Our first podcast — and many more to come! This first podcast focuses on common household pet toxins — we’ll identify these toxins and briefly discuss treatments and outcomes. Some tasty treats you might never suspect are toxic to your pets.
Blog
Laryngeal Paralysis or “Lar Par” in Dogs
The first thing you might notice if your dog is suffering from lar par is a change in his or her bark, which might sound more hoarse, because the vocal folds are not moving as they once did. Due to the importance of panting, which is essentially moving air through the larynx, as a cooling function in dogs, you might also find that your dog has exercise intolerance and/or might breathe very noisily or heavily in warm weather.
Pet First Aid: Responding to Pet Emergencies at Home
Working in emergency medicine, we get numerous calls from people wondering what they can do with their pet in an emergency prior to coming in to the office. While the majority of treatments on your pet should be done by a veterinarian or a member of a veterinary staff, there are some things you can do to help your pet prior to transport.
Parvovirus: Make sure your dog is protected!
A lot of you have probably heard of parvovirus, commonly referred to as just “parvo.” This disease is characterized by weakness, vomiting and extreme diarrhea (often with blood in it). Parvo is mostly found in young dogs, aged 6 weeks to 6 months, but it can be found in older adult dogs as well.
Grape toxicity and pets: Delicious but deadly
While grapes are probably one of people’s favorite fruit-based snacks, they are not a safe snack for our pets. While grapes don’t cause humans any harm, they can cause acute kidney failure in dogs, and even possibly in cats.
Winter Hazards for your Pet
I’ll start with a list of common household food items that are not good for your pets. Many of these have their very own blog entry, so scroll down if you want more detail.
Giardia…cha cha cha…
Diarrhea has a number of causes, but one that we saw quite a bit in our patients this summer is Giardia, a parasite that is transmitted in stool.
Cats and Abscesses: Don’t Let Them Go Untreated!
Abscesses are a serious condition that warrant treatment — and frankly, they are pretty fun to treat. At Greenbrier Emergency Animal Hospital, we generally see abscesses in our feline patients who spend time outdoors socializing with other neighborhood cats and creatures, since abscesses are usually caused by a bite from another animal.
Oh no!! My pet had a seizure!!
Seizures can have a number of causes, including toxins, low blood sugar, low calcium, kidney or liver problems, blood clots to the brain or “strokes,” infectious diseases, inflammation of or around the brain, cancer, epilepsy, and trauma.