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Dangers of Rodent Bait
Category:
Newsletter Library, Pet Dangers
There are several general classifications of rodent poison (rodenticide) available over the counter. The most common is one that prevents blood clotting called an anticoagulant; D- con being the most easily recognized in light of the recent bans on second generation anticoagulant rodenticides.
Anticoagulant
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Can PBDEs Harm Your Pet?
Category:
Newsletter Library, Pet Dangers
The Environmental Protection Agency indicates that polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) have a negative impact on your health and environment. These chemicals in your home environment may be causing harm to your pet without your knowledge.
In the body, PBDEs are found in breast milk, blood and the
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Calcium is Not Always Good
Category:
Newsletter Library, Pet Dangers
When examining a blood panel, a veterinarian may report to the owner that a pet has hypercalcemia, which is an elevated level of calcium in the blood. The owner often then wonders if there is too much calcium in the pet's food or in the vitamins or supplements the pet is taking.
Ingesting calcium in
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At Risk for Rat Bite Fever?
Category:
Newsletter Library, Pet Dangers
Rats have made numerous appearances on the screen and the page as you've watched theater movies with your children, read popular children's books or relaxed while checking out family films with your home's technology system.
Movies have made the rodents popular in the world of children. Popular children's
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Fatal Rabies Disease is Preventable
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Pets need to be vaccinated to prevent against rabies. Rabies is a fatal viral zoonosis and veterinarians believe that all mammals are susceptible to it. This disease puts the public at risk and prevention measures are urged. Rabies is transmitted through saliva. It enters the body of person or pet through
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Chronic Pain in Pets
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
It's hard to see your pet in pain day after day, particularly if your formerly energetic friend has now become lethargic and withdrawn due to a health condition or disease. Unfortunately, pets suffer from chronic pain just like people do. Learning about types of chronic pain and treatments can help you keep your pet more comfortable.
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Do You Know the Facts About Canine Lyme Disease?
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
If your dog shows signs of stiffness or begins limping, you may assume that arthritis is to blame. Unfortunately, joint pain can also be a sign of canine Lyme disease. Learning the facts about this tick-borne disease can help you ensure that your pet receives prompt treatment.
How is Lyme Disease Transmitted?
People
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When Is a Goopy Eye a Problem?
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Many dogs have thick eye discharge. Sometimes it is just in the morning; sometimes it has to do with a dog’s breed. Some breeds of dogs have eyes that sit differently in their skull, causing more discharge. And, sometimes, the goopy eye is a sign of a severe, chronic and painful condition called keratoconjunctivitis
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What to Do When Your Pet Goes on the Carpet
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Straining to urinate, frequent urination, blood in the urine, and accidents in the house are common symptoms that pet owners report to their veterinarian. Many times the signs come on suddenly, as people find urine spots on the floor, often near the door where the dog goes outside. Cat owners may notice
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Vomiting Versus Regurgitation
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
When you come home to find a mess on the floor, it is easy to assume that the dog vomited. Vomiting is very common in dogs, as they often eat weird things! There are actually many other causes of vomiting, including parasites, kidney disease, liver problems, pancreatitis, and food allergies. Overall,
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Understanding Canine Compulsive Disorder
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
If your dog has developed a tendency to pursue the same pointless activity -- sucking on his flanks, chasing his own tail, barking or snapping at thin air, et cetera -- he may be suffering from canine compulsive disorder, or CCD. Fortunately, treatment and training can help him overcome his obsession.
Defining
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Types of Diabetes in Dogs
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Most people have heard of diabetes and associate it with needing to administer insulin. But actually there are two different kinds of diabetes: diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus. Their symptoms can be similar, but their causes are totally different and thus their treatments are completely different.
Diabetes
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Staph Infections & Your Pet
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
You may have heard of MRSA infections in people discussed in the media in this last year. Otherwise known as Staph or Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, this type of bacteria is resistant to most antibiotics. People infected with this dangerous bacteria can become quite ill or even die if an
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Quick Facts About Cancer
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Family pets are often described as our "best friends" and news that they are sick can be devastating. Cancer is a disease that can affect family pets like dogs and cats. Through the years, research has developed many cures and treatments for use in improving or sustaining the health of pets that present
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Pets Can Show Warning Signs Before Cancer Diagnosis
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Warning signs can be present in your family pet before the veterinarian makes an actual diagnosis. You'll want to be alert and watch for warning signs as preventative measures, and at the same time provide your pet with the best nutrition, exercise program and lifestyle possible for his or her activity
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Pet Vomit - You Just Received a Message!
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Animals may vomit when something irritates, inflames or causes an infection in their intestinal tract. The location of the irritation, inflammation or infection may also determine the color of your pet's vomit and the reason for the upchucking.
