Archive for November, 2007

Confessions Of A Dog Hypochondriac

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

They say admitting you have a problem is the first step. So I guess its time for me to bite the bullet. I am a dog hypochondriac. I fret over my dogs’ well being more than my own. My health is fantastic. Sure, I could exercise more, eat healthier, cut back on smoking and could probably get by on fewer glasses of Chardonnay. Despite that, I’m not particularly attentive to my health. I haven’t had to see a doctor in years.

My dogs however, are a different story. I take them to the vet at the slightest provocation – real or perceived. They should name a new wing at the vet clinic after us. This summer alone, we’ve been there seven times.

The first was perfectly legitimate. All three dogs needed annual checkups. I stocked up on worm and flea preventatives, got titer tests and rabies vaccinations. We left the clinic $700 later – which is more than I’ve spent on my own health care in 10 years. (Unless you count cigarettes as mental health care.) Less than 24 hours later, we were back. Riley had sustained a bite to his foot from a rodent or a very menacing insect. He went out in the middle of the night, came back in and began obsessively licking his paw. Naturally, I assumed he was doing this to annoy me. By morning, his foot was swollen and mangled. I called the vet and told them it was an emergency and rushed in. They cleaned the bite and sent us on our way.

We lasted almost a week before the next visit. Riley’s stomach muscles were spasming and he was hunched over with his back arched. Since these are symptoms of bloat, a very deadly condition in dogs, we dropped everything and rushed back to the vet.

It turned out he just had gas.

After the gas incident, we again held off nearly a week before returning to the vet. This time Cobie ate the entire bottle of Riley’s incontinence medication. I was getting ready to go out of town and had the bottle out to pack. I left the house for an hour and returned to find chewed remnants of the bottle and no pills. I immediately called the vet. “Do you know which one ate it?” She asked. I looked around. Riley and Ralphie greeted me as usual. Cobie was lying on the floor. He looked like a scared, bloated cat. Every hair on his body was standing on end. His tail was puffed out and his eyes were completely dilated as he looked at me without getting up.

“It appears to be Cobie.” I said.

“Did he eat the bottle too?”Uh, yeah.”

The vet explained that the side effects of the drug are irritability and hyperactivity. Fabulous. This was especially great news since we were going on a road trip. Who wouldn’t want to drive long distances with an irritable, hyper dog that is hopped up on incontinence medication? At least, I hoped, this would limit our potty stops. We stopped at the vet on the way out of town. She fed him some charcoal to prevent absorption of the drugs. Still puffy, with pupils as big as pennies, Cobie busied himself with every trained behavior he knew in rapid succession. Finish. Heel. Stand. Sit. Shake. Down. Finish. Heel…. He went through the sequence three to five times as I paid the bill. The vet recommended postponing my trip. So I told her I would, and then we got in the car and set out for Milwaukee. Once on the road Cobie sat wide-eyed in his crate. He alternated between stalking imaginary things and sitting contentedly with a happy doggy-grin and his tongue hanging out. At the A&W Drive through, the cashier offered him a doggy biscuit. He took it gently in his mouth and laid it down in his crate as if to say, “I want it, I just can’t right now. I’ll save it for later.” It was the only time Cobie hasn’t inhaled food.

Stories of my dog hypochondriac tendencies could go on forever if space and time permitted. But they don’t. So I’ll save the story of Cobie being diagnosed with nearsightedness for next time.

Source

Posted in Mutterings | 3 Comments »

Kennel Cough In Dogs

Friday, November 23rd, 2007

Also called Canine Cough, Bordetellosis and Infectious Tracheobronchitis

Kennel Cough in dogs will stimulate a coarse, dry, hacking cough about three to seven days after the dog is initially infected. It sounds as if the dog needs to “clear it’s throat” and the cough will be triggered by any extra activity or exercise. Many dogs that acquire Kennel Cough will cough every few minutes, all day long. Their general state of health and alertness will be unaffected, they usually have no rise in temperature, and do not lose their appetite. The signs of Canine Cough usually will last from 7 to 21 days and can be very annoying for the dog and the dog’s owners. Life threatening cases of Kennel Cough are extremely rare and a vast majority of dogs that acquire the infection will recover on their own with no medication. Cough suppressants and occasionally antibiotics are the usual treatment selections.

WHAT IS KENNEL COUGH?

Actually, clinical cases of Kennel Cough are usually caused by several infectious agents working together to damage and irritate the lining of the dog’s trachea and upper bronchii. The damage to the tracheal lining is fairly superficial, but exposes nerve endings that become irritated simply by the passage of air over the damaged tracheal lining. Once the organisms are eliminated the tracheal lining will heal rapidly. The most common organisms associated with Canine Cough are the bacteria called Bordetella bronchiseptica and two viruses called Parainfluenza virus and Adenovirus and even an organism called Mycoplasma.

