My dog never lost his puppy teeth. Do I need to worry about this?
Just like humans, puppies and kitties lose all their baby teeth. In most cases, the teeth come out by 6 months old. In fact, that is one tool vets use to judge the age of a puppy – if she has her canine tooth (the big fang) she is 6 months or older. So, what happens...
My dog is overweight and is on thyroid medication. Is there anything I should know about giving the pills?
First thing is to be sure your dog had a full thyroid test – one that was sent out to a reference laboratory and measured several values of thyroid function, not just T4. If your dog is really and truly low on thyroid function, then your veterinarian will prescribe...
Is it okay to give my dogs ice cubes or put ice cubes in their water? I read an article that said that it caused bloat, like throwing a person into an ice-cold swimming pool, causing the muscles to dangerously constrict. When I looked it up on WebMD, they mentioned that dogs that are more at risk for this are ones with deep chests and narrow waists. Since Buster is my bicycling buddy and fits that description (dalmatian), I was particularly concerned, especially since I take a water bottle with me and share it with him when we’re riding.
n theory, they should like ice water, just like we do, after a really hot day. Watch if the water is too cold – can make them puke – like a big shock to a warm belly – just like you read. The second thing to think about for those who really seek cool/cold things is to...
My veterinarian said home-cooked is OK, but cautioned that I need to make sure to add vitamins and taurine. On a sample recipe on your site, I didn’t see any mention of supplements to be added, especially taurine. Did I miss it, or do you not recommend it?
Thanks for your question. This is a common concern as we’ve all been trained since the 50s that taurine has to be added to cat food. Taurine comes from meat. In the 50s, cat food did not contain enough meat to provide cats with enough taurine for healthy hearts. Once...
What are the different kinds of vaccines? (And, why do I care?)
In the prepartion of killed vaccines, the manufacturer “kills” the virus, usually by heat, so injection into a patient does not cause disease. This is especially important in rabies prevention as the last thing we want to do is give rabies to patients. The...
What is an adjuvant and why does it matter what vaccine I get for my cat?
An adjuvant is a fancy word for something that assists. In my military career, the adjuvant helped the wing commander out. In my veterinary career, the adjuvant helps the body’s immune system respond to a vaccine. Adjuvants are used with killed vaccine. (Hmm, another...
What’s the big deal about GMO in our pets’ food?
It’s an interesting debate. After all, where do all the awesome apple varieties come from? They are genetically engineered. (When I lived in Turkey, I asked my friend what kind of apple it was. She looked at my funny and said “red.” Not every country is blessed with...
A friend told me her veterinarian has seen a correlation between blindness in pets and eating/feeding them lamb. What do you know about that?
The correlation I see is that many pets with food allergies are put on a lamb and rice diet –once upon a time, lamb was a novel protein so it really helped allergy dogs. Now, lamb is a very common ingredient in pet foods so it doesn’t work as well for allergies. Dogs...
Are hot sidewalks dangerous for your pet or is that just a myth?
Do you remember being a kid and running around barefoot all summer? Remember how hot the tar was compared to the concrete? Same for our cats and dogs. I have a friend who used an infrared thermometer to measure the sidewalk temperature last year – 145F!!! That is skin...
I use cotton swabs to clean my cats ear – only around the outside, never the inside. Is this ok?
Long before I learned all this stuff about food, I learned crazy things about ears. The first thing that was world changing for me was the idea that I can use a cotton swab on my ear all day every day. But, for cats and dogs, cotton is abrasive. Second thing – how to...