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We've got a drawing so that you might win a trip for two to Ireland for Pete's sake lots of good reasons to call the big one of course is the fact that you listen to the station and it's your membership money that pays for programs on, Minnesota. Public radio to to 72811 join all the hundreds of people who've already called us during this drive to to 72811 outside the Twin Cities one 800-227-2811. If you would have called right now to 227 to 811. You could help us turn a little Milestone here. You would be the eight hundred and first member of this membership Drive doubles round numbers in crate. It's a good feeling to to 72811 Jane Miller from Minneapolis. She called to to 72811 to support the programming on Minnesota Public Radio the chief expects to be there when she turns on the radio Pat Faulkner did the same thing they called to to 72811. Maybe it's the news and information programming that they wake up to in the morning. Maybe it's the ability to pick up the phone any other day and call and get in on a conversation with whoever Gary happens to have drop by the studio here. Maybe it's a gubernatorial candidate one day. A veterinarian the next you never quite know with Gary and his producer Sarah Meyer 2 to 7:20 at 11. They keep you on your toes. You're keeping us on our toes in the volunteers busy. And that's how it works this hour veterinarian k'tan Hunter is our guest and she'll be along momentarily here want to tell you very briefly about the special. Thank you gifts that we're offering us our the midday heck of a deal is if you join us at the $66 level that's kind of the basic level. We will send out as a special premium over and above course Minnesota monthly what you get every month the magazine that has welts great Regional magazine and it has a new feature about Minnesota Public Radio inside NPR in addition to that you get a pencil a pet dental care kit start working on fluffy and Fido there so that you can keep their teeth clean keep them healthy at The $99 level. We will send out to you that dental care kit plus a couple of nifty books Garrison. Keillor's can't you better come home with some really Nifty illustration. Kings by Steve Johnson who Fancher and D necklace Diamonds the dog who love too much. So that's it available at The $99 level if you want to jump up a little bit. We've got a heck of a deal at the $20 per month Level 240 dollars for a full year will send you those three items the two bucks the dental care kit plus your choice of either talking catfish. There are only five of these available five offers and they swim around I guess so you can have the pet yard pick up folks come out and tidy up your yard snow melts. We don't need to say more that's at the $20 level you get all of that $20 a month. If you join at the $30 per month level the midday heck of a deal will set it all out to you the catfish that you'll get the gift certificate for the pet yard pick up $40 gift certificate plus the two books plus the pep dental care kit plus a great year of radio. Gary likes to call it the heck of a deal. It's for the midday listeners only you have to do one thing to get in on it. That is called two two seven two eight one one that phone call Cuts another way to because you get your name put in the drawing for the Ireland giveaway. You'll spend a week won't have to pay a dime. You get two round trip tickets to Ireland. We put you up at a B&B for the week all sorts of neat places in Southwestern Ireland to visit to to 72811. You just support public radio your name in the drawing your choice of which of the midday heck of a deal offerings. Do you want to get it on and Caitlin Hunter? I'll be along just in a few minutes to answer even more question anybody ever win any of these giveaways? Start Spreading the News Just calling to day. And you can be apart of it, New York New Year Mike. I think we've heard enough, please. Please save us here. Mean Girls. Scary your great. You're swell your wonderful. How are you? I'm just fine. We got a trip to give away. Are we do? I don't want anything to Dan Hunter. She's responsible for me having a basset hound tell her I'll come downstairs and talk to her and she's my best friends with my Hennessy and some lucky person is going to go to New York New York to a seat Garrison Keillor and the third annual joke show A Prairie Home companion's 3rd annual joke show you be staying at the the Casablanca Hotel and weekend and we have here whenever Crack one of our crack interns to help us out by the way Transportation provided by Delta Airlines and roll Lucas Simeon. One of our crack interns is going to venture into the barrel. So I had to look at you can do this and pick a name and goodness. I hope it's one that I can read his if we have wrestled around. Gary. You're off to the joke show. Still waiting for that voice. It's not going to come back good that's good. Well, we have the it works. Thank you. Thank you so much. Sometimes at 11 Ireland Ireland. That's the next next giveaway. You need to call today though to get your name in on that sell to to 72811 is the place for you to enter your name in the drawing pledge your support to midday and all the other programs that you expect to have on when you tune to Minnesota Public Radio Peggy and Richard Carlson made that pledge from Minneapolis. They picked up the phone and they said I understand this is where it's at. I need to start this equation rolling and Olympia tsums from Minneapolis. Those are two people today who are taking us up on the challenge Gary and said absolutely I understand. I'm a part of this service. I have to defend myself briefly arcade not to belabor this, but I had a terrible call, you know. And you don't expect that the real Big Tymers to to sing when they're sick on Jack yet Hayden Hunter veterinarian coming along momentarily want to remind you again that this is membership week and we're urging all of you