Episode 4 Season 7: Probiotics, Martian Soil, and a Dog Eats 44 Foreign Objects

Hello science enthusiasts . I'm Jason Zukoski . And I'm Chris Zukoski , we're the pet parents of Bunsen , beaker , bernoulli and Ginger .

The science animals on social media .

If you love science .

And you love pets .

You've come to the right spot , so put on your safety glasses and hold on to your tail . This is the Science Podcast . Hi and welcome back to the Science Podcast . We hope you're happy and healthy out there . This is episode four of season seven . Here on the farm we have had some balmy temperatures , warm like shorts weather .

You love sugar , you love it .

Okay , okay , you got me . I love I have a sweet tooth , for sure .

You do . You really like sugar All the treats and at Christmas time your family does baking .

It's deadly .

It's deadly . It is deadly . Yeah , I always try and avoid the sugary cookies and all the snacks , but then once I start having one , then I just can't stop .

Yeah , there's some sweets I like and some sweets I don't . But I do have a sweet tooth for sure I like . I don't know . I guess my family that was big . We had lots of treats and sweets Not necessarily good for your health or for your weight . So this news item that we're looking at is a bit of a commentary on probiotics .

I don't know if that's true , because they've done a lot of studies in mice which suggest a link between gut bacteria and sugar consumption , which suggest a link between gut bacteria and sugar consumption . Mice physiology is not the same as human physiology , so gut health in mice is quite different than gut health in humans .

So if it's good for the mouse , is it good for the human ? Here we move to nature , microbiology and a study from China that identified a bacteria and molecule affecting sugar preference . The bacteria was a bacterioid Volgatus . And a study from China that identified a bacteria and molecule affecting sugar preference .

So , interestingly , the vitamin B5 , and I don't want to say the name incorrectly , but I'm going to try pantothenate that stimulates the GLP-1 production . Now , if you're familiar with the GLP-1 , that is , it gained a lot of attention recently because drugs like Ozempic mimic its effect , which controls the blood sugar and weight .

So those things like Ozempic , they mimic that GLP-1 , which , in this pathway , reduces your craving for sugar . Am I getting that right ?

Yeah , so it stabilizes your blood sugar , which affects your cravings for that sugar .

That sugar and in the mice model , the vitamin B5 stimulated GLP-1 . Okay , so this seems really rosy , but we have to put our skeptical hats on . There's a couple limits to just deciding to take this bacteria every day so it stimulates the GLP-1 in your body . This only reduced sugar cravings in mice lacking that receptor , meaning it might not work .

That's right . But then , additionally , companies are not required to test probiotics specifically in humans before marketing them , to test probiotics specifically in humans before marketing them , so that it's an untested field where they can make claims because they're not regulated by the FDA .

So they can allude to things that it does reduce sugar cravings , but they can't say it treats obesity , for example .

Exactly so it's a loophole . And evidence supporting their claims often comes from animal studies which don't necessarily reflect what would happen in a human . So it's a bit of a circle , right .

So the conclusion I think is perhaps with regulation of your appetite for sugar is probiotics might be a little overhyped . Remember , many probiotic products don't even contain the bacteria we're talking about . And if they do help , your individual responses will probably vary quite a bit based on your own biology . So keep your skeptical hat on .

But you can still enjoy yogurt , because calcium is good for your bones .

Yeah , that's right . Okay , that's our first science article for this week In science news round two . Chris , let's talk about Mars .

Sailor Moon , sailor Mars . Every time I think about Mars , every time I think about mars , every time I think about it , I think about sailor moon , sailor mars , sailor mercury yeah yeah I just think of the martian movie yeah , we were in a session about the artemis yeah and the presenter loves space , lives and breathes space and is so excited about mars .

So where this the tie-in is with our study . I always love covering space stuff . I love space too . I love Mars . Mars is really cool . Well , the conclusion from the study is that Mars's red color may not be from what we thought , and ancient Mars is thought to be warm , or warmer and wet . Yeah , and the chemistry may prove it wasn't warmer .

