List of topics (in alphabetical order):
anal glands, anesthesia, arthritis (dose of glucosamine/chondroitin given), back pain, ball chasers, bathing, behavioral issues, biting dogs, bladder stones (urinary), cancer, cataracts, collapsing trachea, constipation, coughing, dentals, diabetes, diarrhea, diet, ear issues, excessive water intake, excitement, urination, euthanasia, eye issues, fighting between dogs in the same household, fleas and ticks, flaky skin, heart disease, heart worms, hypothyroidism, intestinal parasites, itchy dogs, dogs who jump off of beds, kennel cough, kidney disease, lameness/injuries, liver, loss of appetite, lumps and bumps on the skin, mange, overweight dogs, pancreatitis, Parvo, picking the right dog, picking the right veterinarian, poop eating dogs, potty training, puppies, radiology (x-rays) vs. ultrasound, reverse sneezing, sedation (over the counter), sedation, seizures, skin issues, spaying and neutering, teeth, urine leaking, underweight dogs, vaccinations, vomiting, worms (see the information found under the titles “intestinal parasites” and “puppies”)

(Note: I will soon have these topics finished and I’m also planning to have videos discussing each of these topics. There will also be a page devoted to issues regarding cats. Please be patient. Thanks so much, Dr. Clark.)

Important Issues Concerning Dogs:

ANAL GLANDS (Scooting)

Anal glands are located at either side of the anus at 4 and 8 o-clock. There’s a duct from each of these glands that travels up to the anal tissue and, in the smaller breeds, the ducts can get blocked up. If it gets infected, the gland will sometimes rupture to the outside. Most of the times, the dogs will show that it’s bothering them by scooting or dragging their butts on the floor. It’s not that hard to squeeze these glands out if owners want to try, especially when it’s time for a dog’s bath. The trick is to have someone hold the front of the dog and it’s important to pull the tail forward towards the head as this will stretch out the skin over the anal area so you can feel the glands better. I like to use tissue paper or Kleenex as it’s soft and I can feel the glands through the Kleenex. When the skin is pulled tight over the anus, you’ll be able to fell a half-marble shape at 4 and 8 o’clock. The trick is to squeeze the glands together and the pressure will force the fluid up through the ducts. The fluid is foul smelling unfortunately so be prepared for a skunk-like smell. Luckily, there’s nothing in the area of the anal glands that you can hurt when you squeeze the anal glands together (so don’t be worried or afraid.)

To be complete, scooting can be caused by two other things other than the anal glands. One common cause of scooting is when a dog has a soft stool. A soft, sticky stool will make a dog feel like it needs to strain a bit after it’s finished pooping and it will often scoot afterwards as it may feel the need to wipe its rear end. The anal area may actually even burn a bit after a soft stool. The other reason dogs scoot is because they’re itchy and scooting is just another way to scratch their rear ends.

ANESTHESIA (things you need to know in order to protect your pet)

It is extremely worrisome that people have no idea what goes on when their pet is put under anesthesia at certain veterinary clinics. I wouldn’t have known myself if I hadn’t done so much relief work in the past several years. Having had my own veterinary clinic in Camarillo, California for 17 years, I’d always assumed that everyone did anesthesia in the same way I did. What I discovered when I became a relief veterinarian in Nashville, Tn. shocked me. I now warn people that they need to ask about 3 things before their pet goes under anesthesia.

First: You will want to spend a little extra money so that your veterinarian can put in an IV catheter in your pet’s leg. This is an important safety guideline because, if your pet starts to have problems while under anesthesia, you don’t want to have the vet frantically trying to hit a vein so that he can save your animal.

Secondly: You want to make sure your animal has GAS anesthesia. In this day and age, it’s simply irresponsible for veterinarians to still be using INJECTABLE anesthesia: it’s simply not safe. One thing that everyone knows when it comes to anesthesia is that there are always going to be sensitive individuals and resistant individuals. With sensitive individuals, it takes very little anesthesia to keep the individual under. If you give an animal an injection into the muscle based on the pet’s weight, it’s going to be too much anesthesia for a sensitive animal. That’s why you want to insist on GAS anesthesia for your pet.

With gas anesthesia, the vet gives your pet a small amount of sedation via their IV catheter (just enough to relax them so an endotracheal tube can be passed) then the gas anesthesia will keep your animal under with only a slight turning of the gas anesthesia dial up or down. If an animal starts getting a little too deep, the technician simply lowers the dial. With the newer gases used these days (such as Isoflurane), the animal responds very quickly. That’s why gas anesthesia is so safe because the technician has complete control over how much anesthesia an animal is getting throughout a procedure. It’s very important to have someone monitoring the animal while under gas anesthesia (or any anesthesia for that matter and I’ll get to that with number three in a moment.

Unfortunately, with injectable anesthesia, there’s no way to control, retrieve or eliminate the anesthesia once it’s been injected into the muscle of a dog or cat. The ONLY reason veterinarians are using injectable anesthesia these days is because it takes less work to monitor the animal as one isn’t dealing with a machine as one is with gas anesthesia. Many veterinarians try to line up their procedures for maximum efficiency by starting to put down one animal with an intramuscular injection while they are finishing up with another animal that’s under anesthesia. I’ve seen spay and neuter clinics where it’s like an assembly line. The problem with that is that the animals are frequently not monitored that closely. I was at one clinic observing to see if I might want to work at the clinic and I was horrified. The veterinarian was in the surgery chamber alone with the animal without anyone to monitor the pet while it was under. It’s very important to monitor the respiration rate, heart rate, blink response, pain response and color of the mucous membranes in the mouth to make sure the pet’s color is staying pink. While the veterinarian is operating on the pet alone in one room, the technician is putting the next pet under anesthesia with an injection in the pet’s muscle. I saw one cat that wasn’t breathing well and had to point it out to the technician because she was talking on her cell phone. The care given to pets going under anesthesia at many clinics is very minimal at times and frequently dangerous for the animal. It shouldn’t be that way if an animal is given all the attention and care that it should be getting while being under anesthesia. Owners have no idea that this is going on because so many veterinarians act as if it’s no big deal at all for an animal to go under anesthesia for dentals and other procedures. In truth, anesthesia is extremely dangerous if proper care and attention is not used by the veterinarian and staff.

I’ve encountered many clinics in which there were problems when injectable anesthesia was used but one clinic in particular stands out as one of the worst. This particular clinic was a large, modern, and fairly new facility that would inspire one to think that modern practices would be used. When the owner of the clinic called me to inquire if I was available to do some relief work, he asked me if I did surgery. After having experienced so many problems with injectable anesthesia being used at other clinics where I’d worked, I told the owner of the clinic that I had no problem doing surgery as long as I didn’t have to use injectable anesthesia. Well, he told me that injectable anesthesia is what they used but, if I wanted to use gas anesthesia, then that wouldn’t be a problem because they did have gas anesthesia machines.

One day soon after I’d started working at the clinic, I was preparing to go into surgery to spay a dog and I noticed in the dog’s chart a form that said “DNR: Do Not Resuscitate.” I asked the technician who was helping me and who’d worked at the clinic for a long time why the clinic had the pet owners sign a DNR because, in thirty-plus years of being a veterinarian, I’d never heard of such a thing. The technician said that the DNRs had come about as a result of the problems they’d had when using  the injectable anesthesia because animals frequently were having to be resuscitated. Owners had started to get upset because the clinic charged extra whenever they had to resuscitate an animal. Owners had been told that a procedure would cost a certain amount but, when they came to get their pet, they were told the bill was higher because of the problems the pet had experienced with the anesthesia. Now, with the DNR, owners had sign a paper ahead of time attesting to whether they were willing to pay extra to have their animal resuscitated if the pet started having a problem. If the owner couldn’t afford to pay more and the pet experienced problems, the animal would simply be allowed to die. I simply couldn’t believe that any veterinarian would allow an animal to die when the veterinarian is the one who is responsible for the well being of the animal during the procedure. What kind of person could let an animal just die because of money? Worst of all, the animals wouldn’t be needing to be resuscitated if the veterinarians were using gas anesthesia (instead of injectable) and were giving the animal the proper care while it was under anesthesia.

Again, the only reason veterinarians are choosing to use injectable anesthesia over gas anesthesia because it’s cheaper and, in theory, it takes less man power to monitor an animal when injectable anesthesia is used. With gas anesthesia, a technician is needed to monitor the dials and the breathing bag and it takes a certain amount of knowledge and experience. Unbelievably, some vets use gas anesthesia without a technician present all the time and they only yell for a technician if the pet starts having a problem. That’s too late but, again, it’s all about cutting corners to make more money.

Continuing with our list of the three things an owner needs to know before their pet goes under anesthesia at any veterinary clinic is whether a “qualified” technician will be constantly monitoring their pet the entire time the animal is under anesthesia. Sadly, there are no regulations or laws that require certification of the person who is helping the veterinarian with the anesthesia. I’ve seen clinics where the technician monitoring a pet has very limited experience and knowledge and, unless a complaint is lodged against a veterinarian or a clinic, there isn’t a regulatory agency that routinely monitors the people or practices used at a veterinary clinic. Most importantly, what pet owners don’t understand is that many procedures such as dentals are performed solely by these frequently unqualified employees without the veterinarian close by. Owners need to be made aware of this so they can protect their pet by letting a veterinarian know what they expect the care of their pet to be. Once a pet dies as a result of poor care, it’s too late.

There is one way that owners can feel more confident about their pet’s care and that is to take their pet to a veterinary clinic that is AHAA accredited. AAHA accredited clinics are held to a much higher standard than clinics that aren’t AAHA accredited. To maintain an AAHA accreditation, veterinary clinics must go through a thorough and intense inspection by a regulatory consultant every three years to be certain that the clinic is using the highest of standards.

My recommendation to owners is to not allow their animals to go under anesthesia for unnecessary procedures such as the yearly dentals so many veterinary clinics are now recommending. But, if a pet has to go under anesthesia, the owner needs to make certain that the pet has an IV catheter in place, that gas anesthesia is going to be used and that a qualified technician will be monitoring the pet’s vitals (such as respiration and heart rate) the entire time the pet is under anesthesia.

ARTHRITIS

Arthritis is quite common in older dogs, especially in the large breeds of dogs because they carry around the most weight on their bodies. All of us think of arthritis as being primarily associated with the hips. What I’ve come to realize in my many years as a veterinarian is that a dog’s back (its vertebral column) is what eventually debilitates most dogs when they get older. Many dogs have extremely long backs as a part of a particular breed and these long backs inevitably cause problems for these dogs as they get older. Most owners don’t realize how much of a dog’s normal behavior causes wear and tear on a dog’s back. It’s important to keep this in mind so that we can help protect our dog’s back (and its other joints) so that it can age with less arthritis.

There are many conditions and activities that are guaranteed to wear a dog’s back out. It’s extremely hard on a dog to be overweight because the majority of excess weight a dog carries on his body is on the core of body between the neck and the tail. It’s also extremely hard on a dog’s back to have puppies, especially litter after litter. Just imagine how hard it is on a dog to carry 10-15 puppies in her abdomen, all of those puppies pulling down on the dog’s back.

It’s also extremely hard on a dog’s back if the dog is allowed to be persistently itchy at its rump area (fleas) such that the dog has to violently twist and turn in order to reach the rump area. Other activities that wear a dog’s back down over time are the repetitive jumping off of beds, porches and trucks and the acrobatics involved when a dog is constantly leaping up and cutting in the pursuit of frisbees and balls. That’s why, whenever owners are playing ball with a dog, the ball needs to be thrown far enough so it stops before the dog gets there in order to minimize the acrobatics. If a dog is chasing a frisbee, it’s important to keep the frisbee low and close to the ground so they dog doesn’t do a lot of leaping and twisting in the air.

As far as the other joints in the body, the shoulder, elbows, hips and knees are negatively impacted by all the above conditions and activities. With the decrease in popularity of pure bred dogs and the increase in popularity of mixed breeds, fewer dogs are being born with hip and elbow dysplasia. Mixed breeds are naturally healthier due to having mixed genetics, a reflection of the phenomenon called hybrid vigor. It’s been a nice change for us veterinarians who were around when hip dysplasia and other genetic issues were much more prevalent.

To help our dogs when they start to become arthritic, the first line of defense medically is to start the dog on glucosamine and chondroitin. The dose of these medications are based on the chondroitin and the dose is 7 mg/lb. So, if a dog weighs 50 pounds, the amount of chondroitin needed is 7 X 50 = 350 mg. An owner can go to Walgreens or Walmart and look for a bottle that has 350 to 500 mg of chondroitin (and whatever amount of glucosamine is paired with it) and give that combination of glucosamine and chondroitin to the dog once a day. These can also be purchased at pet stores and from the veterinarian. Some of the medications also contain omega fatty acids which can also help with arthritis.

As a dog’s arthritis progresses, there are anti-inflammatories that one can get from a veterinarian (such as Rimadyl) that can make a big difference in an older, arthritic dog.

BACK PAIN

I’m constantly telling owners that they don’t want their little dogs jumping up and down off of the bed because it’s very hard on the dog’s backs. I tell owners not to waste their money on the stairs that one can buy online and in the pet stores because dogs don’t like extending their body between steps: they prefer jumping on something where they can put their whole body on the structure (like an ottoman.) For my little short-legged dog Priscilla, I came up with a system that she loves: the first step she uses is my carry-on luggage that I’ve filled up with a blanket so it doesn’t sink in and that I’ve covered with a towel for traction. The next step she uses is a small ottoman that is wide enough for her to stand on with all four feet. She faithfully uses both of these “steps” each and every time she gets up and down off my bed and it works wonderfully to preserve her back.

Jumping off a tall bed or a tall porch is also extremely hard on a dog’s back. Though most of us have been told that it’s a dog’s hips that cause an older dog the most pain, in actuality, it’s a dog’s back that creates the most pain and weakness in older dogs. That’s why owners need to do everything they can to protect their dog’s back. In pursuit of this goal, it’s important to not let small dogs jump up and down off of the bed (even if they seem to be able to do it easily): this is even more critical when a dog has a long-back and short-legs.

To further protect a dog from hurting its back, it’s important to keep a dog from doing a lot of gymnastics whenever they’re chasing a ball or a frisbee: it’s not the running that hurts a dog, it’s the cutting and twisting and leaping that ends up getting a dog hurt. The trick is to throw the ball far enough so that it’s had a chance to stop before the dog reaches it. In the same way, owners need to keep the frisbees they throw very close to the ground. For dogs that chase toys in the house, it’s very important to have a rug in the area where the dog retrieves the toy so they don’t slip and slide.

Another way to protect our dogs backs is to not let our dogs get so itchy that they’re constantly twisting and turning in order to chew at their rear ends. It’s amazing how much this kind of behavior takes a toll on a dog’s back.

If a dog happens to have an acute episode of back pain, the first thing the dog’s going to do is to quit moving. Dogs in back pain tend to curl up in a corner, crying out and whimpering whenever they move the wrong way. Acute back pain requires cortisone, muscle relaxers and pain relievers. Yet, it’s important to not sedate a dog too much on pain relievers because we want a dog to be aware of their pain so that they don’t overdo while they’re healing. Even though a dog will feel better with medication, it’s important to keep their activity down for a few weeks to a month. It’s also vital that whatever behavior caused the dog’s back injury in the first place is remedied or changed so that the dog doesn’t keep re-injuring itself: these behaviors include jumping off of the bed without the use of an ottoman, doing a lot of wild ball chasing and constantly twisting and turning as a result of a dog being itchy.

Whenever I want to check to see if a dog’s back is tender, all I have to do is pinch the sides of a dog’s back on either side of the spinal column from the neck to the rump. What I consistently see with dogs that are having back issues is a lot of dramatic flinching right where the ribs meet the lumbar spine. This is a particularly weak area for all of us since the spinal column is rigidly locked into place by the rib cage but is flexible and movable below the rib cage. Pinching on either side of the spinal column is an easy way to discover if a dog’s back is bothering him and the flinching shows up even when a dog’s not in acute pain. A lot of dogs have back tenderness even though they may not in debilitating pain at any given moment.

BALL CHASERS (how to prevent injury)

As mentioned under back issues, ball chasing is a good way for dogs to injure their backs but one of the most common injuries to arise out of ball chasing is a torn cruciate ligament (most frequently the ACL= anterior cruciate ligament.) A torn cruciate ligament is a serious knee injury and will often require surgery. Dog’s with a torn cruciate ligament cannot put weight on the leg at all. To make matters worse, whether the dog has surgery or is confined for months while the knee heals on its own, the dog has no choice but to put all of its weight on the remaining back leg. Unfortunately, that’s why dogs frequently end up tearing the other cruciate ligament within a year or two. This is not a fun experience for either the dog or the owner. So, if your dog loves to chase balls or frisbees, throw the ball or frisbee so that it stops before the dog reaches it. That way, the dog won’t do as much cutting, leaping, twisting and turning which is what causes a dog to tear a cruciate ligament.

BATHING (It’s ok to bath a dog as often as you want!)

I constantly hear owners telling me that a vet or a groomer or someone has told them to only bath their dog once a month (or less) or the dog will end up with dry, itchy skin. This is simply not true. We humans frequently wash our hair daily and we don’t get itchy, dry skin. The ONLY requirement I have for bathing a dog is that a dog should never be more itchy after the bath. If a dog is more itchy after a bath, it either means the shampoo didn’t suit the dog or the dog wasn’t rinsed well enough. Most dogs actually feel less itchy after a bath though that only typically lasts for a day or two.

The reason so many people conclude that their dog has dry skin is because they see flaking at the rump area of the dog. When a dog is itchy, the skin responds in three ways. The first thing the skin does whenever it’s itchy is to start secreting a substance called sebum onto the skin. This is the body’s way of trying to coat the skin and protect it from whatever is irritating it. This is the same sebum that accumulates in a dog’s ears whenever the ears get inflamed or infected. Sebum is also what makes dogs with infected ears or itchy skin STINK! If someone pets a seborrheic dog, their hands are going to end up smelling like “dog” (as will anything the dog touches, i.e.-couches and carpets.) Whenever a dog with sebum on its skin is bathed, the sebum gets rubbed off the skin and will show up as flakes. It’s the sebum that’s ending up as flakes that causes people to think that their dog’s skin is dry. In reality, very few dogs actually have a true dry skin. A true dry skin would consist of a very fine flake with no smell. The final two things the skin does in response to being chronically itchy is to become thickened and pigmented (black.) That’s why dogs that have been itchy for a long, long time often have rumps that look like a baboon’s butt: the skin’s thickened like elephant skin, it’s black due to increased pigment and it’s greasy and smelly due to the sebum production.

The best thing that an owner can use on a dog that has seborrheic, smelly skin is Dawn dishwashing liquid. Dawn works so good because it’s a grease cutter and an anti-bacterial. And, the rule for any itchy dog is: THE MORE BATHS THE BETTER. It’s also okay to use our own shampoos on our dogs (such as Suave) but, as these shampoos produce a lot of suds, it’s important to be sure that the dog is rinsed thoroughly. I’m not convinced that all the expensive oatmeal shampoos are worth the money but they certainly won’t hurt a dog but using Dawn and giving a dog as many baths as possible will help a smelly, itchy dog just as much as any expensive specialty shampoos.

