Animal House

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) — Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized Monday after complications from his gruesome breakdown at last year’s Preakness, ending an eight-month ordeal that prompted an outpouring of support across the country.

   “We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain,” co-owner Roy Jackson said. “It was the right decision, it was the right thing to do. We said all along if there was a situation where it would become more difficult for him then it would be time.” A series of ailments, including laminitis in the left rear hoof and a recent abscess in the right rear hoof, proved too much for the gallant colt.

Barbaro battled in his ICU stall for eight months. The 4-year-old colt underwent several procedures and was fitted with fiberglass casts. He spent time in a sling to ease pressure on his legs, had pins inserted and was fitted at the end with an external brace. These were all extraordinary measures for a horse with such injuries.

Roy and Gretchen Jackson were with Barbaro on Monday morning, with the owners making the decision in consultation with chief surgeon Dr. Dean Richardson.

“I would say thank you for everything, and all your thoughts and prayers over the last eight months or so,” Jackson said to Barbaro’s fans.

The news that Barbaro had been euthanized first was reported on the Thoroughbred Times Web site.

On May 20, Barbaro was rushed to the New Bolton Center, about 30 miles from Philadelphia in Kennett Square, hours after shattering his right hind leg just a few strides into the Preakness Stakes.

The bay colt underwent a five-hour operation that fused two joints, recovering from an injury most horses never survive. But Barbaro never regained his natural gait.

“We loved him. He was great,” said Peter Brette, Barbaro’s exercise rider and assistant trainer for Michael Matz. “He did everything we ever asked of him. He could have been one of the best. What a fighter he was.”

Barbaro suffered a significant setback over the weekend, and surgery was required to insert two steel pins in a bone — one of three shattered in the Preakness but now healthy — to eliminate all weight bearing on the ailing right rear foot.

The procedure Saturday was a risky one, because it transferred more weight to the leg while the foot rests on the ground bearing no weight. The leg was on the mend until the abscess began causing discomfort last week. Until then, the major concern was Barbaro’s left rear leg, which developed laminitis in July, and 80 percent of the hoof was removed.

Richardson said Monday morning that Barbaro did not have a good night.

“This horse was a hero,” said David Switzer, executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association. “His owners went above and beyond the call of duty to save this horse. It’s an unfortunate situation, but I think they did the right thing in putting him down.”

Brilliant on the race track, Barbaro always will be remembered for his brave fight for survival. The story of the beloved 4-year-old bay colt’s fight for life captured the fancy of millions.

When Barbaro broke down, his right hind leg flared out awkwardly as jockey Edgar Prado (below and right) jumped off and tried to steady the ailing horse. Race fans at Pimlico wept. Within 24 hours the entire nation seemed to be caught up in a “Barbaro watch,” waiting for any news.

  Well-wishers young and old showed up at the New Bolton Center with cards, flowers, gifts, goodies and even religious medals for the champ, and thousands of e-mails poured into the hospital’s Web site just for him.

“I just can’t explain why everyone is so caught up in this horse,” Roy Jackson, who owned the colt with his wife, Gretchen, has said time and again. “Everything is so negative now in the world, people love animals and I think they just happen to latch onto him.” Devoted fans even wrote Christmas carols for him, sent a wreath made of baby organic carrots and gave him a Christmas stocking.

The biggest gift has been the $1.2 million raised since early June for the Barbaro Fund. The money is put toward needed equipment such as an operating room table, and a raft and sling for the same pool recovery Barbaro used after his surgeries.

The Jacksons spent tens of thousands of dollars hoping the best horse they ever owned would recover and be able to live a comfortable life on the farm — whether he was able to breed or not.

The couple, who own about 70 racehorses, broodmares and yearlings, and operate the 190-acre Lael Farm, have been in the horse business for 30 years, and never had a horse like Barbaro.

As the days passed, it seemed Barbaro would get his happy ending. As late as December, with the broken bones in his right hind leg nearly healed and his laminitis under control, Barbaro was looking good and relishing daily walks outside his intensive care unit.