So there's actually two new studies that explore Mars' past and its interaction with liquid water . In these studies , scientists have identified a possible ancient beach in Mars' northern hemisphere ancient beach in Mars's northern hemisphere as well as a water-containing mineral , which you alluded to , but it's called ferrihydrite . That may explain the planet's red hue .

So there's always been a debate , as long as I can remember , that Mars was cold and dry or warm and wet , and these studies that we're talking about was that early Mars was wet , not dry , and probably really cold . So this may help settle that debate .

Do you think it would have been colder than the North Sea ?

Oh , I don't know . I've swam in the Pacific Ocean off of Vancouver Island . That's chilly . Now there's some other things that they were able to rule out , obviously because when you find stuff like this , you have to debate what it could be .

The scientists definitely considered alternative explanations for that sloped feature that they found , and one of those would have been windblown sand dunes , but the shape doesn't match the Martian dunes that they can already see . They also thought maybe it could be river deposits , but that's unlikely given the sediment distribution .

Now , if you're somebody who loves thinking about life outside of Earth , there are huge implications here for the habibility of Mars . In the past , the site was a shoreline and Mars did have a lot of water . This is the perfect location for life to develop , because on Earth the earliest life forms developed along our shorelines .

That is very exciting .

Now this leads us into the second part , which is the debate on what makes Mars red . I have actually taught kids wrong , if this turns out to be true , because I taught kids the reason that Mars is red . It comes from hematite , which is an iron oxide that doesn't contain water , and the hematite doesn't match the light absorption properties of Martian dust .

So a team of scientists conducted light absorption and reflection tests on minerals and compared that to the Martian dust samples , and they actually discovered that a mixture of fairy hydrate and basalt best matched Mars' surface color . So fairy hydrate is a water-containing iron oxide and basalt is a volcanic rock .

So all of this fairy hydrate suggests cold , wet conditions on ancient Mars . Unlike hematite , fairy hydrate requires water to form . This suggests that Mars had liquid water when its red surface formed . Very exciting . And in order to stabilize fairy hydrate on Mars like what we see today , ancient Mars had to be cold and acidic .

So the bigger picture . Combining the two studies , we have a new vision of early Mars . Mars had large bodies of liquid water , you know what , potentially even seas or oceans , and the planet experienced a cold to very cold climate .

That's cool . I feel bad because I did literally this year . It's in whatever like what we've known why Mars is red . I literally told the kids this year it was hematite .

That's okay . You can just go back and say you know what A new scientific discovery may have proved me wrong .

We're always learning more about space , and that's what makes space so exciting . That's science news for this week weekend . Pet science and pet news . Oh man , we think Bernoulli's bad , but there's another dog out there that is 44 times worse , chris .

Bernoulli eats everything non-edible . That's not true . We are very diligent and we watch him like a hawk . But his latest is picking up hangers off the floor . And we have plastic hangers and I'm going to be honest with everybody , I can't actually buy these hangers anymore . There is nowhere on the planet that has the hangers I like .

He takes them out of the laundry basket , but it doesn't matter , we put something away from him .

We baby proof and he yoinks it out I don't know he's adam came home with a bag of socks .

I don't know what he was doing with those socks like a big bag of socks and I got busy this morning and brunelli shredded the socks into the bag . He shredded the bag and there were socks everywhere he loves plastic , I don't know I know , and we got tagged this . This is why we're doing this is because this literally happened today .

Jason . The seven month old bernice mountain dog named luna actually had quite a few foreign objects , dozens of foreign objects , leading to the emergency operation to have them out it wasn't 44 socks , it was 24 socks and a whole other bunch of other crap .

I'm just super glad she survived . So why would this maybe be pet science or pet news ? There are symptoms that your dog will have if they have blockages or they're full of foreign objects .

Owners actually noticed the symptoms , which prompted them to seek emergency care . What they noticed was frequent vomiting , luna having a firm , swollen , distended abdomen or stomach , and she was in discomfort and distress .

Yeah , it's similar to bloat , which makes it really scary . They might be very tired or pacing and full of discomfort . If you touch their belly they could be in pain . They might have a weird hunched posture or reluctance to move . If it gets serious , they'll die right , they'll go into shock and they'll die .

