Care

Who among us has not fretted over a seemingly sick dog, wondering whether we bring him into the emergency vet clinic – or wait until morning? Pretty much every dog owner has done it at some point. And most of us have probably frustrated the heck out of the vet’s receptionist. Telling her that the dog is “just not himself!” doesn’t give her a lot to go on; it leaves her no choice but to advise us to bring the dog in! It’s far more helpful to all concerned if you first examine your own dog, gathering solid information about his condition, before calling the vet.

People have been using vinegar for thousands of years, and while most of it goes into salads and condiments, vinegar can be used as a household cleanser, cosmetic aid, and health treatment. Many dog lovers add vinegar to their pets' food or apply it topically to their best friends. Advocates call vinegar, especially unpasteurized organic apple cider vinegar, a wonder food. Is vinegar really a health-improving supplement, a natural preservative, a nontoxic cleaning product, a disinfectant, a source of important nutrients, and an effective topical treatment for canine ailments?

I’m awakened by the exhalation of my Border Collie’s warm breath on my face: heh-heh-heh. I slowly open one eye and focus on the nose just inches from my own. I may be anthropomorphizing, but I suspect he’s grinning. There it is again – a breathy heh-heh-heh. Wait a minute! Is he just panting or is he laughing at me? Given the way dogs are designed, panting is a very normal bodily function. Dogs don’t have sweat glands throughout their body to expel heat like humans do.

Chloe, my eight-year-old Labrador Retriever, loves to swim. When we lived in New York, she spent almost every morning in streams and lakes, diving from high granite boulders in summer and breaking through ice in early winter. But when we moved to Montana, finding clear, open water for swimming was a challenge. Then we discovered the therapeutic pool at Apex Animal Hospital and signed up for recreational swims. Now every Tuesday Chloe swims laps while retrieving a tennis ball.

Swimming dogs, especially hunting dogs, sometimes experience acute caudal myopathy, which is more commonly known as cold tail, swimmer's tail, limber tail, cold water tail, broken tail, retriever tail, Lab tail, broken wag, or dead tail. In a study published in the November 1999 Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, this painful condition was linked to fiber damage in muscles at the base of the tail.

Two schools in the United States (the University of Tennessee and the Canine Rehabilitation Institute) offer certification to veterinarians, physical therapists, veterinary technicians, and physical therapy assistants in canine rehabilitation. Courses include canine anatomy and physiology; conditions and injuries commonly referred for rehabilitation; physical modalities and their application, contraindications, and equipment maintenance; therapeutic exercise; client education; sports medicine; and hydrotherapy.

Hampton was a dependable flyball dog. The underwater treadmill increased his strength and stamina for the sport.üGracie the Dalmatian lives in Great Falls

It's feeding time at the Miller household. All is calm until I pick up Scooter's bowl to carry it to the laundry room where the little Pomeranian can eat without harassment from the larger dogs. As I lift the bowl from the counter, Scooter erupts with high-pitched barking and spinning, and Lucy the Corgi joins in with her deeper-but-still-sufficiently irritating vocals. It's more of an annoying bit of ritual than a dangerous or disturbing one, but it's annoying just the same, and one that would be nice to extinguish.

The supply of Immiticide (melarsomine dihydrochloride), the only drug approved to treat heartworm infections in dogs, has been low since December 2009, but now it’s completely gone. Merial confirmed that it was officially out of the drug on August 9, 2011. The current situation is due to a new and separate manufacturing challenge related to technical issues with the company who provides the finished product, according to a Merial spokesperson. Merial said the company is working hard to make the drug available again, but cannot speculate when that might happen.

Thank you for Lisa Rodier’s excellent article on breed discrimination in the insurance industry (“No Insurance,” June 2011). I am fortunate to live in Pennsylvania, one of the states that forbid such discrimination, but it still exists here due to ignorance and some shady maneuvering on the part of the insurance industry.

I adopted my greyhounds, Cleo and Ramses, from Personalized Greyhounds in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania on April 11, 2009. In May of 2009 Ramses was running in the backyard and tore one of his toenails off in the grass. The quick was exposed and it was bleeding profusely. The vet sedated him and then trimmed and wrapped his foot and prescribed an antibiotic. After several months the nail cap began to grow back, but as soon as it did it was scaly and immediately sloughed off. The quick was no longer raw so it didn’t bother him.

Dogs can suffer from heat stress in just a few short minutes, even when the temperature doesn't seem that hot to us. How will you know if a dog is at risk for overheating? There is not an exact answer to this question; it depends on the dog and the situation. All dogs are at risk in extreme temperatures. But a dog who is accustomed to 90° weather may have less risk on a very hot day than a Seattle pup vacationing in the Arizona desert. Also, the air temperature is only one consideration; humidity, sun exposure (or lack of shade), amount of time in the heat, level of exertion, and availability of water can all affect how well a dog tolerates heat.