-care books. E-mail them at petconnection@gmail.com or visit www.petconnection.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/ spadafori.
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