BEHAVIORAL ISSUES

The key to changing a dog’s behavior is to try and eliminate the unwanted behavior. Every time an unwanted behavior occurs, a neurologic pathway is set up in a dog’s brain and the more times an unwanted behavior occurs, the more likely it’s going to reoccur.

For example, if a puppy is allowed to urinate and poop wherever it wants in a house, it’s going to be just that much harder to get the puppy potty-trained. To get a puppy potty-trained more quickly, it’s vital to keep the puppy from making mistakes. To do that, the puppy needs to be confined in some way so that it can’t make mistakes in the house. This can be done by keeping the puppy in a kennel, bathroom or laundry room whenever it can’t be watch closely. It also works to tether a dog in an area where there isn’t any carpet. Most dogs don’t want to urinate or poop in their immediate vicinity so keeping them on a tether helps immensely. One nice thing about tethering is that, especially with larger dogs, one doesn’t have to have a huge kennel taking up a lot of space in the house plus the dog isn’t constantly enclosed inside a kennel. It often helps to get a leash that is made of metal so the dog doesn’t chew through it. It also helps to have the dog wear a harness while it’s tethered so the tether doesn’t pull on the dog’s neck.

If a dog has a hyperactivity problem, that’s another time where a tether or kennel can be helpful. For example, I have a Boxer that can be too hyper for my grandkids at times. That’s when I’ll tether her. That way the kids can go up to her and play with her but she’s not able to jump all over them or get in the middle of something they’re doing such as putting tinker toys or a puzzle together.

If a dog happens to be a jumper (i.e.-jumps up on people), it’s important to try and do something to keep the dog from jumping up in the first place instead of letting the dog jump up and then scold it or push it down. Each time the dog manages to jump up, the dog’s brain is going to set up a neurologic pathway that says, “This is what I do!” One method to keep a dog from jumping up is to vigorously wave your hand back and forth in front of the dog’s face or lift one knee high in front of you such that, if the dog does try to jump up, it’s going to get bopped in the head by your arm going back and forth or your knee coming up under its chin. Another way to keep a dog from getting in the habit of jumping up is to keep the dog on a short leash whenever new people come around so that the dog is controlled so it can’t jump up on people.

If a dog has temperamental issues, once again the best way to prevent problems is try and circumvent the activity that precipitates the unwanted behavior. For example, if a dog goes crazy and charges the door every time someone knocks, the best way to break that cycle is to put the dog on a leash or in a kennel so that it can’t go nuts at the front door.

If a dog gets scared or defensive when it’s picked up or tries to bite when it’s on the couch and doesn’t want to be moved, there are several ways to manage this behavior. What an owner doesn’t want to do is to go head to head with a dog: that’s only going to make the dog more defensive or scared. One easy way to get a dog to cooperate when it doesn’t want to is to offer it an especially favorite treat (maybe a piece of cheese or lunch meat.) If an uncooperative dog refuses to be bribed, another way to manage it is to constantly keep a short leash on the dog so that, whenever it’s necessary to get the dog to come or to get off the couch, the owner can simply pick up the leash and make the dog comply. Another way to pick up a dog that’s wanting to bite is to throw a towel or comforter over it. Not only will the dog be less scared once it’s covered up with a towel, it also won’t be able to bite!

If a dog is uneasy around strangers, it’s never ever a good idea to try and force the dog to socialize. The best thing to do whenever new people are around a scared and shy dog is to completely ignore the dog: to not even look at the dog! If the dog starts to feel less threatened and chooses to approach a new person, then fine: but if the dog doesn’t approach the new person, don’t try to force attention on to a dog as it may feel like it has to protect itself by biting. If a dog is too overly scared or unpredictable around new people, in my opinion, it’s best to keep the dog away. The best way to do that is to put the dog in a bedroom where it’ll feel safe. It’s a good idea, though, to put a hook and eye at the top of the bedroom door so that people (especially children) don’t accidentally walk into the room, startle the dog and get bitten.

If a dog can’t be trusted to not bite with actual family members (i.e.-children), it might be best to find the dog another home (especially if the dog is a large dog that could seriously hurt someone.) Some people may make the decision to simply put up with a snippy small breed of dog (such as a Chihuahua.) But, if an overly scared or aggressive dog is a large breed and it’s clear that it might bite, it’s simply playing with fire to keep that dog in the home because, sooner or later, it’s going to hurt someone. No dog is worth someone getting seriously injured.

BITING DOGS (aggressive dogs versus fear-biters)

There are basically two types of biting dogs: fear-biters and aggressive dogs. Fear-biters do not tend to be as dangerous as aggressive dogs as they are primarily biting in an attempt to get people to leave them alone (example-Chihuahuas.) Aggressive dogs are a different matter. What’s important to remember is that potentially dangerous dogs do not necessarily exhibit their aggression on a daily basis. There are countless examples of dogs that have mauled or killed people but had never showed that level of aggression before. Clearly, something triggered these dogs and they simply went off the deep end. The best site to become informed about dangerous dogs is www.dogsbite.org. On this website you can see pictures and read the detailed stories about people (children and adults) who’ve been killed by dogs. It’s shocking how many of these dogs behaved in a normal fashion for years before something made them to snap. This fact is what makes it so terribly difficult if we might have a potentially dangerous dog in our home. There are 4.5 million people that are bitten by dogs every year in the United States and 880,000 of them are bitten so severely that they require medical care. At least 27,000 people undergo reconstructive surgery every year as the result of a dog bite and, tragically, 30 to 40 individuals are killed each year by dogs: the majority of these being Pit Bulls, Rottweilers and Mastiffs. Of course, we all know that there are lots of little dogs that bite (chihuahuas, etc.) Luckily, these dogs are mostly too small to cause much damage and, thankfully, most of these little dogs are fear-biters that are biting simply to get someone to leave them alone.

As we often don’t know which dogs are going to flip a switch and go crazy one day, it’s important to take some general precautions whenever we or our children are in contact with a large dog. Large dogs have the capacity to inflict serious damage and that’s why I can’t help but cringe whenever someone tells me that their toddlers routinely jump on or lay on a large Pit Bull, Mastiff or Rottweiler. Owners can’t forget the pecking order that’s a part of every dog’s life: your toddler is never ever going to be the alpha dog as far as your dog’s concerned. If a child accidentally does something that a dog doesn’t like, it’s only going to take a microsecond for the dog to snap in retaliation. In story after story about kids killed by dogs, people repeatedly explain how a child was being chased by a dog or that the child was roughhousing with the dog right in the moments right before the dog lost control. Tragically, by the time an adult is able to get the dog off of a child, it’s often too late. My heartfelt recommendation to people is to always maintain a certain degree of paranoia and to never let your child jump, hit or be too rough with a large dog (no matter how well the dog’s behaved up to that point.) Most importantly, if a dog does growl or act aggressively towards someone (especially a child), know that you’ve been warned: the dog is telling you that he’s going to bite if he continues to be annoyed by whatever it is that’s annoying him. Anyone who has a large powerful dog that continually growls or acts aggressive should NOT allow that dog to live in the same household as a child. There’s simply no way to ever undo what’s been done once a child’s been mauled or killed by a dog. No dog is ever worth that risk.

BLADDER STONES (URINARY)

Bladder stones are fairly common in dogs, especially certain breeds of dogs. There are two main types of bladder stones: stones that are formed as a result of an overly alkaline urine (struvite stones) and stones that are formed as a result of an overly acidic urine (calcium oxalate stones.)
There’s a genetic predisposition to bladder stones and that’s why some breeds get bladder stones more frequently than other breeds. Breeds that can be predisposed to bladder stones are the Pug, Miniature Schnauzer, Bichon Frise’, Shih tzu, Lhasa Apso, Yorkshire terrier, Cocker Spaniel, Maltese, Dachshund and Dalmatian.
If a dog’s urinary tract has become obstructed by a bladder stone and a dog is unable to urinate then emergency surgery is required no matter what kind of stone may be present. Obstruction most frequently occurs in male dogs who actually have a bone at the tip of their penis (called the os penis) behind which stones often get stuck. Urinary obstruction is a life and death situation and must be handled surgically right away.
Once bladder stones are removed surgically, it’s critical that they’re analyzed by a laboratory in order find out what kind of stone the dog has so steps can be taken to make sure the dog doesn’t get the stones again. If a dog has developed bladder stones once, it’s quite likely that the dog will develop them again unless preventative action is taken.

For struvite stones (those formed in an alkaline urine), there are special diets available that can actually dissolve the stones inside the bladder so surgery might not be needed. These special diets cause the dog’s urine to be acidic and that acidity is what dissolves the alkaline stones. The most common diet used for this purpose is Science Diet S/D (so named because it’s a “stone diet.”) As long as a dog isn’t in distress and it’s been determined that the dog’s stones are struvite stones, then the S/D diet can be fed to the dog and the dog’s progress monitored by x-rays. When the stones are completely dissolved with the S/D diet (usually in 1-2 months), the dog must be switched to a different diet because the S/D diet isn’t a healthy diet for a dog to be on long term. Unfortunately, there isn’t a diet that dissolves acidic bladder stones (calcium oxalate) so these stones always have to be removed surgically.

How can one determine which kind of bladder stone a dog has before surgery to see if a special diet is a feasible treatment option? One way is to evaluate the pH of the urine. This is easily done with urinary test strips called Multistix. If the urine is alkaline (a pH of 7 or more) the stones are very likely struvite stones; if the urine is acidic (a pH of 5 or lower) the stones are most likely calcium oxalate. Also, individual crystals can often be found on the microscopic examination of the urinary sediment thus helping to identify either struvite or calcium oxalate stones.
Once the stones are either removed surgically or are dissolved with a special diet, it’s critical that steps be taken to make sure that the stones don’t reoccur. This means monitoring the urine to make sure that the urine of alkaline stones is made more acidic and that the urine of acidic stones is made more alkaline. As it turns out, it’s much easier to make urine acidic than it is to make it alkaline. There are several special diets on the market that will help keep a dog’s urine acidic. Some owners have managed to keep their dog’s urine acidic with daily doses of Vitamin C. No matter how it’s done, owners need to monitor their dog’s urine pH frequently to make sure that it’s in the pH range it needs to be. An owner can take the dog into the vet to have this done for $40 a sample or owners can purchase the Multistix strips online and monitor their dog’s urine at home. The Multistix urine strips also measure blood, white blood cells, protein, bilirubin, glucose and specific gravity.

It also helps to prevent the reoccurrence of bladder stones if owners can keep their dog’s urine dilute because the less time that urine sits in the bladder, the less time there is for crystals to stick together and form stones. Certain special diets like Royal Canin S/O actually contain salt which causes a dog to drink more and, as a consequence, the urine is more dilute. Owners can also add a pinch of salt to their dog’s food or add a lot of water to the dog’s food.

CANCER

Cancer is not uncommon in dogs, especially older dogs. Though dogs get lots of lumps and bumps on their skin, very few of them are cancerous. As explained in the section under “Lumps and Bumps on the Skin”, 95% of the lumps on a dog are non-cancerous. One of the main growths that is of concern on the skin is a mast cell tumor. Mast cell tumors are IN the skin while fatty tumors are under the skin and warts and cysts are above the skin. Mast cell tumors are malignant and need to be removed as soon as possible. Mast cell tumors typically grow quite fast and several different mast cell tumors can come up at the same time. The easiest way to diagnose any lump, especially a mast cell tumor, is for a veterinarian to do a needle aspiration. The dog doesn’t need to go under anesthesia for a needle aspiration and it’s not painful. A needle aspiration can differentiate between a fatty tumor that’s benign and a mast cell tumor that’s malignant. The veterinarian simply sucks up some cells from the tumor with a syringe, squirts those cells onto a microscopic slide, stains the slide and either looks at the slide under a microscope at the clinic or sends the slide to a laboratory for analysis. Mast cell tumors are quite easy to diagnose as mast cells are loaded with lots of blue granules which is very characteristic of mast cell tumors.

As mentioned in the section under “Lumps and Bumps in the Skin” below, fibrosarcomas in the skin are considered to be malignant though they don’t metastasize to other parts of the body in the same way that mast cell tumors will. They do tend to be locally reoccurring because they have tentacle-like extensions that extend into the surrounding tissues, making it hard to remove them completely. Most fibrosarcomas occur on the legs or toes and, because they tend to keep coming back time and time again, sometimes the only real solution is to amputate the toe or leg.

One of the worst tumors to afflict a dog is an osteosarcoma. Osteosarcomas are bone tumors and they’re horribly malignant and painful. They typically come up quickly and the first sign is limping or completely holding up the leg. By the time most osteosarcomas are diagnosed, they have usually metastasized. Amputation is the only way to give the dog some temporary relief. Chemotherapy is not very effective in treating osteosarcomas and most dogs have to be put to sleep because of the excruciating pain.

Another common type of cancer in dogs in Multi-centric Lymphoma. Over the years, I’ve learned to cringe every time I hear that a dog is coming in because it’s throat is swollen. In Multi-centric Lymphoma, all the lymph nodes in the dogs body become dramatically swollen as a result of the cancer. The swollen lymph nodes that an owner first notices are the lymph nodes situated at the both angles of the jaw. Unfortunately, once I feel those lymph nodes, I quickly discover that all the other external lymph nodes are enlarged. Fortunately, multi-centric lymphoma does respond well to chemotherapy for awhile. Some dogs can continue to feel good for up to 2 years with a certain regimen of drugs.

One problematic cancer that occasionally occurs in dogs is Melanoma. Some melanomas are benign but the majority are malignant. It is also the number one tumor that shows up in a dog’s mouth. Interestingly enough, melanomas that occur in the front part of the mouth are less likely to metastasize than melanomas found at the back of the mouth. The main treatment is surgery as chemotherapy is not very effective.

CATARACTS

Cataracts involve a hardening of the lens of the eye that results in a white opacity that’s quite visible behind the pupil of the eye. Cataracts most frequently occur as a dog gets older, especially past 10 years of age. Rarely, dogs will develop cataracts when they’re young, sometimes as young as 6 months of age. When these “juvenile” cataracts pop up in a young dog, it can be quite shocking as the cataracts frequently show up almost over night. Juvenile cataracts make it difficult for a dog to see but, fortunately, they can be removed and the dog’s sight restored by veterinarians who specialize in ophthalmic surgery.

Cataracts can occasionally occur after trauma to the eye and cataracts almost always occur secondary to a dog that’s developed diabetes.

Cataracts most commonly occur when a dog gets older as part of a syndrome called “progressive retinal atrophy.” Progressive retinal atrophy not only causes cataracts to develop but it also involves the degeneration of the retina at the back of the eye (the retina is where the eye processes light.) Due to the destruction of the retina and the added risk due to age, cataracts are rarely removed in older dogs. If an owner is considering removing the cataracts of an older, tests must first be done to make certain the retina is still functioning. If the retina isn’t functioning, the dog still won’t be able to see even if the cataracts are removed. Thankfully, dogs actually do quite well adjusting to a loss of vision when they’re older.

COLLAPSING TRACHEAS (primarily a small dog issue)

Collapsing tracheas are quite common in the small breeds of dog and are exacerbated by a dog being overweight. The trachea (or windpipe) is made up of a series of cartilage rings and these rings are especially small and flexible in small breeds. The collapsing trachea occurs at the place where the trachea curves to go into the chest cavity and, that’s why, if a dog becomes overweight, the coughing gets worse as the fat pad in front of the throat will tend to put pressure on the trachea. Collapsing tracheas are easy to diagnose as dogs with a collapsing trachea are very sensitive to any rubbing or pressure placed along the front of the trachea.

The cough from a collapsing trachea is a very harsh, honking cough that primarily happens when the dog gets excited. Unfortunately, there’s no easy remedy or cure for a collapsing trachea. If the coughing becomes too severe, it can help to try the dog on a cough suppressant (such as hydrocodone) or an anti-inflammatory such as prednisone.

CONSTIPATION (an almost non-existent problem in dogs)

Luckily, constipation hardly ever occurs in dogs. The few times I have seen a constipated dog it was the result of the dog eating something that had caused the stool to become too large and hard to pass: one dog had eaten a diaper and the other dog had eaten a lot of bones that had mixed with the stool and was too painful for the dog to pass. Both of these dogs had to be put under anesthesia and the poop had to literally be picked out of the rectum piece by piece until the obstruction was alleviated.

On rare occasions, I have seen older German Shepherds who are suffering from a syndrome called Cauda Equina Syndrome which involves a narrowing of the spinal column that supplies the hind legs and tail and these dogs will have difficulty passing stool and the longer that stool stays in the rectum, the harder it gets to pass it.

Note: I frequently hear from owners who are afraid that their dog is constipated because the dog keeps straining to poop. Most of the time, this is actually related to the dog having a loose stool and, secondary to a loose stool, a dog will often do a lot of straining because the loose stool is either irritating the anus and making the dog feel like it still needs to go or the irritation in the intestinal tract is making the dog want to strain to get more of the soft stool out.

If a dog or puppy is truly having a very hard stool, then it’s a good likelihood that the dog is getting a bit dehydrated. This can happen in a puppy that is eating but not always drinking enough or in a spell of really hot weather where a dog may have trouble keeping up with its water needs. To help soften the stool, an owner can always add in some canned food as this always tends to make for a softer stool and the owner can even add extra water to the dry to make sure the dog is getting enough fluids. It’s not a great idea to give a dog laxatives without talking to a veterinarian.

COUGHING (heart issues versus tracheal collapse versus kennel cough)

There are some distinct differences between a heart cough and a collapsing trachea. To begin with, a collapsing trachea is a harsh, honking cough while a heart cough is a very breathy cough. Collapsing trachea coughs have a history of having occurred for years (since the dog was young) while a heart cough starts gradually when a dog is older, usually past 9 years old. Tracheal coughs occur primarily when the dog is excited (often when it starts barking or is running around.) Heart coughs start gradually when a dog is older and they are very occasional to begin with, often occurring mostly at night when the dog is lying down. It’s important to be able to distinguish between these two problems because the medication for the two are extremely different. A tracheal collapse is mainly diagnosed by applying rubbing the trachea which will typically incite a bout of coughing. Heart issues are often diagnose with a chest x-ray or an echocardiogram.

Dogs don’t get a lot of pneumonia like people do though they can get a condition called kennel cough when exposed to infectious bacteria or viruses. Kennel cough is usually fairly easy to diagnose as it comes on acutely and there’s often a history of a dog being around other dogs at a kennel or dog park. Since kennel cough is an infection of the air passageways, the dog primarily coughs when it gets active or goes outside. Also, almost every dog in a household will tend to come down with the kennel cough as it’s very contagious. It usually takes a week or two for dogs to recover from kennel cough and the primary treatment involves cough suppressants and antibiotics.

