Health – Page 16 – Healthy Dog Club

Pet Poisons From A to Z — 26 Common Items That Are Dangerous to Cats and Dogs

March 20, 2013 Healthy Dog Club

by Dr. Mary Fuller It can happen to even the best pet owners. You turn around for one second and the dog is into the chocolate that was sitting on the counter, or the cat has discovered the Easter lily you thought was safely out of the way. “We just don’t realize how determined our pets are to eat the things they shouldn’t,” says Dr. Tina Wismer, DVM, medical director for the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center. Of the more than 180,000 cases that the organization handled in 2012, most of…

Lucky dogs get shot at diabetes cure

March 16, 2013 Healthy Dog Club

Researchers from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), led by Fatima Bosch, have shown for the first time that it is possible to cure diabetes in large animals with a single session of gene therapy. As published in Diabetes, the principal journal for research on the disease, after a single gene therapy session, the dogs recover their health and no longer show symptoms of the disease. In some cases, monitoring continued for over four years, with no recurrence of symptoms. The therapy is minimally invasive. It consists of a single…

Dogs understand human perspective

March 15, 2013 Healthy Dog Club

Dogs are more capable of understanding situations from a human’s point of view than has previously been recognised, according to researchers. They found dogs were four times more likely to steal food they had been forbidden, when lights were turned off so humans in the room could not see. This suggested the dogs were able to alter their behaviour when they knew their owners’ perspective had changed. The study, published in Animal Cognition, conducted tests on 84 dogs. The experiments had been trying to find whether dogs could adapt their…

Pet obesity: Tips on how to avoid killing your dog

March 7, 2013March 7, 2013 Healthy Dog Club

Much like their human owners, animals have to deal with unwanted weight, too. Animal obesity is an epidemic across the country with more than 50 percent of pets now overweight. My little girl Nadya, an adorable 7 year old bichon/poodle mix often overindulges in food. Every time she thinks she does something good, she expects a treat. You spoil them and then you don’t realize what you’re doing. To lose weight, cutting calories is the key. If you look at the calorie content of those treats, it would comprise probably…

Vaccinations: A word of caution for our animals and why titer tests are a better option

February 26, 2013February 26, 2013 Healthy Dog Club

It’s no surprise to many disgruntled pet owners that many veterinary clinics rely on revenue from vaccines. Happily for the dogs, many vets have replaced vaccinations with titer testing. The problem with this is twofold: one, they are replacing yearly or triennial vaccination with yearly or triennial titer testing, and two, titers are expensive. Once a dog has a positive titer, he is considered protected for life. This means he no longer requires more vaccinations (most of the core vaccines have been shown to protect dogs for 7 to 15…

Debunked: Omega 3, 6 and 9 for dogs

February 25, 2013February 25, 2013 Healthy Dog Club

First, let’s talk about how the fatty acids are named. “Essential” means needed, thus our bodies don’t make the fatty acid. The biochemical structure is what makes them fatty acids and helps with the different names. “Fatty” means the EFAs are used in the body in lipid (fatty) layers of cells and tissues. Where the first double bond is in the fatty acid molecule helps in the naming – an omega-3 fatty acid has the first double bond 3 carbon atoms from the naming end; an omega-6 has 6 carbon atoms until the first double bond;…

Our dogs & bites….

February 19, 2013February 19, 2013 Healthy Dog Club

Our furry friends bite an estimated 4.5 million Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sending almost 1,000 people to emergency rooms every day. Although that means bites are relatively common, the risk of contracting rabies is much lower than most people think (in the United States, anyway, where dogs are immunized for it; in other countries, the risk is higher). The majority of dog bites are minor and don’t require stitches, but make sure to wash the bite area thoroughly withsoap and lots of water.…

The skinny on soy: Exposing a popular pet food protein

February 15, 2013February 20, 2013 Healthy Dog Club

W. Jean Dodds, DVM: Hemopet / NutriScan As those of you who read my posts and follow my work are aware, I advocate that optimum health begins with optimum nutrition. This is not just an “opinion”; it is a fact born out by the latest scientific research, which is focused on functional foods designed for the individual person or animal. This is also referred to as nutrigenomics. Nutrigenomics (which I will talk much more about in the coming months and in our upcoming book titled, Nutrigenomics: Foods that Heal Your…