Vet Judy

Have you heard of NT-ProBNP testing? Should you or your veterinarian be asking for this test?

There is a relatively new technology available for using a blood test for detection of feline heart disease. The good news is that this blood test is very good at detecting important cat heart disease.

Here are some easy to follow guidelines on when to test, what the results mean to your cats health, and what to do next?

CAT TESTING ADVISED if your cat falls into any of these categories:

WHAT ABOUT THE RESULTS?

Important Things To Note About Cats and Heart Disease:

1)      They rarely cough when suffering from heart disease. Usually they present to the veterinarian with sudden onset of rapid, shallow, or strained breathing.

2)      They can have significant heart disease without a heart murmur that can be heard with a stethoscope

3)      They may present for conditions like hind limb paralysis, sudden onset blindness, or mental distress when they have heart disease.

Please note: This information is not meant to be a substitute for good veterinary advice. There are often a host of factors involved in deciding the correct choices for your cat’s health care. Please follow the advice of a veterinarian that you trust with your cat. They are in the best position to advise you.

            Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a cool-season annual grass.  In the Midwestern U.S., it is usually seeded in the fall for early to mid-summer grain production.  As you move further north, it is more common to find wheat planted in the spring and harvested in the late summer or early fall.

            Wheat’s coldhardiness makes it a great choice for fall deer food plot plantings.  It is also a fairly easy crop to seed in large fields to improve the forage options during the early spring.  To improve your wheat stand, consider adding about 75 pounds of urea or ammonium nitrate per acre in the early spring.

            But wheat probably performs best as part of a food plots rotation in larger fields.  It may be seeded in the fall for fall and winter forage; then red or ladino clover can be “frost seeded” into the wheat field in the late winter or early spring.  The natural freezing and thawing of the ground works the clover seed into the ground.  The wheat may then be harvested for grain or straw, and the clover will be established in the field for summer forage.

            Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) should not be confused with wheat.  Its purpose in a deer plot planting is to provide a green forage and cover in the early season, along with grain in the fall.  You’ll find a variety of opinions on the use of buckwheat in deer food plots.  I’m not persuaded that deer will choose buckwheat over other plants in our setting, but this may be due to my northern location.

 For more annual deer plot forage choices check out the article:  http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/annual-forages.html

Have you heard of NT-ProBNP testing? Should you or your veterinarian be asking for this test?

There is a relatively new technology available that uses a blood test for canine heart disease. The good news is that this blood test is very good at detecting important canine heart disease. There  are a lot of canine heart diseases that remain undetected because there are no symptoms until the disease is advanced and they go into heart failure. This is especially true of the large breed dogs.

Here are some easy to follow guidelines on when to test, what the results mean to your dogs health, and what to do next?

DOG TESTING ADVISED if your dog falls into any of these categories:

WHAT ABOUT THE RESULTS?

Please remember this information here is for your education only. If the information present here conflicts in any way with the advice of a veterinarian you trust, please follow their advice. They have the privilege of knowing your dog and your dogs health problems.

            Oats (Avena) seeded for fall forage in well-drained ground is one of my favorite choices for deer plots.  “Forage oats” seem to be very good deer attractant on our farm.  I think this is because oats tend to remain greener longer into the winter—I’ve even seen deer seek out oats from underneath snowcover.

            Either winter or spring oat varieties can be utilized for winter and fall forage.  (Spring oats have been developed to produce grain when planted in the spring).  Spring oats can be planted for fall forage from late July to early September, depending on your region and climate.  For forage, plant winter oat varieties about two weeks later than spring oat varieties.  In a field devoted solely to oats, the seeding rate will be about 100 pounds per acre.

            Oats are also a proven crop to help establish grass and legume seedings.  You might consider sowing oats along with alfalfa, a strategy used often by American farmers to help establish alfalfa plantings.

            Oats may also be a crop that can be used if you’re establishing food plot plantings on former pasture ground, especially in climates south of where I live.  Frost seeding forage oats into closely-grazed pasture ground in the late winter can result in suitable spring forage for wildlife in the early spring.  You could then come in during the later spring or summer and begin preparing the ground for your fall deer plot.

For more information on plant selection consider reading  http://www.diydeerfoodplots.com/articles/annual-forages.html