But after months of upbeat progress reports, including talk that he might be headed home soon, news came Jan. 10 of a serious setback because of the laminitis. Richardson (above) had to remove damaged tissue from Barbaro’s left hind hoof, and the colt was placed back in a protective sling. On Jan. 13, another section of his left rear hoof was removed.

After Barbaro developed a deep abscess in his right hind foot, surgery was performed Saturday to insert two steel pins in a bone. This after Richardson warned last December that Barbaro’s right hind leg was getting stronger and that the left hind foot was a “more formidable long-term challenge.”

Even before the injury that ended his career, Barbaro had earned his fame for simply being a magnificent racehorse. Foaled and raised at Sanborn Chase at Springmint Farm near Nicholasville, Ky., breeder Bill
Sanborn fought back tears Monday as he talked about “the privilege” of working with the colt.

“Everything was looking really, really good, and of course I honestly thought that the horse was going to pull it off,” he said. “It just wasn’t meant to be. It didn’t surprise me that he fought so long. He was a great horse.”

La Ville Rouge, Barbaro’s broodmare, remains pregnant at Mills
Ridge Farm in Lexington with a full brother to Barbaro. The foal is expected to be born sometime in the early spring, according to farm spokesperson Kimberly Poulin.

A son of Dynaformer, out of the dam La Ville Rouge, Barbaro started his career on the turf, but Matz knew he would have to try his versatile colt on the dirt. He reasoned that if he had a talented 3-year-old in America, he’d have to find out early if his horse was good enough for the Triple Crown races.

Barbaro was good enough, all right. He won his first three races on turf with authority, including the Laurel Futurity by eight lengths and the Tropical Park Derby by 3 3/4 lengths.

That’s when Matz drew up an unconventional plan for a dirt campaign that spaced out Barbaro’s race to keep him fit for the entire Triple Crown, a grueling ordeal of three races in five weeks at varying distances over different tracks.

Barbaro won the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 4, but his dirt debut was inconclusive since it came over a sloppy track. After an eight-week break, an unusually long time between races, Barbaro came back and won the Florida Derby by a half-length over Sharp Humor despite an outside No. 10 post.

The deal was sealed — on to the Derby, but not without criticism that Barbaro couldn’t win coming off a five-week layoff. After all, it had been 50 years since Needles won the Derby off a similar break. But Matz was unfazed, and stuck to his plan, saying all the time he was doing what was best for the horse.

Not only did Barbaro win the Derby, he demolished what was supposed to be one of the toughest fields in years. The 6 1/2-length winning margin was the largest since 1946, when Assault won by eight lengths and went on to sweep the Triple Crown.

The 55-year-old Matz (far right), meanwhile, was living a charmed life. Before turning to thoroughbreds eight years ago, he was an international show jumping star, and a three-time Olympian and silver medal winner who carried the U.S. flag at the closing ceremony at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He also survived a plane crash in Iowa in 1989 and became a hero by saving three children from the burning wreckage. The crash killed 112 of the 296 people on board United Flight 232.

In Barbaro, Matz truly believed he was training a Triple Crown winner. He often said Barbaro was good enough to be ranked among the greats and join Seattle Slew as the only unbeaten Triple Crown champions.

But two weeks later after the Derby Barbaro took a horrible misstep and one of the most extraordinary attempts to save a thoroughbred was under way. The injury was considered to be so disastrous that many thought the horse would be euthanized while still at Pimlico Race Track.

Instead, Barbaro was transported that night to the New Bolton Center’s George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals and was operated on the next day by Richardson.

The injuries were as serious as everyone feared: Barbaro sustained a broken cannon bone above the ankle, a broken sesamoid bone behind the ankle and a broken long pastern bone below the ankle. The fetlock joint — the ankle — was dislocated. Richardson said the pastern bone was shattered in “20-plus pieces.” Barbaro, who earned $2,302,200 with his six wins in seven starts, endured the complicated five-hour surgery in which Richardson inserted a titanium plate and 27 screws into the broken bones. After calmly awakening from anesthesia, he “practically jogged
back to his stall” looking for something to eat.

