Health

Purchasing veterinary medications such as heartworm preventatives online can offer significant cost savings, but how can you be sure that you're buying the real thing and not counterfeit products from China, which can be impossible to tell apart? I recently read about a dog who tested positive for heartworms despite being given monthly preventative medications. The reason may be that the heartworm preventative the owner purchased online was not what it claimed to be.

The respiratory system functions rather miraculously. Vital for life, critical for the health of the whole body, it’s one of the major ways the dog’s body unites his external environment with his inner milieu. As a primary site of contact with the outer world, the lungs are susceptible to diseases that can be caused by any airborne germ, irritant, or toxin that happens to be floating around.

just slide a clean dish under your dog as she urinates! You need to catch only a few drops to test.üUrinary tract infections that cause struvite crystals to become uroliths can raise urinary pH to 8.0 or 8.5. Contact your vet if your dog's urinary pH jumps from acid to alkaline.üStruvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate or "triple phosphate") crystals in polarized light (total magnification 112x). Struvite crystals are common in dogs and don't cause problems until they unite to form stones that interfere with urination; generally

Western medicine’s mechanistic theory regards the body’s joints simply as the anatomic sites where the lever action of bones enables body movement. However, joints are much more complex than this, anatomically, mechanistically, and functionally. And when disease exists within any joint, the result can be completely disabling – not only to the local area but also to the entire body.

Owners who don't feel capable of or willing to carry out a rigorous trial may prefer to try a commercial dog food that has been processed in such a way as to render the proteins hypoallergenic, or one designed specifically for use in an elimination diet. Chances are good that your veterinarian carries at least one of these types of food. Some are limited-ingredient diets, available over the counter; others are prescription diets. All cost around 30 percent more than even the best nonprescription dog foods.

IVDD in dogs is a painful, debilitating spinal cord disease. Treatment includes rest, steroids, anti-inflammatories, and corrective surgery.

When Woody (my three-year-old pit bull-mix) was a tiny puppy, just another one in a litter of nine that I was fostering for my...

I can still remember the day, more than a decade ago, when I first realized with horror that our Scottish Terrier, Dubhy (pronounced Duffy")

The active ingredient in Pepto Bismol and generic versions is bismuth subsalicylate, an antidiarrheal medication that can safely reduce a dog’s symptoms of diarrhea, nausea, heartburn, gas, and stomach pain.

Stomach bloat is something that every dog owner should be aware of. Knowing the early signs of bloating in dogs and the best ways...

Difficult to diagnose, yet easy to treat, sarcoptic mange is a miserably itchy, uncomfortable disease Canine scabies, also known as sarcoptic mange, is a dreadfully...

Ten years have passed since WDJ explored “conservative management” – the nonsurgical treatment – of knee ligament injuries (see “Saying ‘No’ to Surgery,” February...