DENTALS (TEETH CLEANINGS)

Teeth cleanings (dentals) are being done way too frequently these days. I tell owners to say, “Thank you but no thank you” to veterinarians who try to pressure them into anesthetizing their dog in order to clean its teeth. It’s simply dangerous to put our dogs under anesthesia all the time (please read what I have to say about the different forms of anesthesia and how our pets are often under anesthesia with no one monitoring them while they’re under!)

Dogs that have loose teeth or teeth with a lot of tartar are NOT harmed by the tartar or loose teeth but they can definitely be harmed by the anesthesia, especially if they’re older. Small breeds of dogs, brachycephalic dogs (the dogs with smushed up faces) and dogs over 8 or 9 years of age are extremely fragile when it comes to anesthesia! Don’t let a veterinarian tell you otherwise. Never, ever do a dental on a dog over 10 to 11 years old. Veterinarians who advocate dentals on older pets are NOT looking out for the best interests of your pet. All anyone has to do is browse through our veterinary journals where they constantly say: “Make an extra $50,000 a year simply by adding 15 dentals each month.” All I can say is shame on any veterinarian who would jeopardize the well-being of an animal just to make a buck.

It’s important to understand that the way a dog’s teeth and mouth age is primarily dictated by an individual dog’s genetics. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really help that much for us to brush our dog’s teeth though, if an owner wants to try, it’s certainly not going to hurt the dog. But don’t feel guilty if you don’t or can’t brush your dog’s teeth!

Surprisingly, when it comes to a dog’s teeth, it doesn’t really matter if a dog eats canned food or dry food. Lots of owners tell me they don’t want to feed canned food because they believe the dry food keeps their dog’s teeth healthier. It can be helpful if a dog occasionally chews on something hard like a dental bone or a Nylabone as it can help to scrape off some of the tartar. on the back teeth. How a dog’s teeth do over its lifetime is completely a function of the dog’s genetics and it boils down to large dogs versus small dogs.

Almost all large dogs have great teeth. Large dogs (such as German Shepherds and Labs) are rarely going to have dental problems because their teeth are so large and so securely implanted in the dog’s maxilla and mandible that they’re never going to get loose or acquire much tartar. Large breeds of dog rarely ever have gum recession, tartar or the loosening of the teeth that small toy breeds do. Small breeds have the same number of teeth that large breeds have but, for those teeth to fit in a tiny dog’s mouth, they’ve got to be very small. There’s no way that a tiny tooth inside a toy breed’s mouth can ever be anchored as solidly or as securely as the large tooth of a large breed of dog. It’s like having a 4 X 4 post anchored in cement versus a toothpick anchored in cement: there’s no way a toothpick is going to hold up as long as a 4 X 4 post.

That’s why it’s actually quite normal for a small dog to get a lot of tartar on its teeth and for the teeth to loosen up over time. It’s normal and to be expected. Though a veterinarian may tell you that it hurts your dog to have tartar on its teeth, it’s simply not true. A little dog’s teeth may be gross and smelly but they don’t hurt the animal. Putting an animal under anesthesia all the time is what’s going to hurt an animal (or kill it.) It’s also ridiculous to pull almost every tooth in a dog’s mouth just because they’re loose. Just leave the dog alone and it’ll be fine.

There are a few instances when an animal needs to be put under anesthesia for a dental issue. One instance is when the upper fourth premolar gets infected. This is a fairly common occurrence in dogs and it’s quite obvious when it happens because there’s going to be a lump that comes up under one of the dog’s eyes. A dog with an infected fourth premolar is still rarely bothered by the infected tooth but the only way to resolve the problem is to remove the tooth.

The other time that it’s necessary to remove a tooth under anesthesia is when one of the dog’s canine teeth has gotten loose is sticking at an angle into the dog’s mouth and is keeping the dog from being able to close its mouth. Most of these loose canines can actually be pulled without anesthesia since they’re frequently just hanging by a thread but, if the tooth isn’t loose enough to pull, it will be necessary to give the dog a whiff of anesthesia so as to get it out.

What I’ve observed at clinics where veterinarians put older animals under anesthesia for routine teeth cleanings is that a certain percentage of these dogs are going to be back two to four weeks in kidney or heart failure. It’s heartbreaking to have to tell an owner that the anesthesia from the dental has caused their older dog’s kidneys or heart to fail. Unfortunately, once a dog is in kidney or heart failure, it’s extremely difficult to turn it around.

The problem with older animals is that they’re all walking a fine line with their health and, even though a veterinarian may checked lab work on a dog or cat and said that lab results were good enough, the anesthesia can still push an older dog or cat over the edge: especially with respect to the pet’s kidneys and heart. I’ve seen it time and time again.

Since it’s the smaller breeds that have the most problematic teeth, those are the breeds veterinarians most frequently try to put under for dentals. The issue with smaller dogs (especially the brachycephalic dogs with the smushed up faces) is that they’re much more fragile and sensitive when it comes to anesthesia as compared to a large breed of dog. Veterinarians need to be much more careful with the anesthesia when it comes to these small dogs.

The scariest fact about a pet going under anesthesia for a dental these days is that the vet is never the one performing the dental. It’s always a staff member who may or may not have good training. I’ve personally witnessed many instances in which a dog is having a dental done under anesthesia and no one is monitoring the dog’s anesthesia: it’s just the technician and the dog. There’s just no way that a technician can properly monitor an animal’s anesthesia while he or she is also trying to perform a dental procedure…it’s simply not safe. (Please read the section on anesthesia above so you can familiarize yourself with the problems that occur with injectable anesthesia and how to protect your dog if it needs to go under anesthesia.)

I tell owners that the best time to have their dog’s teeth cleaned is when the dog is having to go under anesthesia for some other reason like a laceration repair or a growth removal. If a dog already has to go under anesthesia, then that’s the perfect time to clean the teeth too.

When it comes to SMELLY BREATH, Something can be done about that. The best method I’ve found it to use a low-dose of the antibiotic Clindamycin. I have prescribed low doses of Clindamycin for dogs for over 30 years and it’s a sure fire, safe way to eliminate stinky breath. Owners are shocked and thrilled to discover that simply giving a low dose of Clindamycin on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays can make their dog’s rotten breath completely disappear. Most vets, though, don’t want to prescribe Clindamycin. They either don’t know how well it works or they’re mainly focused on performing dentals. Personally, I don’t think most veterinarians realize just how well Clindamycin works to eliminate mouth odor. I tell owners to see if their veterinarians won’t at least allow them try the Clindamycin on their dog. For use in small dogs, Clindamycin is available in a 20 ml bottle and has 20 mg/ml. Small dogs under 10 pounds only need 1/4 ml Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. At this low dose, it’s 99.9% safe and probably keeps the dog healthier by decreasing the bacterial growth in the dog’s mouth. My little dog, Priscilla, actually does great on only 1/4 ml Mondays and Fridays. If I happen to forget to give Priscilla her Clindamycin, my grandson is quick to remind me: “Nana, you must have forgotten Priscilla’s medicine because her breath stinks!”

The only bad thing about Clindamycin is that the liquid form doesn’t taste very good! I tell owners to mix it with something yummy like canned food, yogurt or maybe cottage cheese or just squirt it in their dog’s mouth (as I do with my dog Priscilla) and follow it up with a special treat or maybe some cheese or lunch meat.

DIABETES

Diabetes is quite common in older dogs, especially small breeds of dogs. It’s characterized by dramatically increased thirst and urination, increased appetite, weight loss in spite of increased appetite and cataract formation. It’s easily diagnosed by a blood test or even a urine test. If you’re concerned your dog might have diabetes, you can catch some of your dog’s urine and take it to your veterinarian and they’ll do a quick urine strip test and give you the answer while you wait. Owners can purchase their own urine test strips by ordering Multistix online. I love the Multistix because they not only check for glucose (sugar) in the urine but they also check for blood, pH, white cells, ketones, specific gravity (how concentrated the urine is), and other things. Multistix only costs around $20 and one gets100 strips. It’s a great test to have on hand for your pets (or yourself!)

Diabetes is a disease where there’s not enough insulin being produced by the pancreas. Without insulin, the glucose (sugar) in the blood stream can’t leave the blood stream and get into the cells of the body. The body thinks it’s starving! As a consequence, the body starts to break down the fat in storage so as to make more glucose but that glucose can’t get into the cells either without insulin. That’s why most diabetics feel extremely weak and exhausted all the time since, with no glucose in its cells, the body has no fuel to do all the things the body needs to do.

Oral medication doesn’t work in dogs like it does in people so owners must learn how to give insulin injections to their diabetic dog. Having to give injections always terrifies owners but it’s actually not nearly as bad as it sounds because the insulin syringes are ultra-fine and the dogs don’t even feel it when they get the injection.

There are two main types of insulin currently being used for dogs. The newest form of insulin is an insulin called Lantus. The Lantus insulin has the advantage of providing a more stable blood glucose level in the dog but, unfortunately, it’s expensive and can cost up to $300 a month, plus it doesn’t have a long shelf life. An alternative to Lantus insulin is NPH insulin which is what’s been used for years in veterinary medicine. NPH insulin is cheap and has a much longer shelf life. With NPH insulin, the owner will give the dog an injection twice daily before meals. When the amount of insulin is first being determined by trial and error, the dog’s blood glucose can be monitored by a glucometer that one can buy at Walgreens or Walmart or the dog can go to the veterinarian periodically to have its glucose levels checked. All of this always sounds overwhelming to owners but they all get used to it in very short order.

An easy though less accurate way to get a sense of how a dog is doing on a certain amount of insulin to use the Multistix urine test strips that owners can buy online cheaply. If an owner checks the dog’s urine right before it’s time to give the next insulin shot, the urine strip should always show that the glucose is high but that the ketones are negative in the urine. Glucose should be present in the urine right before an insulin injection because the insulin from the previous injection has been used up through the day and, now, the blood glucose is starting to high again. If there isn’t much glucose in the urine when it’s time for an insulin injection, it could mean the dog is getting more insulin than it needs. In that case, the insulin can be reduced by a unit or two until the glucose in the urine is high right before it’s time for the next insulin injection. If the Multistix strip shows that there are ketones in the urine, then it means that not enough insulin is being given. Ketones appear in the body when the body is low on glucose and starts breaking down fat in order to boost the glucose levels in the body. Ketones are the toxic by-product of fat metabolism. When ketones are present in the urine, the owner needs to increase the insulin by a unit or two until the ketones in the urine disappear.

DIARRHEA

Diarrhea in dogs is most frequently the result of some kind of dietary indiscretion (most typically the result of a dog being fed the overly fatty foods discussed in the “diet” section: bacon, sausage, grease, drippings, chicken and turkey skins, fat off of red meat and bones.) Diarrhea can also occur from something that a particular dog is sensitive to, such as certain dry foods and, most definitely, certain canned foods. Owners always ask me which dog food do I think is the best and I always say that “the best food for a dog is the food that suits it.” You could put 50 dogs on every brand of dry food there is in the world and there’d be a certain dogs that simply wouldn’t do good on a certain brand of food. The quest for owners is to find the dry dog food suits their particular dog. I personally don’t feel that someone needs to buy an especially expensive brand of dry dog food or even a grain-free brand of dry dog food but each of us needs to find a food that suits our dog.

It’s important to know that canned food is much more likely to cause diarrhea than dry food. So, for those dogs that need to be fed some canned food in order to yummy up their dry food, I tell owners to pick ONE brand and ONE flavor of canned food and stick with that because, if they vary the brands and flavors of the canned food too much, there’s a good chance that a dog’s going to have some diarrhea.

Surprisingly, only a few intestinal parasites cause diarrhea: the most common ones are whipworms, coccidia and, occasionally, giardia. Most of these parasites are found primarily in young dogs and pups and can be easily identified when a stool sample is checked by a veterinarian.

There are two basic types of diarrhea: small intestine and large intestine. With small intestine diarrhea, a dog often feels quite sick and may even lose their appetite and have some vomiting. The diarrhea from a small intestine disorder is usually very watery and voluminous. This is the kind of diarrhea that one sees with Parvo. With large intestine diarrhea, the stools are typically just soft, not runny, and there’s often mucous and a small amount of blood that will be found on top of the stool. The blood and mucous are the result of a dog feeling like it needs to keep straining to poop: something that’s quite common in large intestine diarrhea. Most dogs with large intestine diarrhea act perfectly normal and are eating and acting fine.

If a dog has diarrhea and is vomiting and not eating, THIS IS A DOG THAT NEEDS TO SEE A VET. If a dog has diarrhea and is still eating pretty good and isn’t vomiting, the best approach is to stop all dry food and start the dog on a bland, highly digestible diet comprised of softly boiled white rice, low fat cottage cheese, boiled chicken or turkey breast and a scrambled egg or two. One can also add in some pumpkin to the mixture since pumpkin is purported to help with diarrhea. A dog needs to stay on the bland diet until it’s stool is mostly back to normal and then the owner can slowly start to add in a little of the dog’s regular dry food.

As far as medication is concerned, owners can try giving some Loperamide or Lomotil (Imodium): both over the counter medications. The dose for both of these medications is 0.05-0.1 mg/lb. twice daily as needed. The literature says that Collies and other similar breeds can be overly sensitive to these two anti-diarrheals and that they should never be used in cats. An owner can also try some probiotics and some of the other medications that are available at various pet and feed stores.

If an owner takes a dog with diarrhea to the veterinarian, the most commonly prescribed medication is going to be Metronidazole or Flagyl.

If a dog continues to have diarrhea or the diarrhea re-occurs as soon as medication is stopped, then the dog may either have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD.) Unfortunately, the only way to officially diagnose these diseases is with an intestinal biopsy. But, with trial and error, the disease can be inferred if a dog consistently gets better with a round of prednisone. With both of these diseases, a dog may need to be kept on a special diet and a certain maintenance regime of medication such as Flagyl (metronidazole.)

The keys to dealing with diarrhea (from any cause) is to discover what makes it better and to keep the dog on whatever food or medication happens to be helping for long enough until the diarrhea is finally brought under control…stopping too soon will frequently just result in the diarrhea coming back.

One final note: there are a few unusual conditions that cause chronic diarrhea. One such condition is exocrine pancreatic insufficiency which is found primarily in young dogs. It’s a genetic disease and certain breeds have a greater likelihood of being born with it including Chows, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Rough-Coated Collies and German Shepherds.The pancreas has two functions: not only does it produce insulin to help control the body’s blood glucose (its endocrine function), it also digestive enzymes such as lipase and amylase, that are essential for digesting food (it’s exocrine function.) When dogs are born without the ability to produce digestive enzymes, they have chronic soft stools that tend to be light-colored and greasy as a result of having excess fat in the stools. Without lipase from the pancreas, the fat in a dog’s food doesn’t get digested and simply goes out in the dog’s stool. Dogs that are born without digestive enzymes are constantly starving yet, no matter how much they eat, they’re always skinny and sickly looking. Specific bloods tests can easily identify the problem and, thankfully, most dogs are able to improve once they’re put on a special diet that is highly digestible. The food is mixed with digestive enzymes that owners must purchase and allowed to sit for 30 minutes before it’s fed to the dog. This gives the enzymes time to pre-digest the food.

DIET

This section is going to help you to avoid certain dry dog foods that have too much protein (a common problem in recent years); make sense of the differences between canned food and dry food and why that’s important;  understand once and for all which table foods are okay and which table foods will make your dog sick; how to get your overweight dog to lose weight effortlessly; how to get your underweight dog to gain weight; and, finally, the best diet to feed an older dog.

1.Protein in dry dog foods:
There’s a lot to discuss about diet in dogs, especially considering all the changes that have taken place in the pet food industry over the past several years. One of the biggest changes has been the outrageous increase in the protein percentages in certain dry dog foods being sold (an explanation of the difference between dry and canned foods will be forthcoming.) Part of the problem has to do with the public’s perception that high protein is a good thing. In actuality, protein can be extremely hard on a dog’s body (especially when a dog is older.) The fact is a dog can only use the amount of protein that it needs at any given moment and the body doesn’t have a way to store extra protein. Instead, any extra protein that comes into the body must be broken down and eliminated through the liver and kidneys.

Since protein (amino acids) can’t be stored or saved in the body, any overage is simply converted to glucose for energy or for fat storage. When protein is broken down to glucose, nitrogen bi-products are produced and these nitrogen bi-products must first be transported to the liver where they are hooked into groups of three creating a compound that’s called urea. From there, the urea must be eliminated out the kidneys. That’s a lot of additional work for the body and can definitely put a strain on a dog’s liver and kidneys (especially in an older dog.)

In the past, the protein percentage in dry dog foods was always around 20%. Some of the newer dog foods have protein percentages as high as 30% to 40%. That’s way too high considering that the extra protein isn’t needed and only makes the dog’s liver and kidneys work harder.

Pet owners will frequently say that their dog needs extra protein because the dog’s a working dog. If a dog needs additional energy for a long day of hunting or herding cattle, the best food to feed the dog is complex carbohydrates. It’s the same mentality that’s used by athletes these days: they eat pasta instead of steak. Eating a high protein or a high fat diet before hard exercise actually requires more work from the body because those protein and fat have to be converted to glucose before any extra energy is available to a dog. For that reason, it’s best to keep the protein in our dog’s dry dog food close to the 20% and, if we want to add an easily available source of energy to our working dog’s diet, add some whole-grain noodles, potatoes, bread or oatmeal to the dog’s dry food.

2. Fat in dry dog foods:

In the past 15 to 20 years the fat% in dry dog foods has gone up considerably. Traditionally, the fat% in a dry dog food would range between 6 to 12%. These days, it’s not unusual to find a fat% in dry dog food to be 15 to 20%. The problem with a higher fat% is that it can predispose a sensitive dog to gastrointestinal problems, especially the pancreas. Pancreatitis has always been a common problem in dogs. In the past, pancreatitis typically occurred when a dog got a bunch of fat from the table (i.e.-bacon, sausage, grease, drippings, liver, greasy red meats, chicken or turkey skins or bones.) In recent years, the frequency of pancreatitis has gone up in part due to the higher percentage of fat in so many of the dry dog foods. If at all possible, it’s nice to keep the fat % in dry dog food to 6 to 12% fat.

3.Grain-free dog foods:

I feel that the benefits of a grain-free diet have been greatly exaggerated by veterinarians and the pet food industry. There may be a small number of dogs that have a true allergy to grain (where they tend to exhibit skin issues of one kind or another) but it’s not nearly as common as is portrayed. Just as is true for people, most of the skin problems in dogs are caused by environmental factors such fleas, grass, pollen and other outdoor allergens. That’s why we always see fewer skin problems in the winter no matter what a dog may be eating. At the same time, I have absolutely no reservations if an owner wants to feed a grain-free diet: just make sure the protein isn’t too high.

4. Grocery Store versus Pet Store dog foods (expensive versus cheap)

As far as the various brands of dog and cat food are concerned, I honestly don’t believe that the brand of dog food we choose makes nearly as much of a difference as the pet companies want us to believe. I feel bad for pet owners who are made to feel as if they’re a bad pet owner if they don’t spend $80 on a bag of dog food. In my thirty-seven years as a veterinarian, I’ve seen thousands of dogs do great on low-cost brands such as Kibbles and Bits and Pedigree.

