This week's topic is THE DREADED KENNEL COUGH

Another problem caused by government funding cuts to the Royal Parks!



THE DREADED KENNEL COUGH

Your dog has suddenly started coughing with a dry,  "goose honking", hacking, raspy sound that makes you think  that he may have been secretly puffing 40 a day for  many years and hanging out with the wrong crowd. He looks frighteningly ill.  He wont move, he won't eat and he is very listless. And  he may look and act like the dog in this picture.


What he/she probably has is, kennel cough - doggy bronchitis - caused by a highly contagious virus that is easily passed around from dog to dog. (Cat owners will be relieved to know that cats dont suffer from this). It goes without saying that if your dog is coughing and loses its appetite then you must take it to the vet right away.


Here's a simple test used by vets for distinguishing a harmless harump from a possible serious infection like kennel cough.


If you press gently on the front of the dog's throat, just above the collar,  and they go into a coughing fit, this is the sign of kennel cough. The virus irritates the lining of the trachea and any pressure on it, brings on coughing.  If your dog doesnt have kennel cough, however, any gentle pressure on the throat probably won't have any effect.


Kennel cough gets its name from the past when dogs stayed in kennels that exposed them to germs from other dogs that had a touch of the disease. Thankfully, most kennels these days, request that dogs are immunised by a vaccine, before checking in for their holidays.  But in the real world, kennel cough can be caught where there are a lot of dogs, ie the park. It only takes one sniff by an infected dog to pass on kennel cough.


Should your dog get kennel cough, its best to keep it at home for a few days.  It takes 7-10 days for kennel cough to go through the system and in some cases can be very harmful to puppies and elderly dogs so it is advisable to keep away from other dogs until the dog recovers.


The vet will give your dog a course of antibiotics but until they click in, your dog will feel and act very poorly. It will have a hacking cough, dull eyes, look in real pain and not want to move.


Here are some home remedies to make life as comfortable as possible for your dog.  This is what I have found works especially well:  A good 'at home' cough remedy:

NATURAL COUGH SYRUP. Lemon and honey can soothe any sore throat.   Mix 2 tbsp of honey, 1 tsp of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of water. Give it to your dog twice daily, 1 tbsp for an average sized (50 lb) dog, 1tsp for a cat . Homeopathic cough syrups are also very effective. I use pedriatric Benylin as it contains no codein, paracetamol or aspirin and is used on babies and therefore safe to use on dogs.


Buy a bottle of pediatric Benylin and using a syringe (without the needle) that you can get from your vet or the pharmicist, dose the dog according to its weight. Or using a teaspoon, the dosage is 2 teaspoons to a dog weighing 20 Iilos and over, 1 teaspoon to a 10 -kilo dog and 1/2 a teaspoon to a smaller dog. Check with your vet to make sure these doses are right for your pet.  if poochie is coughing more than once an hour than give it  baby Benylin as often as you feel it will help to ease the congestion and let it get some sleep. As with all coughs and colds, night time is bad and this is when the Benylin comes in very handy for giving instant relief. Keep giving Benylin over the days until the cough becomes a heerramph rather than a wheezing honk.


If you have a small electric fan, let it blow on the dog at night as this will stop it getting congested and help it to breathe. Think of how you feel when you have a very bad cold. Dont you sleep better when there is air blowing around you?   If the room is hot and in some cases smoky, this will set off a coughing fit and keep your dog in pain. Let the dog sleep in a cool room with some air coming in.


Take off the collar as this can sometimes make the dog cough even more because its air waves are being restricted.


When your dog is coughing a lot and seems to be very congested, take it for a slow walk outside as fresh air will help to clear the airways, but dont drag them for a a long walk and  over tire them. I watched a woman  one morning in the park, dragging her coughing dog, who looked in obvious discomfort. When I remarked that her dog didnt look well, she replied. "he's a lazy so-and-so who just doesnt want to walk." When the poor animal collapsed she panicked and went into hysterics.  There is no acounting for brainless people! Don't they ever learn to read the dog's body language?  It lives with you 24/7. An animal will always show you that something is wrong with it and its not rocket science reading the body language.


I am a great believer in the power of homeopathy and when my 18 year old blind dachshund caught kennel cough last September from travelling in communal kennels on the ferry from Barcelona to Palma. (You can imagine how many thousands of un-vaccinated dogs had travelled in those kennels.) She was very.very poorly and we really thought we were going to lose her but I dosed her up on Bryonia 6c three times a day for one week.  It interacted very well with the Synulox given by the vet and certainly stopped her coughing at night. 