HOW IS IT TRANSMITTED?

The causative organisms can be present in the expired air of an infected dog, much the same way that human “colds” are transmitted. The airborne organisms will be carried in the air in microscopically tiny water vapor or dust particles. The airborne organisms, if inhaled by a susceptible dog, can attach to the lining of the trachea and upper airway passages, find a warm, moist surface on which to reside and replicate, and eventually damage the cells they infect.

The reason this disease seems so common, and is even named “Kennel” cough, is that wherever there are numbers of dogs confined together in an enclosed environment such as a kennel, animal shelter, or indoor dog show, the disease is much more likely to be spread. The same is true with the “colds” spread from human to human… they are much more likely to occur in a populated, enclosed environment such as an airplane, elevator, or office. All it takes for contagion to occur is a single source (infected dog), an enclosed environment, and susceptible individuals in close proximity to the source of the infection. Infected dogs can spread the organisms for days to weeks even after seeming to have fully recovered!

NOTE: Even in the most hygienic, well ventilated, spacious kennels the possibility of a dog acquiring Kennel Cough exists. Kennel Cough can be acquired from your neighbor’s dog, from a Champion show dog at a dog show, from the animal hospital where your dog just came in for treatment of a cut paw… Try not to blame the kennel operator if your dog develops Kennel Cough shortly after that weekend stay at the kennel! There may have been an infected dog, unknown to anyone, that acted as a source for other dogs in the kennel.

Many dogs will have protective levels of immunity to Kennel Cough via minor exposures to the infective organisms and simply will not acquire the disease even if exposed. Other dogs that may never have had immunizing subtle exposures will be susceptible to the Bordetella bacteria and associated viruses and develop the signs of coughing and hacking.

HOW IS IT TREATED?

Many dogs that contract Kennel Cough will display only minor signs of coughing that may last seven to ten days and will not require any medication at all. The majority of dogs with the disease continue to eat, sleep, play and act normally… except for that annoying, dry, non-productive coughing that seems so persistent. It is always a good idea, though, to have any dog examined if coughing is noticed because some very serious respiratory diseases such as Blastomycosis, Valley Fever, Heartworms and even cardiac disease might display similar sounding coughing. Your veterinarian, through a careful physical exam and questioning regarding the dog’s recent environment, will be able to establish if the dog’s respiratory signs are from kennel Cough or some other respiratory insult.

Treatment is generally limited to symptomatic relief of the coughing with non-prescription, and occasionally prescription, cough suppressants. If the dog is running a fever or there seems to be a persistent and severe cough, antibiotics are occasionally utilized to assist the dog in recovering from Kennel Cough. It can happen that secondary bacterial invaders will complicate a case of Kennel Cough and prolong the recovery and severely affect the upper airway. Therefore the use of antibiotics is determined on an individual basis.

HOW IS IT PREVENTED?

Many dogs, exposed to all sorts and numbers of other dogs, will never experience the effects of Canine Cough. Some dog owners, though, prefer to take advantage of the current vaccines available that are quite effective in preventing the disease. Usually these dog owners will have to board, show, field trial, or otherwise expose their dog to populations of other canines. Since the chances of exposure and subsequent infection rise as the dog comes in close proximity with other dogs, the decision to vaccinate or not to vaccinate varies with each individual circumstance. Generally, if your dog is not boarded or going to field trials or dog shows, you may not have a high level of need for vaccinating your dog against Kennel Cough. If your dog happens to acquire Kennel Cough, it will then have some immunity to subsequent exposures. The length of time these natural exposures and the vaccinations will produce protective immunity will vary greatly. How often to vaccinate seems to have a subjective and elusive answer.

Be aware that vaccinating with just the commercial Kennel Cough vaccine alone (contains only the Bordetella agent) may not be fully protective because of the other infectious agents that are involved with producing the disease. Some of the other agents such as Parainfluenza and Adenovirus are part of the routine vaccinations generally given yearly to dogs. The intra-nasal Bordetella vaccine may produce immunity slightly faster than the injectible vaccine.

NOTE: Any vaccine takes days to weeks to stimulate the dog’s protective immunity to the disease. Vaccinating a dog the day it is exposed to disease may not be protective. If you plan to board your dog, or protect it from exposure, remember to vaccinate a few weeks prior to potential exposure to allow full protective immunity to build up.