Pet owners are always asking me what I think is the best food to feed their dog. I always say is that there’s no way to know without some trial and error because every dog is different. No one food is going to suit every dog. What we want is a food that suits our particular dog so that they’re not overly gassy or having soft stools or vomiting. If a particular food isn’t suiting a particular dog, the owner needs to examine the ingredients in the dry food that isn’t working for their dog and look for a dog food that has completely different ingredients or very limited ingredients. Some dogs might do better on turkey, some are better with chicken, etc. It’s always going to take some trial and error (especially for a dog with a sensitive gastrointestinal tract.)

5. Table Food:

I’m always surprised when veterinarians tell dog owners that table food is bad for their dogs. We eat it! The important thing that dog owners need to know about table food is that (just as for us) certain table foods are okay to eat and certain table foods aren’t. The general rule is this: whatever foods are good for us are typically good for our dogs and whatever we shouldn’t eat, our dogs shouldn’t eat either. It’s not necessary that owners feed table food (especially if we don’t want our dogs begging at the table all the time) but, if owners would like to feed their dogs some table food, it’s important that they know what’s okay to feed their dogs and what’s not.

The other good thing about table food concerns the fact that, if our dog suddenly doesn’t want to eat his regular food and is acting like he doesn’t feel so good, it’s nice to know what table food he normally likes so we can see if he’ll at least eat that (like some white chicken, an egg or some cheese.) If our dog refuses to eat a piece of white chicken meat that he’d normally scarf down, then we’ll know that he’s pretty darn sick!

In general, the permissible table foods are: bread, plain noodles and rice (try to avoid the sauces), plain potatoes or a french fry, vegetables and fruits (though I’ve not seen a problem myself, the literature recommends avoiding onions and grapes), white chicken and turkey meat, cheese, cottage cheese, cereal, pancakes, eggs, milk, yogurt, low fat lunch meat and hot dogs, peanut butter and popcorn.

Table food that we should never feed our dogs is the same table food we shouldn’t eat (though it’s the table food that many dog owners will feed their dogs as it’s what’s typically left over): real bacon and sausage (turkey bacon is fine), greasy red meats, fat off red meats, liver, greasy gravies or drippings, chicken or turkey skins and bones of any kind (no steak bones, no rib bones, no knuckle bones)

The problem with bones doesn’t have to do with the fact that that they might splinter. The difficulty concerns all the fat that’s around the edges of bones and in the bone marrow. The fat on and in bones along with the other fatty forbidden foods tends to upset the pancreas and can lead to some severe vomiting and diarrhea. The pancreas secretes the digestive enzymes needed to break down food in the stomach and it can get horribly inflamed in certain dogs if they’re fed too much fat. What’s interesting and tends to throw owners off is that there’s typically a delayed reaction between the eating of the fatty foods and the vomiting and diarrhea. For example, if a dog eats a bunch of fat or a bone on a Sunday night, it usually won’t start getting sick until Monday night or Tuesday. That’s why, whenever a dog has an episode of vomiting or diarrhea or quits eating, I tell owners that they need to look back at least a day or two if they want to figure out what made the dog sick. Pancreatitis can get quite severe and sometimes dogs have to be hospitalized and kept on IV fluids until they get better: not a cheap proposition these days! So, considering that there’s a large variety of table food that can safely be fed to a dog without making it sick, why risk feeding it a bone or fat or chicken skins? It’s just not worth it.

6. Canned Food versus Dry Food:

Canned food is extremely misleading! So many of us can’t help but think that canned food is meat, that is has a lot more calories and substance than dry food but, if we read the label, we’ll see that all canned foods contain 78-80% water! Can you believe it? How do they make something that’s 80% water look like meat? On the other hand, dry dog food only has 10% water. So, by far, the most nutritious food per bite is dry food…dry food is where all the calories are. Consequently, due to the highly concentrated nutrition contained in dry dog food, it’s almost impossible to ever get a dog to lose weight while its eating dry food (especially the amounts recommended on the dog food bags!)

There are 3 areas where canned food comes in handy though:

First: Canned food is often used to make dry food more palatable and adding some canned food to our dog’s dry food (along with some hot, hot water to make it like a stew) is the primary way to fatten up an overly thin dog. I have a boxer who simply refuses to eat enough dry food to keep her weight up (even if I leave the food out 24 hours a day.) So, though it’s a bit of a pain, I yummy up her dry with a small amount of canned food along with some hot water twice a day to keep her looking good. Many breeds are picky about dry food this way. I see lots of Shepherds, Huskies and Boxers that are often way too thin for their own good.

Secondly, canned food is ideal for older dogs that might be having kidney and liver problems as it’s so low in protein. While dry dog food has 20% protein (or more these days!), canned food is always 8-10% protein. The lower protein is very beneficial to those dogs that are having issues with their liver or kidneys.

Thirdly, weight control or weight loss (see below)

7. Overweight Dogs:

The best way to get a dog to lose weight is to drastically reduce (or completely eliminate) the dry dog food in the dog’s diet. The trick to getting overweight dogs to lose weight is to feed a small amount of canned food with a lot of cut green beans. I tell owners to buy the largest, cheapest cans of green beans at the grocery store and either rinse them (so they’re not salty) or get the salt-free green beans. Adding a small amount of canned food makes the green beans yummy and, most importantly, the canned food is a balanced diet so, despite the fact it’s mostly water, your dog will be getting all the nutrients he needs from the canned food. If owners hate the idea of having to feed canned food, they can simply give their dog the green beans and drastically decrease the amount of dry dog food they usually feed. Owners can also fill their dogs up with carrots or green peas but the majority of dogs seem to prefer the green beans.

As far as the quantity of green beans goes: for a dog under 10 pounds, an owner might feed a cup or even a bit more of the green beans with a couple of tablespoons of canned food mixed in twice a day. For a dog that’s 50 pounds, it might take 3-4 cups of green beans with half of a 13 oz. can of dog food twice a day to fill the dog up. The object is to fill your dog’s stomach with enough green beans so that he’s content but, in truth, he’s full of a low-calorie food.

Once a dog reaches his ideal weight, an owner can start adding a more dry food to the mix so the dog doesn’t continue to lose weight.

***One important note about canned food:
When it comes to feeding canned food, I always recommend that owners stick with one brand and one flavor of canned food because, if owners change the brands and flavors too much, they’re going to come across a flavor or brand that’ll cause soft stools or diarrhea (and none of us want that!) I also tell owner’s to buy a canned food that is solid and free of chunks and gravy. Not only does it mix better with the green beans but it’s less likely to cause a soft stool.

8. Underweight dogs: Certain breeds of dogs are simply not big dry dog food eaters. Some of these include German Shepherds, Huskies, Boxers and almost all small or toy breeds of dogs. These dogs just don’t like dry dog food that much even the dry dog food is left out 24 hours a day. In order to keep these dogs from being too thin, it’s necessary to find a way to yummy up their dry food so they’ll eat enough to keep their weight up.

One reason we don’t want dogs to be too thin is because they have nothing to fall back on if they get sick or quit eating for awhile. Secondly, if a dog is too thin and happens to be the anxious and nervous type, the dog doesn’t have any fat to break down when it’s stressed so the dog’s body has no choice but to break down muscle for energy. Unfortunately, the by-products of muscle metabolism are toxic and hard on the body. That’s why a dog needs a certain amount of fat on its body so it’s there when the dog needs it.

Owners often don’t realize that their dogs are too thin because either the dogs have a fluffy coat that hides their thinness or the dogs have a bit of a pot-belly which can make the owner think the dog is pudgy. Dogs can have a pot-belly as a result of many possible conditions: parasites (especially in puppies), heart worm disease, fluid in the abdomen, liver disease, hypothroidism, cushing’s disease, cancer. The way owners can tell if their dogs are underweight is by feeling along the spinal column over the back, the pelvic bones at the rump and the ribs. If a dog is overly thin, it’ll be possible to feel every single vertebral process, the pelvic bones and the ribs. These bones should have some meat on them and, if they don’t, a dog is considered to be underweight.

If a dog is too thin, the owner is going to have to find a way to yummy up the dog’s dry food so they eat more of it. The easiest way to do this is to mix a small amount of canned food into the dry food along with some hot water and then stir it around until it makes a nice stew. If you just mix the canned food without the hot water, the dog will tend to lick the canned off the dry, leaving the dry food.

I have a Boxer named Sadie that I have to do this with because, if I simply leave out the dry food, she’ll only eat enough to survive and she’ll stays way too thin. As I mentioned above, I tell owners to try and stick with ONE brand and ONE flavor of canned food because, if the flavors and brands of canned food are varied too much, it’s very likely that there’ll be one that causes the dog to have a soft stool. Also, it’s important to remember that canned food is not the “meat” that we’re led to believe it is: all canned food is 78 to 80% water! So, there’s no need to spend a lot of money on canned food since it’s mainly yummy water. Not to diminish the value of canned food because it is a balanced diet and certainly has its place in the diet of some dogs.

Some owners complain that their dogs won’t eat canned dog food. I tell them that it’s fine to see if their dog might eat some canned CAT food as many dogs love canned cat food since it’s a lot more yummy than canned dog food. I tell owners that they still want to stay with just one brand and one flavor of the canned cat food. (Please remember that it’s never a good idea to feed a dog dry cat food on a consistent basis because dry cat food has too much protein for dogs. It’s not going to hurt a dog if it occasionally gets into the cat’s dry food but don’t let a dog eat too much dry cat food on a regular basis.)

If an owner doesn’t want to mess with canned food in their effort to get a dog to gain weight, I tell owners that it’s perfectly fine to try and yummy up their dog’s dry food with some of the permissible table food. In other words, it’s fine to add some cottage cheese, egg, milk, yogurt, soup or shredded cheese to a dog’s dry food to yummy it up. Just never feed any of the forbidden table foods (such as grease and drippings) because there’s a good chance that they’ll make a dog sick.

It’s also ok to try and fatten up an overly thin dog by giving lots of dog treats. Many dogs will eat treats when they won’t eat their regular dry food. It’s perfectly fine for dogs to eat lots of treats. Most treats are a balanced and are healthy for a dog. I really like the “Carry Out” treats, especially for the smaller breeds, as they’re soft and can be crumbled up into smaller pieces. Do try to avoid the treats that have too much protein: we always want a protein level of 20% or less in our treats and dry dog food.

EAR ISSUES (infections, ear washing, hematomas)

Many dogs have ear issues at one point or another in their lives. These ear infections can be located at the inside of the ear flap or all the way down the ear canal. Whenever a dog’s ear gets irritated, it tends to do one of three things: first, the ear starts secreting a smelly substance called sebum. By secreting sebum, the ear is trying to coat itself and protect itself from whatever is irritating it. Unfortunately, the sebum ends up causing problems because it’s a great place for bacterial and fungal growth. The other two things the ear does once it’s inflamed or irritated is to get pigmented (turn black) and get thickened.

It’s important to clean an ear whenever it has sebum and other goop on it or in it. The best way to do this is to simply wash the ear out using Dawn dishwashing liquid. What’s good about Dawn is that it’s a great grease cutter and an antibacterial. I know that many people think or have been told that it’s best to NOT get water down a dog’s ear but that’s just not true. All an owner needs to do is to make cleaning the ear a part of their dog’s regular bath or, if the dog doesn’t get a lot of baths, simply wash the ears themselves as needed. To wash a dog’s ear, one follows same format as when one bathes a dog: get the ear wet with some water (ideally using a hose or a hand-held shower nozzle), apply the Dawn (it doesn’t take much), massage the ear to the point it’s nice and sudsy, then rinse and massage until there is no more sudsing. This is a great and easy way to clean a ears without using a lot of chemicals in the over-the-counter ear washes. How frequently one needs to wash the dog’s ears depends on how bad and gooey the ear infection is. The ears might need to be washed 2 times a week or just 2 times a month. The quest is to keep all the goop and sebum off and out of the ear. It’s not necessary to use Q-tips when one does this kind of ear wash. Q-tips, in fact, can be actually quite traumatizing to an infected ear if one does a lot of digging and scraping of the ear canal with the Q-tips

Once the infected ear is clean, it helps to purchase some 1% hydrocortisone over the counter and apply it to the inside of the ear flap (if it’s affected) and down the ear canal once a day until the ear starts looking better. Once the ear seems better, then I recommend using the hydrocortisone periodically to keep the ear good (maybe 2-3 times a week.) I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep treating the ears until they are 100% healed. If you stop treating them too soon, the infection will simply come back.

Some ear infections are so bad that they require antibiotics and prednisone to heal. This means having to go to your veterinarian. Unfortunately, most vets only want to give a week or two of medication and this is often not enough to get the ears completely healed. It’s up to the owner, unfortunately, to call and get more medication or take the dog back to the vet to make sure the ear is completely healed before the medication is stopped.

Hematomas of the ear happen when a dog somehow traumatizes the flap of the ear such that blood is released between the two sides of the ear flap, ending up as a balloon-like swelling. Hematomas can be caused by a dog constantly shaking its head as a result of an ear infection or from the ear getting traumatized in some other way (a dog fight or somehow getting the ear banged in one way or another.) Hematomas might involve a small portion of the ear flap or the entire ear. It’s important to note that it does no good at all to have the ear drained as it will simply fill up again within a day. The only two options for treatment are surgery or allowing the ear to heal on its own. Surgical treatment involves putting the dog under anesthesia so that a slit can be made on the underside of the ear flap to allow the blood to continually drain out until the ear is healed. During surgery, through and through sutures are placed all around the ear flap to keep the ear from swelling again. The sutures stay in place until the two sides of the ear have had a chance to reattach to one another (usually around 2-3 weeks.)
If a hematoma is allowed to heal on its own, it will take a minimum of 2-3 weeks to heal as the blood inside the flap gradually forms a clot and is slowly reabsorbed. When a hematoma is allowed to heal on its own, it’s always going to result in a deformed ear because, as the clotted blood contracts, it causes the ear flap to curl up on itself creating what I call a “cauliflower” ear. It doesn’t hurt the dog to have a cauliflower ear but owners need to know that that will happen if a hematoma is allowed to heal on its own.

EXCESSIVE WATER INTAKE (a definite red flag!)

Whenever anyone (dog, cat or person) starts drinking a lot more water than what’s normal for that individual, it’s always a red flag. Excessive water consumption means that something is accumulating inside the body and the body is trying to flush it out. It could be the result of an infection, diabetes, kidney or liver disease, thyroid issues or countless other issues in the body. If your dog starts drinking excessive water, it’s important to have your dog checked out. An owner could start by making sure the dog’s urine is truly dilute (i.e.-has a really low specific gravity) by checking the specific gravity with a Multistix strip (these can be cheaply be bought online) or by taking some of the dog’s urine into the vet. Sometimes, it will be found that the dog is just drinking a lot because it’s hot outside or it’s been exercising a lot and the urine won’t be dilute. If the urine is truly overly dilute, then it’s important to try and discover what the problem is through lab work. If a dog is diabetic, the elevated sugar will show up on the urine test strip.

It’s never a good idea to limit a dog’s water intake in order to control its urination: the reason for the excessive urination must be investigated.

EXCITEMENT URINATION

This is a common problem in young dogs and most frequently occurs when the dog’s owners first come home, when new people are introduced to the dog or the dog gets scared or scolded. The best way to handle this problem is to anticipate it. If it’s possible to have the dog outside when it’s most likely to happen, that can be a big help so the dog doesn’t urinate on the floors or carpet in the house. The quest in trying to control excitement urination is to distract the dog. One of the best ways to do this is with food. So, if the excitement urination occurs when an owner walks in the house, it’s going to help to have a special treat handy before you walk in the door. Having a special beloved treat or some lunch meat or cheese in your hand at the moment you see the dog can help the dog to focus on that instead of its excitement at seeing you walking through the door. The owner can toss the treat into the room and let the dog focus on that instead of the owner coming home. The same thing can be done when new people come over. Unfortunately, there’s no way to distract a dog with food if it’s getting scolded. Luckily, most dogs grow out of this unpleasant behavior!

EUTHANASIA (how to make sure it’s a gentle process for your dog)

When that sad moment arrives and it’s time to have to put your dog to sleep, it’s extremely important to make that process go as smoothing as possible for both the dog and the owner. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to give a dog a strong tranquilizer before the euthanasia solution is given. To begin with, the tranquilizer can be given subcutaneously or intramuscularly and that’s a lot less stressful to the dog than the intravenous route needed to administer the euthanasia solution. It’s going to be a much more pleasant process for the dog and the owner if the dog is asleep from the tranquilizer before the euthanasia solution is given. Most importantly, we don’t want our dogs being scared or feeling disoriented during their last moments on earth. It’s the last consideration we can offer them. That’s why it’s important for owners to talk to their veterinarian about the euthanasia process before they come in. Don’t be afraid to ask your veterinarian to please give your dog a strong tranquilizer so that you can sit with your dog while it falls asleep. This way you’ll know your dog is at peace before the euthanasia injection is given. Unfortunately, there can be some unpleasant consequences if a euthanasia solution is given all by itself without any prior tranquilization: a dog might struggle or cry out or even have spasms. There’s no reason a dog should ever have to go through a bad experience when it’s being put to sleep and it’s up to us to make sure our veterinarian knows what we expect.

EYE ISSUES

There are many things that commonly happen with the eyes and most are not too worrisome. Many dogs (especially the brachycephalic dogs with the smushed up faces) are going to experience a routine amount of tearing from the eyes. The most important thing owners need to do is to periodically clean any debris that accumulates at the inside corner of the eyes. If too much debris accumulates, a sore can develop underneath the debris. For the dogs with longer fur, it helps to keep the fur shaved around the eyes so the debris doesn’t stuck to the fur.

Dogs will occasionally have some eye redness in the summer due to various allergens and this is quite normal. The time to become concerned is anytime a dog starts to squint the eye or hold it closed. This is when a dog needs to be taken to the veterinarian. The vet will put some numbing drops in the eye so the eye can be properly examined and, if no foreign bodies are found, the vet will stain the eye with a florescent strip to make sure the dog doesn’t have an ulcer. Treatment of ulcers can be difficult and, if the ulcer doesn’t respond well to ointments and drops, the dog may need to be put under anesthesia in order to freshen up the edges of the ulcer so it can heal better or, on occasion, a 3rd eyelid flap must be performed in order to completely cover the eye for a week or more.

Certain breeds of dogs (German Shepherds and Pugs) are prone to developing corneal dysplasia where pigment is laid down in the cornea of the eye. It can be seen as a black substance that starts gradually covering the surface of the eye. The disease process can’t be stopped but the inflammation due to the pigment can be managed with cortisone eye drops.

