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MEGA ESOPHAGUS

BACTERIAL HYPERSENSITIVITY TO STAPH

CANINE SUPERFICIAL PYODERMA

PERINEAL HERNIAS

PARVOVIRUS and CORONAVIRUS
reprinted from Foster and Smith

These two viral diseases didn't show up on the United States until the late 70's.  Every dog in the country, no matter where you  live, should be vaccinated for both of theses diseases.  There is not excuse for doing otherwise and it doesn't make a difference if they never leave your house.  These two infections affect dogs of all ages.  But they are particularly devastating to puppies.  The viruses persist in the kennel area, soil or anywhere else for a least 6 months and probably for 2-3 years.  You can easily track the organisms home on your shoes or equipment.  The only reasons that we have not lost more animals to these diseases is that excellent vaccines are now readily available.  See your Veterinarian and get your pet vaccinated routinely.

BLOAT (GASTRIC TORSION)

Bloat (otherwise known as "gastric torsion") can be a problem with any deep-chested breed like German Shepherds. The stomach twists so nothing can pass through the esophagus to the stomach or through the stomach to the intestions, causing gas to build up. This is an immediate health concern where the dog should be taken to the vet or emergency clinic. Signs of bloat include a distended rigid abdomen, indications of vomiting with no results and inability to belch or pass gas.

High activity directly before or after eating can exacerbate bloating. Keeping the dog quiet at least one hour before and after eating can help reduce the chances of bloat. Pre-moistening the dog's food with water can also reduce the chances, however, without the teeth-cleaning help of crunching food, you will want to take especially good care of your dog's teeth by weekly tooth-brushing and hard biscuits to help remove tartar. (Be sure to include any treats you give in the balance of food intake. Too many treats may cause your dog to gain weight, and treats only may not give the dog the nutrition it needs.) Smaller meals can also reduce the risk of bloat if you do not free-feed. (Free-fed dogs just need to have their activity level watched, but do not usually eat enough at any one sitting to cause problems. Bloat is more of a problem with a dog that "gulps" its food which a free-fed dog won't usually do. Don't leave pre-moistened food down for a free-fed dog too long as it can breed bacteria. Instead, leave them smaller portions, but refill more frequently.)

LYME DISEASE
Every Dog is at Risk

Lyme Disease is caused by the bacterial organism Borrelia Burgorferi.  This bacteria can be transmitted to dogs, cats, humans, etc. by fleas, flies, deer tick, wood ticks, and many other insects.  Even direct transfer from dog to dog is possible.  Because insects and ticks are found virtually  everywhere and since people travel to all areas with their pets,  every dog is at risk.

Lyme Disease usually appears as a leg lameness, but can cause paralysis, seizures, fever and death.

The final diagnosis of Lyme Disease can only be accomplished by a blood test performed by a  Veterinarian and analyzed by a professional health lab.  Fortunately there is a vaccine.  Vaccinate every dog on a regular, yearly basis.  This debilitatin disease is much better prevented than treated.

HEARTWORMS

Heartworm Disease (caused by Dirofilaria immitis) is found in practically every area of the lower 48 states.  It is transmitted from infected dogs to noninfected ones by mosquitoes.

Once injected into the dog, over a period of 6 month the immature heartworms slowly migrate to the heart, enter the blood vessels and become adults.  The mature worms then produce juveniles know as microfilaria.  These microfilaria circulate throughout the bloodstream and are picked up by mosquitoes to infect another dog.

The adults that live in the heart and blood vessels of the lungs can survive for years and cause sever damage to the heart and pulmonary tissues.  If untreated, they ususally kill the canine patient. 

Treatment of the disease can be costly and difficult.  It is therefore best to prevent the disease through the use of one of several products.

Medication should be started one month prior to mosquito season and continued for 60 days after the mosquito season.  In the southern U.S., heartworm prevention may be given the entire year.  See your veterinarian for a Heartworm Check and Preventative Medicine.

GIARDIA

What is Giardia?  Giardia is a microscopic parasite that lives in the intestines of many domestic and wild animals.  The parasite is shed in the feces and can survive in moist ares, particularly stagnant water and animal waste.  If people or animals ingest contaminated water or food, or touch and accidentally ingest infected animal waste, they may develop a serious intestinal infection.  Your  Pets can also get infected from their paws after walking in contaminated ares or from direct contact with infected animals.

