[News] Technology Revolutionizes Dog Care

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Harriet and Gary Jorn knew they had a problem last fall when they found a baseball-size tumor in the chest of their English bulldog.

The veterinarian confirmed their fears: Herbie had cancer.

Unwilling to let their 3-year-old pup go without a fight, the Temecula couple turned to a treatment rarely associated with the animal kingdom: chemotherapy.

For a few hours each visit over six months, a cocktail of cancer-fighting substances flowed through the 67-pound bulldog's stocky frame, attacking tumors in his spleen, liver and chest.

It worked. Herbie waddled out of the California Veterinary Specialists facility in Murrieta cancer-free on March 8.

"It is amazing," Harriet Jorn said in the lobby as her bulldog munched on a celebratory biscuit. "I'm so thankful."

A decade ago, Herbie would have died, said veterinarian Gregory Ogilvie, the dog's oncologist. Technology has revolutionized animal medicine, and veterinarians have more tools to prolong a pet's life than ever before.

State-of-the-art veterinary facilities are sprouting throughout the Inland Empire, their services rivaling those offered at human hospitals down the street. Today's pets get pacemakers, root canals, digital ultrasounds, MRI scans, joint replacements and laser surgery. Some even undergo cosmetic improvements.

But pet owners agree there is one disadvantage: Modern technology does not come cheap. Even so, some are willing to drain their savings to keep their four-legged companions alive.

Pet owners open their wallets because today's animals are full-fledged members of the family, said Dennis Wilds, a veterinarian in Riverside and Highland. Most veterinarians understand this, and have set up payment-plan options for their customers, he said.

"These are people's children," Wilds said. "They really want the best for them, and they are willing to spend the money."

Referral-only Facility

At California Veterinary Specialists, the referral-only facility offers emergency care 24 hours a day and features a full-service in-house laboratory, on-site pharmacy and surgical suites. The staff consists of internists, cardiologists, radiologists -- even a dentist.

Sick animals rest in temperature-controlled intensive-care units. A few feet away is one of the West Coast's only hyperbaric oxygen chambers for small animals. Sleeping inside on a recent visit was a 13-year-old gray Persian cat whose lung had been damaged when it tangled with a dog.

The chamber helps pets with tissue damage heal faster because it delivers oxygen at an increased pressure to the wounds. Similar chambers are used to help treat deep-sea divers with decompression sickness.

"The advance of technology has been incredible," Ogilvie said. "What we can do now is light-years ahead of what we could do two years ago. Ten years ago is just prehistoric."

In 2002, the most recent data available, nearly 60 percent of American households owned at least one pet, according to a survey by the American Veterinary Medical Association. The survey also showed that pets were living longer, association spokeswoman Sharon Curtis Granskog said by phone. "Technology is a big part of that," Granskog said.

Costly Adventures

New tools on the horizon will make veterinary care even more groundbreaking, she said.

Many of the nation's vets have started using laser surgery for declawing, spay-and-neuter surgery, tumor removal, oral and ear surgery and other applications. Acupuncture and animal massage are also increasingly common. Animal cancer centers, research on neurological disorders and hospice facilities for terminally ill pets are gaining steam as well.

However, innovation in veterinary offices may have drawbacks, said John Howarth, a veterinarian at Desert Dunes Animal Hospital in Bermuda Dunes.

While technology gives vets more tools for diagnosing and treating animals, some of the procedures available today are pricing some pet owners out of the market, he said. At his hospital, for example, a digital ultrasound costs about $300, twice as much as the nondigital procedure offered a year ago. Owners pay as much as $15,000 for a pet to undergo a major surgery and to stay in intensive care for several days.

Overall, pet owners spent nearly $12 billion on care for dogs and more than $6 billion for cats in 2001, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Those figures more than doubled from a decade earlier for both dogs and cats.

Alison Gaudenti, a Riverside resident, estimates that she has spent more than $10,000 on one of the loves of her life, a 7-year-old beagle named Joey.

