DOG HEALTH AND MEDICINE

Q Ive seen advice for reducing mosquitoes on your property to help dogs avoid the heartworm disease that the insects transmit, but is that really necessary if you already give your dog preventative heartworm medicine?

Q I have a healthy 5-year-old female golden retriever who was treated for Lyme disease last year but tested positive again this year...

Q Can a small dog wear a stifle brace for a tear in the cranial cruciate ligament as an alternative to surgery? My 12-year-old terrier, Gracie, tore that ligament in her right hind leg.
Elisabeth Henn,
Indianapolis, Indiana

Q My dog keeps falling over and also keeps turning her head to the left. Her veterinarian says she needs MRI, but the cost is $1,400 plus a few hundred dollars for anesthesia to keep her still during the procedure. Couldnt he check inside her head with an x-ray, or even a CT scan, which would be much less expensive?
Bonnie Lynde
Jupiter, Florida

Charts that tell you how to check to see if your dog is the right weight or too fat (or thin) always say that you should be able to feel, or palpate, your pets ribs. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association, for instance, says that on a scale of 1 to 9, an ideal number of 4 to 5 means the ribs are palpable with minimal or slight fat covering. …

As effective as brushing. Designed to help clean like bristles on a toothbrush. Chewy, porous texture helps clean hard-to-reach-teeth. Scientifically tested to reduce tartar buildup. So go just a few of the claims on various treats and other products that imply you dont have to brush your dogs teeth to keep them healthy. …

If a toothbrush designed for use with dogs is whats best for cleaning your pets teeth, what of all the other items said to help maintain your dogs oral health, sometimes sold with the implication that if you use them, you can dispense with the brushing? Are they effective? Then, too, are they always safe?

Despite its ominous sounding name, congestive heart failure (CHF) doesnt necessarily mean a dog cant live out his life fetching, foraging and frolicking. With advances in medicine, dogs with heart failure enjoy longer, healthier lives than once thought possible.

[From Tufts March 2010 Issue]

A new high-performance CT scanner at Cummings School delivers three-dimensional images and enables veterinarians, among other advantages, to see soft-tissue structures, such as tumors, that would be less visible with older technology. The $500,000-scanner can create images in half the time the schools previous scanner required.

In addition, equipment as seemingly basic as a new video monitor and overhead light at the school are helping veterinarians pursue cutting-edge procedures, such as treating dogs with collapsing tracheas without invasive surgery. The ongoing trend toward technology?provides more tools to improve diagnoses and treatments and, in some cases, offer cures.

State-of-the-art equipment

[From Tufts March 2010 Issue]

My 6-year-old Australian Shepherd, Candy, who was born deaf, was recently diagnosed with uveitis. She is on steroid and atropine drops and pain medication. Can you please discuss the outcome for treatment?
Susan Hudachek
Pittsburgh, PA