DOG HEALTH AND MEDICINE

Dogs, like humans, produce tears that form an essential layer - the tear film - which covers the transparent cornea at the front of the eye. The tear film provides lubrication for the outer surface of the cornea. However, lubrication is not its only function. The tear film helps nourish and protect the cornea, and last but not least, has important optical properties. The film is so important to vision that it is actually…

…

It tends to creep up insidiously. Your aging dog - perhaps hes already nine or 10 - now seems to be panting more often than usual, even at night. Perhaps he no longer wants to sleep on your bed, either, preferring the cold tile bathroom floor. Or he has developed what appears to be a pot belly and lacks something of his usual energy. It must be aging, you assume. Or, if you notice…

Q We have a 15-year-old bearded collie who began having Alzheimers-type symptoms about a year ago. He would pace all night long, and we were getting very little sleep. Our vet put him on a medication called Neutricks.

…

Everybody has heard of x-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans, and other types of medical imaging - most of us have had at least one of them ourselves at one point or another. But few know exactly what each type of image captures, and when each is called for. Heres a run-down.

Articles on veterinary radiology began appearing as long ago as 1896, just one year after the discovery of the x-ray. But for decades after that, judging from the photographs of veterinary radiographic attempts…it seems likely that more harm was done to the radiographers assistant than there was good done to the patient, said Gerry B. Schnelle, VMD, at the First International Conference of Veterinary Radiologists in Dublin in 1968. It hadnt become clear yet just…

That the small animal hospital at Tufts sees several cases of dog-on-dog bite wounds each week - between 100 and 200 a year - was just another statistic to me: unfortunate, but still, a number without emotional impact. Then, just last week, when my wife had our border collie, Franklin, off leash in the dog-friendly park nearby, he was bitten by a pitbull. It was a dog he had seen before; the two had always…

Your dogs skin is itching, perhaps to the point that he may even be licking his paws or chewing on his feet. Or he keeps vomiting or having diarrhea. It must be a food allergy, you think to yourself, so you put him on a special diet. But it doesnt work. Frustrated, you try other food combinations, finally bringing him to the veterinarian for help in figuring out which ingredient is causing the allergic…

The American College of Veterinary Radiology, which grants board certification to veterinarians who go on to specialize in radiology, was founded in 1961. The first certification examination was administered in 1965, with six veterinarians becoming board-certified. As of March 28th of this year, the United States had 401 board-certified diplomates in radiology. It also had 67 diplomates in radiation oncology, a designation developed in the early 1990s for those who specialize in the treatment of…

When dogs suffer from bite wounds, we are more worried about internal damage in the abdomen than the chest, because the chest is well protected by the ribs, whereas the abdomen houses all the soft structures of the gastrointestinal tract like the liver and intestines, with no barrier around them.

n Just as stem cell research is ushering in a new wave of scientific exploration to heal sick people, studies examining the workings of stem cells are underway for treating sick dogs. To find out just where things are at with stem cell research on dogs behalf, we talked with the Director of the Regenerative Medicine Laboratory at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Andrew Hoffman, DVM, DVSc, DACVIM. …