At the time, Richardson stressed Barbaro still had many hurdles to clear, and called chances for a full recovery a “coin toss.” Afterward, though, things went relatively smoothly. Each day brought more optimism: Barbaro was eyeing the mares, nickering, gobbling up his feed and trying to walk out of his stall. There was great hope Barbaro somehow would overcome the odds and live a life of leisure on the farm.

But by mid-July, Richardson’s greatest fear became reality — laminitis struck Barbaro’s left hind leg and 80 percent of the hoof was removed. Richardson recalled recently what it was like when he met with the Jacksons, and Matz, and his wife, D.D., to deliver the news.

“It was terrible,” Richardson said. “I wouldn’t have blamed anyone at that point for saying they just couldn’t face the prospects of going on.” But Barbaro responded well to treatment, and his recovery was progressing until a final, fatal turn.

AP Racing Writer Richard Rosenblatt in Kennett Square, Pa. and AP Writer Will Graves in Louisville contributed to this report.

Photos: AP and Baltimore Sun

This just arrived via the Net:

<<

On January 18, 2007 my 2 Alaskan Malamutes were stolen from my property in Oyster Bay. On the 19th of January our Male Malamute was picked up by the police on Linden blvd and Elmont road. The person who called them reported they saw 2 dogs running around the area. The female was gone by the time the police arrived. A week later our male was returned to the Hempstead animal shelter were I picked him up yesterday. The female (enclosed) is still missing. Our family is devastated over the dogs disappearance.

The 2 dogs are very expensive show dogs that are kept as pets. To help in the return, I have already rented a helicopter and did a grid search of the north shore of 40 squares miles. That was no help being that they were dumped out of a car in element. That was a great deal of money and air sickness to no avail. At that point I contact some Malamute help centers and they suggested a pet detective. That was thousands of dollars for 3 days… no help being they were in Elmont.

With that being said, I am just about out of savings and ideas. She was last reported seen at linden blvd and Elmont road. My family have called all the shelters, vets and schools in the area. We have posted 100’s of flyers around the neighbor hood. Please help find her. I can take out the last $1,000 from my retirement fund for the reward.

I cant tell you how this is effecting the kids and her brother (the male). No one is sleeping, none is eating. I am stuck because I have no more answers or money. Anything you can do would help.

thanks

Mark E. Stutzmann

516-624-8647
Missing Alaskan Malamutes
Missing Since 1-18-2007 – Male was found
Reward

1 – Buckley Male spade – 100 lbs gray / white/ Tan. Scar on stomach, brown eyes, and beautiful makings – show dog heritage. FOUND IN ELEMONT

1 - Bailey Female neutered – 100 lbs black / gray. Shaved throat, brown eyes, beautiful makings – show dog heritage

Reward for help in finding her.

Contact Mark Stutzmann
516-624-8647>>

It's raining Afghan hounds.

Earlier this month, the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter in Chambersburg, Penn., contacted purebred rescue groups to ask for help in caring for more than 60 dogs from a multi-breed kennel seizure, including 18 of the exotic-looking sighthounds.

Among them was Scarlett (left), who is 4 or 5, and who has had several litters (including Tallah, below).

Afghan Hound fanciers, including the national parent club and regional clubs, are providing veterinary care, foster homes, socialization and, ultimately, placement for these homeless hounds. They are not receiving financial assistance from CVAS or the municipality, and so donations are appreciated.

The condition of the dogs varies, but includes hookworms, whipworms, roundworms, giardia, Lyme disease, urine scalds, swollen lymph nodes, ear infections, tooth abscesses, dehydration, dermatitis, untreated broken bones, severe matting and undersocialization.  Some are severely underweight.

To read a local media account of the rescue, click here.

A Paypal account has been set up to directly fund the veterinary needs of these 18 Afghans, in order to make them available for adoption. Visit www.mosso.net/ch.htm.

Checks for the Chambersburg Afghan hounds can be sent to: Elizabeth Bryant, 4768 Manayunk Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19128.

Meanwhile, on the other coast, Afghan Hound Rescue of Southern California is helping resue more than 40 Afghan hounds that are in need of medical care and homes. Many, unfortunately, are heartworm positive. For more information, or to make a PayPal donation, visit www.ahrsc.org.

