Poochdogs.com

Protecting your dog’s health is important not only to your dog, but to you as well. The purpose of this article is to remind you of some of the signs your dog may be signalling that it is not feeling well and may need your help.

A disclaimer is in order. I am not a veterinarian, and the advice in this article cannot replace taking your dog to a qualified veterinarian for periodic  checkups and especially when the severity of its symptoms calls for professional help. However, that being said, there are times when your dog is mildly ill or out of sorts, and during those times it doesn’t hurt to understand how to recognize the symptoms that can tip you off.

It may surprise you to know that you are by far the best person to recognize symptoms of illness in your dog. You see the dog every day and know him or her better than anyone else. You know when your dog’s behavior is off – maybe its tail is drooping, or its response to your call is slow, or – well, the list goes on and on. There are many signs, blatant and subtle, that will tip off a dog’s owner that it is not feeling well.

Once you’ve noticed one sign of potential ill health, you can be on the alert to be especially watchful for other clues. The earlier your dog’s symptoms are identified and the appropriate treatment given, the better the likelihood of a full and speedy recovery.

There are some early warning signs of which you should be aware. For example, your dog’s eyes should be bright and clear. Its nose should be dry and clear of any discharge. Its skin should be free of sores and irritations. And the dog’s coat should appear full and healthy – healthy according to the norms of the breed and your particular dog.

Furthermore, your dog will probably not eat its food, or eat less than usual, when it is becoming sick. It may drink more water than usual, or less than usual. It will probably have reduced energy, and may be favoring certain parts of its body. There can also be a sudden change in the dog’s personality. For example, the dog may become overly lethargic, or overly hyper with sudden bursts of energy expressed in odd ways.

The bottom line – you know how your dog behaves when it is feeling well. You know best your dog’s personality, how and when it moves, the tilt of its head and tail, and of course its various facial and body-posture expressions. So you will be the first to recognize when it begins to exhibit different behavior, behavior that is communicating ill health.

So listen carefully to what your dog is telling you by its demeanor and behavior. Recognizing early symptoms of ill health can save you and your pet from the consequences of an illness that is not diagnosed early. Those consequences can be serious, and could include lots of unnecessary pain, financial loss, and heartache.

View the Original article

by Daniel Beatty, DVM · 

Microchipping your dog is a Big Brother program I can definitely agree with. Injection of a small electronic chip into your dog is an excellent way to have it permanently identified. Now it is not without its problems, but the rewards outweigh the rare risks.

Healthwise there are minimal complications except for migration of the chip to other areas of the body other than behind the shoulder blades. This does not seem to cause any complications except for trying to locate the chip with a scanner. One complication to be concerned about is the rare occurrence of the chip being broken when being inserted into your dog. There are anecdotal cases of chips causing illness as severe as cancer, but these are unconfirmed and no research has been done to show that this is the case. Hypothetically there are metals in the chip that if the seal of the chip was broken could cause an issue with the surrounding tissues. So be sure to have a qualified person inserts the chip such as a veterinarian or a veterinary technician that has had experience with inserting microchips.

The exciting thing that although makes this program very Big Brotherish, if your dog is lost, someone with a universal reader can read the chip’s number, input that chips number into one of the databases found on the web, and from there the owners information can be found or the manufacturer of the chip will be displayed to contact them to find the owner. So if your dog is picked up by animal control or the humane society all they need to do is scan your dog and it can be returned to you! They will know who the dog belongs to and give you a call to come and get him.

Thanks to American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) for creating a database of micropchips – http://www.petmicrochiplookup.org/ On this site a chip number can be entered and if the owner’s information is in the database it will be displayed, otherwise the chips manufacturer will be displayed and the chip can be traced through their database or at least to the facility that inserted the chip. It is very cool technology and although I am not for the government or any organization knowing where I am at or being permanently identified by inserting a chip into my body, I am all for finding my lost dog quickly and effectively.

