This is a great question! Some dogs make it really hard to know and that’s part of the answer that question. Some veterinarians send home pain medication as a matter of course. But many patients really don’t need it, and the pain medication can have side...
In some cases it helps. The idea is that by taking about the hormones, a dog is less driven to a certain behavior. However, by the time the dog is an adult and being aggressive, some of the behavior may be learned. The dog has learned that is he does X the other dog...
Something serious, that’s for sure! Heat (panting) is often a sign of infection. Panting can be a sign of pain. When dogs come to see me with this complaint, we look at their chest – for infection – either bacterial or fungal, and the rest of their body for pain. 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...
Poor little one!! Here are the first things I check: can I touch and move every bone – checking for a fracture. How much rotation to the inside is there of the lower leg on the upper leg – quick test for torn cruciate ligaments (ACL – football player injury). Are all...
Just as we do in human hospitals, requiring pre-surgical bloodwork is an attempt to find subclinical problems before they cause problems during surgery. In pets, a pre-anesthetic blood screen usually looks at blood glucose, and a few tests to evaluate liver and kidney...
