Raising Healthy Dogs

While eye infections are somewhat common, they can still be a serious condition that if not treated right away could lead to blindness or worse. They are also usually very contagious, so you should wash your hands when treating them and make sure your dog doesn’t pass it to some other pet.

Ear infections are a painful affliction that can cause your normally peaceful dog to go into a frenzy of head shaking, ear scratching, and whining. While ear infections are usually not life threatening, they are still something that must be treated by your veterinarian.

All in all, rabies is an extremely deadly and contagious viral disease carried in the saliva and bite of an affected animal. The only way to prevent your dog from catching this horrible virus is to have him vaccinated and maintain booster shots hereafter the first shot at about six months of age.

Your dog has two cruciate ligaments in his knee. They criss cross the space between the femur and the tibia (hence their name), and prevent these bones moving forwards and backwards against each other. Between the two bones lie two little crescents of cartilage called menisci (singular is meniscus). These act as shock absorbers when your dog walks and runs, and protect the cartilage at the end of the two bones.

Parvovirus is an extremely contagious viral illness that is spread from dog to dog by both direct and indirect contact with infected feces, as well as germs on surfaces like clothing, food dishes, floors, etc for up to five months. It’s also thought that rodents and insects carry it from place to place. It is a very serious and potentially deadly disease and in some circumstances, dogs can die in as little as two days with or without treatment.

Arthritis is a disease that causes inflammation, pain and stiffness of the joints. Statistics show that one in five adult dogs are afflicted with this ailment.

Obesity is becoming as severe a problem for dogs as it is for their owners. Studies show that in the last 20 years dogs are steadily catching up to humans in terms of being overweight. It’s estimated that between 25 and 40 percent of dogs are either obese already or will become obese.

It’s been estimated that up to six percent of dogs in the world have epilepsy, which acts the same way in canines as it does in humans who are afflicted with it.

Epilepsy is a neurological disease of the brain that causes uncontrolled, recurring seizures. Essentially, the neurons in the brain aren’t working properly, so the nerves in the brain send a scrambled signal to your dog’s body and it can’t work properly and seizures happen.

All in all, heartworms are a very serious and potentially deadly disease that can easily kill your pet. That’s why the American Heartworm Society recommends you give your dog a preventative all year long.

Kennel cough, also called canine tracheobronchitis, is an infectious disease similar to bronchitis or a cold in people. It causes a dog’s upper respiratory system to be inflamed. Kennel cough gets its name from the fact that dogs in close quarters like kennels tend to get the disease more easily and spread it more.

Canine distemper is an extremely communicable, multi-systemic viral illness that attacks the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and central nervous systems.

Bloat. Such a simple word that may not sound serious, but it is dead serious when it comes to dogs that get this life threatening condition. Bloat is considered the second leading cause of dog death right after cancer and nearly 50 percent of all dogs with bloat die.