DOG HEALTH AND MEDICINE

Injured tails on household pets are not just reserved for cats relaxing too close to rocking chairs. We definitely see tail accidents in dogs, too, says John Berg, DVM, the editor-in-chief of Your Dog and a veterinary surgeon at Tufts. Dr. Berg has sewn up his share of dog tails that have been through the proverbial ringer.

Your dog is limping out of nowhere. You can tell hes in a good deal of pain. Perhaps hes even whining a bit. Do you get him to the doctors office without delay?

For us, daily tooth care and regular dental visits are basic things that we do to stay healthy. But did you realize that our pets require regular dental care, too? Truly bad dog breath (not normal doggy breath) is one of the most commonly ignored problems in our dogs - and a sure sign of canine dental and gum disease.

Eleven-year-old bichon frise Cooper was feeling, well, not quite himself - a bit lethargic. His mom, Cherylann Hanrahan of Norwalk, Connecticut, was worried that it was her fault. A while back, she had started putting 1/4 teaspoon of crushed eggshells into his food on the advice of someone who told her it would improve his diets nutritional quality. Then, when she took him to the vet to see what was wrong with him, he had high blood calcium - 16 milligrams per tenth of a liter of blood as opposed to a healthy 9-to-11.7 milligrams. That made her concerned that she had put some kind of awful chain of events into motion. Egg shells are high in calcium, and the vet said that high calcium in the blood sometimes means cancer.

As more states legalize medical marijuana (31 as we went to press) along with recreational pot (nine so far), more dogs are getting sick from it. They scarf down a discarded joint while out on a romp, for example, or snatch some unguarded marijuana-laced food off the kitchen counter. The Animal Poison Control Center says marijuana-related calls to its Pet Poison Hotline (855-764-7601) have increased 448 percent over the last six years. The ASPCAs Animal Poison Control Center (888-426-4435) has also seen a significant increase in calls about pets poisoned with marijuana. Ninety percent of the calls have been about dogs, who are much more adventurous eaters than cats.

To date, diagnosing liver disease in a dog has meant performing an expensive and invasive biopsy. Thus, it often has not been found until late in the game, making treatment more involved and lowering the chances of survival. But a new finding at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies in Scotlands University of Edinburgh is about to change all that.

Even the most loving dog owner probably wouldnt list mouth-to-snout as the preferred way of expressing affection for his pet. But what if it could save the life of a companion animal who has stopped breathing?

What I would really like to know is how my 10-year-old mixed breed got a huge tumor both on and in his spine that showed no symptoms until he became suddenly paralyzed three weeks ago and had to be rushed to the emergency room, where he ended up having to be put to sleep?

We have a shih tzu who has been diagnosed with dry eye in both eyes. Our veterinarian prescribed OPH Optimmune Ophthalmic Ointment, but the results are mixed at best, and at $65 per small tube we find it financially difficult to keep up a daily application routine. We had a suggestion from an ophthalmologist who treats people that we look into over-the-counter eye drops that contain oil, but he said we might have to try several before finding one that was right for our dog.

He might not live through the night wasnt what Susan and Marty Gavin were expecting to hear. Yes, their 13-year-old cocker spaniel, Henry, had fallen over when he came up the stairs earlier that evening. But we thought the emergency room vet would say epilepsy or some sort of brain seizure, Henrys dad, Dr. Gavin, says. He fell on his side and was moving his limbs.

Some dogs suffer from a genetically inherited skin condition called ichthyosis. They are born with the disease, and the skin becomes drier, scalier-looking, and more prone to infections with age. Thats because the skin barrier - the bodys envelope - breaks down and loses its ability to keep out foreign substances. (The disease strikes people, too. Infants who have it usually develop abnormal-looking skin within the first year of life.)

For the last day or two my dog has stopped urinating. He strains and maybe a few drops come out, but theres no stream to speak of. I know that a dog will sometimes miss a bowel movement. Is this the same thing?