Dry eye is a condition that can occasionally occur in older dogs. Without the normal tearing needed to keep an eye healthy, a dog with dry eye gets lots of debris and mucous actually adhered to the surface of the eye to the point that it’s extremely difficult to keep the eye clean. Dry eye is always an uphill battle for the dog and owner and involves the application of a lot of eye drops and lubricants to try and keep the eye moist. The eye that’s afflicted with dry eye is always going to be goopy and very red and irritated. Unfortunately, there’s no easy resolution to dry eye and the owner and simply dog make the best of it.

Glaucoma: Glaucoma is not common in dogs but it does occur. Glaucoma is defined as having increased pressure inside of the eye that eventually destroys the optic nerve and results in blindness. There are two forms of glaucoma: a juvenile or primary form and a secondary or acquired form that occurs mostly in older dogs.

The juvenile or primary form of glaucoma is most common is cocker spaniels, samoyeds, Poodles, Huskies and Chows. Juvenile glaucoma often happens very quickly, sometimes in just a day or two. The first symptoms are discomfort (the dog may paw at its eye), excessive blinking, cloudiness of the eye, squinting and dilated pupils. Glaucoma is easily diagnosed when the veterinarian checks the pressure in the eye with a tonometer. As juvenile glaucoma quickly results in blindness and, since the dog is frequently in so much pain, most glaucomatous eyes have to be removed. Unfortunately, more than 50% of dogs that develop primary glaucoma in one eye will develop it in the other eye within a year so many dogs have to have both eyes removed.

Thankfully, secondary glaucoma (mostly in older dogs) comes on much more gradually and is rarely as severe as juvenile glaucoma. Secondary glaucoma can be often be controlled with special eye drops such as Timolol.

FIGHTING BETWEEN DOGS IN THE SAME HOUSEHOLD

Dogs are pack animals and, as such, there’s going to be a pecking order when there is more than one dog in a household. More problems typically occur between dogs the same sex than dogs of opposite sexes. Having our dogs spayed or neutered can help minimize these conflicts but sometimes even that isn’t enough to stop fights between certain individuals. The majority of conflicts occur as a result of four things: attention, turf, toys and food. Some fights will start whenever a certain person is present and the dogs don’t want to share the attention of that person. Many fights occur when one dog gets too close to another dog’s toys, bed or food. Unfortunately, there’s no way  to anticipate every possible situation that might set two dogs off so owners are often stuck trying to keep the dogs separated or possibly finding another home for one of the dogs. It’s important to find a way to minimize the fighting because not only do the dogs get injured but often times owners (especially children) can get injured during the dog fights. The best thing to do whenever two dogs are fighting is to grab a big comforter or blanket and throw it over the dogs so there’s a buffer to the dogs’ teeth as the dogs are being pulled apart.

When a new dog or puppy is brought home, it’s to be expected that the dog that already lives there is going to feel a bit bent out of shape. Typically, the adjustment period takes anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. If it’s a puppy that’s brought home, an older dog will really appreciate it if there’s a way that it can escape the puppy’s constant biting and playing. This is easily accomplished by letting the older dog (or the puppy) hang out in a separate room for some of the time or one can tether the puppy or keep it in a kennel for certain periods of time. Puppies prefer tethering to being kenneled as they feel less confined and they’re still able to be present to some of the action going on in the house. Yet, while tethered, they can’t simply run where ever they want which not only helps with potty training but also gives the older dog (and the rest of us!) a break from persistent puppy biting and playing.

FLEAS AND TICKS

The thing that one must always take into consideration whenever one is looking at flea and tick protection is that all products eventually lose their effectiveness due to the resistance developed by the fleas and ticks. That’s why Frontline, which used to work quite well for fleas, is simply not that effective anymore. This is also true for Advantage which used to be one of my favorite products for flea protection.

Right now, my favorite product is Comfortis. I love the Comfortis when is comes to flea protection (though it doesn’t unfortunately kill ticks.) What’s great about the Comfortis is that it’s oral (so no pesticides on the surface of our pet’s skin) and it can also be used for cats. The other wonderful thing about Comfortis is that it can be broken down into pieces and divided among all the different sized pets in a household which can make it extremely economical.  Comfortis is available in a Pink box for dogs 5 to 10 lbs and cats 4-6 lbs (140 mg), Orange box for dogs 10.1 to 20 lbs and cats 6.1-12 lbs (270 mg), Green box for dogs 20.1 to 40 lbs and cats 12.1-24 (560 mg), Blue box for dogs 40.1 to 60 lbs (810 mg), and Brown box for dogs 60.1 to 120 lbs (1620 mg). What’s shocking is that the prices between the various sized packages only varies by 2 to 3 dollars! So, whenever I decide it’s time to treat my five cats, I simply get a brown box tablet (1620 mg) and divide it into sixths (1620 mg divided by 6 is 270 mg which is the amount needed by a 6 to 12 pound cat.) Voila!

One thing that one must take into consideration when giving the Comfortis is that it’s a very hard pill. I tell owners to crunch it up into a powder using a pill cutter and the side of a knife or spoon because, if it’s turned into a powder and fed with something yummy like canned food (or people tuna for the cats), it’s going to be much less likely to be thrown up.

As far as ticks are concerned, ticks are by far the most difficult external parasite to control on dogs and cats. Ticks are tough. I’ve heard good reports from owners with respect to both the Seresto collars and Bravecto (both of these can also be given to cats.) Nexgard seems to only do a so-so job of controlling ticks as well as Advantix and Frontline. Simparica is a newer product that purported to work good. It also helps immensely to keep one’s yard mowed short so as to discourage the tick population. Home Depot and Lowes also sell various powders and sprays that can be applied to the lawn and are labeled to keep fleas and ticks at bay for 3 months.

FLAKY SKIN

It’s important to know that a true dry skin is actually quite rare in dogs and that most flaking on a dog’s skin is the result of a seborrheic or secretory issue...please review the section on bathing): I hear owners complaining all the time about their dogs having “dry” skin. In fact, a true dry skin in a dog is extremely rare. What most dogs have is a seborrheic skin where the skin secretes sebum and then the sebum drys and flakes leading an owner to think it’s a dry skin problem. Most of the time, the flaking that owners are complaining about occurs at the top of the rump. Typically, this flaking is the result of sebum being produced in response to a dog being itchy. In the same way a dog’s ear gets goopy and seborrheic whenever it’s inflamed or infected, a dog’s skin does the same thing. The primary reason dogs chew and are itchy at the rump is the result of fleas. In response to being irritated, a dog’s skin secretes the sebum in an attempt to coat the skin and protect itself. If the itchiness at the rump goes on and on, the fur will get chewed off and the skin will eventually get pigmented and thickened (looking a lot like a baboon’s butt!

The best way to deal with this seborrheic flaking is to resolve the itching and to bathe the dog as often as possible with Dawn dishwashing liquid. Since the Dawn is a great grease cutter, it helps remove the sebum on a dog’s skin. The worse thing about sebum is that it stinks! Many hounds and certain other dogs have a naturally seborrheic coat that has nothing to do with being itchy. These dogs produce a lot of sebum on their skin and coat as a natural protection when they’re in cold water. Hounds with seborrheic coats have enough odor that simply petting them will cause your hands to smell like dog! The only things an owner can do when they have a naturally smelly dog is to shave the dog, bathe them frequently with Dawn or possibly apply some powder to absorb the sebum. My daughter has a hound named Birdie that stinks of sebum and, whenever I have to babysit Birdie, I always shave her and then bathe her a lot so she won’t stink up my house.

HEART DISEASE

It’s very common for the smaller breeds of dogs to develop a heart problem as they get older. In an older dog, the mitral valve in the left side of the heart often starts to get leaky, allowing the blood to leak back into the lungs where it was being oxygenated. When blood leaks back into the lungs as a result of a leaky mitral valve, the blood vessels inside the lungs get overly full and fluid leaks out of the blood vessels into the air spaces. This is called pulmonary edema.

When fluid starts accumulating in a dog’s lungs, it’s going to cough. A heart cough often occurs at night and whenever the dog gets excited. There will be 3 to 4 outward coughs (or more) that’s always followed by a gag. The dog will also tend to have exaggerated inspiration if you watch its breathing closely. In other words, the dog’s chest will be more exaggerated in its movement whenever the dog breathes in.

There are 3 primary medications that are used in a dog with heart problems. Very frequently, a dog will be put on a certain amount of Lasix (furosemide) because it is a diuretic and will help get the fluid out of the dog’s lungs. The next medication commonly used is some form of Enalapril. Enalapril is a beta-blocker that will relax the blood vessels so it’s easier for the heart to push blood out of the heart (in the same way that a larger diameter water hose will more water than a smaller diameter hose.) Finally, it’s important that a dog with a heart problem is on a drug called Pimobendan (or Vetmedin) since this is an actual heart drug that will help the heart to beat more strongly and beat more slowly. Whenever the brain detects that the heart is having a problem, it automatically signals the heart to start beating faster assuming that, if the heart beats faster, more blood will pumped through the body. Unfortunately, if the heart beats too fast, it becomes less efficient because the individual chambers of the heart aren’t able to fill completely before the heart contracts again. A dog’s heart problem is most effectively controlled when these three drugs are used together.

When a dog starts doing better with these medications, it’s nice to try and decrease the Lasix as much as is possible in order to put less stress on the kidneys. The heart and kidneys are always at cross purposes in the body because the kidneys want lots of fluid flushing through them while the heart is stressed when there’s more fluid in the body. That’s why it’s important to feed a low salt diet to a dog with a heart problem so there’s less fluid for the heart to deal with. It’s also important to feed a dog with heart problems a low protein diet so as to decrease the stress on the kidneys. All heart problems eventually impact the kidneys so it’s critical to keep that in mind as we try to find a happy balance between the needs of the heart and the needs of the kidneys.

HEART WORMS

Heart worm disease in dogs is a big problem wherever mosquitos are prevalent because the only way a dog can get heart worms is if a mosquito bites a dog that has heart worms, sucks up the baby heat worm larvae that are floating in the dog’s blood and then bites the uninfected dog. That’s why it greatly decreases the chances of a dog getting heart worms if a dog is kept primarily indoors (so they don’t get exposed to mosquitos) or the dog lives in an area where there aren’t many other dogs around (i.e.-out in the country.) There is a concern for country dogs in that coyotes can be infested with heart worms. Unfortunately, it’s not known what percentage of coyotes actually have them because coyotes aren’t being trapped and tested for heart worms. The critical thing to remember is that a dog can only get heart worms from a mosquito that has bitten a dog infected with heart worms.

Adult heart worms live in the heart and produce microscopic larvae that float around in the blood stream. When a mosquito bites a dog with heart worms, it sucks up the microscopic larvae and spreads them to other dogs. Giving monthly prevention keeps a dog from getting heart worms as it kills the larvae before they mature into adults. Unless a dog is under 5 months of age, though, a heart worm test is required before any heart worm prevention will be sold to a dog owner. The reason for the blood test has to do with the fact that certain drug companies that sell heart worm prevention (ex-Heartgard) offer a guarantee that, if your dog comes should come down with heart worms while it’s on the prevention, the drug company will pay for the heart worm treatment. It’s the companies that sell the heart worm prevention that require that dogs have a yearly heart worm test before heart worm prevention is dispensed (i.e.-the drug companies don’t want to pay to treat a dog that already has heart worms.)

It’s important to note that a dog should never be treated for heart worms based on one positive test alone. The most common test done these days is a “snap” test that reacts to protein from the adult female heart worms. Sometimes, it’s possible to have a false positive snap test. That’s why it’s vital that a pet owner get a different type of heart worm test done in order to confirm the accuracy of the positive snap test. The best alternative test is a test called the “Knot’s” test. This test actually looks for baby heart worms (the microfilaria) in the dog’s blood: if a dog has baby heart worms in its blood then it definitely has adult heart worms.

One thing to note: a positive heart worm test doesn’t tell an owner how many heart worms a dog has even though if there are lots and lots of microfilaria on the Knott’s test, then one might guess that there are a lot of adult worms. In truth, though, the only way to know exactly how many heart worms a dog has is with an ultrasound of the heart (and most people don’t want to pay for an ultrasound of their dog’s heart.) So, if a dog has a positive heart worm test, the dog might have 3 worms or it might have 20 worms. Though, if a dog is young or has only missed a few months of heart worm prevention, one wouldn’t expect that the dog would have had enough time to be infected with too many worms. If a dog is older and has been an outside dog all its life in a neighborhood with a lot of other dogs around and has never been on heart worm prevention, then the dog could have lots of worms.

There are two ways to treat heart worms: one involves a drug called Immiticide which is quite toxic and expensive. The thing that makes treating a dog with heart worms so dangerous is that, as the worms start dying, little pieces of the worm  break off as the worm disintegrates and they pass into the lungs. That’s why dogs that undergo heart worm treatment have to be confined and prevented from having any exercise for 6 weeks. Otherwise, the dog might die because the pieces of the dead worms can act like blood clots in the lungs. Most heart worm treatment with Immiticide involves a specific protocol of heart worm prevention, doxycycline (an antibiotic) and prednisone. The recommendations for this treatment can be found on the American Heart Worm Society website. The safest treatment with Immiticide involves 3 injections of the drug: one at the beginning of the month and two at the end of the month. This allows the worm death to be spread out over a month rather than having it happen all at once which would increase the likelihood of problems.

A second way to treat heart worms is a treatment called the “Slow Kill” and it’s been a bit controversial. The slow kill method of killing heart worms involves putting a dog on heart worm prevention along with the antibiotic doxycycline (which renders the adult worms easier to kill by killing a bacteria called Wolbachia that lives on the heart worms.) The slow kill method does take longer to kill the adult worms in the heart (usually 8 to 10 months.) It’s controversial because there’s a concern that this method of heart worm treatment might increase the resistance of the adult worms to the heart worm prevention. Unfortunately, the cost of treating heart worms with the fast kill is so expensive that many owners have no choice but to go with the less expensive option.

There are two main options when it comes to the slow kill method of killing heart worms. One option involves giving Heartgard (ivermectin/pyrantel) once weekly along with 10 mg/kg of doxycycline once daily for 30 days. Then the doxycycline is stopped for two weeks and then given once daily for two weeks off and on for a total of 33 weeks. The best treatment option for the slow kill of heart worms, though, involves giving AdvantageMulti once a month with 10 mg/kg of doxycycline twice daily for 30 days then alternating every two weeks off and on for a total of 36 weeks. A dog can be considered to be heart worm free when it’s had two negative tests 6 months apart. Unfortunately, the cost of doxycycline has gone way up in recent years but it can be purchased for less if you purchase it in higher quantities from a veterinary supply house (though a prescription is needed.) I recently ordered 500 tablets of 100 mg doxycycline for $46.00. You simply need to find a veterinarian that will work with you.

Please note: even when one does the slow kill method of heart worm treatment, it’s still important to restrict your dog’s activity while it’s being treated and it’s important to let your veterinarian know if your dog starts doing any coughing or distressed breathing. The worms are still dying during the slow kill treatment (even if more slowly) and their dead bodies will pass into the lung field as they die. Prednisone is very helpful if a dog starts to have a reaction to the dead worms during treatment (which is exhibited by coughing or difficult breathing.)

One final note for those people who can’t afford heart worm prevention or the blood tests required: there are alternatives. First off, there are Canadian veterinary companies that will sell the heart worm prevention without a blood test. Secondly, it’s always possible to purchase a larger sized heart worm prevention chew and divide that chew among smaller dogs. Finally, there is a product called Ivomec which is Ivermectin for cattle and it can be purchased at Tractor Supplies and other feed stores. There are formulas online that explain how to mix the Ivermectin with propylene glycol so it can be diluted enough to be given orally to a dog once a month to prevent heart worms. It takes an extremely small amount and it’s important to follow the dilution directions carefully so as to not overdose a dog.

Please note: Ivermectin is not recommended for use in Collies, Border Collies, Aussies or certain similar breeds as these breeds can have a serious reaction to Ivermectin that can result in death.

HYPOTHYROIDISM (primarily a large breed and older dog problem)

Hypothyroidism occurs primarily in older, mid-sized or larger breeds of dogs. The typical symptoms involve a dog that’s overweight and sluggish with non-itchy skin issues. Hypothyroid dogs often have diffuse fur loss that’s not related to the dog being itchy. Many of these dogs also have thickened and pigmented skin. They tend to have exaggerated folds of skin, especially around the face giving them a “down-dog” appearance. A sure fire red flag for hypothyroidism is any dog who has had its fur shaved and the fur has refused to grow back. Also, any dog that has an area of black pigmented skin in an area where the skin used to be light colored. Hyper-pigmentation is a hallmark feature of hypothyroid dogs.

Sometimes, unfortunately, it can be difficult to diagnose a hypothyroid dog on the basis of lab work alone. This has been an ongoing problem for veterinarians who suspect a dog is hypothyroid but the lab work isn’t definitive. It helps to look at some of the dog’s other lab values as many hypothyroid dogs have elevated cholesterol levels and elevated alkaline phosphatase levels (a liver enzyme.) This can help to confirm the suspected diagnosis. Sometimes, if a dog looks and acts like a hypothyroid dog but the lab results are inconclusive, it may be worth it to simply try the dog on a round of thyroid medication to see if it corrects some of the dog’s symptoms.

INTESTINAL PARASITES(please note that roundworms can be a concern for toddlers)

Dogs have many intestinal parasites and, to make them easier to understand, I’ll discuss each of them individually:

Roundworms: Roundworms are very common in puppies. These are the spaghetti-like worms that come out in the stool when a puppy is dewormed. Most of the time, owners won’t see the worms until the puppy is dewormed. If a puppy happens to have an extremely heavy load of roundworms, some of the worms might occasionally get vomited up or passed out in the stool even before the puppy is dewormed.

Roundworms cause puppies to have very round, bloated abdomens and, as a consequence, owners often think that their puppies are fat when, in reality, many of these bloated-looking puppies are actually thin as evidenced by how bony they are along their vertebral column.

The reason that so many puppies have roundworms has to do with the incredibly complex life cycle of the roundworm. And, as a result of their complex life cycle, roundworms can sometimes be a concern in children (especially toddlers.) When a roundworm egg hatches in a dog’s intestine, a larva comes out and actually penetrates the intestinal lining. Then, the larva migrates throughout the dog’s body until it reaches the lungs where it’s coughed up and swallowed. Once the larva gets back to the intestine, it matures into an adult and produces eggs that go out in the dog’s stool.

As the larvae migrate through a dog’s body, some of them go to muscle where they are encysted. These encysted larvae remain in the dog’s muscle until a female dog becomes pregnant: then the larvae come out of the cyst and migrate to the uterus where they infect the puppies before they’re born! That’s why so many puppies have roundworms no matter what a breeder tries to do to prevent them.

Fearfully, if children (especially toddlers) somehow manage to get roundworm eggs in their mouth, the larvae will also hatch out and migrate through a child’s body and sometimes end up in the liver, eye or brain! I have no idea why pediatricians don’t warn parents about roundworms because they can be a real concern in children, especially children under six years of age since a young child’s immune system isn’t developed enough to keep the roundworm larvae from migrating throughout the body.

