DOG HEALTH AND MEDICINE

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.

Since my dog is already 11, her veterinarian wanted to do some routine blood work to clear her for the anesthesia she was going to need for her yearly dental cleaning. The doctor gave her the green light for the anesthesia but said the blood test indicated that she might have chronic kidney failure. This has since been confirmed with an analysis of her urine in addition to imaging of her kidneys. The vet says she could potentially live for several more years but that she must begin treatment right away. How could I have missed this?

Sometimes its easy to tell when your dog feels stressed - during loud fireworks displays, perhaps, or when he doesnt want to get out of the car in the parking lot of the veterinarians office. But there are signs of stress in our canine loved ones that can come across more subtly. What are they, and what can you do to calm your dog during those times that anxiety has gotten the better of him?

I think at the end of the day it will probably be a wash, says Stacy Toczylowski, referring to the amount she pays on health insurance for her Jack Russell terrier, Bella, and the amount her dogs medical care actually costs. In other words, she believes that all told, the money the pet health insurance company reimburses her for Bellas care will essentially equal the amount she will have shelled out on the monthly premium. Still, she is not sorry that she bought a healthcare policy for her beloved dog. Why not?

In your October article on Sharing the Medicine Chest with your dog, you made no mention of aspirin. My veterinarian has prescribed 81 milligrams of aspirin twice a day for my 13-year-old border terrier, who has trouble climbing stairs and going for her walks. My friends vet has told her not to give aspirin to her German shorthaired pointer. What is the verdict on whether to use aspirin for pain in dogs?

People who rail against the intentional breeding of dogs point to the fact that there are already many mixed-breed dogs in this country who end up in shelters waiting to be adopted. For that reason, they say, nobody needs to be purposely mating dogs to create more pets still. They also argue that too many breeds have inbred problems - Dachshunds with herniated discs, pugs with faces so flat and noses so narrow they cant breathe, shar peis with so many wrinkles in their skin they keep developing skin infections, and so on.

I have a golden Lab, and she has a 14-foot by 14-foot fenced-in area in which to run around and go to the bathroom. But she steps off our deck and urinates right in front of the stairs there, or she runs around the pen and comes back and then urinates in front of the steps. How do I get her to go somewhere else? Is there something I can put down to discourage her from urinating there?

Unlike for most people, heart disease for dogs is not about heart attacks resulting from clogged arteries attributable to excessively rich diets, extra pounds, and lack of physical activity. Most often, its about a genetic predisposition to a faulty mitral valve - the valve that separates the left ventricle from the left atrium.

A dog is brought to the clinic because she is both urinating more than ever and also drinking more than ever. The condition is referred to by veterinarians as PU/PD, which stands for polyuria-polydipsia - the medical term for over-urinating/over-drinking. What could it be? Diabetes? Something else?

The ins and outs of a clinical exam for an older dog

Q I often hear the term clinical exam, as in, I cant diagnose your dog without a clinical exam, but what does that mean, exactly? How does a clinical exam differ from a regular exam? I ask because I have a 10-year-old dog and its time for her clinical exam, but Im wondering if she really needs one.