who aren't yet members to call in and become a member do what you can we're going to take your membership pledge. Whatever. It is, $66 ninety-nine dollars a hundred twenty hundred 8240, whatever. It might be it goes right into the program Kitty. That's the way we pay for the programs on this stage. We don't have commercials. As you know, one of the great features of public radio. There aren't any commercials instead. We asked those of you to listen to make a pledge. We put it in the program funding. That's how we pay for the program. So if you're not yet a member give us a call if it's time to renew make your membership pledge take advantage of a special premiums were offering we're focused on hats today and that the $66 level of pet dental care kit will be yours. $99 the pet dental care kit plus as a heck of a deal the dog who love too much and can't you better come home. If you can join at the $20 per month level, then you get all of those three plus your choice of the fish package. We like to call it those talking catfish or the dog package, which is the help picking up the yard and add the $30 level support Minnesota Public Radio. All of it is yours the whole kitten Kaboodle to get into the Ireland drawing. So right we're going to break here. We got three callers on the line. We need the $4,000 the membership. Gurus. Tell us to stay on track about $3,100 raised so far the shower, we've got a ways to go, but if you will join the folks on the line there and make a membership pledge. We're in good shape here to 27208 11227 2811 outside the Twin Cities one. 800-242-2828 and thanks everybody who called already and thanks to all of you have been members right along because you're the folks to make this kind of programming possible. Not necessarily the membership pledging, but the guest appearances by people like a veterinarian Kate and Hunter with Carver Lake Veterinary Center who joined us again this hour along with Edgar. Dr. Hunter. Thanks for coming in again. Could you please tell me we've been talking about these talking catfish. Are you familiar with now? Apparently they have what are called spines are little porcupine deals and we're told that at night. I don't know if they get agitated for some reason and the the park at find deals come out and then they Shake around and then they talk to each other. Does that sound plausible sure, if you have a question Janelle let me give you a separate set of phone numbers for dr. Hunter hear about Petcare give us a call or regular phone in numbers to 276 thousand to 276 thousand in the Twin Cities outside the Twin Cities one 802-422-8282 course keep the judge lines going at the same time to 276 thousand or one 800-242-2828. If you've got a question for veterinarian k'tan Hunter and we got a number of callers on the line including some folks have been hanging on since the last hour or so. Let's get to some college right away Nancy. Go ahead Place. Hi. I have a question. I we have two smaller dogs that have always have been in a fenced yard, but now we've moved to a new house. It doesn't have a fence. No, I were considering different fence Alternatives and could you discuss the pros and cons of the electric fans defense that is buried under the ground and then I guess the pet wears a collar invisible fence and that one in particular is my favorite of those alternative fences people like them because they don't look like anything. It's completely invisible. It can be put in such a way that you can not only restrict your pet to stay in the yard, but also keep him out of flower beds in certain parts of your yard. So you've got a lot of flexibility there. I particularly like The Invisible Fence because the mechanical components of that fence system I think is a higher-quality they come out and install a wire boundary around your yard and whatever configuration you want and then they actually would send out a trainer who works with your dog to teach them. Not only where is the boundary There's a free boundary tone that the caller makes to say now you're getting close and what they teach the dog out when you hear that tone. What you should do is run to the house. So it's a wonderful Training Method. It doesn't cause any pain if the dogs do get too close to the boundary. They do get a little zap that wouldn't be any worse than than a static that and certainly the dogs are going to find that unpleasant. But what I like about that particular system that they teach the dog not to get hurt and and be scared but to learn that that when you hear that tone, it's time to go home and they take the time to train them. We have seen some problems with some to do it yourself kids because it's hard for people to find the time or have they the expertise to do the training and sometimes the dogs will get hurt on. Worst case scenario is a dog that doesn't isn't trained to the situation perhaps runs through that boundary because there was something just too attractive like a squirrel that ran across and if somebody isn't there to deal with the situation the dog Casey come home and now can't get to his own home pest that Bounder without getting hurt in that certainly not the message. We want to send the dogs reliably though dogs on a leash for dogs in a in a physical fence are going to be pretty reliable to on the collars and The Invisible Fence are going to work only with the training and when the dogs wearing that collar you have much of a problem. If you have like a one of these electric fences with other dogs coming into your yard from dogs kid's bicycles wild animals coming through so depends on what your situation is where we live. We have quite a few deer that that go through our yard and I wouldn't want to restrict them with a physical fence. So we would use an invisible fence there, but you're right if Edgar is out in the yard, then he's he's open to everybody else that comes through Laurie your next good place. And I've had them his anal glands expressed