The most common way that children get infected with roundworms is through exposure to dirt where puppies have pooped. Roundworm eggs are indestructible and stay viable for years and years. If kids play in dirt where roundworm eggs have been deposited and those kids get somehow get dirt in their mouths, the roundworm eggs will hatch in the child’s intestine and start migrating through the child’s body. The possibility of exposure is much less when puppies are pooping on grass because, between mowing and rain, the roundworm eggs gravitate get buried in the thatch and aren’t as accessible to being swallowed by kids. That’s why, if your children ever go to someone’s house where the yard is primarily dirt and there are a bunch of dogs that have been pooping all over that dirt, please don’t let your kids play on that dirt!

It’s also important to know that, whenever a puppy is dewormed with an oral de-wormer, the oral de-wormer can only kill the roundworms that are in the intestine: they can’t kill the larvae migrating throughout the dog’s body. That’s why puppies are frequently de-wormed every two weeks until they’re four or five months old. What will kill the migrating larvae, though, is heart worm prevention. So, if your puppy has roundworms and you want to get rid of them as quickly as possible, give your puppy heart worm prevention once a month in addition to the oral de-wormers.

Tapeworms: Tapeworms are the short, flat, rice-like worms that are often found on top of a dog’s poop or stuck to the fur around a dog’s anus. Luckily, these worms aren’t dangerous but they are quite gross! Tapeworms are spread by fleas and can only occur in a dog if the dog has chewed on itself and swallowed a flea. Tapeworms are a segmented worm and new segments are continually produced at the head of the worm. As the segments move toward the end of the worm, they fill up with eggs and eventually break off and come out in the poop. With time, the segments dry up and the eggs are released into the environment. Unbelievably, flea larvae end up eating the tapeworm eggs and, when a dog chews on itself and swallows a flea, the tapeworm egg inside the flea is released and starts to mature into an adult tapeworm.

Tapeworms require a different de-wormer from that which kills roundworms and hookworms. Medication for tapeworms needs to specify that it kills “tapeworms” (the most common being Fenbendazole or Praziquantel.) These tapeworm medications destroy the protective coating that’s around the worm such that the worm is digested. That’s why owners don’t see a bunch of tapeworm segments coming out after a dog is dewormed (the way they will with roundworms.) Just remember, if your dog eats a flea with a tapeworm egg inside the day after it’s dewormed, new tapeworms segments can show up in the stool within a month.

Hookworms: Hookworms are small (less than an inch) worms that suck blood from the lining of a puppy’s intestine and can cause a puppy to become anemia. Hookworm eggs are passed out in the puppy’s poop, they then hatch into larvae and the larvae either penetrate a dog’s skin or get swallowed by a dog when it licks and cleans itself. If the hookworms penetrate the skin, they migrate until they get to the intestine or make it to the lungs and are coughed up and swallowed. Like roundworms, some larvae stay in muscle and are triggered by a female’s pregnancy and go to the mammary glands and are passed to the puppies in the mother’s milk. Hookworms are easily killed by oral medications or by certain heart worm prevention medication.

The symptoms of hookworm in a puppy are black, tarry stools, diarrhea, a thin and unhealthy looking puppy with pale gums.

Hookworms can also infect people if people walk barefoot in dirt where dog poop (with hookworm eggs) has been deposited. The larvae in the soil penetrate the skin and cause a rash under the skin and occasionally migrate elsewhere in the body. It’s important to make sure kids wear shoes if they’re playing in an area where dogs have pooped in the past.

Whipworms: Whipworms are 2-3 inches long and live in the large intestine of dogs. They cause diarrhea (sometimes bloody), weight loss and anemia. Due to the fact that the eggs last for years and years in the environment, many dogs continue to re-infect themselves. The life cycle is very simple: eggs are pooped out and dogs ingest the eggs from the environment. Luckily, many heart worm prevention medications kill whipworms and this is now one of the best ways to control whipworms in dogs. Whipworms are not considered to be a problem in people.

Coccidia: Coccidia are one-celled protozoa that live inside a dog’s intestine. Many adult dogs can have coccidia without any symptoms but, in a puppy, it can cause severe diarrhea and dehydration. The life cycle is very straight forward: oocysts (eggs) are passed out in the dog’s stool and then, when the oocysts mature, a dog is infected when it inadvertently eats the oocysts in the environment. Coccidia are treated with sulfa drugs (Albon) from five to twenty days. Fortunately, the coccidia that are typically found in dogs are not a problem in people.

Itchy Dogs

Please read the sections on “Skin issues” and “Flaky skin.”

 

Jumping off of beds and out of trucks

Please read the section on “Back pain.”

 

Kennel Cough

Please read the section on “Coughing.”

KIDNEY DISEASE

Most problems with the kidneys occur as dogs get older. The kidneys are responsible for filtering the blood and eliminating toxins out in the urine. The kidneys also help to control the fluid levels in the body: preserving fluid when the body is dehydrated and getting rid of excess fluid as needed.

To put less pressure on the kidneys as a dog gets older, it’s helpful to feed a dog less protein. As discussed in the diet section above, the protein levels in dry dog foods has gone up dramatically in recent years and, contrary to what the food industry wants us to believe, excess protein is hard on a dog. Any extra protein that comes into the body above what a dog needs at a given moment cannot be stored in the body. But, as the body doesn’t want to waste the excess protein, the body will convert the extra protein into glucose. Unfortunately, this process produces a lot of nitrogen by-products and these must be eliminated out the liver and kidneys. So, extra protein always means extra work for the liver and kidneys. That’s why, as a dog gets older, it’s best for the dog’s kidneys if the dog eats a dry food that only has 20% protein in it. Canned food is actually a good choice for older dogs with kidney issues because canned food is 78% water and only contains 8 to 10% protein. As far as table food fed to older dogs, it’s best to avoid high protein foods (such as meat, cheese, rice, etc) and feed more carbohydrates (such as noodles, potatoes, bread, vegetables and fruit.)

The first signs of kidney disease almost always include an excessive amount of water intake along with a decrease in appetite. Kidney problems often occur in conjunction with a heart problem since the kidneys aren’t happy when the heart doesn’t do its job. Unfortunately, the kidney and heart are always at odds with one another as the kidney needs lots of fluid to function while the heart gets stressed by excessive amounts of fluid.

LAMENESS AND INJURIES

As discussed in the sections under arthritis, back pain and ball chasers, most injuries in a dog revolve around the activities that many dogs do on a daily basis. In addition to all the activities that cause wear and tear on a dog’s back, the most common injury that dog’s experience on a routine basis is a torn cruciate ligament in the knee. The most frequent cause of a torn cruciate ligament is sharp cutting movements while chasing a squirrel, ball or frisbee. An owner can’t control a dog’s chasing of squirrels but an owner can do a few things to minimize the trauma experienced when chasing a ball or frisbee. The key is to throw a ball such that it has stopped by the time a dog gets to it and to keep frisbees low to the ground.

It also helps to save a dog’s back and it’s front legs if an owner can keep a dog from jumping off beds, porches and out of trucks. Owners who have their dogs go with them everywhere in their trucks need to teach the dog to go into and out of the truck via the floor board. That can really save a dog’s back and front legs over time.

The benefits of giving glucosamine/chondroitin to dogs seems to vary from dog to dog: some owners say their dog was greatly benefited and others not so much. One good thing is it can’t hurt to try a dog on it. Glucosamine/chondroitin is supposed to help rebuild and repair cartilage. The dose is based on the chondroitin component of the combination. The dose of chondroitin is 7 mg/lb. and one simply purchases that amount of chondroitin along with whatever glucosamine is present. It’s to be given once daily. So, a 50 pound dog would need a chondroitin dose of 350 mg (7 X 50) along with whatever amount of glucosamine is present. As it’s extremely safe, it won’t hurt to give a little bit larger dose than what was calculated. One can simply go to Walgreens and get the glucosamine/chondroitin there and one can often get a “buy one/get one free” special. If needed, one can look for the tablet form in order to break the tablet into the amount needed for smaller dogs.

LIVER DISEASE

Liver disease in a dog typically demonstrates itself with certain classic symptoms. Often there is weight loss due to a loss of appetite; frequent vomiting and diarrhea; increased thirst and urination; jaundice (yellowish discoloration to eyes and skin); weakness, confusion or unsteady gait; seizures or fluid build-up in the abdomen (ascites.)

Thankfully, liver disease isn’t horribly common in dogs and, when it does occur, it mostly occurs in older dogs. Many dogs have liver disease that’s secondary to other diseases such as diabetes and Cushing’s disease (hyperadrenocorticism.) Occasionally, a puppy will be born with what is called Portosystemic Shunt in which some of the blood vessels supplying the liver actually by-pass the liver. Certain breeds have a predisposition to being born with a liver shunt: Miniature schnauzers, Poodles, Shih Tzus, Pugs, Yorkies, Irish wolfhounds, Cairn terriers, Cocker spaniels, Maltese, Australian Cattle dogs, Golden retrievers, Old English sheepdogs and Labrador retrievers. In addition to most of these puppies being very small and stunted, they often have neurologic symptoms where they act disoriented and confused. They might even bump into walls, head press into a corner or even have seizures. Dogs with a liver shunt often don’t do well with anesthesia or they can take an extremely long time to recover. Many of the symptoms of a liver shunt are exaggerated after a high protein meal because, as the liver can’t metabolize the nitrogen in the protein, ammonia is formed which is extremely toxic to the nervous system. There are certain specific tests and procedures that can be done to diagnose a liver shunt but, unfortunately, unless the problem can be resolved surgically, most of these dogs have to be put to sleep.

Most liver problems in a dog can be divided into 4 main categories.

1.Infectious: Thankfully, dogs don’t have as many infectious diseases that target the liver as do people. Humans have a lot of different types of infectious hepatitis but, in dogs, viruses that target the liver are fairly rare. Rarely, canine adenovirus or a herpes virus can infect the liver of a puppy but it’s not common. In certain areas of the country, systemic fungal diseases such as coccidioidomycosis and histoplasmosis can settle in the liver along with many other organs in the body causing serious disease.

One thing that does happen quite frequently, though, is secondary bacteria in the liver. Bacteria love to come in and take advantage of an already existing problem in the liver, causing a dog feel that much worse. That’s why so many dogs with liver disease show improvement when they’re put on certain antibiotics such as Amoxicillin or Cephalexin. Even though the original problem in the liver is still going on, the secondary bacteria are taken out of the picture by the antibiotics. In general, though, infectious disease is not a huge cause of liver disease in dogs.

2. Toxic: Toxic substances are not a huge cause of liver disease in dogs as most dogs don’t get exposed to that many toxic substances. There have been instances where certain dog foods have been contaminated with toxic substances that targeted the liver but, fortunately, this isn’t something that happens too frequently.

Certain drugs can cause toxicity in the liver, most commonly Phenobarbital and Rimadyl. These medications are commonly prescribed in dogs and, consequently, veterinarians will want to monitor a dog’s liver enzymes at least once a year when the dog is on these medications long term.

Other than these types of situations, the average dog doesn’t get exposed to many toxic substances.

3. Degenerative and inflammatory liver disease: This is a huge category for liver problems in dogs. Some dogs are born with genetic problems that involves an ability to metabolize certain substances. Bedlington terriers, Dobermans, Skye terriers and West Highland terriers are sometimes born with copper storage disease in which they’re unable to get rid of excess copper in the liver resulting in chronic liver disease. Many degenerative and inflammatory diseases are poorly understood and are often given names that actually describes how the condition looks microscopically such as lipidosis (fatty liver), cirrhosis (scarred liver) and various forms of hepatitis (inflammation of the liver.)

4. Cancer of the liver: Unfortunately, a lot of cancer ends up in the liver in older dogs though, frequently, most of the cancer found in the liver is metastatic: meaning it came to the liver from somewhere else.

The most common way to diagnosis liver disease is through various kinds of lab work. Many of the liver enzymes that are checked on routine lab work can originate in many different organs so they are not necessarily specific to the liver. For example, alkaline phosphatase is a common enzyme that can be found in the bones, kidney, intestines and liver. So, in a young growing puppy, an elevated alkaline phosphatase will often result of bone growth and not a liver problem.

The primary tests used to evaluate the liver:

ALT: (alanine aminotransferase…formerly called SGPT): This enzyme is found inside liver cells so, if this enzyme is elevated, it means there is increased cell death. This enzyme is also found in the kidney and intestine. Certain drugs, such as cortisone, can cause an elevation in the ALT.

AST: (aspartate transaminase…formerly called SGOT): This enzyme is also found inside liver cells and is released whenever the liver is damaged. This enzyme is also found in red blood cells, heart, muscle, pancreas and bile so the veterinarian will be looking at the other liver tests to determine if that is the source of its elevation. Fortunately, cortisone does not cause a significant increases in the AST.

ALP (alkaline Phosphatase): This enzyme is found on the outside of liver and bile duct cells. Anything that causes the liver to swell will cause this enzyme to back up into the blood stream. Cortisone and phenobarbital can cause an increase in the ALP and an increased ALP is also common in hypothyroidism and Cushing’s Disease (due to the elevated cortisone levels.) As ALP is also found in the bones, intestines and kidney, other conditions can result in an increase in ALP. As mentioned above, an increase in ALP is normal in growing puppies due to the rapid bone growth going on.

GGT (gamma-glutamyltransferase): GGT is also an enzyme that’s found on the outside of cells in the bile ducts of the liver, pancreas and kidneys. Increased levels of GGT can occur anytime the liver is swollen in the same way that the ALP will be elevated. Cortisone also causes an increase in GGT.

Total Bilirubin: An increase of total bilirubin in the blood is caused by either an increased destruction of red blood cells (bilirubin is a by-product of hemoglobin breakdown) or a problem with the uptake, processing or release of bilirubin by the liver. Too much bilirubin in the tissues will cause the skin, gums and the whites of the eyes to turn yellow (jaundice.) Jaundice is a sign of serious disease.

Serum Bile Acids Test: This is a very helpful test is determining the degree of liver dysfunction. The dog is fasted for 12 hours and then a blood sample is taken. The dog is then fed a fatty meal and a blood test is taken 2 hours afterwards. If the liver is functioning normally, the level of bile acids in the fasted and post-feeding samples will be normal. If there’s a problem with how the liver is functioning, the bile acids will be either in the post-feeding sample.

Ultrasound: An ultrasound is a wonderful way to evaluate the liver and allows the veterinarian to even take a biopsy of the liver if it’s needed. A lot of information can be gotten from an ultrasound, especially when looking for signs of cancer.

LOSS OF APPETITE

Anytime a dog quits wanting to eat, it’s always a cause for concern. Occasionally, a dog might not eat for a less worrisome reason such as the weather being extremely hot. A lot of dogs refuse to eat when it’s overly hot outside. Most of us know, though, what’s normal for our dog when it comes to its eating habits and, if our dog is deviating too much from what’s normal, we need to try and figure out what’s going on. That’s why it can be helpful if owners know which of the permissible table foods a particular dog likes to eat so that, if a dog has quit eating its normal food, we can find out if the dog will at least eat some of the table food that it normally loves. If the dog won’t even eat the table food it loves, then we know that there’s probably something fairly worrisome going on with the dog. The number of things that can cause a dog to quit eating are too numerous to list. That’s why a good exam by a veterinarian along with some lab work or x-rays can help to pinpoint what the root of the problem is. Not eating is a symptom of something that is causing the dog to feel bad enough to not eat and the cause needs to be explored so the dog can get back to feeling good again.

LUMPS AND BUMPS ON THE SKIN

The most important thing that needs to be mentioned about lumps on a dog (especially those on an older dog) is that 99% of these lumps are benign. Most lumps fall into two categories: lumps below the skin (mostly fatty lumps) and lumps above the skin (warts, cysts and other peduncular bumps.) All of these lumps are benign and the only reason they ever need to be removed is if they’re causing a problem of some kind: i.e.-they’re in the way (like a fatty lump that’s under the armpit and is making it hard for a dog to move) or the bump keeps getting traumatized through grooming or other means (warts and cysts.)

As far as warts are concerned, they often get into a bleed-crust cycle. What happens is a wart will get traumatized (through grooming or by the dog scratching it) and bleed and then form a crust. Then, the crust gets knocked off and the wart bleeds again and forms another crust. To break this cycle, it’s important for an owner to apply some vaseline or petroleum jelly to the crusty wart in order to soften the crust and get it off. The owner then needs to keep applying some of the petroleum jelly until the wart quiets down and there’s no more bleeding and crusting.

There is one kind of tumor that is dangerous and that’s a tumor that’s IN the skin. These are frequently mast cell tumors and they are malignant and need to be removed. Mast cell tumors typically grow quite fast and are more common in young dogs. Sometimes, there will be multiple mast cell tumors that come up at the same time. The easiest way to diagnose any lump, especially a mast cell tumor, is for a veterinarian to do a needle aspiration. The dog doesn’t need to go under anesthesia for a needle aspiration and it’s not painful for the dog. Needle aspiration can differentiate between a fatty tumor which is benign and a mast cell tumor which is malignant. A veterinarian simply sucks up some cells from a tumor with a needle, squirts the cells onto a microscopic slide, stains the slide and either looks at the slide under a microscope at the clinic or sends the slide to a laboratory for analysis. Mast cell tumors are quite easy to diagnose as the cells are loaded with blue granules that are very characteristic of a mast cell tumor.

Another malignant tumor that can occasionally pop up on a dog’s body is a fibrosarcoma. Fibrosarcomas do not spread throughout the body in the way that a mast cell tumor does but they are locally reoccurring as they have tentacle-like extensions that extend into the surrounding tissues. Most fibrosarcomas come up on the legs and toes and, since they tend to keep coming back even after they’re surgically removed, the only real solution at times is to amputate the toe or leg.

The other lumps and bumps that dogs tend to get as they get older are rarely a concern. Unless a lump is causing a problem for some reason, it’s not in a dog’s best interest to repeatedly go under anesthesia so as to remove every lump that might pop up as a dog gets older. Once again, we don’t want to be putting our dogs under anesthesia (especially when they’re older) unless it’s absolutely necessary.

MANGE

There are two types of mange in dogs. By far the most common form of mange is Demodex. Demodex is primarily a skin disease in puppies and young dogs, most especially in Pit Bulls. Demodex is a mite that lives in the skin of all healthy dogs (and people!) and it’s only when the dog’s immunity is suppressed for some unknown reason that the dog comes down with the disease of Demodex. The main sign of Demodex is fur loss around the face or front legs primarily but sometimes there will be fur loss on the body and back legs. The fur loss spots are not usually big and are not itchy. Demodex is diagnosed with a skin scraping and Demodex is very easy to diagnose because there are usually lots of mites that veterinarians can see under the microscope. Demodex is NOT contagious to people or to other dogs. Most of the time, when Demodex is diagnosed in a puppy or young dog and there are only a few bald spots, treatment is often put on hold and most cases like this are self-limiting and the spots simple go away. If more bald spots start to show up or the existing bald areas start getting red and inflamed due to secondary bacteria, then treatment using Ivermectin and antibiotics in begun. Ivermectin is given orally once daily for several weeks. It typically takes 2-5 months to cure a dog with a significant case of Demodex. Some dogs unfortunately are never cured.

