Category — Dog Guide

Rabies is a severe, and often fatal, viral polioencephalitis that specifically affects the gray matter of the dog’s brain and its central nervous system (CNS). The primary way the rabies virus is transmitted to dogs in the United States is through a bite from a disease carrier: foxes, raccoons, skunks, and bats. Infectious virus particles are retained in a rabid animal’s salivary glands to better disseminate the virus through their saliva.

Once the virus enters the dog’s body, it replicates in the cells of the muscles, and then spreads to the closest nerve fibers, including all peripheral, sensory and motor nerves, traveling from there to the CNS via fluid within the nerves. The virus can take up to a month to develop, but once the symptoms have begun, the virus progresses rapidly.

• Symptoms and Types
• Diagnosis
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• Living and Management

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Jessica Simpson Watches in Horror As Her Dog is Taken By a Coyote

Jessica Simpson took to Twitter Monday night, devastated after she witnessed a coyote snatch her 5-year-old maltipoo, Daisy, from her home in Los Angeles. “My heart is broken because a coyote took my precious Daisy right in front of our eyes. HORROR!” she tweeted “We are searching. Hoping. Please help!”

After four days, there are still no signs of Daisy, but Jessica hasn’t given up hope. She has offered a reward for anyone who can reunite her with her dog and is working with professional pet finders FindToto.org, which helped Victoria’s Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio find her Maltese last year.

FindToto is a sort of amber alert for pets. They take the address of the missing pet and send out pre-recorded messages via telephone to surrounding homes, with details about the disappearance and how to get in touch with the owner.

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Chronic Gastritis in Dogs

Chronic gastritis is the term used for intermittent vomiting of greater than one to two weeks caused by inflammation of the stomach. The stomach lining can be irritated by chemical irritants, drugs, foreign bodies, infectious agents, or long-term hyperacidity syndromes. Long-term allergen exposure, or immune-mediated disease (where the body’s own anti-bodies attack the tissues of the body) may also produce long-term inflammation of the stomach’s lining.

Old, small-breed dogs like Lhasa Apsos, Shih-tzus, and Miniature Poodles are more commonly affected with long-term gastritis. But larger breeds such as the Basenjis and the Drentse Patrijshond can also develop long-term gastritis.

• Symptoms and Types
• Causes
• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Living and Management

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Acetaminophen Toxicity

Acetaminophen is one of the most commonly used pain relievers, and it can be found in a variety of over-the-counter medications. Toxic levels can be reached when a pet is unintentionally over medicated with acetaminophen, or when a pet has gotten hold of medication and ingested it. Pet owners often do not realize their animals may break into medicine cabinets or chew through medicine bottles. It is important to be able to recognize the symptoms of toxicity, so that you can properly treat your pet if is has accidentally ingested medication.

• Symptoms and Types
• Causes
• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Prevention

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Dysuria and Pollakiuria Dysuria in Dogs

Dysuria is a condition that leads to painful urination in the animal, while pollakiuria refers to abnormally frequent urination. While the urinary bladder and urethra normally serve to store and release the urine, these two disorders affect the lower urinary tract by damaging the bladder wall or stimulating the nerve endings in the bladder or urethra. In other words, you’ll have a pet that goes to the bathroom often, and it may even have pain or discomfort when it urinates.

• Causes
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Ancylostomiasis

Hookworms can be fatal, especially in puppies. As such, pet owners need to be vigilant for signs of hookworms in their dogs. Hookworms are parasites that can invade, inhabit, and live in the dog’s small intestines. In their fourth-stage larvae, these blood-sucking parasites can cause anemia and inflammation in the dog’s small intestine. Active worms leave bite sites and those sites continue to seep blood.

• Symptoms
• Causes
• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Prevention

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Conjunctivitis in Dogs

The conjunctiva is the moist tissue that covers the front part of the eyeball and lines the eyelids. Breeds that tend to have allergies or autoimmune skin diseases tend to have more problems with inflammation of the conjunctiva. They are also more likely to have dry eyes, the result of a disease in which the animal is allergic to substances in the environment, such as pollen, that would not normally cause health problems. Otherwise, there does not appear to be a breed predilection for this disease.

• Symptoms and Types
• Causes
• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Living and Management

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Patent Ductus Arteriosus in Dogs

The aorta is the main artery that feeds oxygenated blood from the left side of the heart to the body. The pulmonary (lung) artery travels from the right side of the heart to the lungs, carrying deoxygenated blood to be oxygenated. Once the blood has been oxygenated by the lungs, it then returns to the left side of the hearty through the pulmonary veins to be pumped out into the body by the aorta.

In the womb, the fetus’ descending aorta is connected to the pulmonary artery by the ductus arteriosus blood vessel, allowing blood to flow directly from the right side of the heart to the aorta, without stopping for oxygen in the lungs. This is because the fetus gets its oxygen from the mother’s bloodstream and does not yet need to have its own blood oxygenated.

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Flea Bite Hypersensitivity

Flea bite hypersensitivity and flea allergic dermatitis is the most common skin disease in pets. Flea allergies usually develop when dogs are young (less than one and up to five years of age), but allergies can begin at any age. The saliva from the flea is actually believed to be the cause of the allergy or sensitivity.

The flea life cycle includes the adult flea, egg, larva and pupa. Adult fleas do bite, but cannot survive long if they are not on the dog. Once the adult flea lays its eggs on the host it will fall off, leaving the eggs to mutate through the rest of their life cycles. This generational process continues on the host pet until the flea population has been eradicated entirely.

• Symptoms and Types
• Diagnosis
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• Living and Management

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The Pharaoh Hound is one of the oldest known breeds of domestic dog and is the National Dog of Malta. A medium-sized dog with hard, clean-cut lines, and noble bearing, it is considered a fast hunting dog.

Physical Characteristics

The Pharaoh Hound has an almost unbelievable greyhound-like build, always holding its head high. Its body is long and not very tall. The dog’s coat, meanwhile, is short, shiny and tan or chestnut in color (although it usually has white markings on its chest, toes, and parts of its face).

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