twice and now they say they are fine, but he still continuing to do what? Knowing why? Tell me the problem with that sounds pretty frustrating and often times. We find out if a cat's defecating outside of the box and it may be something some type of a text or preference cats are really particular about what they go to the bathroom in and some cats will prefer one texture for urinating and one texture for defecating. The first thing I would want to do for your cat is to offer them four or five different types of litters in separate litter box is all in that same area and you make it some hints from where the cats referring to go to the bathroom as far as what kind of textures the cat would prefer and see if we can do something there on a 10 year old cat. I wouldn't expect to see a lot of incontinence problems. Although you certainly could have have some early geriatric problems where you're getting into incontinence where the cat doesn't really mean to go to the bathroom outside the box but it can't help it. The thing we find to is that if a cat in particular is having some difficulty with elimination they may associate pain or discomfort with the Box itself. And then we have to start over with a new box in a new location another a question from a staff member here there cat hats. I guess it was seemed to get angry when they left they went on vacation and the cats who are otherwise apparently well-behaved using the litter box and sew onto side of that wasn't good enough anymore and thought pillows in the house would be a much better alternative. I've heard of dogs doing this haven't heard of cats doing I did do animals get mad at you when you leave them have a capacity for anger, but they certainly can become confused uncomfortable not know what to do. Not like their situation with cabs in particular we get concerned with any type of a a stressor on them, whether it's a psychological or physical stressor can reduce their water and taking it and actually lead to some urinary tract problem. So what appears to be a behavioral problem when we look at a urinalysis may actually started Medical problem. So we need to check that out but there certainly are things that I think you are. I look like some retribution, but I think we're anthropomorphizing a little bit too much there. Should that people feel kind of guilty when they leave their animals alone depending on the situation if an animal is used to being left alone is is cared for there's adequate Food Water Shelter litter boxes on one of the things we like for tickly about cats has the ability to come and go as you please but but it's important that an animal be at least checked in on once a day. I recommend that even if you're going on a weekend trip that somebody stopped in at the house not only for the cat's sake but for your house security to just stop in and make sure that everything's okay. Is it alright to leave a dog in one of those crates and a big fan of crates for so many reasons. I think it's it's the most natural thing for a dog to have a sense of a damn. They have their own room to have some private space where they can get away from whoever they need to get away from its the best way to housebreak a dog. And I find that now that I've got a crate trained dog. I no longer come home to a disaster. I don't have a dog that's gotten hurt that's gotten into anything that's destroyed anything that's gotten loose. I've been through a lot of disasters with my dogs that were not crate trained. I also find that with the crate train dog. This dog is much more portable because regardless of the situation whether we're traveling for fun, or or should there be some sense of emergency that crate can go with him. So he's comfortable and feeling much more at home wherever he goes one other question from a staff member regarding crates. This has to do with cats and those little carrier deals. Apparently this particular cat is terrified. Anyway, hates hates getting in the thing to the point where the staff member wonders whether it's even worth trying to take the animal in for maintenance to the vet because the cat wants no part of that care. And apparently no other way to transport a neuron and I agree with cats in particular. That's the safest way to travel. Should there be some reason you need to jump out of the car that the cat is safe and cats like to get in little tiny places and we've spent more than an hour extracting cats from under car seats. Once they get to the clinic as far as is it worth it for maintenance stuff. I I believe it is. I think that in terms of your preventive care you'd much rather know that the animals been vaccinated and that everything's okay. But we made do is try and make that create a more cat friendly thing. Perhaps it that crate is is just the first step to the veterinarian which isn't going to be the cat's favorite thing and we need to try and turn the cats ID around about what the crate means the crate may be the place where the best treats are leaving the crate out all the time too. So that it's not just out on the day that we go to the vet makes a big difference and I think that cats can learn to appreciate the crate to Sandy's on the line with a question for dr. Katie and Hunter go ahead place. I'm thinking of adopting an adult dog, and I'm wondering if there anything that I should look for while I'm at the shelter kennel that would indicate its personality or temperament one of the simplest ways to get an idea of what a dog's going to be like it's to consider the breed and what that breed was was domesticated for although most of the dogs that we have these days were using as pets and and we're not working with them so much all the breeds that exist today were bred for a particular job and it's going to tell you a little bit about their energy level their need for exercise and the amount of personal interaction that they need and there's several good books are your veterinarian as well as a shelter