Through my teen years, my family included a cocker spaniel named Brandie. My friends, however, likely thought her full name was “That’s Brandie. Don’t pet her. She’ll pee.” Ever wonder why puppies pee when excited or nervous? Well, consider my thoughts on the issue.
Thanks to access to better tools that analyze big data I now know that people ask questions like this: Can I Give My Dog Dramamine: Is It Safe? So, let’s take a look. Remember, we went through a LOT of options for Tori’s epic car sickness. We have a solution that sort of works, but she still struggles. In some cases, dramamine is NOT safe for certain dogs.
If dog lovers are aware of CYP2B11 deficiency dogs, they likely think of sighthounds. The list of breeds with the CYP2B11-H3 gene mutation, though, reaches far beyond greyhounds and the like. CYP2B11 deficiency dogs pose greater risks of complications with anesthesia, including recovering more slowly. Basically, it’s because the gene mutation results in less CYP2B11, and that means their bodies are much slower eliminating certain medications.
Let’s take a look at FHO surgery dogs sometimes need. Click through to see Mr. Stix’s actual pre- and post-operative x-rays from his FHO surgery in 2019. We have yet-another foster puppy (September 2023) who is recovering from … you guessed it … FHO surgery. Yes, I broke my self-imposed fostering sabbatical for the rest of the year to help a new little puppy-girl named STARLIGHT (~4-month-old German Shepherd puppy).
Recently, I mentioned in another dog diarrhea post about how some dog lovers and veterinary hospitals no longer recommend you give rice to dogs with upset tummies. When faced with a poopy puppers again in the last, week, here’s why I can’t stop using rice. TL/DR. It seems to work.
Cuterebra in dogs — also called warbles, botfly larva, and straight-up maggots — rank pretty high on the yuck scale. Yes, in some cases, they can be dangerous too. Based on real-life experience with them over the years, let me answer some common questions in case you ever need to know. To see what cuterebra holes look like and what cuterebra themselves look like scroll all the way down. That way I don’t accidently gross anyone out. Your choice to scroll that far, or not.
Because I wrote a best-selling pet loss book, people often email me with stories of how their dogs died. Recently, someone asked me to write about pyometra in dogs because they’d recently lost their 11-year-old female dog to it. So in honor of that sweet dog, I gathered all the top questions and answers about canine pyometra, which is a potentially life-threatening infection in the uterus. Maybe useful to you now or in the future. Maybe a few stats, symptoms, and risks you didn’t know. Plus, one real-life story of a dog who survived pyometra in our family.
A while back, I asked on the Champion of My Heart Facebook fan page what questions people had about what it’s like to be raising 2 border collie puppies — who are just 14 months apart in age — at the same time. The top 3 questions and answers ahead.
So what’s the deal with dogs who won’t eat? Well, it’s complicated. When I first went public via my personal social media channels with information about Clover’s recent tummy troubles and the now-constant challenge of getting her to eat, I got a lot of advice. No surprise, I suppose. Some of it was better than others. Most of it involved strategies I’d already tried. Certain bits of advice prompted a veterinary nutritionist pal to send me a private note basically saying she was having a hard time NOT commenting about all the bad advice people were posting. So, I asked her a few questions about dogs who won’t eat in hopes of sorting out myths from facts when it comes to dogs who are picky eaters.
The dogs in my life have always been PIGS. Serious P-I-G pigs. It’s helpful because if they won’t eat, then you KNOW something is wrong. Really wrong. Enter our new canine heroine, Clover Lee Hawn, who for about a month now has NOT been eating well. It’s STRESSING me out. So, when our friends and sponsors at Purina asked me to write about the new “natural” version of their veterinary diets for pets with tummy upset, I agreed. More about Clover’s tummy, two cool infographics, and a Q&A with Purina’s veterinary diet experts … just ahead.