Keep pets from paper shredders

By Denise Flaim

It's never what you worry about.

Ellen Lutz of Aqueboque, N.Y., learned that firsthand last month, when her 7-month-old golden retriever, Striker (left), ambled into her home office and licked her paper shredder.

To her horror, the machine latched onto his tongue, and began to grind.

"He was screaming, and he was fighting for his life," says Lutz, adding that in his panic, the 67-pound puppy did even more damage to his mutilated tongue. She immediately disconnected the shredder, and took Striker to a nearby emergency hospital.

"I was covered in blood from head to toe," Lutz remembers.

A story this horrific is hard-pressed to end well: Striker's injury was so severe - basically, most of his tongue was gone - that he was euthanized.

"I've been in emergency medicine for 10 years, and this is the first time I have seen or heard of this," says veterinarian Gal Vatash of the East End Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center in Riverhead, who treated Striker in December. "But I'm surprised it doesn't occur more often. Most of us have paper shredders at home, and dogs are always sticking their noses in all kinds of places."

Indeed, Striker is not alone. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has recorded five dog mutilations involving shredders, and what is not known is how many cases go unreported.

In February of last year, a young boxer puppy named Cross from Socastee, S.C., caught his tongue on a home shredder, mangling an inch of it into what his owner, Sandra Clarke, called "hamburger meat."

In 2005, in South Spokane, Wash., a 7-month-old mix named Alice Lane licked a paper shredder, which in turn ground up all of her tongue. "I will never forget the sound it made when she pulled away," her owner, Adam Forney, told reporters. In her panic, the puppy bit off part of Forney's pinky. Like Striker, the dog had to be euthanized because of the extent of her injury.

Even dogs that are lucky enough to survive lead compromised lives, Lutz says. "They have to be on soft diets, and they have to learn how to swallow again." For an active dog like Striker, his favorite pastime - going on hikes through the woods - would have been an impossibility, she says, because there was too much damage to his tongue to allow him to pant.

Not surprisingly, Lutz no longer has a shredder. "Before this happened, I was the shredding queen," she says. "And while I know they're really important in our lives to help destroy documents and prevent identity theft, it's going to be a long time before I'm going to have one in the house again."

Some simple precautions can ensure that accidents such as Striker's do not happen. Among them:

-- Unplug shredders when not in use.

-- Store shredders out of reach of animals (and, of course, children, especially those under 5, who can also be victims of shredder accidents). Make sure that the shredder is located in a place that is "pounce proof": Acrobatic kitties that jump atop shredders can also do terrible damage to themselves.

-- To avoid attracting animals, never put food wrappers through shredders.

-- Do not leave shredders on the "automatic" setting.

-- When buying a shredder, look for one with a protective bar over the opening.

To ensure that Striker's death was not in vain, Lutz has embarked on an awareness campaign to alert owners to the perils of unattended paper shredders. She will e-mail fliers to anyone who requests her. (Contact strikerluv@ yahoo.com.)

Married for 32 years, Lutz says she and her husband have never been without a dog in their household. Soon, she thinks, it might be time to think about getting another.

"Life without a dog," she muses, "is just not a life, you know?"

WRITE TO Denise Flaim, c/o Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747-4250, or e-mail denise.flaim@newsday.com

Breeders benefit from high-tech

By DENISE FLAIM

January 15, 2007

"I think there's another one there," I said to my husband, Fred, pointing to the middle of Diva's flank.

With a flourish, Fred squirted some ultrasound gel on the side of our supine dog, then placed the wand of the portable Doppler ultrasound on the blue glop of gel. He rotated the microphone-size probe slowly and at different angles, listening for the sound we had heard 13 times before. From the base unit's speaker, we heard some gurgling (Diva did have a hefty dinner), the crackle of static, and then ...

A faint thwackety-thwack. Thwackety-thwack.

The sound got louder and faster, sounding like a broken spoke on a bicycle. And as it did, the numbers on the Doppler's digital display climbed. 75 ... 123 ... 195 ... 220.

Thwackety-thwack. Thwackety-thwack. There it was: Diva's 14th puppy.

Welcome to modern canine maternity.

