Dogs are curious creatures, often exploring their surroundings with their noses and mouths. While their curiosity is endearing, it can also lead to dangerous encounters with everyday household items. Many common items, seemingly harmless to us, can pose significant risks to our canine companions. Here are ten such items that dog owners should be cautious about…….Continue reading….
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Source: Dog Snobs
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Critics:
Numerous disorders have been known to affect dogs. Some are congenital and others are acquired. Dogs can acquire upper respiratory tract diseases including diseases that affect the nasal cavity, the larynx, and the trachea; lower respiratory tract diseases which includes pulmonary disease and acute respiratory diseases; heart diseases which includes any cardiovascular inflammation or dysfunction of the heart.
Haemopoietic diseases including anaemia and clotting disorders; gastrointestinal disease such as diarrhoea and gastric dilatation volvulus; hepatic disease such as portosystemic shunts and liver failure; pancreatic disease such as pancreatitis; renal disease; lower urinary tract disease such as cystitis and urolithiasis; endocrine disorders such as diabetes mellitus, Cushing’s syndrome, hypoadrenocorticism, and hypothyroidism.
Nervous system diseases such as seizures and spinal injury; musculoskeletal disease such as arthritis and myopathies; dermatological disorders such as alopecia and pyoderma; ophthalmological diseases such as conjunctivitis, glaucoma, entropion, and progressive retinal atrophy; and neoplasia.
Common dog parasites are lice, fleas, fly larvae, ticks, mites, cestodes, nematodes, and coccidia. Taenia is a notable genus with 5 species in which dogs are the definitive host. Additionally, dogs are a source of zoonoses for humans. They are responsible for 99% of rabies cases worldwide; however, in some developed countries such as the UK, rabies is absent from dogs and is instead only transmitted by bats.
Other common zoonoses are hydatid disease, leptospirosis, pasteurellosis, ringworm, and toxocariasis. Common infections in dogs include canine adenovirus, canine distemper virus, canine parvovirus, leptospirosis, canine influenza, and canine coronavirus. All of these conditions have vaccines available. Dogs are the companion animal most frequently reported for exposure to toxins.
Most poisonings are accidental; in the US more than 80% of reports of exposure to the ASPCA animal poisoning hotline are due to oral exposure. The most common substances people report exposure to are: pharmaceuticals, toxic foods, and rodenticides. Data from the Pet Poison Helpline shows that human drugs are the most frequent cause of toxicosis death. The most common household products ingested are cleaning products. Most food related poisonings involved theobromine poisoning (chocolate).
Other common food poisonings include xylitol, Vitis (grapes, raisins, etc.), and Allium (garlic, onions, etc.). Pyrethrin insecticides were the most common cause of pesticide poisoning. Metaldehyde, a common pesticide for snails and slugs, typically causes severe outcomes when ingested by dogs. Neoplasia is the most common cause of death for dogs. Other common causes of death are heart and renal failure.
Their pathology is similar to that of humans, as is their response to treatment and their outcomes. Genes found in humans to be responsible for disorders are investigated in dogs as being the cause and vice versa. The typical lifespan of dogs varies widely among breeds, but the median longevity (the age at which half the dogs in a population have died and half are still alive) is about 12.7 years.
Obesity correlates negatively with longevity with one study finding obese dogs to have a life expectancy approximately a year and a half less than dogs with a healthy weight. A 2024 UK study analyzing 584,734 dogs concluded that purebred dogs live longer than crossbred dogs, challenging the previous notion of the latter having the higher life expectancies. The authors noted that their study included “designer dogs” as crossbred and that purebred dogs were typically given better care than their crossbred counterparts, which likely influenced the outcome of the study.
Other studies also show that fully mongrel dogs live about a year longer on average than dogs with pedigrees. Furthermore, small dogs with longer muzzles have been shown to have higher lifespans than larger medium-sized dogs with much more depressed muzzles. For free-ranging dogs, less than 1 in 5 reach sexual maturity, and the median life expectancy for feral dogs is less than half of dogs living with humans.
Dogs are typically described as omnivores. Compared to wolves, dogs from agricultural societies have extra copies of amylase and other genes involved in starch digestion that contribute to an increased ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet. Similar to humans, some dog breeds produce amylase in their saliva and are classified as having a high-starch diet. Despite being an omnivore, dogs are only able to conjugate bile acid with taurine. They must get vitamin D from their diet.
Of the twenty-one amino acids common to all life forms (including selenocysteine), dogs cannot synthesize ten: arginine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. Like cats, dogs require arginine to maintain nitrogen balance. These nutritional requirements place dogs halfway between carnivores and omnivores.
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