Source

Posted in Health & Wellness | 1 Comment »

Dog perfume

Monday, November 19th, 2007

The new must-have for stylish pets:

A new perfume made especially for dogs is likely to become an immediate must-have for stylish pets.

London ‘cat and dog outfitters’ Mungo & Maud have introduced the ‘Petite Amande’ dog fragrance,which they claim is the world’s first premium Eau de Toilette designed exclusively for dogs.

The company hired well-known perfumer Lyn Harris to come up with the scent, which is inspired by nature with notes of French blackcurrant, Tunisian neroli, mimosa and violet leaf on a base of sweet vanilla bourbon with a little almond.

There is even a matching dog shampoo, for the pet who likes to co-ordinate its fragrances.

Nicola Sacher from Mungo & Maud said: “For some time we had wanted to create an original fragrance for dogs made with refined ingredients that wouldn’t overpower the senses. A scent that would refresh the dog and appeal to the human nose too.

“I have admired Lyn Harris’ work for years and thought that her more natural sensibilities would work perfectly for this project.”

The Petite Amande fragrance range starts at £15.95 for the 500ml shampoo and £38.00 for the 50ml Eau de Toilette.

It is available from Mungo & Maud, 79 Elizabeth Street, London, or via www.mungoandmaud.com

Source

Posted in Fashion Files, Mutterings | 2 Comments »

The Complete Dog Book

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

19th Edition Revised (Hardcover)

“If the dog owner can buy only one book, this has to be the one!” —The New York Times

There’s the Scottish Terrier (“an earth dog used in hunting the fox and the brocke”), the Boston Terrier (“a lively, highly intelligent, smooth coated, short-headed, compactly built, short- tailed, well balanced dog”), or the Great Dane (“one of the most elegant and distinguished varieties of giant-type dog”).

In fact, there are 146 AKC-recognized breeds profiled within the pages of the Complete Dog Book, and the pictures and text provide great bowser browsing. The breed descriptions help you choose among the hounds, terriers, toys, and working breeds, the herders, guard dogs, and sporting breeds. Measurements help determine which dogs will best fit your abode (Chesapeake Bay Retrievers measure 21 to 26 inches high at the shoulder, Chinese Cresteds are a mere 11 to 13 inches off the ground, while the Irish Wolfhound stands 30 to 32 inches tall), breed temperaments help you choose your ideal pet, and show criteria help you know what you’re looking for when you actually start to shop for a pup.

In the meantime, there are interesting stories about breed origins, and a useful glossary of dog terms, while the chapters on grooming, training, and Canine Health and First Aid will come in handy once you’ve brought your new dog home.

Source

Book Description

The Best-Selling Dog Book of All Time! From Affenpinschers to Yorkshire Terriers, with all the breeds and varieties in between, there is only one source for all the breed standards, all the canine sports and all you need to know about choosing, living with and enjoying purebred dogs. The Complete Dog Book Official Publication of the American Kennel Club

A Howell Dog Book of Distinction

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Russia Recalls Historic Dog Space Flight

Monday, November 5th, 2007

MOSCOW (AP) — Just a month after the Soviet Union stunned the world by putting the first artificial satellite into orbit, it boasted a new victory — a much bigger satellite carrying a mongrel dog called Laika. The mission, 50 years ago Saturday, ended sadly for Laika but helped pave the way for human flight.

Nowadays Russia launches rats, fish and other small species for experiments. But larger animals like dogs and monkeys are no longer sent into space.

As with other episodes of the Soviet space program, Laika’s mission was hidden under a veil of secrecy, and only after the collapse of the Soviet Union could the participants tell the real story behind it.

The satellite that carried Laika into orbit was built in less than a month in what was perhaps the world’s fastest-prepared space mission ever.

Excited by the international uproar over the launch of Sputnik on Oct. 4, 1957, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev summoned Sergei Korolyov, the father of the Soviet space program, and ordered him to come up with “something new” to celebrate the Nov. 7 anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

Khrushchev’s demand was a shock even for Korolyov, whose team had managed to put together the first Sputnik in less than three months, said Georgy Grechko, a cosmonaut who started his career as a space engineer.

“We didn’t believe that you would outpace the Americans with your satellite, but you did it. Now you should launch something new by Nov. 7,” Korolyov quoted Khrushchev telling him, according to Grechko.

Boris Chertok, Korolyov’s right-hand man, said the short notice made it impossible to design a principally new spacecraft, but there was also little sense in simply repeating the Sputnik launch.

