Health

Heartworms are horrible. No arguments there. Anyone who has ever known or had an infected dog knows how slowly but surely the parasites can sap the animal’s strength and vitality. Going through the treatment to kill the heartworm is no walk in the park either. The “cure” is quite capable of killing the dog in the process of trying to save its life. But some people just don’t like the idea of giving the dog the chemical preventatives that can keep the pooch safe from infestation. And some dogs are sensitive to the drugs, reacting to each dose with vomiting, diarrhea, and other symptoms.

They are among the words you least want to hear: Your dog has cancer. But the odds are you will hear them someday, especially if you have more than one dog in your lifetime. One in four dogs get cancer; half of the dogs over 10 years of age die from or with it. Much of what is known about canine cancer closely parallels what is known about cancer in humans. Dogs are at risk of the same types of cancer afflicting humans, and treating canine cancer successfully is dependent upon the same variables found in human cancer treatment.

The date was Friday the 13th, so I guess I should have expected something unpleasant to happen, but the news from our family veterinarian that our 10-year-old Belgian Shepherd had, at the most about six months to live

In the relationship between cancer and nutrition, there are few conclusive answers. The modalities of both are complex, and neither is completely understood. However, enhanced nutrition is of unquestionable benefit to any dog with cancer, and to any dog with an increased risk of developing cancer. And of the many known factors leading to canine cancer, proper nutrition is the one which dog owners can best control, enhancing a dog's overall health, and improving the body's natural defense against cancer. Those positive words must be followed with some cautions. Cancer diets often emphasize or restrict certain nutrients, in order to promote certain biochemical actions or to thwart others.

In conventional veterinary medicine, cancer treatments consist primarily of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. While research in these areas has brought significant advances, the overall picture is discouraging; cancer death rates are largely unchanged. While many canine cancers are treated successfully when diagnosed early, more often the therapies, conventional or holistic, simply buy some additional time for the animal. In standard canine treatment protocols, a 12-month remission is considered a cure." While a year of dog's life is a relatively long time

When a specific dietary supplement is given to an individual (canine or human) who previously lacked the nutrients or chemicals offered by the supplement, or whose body required a higher dose than was previously available, miraculous improvements in health, appearance, and attitude can indeed take place. But most people have no idea whether they are lacking something before they add it to their own or their dog’s diet!

Manufacturers of deworming products have gone out of their way to let us know that, left unchecked, these pesky parasites can plague dogs that are in poor health, rob them of nutrition, attack vital organs, and cause unthriftyness, illness, and even death. If a dog's health is poor and he is hosting an uncontested parasite population, all sorts of bad things can happen. It is important to protect our dogs from parasites, but as it turns out, protection largely follows as a result of building the dog's overall health. Toxic dewormers may be unnecessary to dislodge what few worms a strong and healthy animal might have.

You’ve played this game thousands of times. You’ve got a few minutes, and your maniacally loyal canine companion is eager to play fetch, begging for it, ball in mouth, dropping it at your feet, barking in joyful anticipation. Then it happened. Willie slipped, tried to stop, and twisted into a ball with a yelp. He lay paralyzed from the middle of the back down, lying quietly on the frozen ground as Rogers rushed over.

Conventional medical practitioners use the word colitis to indicate inflammation of the colon (the large intestine), as opposed to inflammation of the small intestine or the stomach. One of the large intestine’s most important roles is to absorb water. If the colon is not functioning properly, a lot of water is left in the stool; that’s diarrhea. There are many different types of diarrhea, and, unpleasant as it may be to contemplate, the characteristics of the diarrhea help us identify which part of the dog’s digestive system is not working properly.

An annual booster using distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, killed or modified-live virus parvovirus is given at one year of age. Thereafter, boosters are given every three years until old age. Beyond 10 years of age, booster vaccinations are generally not needed, and may be unwise if aging or other diseases are present. For animals at high exposure risk to parvovirus disease, an additional parvovirus vaccination can be given at the six-month point, if killed parvovirus is used. This extra booster is typically not needed if MLV parvovirus is used.

Upon waking up one morning many years ago, I greeted Mandy, my six-year-old tri-color Collie, who slept beside my bed. As I leaned over to stroke her luxurious black coat, I gasped. There was an angry, oozing sore the size of a grapefruit on the outside of her right hind leg. It was cherry red, inflamed, and looked incredibly painful. I was horrified. I worked at a humane society at the time. This looked like the kind of wound we would investigate an irresponsible owner for, for not providing proper care and attention! I was sure it hadn't been there the night before. What had happened to my dog?

On April Fool's Day 1996, my soon-to-be-husband took me to get a puppy. We already had one dog, Ladybird, but she was getting older and we felt a young friend would encourage her to be more playful. We also hoped Ladybird would pass on some of her fine qualities to the puppy. We drove out of town to a place where people play paintball. There were more than a dozen young dogs running around, and the owner told us to take our pick. One young female seemed to want my attention more than any of the others, and I fell in love with her pretty face. We took her home and named her Cheyenne.