View the Original article

by Daniel Beatty, DVM · 5 Comments 

Rough morning today. I walked into the clinic at 7:30 and there was a patient waiting before the clinic even opened with a seizuring dog. A beautiful 3 year old Golden Retriever that had seizures before and has been on phenobarbitol (anticonvulsant medication) had a seizure at 6:40 this morning and was now still having them repeatedly a minute apart at the most. This was a special seizure case, because usually we treat seizures with a bolus of diazepam (valium) and the seizures stop. If not then we give another type of sedative and that usually does it. However in this poor guy’s case nothing was working. This poor guy was seizuring for 3 hours before we ended up having to put the dog under anesthesia to control the seizures. 20 minutes under gas anesthesia and 30 minutes later the dog walked out of the clinic with the seizures under control again.  So what’s next?

We need to prevent the seizures from returning. Traditionally we need to place the animal anticonvulsants usually phenobarbitol and in this guy’s case we may need to add Potassium Bromide. Since this dog has had seizures since it was a puppy it really needs a CT Scan and spinal tap and a referral to a neurologist. It may be that he may have a defect in its brain. Here’s a video from another veterinarian explaining the traditional diagnostics and treatments -

Dog Seizures –

www.doghealthproblemsadvice.com – veterinarian Sam Meisler DVM featured in a video segment on , what causes dog seizures and how they are diagnosed.

Natural/holistic treatment would include acupuncture, sometimes herbal supplements, and definitely a proper diet with a good quality dog food with no preservatives and no dyes – many times the diet may need to be raw based. Most  importantly I have had success with seizure dogs using chiropractic treatments, specifically if the dog has issues with the upper neck vertebrae (subluxations in the atlas, occiput and axis) . Several dogs that I have seen with seizures have problems in the upper 2 vertebrae of the neck. So whether you do complete holistic treatment for seizures or even if you do traditional treatment I would highly suggest chiropractic treatment to help control.

View the Original article

by Daniel Beatty, DVM · 

OK it is winter time so you would think that there would be no allergens, Spring and Fall are the times for mold and pollens right?

Well yes and no – outdoor allergens are reduced this time of year because of the snow and the dormancy of the plants; however if you think about it – your house is now closed off. The windows are not open the furnace is on which means you are recirculating the same air in your house over and over. Even with an air filter and the fancy air purifiers it still is not the same as being able to exchange the air like we can during the warmer seasons. So this means you and your dog are actually more exposed to certain allergens such as house mold, house dust and house mites.

I had a very young dog come in this morning with bleeding ears. It has a double ear infection. It also was just recovering from a skin rash/infection and upon further questioning the dog has been licking its paws constantly. This dog has all the symptoms of a dog with allergies. Now a dog as young as this one should not have allergies it has not had enough time in its life to develop a reaction to something that is unless one of two things the dog has a really confused immune system or it is being bombarded with allergens. Upon further questioning the owner,a woman in her 30s, has for the first time in her life been diagnosed with asthma and allergies. They also just moved in to a house this year that is over 100 years old.

Hmm – there maybe something in the house that is contributing to both of their physical ailments. We shall see what she finds out as she is getting her house reinspected for mold and allergens.

Other Blog Posts about Dog and House Allergens

Dogs that Itch

There are several chemical treatments that may be used to help your dog with its itchy problem. Though most of these chemical treatments work, some dogs have severe and sometimes fatal, allergies to the chemicals.

View the Original article

by Daniel Beatty, DVM ·  

I read an interesting article from my friend and fellow veterinarian Dr. Karen Becker on her blog/website – Mercola Healthy Pets – This One Procedure Could Reduce Your Pet’s Lifespan by Over 30% The article is based on a study done by the Gerald P. Murphy Cancer Foundation in which David Waters, DVM and others discovered that female Rottweilers that kept their ovaries for at least 6 years were 4 times more likely to have exceptional longevity.

After reading this article I am not ready to jump ship and say that I am not going to spay or neuter anymore. I agree with Dr. Becker in that each case is an individual situation and that there is no specific age right for all dogs. I believe owners should be informed of all the pros and cons of the procedure and make the decision based on all the information. One thing that I will say is that dogs should be older not younger to have the procedure done. The hormones are NEEDED for growth plate closure, which means most dogs will be over a year of age, except for toy breeds, and giant breeds may be closer to 2 years of age before neutering/spaying.