“Korolyov rightly feared that this holiday gift could end up in an accident that would spoil a hard-won victory,” Chertok wrote in his memoirs. But they couldn’t argue with Khrushchev, and the decision to conduct the launch was made on Oct. 12.

When someone on Korolyov’s team suggested putting a dog into orbit, he jumped at the idea. Little was known about the impact of space flight on living things, and some believed they would be unable to survive the launch or the conditions of outer space.

“From the Russian perspective they were trying to determine survival because no one had an idea if humans would survive in space,” said Joan Vernikos, former director of NASA life sciences.

Today, Vernikos said, “the use of animals is well-screened and reviewed.”

“You don’t just send them to see what happens,” she said. “You send them for a specific purpose, when you can’t do it with humans. You use it as a test system.”

She said NASA currently does not launch animals because the international space station is not yet equipped to hold them.

The Soviet Union had experimented with launching dogs on short suborbital missions during ballistic missile tests, and some of them survived several such missions. All of them were stray mongrel dogs — doctors believed they were able to adapt quicker to harsh conditions — and all were small so they could fit into the tiny capsules.

Just nine days before the launch, Doctor Vladimir Yazdovsky chose one of them — 2-year-old Laika — for the mission. Stories about how she was chosen vary. Some say Laika was chosen for her good looks — a Soviet space pioneer had to be photogenic. Others say space doctors simply had a soft spot for Laika’s main rival and didn’t want to see her die: Since there was no way to design a re-entry vehicle in time for the launch, the glory of making space history also meant a certain death.

“Laika was quiet and charming,” Yazdovsky wrote in his book chronicling the story of Soviet space medicine. He recalled that before heading to the launchpad, he took the dog home to play with his children.

“I wanted to do something nice for her: She had so little time left to live,” Yazdovsky said.

Working round-the-clock, Korolyov and his team combined a capsule that would carry the dog with basic life-support systems and elements of the first Sputnik. To simplify the design, they decided not to separate the satellite from the booster’s second stage.

They worked without blueprints at a pace that was breathtaking even at the time of the space race and seems utterly impossible by today’s standards.

“Now when we have computers, sophisticated industrial equipment, lasers and other things, no one is capable of making a new satellite in just one month,” Grechko said in an interview. “Now it would take a month just to start doing the paperwork. Korolyov told us later that it was the happiest month of his life.”

As a result of some last-minute technical problems, Laika had to wait for the launch in the cabin for three days. The temperatures were low, and workers put a hose connected to a heater into the cockpit to keep her warm.

On Nov. 3, Laika blasted off into space in Sputnik 2, which weighed 1,118 pounds — a show of Soviet ability to take big payloads into space.

Sputnik 1 weighed just 184 pounds. The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, launched on Jan. 31, 1958, weighed about 31 pounds.

When Laika reached orbit, doctors found with relief that her pulse, which had risen on launch, and her blood pressure were normal. She ate specially prepared food from a container.

According to official Soviet reports, the dog was euthanized after a week. Laika’s mission drew a wave of protests from animal protection activists in the West.

It wasn’t until after the Soviet collapse, that some participants in the project told the true story: Laika indeed was to be euthanized with a programmed injection, but she apparently died of overheating after only a few hours in orbit. There was no information to indicate when exactly she died.

Several other dogs died in failed launches before the successful space flight — and safe return to Earth — of Belka and Strelka in August 1960. After a few other flights with dogs, the Soviet Union put the world’s first human — Yuri Gagarin — into space on April 12, 1961.

Gagarin is said to have joked: “I still don’t understand who I am: the first human or the last dog in space.”

Source
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

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Gourmet Review

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

Four Star Meals for Four-Legged Diners
New York City chef delivers gourmet dog food to busy pet owners

Worried about what’s in your dog’s food? Join the club. 2007 brought a frenzy of new fears to dog owners when batches of tainted dog food hit the market.

For Megan Montgomery, it didn’t take an international scandal to start researching alternative food sources for her dog. Instead this budding chef thought a mealtime makeover might improve her dog’s health and speed his recovery from cancer.

“I wanted to stop or slow the growth of Milo’s mouth cancer through diet and nutrition,” says Montgomery. Her first step was logging on to the Internet to research dog food. Like many concerned pet owners, Montgomery wondered exactly what she was feeding her dog.

Montgomery had experience deciphering labels (she spent years working as a personal trainer before becoming an Account Executive for a non-profit). “A lot of what I learned is that huge companies put waste into their dog food,” says the horrified Montgomery.

The 36-year-old already knew her way around the kitchen, so Montgomery decided to get cooking. Scanning for recipes left her frustrated with the nutritional information available for dogs. “I found a lot of the details to be contradictory,” says Montgomery. But after lengthy study and a bit of trial and error, she came up with a meal plan for Milo.

