Incredible in Every Detail

Dr. Umesh Karkare
Insights into Healthcare and Wellness – Royal Canin hosted a fun and informative event – Ask Your Vet with Dr Umesh Karkare. He has an experience of more than 35 years in the industry and is currently practicing in Mumbai.

In this digital age when everything is happening virtually, why should pet care take a back seat? Giving pet parents a virtual platform to learn more about their pet’s wellness and health and to ask a renowned vet their queries was a great idea!

Royal Canin has come up with an interesting and helpful campaign – Take Your Pet to the Vet! The aim of this campaign is to create awareness, burst myths on pet care, and provide a platform for pet parents to directly interact with renowned vets. The highlights of the campaign are –
• Preventative care for cats and dogs

• Pet parent education (about illness, symptoms and signs to look out for)

• Support pet parents by providing free health check coupons

The main topic of discussion of the event was – vaccination and deworming of cats/kittens and dogs/pups. The session started with basic knowledge of puppy and kitten healthcare. Dr Umesh guided pet parents that reading your pet’s body language is crucial. He also added that picking up healthy pups is really important.Pups go through transformation from a young age. Then we moved on to kitten healthcare. And some important points that Dr Umesh touched upon included –

• Kittens’ social behaviour growth starts a little later than pups.

• Learn their body language to know your pet well.

• Kittens need a lot of sleep as it is important for their growth and development. Do not disturb them while sleeping. If your pet doesn’t get proper sleep it may result in anxiety and behavioral issues.

• Physical health and mental health balance should be maintained for both dogs and cats to ensure their complete wellness.

Dr Vishal Dangle
The good thing about the session was that there were a lot of questions answered. Pet parents were asked to submit their queries and the vet answered them in detail to help pet parents. Some of the questions asked by Dr Vishal Dangle, Scientific Communication Specialist at Royal Canin and who hosted the event were –

What are the different types of worms affecting pets?
Hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, and whipworms are the most common type of worms. In India heartworms aren’t popular. Hookworms are really difficult to find out. Check the rectum of your pet as you might find worms hanging from there. You can also find live worms in the feces, so be really careful to check it. Consult your vet at the earliest for proper diagnosis and treatment.

What is the schedule of deworming in kittens and puppies?
Dr Umesh recommended that one should start deworming their pets both cats and dogs at 3 weeks of age. And then deworming interval should be in 2-3-4 months for the first six months. The interval depends upon the animal’s overall health and place they are at (whether they are living at a breeders center with other pets, or have been adopted and stay at home).

Dr Umesh also said that pet parents should consult the vet to know which medicine is best for your pet, especially during pregnancy. Worms are transmissible to humans, so be sure to wash your hands often and maintain proper hygienic conditions.

Do we need to change the deworming medicine every time?
Stool examination is best to know what kind of worms your pet has. You can change the medicine after consulting your vet, but it doesn’t make much of difference.

What is the ideal gap between deworming and vaccination?
In young puppies 5–7 days gap is important between deworming and vaccination so that body doesn’t go through great stress and gets time to recover after deworming.

As the session progressed, Dr Umesh shared more about the deadly pathogens against whichimmunization and vaccination are recommended. The common ones in dogs are – canine distemper virus, canine parvovirus, canine adenovirus (which causes upper respiratory tract infections), leptospirosis and rabies. Rabies and leptospirosis are highly zoonotic – transmissible from animals to humans.

The most common feline infections that were discussed in the session were – feline panleukopenia, feline rhinotracheitis, feline callicivirus, feline chiamydia, feline bordetella, feline leukemia virus, and rabies.

It was an informative and interactive session that gave pet parents lots of insights into pet healthcare and wellness!

Royal Canin, a leader in health through nutrition, has an ambition to be a business that generates value not only for pets but also for people and the planet. Thus, it is evolving the way it is doing business to generate positive benefits for its entire ecosystem. For the past five years, the company has been following a management concept called the ‘Economics of Mutuality’ (EoM) with the goal of delivering a balanced, more mutual form of capitalism that creates value for its stakeholders in a holistic way.

TYPTTV is one such campaign launched to raise awareness among pet owners on the importance of taking pets to the vet and to give them the tools to calm their animal before a vet trip. Royal Canin also helps vet clinics to adapt to pet friendly clinics in order to make their visit more comfortable.

This is an example of how focusing on the trust bond between Royal Canin and Vets as well as the relationship between vets and pet owners helps us to have a stronger ecosystem and to deliver both purpose and performance.