The second type of mange is called Sarcoptic mange. It is not common at all and, in my entire career as a veterinarian, I’ve only diagnosed it 10 to 20 times. Sarcoptic mange, as opposed to Demodex, is very itchy and it is contagious to other dogs and people!  That is how it’s often diagnosed: when other dogs in the household or the owners come down with it. Sarcoptic is not like Demodex: it’s mites are hard to find and a veterinarian can do several skin scrapings without finding a single mite. The pattern of lesions on a dog are the elbows, ears and the dog’s underside. These lesions are extremely itchy and that can be a bit of a red flag. Sarcoptic mange is fairly easy to treat and there are a multitude of treatment possibilities. Ivermectin can be given orally or in the form of an injection. Also, Revolution and Advantage Multi (heart worm preventatives) are labeled for Sarcoptic mange though sometimes an extra dose needs to be given when a dog has an active case. Certain dips, such as Mitaban, can also be used to kill the mites.

OVERWEIGHT DOGS

Please read the section about overweight dogs under “Diet.”

PANCREATITIS

Pancreatitis is a fairly common illness in dogs and is most commonly associated with a dietary indiscretion in which the owner feeds the dog some kind fatty food or a greasy steak bone. The pancreas in a small slip of an organ that sits on the first part of the small intestine. The pancreas performs two functions: it produces insulin to control the body’s blood sugar and it produces the digestive enzymes that are needed to digest the food coming out of the stomach.

The pancreas in certain dogs can become dangerously inflamed if the dog is fed something fatty. The fatty foods that most frequently cause pancreatitis are the foods designated in the diet section above to NEVER be fed to a dog: real bacon or sausage, grease, drippings, chicken or turkey skins, fat off of the red meats or ham and bones of any kind (steak, chicken, rib, etc.) Some dogs are so sensitive to fat that they can actually develop pancreatitis from certain dry dog foods that have extra high amounts of fat in them. In the past, dry dog foods only had 6 to 12% fat but, in recent years, the fat content has steadily increased until some dry dog foods have 20% or more fat in them. This is way too much fat for dogs that are sensitive to fat.

The packets of digestive enzymes in the pancreas normally don’t become active until they are released into the small intestine and are activated by the acid secreted by the stomach. When the pancreas becomes inflamed, the packets of digestive enzymes inside the pancreas (which are strong enough to break down meat) don’t wait to be released until they’re in the small intestine. Instead, they are released inside the pancreas and they start to chew up the pancreas in a process that’s called auto-digestion. This is what makes pancreatitis such a serious disease. Once a dog gets pancreatitis, the dog quits eating and starts vomiting. Oftentimes, pancreatitis can be so severe that a dog has to be hospitalized and kept on IV fluids until the pancreas can finally heal.

To avoid causing pancreatitis in a dog, NEVER feed any fatty foods or bones and keep the fat percentage in a dog’s dry food below 12%.

 

PARVO

The infectious agent that veterinarians are most concerned about when it comes to puppies is Parvo. Thankfully, Parvo isn’t as common as it used to be but it is still out there. The bad thing about Parvo is that the virus can remain contagious for months after it’s been vomited or pooped out. The most confusing thing for owners is that they tend to think that, once a puppy has had a vaccination or two, that it should be protected. That, unfortunately, isn’t true. A puppy typically gets vaccinated at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age and, until the puppy is vaccinated at 4 months of age (16 weeks of age), it is considered still susceptible to getting Parvo. At 4 months of age, a puppy’s immune system is finally mature enough to make a good enough immunity to withstand an exposure to Parvo and for that immunity to last a full year. I tell owners that, to be safe, when a puppy gets its last shot at 4 months of age, it’s a good ides to keep the puppy confined for 2 more weeks so that the puppy can make a good response to the vaccine before it’s taken out to any dog parks. I tell owners that, if they want to take a puppy for a walk before it’s 4 months old and has had its last vaccination, it’s ok to walk the puppy on concrete or asphalt as the Parvo virus isn’t going to live well on concrete or asphalt. The concern is if a puppy goes for a walk in a park and a dog with Parvo did some vomiting and diarrhea there even 4 to 5 months ago, the virus could still be active. If the puppy walks through an area where that Parvo virus has been deposited, the puppy can get the virus on its feet and later, when it licks its paws, the virus will go down to the intestine and start to make the puppy sick.

Parvo always involves a complete lack of appetite, vomiting and bloody diarrhea. Parvo is NOT something that can be treated at home by the owner. A puppy with Parvo requires a veterinarian’s care as it will need IV fluids, antibiotics and lots of TLC. It’s critical that a puppy with the symptoms of Parvo be taken to a veterinarian as soon as possible. Some of these puppies can be saved if they receive treatment soon enough.

PICKING THE RIGHT DOG FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY

There are many things to consider whenever one is looking for a dog to bring home. As a veterinarian, I’ve seen countless people who impulsively go out and get a dog only to find out later that the dog wasn’t a good choice.

To begin with, owners need to consider size, age and temperament. If one is older or has a small living space, it’s not a good idea to get a overly large dog. If wants to get a young puppy, one has to think about the ordeal of potty training, vaccinations and getting the dog spayed or neutered. Also, a young pup is going to be very frisky and will be getting into everything. The nice thing about an older dog is that they’re frequently much more settled and mature and therefore much easier to fit into our lives.

Certain breeds are naturally going to be more active and destructive and will demand more involvement and participation on behalf of the owner. Terriers, sporting and working breeds are going to need this kind of owner involvement unless the dog is older and past its prime.

Owners also need to consider the care certain dogs require that don’t shed. Of course, it’s wonderful to not have fur getting everywhere but the non-shedding dogs are going to require routine grooming and this can get expensive. With shedding dogs, potential owners need to think about all the hair that’s going to be getting all over everything in the house.

A big consideration is whether a dog is going to live inside or outside. Some dogs are going to be working on farms or be used as protection for home owners. It’s always a little sad for me to see a dog live its whole life outside as the dog is never going to experience the bonding and closeness that the inside dogs get to experience on a daily basis.

Also, in this day and time, it’s become much more expensive to provide for a dog. Not only are there vaccinations, heart worm prevention, grooming, providing food and flea and tick protection but one must be prepared for potential injury or illness that will shoot up the cost for visiting a veterinarian astronomically.

With older individuals, it must be remember that the tiny breeds can get underfoot and cause an older person to trip or fall. At the same time, too large of a dog can be difficult for an older person to care for.

With so many things to consider, I hope potential dog owners will take time to think about which dog is going to best fit into their lives.

PICKING THE RIGHT VETERINARIAN

 

POOP EATING IN DOGS

 

POTTY TRAINING

Most large breeds of dogs are going to be pretty easy to potty-train. This has to do with the fact that no dog likes to urinate or poop in its immediate vicinity (why dogs rarely poop or urinate in their kennels.) The problem with smaller breeds of dogs is that the house seems really big to them and that’s why it’s not a big deal to them to urinate and poop in the formal dining room or a back bedroom since that seems completely off the beaten track for them. A large breed won’t do this because the house feels smaller to them and they don’t want their urine and poop anywhere near where they are.

So, it’s always going to be much more difficult trying to potty train a toy or small breed of dog. The key to success in any effort to potty train a dog is to eliminate the mistakes. Each time a puppy manages to make a mistake, its brain sets up a neurologic pathway that says “this is what I do!” That’s why it does almost no good to scold a puppy after the fact. What an owner needs to do is have a plan as to how they’re going to keep their puppy from making mistakes. One can keep the puppy in a kennel to do this but that’s not very much fun for the owner or the puppy. A much better way it to keep a puppy from making mistakes is to either set up a boundary for the puppy or put the puppy on a tether. Tethers work really well. If the puppy can be fitted for a harness so that it doesn’t pull at its neck all the time, the tether will control the puppy so that it can’t sneak off and make a mistake when no one’s watching. This is all that’s needed for most larger breeds of dogs. For the toys or small breeds of dogs, the owner will typically need to use potty pads. Sometimes, the potty pads will need to be taped to the floor or anchored at the corners some bricks as puppies like to tear them up and play with them. Once the puppy finally urinates or poops on the pad, it helps to cover the dirty pad with a clean one because the odor of the urine and poop will make the puppy want to go back to the potty pad the next time it needs to poop or urinate.

PUPPIES

There are lots of things that need to be covered when one is discussing puppies.

1. Diet in puppies: To begin with, it’s important to be sure that the puppy is eating well. Most puppies shouldn’t be separated from their mother until they are at least 7-8 weeks old and, by that time, they should be eating well on their own.

There are two ways to make sure a puppy is getting enough nutrition: by how their body mass looks and by how many poops they’re having a day. A puppy should be having at least 4-5 poops a day and, if the puppy is only having one or two poops a day, it definitely needs to be fed more. To properly evaluate a puppy’s body mass, one doesn’t look at the puppy’s belly. Many owners will think that, because a puppy has a big belly, it’s fat when, in truth, the majority of big bellies are the result of intestinal parasites (most commonly roundworms.) Where owners need to look in order to evaluate their puppy’s body mass is at the puppy’s vertebral column and the puppy’s pelvic bones and ribs: if these can be easily felt, then the puppy is way too thin. There should be some meat over the top of these structures. As many puppies have thick or bushy coats, the fur can often hide just how thin these puppies really are.

It’s also a good sign that a puppy might need to be fed more if the puppy is ravenously wolfing down the dry food every time it’s fed. Dry food is not that appetizing and, if a puppy is wolfing it down, it probably needs to be fed more. It’s better to increase the frequency of how often a puppy is being fed rather than risk over feeding the puppy at any one setting. I’ll often tell owners to toss a puppy a hand full of dry food every few hours until it becomes less frantic about wolfing it down.

If a puppy is too thin and isn’t wolfing its food, then the owner needs to find a way to get the puppy to eat more. Certain breeds are extremely picky when it comes to eating dry food: German Shepherds, Huskies, Boxers and almost all of the small breeds of dogs that will weigh no more than 10 to 15 pounds at maturity. In order to get these puppies to eat, owners need to try some of the techniques discussed in the diet section under “Underweight Dogs.” Essentially, what’s needed to fatten up an overly thin puppy or dog is a way to yummy up the dry food. Dry food is where all the calories are when it comes to dog food. Canned food, though it may look like meat, is 78-80% water! Canned food can be helpful, though, as it can be used to yummy up the dry food. The trick is to add only a small amount of the canned (maybe a teaspoon or tablespoon depending on the size of the dog) and then add just enough hot water to stir the canned food into the dry making a yummy stew. Some small breeds of dogs don’t like dog canned food so I’ll tell owners that it’s fine to try their dogs on cat canned food since it’s a lot more tasty than dog canned food. The most important thing to remember when feeding canned food of any kind is to try and stay with one brand and one flavor of canned food because, if an owner varies the brands and flavors of canned food too much, it’s very likely that, sooner or later, they’ll come across a flavor or brand that will cause some soft stool.

Another way to yummy up a puppy’s dry food in an attempt to fatten it up is to add some of the permissible table food to the dry food (check out the permissible table foods under “Diet” above.) Some table food that works good to yummy up dry food is to add some low-far cottage cheese to the dry food or some yogurt or milk. It also works great to shred some cheese over the dry food and hit it with the microwave for 10 seconds so that the cheese melts and this will definitely get a picky eater to eat.

2. Intestinal parasites: These are covered in the section above by the same name (Intestinal Parasites”.) I just want to say that roundworms are very common in puppies as they infect the puppies in the uterus before the puppies are even born! The concern is that roundworms can be infectious to children, especially toddlers and they can migrate in a toddler and end up in the liver, brain, eye, etc.

The reason that so many puppies have roundworms has to do with the incredibly complex life cycle of the roundworm. And, as a result of their complex life cycle, roundworms can sometimes be a concern in children (especially toddlers.) When a roundworm egg hatches in a dog’s intestine, a larva comes out and actually penetrates the intestinal lining. Then, the larva migrates throughout the dog’s body until it reaches the lungs where it’s coughed up and swallowed. Once the larva gets back to the intestine, it matures into an adult and produces eggs that go out in the dog’s stool.

As the larvae migrate through a dog’s body, some of them go to muscle where they are encysted. These encysted larvae remain in the dog’s muscle until a female dog becomes pregnant: then the larvae come out of the cyst and migrate to the uterus where they infect the puppies before they’re born! That’s why so many puppies have roundworms no matter what a breeder tries to do to prevent them.

Fearfully, if children (especially toddlers) somehow manage to get roundworm eggs in their mouth, the larvae will also hatch out and migrate through a child’s body and sometimes end up in the liver, eye or brain! I have no idea why pediatricians don’t warn parents about roundworms because they can be a real concern in children, especially children under six years of age since a young child’s immune system isn’t developed enough to keep the roundworm larvae from migrating throughout the body.

The most common way that children get infected with roundworms is through exposure to dirt where puppies have pooped. Roundworm eggs are indestructible and stay viable for years and years. If kids play in dirt where roundworm eggs have been deposited and those kids get somehow get dirt in their mouths, the roundworm eggs will hatch in the child’s intestine and start migrating through the child’s body. The possibility of exposure is much less when puppies are pooping on grass because, between mowing and rain, the roundworm eggs gravitate get buried in the thatch and aren’t as accessible to being swallowed by kids. That’s why, if your children ever go to someone’s house where the yard is primarily dirt and there are a bunch of dogs that have been pooping all over that dirt, please don’t let your kids play on that dirt!

It’s also important to know that, whenever a puppy is dewormed with an oral de-wormer, the oral de-wormer only kills the roundworms that are in the intestine: they don’t kill the larvae migrating throughout the dog’s body. That’s why puppies are frequently de-wormed every two weeks until they’re four or five months old. What will kill the migrating larvae, though, is heart worm prevention. So, if your puppy has roundworms and you want to get rid of them as quickly as possible, give your puppy heart worm prevention once a month in addition to the oral de-wormers.

3.Vaccinations: This is covered below in the section called Vaccinations. One thing I like to say before I get into the details of the vaccination schedule is my concern about giving the Leptospirosis component to any dogs under 15 to 20 pounds. This component of the vaccine is the part that has the greatest likelihood of causing a negative reaction. That negative reaction can range from lethargy to hives and swelling of the face (I’ve never seen a puppy die from a Leptospirosis vaccination.) Leptospirosis is not a common problem in many areas of the U.S. and is spread by the urine of cattle, horses, pigs, rodents and wild animals. I’ve never personally seen a case of Leptospirosis in my 40 years of practicing veterinary medicine. Most toy and small breeds of dogs aren’t ever going to be exposed to Leptospirosis since they’re primarily inside dogs. For larger dogs that will be running out in nature or are going to be around farm animals or wild animals, it’s very important to get these dogs vaccinated with the Leptospirosis vaccine.

The infectious agent that veterinarians are most concerned about when it comes to puppies is Parvo. Thankfully, Parvo isn’t as common as it used to be but it is still out there. The bad thing about Parvo is that the virus can remain contagious for months after it’s been vomited or pooped out. The most confusing thing for owners is that they tend to think that, once a puppy has had a vaccination or two, that it should be protected. That, unfortunately, isn’t true. A puppy typically gets vaccinated at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age and, until the puppy is vaccinated at 4 months of age (16 weeks of age), it is considered still susceptible to getting Parvo. At 4 months of age, a puppy’s immune system is finally mature enough to make a good enough immunity to withstand an exposure to Parvo and for that immunity to last a full year. I tell owners that, to be safe, when a puppy gets its last shot at 4 months of age, it’s a good ides to keep the puppy confined for 2 more weeks so that the puppy can make a good response to the vaccine before it’s taken out to any dog parks. I tell owners that, if they want to take a puppy for a walk before it’s 4 months old and has had its last vaccination, it’s ok to walk the puppy on concrete or asphalt as the Parvo virus isn’t going to live well on concrete or asphalt. The concern is if a puppy goes for a walk in a park and a dog with Parvo did some vomiting and diarrhea there even 4 to 5 months ago, the virus could still be active. If the puppy walks through an area where that Parvo virus has been deposited, the puppy can get the virus on its feet and later, when it licks its paws, the virus will go down to the intestine and start to make the puppy sick.

4. Potty training: Most large breeds of dogs are going to be pretty easy to potty-train. This has to do with the fact that no dog likes to urinate or poop in its immediate vicinity (why dogs rarely poop or urinate in their kennels.) The problem with smaller breeds of dogs is that the house seems really big to them and that’s why it’s not a big deal to them to urinate and poop in the formal dining room or a back bedroom since that seems completely off the beaten track for them. A large breed won’t do this because the house feels smaller to them and they don’t want their urine and poop anywhere near where they are.

So, it’s always going to be much more difficult trying to potty train a toy or small breed of dog. The key to success in any effort to potty train a dog is to eliminate the mistakes. Each time a puppy manages to make a mistake, its brain sets up a neurologic pathway that says “this is what I do!” That’s why it does almost no good to scold a puppy after the fact. What an owner needs to do is have a plan as to how they’re going to keep their puppy from making mistakes. One can keep the puppy in a kennel to do this but that’s not very much fun for the owner or the puppy. A much better way it to keep a puppy from making mistakes is to either set up a boundary for the puppy or put the puppy on a tether. Tethers work really well. If the puppy can be fitted for a harness so that it doesn’t pull at its neck all the time, the tether will control the puppy so that it can’t sneak off and make a mistake when no one’s watching. This is all that’s needed for most larger breeds of dogs. For the toys or small breeds of dogs, the owner will typically need to use potty pads. Sometimes, the potty pads will need to be taped to the floor or anchored at the corners some bricks as puppies like to tear them up and play with them. Once the puppy finally urinates or poops on the pad, it helps to cover the dirty pad with a clean one because the odor of the urine and poop will make the puppy want to go back to the potty pad the next time it needs to poop or urinate.

RADIOLOGY (X-rays versus Ultrasound)

X-rays are great to check out potential broken bones, urinary bladder stones or a heart or chest issue but, when it comes to other issues that concern a dog’s abdomen, I often feel that an ultrasound can give an owner a lot more information about what’s going on than an x-ray ever can. If money is an issue, always go with an ultrasound.

REVERSE SNEEZING

This is an odd thing that many dogs do and is confused with anything from coughing to a seizure. A reverse sneeze is the same spastic and uncontrollable behavior as a sneeze but, instead of blowing outward from the nose, the dog does a convulsive sucking inward behavior. The best thing about a reverse sneeze is that it’s not dangerous at all. It doesn’t hurt a dog to reverse sneeze but the behavior is out of the dog’s ability to control. The reverse sneeze is caused by congestion in the nose and is most likely to occur when I dog first gets up or when a dog gets excited. The repetitive inward sucking behavior continues for various lengths of time and I’ve found it helps a dog to stop if one pinches the dog’s nose closed or rubs the dog’s throat. If a dog is doing more reverse sneezing than seems normal, it’s fine to give the dog some anti-histamine such as Benadryl, Claritin or Zyrtec. To get the best effect from an anti-histamine, an owner often needs to give it daily as anti=histamines are too mild to make that much of a difference if they’re only given here and there.

