Posts Tagged ‘Vomiting And Diarrhea’
Maybe you are changing from puppy food to an adult dog food or maybe you are changing from a regular dog food to a special diet food. What ever the reason, you need to know how to change your dog’s diet is a way that will be best for your dog and better for you as well. Sudden change in dogs’ diet often results in such stomach upset that bad gas, vomiting, and diarrhea occur. This is obviously not good for your dog. Not only is he not getting vital nutrients that he needs, but he can easily become dehydrated. The possibility of dehydration is higher according to the dog’s size. Smaller dogs, like babies, dehydrate faster than larger dogs. This is scary, since dehydration can lead to your dog’s death.
Any change in your dog’s main diet must be done gradually, over a week’s time. In addition to the above mentioned changes, changes can be something as simple as changing from one brand of dog food to another or changing from a hard food to a soft food. Plan the change in advance. For simplicity, this change is described in terms of feeding a small dog (10lbs or so). Make sure you have at least ½ of a small bag of your dog’s current dog food on hand and purchase the new dog food.
· Day 1: Mix ¾ c of the current food with ¼c of the new food.
· Day 2: Same as Day 1.
· Day 3: Mix ½ c of the current food with ½c of the new food.
· Day 4: Same as Day 3.
· Day 5: Mix ¼ c of the current food with ¾ c of the new food.
· Day 6: Same as Day 5.
· Day 7: You can now give your dog only the new food.
If your dog shows signs of stomach upset at any time, go back to the previous step and repeat for a couple more days. For Example: On Day 3 your dog develops diarrhea not long after eating; you would go back to mixing ¼ c of current food with ¾ c of new food for the next couple of days, then proceed with the next step. For larger dogs, the ratios should remain the same, no matter how much they eat.
Slowing Their Eating Style
Your dog may have a number of reasons for eating his food too fast. Often, other household pets and/or children are the cause. If you have these factors, your dog may be eating so quickly as an act of resource guarding (or food protection). They think that they have to hurry and eat or someone else will get their food. It may be true; your other animals may come in and eat food before the others can. To remedy this (whether it’s due to other pets or due to children), you will need to teach all of your dogs about sharing. Once the dog learns to share, he will not be as worried about missing out on food because he will understand that there will always be enough food to meet his needs.
It may also be that your dog is just a fast eater. This is much the same in some children, but just as dangerous. Choking is always a hazard when food is taken into the body and gulped without proper chewing. In this case, you will need to teach your dog to slow down. Here are a few tips to try that can help you teach this lesson:
· Get a large ball that is fairly heavy, enough so that he cannot knock it out of his food bowl very easily. Put the ball in the center of his dish and put his dog food around it. This way he will have to eat around the bowl and cannot grab huge mouthfuls at once and will force him to eat more slowly.
· Get an old cookie sheet and spread his dog food all over it. By spreading it out, he can only get smaller bites, which forces him to eat slower.
· Use your hands. Feed him a handful of food at a time, making him eat it out of your hands. Of course you won’t want to do this with moist food (yuck!). Make him wait between handfuls and he will eventually learn to eat slower.
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As a dog owner, we all want what’s best for our dog. With the newest reports about the proper diet for your dog, they should have carbohydrates, vegtables, etc., more and more dog owners are giving their dog table scraps without realizing that there are certain foods a dog should never have. Before you put your left-overs in your dog’s bowl be sure to read the top ten foods they shouldn’t eat.
1. Chocolate – To dogs, chocolate acts as a stimulant, making your dog’s heartbeat accelerate or beat irregularly, leading to seizures and even cardiac arrest. To compound things further, it also acts as a severe diuretic, causing frequent urination, vomiting, and/or diarrhea. If you even suspect your dog has consumed chocolate, take him to an animal hospital immediately.
2. Grapes and Raisins – Grapes and raisins create havoc with your dog’s kidneys and digestive system. What’s worse is that the amount of grapes needed to cause problems can vary greatly among individual dogs. Symptoms include frequent urination, vomiting, and diarrhea.
3. Onions – Onions cause the breakdown of a dog’s red blood cells, which deprives his cells of much-needed oxygen. If you’re in the habit of feeding your dog table scraps, make sure the dish was not prepared with onions, as the effects can be cumulative over a period of time. Symptoms can vary greatly, ranging from vomiting and diarrhea to loss of appetite, fever, or exhaustion.
4. Macadamia Nuts – While the exact chemical compound is still unknown, even a small amount of macadamia nuts can cause fever, irregular heartbeat, seizures, or mild paralysis.
5. Alcoholic Beverages – Dogs’ physiologies are not equipped to handle alcohol consumption. They are extremely susceptible to alcohol poisoning, and even small amounts can lead to digestive problems or even death.
