DOG HEALTH AND MEDICINE

Several months ago you published an article that talked about a medicine called pimobendan that could stave off the symptoms of congestive heart failure and thereby keep a dog with that condition healthier for a longer period of time. I have a 12-year-old beagle, Chewy, in that situation. She has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure because she has a heart murmur and an enlarged heart but does not yet have major symptoms of the disease - not really any weakness, difficulty breathing, severe loss of appetite, or cough.

I have just gotten a Great Dane puppy, eight weeks old, and the vet said I should feed her food for large-breed puppies because it has less calcium for its calories than food for smaller puppies. I said, You mean more calcium, right? because a big dog like a Great Dane needs more calcium to build bigger bones. But the vet insisted that food for large-breed puppies has less calcium. How can that be?

Tufts veterinary nutritionist Deborah Linder, DVM, DACVN, doesnt just counsel people who have to make sure their household pets dont eat each others food. She has to contend with plate-sharing issues among the animals in her own home. I have a dog and two cats, she says, and everybody wants to eat everybody elses food, but they all have different medical diseases and have to be on separate diets. Yet they all have to be fed at the same time or they get very upset and go around howling.

Poor little Scottish terrier Newt was barley two months old and had been in his new home only a few weeks when, according to his owner, Jackie Strom, he kind of rolled over on his back, his arms and legs going. His eyes were sort of in the back of his head, and he lost control of his bowels. It probably didnt last much more than a minute or so.

My dog has always liked to squeeze himself into tight spaces to hang out - under the dining room table, between the couch and the wall, the bed and the wall, even on a shelf in the basement when I go down to do laundry. What is that about? Should I be concerned?

My dog is now almost a year old and absolutely loves to go in the water. There is a saltwater bay near our house that leads to the ocean, and nothing makes him happier than to splash around in it, and even swim in it. He grins from ear to ear. But should I be bathing him after each wet excursion? After all, water in a bay - or even in a stream or river - carries its own bacteria and other pathogens and may not be perfectly harmless. Also, I wonder if the salt in the water is prone to making the skin under his coat too dry. Please tell me the verdict on how often to bathe a dog who enjoys the ocean, lakes, ponds, or streams? I certainly wouldnt go into the water without bathing afterwards.

Say cancer, and what comes to mind is not a mad rush to the emergency room to avoid imminent death but, rather, a slow-growing problem with gradual deterioration. However, some dogs (and people) with cancer often feel perfectly fine and exhibit no symptoms and therefore go undiagnosed - until a catastrophic emergency occurs.

Is there an age when female dogs no longer go into heat, a sort of doggie menopause? I am asking because I just adopted two dogs who have not been spayed. One is 10, and the other is 5.

When pitbull mix Brooklyn came to live with Rochelle Lucas and Aaron Roylance at the ripe age of 9, he tipped the scales somewhere between 90 and 95 pounds. The vet said, he cannot stay at this weight, Ms. Lucas recalls. Thats going to be really hard on his joints."

A common question vets get asked is What would you do if it were your dog? says John Berg, DVM, DACVS,

Even if its not a lipoma but, rather, a cancerous mass, thats no reason to panic. Many cancerous tumors can be safely removed without ever invading healthy tissue or spreading to vital organs in other parts of the body.

Sometimes a dog has a condition for which a veterinarian will recommend a specific diet. Maybe the dog has a tendency to develop bladder stones, or suffers from kidney disease, or is allergic to certain ingredients commonly found in pet food and therefore needs special kibble, and the doctor advises that a particular food can mitigate symptoms or even help slow the course of the disease.