Dog Life

  • Pet Microchip Scanner for Neighborhood

    RED ALERT!?! Started out trying to show how the typical pet microchip usage works. Fell down a rabbit hole of failed systems and inaccurate information. Definitely, double-check all your pets’ microchip registries. Apparently, some of them have combined, and the data (ours at least) got jumbled.

    Saw this article about a veterinary hospital in Arkansas that set up a pet microchip scanner station outside its facility so that community members can scan lost / found pets themselves for pet ID microchips. Genius really, so now I really want to set up one for our rural neighborhood — kind of like a free little library — if I can find an affordable professional grade microchip reader. Let’s talk about how all that might work and how best to scan pets you find.

  • 2024 Veterinary Consolidation Update

    Here’s my 2024 veterinary consolidation update as I continue to worry about the kind of veterinary care options available to people like us in the future. The veterinary magazine article I wrote won’t publish until June 2024, but I want to share some relevant info with you from my research for that piece. Despite some stats that make my stomach hurt, industry experts I interviewed promise me that it’s going to be OK. Let’s look at what I learned and how experts answer questions about things like private equity’s role in veterinary medicine.

  • How Brains of Anxious Dogs Are Different

    As much as I value, appreciate, and regularly use personal development and cognitive skills to work my way out of destructive feelings in daily life, I also understand that some of us — including dogs — end up hardwired to feel things like anxiety. A study published in March 2023 looked at the rs-fMRI (resting state functional MRI) differences between the brains of anxious dogs and other dogs. Maybe it’ll help you feel better about some of your own worries too.

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    Antibiotics and Dog Bites to Other Dogs

    The decision to prescribe antibiotics gets weighed more carefully now than in the past because of the increase in meds-resistant infections. When it comes to antibiotics and dog bites to other dogs, veterinarians sometimes do NOT prescribe antibiotics if the dog bite wounds get clipped cleaned promptly by the veterinary team. If signs of infection develop, then sure, you can get some antibiotics for your dog. However, this 10-year retrospective study out of Australia generated some interesting results about how antibiotics and dog bites get paired up, including sometimes under-dosing.

  • Frail Dogs

    With my recent fall, hospitalization, and orthopedic trauma surgery, I found myself both annoyed and amused at how the human medical staff often treated me like a VERY old lady. They even sent a social worker to ask me about my normal life, before the injury, such as if I could do things like bathe and dress myself, cook and feed myself, etc. Giggle-snort. I mean, yes, I’m kinda old, but I’m not THAT old. So this work from the Dog Aging Project at Texas A&M University to find ways to identify frail dogs caught my attention since chronological age alone isn’t an effective enough predictor in assessing the health and potential risks as our dogs age. Based on frailty scales created in human medicine, these veterinary researchers promote similar strategies for our dogs. I also wax a little thoughtful on the idea of life-space.

  • Detecting Dog Cancers

    I don’t pretend to understand the complexities of Raman molecular urinalysis, but a study published in February 2024 looks at its use in detecting 4 common types of dog cancers, including lymphoma, urothelial carcinoma, osteosarcoma, and mast cell tumors. The idea that a quick in-office urine test might find cancer signatures is pretty exciting, so let’s see what the researchers found.

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    Goldens in Golden (My Hometown)

    Despite a dismal cold and snowy weather forecast that more than came true and resulted in a bit of a dicey drive home, I ventured down the canyon to our hometown of Golden, Colorado, for the 4th annual Goldens in Golden event. It’s one of the biggest gatherings of Golden Retrievers in the country. Photos and about 5 minutes of video ahead, including the cheering for the massive group photo at the end of the video!

  • New Index for Tummy Problems in Dogs

    The graphic I found to modify for this post alone is worth the trouble. Cracks me up. Let’s face it tummy problems in dogs are NO fun — for them or us. So, it’s pretty interesting that researchers at Texas A&M developed and validated a new diagnostic index that uses changes in a dog’s microbiome to figure out if something is acute or chronic … and eventually help find better treatments. I even answer the question, “How Does This Help Your Dog’s Tummy Problems?”