I also believe that certain situations were left out in the study as well. Now I have not read the study (yet), but there are some things that need to be noted when believing that not spaying or neutering increases the lifespan of the dog. I can not argue the fact and the common sense behind that a dog needs hormones, just as humans do, to have a properly functioning body and taking away the hormones can cause health issues. Leaving them in also causes health issues such as some cancers, some hormonal diseases, prostate issues and pyometras. So it is not the health issues that I can argue with, since there are advantages and disadvantages to both sides, but rather the social issues in today’s society that dogs have to live. The life span of an un-altered male or female can and does decrease with an increase in accidents from the desire to breed, such as being hit by a car in search of a mate. Un-altered dogs are much more likely to find ways to escape and get out. The desire to breed is very strong and for the average owner it is not possible to train them to not listen to that instinct. Multi-dog households will have an increase in fighting between unaltered animals. Male dogs as with most males of all the animal kingdom have much more aggressive attitudes and tend to have behavior problems associated with this, such as aggressive dominance and a more willingness to fight both other dogs and humans. Even if you did vasectomies and tubal ligation these behavior/social issues will still exist.

Another major decrease in life is of the unwanted puppies that are euthanized due to unwanted pregnancies due to accidental breedings. Even the most responsible, conscientious dog owner can have an accident happen and then it will affect the lives of not only their own dog but to the average of 6 other puppies that can be born of that accident.

So I am not in complete believe that not spaying or neutering will increase a dogs life because in many instances especially in today’s society it will lead to a decrease in life span. However it does warrant more investigation and it definitely is an individual thing for most owners and their pet.

Other articles related to Spay/Neutering

Spaying/Neutering and COE Breeders – Rottweiler Discussion Forums

With the new research coming out with the negatives of spaying and neutering, I would think that buyers with a proven record of responsibly owning intact dogs would not be required to s/n a “pet” dog. I know that I would be willing as a …

Publish Date: 02/05/2010 9:34

http://www.rottweiler.net/forums/

Declare No More Sex For Your Pet – Spay Day 2010! – Green Daily

Kittens! Puppies! So adorable, but sadly there are far more sweet baby pets than homes to take them. One of the kindest, and greenest, things.

Publish Date: 02/04/2010 11:01

http://www.greendaily.com/

The Santa Barbara Independent Fixing Pets

Aside from spaying or neutering your pet to help with the overpopulation crisis, spaying and neutering has both medical and behavioral benefits for your dog and cat. Neutering male dogs and cats make them less likely to fight with other …

Publish Date: 02/05/2010 8:00

http://www.independent.com/news/

Gone to the Danes: Thoughts on spaying my dog

I went to a Chris Zink seminar recently and the spay talk was very interesting. She said that the hormones are needed to tell the dog to stop growing and to close growth plates by the time they are 15 months. She said that is why early …

View the Original article

pros and cons of dogs

Puppies are cute when we look them at the first time we want to buy one. But many people don’t realize what responsible are waiting for them when they have brought the puppy home. Puppies will grow big to be dogs and getting stronger and sometimes not cute anymore or even annoying if not trained well. Many people still don’t know what are the pros and cons to have a dog as a pet, so in this article I will share some of it from what I read.

Here are the pros of having a dog as a pet.

Dogs give health benefit to their owner. In a study of dog owner health, it is proven that most of dog owners are having healthier body than people who are not having a dog. This is because dog has the need to have exercise to release their energy to maintain good health condition. So at least dogs need to be walked everyday by their owner which can lead the owner a healthy lifestyle. Usually dog walking is done at the morning when the air is at the best condition which has not been polluted. Having a dog also good for relaxation, because dogs are cute and amusing. When you came home from the stressful day at work and having your dog waiting and greet you at front door, this can make you happy.

Dog are entertaining. Dog always fun for us. They can learn many games and tricks to play with the owner and all the family members especially the kids. Dogs can play catching ball and Frisbee, swim at the lake, run on the beach, play hide and seek, pulling the cart and doing dog training together in joy. Sometimes dogs also doing something funny at house which make all the family member happy.

