Your friend’s pet has an ugly secret. You don’t know how to tell his owner without harming your relationship. But, something has to be done. You can’t go over to dinner this Friday night and face it again. Dog Breath. Whew! There, you’ve said it! Your friend’s dog has horrible breath and it’s more than [...]
“He told of tales of 15 years how his dog and him, they traveled about. The dog up and died, he up and died, after 20 years he still grieves.” The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, 1971. To someone whose pet is not a family member, this line from “Mr. BoJangles” might just be attributed to [...]
Anny writes to us from the Bay Area of California with a question about her kitty, who got an injection of Convenia, the long-acting antibiotic. In her post she describes some circumstances that every cat owner needs to know how to deal with. Hi, Dr. Randolph, My cat, Money, is about 4½ years old. A few weeks [...]
Smokey came from a humane shelter a little over a year ago and never got the medical care he needed. His family was under the mistaken impression that he was “finished.” As a participant in a humane society program, he could have come to us to find out exactly what he needed. For free. We [...]
Obstipation, or chronic constipation in pets, is a condition mostly affecting cats, that causes stool to stay in the colon for an excessively long time, resulting in removal of too much moisture from the stool and a hard cake that will not pass. Several predisposing factors may be in play for patients to suffer from [...]
Proptosed globe may be the second scariest condition of pets after seizures. Prominent-eyed dogs such as Pugs and Pekinese are prone to this condition, in which the eyeball itself pops out of the eye socket, usually as a result of trauma. Proptosis is a Greek word meaning “fall forward.” Globe is a term ophthalmologists and [...]
The story of little Susie is one repeated altogether too often in the United States. It is a sad tale of a puppy who got excellent care as a new baby, finished the puppy series of vaccinations, had her spay surgery, and never saw a doctor again. You can substitute kitten for puppy and neuter [...]
Dewclaws. Even the name is funny. Spellcheck doesn’t even know it. Then, again, spellcheck doesn’t know “spellcheck”, either! Dewclaws are functionless first digits (toes) on the inside of the front legs of most dogs and cats, and on the rear legs of some individuals. When present on the front legs they almost always have three [...]
Regular readers will recall that our kitty, Martha, is undergoing diagnostics and treatment for a urinary tract infection (UTI). With most canine and feline patients veterinarians can obtain a urine specimen by one of three common methods, all performed on the awake patient. Martha, on the other hand, is not “most” patients. Martha may most [...]
“Dr. Randolph, you recently wrote a post on continuity of care, but what about when things aren’t working out on a case? When should a pet owner seek a second opinion for his cat or dog?” Yours is an excellent question, and one that many pet lovers face during the lives of their pets. While [...]
While Revolution is our favorite form of heartworm prevention for cats, there are also oral forms of feline heartworm disease prevention, too. One of the biggest reasons for Revolution’s popularity with cat owners is its ability to both control and prevent fleas. It controls fleas by killing the adult flea, and it prevents them by [...]
You’ve heard it said that a dog’s mouth is cleaner than a human’s. Even without microbiological tests I would question that statement simply on the basis of some of the things I’ve seen dogs lick! Cats’ mouths, on the other hand, are second only to reptiles for producing horrible infections when they bite. Cat bite [...]
This week it was announced that Chanel, the “world’s oldest dog” celebrated her 21st birthday. In fact, the dog with the greatest recorded age was an Australian cattle dog named Bluey. Bluey was euthanized at 29 years and 5 months of age. Of course, this is an extreme case and most dogs live nowhere near [...]
Tattoos. It won’t be long before more people have them than don’t. Today, though, we’re talking about dog and cat tattoos. These tattoos are not for decoration, but for conveying information. Veterinarians use small, straight-line tattoos when pets are spayed or neutered to let future caregivers know that this particular pet no longer has internal [...]
Picky eaters are made, not born. People are omnivores. It is said that Cajuns, the Acadian people of southwest Louisiana, will eat anything that doesn’t eat them first. It’s no surprise that I have half Cajun blood myself, because I will eat almost anything. Most people would not even think of eating the same thing [...]
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