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Readers have asked us the difference between an exam and a clinical exam. A clinical exam is simply the doctor’s examination of a patient’s body (dog or human) in person, rather than, say, by phone or by looking over medical records. It’s the “show” part of a medical show-and-tell, and it’s a critical screening tool.

You might be used to feeding a dog twice a day, but if you bring home a very young puppy, she needs to be fed more often than that—ideally, about every four hours, or four times a day. When she reaches four months of age, you can switch to three times a day for several months, then to twice daily.

Very mild dandruff on a black dog is probably nothing to be concerned about. Even a few white flecks against a black backdrop are going to stick out. But generally speaking, you’re not supposed to be able to see dandruff scales on your pet. Normally, as millions of cells in the top layer of skin—the epidermis—are renewed every three to four weeks (just as in people), the old ones slough off upon dying. It takes place microscopically and shouldn’t be viewable.

What people tend to think of when their dog has an illness with a grim prognosis is “a kind of binary option, either full-court treatment or euthanasia,” says Eric Richman, MSW, LICSW, a veterinary social worker who tends to clients at Tufts. But there’s “potential for middle ground,” he says, in the form of hospice and palliative care—“palliative” meaning pain-relieving as opposed to disease-treating.

If your dog was spayed before she had even a single heat, she has virtually no chance of ending up with mammary (breast) cancer. But her risk for that disease rises substantially if her spaying occurred after the first heat. And if she wasn’t spayed till after her third or fourth heat, any potential cancer-sparing benefit may have been lost completely.

AI—Artificial Intelligence—is often thought of as a kind of creepy, subversive use of information that does everything from allow students to cheat on their term papers to inadvertently promulgate falsehoods. But while it certainly can be misused, it also has amazing potential to do good, including in the care of dogs. It may even be able to help veterinarians pinpoint with better accuracy whether a dog has a heart murmur that would benefit from medication, an echocardiogram that would allow for further evaluation, or a referral to a board-certified veterinary cardiologist. In that way, it can both save people with dogs from spending money unnecessarily if the murmur is in fact not a significant health issue as well as better insure that a dog will receive prompt treatment if he does have a murmur that calls for further testing and/or a consult with a specialist.

Q: My dog absolutely hates to go out in the rain. It’s a tug of war every time the drops fall. But she needs to relieve herself. Anything I can do on rainy days short of dragging her?

While people are advised to consume roughly 25 to 35 grams of fiber a day, there is no fiber recommendation for dogs, even though the substance does the same things for them as for us. Fiber helps regulate the bowels, insuring the timely passage of solid waste out of the body with neither constipation at one extreme nor diarrhea at the other. (Some call it nature’s broom.) Fiber may also help regulate appetite—and thereby weight management—by giving food bulk that can increase feelings of satiety. (It contains no calories.) And it slows the uptake of sugar by the body and thereby helps keep blood sugar on an even keel.

• Chronic Pain Causing Sleep Loss? Rx: Take One Dog to Bed with You
• Short Takes: Humans, Not Dogs, Are the Fast Talkers; Avoid Canine Frostbite 
and Other Cold Weather Hazards; About That Pet Food Advice from the Store Clerk.
• Should You Switch from Standard Dog Food to Fresh?
• If Only My Dog Would Die in His Sleep
• Urinating On Purpose Versus Urinary Incontinence
• Your Dog Doesn’t Have to Be White to Have Little White Shaker Syndrome
• Simple Ways to Know Your Dog’s in Pain
• Dear Doctor

It might seem that if you suffer from chronic pain that keeps you up at night, the last thing you should do is let your dog in the bed with you. Dogs take up space. They wake up about four times as often at night as people. They fidget.

It’s a common belief that dogs are more resistant to cold weather than people because of their fur, but that’s not true. Granted, longer-haired and thick-coated dog breeds like huskies and other dogs bred for colder climates are more tolerant of cold weather than dogs in general. But even dogs that don’t complain or don’t seem to mind are susceptible to frostbite and hypothermia. When the weather is extremely cold, shorten your outdoor time with your pet.

We not infrequently hear from our clients that they chose their dog’s food based on the recommendation of someone who works at the pet shop. Not to diminish the good work of store staff in any way, but would you build a nutritious diet for yourself based on the advice of someone who works at the supermarket?