Dogs love to make their owner happy. Dogs are made to serve their master in the pack. In wild life they will obey the alpha dog of the pack. As a pet in a family they will serve and obey their owner as the leader of the pack. Dogs

View the Original article

Many people love the idea of jogging with their dog. If you like to stretch your legs and stay fit you may think that taking your dog along with you for a good run is just as good for him as it is for you. But that’s not necessarily true in all cases. Here are some things to consider before you set out for a jog with your canine best friend.

1. What breed is your dog? If you have a medium or large sporting breed or one of the medium or large herding, working or hound breeds, then it’s likely that your dog will have no trouble keeping up with you as you jog. Some of these breeds may have a high energy level, such as the Border Collie, while other breeds may have been bred to run, such as the Greyhound and the Whippet. These dogs will probably love going jogging with you. However, if you have a toy dog or a smaller breed, one of the dwarf breeds or a brachycephalic breed (short-muzzled), then jogging is not a good idea. Jogging with a Pug, for instance, could endanger his health.

Even if you have a mixed breed dog and you’re not sure what breeds might be in your dog’s ancestry, try to assess your dog’s size and head shape. Will your dog have trouble breathing during a long run? Consider the length of your dog’s legs. Are they too short to be able to keep up with you easily?

There are many great dogs that can easily keep up with you while you jog. At the same time, toy and small dogs make wonderful companions but they were not intended to participate in activities that call for heavy exercise. Try to weigh these considerations before you take your dog jogging.

2. How old is your dog? No matter what size or breed of dog you have it’s never a good idea to let your dog take part in stressful, repetitive exercise while he’s still a puppy. Dogs are considered to be puppies until they are at least a year old since they still have bones that are growing and growth plates that haven’t yet closed. You can do permanent damage to your dog’s bones and joints if you allow him to do serious jogging with you before he’s a year old. Your puppy can get all of the exercise he needs from supervised running and playing for the first year. Hard roadwork or exercise for conditioning needs to wait until he’s more mature, and that includes jogging.

3. What is your dog’s physical condition? If you want to start jogging with your dog you should consider your dog’s physical condition. Is he normally a couch potato? Is he flabby and overweight? Dogs, like people, need to ease in to exercise. If your dog is out of shape then he won’t be able to go out with you and jog two miles right away. Start your dog’s exercise regime by taking longer walks and slowly work up to jogging. You can slowly increase the distance that you and your dog jog together. For dogs who are good candidates for jogging, jogging does make excellent exercise for them. It builds their muscles and their cardiovascular system, and it helps them stay slim, just as it does with humans.

4. What is the weather like? Dogs can be affected by weather conditions just as humans can. Remember that your dog can’t sweat, unlike you. They can only cool their bodies by panting. Do not take your dog jogging when the temperatures are too high or when the humidity is very high. He is likely to become a victim of heatstroke.

On the other hand, dogs can handle the cold much better than humans can in most cases (unless the dog is a toy dog). Many dogs have a double coat with a thick, dense undercoat that keeps them warm in cold weather. If you’re able to go jogging in cold weather then your dog will probably enjoy it, too. However, you should be careful of your dog’s paws in cold weather. Salt and other chemicals used to de-ice roads can be toxic to dogs, and many dogs will lick their paws after running. Be sure you clean your dog’s paws after running on icy roads. Salt and chemicals can also chap and crack your dog’s paws so you may want to purchase a product to keep your dog’s paws soft and well-conditioned.

These are just a few of the things you should consider before deciding to take your dog out jogging. Your dog may make an excellent jogging companion but do be sure that he’s the right size dog to enjoy running and that he doesn’t have any physical attributes that could cause him problems. Consider his age and condition. And, make sure that the weather is suitable for your dog. If you think about these things before taking your dog out running then jogging should be safe for both of you.

View the Original article

his theory being that pets often leave an area before a big earthquake. However, a three-year study found no evidence to support his claims.

On the other hand, many people remarked on the surprising lack of animal carcasses following the tsunami in Indonesia, suggesting that animals knew in advance about the devastating tsunami and got out of the area. One theory is that animals, including dogs, can detect underground rumblings and vibrations prior to an event. However, this kind of foreknowledge would be an extension of the animals’ normal senses and not some kind of mystical ability to forecast natural disasters.