can be helpful there. I always look for a dog at the shelter. That's friendly without being overbearing even a dog. That's a little bit shy because of the situation. I might be wary of And the most important thing and I believe that all the shelters are involved in this you can get a free veterinary exam for this animal so that you can have some professional evaluation of the pets Health certainly a pet. That's not healthy is not going to be a happy pet either. It's always a difficult transition for these pets coming from the shelter because we don't know what their previous life has been like but I think we can give them every benefit of the doubt and dogs in particular extremely malleable. That's one of my favorite things about them is this you can start fresh not only end in the attention and love that you give them but also in the dogs in particular need rules to need some boundaries and can learn new ways of doing things and and fit into a new family quite easily should say in terms of a dog's age. You say wow Gina he really is too old. I don't think so. I've I've never seen that become an issue and certainly some dogs seem to find the transition more difficult than others, but I've never seen a dog regardless of Gauge that didn't eventually settle in just fine George your question place. He was diagnosed with with renal failure and he had lost about a pound and a half up to that time. And since then he's lost probably another pound and he was only about a 10 lb cat his behavior is very normal right now. There isn't anything strange said it's doing except maybe chewing up a little more paper than normal what I'd like to know. Is there any reason or having further Veterinary Care concerning this matter is because I feel that he's feeling kind of fast and very very skinny because he's lost a fourth of his weight and I was just wondering what would you suggest? That's a good question George typically in your older cats that have chronic renal failure. There's a couple things that we want to monitor on a regular basis to things that the kidney was doing for. Your cat one was was eliminating toxins, which when kidneys fail are going to build up in the cat and can cause quite a bit of discomfort as well as reduce appetite if we can get those toxins down we may be able to improve your cat's appetite. The other thing is maintaining hydration and when the kidneys no longer work the cats are not able to stay hydrated everything that they taken orally just goes out the other end and we can can supplement that hydration by giving fluid under the skin which we do on a regular basis either in the clinic or owners can learn to do this at home using a balanced electrolyte electrolyte solution. This will stay in the animal little better and maintain hydration how often that's needed varies with the cat. The other thing I would certainly want to know about your cat is is every other system in good shape and proof. Ocular thyroid, hyperthyroidism is not uncommon in older cats and that can be a contributor to weight loss high blood pressure disorientation and discomfort and if we've got a hyperthyroid situation, then you got a hypermetabolic state where the animal can eat and eat and eat but they just can't maintain it because they're burning it up that certainly is going to affect the heart as well. And so I would I would keep a pretty close eye on a kitty like yours probably checking every two to three months to make sure that that the thyroid is not an issue and that the kidney function or the way that you're you're treating that is staying under control is feline leukemia. It is particularly for the cats that run loose Outdoors. We don't see nearly as much of it as we used to I think people are much more aware of the dangers, but the cats that that do run loose Outdoors, especially the cats that are unspayed and unneutered and so they're having no intimate physical. Interactions with one another whether it's breeding or fighting are still at high risk, or do they are they largely untrainable depend so much on the cat and this is just a theory of mine but it seems that the young cats that grow up in a dog household seem to be a little more dog. Like some cats are very trainable and will pick their old tricks that they want to do my colleague. Dr. Guggisberg has a cat that loves to fetch and he likes the the little plastic ring that you pull off your milk jug, but only the smooth once we only save this mood 14 Roosevelt said he will fetch those until somebody quits but as far as training them anytime you're training an animal there has to be a sense of of trade-off you do this for me and I do this for you. And so for some cats it's hard to find what that trade-off might be in situations where we've got a serious behavioral problem with a K. We may actually withhold food and give that only when the cat's been good. Eleanor your next go ahead ways that you guys are having today. I have two sister cats who are just about four years old and they're wonderful animals very happy with them. However, I cannot buy expensive furniture, but they use it as a bouncing board when they're playing so anything gets completely destroyed. I've tried squirting them with a spray bottle at you know, tried yelling and yelling at him, you know chasing them away and nothing really seems to work. So I'm wondering is there anything that I can do to get them to stop doing this? The tricky thing with training cats to stop doing something is they're awfully smart much smarter than dogs. I think in most cases in so we find that that you may be able to convince a cat to stay off the counter when you're standing in the kitchen. But as soon as you leave the kitchen they may hop right back on if you have a particular piece of furniture, they do make products that you can can set on a couch that when the couch feel some emotions such as a cat jumping on up on them. It makes a loud scary noise and most cases that can only