                              Here's the canine equivalent of "na na na na nah"!

See you next week and hold this thought ....

"You can say any stupid thing to a dog, and the dog will give you this look that says, `My God, you're so RIGHT! I NEVER would've thought of that!'"






Dawn ("-")

DO DOGS SUFFER FROM ACNE?

                                                If your dog gets this expression on its face, 
                                         its definitely time to think about giving up driving.

Yup! Pets get acne too. It's for sure you won't find your dog staring moodily into the mirror with a tube of Clearisil in its paws. Your Basset won't decide to cancel a walk in the park or refuse to eat chocolate because of skin eruptions. But dogs can develop acne that can be unsightly and uncomfortable as it is to any human teenager. Acne can occur in dogs of any age, although it does tend to be most common in the teenage set. For some reason it's the big breeds - Bassetts, mastiffs, Great Danes and their jumbo mates - that seem to suffer the most.

 I can hear the collective laughter and sniggers as you say "What are you on about now? Acne in a pet? Whoever heard of that? 

I'm afraid not many people have thought to lift up their dog's jowls and have a quick look when they have noticed their dog constantly rubbing both sides of its face on the carpet.

The signs of canine acne are rubbing their faces on the carpet, a smell from the mouth area, (it's a different smell to bad breath),  slight red swelling and pimple like bumps that are located on the base of your dog’s mouth and sometimes on the edge of the flaps of the mouth. They also look like blackheads or crusty sores on the lower lip and sometimes a swollen chin.

The causes can be air borne allergies such as grass pollen or house dust, or trapped food that makes them itch. They scratch and this can make the hair follicles  get inflamed and infected that gives them bumps, hormone imbalance, infected skin glands from poor grooming or in the case of jowly dogs like Basset hounds, food residue that has dried on the flaps of the face. 

Who knew all that?

Slobbery dogs  tend to suffer from it and the best solution is to wipe the area with a baby wipe or a wet flannel soaked in a mild disinfectant solution to clear up the infection.

A warm compress used daily after eating will help to remove infection and keep the area free of infection. Think of it as wiping your baby's mouth after meals.

Dogs don't complain that their acne is a social liability as it does for humans, but it can make them feel very uncomfortable. So the next time you tell your dog "Phwoar! you stink!" check out under the flappy bits for acne as your dog will probably not say "'ere Mum, I think I've got acne as my mouth is a bit itchy. Take a look will ya!"

One of my favourite remedies is aloe vera gel rubbed on the pimples to ease the itching and redness and it is not harmful to the dog. If you have an Aloe Vera plant, you  can break off a bit of the leaf and squeeze out the gel or you can buy a tube of it from the chemist. It's magic stuff not only for acne but for other cuts and grazes.

Best to look at the big picture and find out what is causing your dog to suffer the indignity of acne. It will stick around for a few days and then disappear, but if it is recurring, then it may be something in your home environment - household cleaner, fleas, dust, that is causing the problem. Then it's a visit to the vet for antibiotics to help clear up any infection.

Here is an enchanting clip of  Jerry, a dachsie (or Doxies as they call them in the USA) entertaining himself.

See you next week but before you go, keep this thought in mind .....

 If you think dogs can't count,
 try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket
 then giving Deefer only two of them.

Dawn ("-")

WHY DO DOGS CHOMP ON GRASS AND THEN THROW UP?

This week's topic is about the mysteries of dogs eating grass but first I would like to send a special message to Carlo and Hugo. We hope you enjoy your new home in Dubai. With the very efficient help of Shelle Easton of PBS Freight International Pet Travel Specialists, 01293 606903, who worked tirelessly, despite all the holdups from the Dubai end, to make sure they got on their flight, we checked them into Virgin Airlines Cargo at terminal 4 Heathrow at 7.00 pm yesterday.  They were enticed into their sky kennels with tempting treats and then whisked off to Security in readiness for a 10.00 pm take off. The house feels empty without them but they need to be with their rightful owner who is looking forward to seeing them.  Wish that we could have kept them but ......... never mind, we will have many other wonderful dogs that will come to stay and each will be just as loved and given a good time with us.

We invited their best buddies, Alfie and Herbie Molloy for a sleep-over on Monday night and they played non stop on Tuesday until the moment they were put into their sky kennels. This meant they were pre-occupied and didnt have time to follow me around with soulful eyes! But they all knew that something was happening as they went very quiet.

Here is a lovely letter that says it for all of us. The Park will be a very quiet place without you.