So do you want to know what was in Luna's stomach ?

Go ahead , it's wild 24 socks .

Yeah , a small onesie which is a baby shirt , like baby clothing . She had a hair scrunchie , two hair ties , a shoe insert like a Dr Scholl's shoe insert and 15 miscellaneous cloth pieces . Wow .

What were they ?

They were miscellaneous cloth pieces . I'm not sure they might have been pre-chewed up socks that were in varying stages of digestion .

Yeah .

The x-rays taken before the surgery revealed a mass of these objects inside Luna's stomach .

Oh my God . Now , I did mention Luna survived . She underwent two huge surgical procedures , like if Bunsen did have bloat . That's a serious medical procedure . I think they gave us like a coin flip if you would survive , right , if it was bloat , it's like a 50-50 thing . It wasn't good , no . So Luna survived , thank goodness .

Now , jason , I didn't tell you about a co-worker's dog . So she has a puppy and he's just over a year and she has two kids , but her daughter is in dance , which you wear like these little clothes , like the dance and skating . So very similar , right , the outfits are minimal .

And then she wears leotard onesies .

Yeah , leotard

Oh man , three years was it probably three years ago , two or three years ago , we more than that . Three years ago , when Beaker was little , we would get from there . There's like a local company that made raw food that we would get for Bunsen and Beaker , and they had cow knuckles . You remember those that Bunsen loved to chew .

Oh yeah .

And we thought nothing of it and he ate a whole cow knuckle . We definitely supervised bunsen . And in the blink of an eye you get busy with something and 10 minutes , 20 minutes go by and he ate the whole thing and that caused a blockage .

So uncomfortable .

He was really uncomfortable and he went . I took him out to poop . I was there , that chunk of bone the size of a a golf ball shot out of his butt like a rocket . Yeah , like you , like you like a potato cannon it wasn't smelly , but there was a bunch of other stuff that came out right after that that was a little backed up . Hippo spray , yeah .

Hippos poop and they turn their tail and it's looked like a windmill of poop .

Yeah , but he didn't need surgery and , as the vet thought , bunsen did pass it . It was a scary 12 hours because he was really uncomfortable and puking and couldn't poop . But there you go , there you go . There's definitely some tips . So if you're listening and you've got a little dog , or you got a dog , what can we do to make sure this doesn't happen ?

There are things that you can do to prevent this . Keep your small objects like socks and hair ties and other non-food items out of reach . Supervise their chewing habits and provide safe , appropriate chew toys .

Yeah , and their chewing habits , and provide safe , appropriate chew toys . And then monitor what . No more cow knuckles for Bunsen .

Yeah , we didn't do any more . Yeah , no , there were absolutely no more cow knuckles for Bunsen . And then this is what we need to do with Bernoulli is monitor Bernoulli and other dogs that are prone to eating non-food items , which is a condition known as pica . So I don't know if he has that or if he condition known as pica .

So I don't know if he has that or if he just likes plastic pica , not sure he did puke the other day and there was a couple bits of plastic in the puke .

Yeah .

But most of it was like crap . He ate outside the grass and dirt , so it was on him really , but beakers puked before by eating grass .

But you know what Luna's case is a reminder that intestinal blockages can happen suddenly and require urgent medical attention . If a dog shows any symptoms , early intervention is important .

He could get some out , but not all .

Some but not all . And then it shot out of his butt like a potato cannon .

I'll leave this up to our wonderful listeners . Chris , you can Google image this , and it's in the story of the vet posing with all 44 items on a table after they remove them from the dog . It's , you know how police pose with when they've busted criminals with the drugs and the guns .

I don't know .

Oh me , yeah , that's what it's like , so you can Google image that yourself .

Yes , self , yes , but what you can't Google image is my colleague's dog , leotard tight , because he took that tight out of the dog's butt and then it smelled so bad he's usually I like to examine it , but this is so vile it's going away .

That's pet news for this week . That's it for this week show . Thanks for coming back week after week to listen to us . And a special shout out to the top dogs coming back week after week to listen to us . And a special shout out to the Top Dogs , our top tier of the Paw Pack , our Patreon-like community . We'd love your support .

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