needs to do that a couple of times to get the message. But if you're looking at multiple pieces of furniture that may not be feasible. If the issue is is a toenail question. I think the best thing we can do for our cats is to trim their toenails on a weekly basis. This can sometimes be difficult in cats that aren't used to this. It's a little bit of a training process that to teach them to accept that but it's important not only to keep your furniture safe, but also to give you a chance to look at the toenails cats that live indoors are not going to wear their Toenails down as much and that's certainly the safest thing to do for them. Is it best to have their claws removed do people still do that? People still do that? It certainly declawing is the only the only guaranteed way to make sure that your cat is never going to scratch. It's a difficult surgery. It's not very nice for the cat but in cases where that's the only option we certainly can do that. What's Difficult about it is that were actually removing the last part of the digit. So if you look at your finger or cutting it that that last knuckle and removing that entire piece, so it's at a surgery that you'd want to think about pretty seriously it might be much much easier and nicer for the cat just to teach it to accept nail trim. There is an alternative surgery where we we just cut the ligament that allows the cat to flex those those feet. This is great because then the cat just can't make the motion of scratching. However, it doesn't stop the nails from growing and so toenail clipping becomes even more important because the cat isn't able to to do anything with those nails. So again, we're back to try Nails every week Jerry your question Place quite grief-stricken, we've gotten through the grief process and have decided we like to have another dog and would like your recommendations on on breeds and what has a good temperament and you know, that kind of thing such a big question. I think one of the things you have to start with is is who makes up your household who will be responsible. What kind of space you have what size of a dog you like? What's the look of the dog? I think a lot of people are tempted by a cute face and I hope that you don't make other choices about major lationships based on how cute somebody's face any more than I think you should about Beth because of cute face today may not be a cute face after it's grown up. A lot of the they fuzzy dogs need a lot of Maintenance and Of care not just so that they look nice but so that they're healthy whether it's your care skin care trimming regularly bathing and I think the other issues going to be some of the basic things as far as as toenail trimming and and teeth brushing and vaccinations. I have of course personal favorites when an animal comes to the veterinary and they may feel like they're under dress. So I may see animals when they're at their worst and some of the best temperament that I'm seeing right now are Bichons. Boxers, I think you're fabulous hard hard to meet a boxer. That's not a sweetheart. I like Boston Terriers. I like Shelties a lot all though. They they do need a little more work because they can be shy you've got to start with a with a big book or at one of the big dog shows in town. Look at all the dogs talk to the Breeders good get some ideas about what each individual dog is going to need and what they're going to offer you whether you're looking for a companion running partner playmate for the kids or somebody just to snuggle up with General if perhaps not knowing really what you're looking for you end up with some some dog that that I suppose the book say won't do this that and the other thing they're pretty adaptable aren't they? I mean, even if you end up with one that's theoretically wouldn't want to ever want to go run with Figure that's the that's the new routine so that look especially with dogs again. You can train them to do anything. But again, it's important to try and work within the constraints of of what they've been bred to do or or temperament Tendencies. Each dog is going to be an individual but you're still in most cases going to find Tendencies. And if you're working against those Tendencies, you're just going to have a harder job living with that dog. Tom your question Place almost two year old golden retriever that we've had something with a pub as always slept down downstairs in one of those wire cages with the blankets over three sides. So not too and since first few days, we had him. He's been trained great as far as how about halfway through the night. He'll start whimpering down there and then he'll really get into some frantic barking. It seems like he needs to go outside like crazy, but yet he'll go out and do very little elimination and if he's put Back in the cage. He goes wild again. But if you leave them on the main floor, he seems perfectly fine and he'll sleep the rest of the night away. We got him into the vet to make sure everything was okay. That seems to be fine, but nobody can figure out why he sounds like you've done a good job of ruling out a medical concern. And so it sounds like we're left with a behavioral concerned couple of things come to mind. When is that? His kennel is far from where everybody else is sleeping in over his almost two years of being with you. He feels like he's a pretty important part of the pack and you may not like being separated from you at night having a crate upstairs so that he can canned again not have free run of the house but still be a part of of what's going on upstairs when it's bedtime would be nice. The other question is did something frighten him in the middle of the night which would be impossible to find but you may have to go back to your you're very beginning crate training of having him in there and small increments of times making sure that that's a positive experience and I really like particularly with Weight training if I need to make a correction