As a veterinarian, I’ve dispensed a lot of medications for both dogs and cats…that is, until I had to start medicating my own pets. I’ve became a lot more empathetic now that I’ve realized that I can barely pill my own cat (who runs away from me), and that my dog will not take pills in cheese or peanut butter. In fact, pilling my own pets has smartened me up on what meds pets really need. As a result, I’ve started prioritizing pills – in other words, I rank the order of importance of each prescription for pet owners, so they know which pills are an absolute MUST give, and which ones they can skip if they are getting desperately fed up with pilling. Since then, my life has changed… thanks to Pill Pockets. I regret not inventing these, as it was one of those “duh” products that came out, making you wish you had the money-making patent. Whoever owns a dog that needs to be pilled chronically, pay heed. The Greenies Pill Pockets are awesome… that is, for dogs, at least. My dog recently got put on a bunch of medications, and he’s super picky (although less so, since getting put on steroids!). Being that he needs a total of 5 medications a day, I found Pill Pockets to be a true life saver, as they improve both my dog’s and my quality of life. These little tasty, greasy, soft, malleable pockets are designed so that you can stick the pill (or multiple pills) in the center, and seal them into a hidden ball of “treat.” It’s like playing with palatable play-dough. Drop it in the food, and voila, it “makes pills a treat to give!” The pros: Pill Pockets are easy, convenient, tasty, and come in multiple flavors (Dog: beef and chicken; Cat: salmon and chicken. It also comes in a hypoallergenic flavor - duck and pea - for both species with food allergies). More importantly, they are palatable - dogs seem to love them. Another pro is that they come in multiple sizes, and I’m able to stuff 5 pills – yes all 5 pills – into the larger “capsule” dog Pill Pockets. The cons: One of my two cats won’t touch Pill Pockets. This is, of course, the cat who actually needs to take medication. He also won’t touch Feline Heartgard monthly chewable pills either, so I suspect he doesn’t like moist treats. So, try at your own risk, particularly if you have a finicky cat. The other con is that Pill Pockets are a bit greasy – they have a high vegetable oil content. As ingredients are listed in order of use, vegetable oil is #4 for the dog pill pockets. While this doesn’t affect the health of your pet, a hand-washing is a MUST after playing with Pill Pockets (which you should always do when handling your pet’s meds, anyway). That said, I know that the vegetable oil is needed to keep the Pill Pockets malleable (easy to fold and maneuver). The other con – cost. They’re not cheap, and if your pet is on loads of meds, it can certainly add up. Try jamming 5 pills in one capsule to help. But anything for Fido, right?! For dogs, 5 stars. For cats, I'm only giving 3 stars, as only one of my two cats will eat them!  Pillingly yours, Dr. Justine Lee, DVM, DACVECC
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I recently evaluated the Doggieshield®, which is designed to prevent dog damage to your door (from scratching, pawing, and all other terrible, destructive behaviors). The Doggieshield® is basically a durable, synthetic piece of plastic that is designed to easily adhere to your door, and was invented to be easy to install without the use of screws or adhesive tape. Upon opening the package, I found the instructions pretty difficult to follow (this coming from someone who only owns IKEA furniture). It would have been helpful to have a picture of assembly instructions; rather, I had to go to the website to look for a visual aid. Despite that, I still couldn’t find instructions on the website, and limited information was available. Feeling like an idiot (I swear, I have 13 years of education), I couldn’t get my straps to adhere around my door. I found the instructions hard to understand, and found the product to have an overall home-made field [parts of the product (straps) were protected in Saran-wrap, while the instructions were printed from a poor quality home printer]. That said, kudos to the company for inventing it… I’m sure for those with more technical prowess, it may be easier for them to install. This product might be ideal if you have a bad dog and are going to visit your family members (who love their doors more than your dog), then yes, this would be a good travel gadget to bring along. As for me, perhaps I’ll have my boyfriend assemble it instead. Finally, while this is a relatively cost-effective way of preventing major damage to your door, it doesn’t fix the underlying problem – inappropriate dog behavior. I’d honestly focus more on using appropriate positive and negative feedback to get a dog to stop scratching at the door. In other words, a classic mistake that pet owners make is to “reward” the dog when he’s scratching at the door, destroying your nice property in the process, or forcing you to buy gadgets like the Doggieshield to begin with. When you reward your dog by opening the door, you’re basically training him to scratch to be let in. Instead, you should only open the door when he’s not scratching, teaching him that this action doesn’t result in the reward of being let in or out. But I digress.
