Lenzo Animal Hospital is a general practice for dogs and cats.
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We pride ourselves on providing medical and surgical care with love and compassion at a price that won’t break the budget.
Today I got to meet a hero. Not the one with the hat, the other one. The man proudly told me the story of how, when he had a stroke 3 years ago, and was unable to call for help, it was his dog who realized something was wrong and notified his wife. She was then able to get him treatment immediately and the man made a full recovery. It made my day to meet them both.
Bonus points if you know the name of my old friend who was a Golden Retriever!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/755133569878876?fs=e&s=TIeQ9V&mibextid=xCPwDs
We all know the story of the dog who “ate my homework“. Well yesterday a man came in to our office and told us the story of how his dog had recently eaten $510 cash. Fortunately he was able to “retrieve” $500 of it. And to answer your question, yes, the bank will accept money even when it has passed through the digestive system of a dog. Pro tip - they DO appreciate it if you clean it first.
Photo is of the actual money in this story.
Just a reminder, our slithery friends will soon be out. Fortunately, we now have an inexpensive vaccine available that will greatly reduce the effects of a rattlesnake or copperhead bite. Just call our office at 828-369-2860 to make an appointment.
A significant number of my patients are on the excellent Flea and Tick and Mange medicine Bravecto. So I thought it was important to let you know that the manufacturer has put it on sale until April 30th. The details are that if you buy 4 doses of the 3 month Bravecto, they will give a $50 instant rebate. This offer is not available online but only through your Veterinarian. You know you’re going to need it, so come on over and stock up before the Fleas and Ticks get any worse!
Note: in order to buy Bravecto or any prescription medication, your pet needs to have been seen by Dr. Lenzo sometime within the last calendar year so that we can stay in compliance with state and federal laws concerning sale of prescription medications.
Ya probably want to be choosy when sending a swab for your dog’s DNA! Story below
Pet DNA Firm Identifies Humans as Dogs:
A swab sample sent to dog DNA testing company DNA My Dog came back as 40% Alaskan malamute, 35% shar-pei, and 25% labrador—which came a a surprise to the owner because the sample was a cheek swab from Christina Hager, a 100% human reporter at WBZ News.
Hello from the VMX veterinary conference in Orlando, Fl. VMX is the world’s largest veterinary conference with over 28,000 attending in 2023. I’ll be here most of the week spending 7 hours a day in class trying to keep up with the dizzying pace of advancements in veterinary medicine and bringing them home to Franklin.
Cool fall nights are not far away and the makers of Bravecto, our most effective flea and tick medicine have a fun new giveaway. They have given us a SoloStove portable fire pit to raffle off to our clients who buy Bravecto between now and October 31st. If you buy 2 doses of the 3 month bravecto, you will get a $15 instant rebate and one ticket for the raffle. If you buy 4 doses, you get $40 a dollar instant rebate and three tickets for the raffle.
Obviously this only makes sense if you use Bravecto for your pets anyway but if you do, this is a great time to stock up. You won’t get a lower price and you have a decent chance of winning a nifty little fire pit that’s perfect for this time of year.
Just something we should all remember…
2023 rabies clinic is under way at Cartoogechaye Elementary from 1:00-3:00PM!
Remember everyone, the rabies vaccination clinic is this coming Saturday from 1-3pm at Cartoogechaye school. The cost is $10 per pet, cash only.
This year’s Rabies clinic will be held on Saturday May 20th at Cartoogechaye School from 1:00 - 3:00.
While rabies has been documented in our are in wildlife for a few years now, this is the first Rabies Clinic since it was found in a local pet animal (who subsequently bit the owner and two veterinarians.) Since Rabies is virtually 100% fatal in people and pets, we want to make sure our furry friends are protected.
I hate to just share memes but this is too cute.
🧡🧡🧡
Merry Christmas to all our friends. Hope all of you are safe and warm while we are here in (comparatively) balmy Utah!
Non- veterinary related public service announcement:
Be careful of who you hire to do work for you. I hired a contractor named Cody Queen to do replace a deck on my house, build a deck around the pool and hot tub, make a concrete carport and a short concrete path. We agreed verbally and by Facebook messenger that he would have it completed by Thanksgiving which gave him 6 weeks to complete the job.