or some sort of a negative reinforcement for naughtiness in the kennel to make sure that the impersonal if I just yelled the dog's name. He's gotten a little bit of what he wants even though. I may not have said his name to very friendly way. He did get to hear my voice and that can be all a dog needed to reinforce that whining. So what I'd like to do is find something that I can safely toss at the crate so that the crate makes the correction for me and I don't want the dog to know that by whining all rushed to his Aid purebred dogs as opposed to a mixed breed as far as temperament and health. We have a Lhasa Apso and Shih Tzu and she's wonderful just heard that some of your thoroughbreds are very nervous and What do you think? Or the the purebred. Well, I'm I've always been a mixed breed person just because I like that element of surprise. I don't quite know what I'm getting for people who need to know what their dogs going to look like and a sense of what the Tendencies of behavior going to be a purebred. So way to go I do think that that we we cut mixed breeds a lot more slack in part because we don't know what to expect and so we don't put a lot of preconceived notions on them. We do lose a little bit of that inbreeding with a mixed breed, but we probably don't lose all of it the inbred problems unless we're mixed breeding and truly mixing for at least seven generations. Sounds like you lucked out with just a really great dog and although both losses and Shih Tzus or nice dog. So it might be hard to go wrong. And I think that's so much of what we get in a dog is not just the breed not just exactly that the mom and the dad but also how it's raised. I think with dogs as we Kids, it's so much of what you put in with them. So it's not necessarily true that a purebred is necessarily more hyper sensitive and weird-looking a purebred dog. You're going to want to know something about the parents what kind of experience and they had if they've been strictly show dogs and don't know how to act around people that may be more of an experiential thing that they pass on to their pups do dogs like and caps for that matter today like to be in the show has Edgar is an obedience dog, and he gets pretty excited about going to The Obedience show. I don't know if that's in part because he sees a lot of his friends. They're both canine and human maybe in part because when he does a good job to get some pretty extra treats and lots of praise for Mom. It's his big outing. This is I think it varies from animal to animal and we try as hard as we can to get a sense of whether they like it and what they like to do next. Yes. I have two elderly dog 14 and 12 mixed breed Wirehaired terrier and Sheltie. Can I keep feeding their regular food or do I need to change them to fit the elderly dogs? And if so, what would you recommend? That won't break the bank? That's the first question and secondly I have about a dozen bird feeders out in the backyard to do I need to fear the dogs might catch something from the birds. Good questions, as far as as the age, I think that I don't usually recommend going to a senior food which may be a little lower and protein in a little lower in calories and less we have a specific indication that difference between your over-the-counter adult maintenance vs. Senior is not going to be a big difference. And so if you prefer to go to a senior, you're not going to change things a whole lot as far as what they animals eating were you making a big differences is when we have particular medical problems that require a very specific diet and in those cases we use a prescription pet food and those are more expensive because they're they're medically regulated. But at this point unless you got a particular indication, I wouldn't change Foods. I would be a little bit concerned about what the dogs are getting into in the birds, but on the other hand, I don't know how you would control that and you may not have any more risk in your yard with the bird feeders than any yard that doesn't have bird feeders animal examinations blood test for heartworm disease and fecal examinations for for intestinal pain. Sites some of which they might pick up from the birds are the best way to prevent that other staff question. And this one has to do with birds. How can you get a bird to take a bath? Well, there's a couple different ways depending on the bird and then you have to play this by ear anything that you do with it with a bird thats new. Give it more than one try. You know, if you got a little bird bath that you're going to put into a cage with a bird do it several times so that they have time to become accustomed to what it is and decide if they liked it for some birds. They prefer a shower than an actual bath and so just introducing them again gradually and over several episodes to the spray and after while though usually jump right in there making sure that the temperature is comfortable and updating is really important for Birds especially because they're indoors all the time and we need to keep them clean not just for their sake but as well as far as they tend to be pretty dusty realize it supposed to clean up when I usually take to it pretty easily once they get into it. We've got a canary at the clinic that that's in the bath and yet the cockatiels are in two showers and and they take to it right away and I think you get the last question. I just got a 2 year old female Boston Terrier and I just love her to death, but I'm having some problems and housebreaking I take her out. She goes again on I'm keeping her confined to a couple rooms and she goes again. Well, I know quite what to do with her and she stayed no, okay. Well, I'm not sure because I really need to check but I think she may have had a fairly recently on the first thing I'd want to do is is get her spayed they ups and downs of of the canine estrous cycle can cause some problems there. You can also add to some behavioral stress