Many things can irritate, inflame or infect an animal's
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Managing Your Pet's Diabetes
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
"Heart conditions can be inherited in dogs as they are in people. Dogs can also be victims of cancer, tick-borne diseases, autoimmune conditions, arthritis, liver, or kidney disease, thyroid disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and even diabetes," indicates Norma Bennett Woolf, editor of Dog Owner's Guide:
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Nothing Heartwarming about Heartworm
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Heartworm is a long, string-like parasitic worm that has the scientific name Dirofilaria immitis. It earns its common name by living in the host’s heart, lungs, and blood vessels. Heartworm can cause severe lung disease, heart failure, organ damage, and death. It is transmitted only through mosquitoes
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Matters of the Heart
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Many diseases of people also occur in pets. A problem that is common in people, dogs, and cats is heart disease. While these disorders have some things in common, many ailments of the heart in pets are completely different than what occurs in people. Recent surveys have shown that 11% of all dogs have
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Lyme Disease & Your Pets
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
How to Prevent and Remove Ticks
Lyme disease is a top concern for dog owners who enjoy walking with their dog in grassy and wooded areas. Transmitted by deer ticks, Lyme disease can result in fever, joint lameness, fatigue, and general discomfort for your pet. While treatment is available, Lyme disease
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Leptospirosis
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Leptospirosis is a re-emerging disease. This bacterial disease most commonly causes liver and kidney problems in dogs, but can also cause lung, pancreas, and eye symptoms. It is a zoonotic disease, meaning it can be transferred from animals to people, in fact, it is the most common zoonotic disease in
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Is Your Pet In Pain?
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
There are signs to look for when your pet is experiencing pain. Together you and your veterinarian can identify and help your pet with pain that may be present. The issue of pain in animals is so critical that the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) teamed up with the American Association of
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Is My Dog Sick?
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Identifying the signs of sickness in a dog can be challenging, even for the most vigilant pet owners. Since a sick dog is unable to verbally communicate what hurts, pet owners must pay close attention to identify the signs of illness. Subtle changes in behavior or appetite may be symptomatic of an underlying
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Helping Dogs with Low Vision or Blindness
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
As veterinary medicine advances, dogs are living longer and longer. With advancing age, more geriatric diseases are becoming prevalent. Problems with vision, such as cataracts, glaucoma, and keratitis, are common. Many of these problems occur so gradually that some people don't know they have a blind
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H1N1 or Swine Flu Virus
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
The H1N1 or swine flu epidemic has many people concerned. It certainly holds the potential for severe, worldwide disease in humans. Currently, most cases in the U.S. have not been as serious as in other countries. Flu viruses commonly mutate though, and even a small mutation could increase the pathogenicity
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Glaucoma in Pets: What You Need to Know
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Glaucoma is typically a disease affecting middle- age to older pets. The symptoms can be very insidious in that they may not be noticeable at first, but eventually you may see a red eye or a dilated pupil, and ultimately, as the disease progresses, you can see that the eyeball is larger than normal.
Glaucoma
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Don't Sneeze at Pet's Cold or Flu-Like Symptoms - Get to Your Vet
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
On February 14, 2011 IDEXX Research Laboratories confirmed that the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus was present in two cats from the same Wisconsin home. The cats were treated at an emergency veterinary hospital for severe respiratory distress. The owner of the cats had been experiencing flu-like symptoms.
The
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Evaluation and Diagnosis of a Red Eye in Dogs
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Dogs occasionally develop a red eye. The redness may be in the white of the eye, in the clear part of the eye called the cornea, or within the eyeball. There are many causes of a red eye, but all ocular diseases should always be considered an urgent matter, and be checked immediately by a veterinarian.
Evaluation
A
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Ear Problems for Pets
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Symptoms of ear disease are shaking the head, scratching at the ears, discharge from the ear canal, odor from the ear, or redness of the ear flap or entrance to the ear canal. Your pet may be tilting their head to one side although it's important to point out that there are causes for this other than
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Dog Allergies and Lesion Locations
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Dogs are taken to the veterinarian for skin problems more than any other reason. Most often they are itchy and that itchiness is typically due to allergies. The text of canine and feline dermatological diseases is large because there are hundreds of skin diseases, however, it can help to start with some
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Canine Lyme Disease
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
There are several options for protecting dogs against canine Lyme disease. One option is vaccination, which may be the best choice for pets who live in an endemic area. Annual vaccination is an affordable means of protecting pets against this disease, which can have serious health implications. Some
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Canine Juvenile Orthopedic Diseases
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Puppies are happy and full of energy, running, wrestling, and playing so much that we often wish we had that much energy! But when that puppy is not happy, when it is lethargic and limping, then a visit to the veterinarian is in order. There are several orthopedic diseases that affect young dogs.
Osteochondrosis
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Canine Hip Dysplasia: Causes & Treatment
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Canine hip dysplasia is the abnormal formation of the hip joint and one of the leading causes of rear leg lameness in dogs. Hip dysplasia is most prevalent in larger breed dogs, especially German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Labradors, Saint Bernards and Rottweilers. On the other hand, hip dysplasia
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Cancer in Pocket Pets
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
A tumor (also known as neoplasm) is an abnormal growth of cells; this growth may be either benign or malignant. Benign tumors do not spread throughout the body and often have a limited impact on a pet’s overall health. Malignant tumors can develop in one location, such as a hormone-producing gland,
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Addison's Disease in Dogs
Category:
Newsletter Library, Recognizing Illness
Addison's disease is an endocrine disorder where the adrenal glands, near the kidneys, fail to produce enough hormones. This disease is relatively uncommon (approximately one case per 3000 dogs) but it is more common in dogs than humans. It is very rare in cats.
The common symptoms of Addison's are
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