DOG HEALTH AND MEDICINE

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.

Q My beagle was recently diagnosed with lymphoma. Treatment has been slow, as her white blood cell counts have dropped with each dose of the chemotherapy drug doxyrubicin and they have to keep delaying the next round of the medicine. The last dose almost killed her. But I was wondering, could her sensitivity to the drug be a positive indicator that it is working?

Carolyn and Wayne Vines 12-year-old West Highland terrier, Mac, started drinking a lot more water than he usually did, and he started eating quite a bit more, too. We usually leave kibble down for Mac to snack on when he wants in addition to giving him his regular wet-food meals, and all of a sudden the kibble was always completely gone, Mrs. Vine says.

The reason diabetes causes more thirst and urination is that in an effort to rid the blood of excess sugar, also called glucose, the sugar spills into the kidneys, pulling water with it and thereby leading to the creation of more urine. Where glucose goes, water follows. And the more a dog urinates, the more hes going to want to drink.

Dogs become infected with heartworms through mosquito bites, so if you live in a climate with cold late autumns and winters, why worry about giving your dog preventive medication every single month of the year? Because mosquito species are constantly changing and adapting to cold climates, reports the American Heartworm Society (heartwormsociety.org). And some species of mosquito do just fine hanging out indoors over the winter months. Find that hard to believe?

A dog's first respiratory system line of defense is in the nasal cavity, where microscopic hairs (cilia) bathed in mucus trap particles. If inhaled particles penetrate to the lungs, macrophages (large cells whose name means "big eaters") ingest the invaders. If these defense mechanisms fail, a dog can develop respiratory problems. The most common diseases of the upper respiratory tract (the airways from the nost to the bronchi) are kennel cough (infectious tracheobronchitis) and chronic bronchitis.…

Your dog's body is a smorgasbord for flies, ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, and countless other parasitic invaders, perhaps the most insidious of which rely on your dog's intestinal tract for the completion of their life cycles. Not surprisingly, our contemplation of these often microscopic lives is limited to how best to eradicate them.

"Internal and external parasites are of concern to every dog and cat I see," says Dr. Michael Stone, veterinary internist and clinical assistant professor of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. "I feel it is my responsibility to discuss parasitic infections and their consequences. Many owners are not aware of the dangers that exist for both their pet and themselves."

The Itch All dogs scratch periodically (and often follow with a good shake) to clean themselves and stimulate their skin glands. But dogs also scratch in response to an itch - an irritating, localized skin sensation transmitted to the brain. "Excessive scratching or licking is a sing that your dog's itch has pathological (disease-related) origins," says Dr. Laurie Stewart, a dermatologist at Veterinary Dermatology of New England in Westford, Massachusetts. …