and the other thing we see fairly often are are urinary tract infection. So your analysis would be a really important place to start it was thing you mentioned that concerns me. Is that as you're trying to get her a custom to your house and to not going to the bathroom in your house you're restricting her to a few rooms. That's a lot of space for a dog at space for a bedroom and a bathroom and when we talked about confining a dog to teach housebreaking we need just enough space for bedroom so that because of dog won't naturally soil at bedroom. They'll learn to hold it and the other issue is when the dog is free in the house. Be supervised at all times in most cases of housebreaking problems. The dog is going potty when we're not watching him. Well my question is we better be watching him all the time. So I'll even when Edgar is Ian attached his leash to my belt. He's with me all day long and if I can't be watching him then he was in his crate question for you. But dr. Hunter is there any are there any like one or two things people should should know about in terms of trying to decide whether they even want to Pat and because you end up with so many animals getting taken back to the shelter is or abandoned and so on. Absolutely. I'm glad you brought that up. Because I think we assume that everyone should have a pet a pet is it's it's an animal it's a living being it has a lot of needs is going to require attention relationship training food Medical Care throughout the course of its life and I think it's a pretty major commitment. I like to use the analogy of a marriage this is this is a lifetime, It goes beyond those first few really cute weeks when a puppies 8 weeks old and they are cute as can be and they can do no wrong and you don't mind if they jump on you and nibble on you and pedal all over it's not going to be so cute. When they're two years old. Are you going to be home enough? Do you have the time to invest again? It's a it's a major commitment. And so at so many different levels and I would like to remind people that you know, if you want something cuz it's cute get something that's not going to require you to take care of it for 10 to 20 years is a veterinarian at the Carver Lake Veterinary Center in Woodbury. And thank everybody has been with us this hour, especially those of you who called in and try to call in with your questions and comments Edgar also with us this hour and girl is it just a model of a good behavior Kate Smith. Would that certain other dogs whose names? Will not be mentioned right now would behave that well this thing about dog size and and I think Edgar has proven. Ron I think God Edgar has proven that small and medium-sized dogs have great personality and sometimes dare I say those of us who have larger dogs are better behaved because there's less of them. Cute day before we before we give out about the phone number. If you are ready now to buy calling our pledge line, which is to to 72811. Don't confuse that with the call in line to 272. 811 is the number you need to remember to support midday to support Minnesota Public Radio on NPR is supported by shandwick. Your company's reputation is an asset managing. It is the role of shandwick public relations. You know, it's sometimes I suppose confuses you you hear us reading these what are called underwriting messages and you and then you hear us talking about. Well, you you The Listener or supposed to pay for these programs. What's the deal? Well, here's the deal. Yes, indeed our main source of funding here at Minnesota Public Radio by far is membership support for people just like yourself calling it at 60. Dollars $99 120 dollars, whatever it is. That's our main source of support but in addition thank the lord we have lots of support from corporate and fire corporations and Foundations in the form of underwriting and why in the world would they? Support us in that way because of people like yourself not only because you listened but you care enough about this broadcast service to actually pay for it. And the more there are of you who are paid members the better we will be all across the board in terms of attracting support from Underwriters corporations foundations in the rest it all starts with you and we can't say that often enough. We hope we say it often enough though to get you to make that call. +22-720-811-2278 11 outside the Twin Cities one 800-242-2828. Midday. I think it's a pretty good program and I hope you think so and I hope you will call in and show your support because we have a heck of a deal is on the table The Gauntlet has been thrown down to those of you who are regular or perhaps are regular listeners of Minnesota public radio's. Midday program Gary sits here in the studio with such as you have just an incredible range of Visitors here in the studio about from one day to the next you're talking Doggy dental care and a gubernatorial candidate will be in it's got to be just fascinated by a logical Warfare Michael osterholm was in the other day scaring me. Just scaring us all pieces with good information. And you know, it's great. You're such a wide variety of things that we can cover on this station in doubt. We don't have to stop every two minutes to do a commercial. It's terrific. It's a terrific opportunity made possible by people who call in their $66 pledged not only to call in and support Minnesota Public Radio at 2 to 7:20 at 11 but to be able to call in and participate in the conversation. I mean, it's it's you who make this show what it is. Yes Dairy help steer it but all of you calling in with good questions and keeping really keeping the people we put in the studio here on their toes putting some good questions, especially when we get people who are in here running for office wanting to be elected whether it's a local or Regional government position. I am the captain of the Titanic. Thank the lord we have callers who help us help us avoid those icebergs. 