Long story short, he got $23,000 of my money and only completed the frame of the attached deck and a place just big enough for the hot tub by thanksgiving (according to the contractor I hired to complete the job, this was at most 4 days work and should have cost about $3,000). In addition, the deck was not level and had to be fixed by the second contractor. Lastly, he brought Kenny Gibson to my house to help him, a man who a police report dated August 20 was charged as a “habitual felon” as well as drug and larceny charges. Kenny would go on to threaten to “get” me in a text to Cody which he forwarded to me when I fired them both. (I took that text to the police who confirmed Kenny’s legal status and are now aware of their threat against me) Worst of all, they refuse to refund any of the $23,000 I paid them for labor. A lawyer I contacted said it isn’t worth pursuing because they have already spent the money and have no assets.
Learn from my mistakes -
1) Hire these guys at your own risk.
2) Hire jobs for hourly labor plus materials only.
3) check any workers for criminal records
4) don’t pay ahead of time
5) don’t sign a contract. If you are pressured to do so, find another contractor.
6) The police may not be able to help you. Even though Cody Queen and Kenny Gibson couldn’t have gotten $23,000 from me if they put a gun to my head and stole my car, the police consider this a civil matter. (I evidently have the right to sue them, spend $5,000 on a lawyer, win and still probably get nothing.)
7) Cody bragged to me in text messages that he has leins on the homes of several people who hired and ultimately fired him. Not sure if it’s true but that’s what he said in a text.
Below is what Cody Queen charged me $23,000 in LABOR to complete. I paid for the materials. You can decide for yourself if it’s worth that.
My sincere apologies to all the reputable contractors out there. You guys are awesome, just a few bad apples out there who need exposing.
Great news everyone! For all you who use the most effective flea and tick medicine, Bravecto, the company has doubled its rebates but only from September 1 to October 15. So now when you buy 2 doses of Bravecto from your vet (it doesn’t work through internet companies) you get $20 off instantly and when you buy 4 doses, you get $50 off! Pretty good deal for something you were going to need anyway.
So it appears that Rabies has raised it’s ugly head recently in our area. While the story is still evolving, I’ve been told that a rabid cat has bitten its owner and two veterinarians. The veterinarians should be ok, since we are all vaccinated against the virus and I expect the owner will have gotten treatment by now as well. However rabies is 100% fatal if you wait until you start showing symptoms, so it is absolutely vital that if you are bitten by a wild or domestic animal, you seek medical attention right away.
Below is a recent article from National Geographic about rabies that has a lot of excellent information.
Rabies is still a threat—but experts say it doesn’t have to be that way
Though we know how to prevent it, the virus kills about 60,000 people a year. Here’s what you need to know.
BYAMY MCKEEVER
PUBLISHED AUGUST 17, 2022
11 MIN READ
Rabies surprised public health officials earlier this year when a wild red fox bit nine people—including a United States congressman—in Washington, D.C. Within a day, a D.C. public health lab confirmed that the fox, which had been euthanized, had tested positive for the deadly disease.
Rabies kills about 60,000 people every year worldwide, particularly in rural parts of Africa and Asia. Primarily spread through animal bites, the disease is virtually 100 percent fatal once symptoms set in.
“We tend to think of it as this disease from the past, but someone dies of it every 10 minutes around the world,” says Katie Hampson, professor of biodiversity, animal health, and comparative medicine at the University of Glasgow, who specializes in the ecology of rabies. “It’s such a horrific way to die.”
Picture of a man being injected in his abdomen with a rabies vaccine.
A man who was bitten by dog suspected of rabies receives a post-exposure vaccination at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, ca. 1905. Louis Pasteur developed the first rabies...Read More
PHOTOGRAPH BY BETTMANN, GETTY IMAGES
Those deaths are almost completely preventable thanks to the rabies vaccine, which was first developed by Louis Pasteur in 1885 and has been improved over time with advances in technology. As a result, the U.S. logs thousands of rabies cases among wildlife each year but only one or two human deaths.
Given all that is known about the disease, experts say that eradication would be an easy win for public health—and momentum has been building in recent years. In 2018, the World Health Organization and its partners announced a plan to eliminate human deaths from rabies by 2030. (Inside the U.S. effort to eradicate rabies in raccoons.)
