Show dogs need special veterinary attention

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As families finish their meals or watch a holiday parade, the annual dog shows will begin to take over television sets across America. As veterinary professionals, do you ever wonder what it is like to be a veterinarian to these animals or what kind of care they require?

On this episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, Debbie Torraca, DPT, MSPT, CCRP, CCMT, joins host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to discuss the kind of care these show dogs need, plus some alternative ways of performing care that veterinary professionals may not think about.

Below is a partial transcript. Listen to the full podcast for more.

Debbie Torraca, DPT, MSPT, CCRP, CCMT: I think some of the obvious are they're going to be intact animals. The goal of showing and conformation is to improve the breed. So hopefully, these are nice dogs, and are going to have great health clearances, all of that sort of stuff. I often joke about the hair coat, like on long breeds and something taking a blood draw, you may not even think about shaving some of the hair, but that may set the dog out for 6 months because the hair is not growing back and that's not a life or death sort of thing. But, sometimes there are other ways of doing it.

I think also, so many of these dogs travel so frequently, and especially in the United States, if we're used to the New England area, and were used to our tick-borne illnesses. But we may not realize the dog has just been out in Colorado or California, and the travel schedule and the exposure to different diseases, as well as stress. You know, a lot of intestinal issues from traveling and the summer months and that sort of stuff... We had a vet student in last week in the clinic, and she's like, 'Oh, this is just a pretty dog' I'm like, 'Oh, it's so much more than a pretty dog' You know, there's so much more behind that.