Pets Blog

Planning to shop this season for the people in your list? Of all things, never forget to give a little something to your cutie pet dogs. If clothes and garments are your gift surprises to your loved ones, have the same gift idea for your pets, too. Dogs will appreciate your present more than ever and flaunt it with pride and joy.

Shopping clothes for your dogs is almost the same as shopping for your baby’s cute little garments. And when cuteness is what matters the most, it will be fairly easy to spot for those lovely, mini garments in pet shops.

Take your pick from a wide selection of winter sweaters to summer tees and basketball jerseys. You can dress him up on his comfy PJ’s for sleeping or a doggie bath robe after freshening your dog up. Just as kids have party costumes, dogs have their party and holiday attires, too.

Do you want your pet to become a head turner and attention grabber when you walk him in the park? Accessorize him with a uniquely designed dog collar and pair it up with cool shades. Leg warmers are also back in the trend. But before you begin with your shopping spree for your pet’s clothes, you might want to consider these few useful tips.

What do you need to know and remember when shopping for dog clothes? First, do not go for clothes with meticulous details and potential chokers if he is a fond of chewing. Check for small-sized buttons, tassels, and feathers – they attract your pet’s attention and when swallowed, can damage his digestive system.  Read more...

A few weeks after giving birth, brood bitches sometimes develop a kind of breast infection called canine mastitis. This type of infection is not ordinary among female canines but an owner should still take necessary precautions when their pets are diagnosed with such illness.

When puppies are weaned too early, it can cause an infection to lactating canines. Another factor would be the constant scratches from the claws of the puppies on the mother’s breasts. Other canine-related infections can also affect this condition.

Signs and Symptoms

Normally, a nursing dog’s breasts are warm and enlarged due to the mammary glands that are developing inside the system of the nursing dog. One of the physical symptoms of canine mastitis is that the breasts of the lactating canine turn red or dark-colored and painful when touched. However, if the infection becomes severe, the symptom of dark-colored breast segment turns even darker or blacker with hard and extremely sore breasts.

A brood bitch suffering from canine mastitis is most likely to develop fever and appear weak. She may also possibly lose appetite for food. Because of the throbbing pain in their breasts, they are very sensitive to touch and would not let their babies come near them or even nurse them.

Treatment of Canine Mastitis

If you own a female dog that is lactating, make sure to check on the mammary glands for any indications of breast infection. Once the symptoms of canine mastitis are present, bring your pet to the vet right away. The canine will be examined and prescribed with antibiotics when the dog is diagnosed with such infection. In this case, too, the owner will be advised to perform a hand feeding or assisted feeding.  Read more...

Heartworm is a disease that could take you by surprise. Before starting any treatment for heartworm you should first know how the disease acts. If your dog gets the disease it is in great danger as the worm is known to be fatal in most untreated cases. In dogs, it takes about six months before the heartworm turns into an adult worm that may threaten your pet’s heart. As these worms get inside the body of your pet, they could reproduce, situation you must avoid.
A couple of treatments have been developed to cure this deadly disease. The disease is not too well known among common pet owners. As the disease can infect humans too, people should be better informed about the disease and how it should be treated in case the pet is already infected.
Let’s start with an overview of the disease. The heartworm is a roundworm which is transferred from host to host with the help of mosquito. Mostly it infects dogs, but can also infect cats, foxes, wolves and humans as well. It is very important for your dog’s health that you know as many as you can about the heartworm disease. The disease gets its name from the fact that when the worm is an adult it establishes in the pulmonary artery of the host where it can survive for several years.
A good treatment it’s mandatory as the infection could cause a serious disease that could endanger the life of your pet, even death if untreated.
The worm gets through several life stages until it develops into an adult worm and lives on the heart of the pet. The worm then produces thousands of microfilariae each day, and then it would circulate in the dog’s bloodstream. When the dog is bitten again by a mosquito, even by an uninfected mosquito, it transmits the disease to the mosquito. Now the mosquito will transmit the disease to another host.
Diagnosis is the most important step in helping treat heartworm infection. Dogs infected with heartworm do not reveal any signs until the worms have reached maturity or at least after a 6 month period. You must pay attention to any mood change or other signs and symptoms. After this period, the animal will show a sedentary lifestyle. This is the most common symptom for the heartworm disease. Other symptoms like cough and exhaustion and in cases of advanced stages of infection weight loss, coughing up blood, fainting, and heart failure may occur.
Before starting a treatment for heartworm, your pet must go through an evaluation of organs like heart, kidney and liver function to see if any risks are involved. After this check up, adult worms are treated with an arsenic-based compound. There are several approved drugs on the market that help treat heartworm infection.
After and during the treatment the dog must then rest for a few weeks just enough time to enable it to recover from the treatment. The microfilariae are treated with a different and separate form of treatment.

