Dog Health Problems

It’s important for every dog owner to recognize dog health problems and symptoms as your furry pal relies on you to be his or her “first responder” when they have a dog health problem.  You can tell when they aren’t feeling all that well but do you really know what to do?  Listed below are the symptoms for some common dog health problems ranging from the everyday to the very serious.

Dog Diarrhea

The symptoms of this condition are pretty obvious.  Your canine buddy is probably going to express some pain when defecating because that strain is just magnifying the pain in his stomach.  The stool will be runny and may be an abnormal color.  The odor will be more intense.

Diarrhea in dogs is quite common thanks to a dog’s complete lack of discrimination in what he eats.  If it smells okay and doesn’t hurt his mouth then it is potential food.  As a result they eat stuff that makes them sick.

Treatment for Diarrhea

The first thing you need to do is pick up the dog food bowl and don’t put it down for 24 hours.  Your buddy will void the bad stuff inside him naturally.  The big risk during this time is dehydration which can lead to more serious complications.  Make sure he has access to plenty of clean water.  You can get some probiotic powder at your pharmacy and add that to the water to insure he is getting his electrolytes replaced.

After a day your dog should have at least a little bit of an appetite but don’t feed him his regular food just yet.  Pureed pumpkin (the real stuff not the pie filling) will help greatly with the diarrhea.  Other high fiber vegetables are also great for building some bulk and helping to normalize his digestive tract.  Feed him this kind of bland diet for a couple of days and then switch back to his regular food.

If after 2 days the diarrhea still persists you can try using some Pepto Bismo.  Use 1 ml of the stuff for every 10 pounds your dog weighs.  If he still has the condition or appears listless after four days then it’s time to pay a visit to the vet.

Symptoms Of Lyme Disease In Dogs

Lyme disease is a bacterium known as Borrelia which is transmitted to your dog through a tick bite.  Unfortunately, there are no symptoms until weeks after the infection and when they do show they are often mistaken for other ailments. 

The most common symptom is one that appears to be arthritis.  Joints and lymph glands can become swollen making it very painful for the dog to walk or even get comfortable laying down.  Your pal will become listless, may refuse to eat because the effort hurts too much, and may revert to using the inside of the house as his bathroom rather than going outside.

The giveaway that this is Lyme’s and not arthritis is that the affected limbs will change.  When arthritis develops it doesn’t move around.  With Lyme’s disease one side of your dog can be affected one week and then suddenly it heals and the other side is affected.

Treatment For Lyme's Disease In Dogs

Lyme’s can be controlled with antibiotics once it is diagnosed.  People often confuse the more debilitating effects that the disease has on humans as applying to dogs as well but that generally is not the case.  It may take six months of drug therapy to rid the dog completely of the disease but during that time he won’t be suffering.

The best way to handle this disease is prevention.  Treating your dog with a flea and tick medicine like FrontLine will eliminate the chances of a tick bite in the first place.  Spaying your yard and bushes with a tick killer will also reduce the odds of an infection.  It’s thought that it takes the tick up to two days to actually pass the bacteria to your dog so a daily grooming that includes tick removal is an excellent idea as well.

Symptoms of Distemper

Distemper is an airborne virus that is highly contagious and affects the dog’s respiratory, gastrointestinal and nervous systems.  Distemper will first show itself with cold like symptoms with watery eyes, runny nose, a cough and sometimes diarrhea.  Later in the development of the disease the dog will suffer from disorientation, twitching and even convulsions.  Unfortunately there is no effective treatment for this disease.

The best way to deal with distemper is prevention.  Insure your dog has an up to date inoculation.  The fact that this disease is so contagious is an argument against dog parks and other places meant to socialize the animal.  One infected dog could quite literally infect any dog that is not vaccinated.

Symptoms of Ear Infections

These infections are fairly common particularly with dogs that have heavy earflap like Bassets and Dachshunds.  The infection is caused by bacteria or yeast that appear when there is a change in the dog’s ear like an infestation of ticks or mites.  Symptoms of an ear infection include the shaking of the head, a pawing of the ears, pain and a foul odor coming from the ears.

Treatment For Dog Ear Infections

You should examine your dog’s ears at least weekly and look for mites, ticks or foreign material.  In the case of mites, take a cotton swab and soak it in mineral oil and use that to swab out the ear.  This doesn’t kill the mites but it does motivate them to evacuate the area.  If the ear becomes infected the vet will have to treat it with antibiotics.

Symptoms of Dog Poisoning

If you notice that your dog is suddenly creating a lot of drool and is shaking, likely he or she has been poisoned.  This is one symptom you do not want to take likely as the shaking can rapidly escalate to convulsions, coma and even death.  Call the vet right away.

Unless you witnessed just what the dog ingested then you won't have a clue as to what it is that poisoned the dog.  Do a quick scan of the floor to see if there are any containers out that shouldn't be.  If you find one, take it with you to the vet so he can at least have a place to start with.

Of course there are many more dog health problems that can affect your canine friend but the thing to remember is prevention.  It’s really not so different from taking care of a kid.  Keep their shots up to date, keep them well fed and clean and provide clean bedding.  Parasites cause most of the problems and if you can limit your dog’s exposure to strange dogs you are limiting the possibility of exposure to disease