What to watch for:  Giardia attaches to the intestinal lining, damaging the tissue and interfering with the host's ability to absorb nutrients.  If your pet is infected, it may exhibit one or more of the following signs: 

• diarrhea

• depression

• weight loss

• decreased appetite

• vomiting

If Giardia parasites remain in the host for a long time, they erode the intestinal lining and cause sporadic bloody diarrhea.  Left untreated, your pet may become increasingly debilitated and susceptible to other infections.    Giardia symptons are very similiar to PARVO so make sure you take your dogs and a stool sample to your veterinarian immediately. Giardia is easily treated with Flagell.

What you can do:

• Keep pet from drinking from streams, lakes, mud puddles or run off water.

• Dilute bleach in water (4 oz. per gallon of qater) and apply the solution to runs, kennels, and food bowls and rinse thoroughly.  Clorox can harm animals if it contacts the skin or is ingested.

• Keep the yard clean of feces and avoid dog parks or other heavily traveled dog areas.

TAPEWORMS

Tapeworms are common intestinal parasites in pets.  The most common tapeworm is transmitted through fleas.

HOW DO DOGS GET TAPEWORMS

Your dog becomes infested with tapeworms by eating fleas, or rabbits, mice, rats and other animals that carry tapeworm larvae.  Adut tapeworms live in your dogs intesting and release segments filled with eggs through the stool.

Tapeworm eggs are often consumed by fleas, making them carriers.  An inforction occurs when your dog eats the infected fleas.  The tapeworm larvae develop into adults in your dogs intesting asn shed more egg segments.

SIGNS OF TAPEWORMS

Tapeworms irritate you pet's intestine and reduce food absorpion.  They can be passed on the humans (by accidentally eating as infrcted flea), but they don't pose a significant human threat.

HOW TO PREVENT TAPEWORMS

To minimize tapeworm infections:

• If your dog is exposed to felease or if it hunts outside, regularly look for tapeworm segments in your dog's stool.  In a fresh stool these segments may be alive and moving.  I older stools they look  like grains of rece.  If your dog has fleas, he probably has tapeworm, even though you haven't seen any segments in his stool.

• Begin a flea-contol program to prevent flea-carried paperworm inforctions.  Follow a total flea control program, including pet spray, dips, and shampoos.    Treat the indoors and the outdoors with flea products, and be consistant, repeating many times, some times throughout the entire flea season.

• Unfortunately, no tapeworm preventatives are available.  See your veterinarian about regular treatment of your pet if you live in a flea problem  area.  Put your pet on a once a month flea preventative program such as Revolution, Frontline etc.

COCCIDIA

HOW DO DOGS GET COCCIDIA

Adult coccidia in an infected dog will pass tiny egg-like organisms called "oocysts" through the dogs stool.   These oocysts are accidentally eaten by you dog.  The oocysts break open in the intestine and release new organisms whih move to the intestinal wall.  There these new organisms multiply rappidly and becvome either new oocysts to be passed out again with the stool or they return to another cell and multiply.  Your infected dog is both increasing the number of internal coccidia orga isms and contaminating the environment at the same time.

SIGNS OF COCCIDIA INFECTION

• When they produce, coccidia destroy you dog's intestinal cells.  Some can move to the liver and brain and destroy cells there.

• Signs include bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain, listlessness, dehydration and weight loss.  Some dogs show no outward signs of infection .  As with all intestional worm infections, puppies are most at risk.

HOW TO PREVENT COCCIDIA

To minimize the risk of coccidia infections clean up stools.  Your veterinarian can prescribe medicines that can kill coccidia.  Avoid public parks where aothers may allow their dogs to deficate.  Keep your puppy away from other puppies until he is old enough to not succumb to coccidia.  Generally puppies areound 5 or 6 months seem to be able to stay free of it.

HOOKWORMS

Hookworms are tiny, threadlike parasites that affect puppies and adult dogs.  They are a particular problem in areas with warm, moist, sandy soil.

HOW DOGS GET HOOKWORMS

The cycle begins when nookworm eggs are passed in dog stools to the soil.  Your dog can swallow the young hookworms or they can penetrate its skin, usually through the foot.  Like roundworms, hookworms are also passed from female dodgs to their puppies.  Hookworms present a slight risk to humans if larvae (young hookworms) in the soil contact skin.  Painful skin sores can result.

SIGNS OF HOOKWORM INFECTION

Hookworms feed on blood and tissue by piercing your dogs' intestinal lining with tooth-like hooks.  As a result, hookworms can cause severe blood loss.  As few a 100 hookworms can kill a puppy.  Dogs with heavy infections often have bloody diarrhea.  Other signs include anemia, dehydration and apparent wekness.  Some puppies show no outward signs of infection. 

