Posts Tagged ‘Saliva’
Dogs that have allergies show many signs including watery eyes, coughing and sneezing, excessive scratching and biting, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, and moodiness. When your dog is suffering from allergies, you may notice one or more of these symptoms. Learning what causes these allergies is the first step toward treating your dog and preventing further attacks.
Many allergies that dogs suffer from are caused by insects such as fleas and ticks, or by parasites. When you bring your dog home from a breeder or from a shelter or pet store, schedule an appointment with a vet as soon as possible. Make sure the dog has all of its shots and that is has been dewormed. This will prevent parasites from causing an allergic reaction in your dog. While you may have to do this more than once during their lifetime, getting rid of the parasites will help your dog’s temperament and keep them healthy.
If you noticed small red bites on your dog or if the dog has been scratching the same area until bald spots appear, then they may have fleas, ticks, or mites. This allergic reaction is caused by insect saliva. If your dog has open wounds, you should wait until the wounds heal before spraying or bathing them with medicine that kills the insects and their eggs. Take your dog to the vet if this is the first occurrence. The vet may be able to prescribe an ingestible pill that will protect them from future infestation. You may also want to keep your dog indoors during flea and tick season.
When your dog vomits more than once a week or has diarrhea for more than one or two days, they may have an allergy to dog food. Switching to another brand or feeding the dog softer food may solve this problem. You should take the dog to the vet anyway so that they can make sure the dog is healthy. Extreme diarrhea will lead to dehydration, so make sure you have plenty of water for your dog to drink.
If your dog’s mood changes suddenly or you notice that they are not as playful as they once were, then you should take the dog to the vet. If the dog has eaten something it shouldn’t or if it is suffering from allergies, it will not want to play as much as it used to. Finding out the cause of their allergy may be difficult because, much like human beings, your dog may be allergic to more than one thing.
Research your dog’s breed to see if there are specific items it could be allergic to and see if they are present in your home. Monitor your dog to see how it behaves and what it is eating. Sometimes eating too much grass can cause an allergy attack. Once you find the causes of the allergy, take the steps necessary to reduce the dog’s exposure what is causing the allergy as much as possible.
Article Source: http://www.hobbyarticledirectory.com
Want to find out about how to stop dog barking and tips on reading the dog body language? Get tips from The Dog Trainer.
I have always been interested in knowing how dogs function. Looking at how they are built and how they differ from humans helps us understand them. With this knowledge, we can also choose foods that suit their physiology to help them live long and healthy lives. For those of you that are frequent readers, you know I have a passion for healthy natural dog food. To understand the differences between humans and dogs is to understand why they need quality proteins and whole foods.
Let’s start with the teeth and jaw. Dogs have 42 well-spaced teeth. People have 32 and our teeth are close together. The space between dogs’ teeth allows food to enter quickly. Dogs’ mouths are funnels to get food into the stomach as quickly as possible. Your dog gulping his food is his natural way of eating. It’s not that your dog isn’t savoring his dinner when he gulps it down it’s just that he has fewer taste buds! Our canine friends also lack the ability to grind food. Their jaws only allow up and down movement, not side to side like ours. They also do not predigest starches in the mouth like we do. We get cavities. Dogs get more tarter build up, but no cavities!
Food travelling from their mouth to their stomach takes only about 5 seconds. Once in the stomach, the food is stored and digestion begins. Dogs have more acid in their stomachs than people do and this allows them to break down bacteria more effectively than we can. They also have this antibacterial ability in their saliva.
The small and large intestine in the average human is approximately 36 feet long. That’s roughly the height of a four storey building! A 70 lb dog has a 6-foot long intestine therefore dogs need high quality proteins to be able to digest them quickly. People can digest raw fruits and vegetables better because of our longer digestive systems. Give a dog a piece of whole carrot and it comes out the other end much the same way it entered!
Digestion of complex carbohydrates and vegetables is more difficult for your dog, therefore in a perfect world they would be cooked and pureed to simulate predigestion. Cooking keeps the glycemic index low to help maintain even blood sugar levels. This causes less stress on the pancreas and liver and less chance of developing diabetes.
If you are like me and have your dog sleeping on the bed with you it’s not a great leap to understand that after being domesticated for thousands of years dogs, while different from humans in many ways, are similar in others. Just like us needing healthy natural whole foods to thrive in today’s environment your dog needs a healthy natural dog food as well.
Look for more info on dogs vs humans in upcoming segments.
Dr. Janice Elenbaas
Always remember, Health comes from the inside out!
I have always been interested in knowing how dogs function. Looking at how they are built and how they differ from humans helps us understand them. With this knowledge, we can also choose foods that suit their physiology to help them live long and healthy lives. For those of you that are frequent readers, you know I have a passion for healthy natural dog food. To understand the differences between humans and dogs is to understand why they need quality proteins and whole foods.
Let’s start with the teeth and jaw. Dogs have 42 well-spaced teeth. People have 32 and our teeth are close together. The space between dogs’ teeth allows food to enter quickly. Dogs’ mouths are funnels to get food into the stomach as quickly as possible. Your dog gulping his food is his natural way of eating. It’s not that your dog isn’t savoring his dinner when he gulps it down it’s just that he has fewer taste buds! Our canine friends also lack the ability to grind food. Their jaws only allow up and down movement, not side to side like ours. They also do not predigest starches in the mouth like we do. We get cavities. Dogs get more tarter build up, but no cavities!
Food travelling from their mouth to their stomach takes only about 5 seconds. Once in the stomach, the food is stored and digestion begins. Dogs have more acid in their stomachs than people do and this allows them to break down bacteria more effectively than we can. They also have this antibacterial ability in their saliva.
The small and large intestine in the average human is approximately 36 feet long. That’s roughly the height of a four storey building! A 70 lb dog has a 6-foot long intestine therefore dogs need high quality proteins to be able to digest them quickly. People can digest raw fruits and vegetables better because of our longer digestive systems. Give a dog a piece of whole carrot and it comes out the other end much the same way it entered!
Digestion of complex carbohydrates and vegetables is more difficult for your dog, therefore in a perfect world they would be cooked and pureed to simulate predigestion. Cooking keeps the glycemic index low to help maintain even blood sugar levels. This causes less stress on the pancreas and liver and less chance of developing diabetes.
If you are like me and have your dog sleeping on the bed with you it’s not a great leap to understand that after being domesticated for thousands of years dogs, while different from humans in many ways, are similar in others. Just like us needing healthy natural whole foods to thrive in today’s environment your dog needs a healthy natural dog food as well.
Look for more info on dogs vs humans in upcoming segments.
Dr. Janice Elenbaas
Always remember, Health comes from the inside out!
Article Source: http://www.articlewarehouse.com
Dr. Janice Elenbaas DC challenges you to both read and understand the label of your dog’s food. The founder of Lucky Dog Cuisine both educates and shocks us with what is in our dog’s food. A long term advocate of “Whole Foods” for both people and animals Dr. Elenbaas shares her 20 years of experience in order to allow us to make educated decisions on our dogs nutrition. Learn more in her FREE INFOSERIES visit => www.luckydogcuisine.com