About half of that money was spent on chemotherapy to fight the dog's lymphoma. Two months ago, she also noticed that Joey was experiencing pain when he tried to move. After a series of overnight visits and tests, veterinarians pinned it down to a pain syndrome common in the breed.

Gaudenti, who has a 13-month-old daughter and another baby on the way, said she and her husband have drained their savings. They are now turning to credit cards.

"He was our first baby," Gaudenti said through tears in the reception room at California Veterinary Specialists. "You just can't let it go."

Still, veterinarians said they are sensitive to an animal's welfare even though more treatment options exist. They said they discuss euthanasia with pet owners when an animal's health is not improving or if the treatment is painful.

"We feel that part of our job is to be realistic with people," said Amy Carr, an emergency and critical-care specialist at California Veterinary Specialists.

Improving on Nature

A growing part of veterinary medicine has little to do with everyday ailments.

Pet owners, who are armed with more discretionary income than ever before, are turning to cosmetic surgery in greater numbers, according to veterinarians.

These days, dogs and cats are getting facelifts, tummy tucks, nose jobs, breast reductions and testicular implants -- all of which can cost thousands of dollars.

"In today's veterinary world, there is nothing being done to people that cannot be done with your pet," Alan Schulman, a prominent orthopedic surgeon at the Animal Medical Center of Southern California in Los Angeles, said by phone.

At Desert Dunes Animal Hospital, veterinarians in March tattooed a poodle's pink nose with brown ink to prevent it from getting sunburned. Two months ago, they surgically redirected two salivary glands into the eyes of a yellow Labrador retriever that was born without the ability to make tears.

"When he eats, he cries," said veterinarian Eric Jackman, who performed the procedure.

Howarth said he wasn't quite sure what to do a few months ago when someone brought him a kitten that had been born without eyelids. Without some kind of surgery, the cat would have gone blind. Her owner wanted her euthanized.

He decided to try something new. Dissecting a portion of the lower eyelids, Howarth fashioned a small lid on top of the eye that allowed her to blink.

"I was shocked," said Christine Madruga, founder of the Pet Rescue Center in Indio, who found the cat a new home. "There was a time that cat would have been put to sleep."

Dentistry, including braces, is also a popular service for pets.

Dental disease is the top veterinary problem diagnosed in small animals, said Brook Niemiec, a San Diego-based veterinary dentist. Yet Niemiec, who offers pet dentistry services in San Diego, Murrieta and Upland, is one of only 76 board-certified veterinary dentists in the world, he said.

One of his specialties is braces for dogs. Each year, he performs the procedure on a dozen pets, some from the Inland Empire. The braces look like metal retainers and stay in an animal's mouth for as long as eight months. The equipment averages about $1,000.

Most pet owners choose the procedure for medical reasons, such as crooked teeth that are causing an animal pain. There are some owners, however, who get braces simply for vanity's sake, Niemiec said.

"Some people just want their dog to have a nice smile," he said.

'The Dog Doesn't Care'

Schulman said veterinarians must consider ethical issues before agreeing to perform cosmetic surgery on pets. He said he declines to do procedures that are not medically necessary.

"I've never met a dog who told me they were embarrassed at the dog park because they had a crooked smile," Schulman said. "The dog doesn't care; its owner does."

Niemiec said he has put braces on show dogs, which must match a "breed standard" to be successful in the competition ring. He once refused to do the procedure, but he found that owners would take their animals to a lesser-skilled dentist, endangering the pet's health.

He declined to name his show-dog clients.

The American Kennel Club, which regulates canine competitions, will disqualify pet owners with dogs that have had dental or surgical procedures not sanctioned by the organization, spokeswoman Lisa Peterson said in a telephone interview.

However, the AKC does allow ear cropping and tail docking in certain breeds if it maintains breed character or enhances a dog's health.

The Humane Society of the United States opposes surgeries that have no medical benefit for animals.

"To subject them to that for aesthetic reasons . . . I think that we should examine that a little more closely and think more of the animal's welfare than our need for a look," Nancy Peterson, an issues specialist with the Humane Society, said by phone.

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