Pets Blog

When it comes to pampering our pet dogs, we just want to simply give them almost everything they want and feed them the tasty foods that we also enjoy. Unfortunately, certain food and household items are pretty risky when take in by your pet and can become perilous to his health.

You need to always be on the lookout for your dog since they hunt and eat or take in just about anything that seems pleasing to their senses and palates. Let us identify some of these items that dogs can be vulnerable to.

Chocolates

Try eating chocolate with your dog staring at you, waiting for you to feed him a bite and if he can no longer bear salivating, he would lunge at you for his share. For humans, chocolate is beneficial because of its high level of antioxidants. However, for our pet dogs it is dangerous. It is because of the chemical content in chocolate called methylxanthine alkaloids that triggers dogs to react differently to the food.

Mushrooms and Spices

Two other food items that your pet should not eat are mushroom and spices particularly garlic and onion. Although not all, but some mushrooms like the wild mushrooms that grow just about anywhere are cause for abdominal pain, anemia as well as complication in the liver and kidney. Garlic, when eaten by your pet especially a pup, will trigger vomiting, diarrhea, damage in the liver, and anemia. Onion causes similar health complications as with garlic so beware not to let your dog take in food with this.

Coffee

Just like chocolate, coffee is also a good source of antioxidant for humans but never for dogs. As to how hazardous it is for dogs, getting a taste of coffee will possibly lead to increased heart rate, loose bowel, or worse, even seizures, coma, and death of your pet.  Read more...

A very important aspect in owning and taking care of a pet dog is providing the animal with good nutrition and proper nourishment. Having the right kind of nutrition is one of the factors of a dog’s health and lifespan.

A healthy dog tends to live longer or maximize its lifespan when provided with proper nutritional balance of the important nutrients such as fats, proteins or amino acid, and complex carbohydrates as well as the important minerals that are essential for their growth and a strong immune system.

Your pet’s behavior is greatly affected by the kind of nutrition he gets. With proper nourishment, his mental abilities are better and he is able to think sharply. Dogs are known to be one of the animals with high level of thinking abilities. When they use their mental capacities to understand the tasks given to them, they are able to comprehend well and can perform the activities with vigor. Poor nourishment decreases their focus and makes them prone to mental weakness.

Additionally, good nutrition helps bring down stress levels of the dog and also helps them develop a calmer and more composed behavior.

When training your pet, always include his nutritional diet in order to enhance his behavior. If you feed him on cereals like wheat and corn, he tends to become hyperactive, unfocused, and agitated most of the time. To know if the dog food consists primarily of cereal compounds, let it soak in water for thirty minutes. Once it bloats up and appears spongy, it is mostly cereal.

Proteins are good for boosting their energy and muscle regeneration. However, if their diet lacks protein and amino acid, they develop an aggressive behavior. When choosing their food, check the nutrition facts and look for food high in protein. You can ask the expert opinion of your vet on the right food for your dog.  Read more...

Dogs express prolonged illness and other health issues typically thru the state of their skin and coat, teeth and gums, and diet habits. The symptom of bad breath in dogs can be employed by owners as a convenient tool in spotting illnesses early. The difficulty is a vast majority of dogs receive no attention to the cleaning of their teeth and gums, this permits plaque and tarter buildup causing chronic halitosis in dogs. Bad breath in dogs or halitosis taints up to 90% of canines, and results from dogs experiencing varying degrees of periodontal illness. Because the unhealthy condition of a dog’s teeth and gums gives them constant bad breath, serious illnesses that present symptoms via a dog’s breath progress unnoticed by owners till other symptoms develop.

The early identifying of disease in dogs is crucial to the successfully treatment of many canine infirmities. The facility to efficiently manage a dog’s health care requires owners to be conscious of unhealthy changes in their body, a dog’s breath being one of the most vital changes to observe. After prevention early identifying of chronic sicknesses in dogs is important in providing them effective health care. Regardless of the fact many remedies available to humans are also available to dogs ; the severity of a dog’s condition may deem the treatment to costly or hard to perform on your dog. For that reason owners are starting to provide the correct oral cleanliness care for their dogs and bestowing them with fresh breath so they’re going to be in a position to notice certain diseases in time to efficiently treat them.  Read more...