As most readers of this column know, in my spare time I show and breed Rhodesian Ridgebacks. For this litter, Diva's third and last, I decided to use WhelpWise (whelpwise.com), a Colorado-based "veterinary perinatal service" that uses equipment intended for preemie human babies on their canine counterparts.

Former nurse and WhelpWise founder Karen Copley began to think veterinary medicine needed better obstetrical tools after she found herself the new owner of a pregnant goat. Every vet she visited refused to perform an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy, saying goats just didn't kid that time of year. After sneaking the bleating mother-to-be into the hospital where she worked (it's amazing what doctors don't notice when they're in a meeting), Copley did her own ultrasound and confirmed that her nanny goat was indeed pregnant - with quadruplets.

And so WhelpWise was born. To date, the service has monitored some 14,000 female dogs, and its $400 fee includes rental equipment and round-the-clock phone support.

About a week before their dog's due date, human midwives are sent a Doppler ultrasound unit to find fetal heartbeats and then monitor them to make sure the puppies are not in distress. They also receive a uterine-contraction monitor with instructions to transmit the blips and bops of the mama-to-be's uterus over the phone to WhelpWise. Based on the type of contractions a dog is having, WhelpWise can determine if there is a "stuck" puppy or still more on the way - and whether a C-section might be advisable.

All this isn't to say there weren't skeptics. "This is black magic," said Fred the first night we convinced a very rotund Diva to lie on her right side while we located the puppies' heartbeats. I drew seven little circles on the doggie diagram WhelpWise provided, jotting down the heart rates, too. Then I handed Fred a Sharpie so he could draw them on Diva's expansive belly - all the better to find them the next time.

"This is kind of like pinging for shipwrecks with sonar," mused my fisherman-husband, grudgingly drawing the blue circles on Diva's taut abdomen.

If Fred had any doubts, they were assuaged on whelping day. Diva started delivering at 7 a.m. The first little fellow came as a surprise, gushing into the world atop our pillowtop bed. (You can't flip it - the mattress, that is, not the puppy - so when the Sleepy's sales guy tries to get you to spend that extra $50 for an impermeable mattress pad, buy it.)

At regular intervals, Fred applied and removed the uterine monitor and transmitted the results. When Diva's contractions slowed - imperceptibly, to us - WhelpWise checked with our vet, Robert Monaco of Old Country Animal Clinic in Plainview, before having us use one of two drugs: Calphosan, an injectable calcium that increases the strength of contractions, and, toward the end, the more powerful Oxytocin, a drug that increases their frequency. The two microdoses of Oxytocin that WhelpWise recommended - each as small as a raindrop - had their desired effect: They kept Diva's labor steady without sending her into what Copley calls "nuclear labor."

My biggest concern was that the last puppy would be stillborn, which had happened in each of Diva's previous litters. I was planning on keeping a female from this one. "You watch," I predicted to Monaco. "That last puppy is going to be a beautiful show-prospect girl."

By 5:30 p.m., we were done. No stillborns, no hand-wringing, no uterine inertia. In just over 10 hours, Diva whelped a puppy every 45 minutes, right down to number 14 - a big, strapping show girl.

I don't know if she'll ultimately be the one we keep. But I do know that whenever we have a litter in the future, "pinging for puppies" is the way we're going to go.

WRITE TO Denise Flaim, c/o Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747-4250; or e-mail denise.flaim@newsday.com.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

Ticket, the 11-year-old runaway whippet in Cedartown, Ga., has been caught!

Apparently a bit of a Romeo, Ticket was lured to a trap by the scent of urine from a female whippet in heat.

A pit bull ban is not the answer

By Denise Flaim
Animal House

January 8, 2007

Writing a column in defense of pit bulls is sort of like writing in favor of suicide bombers, or a plan to build a nuclear reactor down your block. People see the P-word, and assume doggie Armageddon.

I am going to try, anyway.

First, the necessary disclaimers, for those who have been through a pit bull attack or know someone who has or -- the scenario that, rightfully, sends people over the edge -- are the parents of a child whose scars from such a terrifying incident are not physical as well as emotional. I am in no way trying to diminish what happened to them in that instance. And I hope justice was served, not just to the dog that inflicted the injuries, but more so to the human whose lack of responsibility was their root cause.