Dog enthusiasts today continuously immerse themselves in the vast literature which basically revolves around scientific studies and medical research on the health of the canine species. According to most of these studies, one of the major problems concerning man’s best friend thus far is skin related diseases resulting from various sources. Reports show that the number of cases of dogs affected with skin related diseases has dramatically increased throughout the years. Meaning to say, there is something that is very wrong with the way this issue is being treated. With all the resources currently available at our disposal at anytime of the day, it is such a shame that a sad statistic readily awaits the canine friendly community. Because of this rather alarming news, credible institutions have figured that this is fast becoming the main reason why dogs are being brought to pet clinics for examination by various licensed veterinarians.

To make matters a lot worse, there are also some studies which point to the discovery that most of these dog skin diseases are allegedly hereditary making some breeds coming from affected dogs more prone than others. Such dog skin diseases or allergies involve the gradual surfacing of certain rashes or irritations throughout several portions of the dog’s body. These allergies can come or spring from a lot of various different sources or causes and they can do a whole range of harm to your pet dog. Allergies are the body’s rational and logical way of letting the host knows that a foreign element that is not beneficial to the body has landed the skin and taken hold of the host’s body system. Meaning to say that such occurrence, if left untreated, can have a domino effect from within the dog’s body and ultimately impair and eat away the host’s immune system, which can further along lead to more and more complications, the most fatal and extreme of which is an organ failure. While with humans, the upper respiratory tract is the first one to take the hit, causing shortness of breath and a lowered immune system, with animals most especially dogs it is the skin that first shows indication hinting of infection.  Read more...

The German shepherd dog is one of the most well-liked and familiar breeds across the world. It is highly admired for its compliance, famous for its cleverness, and adored for its loyalty and honesty towards its owner. The German shepherd dogs are commonly used by police officers and military as guide dogs for drug and illegal import detection and also act as search and rescue dogs due to their strength, intelligence, keen senses of smell and speed.

The German shepherd dogs are bred for its protective traits that help in their job of herding and protecting livestock from predators. They are large in size generally having a strong, muscular and solid bone structure. They have an arched forehead, large and erect ears and the jaws are strong with scissor like teeth bite. Their eyes are medium-sized and brown with a lively and intelligent look. German shepherd dogs have two layers of fur to protect their body. The first layer of fur close to the body is close-knit and soft providing protection during extreme climatic conditions; the coat acts as a thermal wear during winter and protect the body from harmful sunrays during summer. The second layer or outer coat is rougher and provides further protection to the inner coat. The German shepherd breed are found in variety of colors, most commonly tan/black and red/black. They are other varieties of breed in rare colors such as sable, all-black and all-white.

Fleischerheim German Shepherds and their team members are dedicated to provide experienced German shepherd breeders,dogs, puppies, trainers and show enthusiasts, both in the U.S. and Germany, working together to maintain the highest quality and standards for German Shepherd Dogs. Their family oriented German shepherd kennels are located in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.