It is easy to see if your dog has arthritis with symptoms such as swelling of the bones, limping and lack of appetite. You have to observe carefully everyday because most of the symptoms of dog arthritis can be overlooked by being minor and not that dangerous. Sometimes, most of these arthritis conditions can cause joint diseases. For your knowledge in taking care of dogs with arthritis, here are just some of the symptoms that you should watch out: Your dog is limping and it does not stop for a long time (sometimes reaching until months). Your dog is reluctant to walk, run or climb the stairs and you may hear a lot of whining because of pain. He or she has difficulty rising from a resting position and, in the end, remains in that position for a very long time until he really won’t be able to get up. Your dog also has a difficult time finding a comfortable position. He or she is sleeping more since he wants to rest his joints that are in pain and, at the same time, he cannot stand from his or her position anymore. Since your dog cannot move that much anymore, he or she is most likely gain weight despite the lack of appetite because he does not exercise anymore, he or she has a lack of appetite and is very irritated.

If most of these symptoms are present and are going on for weeks or months, then bring your dog to the veterinarian. He will look if he or she has dog arthritis. It is normally diagnose by “finding radiographic evidence of the degenerative changes which occur in joints” according to Wikipedia. Old dogs are the most likely prone to dog arthritis because their bones and joints are getting a bit weaker, just like old people. One type of arthritis that is also common is osteoarthritis where there is the jagging of cartilages due to overuse. If your dog is always working, this could happen to him or her.  Read more...

Lymphosarcoma is one of the most common types of cancers seen. It is also referred to as lymphoma or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In dogs, many different species develop Lymphosarcoma. Like any other cancer, this one can “metastasize”, which means it can spread and affect other organs and tissues.
Most dogs get a type of Lymphosarcoma that originates the lymph nodes and usually the nodes under the jaw get swollen. Sometimes this is the only symptom your dog will have. But the jaw is not the only place where this disease can begin. Some forms of Lymphosarcoma begin in the bone marrow, the chest, abdomen, or even the skin.
DIAGNOSIS
It is difficult to detect the Lymphosarcoma because it can spread to many places in the body. So full analysis is essential to determine this disease and also establish the stage of disease. It is very important to determine the stage of the disease and decide the kind of treatment and the right dosage. Vets usually do the following tests in order to detect the stages:
* Cytology – checking the lymph node cells
* Blood work
* Abdominal radiographs
* Abdominal ultrasound
* Bone marrow analysis
Most of the times, the vets do just a few of the tests listed above. Even a few of the tests alone can determine the stage and if the dog can be submitted to the treatment.
DISEASE STAGES OF EVOLUTION
Lymphosarcoma has 4 stages.
In state I the cancer exists in just one lymph node. This stage is rarely diagnosed in pets.
In stage II the disease has spread to more than one node and has occupied a body region.
In stage III the cancer is in the nodes but has spread in the body.
In stage IV the Lymphosarcoma has reached the liver or the spleen.
There is also a stage V and it refers to all the stages above but with cancer spread to the bone marrow or the blood or any other organ.
The main stages have sub stages: “A” and “B”.
“A” means the patient doesn’t have the illness. “B” means the patient displays clinical symptoms like fluid in the lungs, vomiting or diarrhea.
Stage IIIA is the earliest detected and it can be treated.
MEANS OF TREATMENT
Many people have heard of chemotherapy. This means treatment with chemicals. The dog anti-cancer drugs, orally, intravenously, or subcutaneously. The good fact is that animals have a high tolerance to anti-cancer drugs, far better than humans. Also, side effects because of the treatment appear only in 5 cases out of 100.
Some of the most common questions a dog owner has are:
Is the dog going to lose the hair? Usually, they don’t. But poodles and old English Sheepdogs are predisposed to lose their hair after chemotherapy. But don’t worry. It will grow back. Keep in mind that Lymphosarcoma treatable but not curable.
Will the disease come back and how long will it last? This depends on the type of Lymphosarcoma the dog has. But with the latest medical advances, approximately 90% of dogs achieve a complete remission. The average remission is between 8 and 12 months.
What happens after the dog comes out of remission? It can be treated just like the first time. Also, the second and third remissions are treatable.
The whole cost of the treatment begins at about $500 and can go up to $2,000 in case of a large pet.