Dog Health

John Williams asked:


Obstructions in the dogs body are quite common in many pets especially dogs, and its not uncommon for a pet owner to find this problem reoccurring many times in a dogs life caused by many different situations.

An obstruction in the digestive system of your dog can be a very painful experience and may cause bout of quite serious retching, vomiting, and diarrhea. This is caused as the dog tries to release the foreign body from blocking the flow of the digestive system.

The digestive system obstruction is most commonly caused by stones that the dog swallows when playing fetch or just being curious around the garden or on walks. When they swallow stones or any other offending objects for that matter, it many become stuck in the tubes above the stomach where the dog will find it difficult to breath and wretch a lot, or it may flow down into the stomach and intestines where its possible it will get stuck and cause a very painful blockage while all the waste will start to compress behind the it and make for your dog to strain to pass feces or move the blockage.

In some cases the object or stone swallowed will be too large to move from the stomach and it will become blocked occasionally on the passage down in to the intestines, this cases infrequent spurts of pain as the dog tries to break down and move the object from the stomach into the intestines as normal, then as the dog moves it will free up again and the pain will temporarily disappear until the same happens again up to 2 days later at most.

Of course when you fear that this may be the problem you should report it to your vet as soon as possible. They will then undertake many different tests in hope to find the situation of the blockage and feel for foreign bodies so they can treat the symptoms accordingly. This treatment is normally to make sure the object will not free itself and then enter the dog’s body through surgery to remove the unwanted object safely so the dog can resume normal life and dog health again.

Although the above treatment is normally only needed with larger objects in the dogs digestive system, it shows the extent of this condition so if you suspect this problem and the symptoms are their then its always best to inform you vet about the situation so they can asses what needs to be done next.



Genesis

Amanda Fain asked:


Because they a lovable, loyal animals, dogs are highly preferred as pets. Dogs become family members, so their health is very important. Pet owners need to keep in mind that dog health and liver problems are very closely tied together.

The liver is an important part of the digestive system, so if there is a liver problem, a dog health will be severely affected. There are many kinds of liver problems that dogs can have, including cirrhosis of the liver, toxicity, hepatitis, fibrosis, etc. But in this article, we will be discussing hepatic micro vascular dysplasia.

Hepatic micro vascular dysplasia

This is a common liver problem for dogs. With hepatic micro vascular dysplasia, there is a mixing of venous and arterial blood on a microscopic level. Another name for this condition is hepatic-portal micro vascular dysplasia. Though this condition affects all dog breeds, it seems to occur more often in terrier breeds.

As there are no symptoms that are peculiar to this condition, it is hard to diagnose with any certainty. Among the symptoms that a dog might have are seizures, central nervous system disorder symptoms and other gastro intestinal disorder symptoms, such as diarrhea and vomiting. A bile acid response test is the first step in diagnosing the condition.

Another condition, photo systemic shunts, will also have an abnormal bile acid response. A liver biopsy then needs to be done to eliminate the possibility of photo systemic shunts so that the condition of hepatic micro vascular dyplasia can be properly diagnosed. For more info see http://www.aboutdoghealth.org/dogbreedhealth/Bull-Dog-Health.html

If diagnosed before symptoms appear, there is a good prognosis for a dog with hepatic micro vascular dysplasia. However, once symptoms begin to be seen, the only recourse is to use diet and medication to manage the condition.

Reducing the amount of protein consumed is the objective of diet therapy while the reduction of ammonia in the digestive system is accomplished with medication. So that dogs with this condition are able to excrete soft, formed stools, lactose injections are advisable.

Twice a day, injections of antibiotics are given. These may be neomycin, metranidazole or some other antibiotic. The response to the treatment will vary from one dog to another. Some dogs respond well enough to live out a normal life span, but other dogs will have a shortened life due to this condition.

Dog owners will usually take preventative measures once they are made aware of the connection between overall dog health and liver problems.



Eli