“It’s one of those issues that we really can do something about,” says Andy Gibson, director of strategic research at Mission Rabies, a United Kingdom-based charity. “There is a ray of light in it.”
What is rabies—and how is it transmitted?
Rabies lyssavirus is an RNA virus that specializes in attacking the body’s central nervous system. It’s transmitted through contact with the saliva or nervous system tissue of an infected animal. That typically takes place by animal bite or, less often, from scratches or exposure to the saliva of an infected animal.
Once it infects, the virus attaches to nerve cells and spreads along neural pathways until it reaches the spinal cord and the brain. In the brain, it begins to replicate and pass into the salivary glands—which is when clinical symptoms begin to appear.
Picture of an aggressive dog, exhibiting signs of a possible rabies infection.
This canine was suspected of being rabid, exhibiting symptoms such as restlessness and overall uncharacteristic aggressive behavior. The direct fluorescent anti...Read More
PHOTOGRAPH BY CDC
All mammals are susceptible to rabies, but Hampson says carnivores are particularly good at transmitting it because their strong bites can easily break the skin. Dogs are most commonly associated with rabies because they live alongside humans and roam freely in many parts of the world—raising the likelihood that they’ll spread it. (Morocco has 3 million stray dogs. Meet the people trying to help them.)
But in countries where dogs are widely vaccinated against rabies, the disease remains endemic among other carnivores like foxes, raccoons, and bats. The U.S., for example, recently saw an uptick of human rabies cases linked to bats. The nocturnal animals are the country’s leading cause of rabies exposure, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is possibly because people aren’t aware of the risks that bats pose.
What are the symptoms of rabies?
When most people think of rabies, they imagine an animal foaming at the mouth and acting aggressively. But experts warn that rabies symptoms are not so straightforward and can vary widely to include seizures, anxiety, delirium, insomnia, difficulty breathing, self-mutilation, and other abnormal behavior.
“Rabies is the master of deception. It can look like anything,” Gibson says. “The only common sign is sudden death.”
According to the CDC, the earliest symptoms of rabies are similar to the flu, including weakness, fever, a headache, and tingling at the site of the bite. As the virus spreads to the brain—a journey that can take weeks or even months—a variety of more severe symptoms can emerge.
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A bite from a rabid dog was once a death sentence. Now, we have a 19th-century human experiment to thank for the rabies vaccine.
The World Health Organization describes two main manifestations of the disease: furious rabies and paralytic rabies. People or animals with furious rabies may appear agitated, become aggressive, and drool excessively, while other symptoms include hyperactivity, fear of water, and even fear of fresh air. The symptoms of paralytic rabies, on the other hand, are more understated—typically causing gradual paralysis as a patient remains calm and lucid.
What do you do if you suspect a rabies infection?
Rabies is almost always fatal once clinical symptoms set in, so it’s critical to act immediately if you or your pet has been bitten by an animal suspected to have rabies. Since bat bites aren’t always visible, experts advise reaching out to authorities if you come into contact with a bat.
But Gibson says the first step for treating rabies is something you can do on your own. “You can vastly reduce your risk of contracting rabies if you wash the wound with soap and water for 15 minutes,” he says, explaining that the rabies virus is fairly fragile and can be disrupted by soap.
Picture of a boy hugging a dog as it is injected with a rabies vaccine.
A pet dog is injected with rabies vaccine during the local government's anti-rabies campaign in July 2019 in Manila, Philippines. Widespread vaccination of dogs has...Read More
PHOTOGRAPH BY NOEL CELIS, AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Next, however, experts advise seeking care from a medical provider who can assess your risk and administer post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)—a treatment that is 100 percent effective if administered quickly and correctly. PEP typically includes four shots of the rabies vaccine taken over two weeks, as well as a dose of rabies immune globulin, a serum that neutralizes the virus at the site of the bite and offers protection as the body mounts an immune response.
The rabies vaccine is unique in that it is typically administered after an infection rather than as a preventive measure. Hampson says that’s because most people—particularly in countries that have controlled rabies in dogs—are unlikely to be exposed. However, those who are at risk due to their jobs or who travel to a high-risk country may consider a pre-exposure vaccination.