Since we can’t ask dogs and it’s hard to predict where or when an earthquake or other natural disaster will occur, it’s hard to set up any kind of scientific test to confirm whether a dog can sense a natural disaster before it occurs.

Dogs do have some senses that are more acute than our human senses and it’s possible that they may be able to pick up on sounds and vibrations before they’re apparent to people.

It is true that dogs are able to predict other things before they occur, such as seizures. But, here again, dogs seem to be relying on picking up physical and chemical signals before they are noticed by humans.

Dogs are certainly able to use their senses in other ways that often seem nearly miraculous to us, such as traveling hundreds of miles to return home after they’ve been lost, so it seems possible that dogs could use a combination of instinct and their senses to sense a natural disaster before it occurs.

It should also be mentioned that dogs are used extensively in the aftermath of natural disasters to find survivors and to help locate the dead. Without the help of these highly-skilled dogs and their keen senses it would be much more difficult to help people recover from natural disasters. We all owe a debt of thanks to these great dogs and their handlers.

Do you have any stories about a dog that can sense things before they happen? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Until next time

View the Original article

BEIJING — China’s latest must-have luxury for the ultra-rich, to go with mansions and sports cars, is a large, slobbery dog with massive amounts of hair best known for herding sheep in Tibet.

Tibetan Mastiff

Once banned by the Communist Party as bourgeois, pet ownership is booming in China, and the Tibetan mastiff is the dog of the moment for those who want to spread their wealth beyond stocks and real estate.

“I used to invest in German shepherds, but Tibetan mastiffs are what’s hot right now,” said Sui Huizheng, a business owner who has about 20 of the dogs and attended the 6th annual China Tibetan Mastiff Expo this past weekend.

Hundreds of the hairy dogs were on hand, and owners and handlers marched the most expensive ones down catwalks as though they were fashion models. Some carried the names of wealthy Americans like “Warren Buffett,” while others were called “God” and “Prince.” Among the owners was a controversial running coach who trained world track champions in the 1980s.

Their hoped-for prize: breeders willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a mate for their mastiff. Sui spent $43,000 for a large platform and a poster-plastered booth to show off his dogs. One breeding session with Sui’s top mastiff King goes for $40,000.

The craze seems to defy sales patterns and common sense elsewhere, especially for a dog that is common, has thick, lion-mane-like hair, grows to 180 pounds (80 kilograms) and is known for being fierce.

“I can understand racehorses and diamonds, but I don’t understand why someone would want to pay half a million dollars for a dog,” said Martha Feltenstein, president of the American Tibetan Mastiff Association. “They have a relatively short life expectancy and are not especially rare, so it’s quite puzzling why they are fetching such a high price in China.”

In the U.S., Tibetan mastiff pups can be bought for as little as several hundred dollars, Feltenstein said.

Breeders in China say adult Tibetan mastiffs sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and can even go for more than $100,000.

One of them sold for more than half a million dollars last year to a woman in northern China who then sent 30 black Mercedes-Benz and other luxury cars to fetch the dog from the airport, according to a report in the state-run China Daily.

After splurging on real estate in Australia, American thoroughbreds and European designer fashions, China’s rich see the Tibetan mastiffs as a new status symbol. China is now home to an estimated 825,000 millionaires, its most in modern history, and its luxury goods market is one of the fastest growing in the world. Among the must-haves for rich men in northeast China, the official Xinhua News Agency recently said was a young beautiful wife, a Lamborghini and a Tibetan mastiff, “the bigger and more ferocious the better.”

“You could call it a local luxury brand,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, a Shanghai-based tax specialist who who compiles a popular annual list of China’s richest people. “Luxury brands are growing at phenomenal rates in China and owning a Tibetan mastiff is another channel for increasing your credibility and showing off your rich status.”

The mastiffs, themselves, look like money, resembling a lion that is a traditional symbol of good fortune.

“We want a breed of dog that is home grown, and this guardian dog is perfect because it is also a symbol of good luck for Chinese people throughout history,” said Wu Yunliang, the owner of “Warren Buffett” and nearly 20 other mastiffs. He keeps them in the northern city of Taiyuan where he owns a nursing home.