HOW TO PREVENT HOOKWORMS

To reduce the risk of hookworms:

• Take puppies to your veterinarian at an early age.  Follow your veterinarian's advice on medicine and follow-up visits.

• Ask about products which help prevent hookworms. 

• Provide your veterinarian with your dog's stool sample at least once a year.

• Don't feed your pet on the ground.  Use only clean food and water dishes.  To kill hookworms in your your, use sodium borate (10 punds per 100 square feet)

• Clean up dogs stools before they can break down in the soil.

• Wash hands before eating.  This is especially important for children.

WHIPWORMS

Dogs confined to smal, outside areas are at highest risk of having whipworms.

HOW DO DOGS GET WHIPWORMS:

Whipworm infection occurs when your dog swallows whipworm eggs.  After hatching in the small intestine, whipworm larvae move to the large intestine where they mature.  Here, adult worms lay eggs which are passed in your dog's stool to contaminate the soil.

SIGN OF WHIPWORM INFECTION:

Light infections of whipworms are difficult to diagnose, but they can lead to more serious problems.  Large numbers of whipworms irritate the lining of your dog's intestine, causing weight loss and pain.  Watery, bloody stools may result.  Severe infections can cause life-threatening ehydration and anemia.  Whipworms are not dangerous to people.  But once dogs become infected whipworms are difficult to elimiante without medication programs.

HOW TO PREVENT WHIPWORMS

To protect your pet from whipworms after your veterinarian's treatment:

• If your dog returns to the same infected ground, treatments will be required every three months.  A new site is preferred.

• If you pet lives in a pen with a washable surface, sanitize the area before returning your dog to its quarters.

• Don't feed your dog on the ground.  Feed and water only in clean dishes.

• Ask your veterinarian for medicines that remove and control whipworms.  A daily preventive program should be started - both through medication and daily cleanup of dog stools.

ROUND WORMS

A large percentage of puppies are born with microscopically small roundworm larvae in their tissues.  The larvae got  there via migration through the mother's tissues right into the developing pup or kitten in the mother's uterus!  The worm larvae can also be transferred to the nursing pup from the mother's milk. The larvae make their way to the intestinal tract where they can grow up to five inches in length.  They start shedding eggs and try desperately to keep house in the small intestine of the pup.  The eggs that the adult worms pass in the stool can now reinfest the same pup or  other dogs and cats if somehow the egg-bearing stool is eaten.  When the worm eggs hatch, larvae  are released internally to migrate to the animal's lungs where the larvae (remember, the larvae are microscopic in size) are finally coughed up, swallowed, and finally grow up to adults in the small intestine.   So you can see that repeated exposures to egg-bearing stool or stool-contaminated soil can cause additive numbers of parasites to a dog load. 

HOW TO PREVENT ROUNDWORM INFESTATION:

• Clean up dogs stools before they can break down in the soil.

• Don't feed your dog on the ground.  Feed and water only in clean dishes.

• Ask your veterinarian for medicines that remove and control whipworms.  A daily preventive program should be started - both through medication and daily cleanup of dog stools.

• Don't take your dog to dogs parks or other areas where dogs stools might be infected.

FLEA CONTROL

Fleas are small, brown or black, wingless insects with flattened bodies.  Several types of fleas infest the aircoats of animals, and some may occasionally fee on people.  THese blood-sucking insects cause considerable irritation and distress to infested pets.  Severe infectations may lead toa anemia from blood loss.  Fleas spread the common dog and cat tapeworm, and carry several viral and bacterial diseases.  Flea bites also cause skin allergies, rashes and sores on both pets and their owners.

The best places to look for fleas on your pet are the hindquarters, base of the tail, stomach and groin regions.  Sometimes no fleas are found but only tiny, black granules that resemble black pepper.  This material is flea feces and consists o digested blood ("blood crumbs").  To distinguish this material from dirt, smudge it on white paper or add a drop of water to it.  If you see a reddish-brown color, your pet has fleas, even if you can find none.

LIFE CYCLE

After taking a blood meal, fleas drop off the animal and deposit their eggs in cracks, crevices and capeting.  A single breeding pair of fleas may produce 20,000 fleas in 3 months.  Eggs hatch after 2-12 days into larvae that feed in the environment.  Larvae molt 2 times within 2-200 days and the older larvae spiin a cocoon in which they remain for 1 week to 1 year.  The long peropd during which the larvae remain in the cocoon explains why fleas are difficult to eradicate from the environment.  A hungry adutl flea emerges from the cocoon.