Page 4 September 28, 2017
Los Angeles Rams Proving They Are Deserving of Fandom
By Adam Serrao
Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco was
basically empty last Thursday night. That
may have been because there was a matchup
going on between the San Francisco 49ers
and the Los Angeles Rams. Coming into this
season, those two teams were pegged to be
two of the least interesting squads in the entire
National Football League. After everyone was
done complaining about yet another boring
primetime game put on by the NFL, though,
something amazing happened. A total of 80
points were put up on the scoreboard in a
41-39 victory for the Rams in a contest that
has the opportunity to go down as the most
exciting game played all season long.
When 49ers quarterback Brian Hoyer threw
an interception and Rams running back Todd
Gurley took the ball into the end zone for a
touchdown all within the first 12 seconds of
last week’s divisional matchup, there was a
definite feeling that the crowd on hand--no
matter how small it may have been--was in
for something special. Even if there wasn’t
much defense on display, the combined 80
points scored between the two teams set a new
record for most ever scored on a Thursday
night game. Though San Francisco lost the
game, fans of the team may just take solace
in the fact that it scored its first offensive
touchdown of the year--and for once this
a great, high-scoring win. By season’s end,
however, the Rams will still have to deal
with the Arizona Cardinals and the Seattle
Seahawks--two teams that both look pretty
horrible right now. The good news is that
Jared Goff is finally in a position to succeed
and with his new-look, explosive offense,
the Rams just might be an exciting team to
watch once again. Whether football fans in
Los Angeles finally come out of their dark,
dreary holes to watch a game at the Coliseum
that doesn’t feature the USC Trojans is another
question altogether.
For now, the Los Angeles Rams are on
top of the world and on top of their division
with a 2-1 record. The offense looked good
and with Aaron Donald back, the defense
is slowly coming back together. There is
actually a reason to watch games played by
a Los Angeles team in the NFL once again.
Whether this momentary success is short-lived
because of who their opponent happened to be
or becomes prolonged is something that only
time will tell. Next up for the Rams is a game
on the road against the Dallas Cowboys that
once again everyone expects Los Angeles to
lose. If Los Angeles can somehow pull out a
win in “Jerry World,” then it might just be safe
to say that this Rams team is the real deal. •
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com
season, actually looked exciting on the
football field.
The real story of the night did not revolve
around the 49ers, though. Jared Goff, the ex-
Cal graduate and first overall pick in the 2016
draft, came back home to Northern California
and put on a show. In this one game alone,
Goff showed why he was so highly touted
coming out of college as he threw for 292
yards through the air and three touchdowns
while only throwing six incomplete passes
(22 of 28) throughout the course of the night.
With their 41-point output last week, the
Rams already have more 40-point games this
season than they had in Jeff Fisher’s entire
tenure as head coach of the team.
“That was scary,” the young 22-year-old
Goff explained after the game. “But man, it
was fun. There’s something about being back
in the Bay Area that gets me going. Honestly,
it felt like we were in Berkeley scoring all
the time and needing to score some more.
They kept coming at us. I thought I was
gonna have to go out and score one more
time to win it.” Goff’s impressive effort was
good enough, but may not have stood out as
much if it weren’t for Gurley, who looks to
have shaken off his shaky output from one
season ago and has finally regained elite
running back status.
Gurley finished the game with 28 carries for
113 yards and two touchdowns on the ground,
but also caught five balls for another 36 yards
and a touchdown. The running back out of
Georgia already has as many touchdowns this
year (six) as he had throughout the entire
2016 regular season. An elite running back in
the backfield certainly does its part to open
up an offense that looked horrific just one
season ago. Elite wide receivers never hurt
that cause either--and although there have
been some questions in the past about the
health of Sammy Watkins and the ability of
Robert Woods, both looked legitimate last
week against the 49ers. Watkins finished
the night with six catches for 106 yards and
two touchdowns while Woods hauled in six
catches for 108 yards.
“Since I’ve been here, we haven’t been able
to do that,” Gurley said of the production
of his new-look offense. “Hopefully we can
keep putting points together, keep working
together and keep learning from this.” If
they do, they can expect to stay in first place
in the NFC West where the team currently
resides. But it wasn’t all terrific play for Los
Angeles. The team still gave up 39 points on
the night and almost blew a 15-point lead
that would have lost them the game against
a team that literally fell to the worst record
in all of football.
There is always time for optimism after
Prevention, Testing Key in
Addressing Heartworm Disease
By Dr. Greg Perrault
A Long Beach dog recently tested positive
for heartworm disease. The dog had been on
and off heartworm prevention medicine over
the last couple of years. His last heartworm
test was about two years ago and was negative
at that time. This means the dog was infected
sometime between that negative test and six
months ago. The earliest a test will detect
the disease is approximately six months after
the initial infection. We suspect this dog was
infected during our extremely rainy winter this
year. Heartworm disease is a serious parasite
infection caused by small worms that migrate
through the body, molting and growing, until
they end up in the heart and lung of dogs,
cats, ferrets and several other mammals. It
can cause serious pulmonary and cardiac
damage and is often fatal if not treated in
time. Animals contract the parasite from an
infected mosquito. Mosquitos reproduce and
thrive in standing water.
As is often the case with recent infections,
this dog did not exhibit any abnormal signs at
all. The testing was part of a routine annual
exam. According to the American Heartworm
Society, annual testing is necessary--even
when dogs are on heartworm prevention yearround
to ensure that the prevention program
is working. Heartworm medications are highly
effective, but dogs can still become infected.
If you miss just one dose of a monthly
medication—or give it late—it can leave
your dog unprotected. Even if you give the
medication as recommended, your dog may
spit out or vomit a heartworm pill—or rub off
a topical medication. Heartworm preventives
are highly effective, but not 100 percent
effective. If you don’t get your dog tested,
you won’t know your dog needs treatment.
Left untreated, a heartworm infected dog
can eventually show signs such as coughing,
weight loss, swollen belly and heart failure--
and will often die from the disease. Cats can
have asthma-like signs, periodic vomiting and
anorexia, and weight loss, but can appear
healthy just before sudden collapse and death.
Prevention of the disease and treatment
for the disease require different medicines.
Monthly prevention medication will kill
the immature parasite in the larval stage
as it enters the dog or cat’s body from a
mosquito bite. However, once the larva
begins to molt into the larger adult worm,
which is thought to occur as early as 50
days from infection, prevention medicine
is ineffective at killing the worm. In dogs,
the mature worms are killed with a series
of injections. Depending on the health of
the dog and the degree of damage in the
heart and lungs, the treatment protocol may
involve hospitalization during the injections.
A month or more of daily antibiotics is also
prescribed to kill a bacteria that is symbiotic
with the worm. During this treatment some
dogs can experience complications from the
dead worms and may suddenly die.
Unfortunately for cats, heartworm testing
is very inaccurate and results are frequently
false negative. This makes reporting the
incidence of the disease in cats very difficult.
Also, there is no effective and safe way to
kill the adult worm in a cat. There is only
monthly preventive medication. While there
are cats that will survive the infection and
eventually death of the parasitic worm in
the heart and lung, it’s not a good gamble
to skip the safe and effective preventive
medications.
In the past, Southern California enjoyed very
few mosquitos and the diseases associated
with them. However, the mosquito population
has boomed in the last decade, and as a
result we are seeing more cases of heartworm
disease in pets and West Nile in people.
Please get your dog tested every year
and keep your dogs and cats on preventive
medicine every month year-round. •
Dr. Greg Perrault owns and operates Cats
& Dogs Animal Hospital in Long Beach.