Quick reminder about getting Pet Ready! After this week’s earthquake activity, plus the anniversary of Loma Prieta coming up, we thought it makes for a great reminder window to encourage (and help) you to include your animal family members in disaster prep planning. It’s a simple concept the experts call being “Pet Ready!”

If being a ‘pet parent’ is a new role for you, don’t get intimidated, but do get on it. We have a checklist to make it easier for you—the Pet Ready! Earthquake Readiness Checklist.

Pull up the check list, and if you want to geek out on certain elements, you’ll notice links to blog posts on the specific topics—like water, food and first aid kits. Or you can just assemble the applicable items and check off the check list.

If you’re an experienced pet parent, it might also be time to double check the checklist, rotate stock and update meds. Please reach out for anything you need from us.

One way or another, it’s a good time for everyone to get Pet Ready! Perhaps we can all use the Loma Prieta anniversary (Oct. 17) as a good deadline to get it done.

If you have pets, we strongly recommend you avoid four things to protect them from getting bird flu.

By now we’re sure you’ve heard about the H5N1 virus, which causes bird flu. You may have even heard about cases of infection in humans, particularly those who work on farms. However, the H5N1 ‘bird flu’ virus can also infect dogs, cats and a host of other mammals. Illness varies from mild to fatal.

We want to make sure you know how to protect your pets by avoiding four things:

* Unpasteurized “raw” milk – Right now is definitely not a good time for raw milk as it can expose your animal to the H5N1 virus. In fact, we recommend avoiding all milk because of lactose intolerance, but we know some people do offer their pets milk or cream.

However, due to severe illness and death in cats who get bird flu, we recommend that you only use pasteurized milk at this time to eliminate the risk. Any milk you use must be pasteurized to eliminate the risk. Pasteurization is safe. The pasteurization process involves heating a liquid to a high temperature for a short amount of time, which kills harmful microbes without affecting taste or nutrition.

* Raw beef or chicken – Foods which involve raw (or undercooked) chicken or beef may include the meat of exposed cows or chickens. There’s no way to know whether the cow or chicken has been exposed. There are no studies showing the superiority of raw food diets, but again, we know that raw meat diets are popular. Multiple raw food diets have been recalled due to bird flu. Cooking will kill the virus. We recommend that, and that you utilize strong kitchen and food hygiene practices with any raw meat.

* Freeze Dried or Dehydrated beef or chicken – This one isn’t as intuitive because often people think of dehydration as involving heat (which it can, technically), but the dehydration process does not involve heat in the same way that pasteurization does. Instead, dehydration is about removing moisture, which still leaves the meat capable of infecting your animal. The bottom line is: dehydration does not effectively kill viruses in food.

“If I want to preserve a virus in the lab, I freeze dry it,” says veterinary infectious disease expert, Dr. Scott Weese on the Worms and Germs blog. He also lays out an excellent case to avoid rawhide, bones, pigs ears and similar chew toys and treats aside from any bird flu risk, due to other infectious diseases.

* Sick or dead wild birds – Particularly during fall migration (October through March). Limiting cats out door activities to bird-proof enclosures is ideal, but not always doable. California West Nile bird monitoring program requests that you report any dead birds (for pick up and testing). They also request that you carefully monitor dogs on walks, and keep cats indoors.

Those are the four big things to avoid, and for indoor animals, that’s probably all you need to worry about at home regarding bird flu.

For some folk, avoiding these four things may not be sufficient to protect your animal from the H5N1 virus. If you work or live near livestock, or even have backyard birds, you may want to take additional precautions to protect your pets.

If you don’t have a backyard chicken coop, but you do have a robust bird feeder, bird bath, or other means of encouraging birds to congregate, you may also want to consider other ways to protect your pets and your family. It may come down to choices and risk mitigation. When the news of this epic bird flu outbreak first broke, we posted a heads-up with several solid resources for people to learn more.

We are continuing to monitor this fast changing situation, with our scientific eyes focused on trustworthy data sources.

All that said, if you’re not exposed to lots of birds or other people’s animals, it’s a much simpler story. Just don’t feed your pets raw (unpasteurized) milk, or let them eat raw, undercooked, freeze dried or dehydrated meat. If you have any questions or want to consult your veterinarian, please do not hesitate to reach out.

As we all know from past wildfire events, the response on the animal front is a long and winding road to reunification and recovery. These are the groups that we have selected to donate to and support. We like their bona fides and feel they span a decent range of current needs in the area.

If you want to help, we thought we’d share our choices (in no particular order) for you to consider:

1) Pasadena Humane Society—with the ongoing efforts, perhaps consider signing up for one year of monthly support. They have accepted 300 animals so far and will need sustained help.

