Your Guide To Feeding An Adult Dog
By BJones
Under normal circumstances your dog will be able to eat and profit from almost anything you give him, including almost all of the food items forbidden by rumor and fear. Milk, for example, will not Read more...
|
Dog Training: What Is Dog Training?
By David McFarlane
The term “dog training” can mean many different things – this is an important fact to remember when deciding what exactly you need to do with your dog.First, there is "behavior Read more...
|
Rips For A Dog-friendly Vacation
By Dynamic Blue Link
A tragedy that happens more often than many people realize is a dog being separated from its family on vacation. This not only can ruin the vacation you’ve been looking forward to all year, but you Read more...
|
|
Ticks - A Very Serious Threat To Your Dogs Health
By BJones
Ticks are not insects like fleas, but arachnids like mites, spiders, and scorpions. A tick has a one piece body, harpoon like barbs around its mouth to attach to a host for feeding, crablike legs and a sticky secretion to help hold itself to the host. The United States has about 200 tick species whose habitats include woods, beach grass, lawns, forests, and even in some urban areas.
They have a four stage life cycle, egg, larvae, nymphs, and adult. Depending on its species, a tick may take less than a year or up to several years to go through its four stage life cycle. Adult females of some species lay about 100 eggs at a time. Others lay 3,000 to 6,000 eggs per batch.
Ticks can carry various infectious organisms that can transmit diseases to cats and dogs as well as humans. The four primary diseases and their symptoms are:
- Babesiosis - lethargy, loss of appetite, weakness, pale gums
- Ehrlichiosis - high fever, muscle aches
- Lyme disease - lameness, swollen joints, fever, poor appetite, fatigue, vomiting
- Tick paralysis in dogs - gradual paralysis and poor coordination
Of the four diseases, Lyme disease is the worst, as it can also infect humans. Studies indicate that dogs are 50 percent more susceptible to this disease than humans. Lyme disease is transmitted through the bite of the deer tick, also called the black-legged tick. Symptoms in humans include fatigue, chills and fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, swollen lymph nodes, and a red circular skin rash. In June 1992 the USDA licensed a vaccine to prevent Lyme disease in dogs. There is no vaccine for cats yet.
If your is outside regularly, ask the veterinarian about the Lyme disease vaccine. Watch for the symptoms mentioned earlier, and if you suspect a tick-borne disease get your to the vet immediately. With early diagnosis, antibiotics generally work. If possible, dogs should be kept out of tick-infested areas. In areas where ticks are prevalent, yards where dogs exercise should be treated with appropriate chemicals to kill adult and immature ticks.
Dogs should be examined frequently for the presence of ticks on their bodies. Ticks prefer sheltered locations, such as inside the ears and between the toes of the host, but a heavily infested may have ticks anywhere on its body. When a tick is found it should be removed immediately. The proper way to remove a tick is to use fine-point tweezers,
Been Got At By A Rat Or A Dog? Try A Ferrit. Optimization Of Web
By malcolm james pugh, Sat Dec 10th
You may have already paid good money only to have been promisedthe earth and left with a web page no one can see unless theyknow your company name.You will have actually paid for inclusion Read more...
Hip Dysphasia
By BJones
Hip dysphasia is a crippling and painful disease seen most often in larger purebred dogs, such as Golden Retrievers, German Shepherd, St.Bernard's, and Labrador Retrievers. The occurrence in German Read more...
|
