This blog may be a guilt-free zone, but I also try to be honest here. In the interests of providing a cautionary tale… let the self-flagellation begin. In honor of National Pet Dental Health Month, I recently blogged about how essential it was to get your dog’s teeth checked professionally, especially small dogs who are…
Veterinary vs Anesthesia-Free Teeth Cleaning
In honor of Pet Dental Health Month, here’s an article I wrote for Your Dog, the newsletter of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University (published September 2009) *** Maybe you’ve seen a sign for “Teeth cleaning without anesthesia” in your groomer’s shop or on a pet store bulletin board, and you’ve wondered:…
Still Crazy After All These Years
When you blog about dog health issues on occasion, spend a good deal of time reading veterinarian blogs — and are a little paranoid to begin with — you are likely to be hyper-aware of canine illness potential. Frankie is a very well-scrutinized dog. Sometimes, even in the midst of worrying, I know I’m being…
Of Pumpkins and Pooches
If I haven’t convinced you it’s ok to dress your dog for Halloween, but you want to get into the spirit of the holiday with your pup, there’s always the Dog- O-Lantern! These pictures have been circulating around my emails — I believe I got them three times — but it wasn’t until my always…
Friday Focus: Filthy Lucre & the Vet Visit
Do either of these veterinary visit scenarios sound familiar? Scenario #1: During a routine annual checkup, you mostly discuss health issues with your vet. You ask, for example, whether he thinks dogs are generally over-vaccinated and whether your dog will really benefit from a booster shot at his age. You also mention that you’re not…
Slimming Down Your Dog: How Hard Is It, Really?
I took Frankie in to the vet for a wellness checkup last week. He’s doing fine — actually really well, the vet said, for a dog his age (about 12), even one who doesn’t have diabetes. Aside from the need for a professional teeth cleaning, the only suggestion the vet made was that Frankie slim…
Seven Canine Diabetes Myths
When my dog, Frankie, was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus at the end of 2007, I did what many people do when they learn their pet has a chronic, incurable illness. I wept. Ok, maybe a little more and a little more noisily than many people. Then I started researching the disease on the internet, which…
Friday Focus: When Pet Food Switching is a Problem
I asked the question on Sunday: Why can’t you vary your dog’s diet — so long as you keep it healthy — or switch it quickly? As it turns out, my question conflated two issues. You often can and should vary your dog’s diet (but not always; more on which in a minute). It’s only…
Friday Focus: Switching your dog’s diet
Occasionally something I’ve accepted as a given — and which has been confirmed in respected places, including my own extremely well-researched book — strikes me as odd. That’s what happened when I contemplated changing Frankie over from one type of kibble to another. I remembered the so-called truism: You have to shift your dog’s diet…
The Friday Five: In Defense of Kibble
This week I asked the question: Is it okay to make kibble the basis of your dog’s diet? I noted that advocates of raw feeding, home cooking, and other diets would argue that it isn’t. But kibble sure is convenient. After doing the research and giving the issue some thought, here’s how I saw it.…