This Newsletter will include details on a revolutionary dry bath delivery system, notes about upcoming Trade shows, the "Whitford Report," a contribution from Lou Gotthelf, Y2K predictions by a special guest, Gene Dachshund and more. Please look at the web site for previous Newsletters covering such subjects as Malassezia and Bacterial Otitis and Pyoderma, "Gemish" formulations and Protocols. I would like to encourage the DermaPet using community to write me about their experiences in derm, with questions on cases or about this Newsletter. If useful and permitted by the author then I might pass it on to the Newsletter list which includes 5,000 vets (and growing) via direct email, another 7,000 posted indirectly and countless more who read it reposted in newsgroups or lists. I also encourage you to visit http://www.dermapet.com or call 800-755-4738 for DIRECT sales. We also sell via select distributors.

DermaPet IS the largest veterinary dermatologic company in virtual reality.

Meetings.

DermaPet will be at the Orlando for the NAVC in Booth 714 in the Main Exhibit Hall, Penn (booth 52), TVMA (Booth 0311), Ottawa, Las Vegas for the WVC at Booth 222 and Ohio (Booth 831) meetings before February. Come visit us. I will be doing a seminar at the TVMA on Ears and an ear wet lab. And, you can believe MY pocket studies!. Speaking of pocket students, Alan Garett will again be "entertaining" at our booth in Las Vegas and Ft. Worth (TVMA)

MalAcetic Wet Wipes/Dry Bath indications

This product is so new it is not even on our web site yet. We HOPE it will be available, for delivery by 1/13/00.
EVERY pet owner should have a container on hand for a "needy" moment. Call for pre-release Special prices.

1. To SPOT CLEANSE/DEODORIZE any pet. Feet, face, tails, anals, skin folds, ears and around eyes come to mind quickly. Muddy feet on a cold day, hound dogs that like to roll in whatever, long haired dogs whose feces almost makes it to the ground but still gets a little stuck in the hair, eye stains or just to clean up and smell good before the company comes over NO LONGER REQUIRES A WET PET.

2. MALASSEZIA/PYODERMA spot treatment. Hot spots, necks, tails, intertriginous and other focal areas.

3. ANAL SAC expression. This eye opening, unpleasant experience is about to get mildly less disgusting. Instructions are placed on all bottles for clients to learn to do this in the comfort of their own home. The end point is a clean sac with a deodorized "wet wipe" and no lingering adverse odor.

4. Medicated baths just became easier. I like to recommend my owners to bathe their pets 3-7 times weekly as part of my treatment protocol for Malassezia, Pyoderma, Hot spots and keratinization disorders. Realistically, compliance has not been good. Wet wipes should afford an easier application of topical therapy.

5. EAR CLEANSING. This formula is designed to mimic the Ear/Skin Cleanser which is our most popular product. While it still must be used for flushing, the Wet Wipes can make cleaning the pinna and vertical canal easier.

6. CATS. Any time you have to bathe a cat, it's war and somebody always gets wounded. Now clean them with a wipe. Stud Tail, chin acne, rodent or eosinophilic ulcers or granulomas, urine and fecal mishaps come to mind as being easier to handle.

Lou Gotthelf (Louegee@aol.com), Montgomery, AL author of Small Animal Ear Diseases: An Illustrated Guide. W.B. Saunders, Co. Ready January, 2000 writes in a 12/14/99 post on VIN about Ototoxicity when asked about what product to use when facing a ruptured tympanum: (Lou will be at the NAVC, WVC and TVMA for those of you who want to get him to sign his new book and/or ask him questions. Of particularly interest is his Pseudomonas Otitis lecture at the TVMA.)

The question of OTOTOXICITY is a complex one. In the true sense, ototoxicity means damage to the nervous structures: cochlea and semicircular canals. While this can happen, it often does not. It is difficult to assess the amount of damage to these tissues required to show clinical signs. The more important consideration with middle ear disease resolution is which compounds seem to further aggravate the lining of the middle ear causing significant amounts of mucus to be secreted by the goblet cells lining the bulla. This is what I call the pro-inflammatory properties. If the eardrum is to re heal, then the mucus production must not be aggravated. I have not observed this pro-inflammatory property with the acetic/boric combination.

Once an eardrum heals, there may be sequestration of infectious organisms within the bulla. Lynette Cole's excellent observations (JAVMA Feb 15, 1998) on dogs with chronic otitis externa and intact eardrums that also had middle ear disease should alert us to the fact that when the eardrum heals that does not mean stop treatment.