Potential profits from mastiff breeding are what drew Sui, the businessman-breeder, who said he isn’t a dog lover. “I don’t touch or play with them much,” Sui said. He leaves the brushing and fluffing of his dogs to nearly a dozen handlers.

Passers-by were told only to admire the dogs from afar and not get near them because they’re hostile to strangers — all the better for protecting flocks and herders on the isolated Tibetan plateau, where they originated.

Retired track coach Ma Junren became fascinated with the mastiffs when he was training female distance runners on the Tibetan plateau in the late 1980s. Ma claimed the high-altitude training and concoctions of turtle blood and caterpillar fungus he fed the runners helped them set world records. But some of his athletes were later caught using banned performance-boosting substances. Ma retired, denying wrongdoing.

At the expo, he exhorted breeders to raise their standards so that China can gain entry to the World Canine Organization (Federation Cynologique Internationale), an international federation of kennel clubs. The organization has so far kept China out over lax controls on vaccinations, several breeders said.

“I hope all our Tibetan mastiff lovers are honest. We don’t want to see thieves, criminals or cheaters around us,” Ma said.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Lots of people have to leave their dog home alone during the day (or night) while they work. They worry that their dog is lonely while they’re away. Perhaps you feel guilty about leaving your dog home alone. Maybe your dog cries when you leave the house. Or, maybe your dog has some behavior problems and destroys things while you’re gone. Sometimes people think that if their dog had a dog friend to play with while they were away the dog would be happier. What’s the real story?

First of all, ask yourself if your guilt is well-founded or not. Almost all of us have to work and that means dogs will be left alone at least part of the time. Realistically, we can’t spend every waking moment with our dogs and it wouldn’t be good for us or for our dogs if we did. You, as a human, need to have some life away from your dog. And your dog needs to have some down time when he’s not watching your every move waiting to see what you’re going to do. Your dog needs some time to relax on his own.

Believe it or not, most dogs sleep while their owners are away. Although your dog may greet you ecstatically at the door when you arrive home, chances are that five minutes earlier he was taking a nap. Your dog simply has excellent hearing. He most likely hears you pull your car in the driveway, or even drive down the road; he can hear you enter your apartment building. Your dog has plenty of warning so he can be waiting at the door to greet you. Most dogs do sleep and relax while you’re working so there’s no need to feel too guilty about leaving them alone. He doesn’t spend the day fretting and pining for you.

Of course, there are some exceptions. If your dog has separation anxiety, which is a psychological condition, then your dog may bark, whine, cry, defecate in the house and destroy things while you’re away from him. But you should know that there is a difference between genuine separation anxiety, which may require behavior modification and medication to treat, and a dog that is simply sad to see you leave for work. Your dog may bark and cry when you leave the house but as soon as you’re gone he may pick up a rawhide and start occupying himself or take a nap. If your dog does this then he probably doesn’t suffer from real separation anxiety. He knows how to cope with your absence.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get a second dog as a playmate for your dog. Many dogs will enjoy having another dog to play with. But you should make sure that you have time for a second dog. If you’re already finding it hard to make enough time for one dog then two dogs can be even more demanding. There is twice the grooming, twice the exercise, twice everything. Plus, two dogs playing wildly in a house can get on your nerves sometimes. There are times that two dogs can be twice as naughty. Of course, they can also be twice as loving and comforting, too.

You should also consider your dog’s reaction to getting another dog. Not every dog likes to have a new dog come into the household. Dogs can be just as jealous and possessive as people can. If your dog is strongly bonded to you then he may not like the idea of sharing your time and attention with a new dog. In extreme cases two dogs may not get along at all and you may need to rehome one of them.

Even if your dog gets along well with other dogs in neutral places things could be very different if you bring a new dog into his home. Consider carefully before getting a second dog. It could take your dog a while to accept the newcomer and things could be tense until the dogs call a truce.

Getting a second dog as a playmate for your dog can be a good idea but it’s not something that you should rush into without thinking it through. Consider your situation and your time. Consider how your dog is likely to react. Then you may decide that your dog does need a friend but you’ll know you’ve made a good decision.

Tell us your experiences getting a friend for your dog in the comment section below.

Until next time

View the Original article