2) Judie Mancuso’s group—for those of you who know the powerful and inimitable Judie Mancuso, you know she was one of the first calls we made to check in. Typically focused on political advocacy to save and protect animals of all kinds, today the foundational arm of Social Compassion in Legislation (SCIL) has located a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) team and is flying in wildlife specialists from New Jersey to care for the wild animals impacted by these fires.

3) Animal Wellness Foundation—Animal Wellness Centers had just moved into their new animal hospital when the fires broke out. In a simple twist of fate their former facility was empty and available, located directly across the street from the new animal hospital in Marina del Rey. Animal Wellness Centers, partnering with the Animal Wellness Foundation, are making use of the former facility to take in animals of pet parents who have lost everything. Plus, they can provide veterinary medical care when needed.

All three of these organizations are terrific choices with immediate needs in addition to disaster recovery work that will clearly be ongoing a while. If tax deductibility is a consideration for you, all three of these organizations are registered 501(c)(3) organizations, and both Pasadena Humane Society and Animal Wellness Foundation are set up for monthly recurring donations.

We are blessed with a client community second to none—smart and practical, compassionate and caring, informed and involved. We’ve always been so impressed by how our community jumps in to help animals when disaster strikes. Thank you in advance for your help with the animals impacted by this unprecedented set of urban wildfires.

ICYMI, our dear friends at Muttville were featured in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. The print edition even ran it on page 1, above the fold, with super cute photos.

The article features the story behind their terrific new location. It’s the result of five years of renovations, unifying three buildings (sound familiar?) to create a fun and inviting space for anyone to visit, whether looking to adopt an older dog or just looking for a few minutes of canine love.

We’re very proud of our dear friends at Muttville. We’ve supported them for years and collaborated on many rescue projects. Naturally, we look forward to many more years of collaboration, but it’s important to take a moment to congratulate them on their momentous achievement. Way to go, Muttville!

She’s an “exotic” one, our Dr. Zunino. She’s even gone international to pursue her exotic passion.

No, we don’t mean “exotic” in the sense of coming from exotic shores. She was born and raised right here on the Peninsula. We mean that her interest in small animals extends beyond dogs and cats to include what veterinary medicine calls “exotics” (i.e. rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, reptiles, etc.). Of course, this is in addition to her passion for dogs and cats.

Veterinary medicine has been a calling since about second grade. Dr. Zunino was always drawn to a career with animals. Since high school, every internship, externship, volunteer gig, summer job and gap-year job has been geared toward veterinary medicine.

If she seems familiar to you, perhaps it’s because one of her summer jobs was right here at Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital; then, she came back the following summer to work as a veterinary assistant. We weren’t the only animal hospital she worked with during her college years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, or during veterinary school at the University of California at Davis. So, you can imagine, we’re thrilled and honored that once she earned her DVM, and officially became Dr. Zunino, she chose to come back here to work with us!

What may not be familiar to you is how much, and how far, she’s traveled getting her hands-on experience treating animals. She moved to Denver for a time to work with the renowned Dr. Jon Geller, DVM, founder of the Street Dog Coalition. Dr. Geller’s organization sets up pop-up clinics staffed with volunteer veterinary professionals to care for the animals of folks at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness. Dr. Geller explains, “We’re committed to protecting the human-animal bond and caring for the lives on both ends of the leash.”

Dr. Zunino also moved for a time to work down under, in Sydney and near Brisbane, Australia (with a side trip to Melbourne, a fav). The team at Sydney Exotics and Rabbit Vets (SERV) published research into how to make medicine better for exotics, especially rabbits and guinea pigs. Up near Brisbane, the work done at the University of Queensland Gatton campus included more wildlife and involved more Bearded Dragons as pets. It’s an Aussie thing.

But there’s no place like home. We asked Dr. Zunino why she chose Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital, she immediately pointed out we are AAHA accredited. We put a lot of work into the AAHA accreditation, and we know clients appreciate it, so it’s gratifying to hear that makes a difference to our professionals as well. Another big draw mentioned is our multiple doctor, collaborative environment.

Dr. Zunino explained, “I could tell Mid-Pen has a collaborative environment, and I think medicine is best when you put multiple heads together.” In addition, as an independent hospital, doctors can consider more tailored approaches, including the latest, greatest medical advances.

Her advice to new animal guardians? She says that getting insurance is a good idea. But the most important thing is: once a client is established with her, don’t be afraid to ask questions. She advises to reach out if you’re ever not sure about something, and she can let you know if it requires an office visit, or is concerning, but the most important thing is to ask those questions.