The impetus for this column, of course, is the pit-bull ban proposed by New York City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., who called the breed "a danger to public safety." This kind of rhetoric isn't surprising in a municipality that bans ferrets, chinchillas and hedgehogs. But it's illogical at its core.

Simply put, dangerous dogs are not a canine problem. They are a human problem. Some dogs are born with the propensity for aggression to humans, but it takes an owner to nurture such a tendency, either through outright encouragement or benign neglect.

Dog fighting, for which pit bulls were developed, requires dog aggression, and many pit bulls are indeed hostile toward their own kind. But the great irony is that this breed was bred not to attack humans. To fulfill their raison d'etre, pit bulls needed to be especially people-friendly: A dog that mauled a human in the pit - even in the heat of battle with his canine foe - was worthless, and was dispatched from the gene pool on the spot with a bullet to the head.

Pit bulls that attack people are an aberration, not an eventuality. Indeed, considering the sheer number of pit bulls that are permitted to stray in city streets, or spend eternities tied outside, the frequency of attacks is miraculously low.

But breedism is a fact of life for the pit bull, whose reputation is tinged with racial and socioeconomic associations that no one is comfortable talking about, but invariably react to. My peers in the media -- most of whom can't tell a Chihuahua from a Catahoula -- take every opportunity to demonize them. Pit bull maulings always get ink.

This soon becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: Every dog attack becomes the fault of a pit bull, even though the breed itself is a very diffuse one, with many different looks and styles. Sharpeis, bull mastiffs, even pugs or Jack Russells could conceivably be labeled pit bulls by disoriented victims who use reverse logic: "If it bit me, it must be a pit bull."

Are pit bulls ideal for everyone? Certainly not. They need strong, stable owners who can socialize them well to people and children, monitor their interactions with other dogs, and keep them exercised mentally and physically. But the same can be said to a greater or lesser degree for Rottweilers, German shepherds, Dobermans, Akitas, and Labrador and golden retrievers - virtually any dog of any breed.

The biggest problem with a pit-bull ban is that if those who want to mold aggressive dogs are deprived of one breed, they just move on to another. There are far more ferocious breeds that could take the pit's place. Then again, with enough careless breeding and focused mistreatment, your average spaniel could be transformed into, if not a killing machine, a very adept maiming one.

A pit-bull ban would create more problems than it solves:

What about pit bull mixes?

What about American Staffordshire terriers, which derive from the pit bull gene pool, but sequestered themselves long ago, and have lost the "gameness" required of a fighting dog?

Are legislators savvy enough to tell the difference between an American bulldog (really a Southern-style pit) and an English one (a breed that is about as aggressive as your average petit four)? If you toss everything with "bullie" in its name or background, kiss goodbye to such good-natured clowns as the French bulldog, the bull terrier, the Boston terrier and the boxer.

People are individuals, and so are animals. Fair laws treat them as such. Instead of addressing the symptom of a problem by banning dogs made vicious and dangerous by irresponsible owners, how about dealing with the problem by making those owners truly liable in the first place?

Nothing sums it up better than that popular cliche: Punish the deed, not the breed.

WRITE TO Denise Flaim, c/o Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747-4250, or e-mail denise.flaim@newsday.com.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

You might think that the reason I haven't been blogging much in recent weeks is due to the sheer absence of Vivi news -- the most to report is that there is not much to report.

Or maybe because of the hustle and bustle of the holidays -- homemade eggnog takes time, you know.

But in truth, most of the radio silence is attributable to the arrival of 14 new Ridgeback souls on Jan. 4. The first of the bunch saw fit to use my queen-size pillow-top bed to cushion his trajectory into this brave new world. (Note: When Sleepy's tries to sell you that Teflon-coated mattress protector pad, buy it.)

You read that right: 14. Five boys, nine girls. Eight black noses, six brown noses.

This is a repeat of my spring litter, and it is Diva's last foray into motherhood. Quite an encore. And this time I am keeping one.

Stay tuned for more news on the Fabulous 14, all of whom are wriggling, healthy and vocal!

