DOG HEALTH AND MEDICINE

If your once-athletic dog can no longer catch a tossed treat, or your senior pauses before descending a flight of stairs, theres a chance that his vision may be cloudy because of cataracts in one or both eyes.

While all dogs like to run to a certain degree, some make better running companions than others. Dalmatians, Doberman Pinschers, Labrador and Golden Retrievers tend to make good running partners, as well as herding dog breeds (but they can get easily bored and look for something to herd along the way, such as a car).

Advances in dog anesthesia techniques have made veterinary surgery considerably safer nowadays, but its usage needs to be tailored to the individual dog to make it as risk-free as possible. Here are the important questions to ask before your dog undergoes surgery.

Most dogs are easy enough to get a pill into, even on a regular basis if need be. You simply make a meatball out of some wet dog food or something else soft, like deli meat or cheese, and your dog will end up reminding you about his medication after a while. You just have to make sure with the veterinarian that whatever food you use to wrap the pill doesnt contain ingredients that are bad for the condition youre treating.

One of your dogs eyes has whitish or clear gook in the inner corner. To what degree should you be concerned?

More than 400,000 people die each year from malaria, with some 2,000 diagnoses annually in the U.S. And the situation is about to get worse. A mosquito-born disease, malaria is once again on the uptick. The reason, in part, is that tests designed to detect malaria early are no longer working as well because mutant malaria parasites are not producing the specific protein those tests were designed to detect. But dogs might be able to do what the tests cannot.

A common concern that comes with the common cold is wondering whether your dog can catch it from you. But dogs dont get colds from people, says Tufts veterinarian Elizabeth Rozanski, DVM. Human colds are generally caused by the rhinovirus, which does not thrive in a dogs sinus or respiratory system. In very rare instances, dogs can get the flu from people, Dr. Rozanski says, but in general, respiratory illnesses are not zoonotic, meaning they dont jump species.

Obesity in dogs is a problem that veterinarians are seeing increasingly in recent years. In fact, obesity is considered the most common preventable disease in dogs in North America. Approximately one in four dogs is considered obese, with 50 percent weighing more than they should.

Heartworms are parasites that can infest a dogs pulmonary artery - the artery that brings blood from the heart to the lungs. That can result in severe illness and even death, which is why our pets need to take a heartworm preventive from the time they are puppies throughout their lives.

Ive noticed my dogs nose is black in the summer but turns pink in the winter? Why is that, and is it a problem?

My 8-year-old Bernese mountain dog has a mast cell tumor in the skin of her tail, about an inch from the tails base. Because there is so little skin on the tail, its hard to get optimal margins when removing a mast cell tumor there - wide-enough margins would leave too little skin to close up where the tumor had been. So the veterinarian is saying her entire tail should be removed to make sure the margins around the tumor are adequate to excise any cancer cells at the edges. While I can adjust to the reality of no tail, my concern centers on bleeding as well as on missing limb pain. Is there something different I should ask for? Remove the tumor but keep the tail? Add radiation to the tumor location to wipe out any stray cancer cells instead of taking off the tail? Forget all treatment, ignore the lump, and let the dog live out her life? What would you recommend?

Did you know that you likely have a few medicines on hand that can actually be used for your pet? Youll need to confer with your vet about dosages, but often whats right for you may be right for your dog.