When she’s not all about the small animals and exotics, Dr. Zenino loves to cook. It’s in her blood. She learned how to cook from her mother. Plus exploring farmer’s markets is one of her absolute joys. This makes her cooking style is “farmer’s market to table, with Italian influences.”

Speaking of style, she’s a Studio Ghibli fan (and yes, she’s been to the Studio Ghibli museum in Japan). Her other creative outlet is clay work, creating ceramics. There’s also nothing more relaxing than watching TV on the couch with her rabbits, Freckles and Colonel Dax.

When you get a chance, please welcome—or we should say “please welcome BACK”—Dr. Olivia Zunino.

With the rainy season winding down, the mosquito breeding season is ramping up.  Why care about mosquitoes?  Human diseases aside, as a pet owner—whether dog or cat—you care about mosquitos because mosquitos transmit heartworm and other diseases to our pets.

Did you know that a tiny amount of water, as small as a bottle cap, is sufficient for mosquitos to breed.  We all know to get rid of any standing water in the yard, but nobody can catch it all.

Heartworm prevention is crucial, and now is the best time to make sure heartworm prevention medication for your animal is up to date and administered.  To reiterate from our blog post last spring:

If you are a new pet owner, it’s useful to understand why all this heartworm discussion is so important. Put simply, heartworm can be a matter of life and death, and prevention is absolutely key. If you have a few minutes, you might want to read our information page on Heartworm, an earlier blog post or both.

Cats cannot be treated for heartworm infection, which makes the strongest case possible for prevention. Indoor cats and indoor dogs are still at risk. Dogs can be treated, but by the time the mosquito bite turns into symptoms, adult worms have developed and populated blood vessels near the heart and non-trivial damage has been done. Plus, treatment is expensive, not without risks and difficulties, and by no means guaranteed.

Heartworm prevention medication comes with essentially no risk to your pet. If your pet’s been seen in the last year, reach out to us and we can refill the prescription.  If you are unsure that your pet received every dose on schedule, testing may be indicated.  If your pet has not been seen by their veterinarian in the last year, please be advised that we’re scheduling several weeks out; now is the time to get your appointment on the books so the heartworm prevention medication can begin by this summer.

All of us at Mid-Peninsula Animal Hospital wish you and yours the happiest of New Years!

JN.1 — it looks like a short version of January 1st, doesn’t it?

Alas, it is a new Covid variant that’s on the uptick — increasing quickly enough to warrant a heads-up. Granted, for humans, we are in the middle of a seasonal uptick in all upper respiratory disease cases locally. However, JN.1 Covid cases are indeed rising noticeably.

On the animal front, it’s also important to watch our furry friends for any upper respiratory symptoms. In particular, there is one affecting dogs of note since it can progress quite quickly. We want you to know what to look for and be ready to take it seriously, just in case.

Symptoms of respiratory illness in dogs include: coughing, sneezing, difficulty breathing, nasal or eye discharge and lethargy.

If your dog shows symptoms, contact us during regular business hours, or contact other emergency services outside of regular business hours. Don’t panic, but don’t ‘wait and see,’ either. By way of prevention, perhaps for the next few months, avoid crowded dog situations, when possible.

Back, on the human front, it’s important to keep yourself, your family and your friends safe. Even though an infection may be mild, evidence suggests that repeated infection increases the chance of “Long Covid” or having debilitating symptoms for six (6) months, or even longer. San Mateo County Health Department encourages us to take all the preventative actions that are available:

1.    Vaccination – If you haven’t already, getting this year’s updated Covid and Flu vaccines is key. The current Covid mRNA multivariant vaccine has been shown to significantly boost virus-neutralization antibodies including against JN.1. Contact your local health care provider, CVS, Walgreens or other pharmacy.
2.    High-Quality Masks – Wear N95 masks in public spaces, especially crowded ones like airports.
3.    Minimizing Exposure – Reduce your exposure to crowded places, generally. For example, try to avoid dining in public indoor spaces during the next few weeks while the seasonal rates are peaking.
4.    Testing – New combination Covid-and-flu tests are free from the government right now.

Bonus points: To further mitigate risks, perhaps also consider using a portable HEPA filter in common areas when gathering indoors. These devices effectively filter out virus particles.

To be clear, none of the current outbreaks are anywhere near the same as the 2020 holiday season. For our animals, they have you to pay good attention to them. For ourselves, a good vaccine, a good mask and a little care can go a long way. As we head into the new year, may you enjoy the holiday season in the best of good health.