Milo’s health improved dramatically. Since overhauling Milo’s diet, Montgomery reports he hasn’t had a recurrence of cancer in more than two years.

Of course there were times when Montgomery wished she could just simply pour some kibble into a bowl and call it a day. Then a light bulb went off: “I thought, maybe other people would pay for this service!” says Montgomery.

As a New Jersey native who’s been living in New York City for countless years, Montgomery knows all too well that time is money. She drew up a plan to bring her lovingly prepared meals to the doorsteps of busy New Yorkers and Zen Chien (www.zenchienpets.com), a personal chef service for dogs, was born.

Her target customers care deeply about their pets’ well being and are eager to make a lifestyle shift towards fresh food. Many of these dog owners don’t have the time or skill necessary to prepare home cooked meals. As the head of Zen Chien, Montgomery cooks, packages and delivers human-grade meals designed to “maximize nutrition, digestibility and taste.”

Montgomery focuses on quality ingredients and tempting flavors when dreaming up each week’s menu. With menu in mind, she heads to her local Fairway supermarket to shop, selecting choice cut meats, organic grains and the freshest vegetables.

Back in her kitchen, Montgomery starts to whip up her stunning doggie dinners. Before offering the dinners to her canine clients, Montgomery relies on her Milo’s tail-wagging approval. Favorite recipes include Montgomery’s “loafs” – mineral-enriched blends of beef liver and ground turkey with wheat bread, milk, eggs, broccoli and garlic mixed in to give it pizzazz. “A human would be able to eat any of this,” says Montgomery. This protein rich meal excludes all the normal fillers (i.e. gluten) jammed into commercial dog food.

Since cooking always results in some nutritional loss, Montgomery adds Omega 3, Omega 6, B-12 and other supplements to the meals before she’s finished. Then the zen chef hand packs each meal in vacuum sealed containers and delivers them to her clients.

The beautifully packaged meals will last in the refrigerator for 10 days or can be frozen for up to three months. (As most dogs like the food brought to room temperature, Montgomery advises popping the meals into the microwave for a few seconds before serving).

Jacquelyn Karl swears by Zen Chien. Her Havanese, Buster, suffered from a variety of ailments before Karl took dramatic steps to overhaul the dog’s diet.

She took her pet to a conventional vet to investigate the cause. To her dismay, Buster was treated with a variety of prescription medications without sparking any improvement. Despite his hefty vet and pharmaceutical bills, poor Buster’s ill health persisted. Then Karl read Dr. Martin Goldstein’s book, The Nature of Animal Healing and decided to take measures into her own hands.

According to Dr. Goldstein, a proponent of natural dog food and celebrity veterinarian (he treats Oprah’s dogs), “the more real food your dogs and cats eat, the healthier they will be.” In his opinion, the very best diet for dogs would consist of fresh meats with very small amounts of fresh vegetables.

Though Karl has a crazy schedule as a morning news reporter, she decided to begin cooking for Buster. But the demands were weighing on her. When Karl learned of Montgomery’s new business, she got on the phone right away. “Before Zen Chien, each week night I’d have to shop and prepare food for Buster,” says Karl. Now she simply opens the fridge.

Buster has been dining on Zen Chien for about six months. Last week he was given a Zen Chien feast that included Yogurt Parmesan Chicken (shredded chicken, egg, whole yogurt, kale, summer squash, and grated parmesan) and Mediterranean Lamb (lamb, egg, couscous, zucchini and carrot). Buster’s meals are supplemented to suit his dietary needs. The highly allergic dog receives flaxseed oil, fish oil, and multivitamins. Karl asserts that since feasting Zen Chien, Buster’s bouts of vomiting and diarrhea have all but disappeared. Karl calls Zen Chien “gourmet” and reports Buster “eats his meals with gusto!”

What’s this service going to cost you? Less than you think. For about $10-$20 a day (depending on location and diet) Montgomery will cook and deliver a custom diet for your pet. Think about it: That’s probably less than you’re spending on your lunch and maybe less than the vet bills you’ve been burdened with.

For now, only New Yorkers can get their hands on these nutritious meals. Montgomery is working closely with the Department of Agriculture and a food consultant to keep her business on track.

If all goes well, Zen Chien will be adding to its roster of clients and expanding its territory. Convenient and fresh, it’s easy to imagine dog lovers ordering up a healthy new lifestyle for their pets.

Source – Pampered Puppy
Editor’s Note: It never hurts to advise your vet when you make any changes to your pet’s diet.

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