360 Parasite protection—a discussion of lowering risk of parasites in dogs and their parents
As vector-borne parasitic diseases are on the rise, a panel of clinicians explores the latest parasitic trends and preventive strategies.
Content sponsored by Elanco
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Hello and welcome to a great discussion guaranteed to make you learn and understand various perspectives in veterinary medicine. My name is Dr. Adam Chrisman dvm360®’s Chief Veterinary Officer. On behalf of our friends at Elanco Animal Health, welcome to our insights panel discussion, a 360 overall view and discussion of lowering risks of parasites in dogs and their parents. I am honored to be facilitating the discussion with husband-and-wife veterinarians, Drs. Katina and Bill Carter and incredible dog parent Cara Johnson, and we can't forget about Nestle.
Welcome, everybody. Thanks for being here. Hello, welcome, Nestle. Are you enjoying the bed over there? Loves it. So cute. So, let's get to know a little bit about our friends here. So, Dr. Katina and Bill Carter are the owners of Heartland Veterinary and boarding in cream Ridge, New Jersey. Dr. Carter did her undergraduate work at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and received her DVM degree from Oklahoma State University. While studying for her DVM at OSU, she met her husband by way of being surgery partners together. I love that. Bill is a third-generation veterinarian originally from Hamilton, New Jersey. He performed his undergraduate work at Delaware Valley University. You can guess where he attended veterinary school. He is passionate about preventative medicine, shelter, medicine, and surgery.
Her and her husband opened Heartland Veterinary and boarding in 2018 after outgrowing their previous location Katina has a special interest in veterinary dermatology and parasitology in order to help many pet owners manage their pet skin conditions diseases and discuss the importance of zoonotic diseases. Both Katina and Bill are certified to practice fear free medicine. When she's able to sneak in a little downtime, she enjoys scrapbooking, riding quads with her husband and daughter Olivia. And Olivia wants to follow in her parents’ footsteps, and she can be a veterinarian, and you'll see her around the clinic, I understand too, right?
Katina Carter, DVM: She helps out.
Bill Carter, DVM: She runs the place.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: It sounds about right. The 3 of them share their home with 2 wirehaired pointing griffons, 4 cats, 2 cockatiels, some chickens, and 5 hermit crabs. That's a boatload right there.
Bill Carter, DVM: I did not call this I did not call this upon myself.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Joining us here is Kara Johnson, and she is a pet parent extraordinaire. And her 10-month-old fur baby Nestle Kira grew up in Brielle, New Jersey with 4 older sisters who are all her very best friends. Growing up, she has always had pets, so she was raised always by learning how to love them. After dealing with a childhood dog who suffered from distemper, Kara became inspired to learn more about veterinary medicine. As a result, she became a veterinary technician and has been passionate about it for the past 8 years. She loves educating pet parents on preventive care, behavior, and nutrition as she is an avid pet parent herself.
Kara and her husband recently rescued a puppy to be their daughter's best friend and Nestle is right there. As you can tell, I can see why she's your daughter's best friend. She's a cutie.
Okay, friends, are you ready? Alright, let's get into a great discussion. We're first going to talk about some of the guidelines we see from CAPC and highlight the dog park study. We're then going to dive right into what it means to have 360 parasitic protection for both the veterinary perspective and a pet parent's perspective. So, this is a unique opportunity where we're going to share some insight best practices and real-world experiences that you could share with your colleagues and clients. So, get ready for a thoughtful discussion. So those of you that may not know CAPC stands for the Companion Animal Parasite Council. And what we do is we as veterinarians, veterinary professionals, we go on the website just to look at a little bit of the trends. So, what are we seeing with some of the trends with some of the parasites?
Bill Carter, DVM: I mean, over the past couple of years, especially with, you know, dog parks [and the] intermingling of animals, [we’re] seeing a lot more hookworm [and] a lot more whip worm, which I don't remember seeing when I first got into practice a fair amount of it. And heartworm, [we’re] seeing a lot of heartworm recently. I attribute that to all the dogs coming up from the south. So, Katrina kind of moved all these dogs from the south, which was great, but they sent heartworm all over the northeast. So along with Houston and things like that. So, we're seeing more heartworm, which I typically didn't see in the New Jersey area as much. So that's, you know, kind of really getting kind of scary, actually.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Right. Are you seeing that with your clients too?
Katina Carter, DVM: Yeah, absolutely. We're definitely seeing all of that giardia too. We're seeing some more giardia.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yep. And I think because of the area that we're in, in the northeast, I would say Lyme disease tends to be something that we see quite a bit of as
Bill Carter, DVM: Yeah, Lyme disease.
Katina Carter, DVM: Ehrlichiosis…other tick diseases we're seeing…
Bill Carter, DVM: Anaplasmosis now. I've seen a couple cases of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever [in the] South Jersey area as well. So those, those tick-borne diseases you were discussing. So, you know…
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: I think I look back into practicing even 10 years ago, I don't think we've seen such a variety of say tick borne diseases and intestinal parasites that we're seeing now, would you say?
Bill Carter, DVM: Yeah, and I think you know, a big part of that is you know, climate change. You know, when we first moved to New Jersey, you only saw the Lone Star tick in the southern US…and now it's one of the more prevalent ticks in the area. You know, and like he's we're having these wet winters you know, which is contributing to it quite a bit. You know, and lack of long…you always hear if it gets cold, it's going to kill ticks. That's kind of old thought. It doesn't kill ticks.
Katina Carter, DVM: Definitely. Nor does it intestinal parasites in the ground.
Bill Carter, DVM: Like 5 years whipworms can live in the soil.