Sedation (over the counter options)

There are several over the counter medications that can be used to help mellow a dog out. An owner can try using Benadryl or Zyrtec (which can also help calm down a dog’s itchiness.) Typically, I tell owners to start a dog under 10 pounds on 1/4 of an adult dose. If that doesn’t sedate the dog at all, one can gradually increase the amount given on another day. For a dog around 15 to 25 pounds, a owner can start with an adult dose or, if concerned, start with 1/2 of an adult dose. Large breeds may take 2-3 tablets or capsule to get them to calm down. If the sedation is being used to calm down a dog’s fear of lightning and thunder, it’s best to try and get the dog sedated before the storm is full fledged. Once a dog is scared and all upset, it’s much harder to calm them down with the sedation. Both Benadryl and Zyrtec are anti-histamines and, as such, they are quite safe.

An owner can obtain tranquilizers from a veterinarian for July 4th but some of these tranquilizers (such as Acepromazine) can make a dog act very disoriented and they will look pitiful with droopy eyelids and a very hang-dog attitude. Sometimes, though, for dogs that go completely crazy with fireworks, it may be the only thing an owner can do to get the dog some relief.

Seizures

Seizures are actually quite common in dogs. Most of the seizures is dogs are “idiopathic” or of unknown cause. A seizure in a dog can vary from being so mild that a dog merely stares off in space for 30 seconds to a few minutes to a more typical seizure where a dog will fall on its side and tremble violently while paddling all four feet. Many dogs will drool and even urinate or defecate while having a seizure. The most worrisome seizure is when a dog is rigid and the legs are extended and stiff with minimal paddling of the legs. Most seizures will pass within a few minutes. After the seizure, a dog typically experiences a phase that’s called the “postictal” phase where the dog is dazed and wobbly and out of it for 15 to 30 minutes (sometimes longer.)

There are drugs, pesticides and chemicals that can incite a seizure or seizures in a dog. The most common are organophosphates which are commonly used in garden pesticides. Snail poisoning (very commonly used in California and other warm climates) can cause uncontrollable seizures and is very dangerous as dogs love the taste of it. Strychnine causes severe, unrelenting seizures in dogs.

When a dog is having severe seizures, it is often necessary to go to a veterinary facility and have the dog sedated with valium or other sedatives intravenously. Some dogs have minor seizures on a routine basis and the seizure is over before an owner can even get the dog to a veterinarian.For dogs with chronic idiopathic seizures, the most common medication that’s prescribed by veterinarians to control those seizures is Phenobarbital. Phenobarbital is a controlled substance which makes a prescription necessary.

The general rule as to whether a dog with chronic seizures should be put on every day Phenobarbital revolves around two considerations: how frequent the seizures are and how severe the seizures are. If a dog has a very short seizure once a week or a couple of times a month, it may not be wise to use Phenobarbital on that dog as Phenobarbital has some undesirable side effects such as greatly increased water intake and appetite. Phenobarbital can also be hard on the liver long term and dogs that are on Phenobarbital often need to have their liver enzymes checked once or twice a year to make sure the liver is not being damaged.

Many young dogs that start out having seizures when they are 2 years old or so will ofter grown out of the seizures. If a dog starts having seizures late in life, such as after 7 or 8 years old, the seizures are much more likely to indicate a more severe and worrisome cause than when seizures start up in a younger dog. Seizures in an older dog could indicate a possible brain tumor or some kind of metabolic disease process in the body, especially as concerns the liver.

 

SKIN ISSUES

Itchiness is a huge problem in dogs and there are many reasons why a dog might be itchy. The most common causes involve environmental factors (such as pollens and other external allergens), parasites (fleas and ticks) and bacterial infections (Staphylococcus bacteria.) Though it has become quite popular these days to blame a dog’s skin problems on allergies to food (especially grains and chicken), in my experience, food allergies are not as common as is believed. I’ve seen many owners who’d originally thought that their dog was doing better with its skin problems after they’d switched the dog’s food to a grain-free dog diet only to discover the dog got itchy again once the weather started getting hot again.

If a dog is constantly chewing at its rump area and in between its hind legs, this is most likely the result of a dog having fleas. Just as some people can die from a bee sting, some dogs are so sensitive to a flea bite that one or two fleas can cause those dogs to go crazy with itchiness. It’s the flea saliva that’s injected under the dog’s skin that causes the allergic reaction. Please take a moment to review the section above titled “fleas and ticks” to see what products are working the best. Even if a dog is on flea medication, with most of the flea medications that last a month or more (Comfortis, Bravecto, etc.), the flea must bite actually bite the dog and get a blood meal in order to ingest and then be killed by the chemicals circulating in a dog’s system.

As was mentioned in the section under “flaky skin,” once a dog starts chewing at its rear end, the skin is going to respond by producing a lot of sebum in an effort to coat the skin to protect it from whatever is bothering it. This sebum is quite smelly and is the reason why so many itchy dogs stink. Many people will end up noticing that, when they bathe their itchy dog, there will be a lot of flaky material showing up on the back and the rump. Though owners frequently conclude that this flaking means the dog has a dry skin, in truth, the dog’s flaking is the result of a secretory or seborrheic skin problem. Once a dog quits being itchy, the sebum production will stop and the flaking and smell will go away. That’s why it’s extremely helpful to bathe itchy dogs as often as is possible and to bathe them using Dawn dishwashing liquid because it’s a grease cutter and sebum is a very greasy substance.

Most flea allergies require treatment with a regime of prednisone or Apoquel (though Apoquel is super expensive), antihistamines and antibiotics (for secondary bacteria) to finally get a dog’s itchiness under control. Some dogs have such persistent itchiness that they will often need to be on a low dose of prednisone (or Apoqel) for quite months to keep them comfortable during the hot weather months. Luckily, once a dog’s itchiness is under control, a dog can frequently be maintained on a very low dose of prednisone as compared to what it took to get the dog under control in the first place.

**I don’t know why so many vets are resistant to dispensing prednisone these days. It’s just ridiculous. It’s the best medication for itchy dogs, it’s cheap and has very few side effects when the dosage is kept low. Owners will simply have to bring it up and insist their vet allow their dog to try a decreasing dosage regime. What I typically do is start out with a certain amount of prednisone (depending on the weight of the dog) twice a day for 4-5 days to get the dog to quit itching. Then, I’ll tell the owner to decrease the prednisone to once daily for 4-5 days and, finally, the prednisone gets decreased to every other day. Some dogs do so well on every other day prednisone that the owner is able to cut the frequency down to Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays or even to Mondays and Fridays. WHAT IS WONDERFUL ABOUT PREDNISONE is that it’s a 24 hour acting medication so, once the owner decreases the dose to every other day, the side effects are very minimal. The main side effects of prednisone is that it will cause a dog to drink more water than usual, it will cause many dogs to be very hungry (until the dose is decreased to every other day) and it will make dogs more sensitive to fatty foods so that’s why it’s critical to know the foods that you NEVER want to feed your dogs (this is under the DIET section.) Mainly, one never wants to feed a dog the foods WE SHOULDN’T EAT such as bacon, sausage, grease or drippings, chicken, turkey or fish skins, fat off of any meat and BONES OF ANY KIND (no rib bones, no steak bones, etc.) The reason these foods cause problems in dogs is because the dog will get the fat off of them and it causes a dog to come down with pancreatitis where they are vomiting and having diarrhea and often have to be hospitalized.

One other note, prednisone will sometimes cause increased panting in some of the larger breeds. Sometimes the panting becomes so pronounced that the prednisone has to be stopped. In this case, a dog can be given the Apoquel which will not cause as many side effects as the prednisone.

When a dog is constantly chewing and licking at its paws (a very common condition in all breeds of dogs, especially the smaller breeds), it’s due to the dog’s sensitivity to air borne pollens and allergens, a condition known as “atopic dermatitis. Some of these paw lickers can be controlled with a consistent dose of various antihistamines such as Benedryl, Zyrtec or Loratidine (Claritin.) I tell owners that, because antihistamines aren’t nearly as strong as prednisone or Apoquel, they must be given very consistently (at least once or twice a day every day if they are going to work.) There’s a wide variation in how each dog will respond to antihistamines so, while one dog might get zonked by a small amount of Benedryl, another dog won’t be fazed by it. I’ve never known a dog to have a dangerous response to an antihistamine: the worst that might happen is the possibility that a dog will be somewhat sedated. Still, it’s a good idea to always start out with a low dose and gradually increase the dosage amount until you get the response you’re looking for.

If a dog has circular crusts on its abdomen or body that eventually flake off and leave circular bald spots, that’s a sign of a bacterial condition called Staphloccocus aureous. It’s a VERY common condition in dogs and frequently occurs when the weather changes or when it’s rainy or wet outside. It’s definitely an issue for dogs that have a lot of fur and are outside when the grass is wet and, as a consequence, their fur and skin stay moist all the time on their underbellies. Many people (including veterinarians) see these circular crusts and assume that the dog has a fungal infection. Fungal infections, though, are NOT very common in dogs. Yet, I see lots and lots of veterinarians dispensing anti-fungal medication which often doesn’t work well because what the dog needs is an antibiotic.

As I just mentioned, dogs that have a Staph infection need antibiotics for it to clear up. The best antibiotic for a Staph infection is Cephalexin (though Ampicillin or Amoxicillin will work good too.) The Cephalexin will need to be given for at least 4-5 days past the point where the skin is all cleared up. Thankfully, dogs don’t experience the same kinds of resistance to antibiotics that humans have to deal with. Antibiotic resistance in dogs (just as it is in humans) primarily occurs when dogs have to stay awhile in a major animal facility (like a vet school) for more than 4 to 5 days. Anywhere where lots of sick animals are kept for protracted periods of time is the place where antibiotic resistance is going to develop (in the same way that people get infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria when they’re in the hospital for more than 4-5 days.)

If a dog under a year old has fur loss around its face, neck or front legs and is NOT itchy,  this is almost ALWAYS the result of Demodectic mange. Demodex is very common in young dogs, especially Pit Bulls. Demodex is usually self-limiting and often doesn’t require treatment.Yet, if it starts to get too severe with a lot of fur loss and scabbiness due to secondary bacteria like the Staph mentioned above, the treatment involves a daily dose of Ivermectin which will kill the mites under the skin. Cephalexin is often given at the same time to get the secondary bacterial infection under control. The way that Demodex is diagnosed is with a skin scraping. Once the veterinarian scrapes an area of skin until it bleeds a little, the vet will be able to see the Demodex mites crawling around under the microscopic lenses.

If a dog is rashy and itchy all over its body and the itchiness is year-round, this may indicate a possible food allergy. This is when it’s a good idea to try a different dog food in an effort to rule out or in the possibility of a food allergy. What a dog owner wants to do is to try feeding a dog a grain-free dog food or some other kind of dry food that has a completely different main ingredient in the food (i.e.- if a dog’s been eating chicken, try feeding salmon, turkey or, in the best case scenario, a limited ingredient dog food. There are definitely certain dogs that have food allergies but food allergies are not nearly as common as most vets make them out to be. Most vets, unfortunately, just want to sell a VERY expensive dog food to their clients and make owners feel bad if they don’t feed this VERY expensive dog food to their dog. REMEMBER:  the hallmark feature of a food allergy is that the dog’s itchiness IS NOT SEASONAL. These dogs itchy year round and it tends to be a general itchiness all over their body as opposed to the feet and paws with Atopic Dermatitis or at the rear end and between the hind legs with a flea-type allergy. Dogs with a food allergy typically have a rash or redness that covers most of the dog’s body.

SPAYING AND NEUTERING (why it’s so important to spay the females as opposed the males)

I always tell owners that I’m not too worried about male dogs getting neutered but I’m very concerned about females getting spayed. One reason it’s so important for females to get spayed has to do with the fact that, every time a dog has a heat, it sets a dog up for mammary tumors when it’s older. When the dog gets mammary tumors when it’s older, it’s often necessary to remove a whole mammary chain which involves a big surgery that’s complicated by the fact that the dog is now older. Another problem that can happen when a female dog isn’t spayed, is an infected uterus. About a month after a dog has had a heat cycle, the uterus can mysteriously fill up with pus. This is called a pyometra. When a dog gets a pyometra, the dog will start drinking tons of water and gradually become lethargic and quit eating. When the dog finally goes to the vet, the vet will explain that the dog has an infected uterus and will now have to be spayed though it’s now going to be complicated (and much more expensive) because the dog’s sick. I also like to explain to owners that it’s very hard on a dog to be pregnant. Some breeds will have ten to fifteen puppies and all those puppies put a horrible strain on the dog’s back. Pregnant dogs invariably become quite thin during the pregnancy and the nursing period as providing for the pups takes a definite toll on them. If someone is determined to have puppies with their female dog, it’s best to breed the dog on their 3rd heat (when they’re about a year and a half years old) and, once they’re done with the pregnancy, get the dog spayed. What I hear a lot when talking to owners who have an older spayed female is either they weren’t worried about getting the dog spayed because there were no males around or they meant to have puppies but never managed to find an eligible male dog to breed the female. So if an owner wants to have puppies with their female dog, I tell them to be sure and start early trying to find the male they want to breed their female to.

TEETH

(To read how vets are doing too many dentals these days, please read the section titled “Dentals.”)

URINE LEAKING (primarily an older female issue)

This is very common in older female spayed dogs. When the ovaries are removed when a dog is spayed, estrogen is not longer produced and, without estrogen, the bladder sphincter is weaker and allows urine to leak out. The leaking primarily occurs when the dog is asleep and it’s never a little amount of urine: instead, the dog’s entire bladder is released. As the poor dog has no idea how the urine got there, the dog is often quite upset and can act like it’s done something wrong. The only way to manage this problem is with medication. The newest way to treat urine leaking is with a product called Phenylpropanolamine or PPA. Unfortunately, PPA has to be given every day and sometimes twice a day. The alternative to PPA is a medication called Diethylstilbestrol or DES. I used DES for years for urine leaking in my practice in California and never had any problems. It’s no longer available through typical pharmacies as it was removed from the human pharmacological market due to concerns about negative side effects. Many vets still use DES, though, getting it made at various compounding pharmacies. The great thing about DES is that, even though it may start out being give once a day or every other day, the dose is eventually decreased to once a week which is very nice for a pet owner. DES also works a lot better than PPA since it replaces the hormone that was originally made in the dog’s body before being spayed.

VACCINATIONS

(Why it takes a series of vaccines for your puppy to be protected; don’t go to the park until your puppy’s had its last shot at 4 months of age; don’t give Leptospirosis to dogs under 20 pounds) One thing I like to say before I get into the details of vaccinations is the concern I have about giving the Leptospirosis component to any dog under 15 to 20 pounds. This component of the vaccine is the part that has the greatest likelihood of causing a negative reaction. That negative reaction can range from lethargy to hives and swelling of the face (I’ve never seen a puppy die from a Leptospirosis vaccination.) Leptospirosis is not a common problem in many areas of the U.S. and is spread by the urine of cattle, horses, pigs, rodents and wild animals. I’ve never personally seen a case of Leptospirosis in my 40 years of practicing veterinary medicine. Most toy and small breeds of dogs aren’t ever going to be exposed to Leptospirosis since they’re primarily inside dogs. For larger dogs that will be running out in nature or are going to be around farm animals or wild animals, it’s very important to get these dogs vaccinated with the Leptospirosis vaccine.

The infectious agent that veterinarians are most concerned about when it comes to puppies is Parvo. Thankfully, Parvo isn’t as common as it used to be but it is still out there. The bad thing about Parvo is that the virus can remain contagious for months after it’s been vomited or pooped out. The most confusing thing for owners is that they tend to think that, once a puppy has had a vaccination or two, that it should be protected. That, unfortunately, isn’t true. A puppy typically gets vaccinated at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age and, until the puppy is vaccinated at 4 months of age (16 weeks of age), it is considered still susceptible to getting Parvo. At 4 months of age, a puppy’s immune system is finally mature enough to make a good enough immunity to withstand an exposure to Parvo and for that immunity to last a full year. I tell owners that, to be safe, when a puppy gets its last shot at 4 months of age, it’s a good ides to keep the puppy confined for 2 more weeks so that the puppy can make a good response to the vaccine before it’s taken out to any dog parks. I tell owners that, if they want to take a puppy for a walk before it’s 4 months old and has had its last vaccination, it’s ok to walk the puppy on concrete or asphalt as the Parvo virus isn’t going to live well on concrete or asphalt. The concern is if a puppy goes for a walk in a park and a dog with Parvo did some vomiting and diarrhea somewhere on the ground even 4 to 5 months previously, the virus could still be active, especially in shaded areas. If the puppy walks through an area where that Parvo virus has been deposited, the puppy can get the virus on its feet and later, when if it licks its paws, the virus will travel to the intestine and the puppy might come down with Parvo.

VACCINATIONS IN OLDER DOGS:

As far as maintaining yearly vaccinations in a dog once it’s past 3-4 years old, it’s only needed if one has their dogs around lots of other dogs all the time, such as at dog shows, etc. Otherwise, one could do a DHPP vaccine every 3-4 years. A Rabies is required by law but only needs to be given every 3 years once a puppy has gotten a yearly booster after their first Rabies vaccine. The reason it’s not necessary to get a yearly DHPP vaccine is because most of these diseases are hardly seen anymore, such as Distemper. Also, Parvo is almost exclusively a disease in puppies and, at that time in a puppy’s life, it’s very important to be cautious (as mentioned above) until the puppy is fully vaccinated and protected. In older dogs, especially in small breeds of dogs, vaccines can actually be dangerous. I’ve seen older Chihuahuas and other tiny breeds get very sick and even die from vaccinations, especially if vets are irresponsible and give those small breeds a vaccine containing the Leptospirosis. Most small breeds and even a lot of larger breeds of dogs, live almost exclusively in the house and only go on walks on concrete or asphalt areas where there are no other dogs around. Viruses can’t stay viable on concrete or asphalt.

With this in mind, I never recommend a small breed of dog (under 25-30 pounds) ever get a Leptospirosis vaccine unless it lives out in the country and is in frequent contact with cattle or other livestock. I also don’t recommend that small breeds of dogs get yearly vaccinations of the DHPP since they can have reactions to those vaccines as they get older. Unfortunately, many small breeds of dogs go to groomers a lot so, in that case, getting a DHPP booster every 3 years should be more than sufficient…just no Leptospirosis.

It could be a good idea for dogs that go to the groomers frequently to get a Bordetella vaccine (the kennel cough vaccine) once a year. Kennel cough isn’t fatal but it can be hard on some of these small breeds of dogs that often have respiratory issues already such as a collapsing trachea, difficulty breathing due to being a brachycephalic dog (those with the smushed up, flattened faces) or those older dogs with heart problems. The Bordetella vaccine is generally very safe. It’s only disadvantage is that it burns a bit when the injection is given.

Vomiting

 

Worms