 Dear Dawn
Alfie and Herbie have spent the last few hours composing the attached to be read to Carlo and Hugo…

Dear Friends
We are so sorry you are going so far away to live (also slightly jealous of your great adventure).   What we want to say is that walks in Regents Park will not be the same without you (although I look forward to not being the victim of your advances, Huggie: no offence but… Herbie) and we will miss you more than we can say.  We hope that the bones are fully up to speed  and would like to hear your views on camel as they look, from the time we have spent watching Laurence of Arabia on TV, as though the size of a bone from one of them would keep a family of Norfolk terriers in clover for about a week.
We hope very much that your airconditioned garden turns out to be large and luxurious and that everyone who meets you loves you as much as we do and that you make many new doggie friends swiftly.  Please send bulletins to Dawn and Richard (who will miss you even more than we do) and don’t forget your old friends in the Regent’s Park Posse.  We for our part will make sure that the beastly Akita gets the welcome it deserves if it returns from Monaco, and will do our best to keep everyone’s spirits up in your absence.
With love, good wishes, and the promise of a many-boned and biscuited reunion at some point in the future…
Your friends
Alfie and Herbie             

Why do dogs eat grass?

Are you worried when your dog or cat eats grass, then throws up afterwards? You'll probably feel relieved to know that pets eat grass because their bodies need it. Why does my dog eat grass? Is there something wrong with him? These are frequently asked questions and although there are several theories why dogs eat grass, veterinary experts agree that it's just normal canine behavior.


Dogs and cats have been eating grass for a long time. In fact, grass is so popular among dogs that one species, dog grass, is named after them. Dog grass is also known as couch grass, and it grows just about everywhere.


Think of grass as an herbal medicine. It acts as an internal cleanser, expelling excess mucus, bile, and other impurities. It also cleanses the bowels and expels worms. Cereal grasses contain enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. Grass also contains chlorophyll, which was used for relieving pain, treating infections, ulcers, skin diseases, and anemia prior to the use of antibiotics. You didn't know that, did you?


Some pet owners grow grass specifically to give to their pets to prevent or treat diarrhea, anemia, cataracts, fleas, tumors excessive shedding, and other pet health problems. Pets that are fed grass on a regular basis are less likely to crave outdoor grass. So, if you don't feel comfortable with your pet eating the grass in your lawn, you may want to grow your own grass for them to eat. Pet shops usually sell small trays that need to be watered to make the grass grow. If you are lucky you might even be able to buy a miniature lawn mower!  Only kidding!
 

There are two schools of thought on this reasons why dogs eat grass. Some people say their dog isn’t feeling well when it chomps on grass but others say, its just their way of eating salad to cleanse their systems.  The reasons are not clearly known but both sick and healthy dogs will  indulge in grass-eating behaviour. Either way, it makes them throw up, usually all over the carpet.

As Marie Antoinette said: “Let them eat cake.” Well! eating grass does them no harm so let them eat grass when they feel like it. Chances are that you may never actually get a complete answer to this, and your pet’s grass-eating habits will remain one of life’s unexplained mysteries. Springtime is popular as that’s when the grass is young and tender and tastes sweet. I know because I've tried it out of curiousity.

Some people think dogs eat grass when they have an upset stomach. Since grass is not very digestible, many dogs do vomit after eating it, but this is not always the case. Some canine grazers show no sign of gastric distress before or after eating grass, while other dogs always vomit after munching on grass. Do those dogs eat grass because they already have an upset stomach and they want to vomit, or do they vomit simply because the grass upsets their stomachs? That's a question with no clear answer.

Another common explanation is that dogs eat grass to make up for a vitamin deficiency or a lack of roughage in their regular diet. It's unlikely that eating grass will actually add any essential nutrients to a dogs diet, and many healthy dogs who always eat a perfectly balanced diet also eat grass.

Most veterinarians agree that dogs eat grass simply because they like the taste, especially the tender young shoots in Spring. Eating grass is not a sign of illness. If, however, there are signs of ill health such as excessive vomiting, vomiting not associated with grass eating, loss of appetite, diarrhea, weight loss, lack of energy, or any other symptoms of illness - call your veterinarian.

Never allow dogs to eat grass that has been treated with fertilizer, weed killers or pesticides and don't let them eat grass where mushrooms might also be growing.

But... As long as your lawn is mushroom free and has not been treated with harmful chemicals, don't  be concerned if your dog occasionally munches on a few blades of grass. It really is common canine behavior.

And now for something cute and very high on the "Aaah" factor!

See you next week


...... and remember, handle every stressful situation like a dog. if you can't eat it or play with it, just pee on it and walk away!

Dawn (."".)