From search coordinator Bonnie Folz:

<<Vivi Update - Januray 1, 2007

Resolving to take better care

By Denise Flaim
Animal House

Forget the gym, and the diet. Forget about learning a new foreign language, or how to mambo.

Instead, this year devote your resolutions to bettering the care and comfort of your animal friends. Here are some areas to reconsider in making the new year a happier and healthier one for the furred and feathered in your life.

Vaccination schedules. "More is more" has long been the mantra in veterinary - and, come to think of it, human - medicine, as combination vaccines became the order of the day. But today, the pendulum is swinging on such "wombo combos," as veterinary immunologist Jean Dodds of Santa Monica, Calif., calls them, tongue ensconsed firmly in cheek.

Indeed, last year the highly respected American Animal Hospital Association released its updated Canine Vaccine Guidelines (available at aahanet.org), and outlined only four vaccines it considers "core," or required, for dogs. Other than this quartet of parvo, distemper, canine hepatitis and rabies, all other vaccines are "noncore," or optional, depending on an individual dog's lifestyle or risk factors (such as lepto or Lyme) or not to be used at all (such as coronavirus or giardia).

In addition, the association stresses that, after a dog has been boostered at one year, revaccination should occur no more than every three years, if not longer.

In November, the American Association of Feline Practitioners released its updated Feline Vaccination Guidelines, available at aafponline.org.

And in New York State, cats and dogs are required to be vaccinated every three years, not annually or every other year.

If your vet is still insisting on "annual shots," find out exactly what they are, compare them to either of the associations' guidelines, and, if necessary, ask your vet exactly why he or she is vaccinating in excess of what is recommended.

Your vet relationship. If the kind of exchange described in the last paragraph sounds inconceivable to you, then you likely have a bigger problem than overvaccination.

It's crucial that you have an open, respectful relationship with your veterinarian. This doesn't mean you always have to agree, but it does mean that you should be able to discuss your animal's health rationally, calmly and unemotionally. If that's not the case, then perhaps that vet is not the right match for you. Because communication is crucial in any medical emergency, consider shopping around for another vet before you find yourself - and your animal - in a crisis situation.

Diet. Feeding out of a bag or a can is second nature to most of us, but growing numbers of owners and breeders are deciding to feed a more natural, biologically appropriate diet. Books about how to make balanced, nutritionally complete meals for cats and dogs abound. (A good source is dogwise.com.)

If you don't have the time, money or inclination to switch from a commercial diet to a homemade one (which requires a level of commitment and research), then by all means augment your animal's diet with healthful foods. A study at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., showed that Scottish terriers that ate fresh vegetables three times a week halved their risk of bladder cancer, to which the breed is prone; green leafy and orange-yellow veggies were particularly beneficial.

And while we're on the subject: Get an honest assessment of whether your animal is overweight. Excess pounds can shorten his lifespan, not to mention leave him vulnerable to disease, particularly diabetes in cats. Rule out a medical cause, such as hypothyroidism, then follow that tried-and-true regimen: Less food, more exercise.

Pesticides. A weedless green lawn might be a sign of success in suburbia, but consider the toll those chemicals can take on your companion animals. That same Purdue study showed that the risk of bladder cancer was higher among dogs exposed to certain herbicides, compared with dogs that had not been exposed.

What are a couple of dandelions compared to your dog's health, not to mention your peace of mind? There's nothing more satisfying than letting your dog "graze" on a lawn that's green in more respects than one.

Water. Are you drinking the water out of your faucet? If not, are you giving it to your animals? If you have concerns about the water quality in your household, then up your inventory of Poland Spring for the four-leggers in residence, too.

Training. Good animal companions aren't just born, they're nurtured, with lots of consistent training and positive reinforcement. If your critter has a persistent problem - a dog that jumps on visitors, a bird that feather-plucks, a cat that has litterbox issues - make 2007 the year you deal with it head-on. There are plenty of books, Web sites and private trainers and consultants that can point you - and your companion - in the right direction.

Write to Denise Flaim, c/o Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747-4250; or e-mail denise.flaim@ newsday.com.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.