“You’d be very unlucky to be bitten by a rabid dog, but thousands of people who live in these countries get bitten every day, so it’s a non-negligible risk,” Hampson says.
What threat does rabies pose to humans?
For people who live in wealthy countries, the risk of getting rabies in the first place is extremely low. That’s because scientists know what works to prevent rabies: generating herd immunity by vaccinating at least 80 percent of the local host population, typically domestic dogs.
“If you can achieve that critical herd immunity, you stop transmission—you stop the cycle,” says Louis Nel, executive director of the Global Alliance for Rabies Control, an NGO that works with governments and international organizations to fight rabies. “That’s how you eradicate the virus.”
In the U.S., the number of human rabies deaths fell from more than a hundred a year in the early 20th century to just one or two a year since 1960, when the country began to vaccinate dogs. There have been similar successes in western Europe and, most recently, in Latin America and the Caribbean, where cases have declined 95 percent since 1983 to make the region nearly rabies-free.
That’s not to say there’s zero threat in these countries. In addition to the risk posed by other wildlife such as foxes and raccoons, rabid dogs can cross borders and reintroduce the disease. Even in the U.S. there are occasional reports of rabies among imported dogs, and roughly a quarter of human rabies cases involve people who are infected while traveling.
But the threat is vastly higher in countries that have not controlled rabies in dogs. In 2018, a WHO Rabies Modelling Consortium study published in the Lancet estimated that more than a million people would die of rabies between 2020 and 2035 if those countries don’t take action.
What can be done to control rabies globally?
The WHO and its global partners have called for the elimination of human rabies deaths by 2030. Given that we already know how to prevent rabies, experts say what’s really needed in affected countries is the political will and improved health care infrastructure.
“It’s not always logical for governments to realize that this is an area where they could make a big difference to public health,” Nel says. “So that’s why we need to build the case for investment.”
In 2013, Mission Rabies was able to do just that when it began working in Goa, India. At the time, the state government was finding only about five rabid dogs a year. But increased surveillance efforts showed a much more serious problem with two positive cases a week. “We suddenly found there was rabies everywhere,” Gibson says.
Armed with a better understanding of the problem, Goa signed onto a years-long program to eliminate rabies by vaccinating more than 95,000 dogs every year to reach 70 percent vaccination coverage. Aided by smartphone technology making it easier to find the dogs and track progress, Goa has now eliminated human rabies. (Why adopting street dogs is gaining popularity in India.)
The 2018 WHO modelling study also recommended providing low-income countries with better access to post-exposure treatment—which Hampson, the lead author of the paper, says is a cost-effective way to keep people safe while countries work to reach herd immunity in dogs. The Global Alliance Vaccine Initiative has since added the rabies vaccine to its portfolio.
However, COVID-19 has complicated these global efforts, diverting resources away from rabies to tackle an even graver threat. Nel admits the Zero by 30 target may be slipping away—but adds that it’s an important goal to aim for. Gibson agrees, adding that even small progress against rabies will still help save many lives.
“The allure of eradication is very appealing,” he says. “But there’s a lot of good we can do just by taking the steps we can in the meantime.”
Stolen from elsewhere but good…
A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.
He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.
When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'
'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered.
Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked.
Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up'.
The man gestured, and the gate began to open.
'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked.
'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.
After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?'
'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in..'
'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog.
There should be a bowl by the pump.'
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.
The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog.
When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.
'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.
This is Heaven,' he answered.
'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'
'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.'
'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'
'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.
Spring is finally here and the snakes are out. As most of you know, Copperheads are common in this area. We typically see several cases of snakebite each year. Fortunately we now have a vaccine that can help decrease symptoms and increase the probability of survival if your dog is bitten. It is given in two doses a month apart with a booster each spring.
Also fleas and ticks are out so don’t forget to pick up some Bravecto or Nexgard to keep your pet free of these pests all summer.
1869 Georgia Road
Franklin, NC
28734
| Monday | 8:30am - 5pm |
| Tuesday | 8:30am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 8:30am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 8:30am - 5pm |
| Friday | 8:30am - 5pm |
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