Product News -- New Products:

Order NOW to avoid a small annual Price Increase

MalAcetic Wet Wipes/Dry Bath will be available for $6.99 each(bottle of 24 4X9 inch towelettes) in cases of 12. This is a totally new delivery system for the vet market which will be good for dry baths, intertriginous dermatitis, hot spots, ears, chins, dreaded Anal Sacs, use your imagination! Special: Up to 1/15 the price is $5.99 each. 1/15-3/1 they will be $6.49.

We now have the 16 ounce size of TrizEDTA for just $19.99 which actually has no label restriction for shelf life (once reconstituted). Since they are in crystalline form -- they need distilled water to be added, we have been shipping them all over the world.

16 ounce MalAcetic Conditioner with the popular pressure sprayer is available for $10.99 each in cases of 6.

Price Increase: Effective Y2K, the Ear/Skin Cleanser will be $4.79 (from $4.49) for the 4 ounce and $11.79 (from $10.99) for the 16 ounce.

We are about to enter a New Millenium. This may be the last Newsletter you read on your computer before it crashes into the Y2K black hole which is why I am sending it a little early. Or, as most suspect, there will be mild inconveniences that we will share with our grandchildren when we recall the turn of the millenium. With this significant date change that surely will challenge us all as we date documents for the next few months, comes the advent of a new and convenient delivery system, the MalAcetic Wet Wipe/Dry Bath. I will discuss this more later under New Products.

Not mentioned in the last Newsletter nor forgotten, we also enjoyed being with Marv Samuelson ("Sam") and his wife Rubye of Kansas and Arizona at the George Muller meeting in Kona. Many of you who knew Sam from K State, Texas A&M and who go to derm meetings can now visit him at the VARL booth at most meetings. I expect when reading this he will be studying the game of golf.

Gene Dachshund's predictions for the 21st Century

VetSmart and VCA (for those of you outside the US, these are currently US based "conglomerates") are joined in the Vet practice business by Nordstrum, Trader Joe's, Aetna and Ameritrade. Veterinarian owned practices go the way of Mom & Pop grocery stores. Vet schools require an MBA as an application requirement. VIN graduates over 20,000 veterinarians in the first year after it becomes accredited as a vet school. Pfizer and Bayer merge their technology with an insurance company selling one product that takes care of everything -- vaccinations, worming, heartworm, fleas -- all sold on the first visit for a nominal fee based on a 10% of the pet owners adjusted net income on their 1040 tax form. Dogs and cats, finally given equal rights, are allowed to vote. All other distributors and drug companies go out of business except DermaPet whose sales of MalAcetic products after gaining universal acceptance in the human market as well, continue to grow exponentially; the PetS'l'ami is the diet of choice for people as well as pets. Veterinary Behaviorists become accredited to treat humans as well as pets and are accepted by the International Social Insurance plan.

Pocket Studies:

These are my pet peeves and they occur with regularity at meetings and will occur in Orlando and Las Vegas. Educated doctors, such as yourself, will sometimes have their judgment challenged by speakers who profess studies that will never face the scrutiny of publication. Some of these speakers may have economic or other motivations yet declare "at the U of ? vet clinic, we have find this product to be most effective against Malassezia or Pseudomonas", etc. No further or incomplete details are mentioned. For example, they may be able to site a # of patients and show great pictures but not other criteria necessary to complete a study like the one by Gotthelf and Young on New Treatment of MalasseziaŠ. Key points: Be inquisitive, seek commercial relationships; remember new company's like DermaPet are not likely to have relationships like this; ask specific questions. Remember the podium is not the pulpit.

The "Whitford Report"

Ron Whitford rwconsulting@sprynet.com will be lecturing at the TVMA and Arkansas VMA meetings.

ARE YOU READY FOR Y2K2? Everyone is concerned about Y2K but DVMs need to be more concerned about 2002. Why? Several reasons:

1. Effective flea control will be OTC by then.

2. Heartworm preventive will probably be OTC by then from one source or another.

3. That is the year the AVMA will probably pass vaccination guidelines. Have you read the vaccine study reports? It is imperative that every practitioner do so. Did you know:
   1. Virus challenge study -- It is true the vaccinates did not get sick with panleukopenia -- but neither did the controls!

   2. Virus challenge study -- The controls did break with Rhino and Calici -- but so did the vaccinates, just to a "lesser degree" of illness.

THE LESSON TO BE LEARNED: Prepare for the changes that will drastically change your revenue sources by concentrating on the marketing of services rather than products. (Ed note: DermaPet, being a product oriented company, is sure Ron makes at least ONE notable exception.)

Those of you who know of or are students and want to learn more about possibly being a student representative at your school please contact Jessica Melman, National Student representative, UP "03, at melman@dolphin.upenn.edu. As students you should be aware that her response, in terms of time, will vary directly with how buried she is in work.

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