6. Bread Dough – Because it is soft, dogs will often swallow the dough without chewing it. When the dough hits your dog’s stomach, his body heat will cause the dough to rise inside his stomach. This rising action can cause bloating or vomiting. To compound things further, the rising action creates alcohol as a by-product, and your dog may experience the symptoms listed in the previous paragraph.
7. Caffeinated Beverages – Similar to the effects of chocolate, caffeine is a stimulant and can negatively impact your dog’s heart rate, causing seizures or heart attacks.
8. Avocadoes- Avocadoes are toxic to many animals. The offensive chemical damages heart, lung, and other essential tissues. Be aware since guacamole’s main ingredient is avocado, that you keep any such dips well out of your dog’s reach.
9. Pitted Fruits – (Peaches, Pears, Cherries, and Apricots) The pits of these fruits contain small doses of cyanide, which can be fatal to smaller dogs. Also, if the pit is swallowed whole, it may become lodged in the intestinal tract, where the blockage will have to be surgically removed.
10. Raw Fish – Raw fish, especially salmon, can contain parasites, usually fluke larvae. The dog consumes the fish, and the larvae hatch in your dog’s digestive tract, attaching themselves to his intestinal walls. Symptoms can take up to a week to exhibit and usually mimic other canine diseases, such as distemper or parvovirus. The hazard here is misdiagnosis by the veterinarian, leading to an improper or ineffective treatment. If you choose to feed your dog fish, be sure to cook it thoroughly to kill any bad critters that could be hiding inside.
This is of vital information for your dog care. If you want your dog to have the proper diet, take a small amount of what your making before you add the onions and the extra spices and make him up his own little plate and add it with his dog food.
Remember a good dog is a happy and healthy dog.
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While any dog owner recognizes that there are certain chores that he must leave strictly to the veterinarian, he wants, at the same time, to be given at least some idea of the role he can play in preventing dog health problems. Below are a few tips owners can use to avoid problems common problems.
Feeding Your Dog To Keep Optimum Health
The basic principle to be understood in the feeding of dogs is that, with only minor variations, they have the same nutritive requirements as man. A dog apparently has less need for starches and its digestive juices do not handle fatty foods well. Thus, the dog`s meat should always be quite lean, otherwise it will commonly cause a stomach upset with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea
Most animals will get along perfectly well on dry or canned commercial dog foods. Great strides have been made in the improvement of commercial dog foods in recent years. Their formulae are specially prepared by trained scientists to meet all of the dog`s needs and the federal government, on the basis of careful experiment to furnish normal maintenance diets, guarantees all nationally known brands. This means that the dog can live its entire life without eating anything but dog food.
While some companies will claim that their biscuits are a complete food and are often justified in their claim, most experts agree that the large majority of the biscuits that are manufactured serve best only as a supplementary food
Caring For Your Pets Eyes To Prevent Illness
In the general care of the eyes, the average dog owner can be advised to keep them clean. This can be done by washing them once a day with a lukewarm solution of boric acid (made by dissolving one teaspoonful of boric acid powder in a glass of hot water) or by the application of boric acid eye ointment direct to the eyeball.
The care of any significant eye diseases is strictly a job for the veterinarian. For safety`s sake, any injury to the eye should be considered an emergency and the veterinarian should be contacted immediately. Professional attention should be given even to very mild eye irritations that do not readily respond to simple treatment with washings of boric acid solution or applications of boric acid eye ointment.
How To Prevent Ear Ailments
Proper ear hygiene consists in keeping the hair of the ear clean and thoroughly combed out, free from parasites at all times and in maintaining the cleanliness of the inside of the ear. To clean the inside of the ear, dampen a piece of absorbent cotton with alcohol, squeeze out the excess moisture and clean out all the accumulated scurf as far down into the ear as the finger can conveniently reach.
Have no fear of doing damage to the inner ear, for the finger simply cannot penetrate that far. The cleaned surface should be dried with a piece of cotton. The next step is to put some boric acid powder on the back of a spoon handle or other convenient object and dump the powder into the ear. Then manipulate the ear so that the powder will penetrate as far into the ear canal as possible. After this is done to both ears, allow the animal to shake out the excess powder.
If this procedure is followed about two or three times a week, it is very unlikely that the dog ever will be affected by the common ear ailments.
Prevention Is The Best Cure
By taking steps to avoid dog health problems, you are less likely to have to suffer the consequences of an ill pet. If you are concerned about your pet or notice any strange symptoms, you should consult your veterinarian immediately. Regular check ups will also help detect potential illness or health problems early. Check ups should be given about every 6 months.
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Some dog breeds are more susceptible to allergies than others. This may be because of small nasal passages, allergic reactions to flea bites, irritable stomachs that make digesting food difficult, or they may be allergic to their own hair and dander. Dogs that have allergies include the following breeds: Bishon frise, terrier, retrievers, beagles, setters, and boxers. All dogs have the potential to be allergic to something, however.
