DOG HEALTH AND MEDICINE

Give a person blood from the wrong blood type, and she can suffer a life-threatening immune reaction as the antibodies in her body work to mount a rejection of the foreign “invader.” But dogs do not start out with antibodies to foreign blood types. It’s only after they receive blood of a different type from […]

In a small but telling piece of research, researchers in the United Kingdom equipped dogs with special collars that tracked their heart rates for 7 days and found the following: When a dog’s human companion said, “I love you,” their pet’s heart rate shot up by 46 percent, from an average of 67 beats per […]

Tufts University has reportedly become the first veterinary facility in the U.S. to use a new treatment for speeding up wound healing in dogs and other pets. Called cold plasma therapy (or cold atmospheric plasma therapy), it appears to hasten the skin’s return to normal when it has been compromised by such things as cuts […]

The term “feeding tube” may conjure up an image of a terminally ill dog who’s so sick he doesn’t have the strength to swallow his own food and needs to have his nutrients delivered with a medical device as he heads toward death. But for most dogs sent home with a feeding tube in place, […]

Q. My 10-year-old golden doodle was recently diagnosed with diabetes after years of enjoying good health. He is now on twice daily insulin injections. But soon after his diagnosis we noticed cloudiness in his eyes, which the vet said often comes with diabetes. An internal medicine specialist on the case observed that he had only […]

Q. My dog seems to have very active anal glands. She will release them whenever we are in the car and lots of times when we are just around the house. She even left a pool of anal fluid in the car just below the console where there is a little place to put stuff. […]

Q. We split our time between Dallas and Amelia Island off the coast of Florida. In both locations, our 13-year-old Pomeranian sneezes several times a day with an occasional cough. And her breathing sometimes sounds like she has asthma. We adopted her two years ago at age 11, and the vet kept her sneezing to […]

You brush your dog’s teeth assiduously to keep his mouth free of the bacteria that cause dental disease and can also make his mouth smell rank. You even take him for periodic cleanings under anesthesia, which allows the veterinarian to remove bacteria-friendly debris below the gum line. But still, the odor emanating from his oral […]

About one quarter of all phone calls to the Animal Poison Control Center are about human medications, says the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). “Your pet can easily ingest dropped pills or may be given harmful human medications by an unknowing owner, resulting in illness, or even death, for your pet.” At the same time, […]

The vet says your dog has heart failure, and you assume it means death is imminent. After all, if the heart “fails,” death ensues. Don’t panic. The term heart failure, short for congestive heart failure, means the heart is failing gradually, not that it has stopped working altogether. A normal canine (or human) heart pumps […]

Many people wonder just how many calories their dog should consume. With an estimated 40 percent of dogs in this country who weigh more than they should, it’s a reasonable question. The good news: once your veterinarian confirms your suspicion that your dog is too plump, there are a couple of different ways to arrive […]

Dogs will literally swallow almost anything, says Your Dog editor-in-chief John Berg, DVM. A veterinary surgeon at Tufts Universitys Foster Hospital for Small Animals, he has retrieved from dogs GI tracts such items as pantyhose, golf balls, socks, rocks, underwear, plastic gadgets, and magnets.