227-2811 Donna has called us from La Crescent and Gary Donna is going to have better dental care for her pets as well as Mary Ellen from Ely they both stood up and said you bet I'm going to pledge to Minnesota Public Radio. And for my thank-you gift canine Dental Care is on the way as we have six Cemetery 7 minutes left to go 7 minutes left to go to special. Thank you gifts are available here just for the last six and a half minutes. Now. Here's the deal. It's a heck of a deal $66 level. We will send out to you the pet dental care kit if you join us at The $99 level. We will send you the pet dental care kit. Plus Garrison keillor's cat. You better come home without who love too much. I'm sorry. So those three items at $99. If you join us at the $20 per month level $240 your choice of all three of those things Plus either the fish package talking catfish or the dog package. If you need a little help with the yard pickup, it's a $40 gift certificate for pet yard pick up. They'll come help you do that. And then if you are willing to present a $30 a month check to Minnesota Public Radio, you get all of that. You get the dental care kit both books catfish and the pet yard pickup. It's a two two seven two eight one one. It's for this hour and it's our only 5 and 1/2 minutes left to go if you'd like. Are those special premiums were not going to offer it tomorrow or not going to offer it the next day or not going to offer it later this afternoon 5 minutes to go so might as well take advantage of the special deal. Think about it this way again a reminder, you know, those of you who drink pop if you drink one can of pop a day $0.50 a day out of the company machine it cost you $120. A year 5 days a week and you know, that's right a couple weeks of vacation. You're still talking about $100 per year for 100 pop. No. If you compare that cost to what we're talking about here, I think this is a pretty good deal. You get great radio all year long. If you enjoy the midday program, we really need to hear from you. $4,000 was the goal for the shower. We still need to raise $826 we can get there. If you'll make that call now 227-2811 outside the Twin Cities one 800-227-2811. There are four listeners right now who are putting their name in the barrel for the drawing because they are calling 227-2811. They understand that they not only get to pledge their support to Minnesota Public Radio with that phone call, but they also have their name automatically entered in a drawing for a week-long trip giveaway for you and a friend to go to Ireland round trip airfare six nights of accommodation at the Morris ePub. I can't really roll my R's if you can do that all tomorrow. The winner will be announced on St. Patty's Day. It's a $2,500 value this trip and your name can be in the drawing for that trip. But only if you call 227-2811, it's our way of saying thank you to a lucky winner. But it's really your way of saying I value the service. I value this radio station the kind of programming it provides the range of programming it provides here on the midday program and I need to put a value on that 22728 eleventh hour giving away a trip to New York and we're going to be giving away this Ireland trip. Might as well be you the odds aren't great, but they aren't bad when you think about it. We're not till we're not opening this up to the whole world. If you're listening and you call in will put your name in the in the drawing. So make sure your name is in make sure you do what you can for $166 left to raise and just three minutes here at 2 to 7:20 at 11. Go to 72811 outside the Twin Cities one 800-227-2811. If you'd like to take part in the midday heck of a deal you got three minutes to do it. Make sure you tell the volunteer. That's what you're calling for to get one of those special Mid Day gifts tomorrow, Mark. Seeley will be here and she will be talking weather another a good program. We think and if you enjoy that kind of variety is Kate points out one day. It's the governor candidate for governor of the next day. It's a person who's been let you know how to clean your dog's teeth and some more important than others. I will leave that to you to decide to to 72811 or one 800-227-2811 2 minutes to go out. If you call 227-2811 if counts down so fast make it 14 and 15, and then 16 listeners were calling 227-2811. Join Darlene Kolstad from Minneapolis who called 227-2811 and Leah shiboski. She called from White Bear Lake where she called to 27208 1114 listeners right now. That's how we are going to make this goal to break $4,000 for this hour to keep this drive on track Gary. They're out there. Can they do it really less than a minute to go one call or look at it this way one caller. If you join us at the $30 per month level which is tax-deductible. I might add so that helps a little bit. We will send you the catfish will send you out the pet yard clean-up so somebody will come up and clean come out to clean up your yard for you plus Garrison's can't you better come home plus the dog who love too much plus the pet dental care kit one color at $30 per month level and we are over our goal here. Whatever you can do though. Give us a quick call here to 27 28th Ave. 1227 2811 outside the Twin Cities one 800-227-2811. Thank you to all of you who've already called this our keep the phone's ringing. We really do need your support join us tomorrow Mark. Seeley will be here for now Gary. I can and Kate Smith. I'm Lorna Benson on Mondays All Things Considered how risky is too risky when it comes to using Pension funds for Venture Capital that story on the next All Things Considered weekdays at 3 on Minnesota Public Radio piano W FM 91.1 Listen to Minnesota Public Radio. We have a sunny sky 19° that cater W FM 91.1 Minneapolis. And st. Paul sunny all afternoon, but also very windy and pretty pretty nippy high temperature in the team's clear and cold tonight with a low near zero and partly cloudy and cold tomorrow with a high in the teens.