Dog Health Blog

You just saw your dog swallow something that could make her sick.

Do you induce vomiting right away? No.

The first action you should take is to call your vet or emergency vet clinic for advice.

Why?

Vomiting will not help in some situations. In others, vomiting could harm her even more. What follows is a list of times when you should not induce vomiting in your dog.

• She has already started vomiting.
• She has lost consciousness, she has trouble breathing, or she has become too weak to stand.
• She has swallowed bleach, drain cleaner or a petroleum distillate product. These products will burn the esophagus and mouth parts again on the way up.
• She swallowed the material more than two hours ago. Don’t induce vomiting in this case because the substance has likely passed into the small intestine, at which point your dog can’t vomit it back up.

It’s okay to induce vomiting in these two situations:

1) your vet has advised you to do it during your phone call;

2) your dog has ingested antifreeze (ethylene glycol) no more than two hours ago.

Watch this video to learn how to induce vomiting in your dog:
http://www.expertvillage.com/player.swf?flv=dog-vomit

Watch this video to see what to do if you accidently cut your dog’s toenails too short or into the quick.

http://www.expertvillage.com/player.swf?flv=dog-nail-one

If you don’t have thousands of dollars lying around to treat your parvo puppies, don’t worry. There are simple, inexpensive steps you can take at home to treat parvo puppies using Parvaid.

Many parvo puppies are cured after consuming the first few doses of Parvaid. Most stop vomiting, begin to drink fluids on their own, and are eating within one to two days. However, that’s not always the case. The worst cases of parvo puppies require hourly oral or enema dosing continuously for one to two days, so if you’re doing home treatment, you will need helpers who can sleep in shifts. Using an IV can make dosing easier, but you should still administer oral drops every hour until the puppy is eating and drinking on his own. Unfortunately, many people think they can mix the Parvaid in the puppy’s water, but if the puppy isn’t drinking fluids on his own, he won’t be getting the medication.

If you can’t stay home for two days straight, you might have the option of taking your parvo puppy to the veterinarian during the day for IV dosing and pick him up on the way home for home treatment throughout the night. Ask your vet about other options for combination treatments.

Keeping a record of your home treatments is a good idea. Make a note of every dose you administer, record every temperature, every instance of diarrhea and its appearance — you should record every minute detail. This will help you remember exactly what you’ve done and will enable someone else to easily take over the puppy’s care while you get some sleep.

Treating parvo puppies at home is exhausting, but it’s very rewarding. Even though it can take a long time and seem like a nightmare, you’ll be overjoyed when their recovery is complete, and you will have made new-found lifelong friends!

Most people don’t want their dogs to go on the rampage. And while there is no way to be assured that your dog will never bite another person, there are things you can do to considerably decrease the chances.

Spaying or neutering your dog greatly reduces the chances of your dog biting another person. Having this safe procedure performed on your dog will reduce aggression and his desire to fight.

Familiarize your dog with a variety of different social situations, so he doesn’t become anxious when faced with an unknown environment or situation. One of the great ways to socialize your dog is to take him to a training course. It’s also a wonderful way to involve your whole family in the dog’s life since every member of the family can contribute to your dog’s education. Don’t send your dog to a training course alone; he needs to be trained in your presence since you’ll be the one at home.

Never encourage your dog to run after people or even attack them in jest. Dogs sometimes have trouble differentiating between what is play and what is not. At the first sign of inappropriate behavior from your dog, contact a professional for advice. Don’t wait for something major to happen. Your community animal control organization can be a helpful resource for advice and services. Even if your dog is only aggressive toward other animals, that may eventually ripen into aggression toward people.

Dogs who spend a lot of time by themselves are more prone to turning dangerous. Be a conscientious dog owner who includes the dog in regular family time and keeps the dog current with licenses and vaccinations. Dogs who are cared for well are much less likely to attack someone else.

It’s always better to be safe than sorry. If you doubt your dog’s ability to act appropriately in any given situation, exercise caution. Learn your dog’s triggers — the things that excite him or cause him to overreact — and avoid them. Help your dog be the safest dog he can be.

If you’ve found a tick on your dog, yourself or your child, you know you just can’t ignore it. It may be an unpleasant experience, but unless you want a case of Lyme disease on your hands, the tick must be dealt with. Lyme disease is a disease caused by a bacterial infection; the bacteria is carried by certain kinds of ticks in some parts of the country, including New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Minnesota and California.

If this isn’t your first experience with ticks, you might have been exposed to either the “smoldering” or “smothering” method for removing these pesky creatures. The smoldering method involves holding a lit match up to the tick, in hopes that the tick will be sensitive to the heat, let go and drop off on his own. The smothering method involves pouring goo on the tick, such as mineral oil, in order to drown the tick and make him fall off. Neither of these methods are safe, and both can lead to increased infection for your child, yourself or your dog.

And of course, you must know that you can’t pull a tick off. You’ll leave the head imbedded in the skin, and it will continue to suck blood. Gross, but true.

The best way to remove a tick is to use sterilized tweezers. Swab the tweezers with alcohol or hold them over a flame for a few minutes. After that, try to wedge the tweezers in between the skin and the jaws of the tick, approaching the tick from the side. Once you have a grip on the tick, gently pull over a period of several minutes. If the tick doesn’t appear to be moving at all, you may pull from side to side. The trick is to be patient and cause the tick to get tired and release his grip. If you apply steady pressure for several minutes, this should eventually happen. If you pull too hard, you could yank the body off and leave the head stuck in the skin, so be patient. If something unexpected happens or you have any doubts or questions, contact your doctor for advice.

If you don’t have a pair of tweezers handy, you can pull with your fingers (just be sure to cover them with a napkin or some other thin material). Once again, pull gently at the point of contact with the skin; don’t pull on the tick’s body. After you have managed to free the tick, crush it with your shoe or something hard. Ticks are hard to squash, and if you don’t kill them, they could jump back on you and chomp down again. Teach your children to tell an adult if they discover a tick anywhere on their bodies.

If you or your child or your dog have been bitten by a tick, call your doctor to find out if you need to worry about Lyme disease. This disease is easily cured if caught in the early stages, so it’s always better to ask for professional advice rather than waiting.