   I pride myself on being an earth-loving, green, crunchy, granola-type of person, and admit it – I eat humus and granola. That said, I never feed my dog certain types of table food – especially granola or trail mix, since it contains poisonous raisins (which cause kidney failure!). That said, guess what just came out – doggy granola! I was pleasantly surprised to try Granola Barks, a granola dog treat specifically designed for dogs, based out of Nashville, TN. This is the first meat-based granola (which sounds initially pretty gross, when you think about it), and is pretty natural and pure. In other words, you read the ingredients, and know everything that’s in there: chicken, rolled oats, and some natural preservatives to prevent spoiling. Granola Barks are approximately 1”X1” small, thin, bite-sized snacks, and are handmade with all natural, all American, human-grade white meat chicken (no chicken by-product), and old-fashioned rolled oats. So, the true test – is it palatable? These little bites actually look edible to humans. JP, my 11 year old, rescue pit bull, is a very picky eater (he even turns his nose up to pig ears), and even he seemed to enjoy them! He ate them within 15 seconds, which is a pretty good sign of palatability! Definitely 2 paws up!
Butler's Lean Treats are fantastic semi-moist, bite-sized treats that are highly palatable (even to JP, my dog, who is super picky!)! They're great nutritional rewards for dogs, and can be used as training treats (although I'd probably cut them into 4 pieces to make them even smaller). I use these to fill my dog's KONG toy, which provides hours of environmental enrichment and mental stimulation (he can play with the Kong toy, trying to free the contents for several hours while I'm gone at work) - they're the perfect size to fit in a Kong. These are made with skinless chicken, and are a low-fat treat, which is great for all those obese dogs out there. The ingredients include (listed in order): skinless chicken, chicken liver, corn, chicken by-product meal, high fructose corn syrup, wheat flour, glycerin, propylene glycol (to maintain the semimoist texture - it's a small amount!), phosphoric acid, salt, potassium sorbate and calcium propionate and BHA and citric acid (preservatives), iron oxide. Overall, I'm OK with these ingredients, and JP seems to enjoy them! 
It's not every day that you learn about a great product and solid company that makes you want to quit your job and join them, right? Well, I discovered Zuke's, a "bone brokering," performance pet nutrition company based out of Durango, Colorado that makes treats so good that you almost want to eat them. I was first introduced to a sample size of Zuke's "Hip Action" treats, and questioned how "natural" they really were. With the melamine-induced pet food scare back in March of last year, I've been much more discriminating (as a vet) in what I feed my pets (as a pet owner!) and always make sure to read the ingredients on any treat or food product. Being that JP, my 10 year-old rescue pit bull, has discriminating tastes (i.e., he's uber-picky and doesn't even eat pig ears sometimes!), I thought I'd put him to the test. Well, he wolfed these Hip Action semi-moist dog treats down and begged for more. JP has always been partial to soft treats, and these often contain a lot of propylene glycol (which is a humectant used to add or preserve moisture content of the treat). Upon reviewing the ingredients in Zuke's treats, I was impressed that I understood all the ingredient names and they were quite natural after all! Keep in mind that "natural" is different from "organic" (which must be certified organic). "Natural" means that no additional ingredients are added into the product, and I was glad to hear that all of Zuke's ingredients are natural by definition of AAFCO. I also loved how all the ingredients are sourced in the USA, as we know we have tighter regulations (USDA, FDA, AAFCO) than other countries (hence, the pet food poisoning last year). Zuke's only exception to this is their lamb and venison, which are imported from New Zealand. Apparently, even the salmon in their treats are wild-caught! (Remember, we green-crunchy types always want to promote that people eat WILD salmon, as farmed salmon has quite a severe, unhealthy effect on the environment). Hip Action: Ahhh... my favorite. Well, actually, JP's favorite. As a 10 year-old dog, JP is fit, lean, and well conditioned... but he still is slowing down from arthritis. I have him on Cosequinn DS (double strength), which contains 500 mg of glucosamine and 400 mg of chondroitin (GAGs) in each capsule. Unfortunately, I have to pill JP each time (by hiding it in a meatball of canned food) to get this medication into him. Zuke's provides a tastier option in these Hip Action treats (dog), which contain 300 mg of glucosamine and 50 mg of chondroitin. These are very similar in size, appearance, and ingredient to the Jerky Natural treats - with the added benefit of these cartilage-protecting, safe products and some blueberries, apples, carrots, and flax seed to boot. That said, keep in mind that most of the veterinary research that has been done has only evaluated Cosequinn (we vets know that this brand of GAGs works), so I can't vouch for the anti-arthritis properties of Hip Action. That said, it's likely the same and is benign enough to be a safe, healthy treat for your dog. For you cat lovers, fear not. Zuke's has this in cat form too. Your average cat likely doesn't need it, but if your cat is diagnosed with arthritis, has had a fracture before, is stiff getting up in the morning, or is grossly overweight, it might be worth trying this treat for Kitty. With only 2 calories per treat, these cat Hip Actions contain 50 mg of glucosamine and 15 mg of chondroitin.
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Pet Product Reviews