The most common signs of allergies include raw skin where the dog has scratched, patches of hair missing, red skin, hives, coughing, sneezing, excessive chewing and licking of paws, watery eyes, vomiting, and diarrhea. While these symptoms may go away after a few days, you should monitor your dog’s behavior to see if the symptoms return. If they do, then you should take your dog to see a vet. Sometimes changing the type of dog food or buying a flea collar or spray is enough to help eliminate your dog’s allergy problems.
When a dog is suffering from allergies, their mood may change. They may become irritable, lethargic, clingy, or angry. Discipline will not work when the dog is having allergy issues. The best way to combat this problem is to learn how to care for your dog once you have isolated the cause of the allergies. This may mean keeping a journal of your dog’s activities and symptoms that you can show the vet, who will be able to recommend treatment.
Some smaller breeds may have breathing issues as they age, there is little that can be done except to keep their sleeping area clean, vacuum often, and consider buying a hepa filter that will trap dust, particles, and other air pollutants that are in the air. While it is important that all dogs get their exercise, when it is cold outside, keep small breeds indoors and play with them. This will keep them from getting head colds, which could make breathing even worse.
If you notice that your dog has fleas or that they have been bitten by fleas, you should bathe your dog using a shampoo that will kill fleas and their eggs. You may need to rid your home of fleas as well so that reinfestation does not occur. Buy carpet spray or if the problem is too big, then you may have to call an exterminator. Once the fleas are gone, you should spray your dog every time the dog goes outside. This will prevent new attacks from occurring. If the dog has open bites or wounds from scratching, you will have to wait for them to heal before using a spray or shampoo on your dog.
Vomiting can occur if your dog is allergic to the food it receives. You should first visit the vet to see if the problem isn’t internal. They may recommend a new food for the dog. This should stop the vomiting and diarrhea.
Dogs that are allergic to their own hair and dander have the worst allergies of all because there is little that can be done. You should make sure your dog is groomed regularly, brush your dog everyday to remove excess hair and dander, and bathe your dog once a month. Your vet may prescribe an anti-histamine if the allergies persist.
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The basic principle to be understood in the feeding of dogs is that, with only minor variations, they have the same nutritive requirements as man. A dog apparently has less need for starches, and its digestive juices do not handle fatty foods well. Thus, the dog’s meat should always be quite lean, otherwise it will commonly cause a stomach upset with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.
The best foods for the dog are milk, meat, and vegetables. Most dogs will enjoy milk and digest it readily. Some breeds, however, such as the Boston Terrier, often do not seem to be able to handle milk and will vomit it. Where this occurs, milk should naturally be avoided.
But with most breeds this difficulty will not be encountered. With a little experience the individual dog owner can determine what the situation is with his particular animal.
In regard to meat: beef, lamb, or horsemeat are generally considered best, while pork is usually not recommended. Lamb or horsemeat are best served cooked, while beef may be fed either cooked or raw.
Whether meat is fed cooked or raw depends both on convenience to the owner and on the preference of the animal. It will make no difference, however, to the health of the dog which way the food is fed.
As far as vegetables are concerned, most dogs generally handle them quite well. However, as with milk, the owner will have to determine on the basis of actual experience which vegetables the animal prefers or which it can properly digest.
In most cases, diced lettuce and tomatoes will be found to be the most readily accepted.
Dog owners often raise the question of the egg requirements for their dogs, mentioning that they have heard somewhere that the feeding of eggs will encourage a glossy coat.
This belief is incorrect. Vigorous dogs that are properly cleaned and groomed will have glossy coats whether or not they have ever been fed eggs. Unhealthy dogs, or those that are improperly cleaned or groomed, will not have a good, shiny coat no matter how often eggs are fed.
Eggs, however, are a perfectly wholesome food for dogs and are an excellent source of protein. But, since meat and milk are equally rich in this nutrient and are generally cheaper, eggs are usually considered to be a good, though uneconomical, supplementary food for dogs.
As for the tremendous variety of dry or canned commercial dog foods, most animals will get along perfectly well on them, though it is often suggested by the most competent authorities that the best results will be obtained if dog foods are fed only in combination with fresh foods.
Great strides have been made in the improvement of commercial dog foods in recent years. Their formulae are specially prepared by trained scientists to meet all of the dog’s needs, and all nationally known brands are guaranteed by the federal government, on the basis of careful experiment, to furnish normal maintenance diets.
This means that the dog can live its entire life without eating anything but dog food. For those owners within the low income brackets, or those with the very large breeds, the feeding of dog food exclusively would certainly be the most economical method and, as far as the dog is concerned, such a diet is quite adequate.
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