Articles: dogs

Thunderstorm anxiety is a problem for many dogs, and indeed thunderstorm season continues only for a short time for many dogs but it’s year-round for much of the country. And when dogs are better at predicting weather than the National Weather Service, you know you have a problem. And the fear may be called thunderstorm…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (and this is from the FDA website) is alerting pet owners and veterinarians to be aware of the potential for neurologic adverse events in dogs and cats when treated with drugs that are in the isoxazoline class. Since these products have obtained their respective FDA approvals, data received by the…

I love being on WGN radio with Bill Leff and Wendy Snyder (listen to here), first talking about the grain free diets. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine has issued a vague warning about dogs eating grain free diets, and for some dogs their odds increase of suffering dilated cardiomyopathy (a…

Opioid restrictions for pets? According to a new  nationwide survey veterinary medicine may suffer unintended and unconsidered consequences caused the new directive issues by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to address the opioid crisis. To my knowledge pets are not abusing opioids, and should therefore not be targeted by the DEA. Few pets land in…

Renata Block talks HERE on my WGN Radio Steve Dale’s Pet World show about Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) and National Puppy Mill Awareness Day (that was September 16), and the Puppy Mill Project  Awareness March on Michigan Avenue. The march happened, but you can watch a part of it here. Buying from a pet store means…

The rule is NEVER LEAVE YOUR PETS ALONE WHEN YOU EVACUATE DUE TO AN EMERGENCY. These pets were left behind after Hurricane Florence. I realize that sometimes an emergency occurs and you can’t get home to retrieve the pets. However, in many cases there is warning – sometimes days in advance. True enough not enough…

Guests on my WGN Radio show HERE: Veterinary parasitologist Dr. Michael Dryden on how the fall is the most common time of year ticks may give Lyme to dogs, and Dr. Kurt Venator, chief medical officer at Purina. I talked about the East Asian or long-horned tick which entered the country somehow via Asia. And…

This post is obviously timely, as Dr. Callie Harris, emergency and critical care veterinarian and veterinary communications manager at Purina, discusses emergency preparedness for pets on my national Steve Dale’s Pet World radio show.  Hurricane’s biggest related issue is water from storm surge and related flooding. NEVER leave pets behind. Harris offers various practical tips…

Following  a story (on September 7) about theAnimal Welfare League (AWL), which only offered the truth, I was shocked to receive not one or two, but several emails and Facebook Instant messages meant as a warning. While these individuals thanked me for the story, they indicating the shelter’s public relations firm will now come after myself (presumably…

The dog flu is unrelenting. Likely because there’s simply so much other news, from politics to hurricanes, you haven’t heard about it. But the dog flu (canine influenza virus) doesn’t care. Numbers only indicate a small part of the story. Most pet caretakers with coughing dogs do visit the veterinarian.  Knowing what other dogs in…