Dog health advocacy

Ticks on Your Dog: It’s a Conversation if You’re Listening

It is well-known that ticks can harm your dog by the disease they carry. But can a tick bite itself hurt your dog? It might depend on where the tick attaches. It seemed to be the case with Sam whose foot became severely painful when a tick attached. Listening to your dog The only way to ever learn anything is…

by Jana Rade

Early Signs of Splenic Tumors: What You Probably Didn’t Know about Splenic Tumors in Dogs

You can’t see splenic tumors coming–or can you? Too often, splenic tumors pass under the radar until the dog collapses as a result of severe internal bleeding. My brother-in-law had a dog die to hemangiosarcoma a couple of years ago. The prognosis with this cancer is generally poor but on top of that, their vet insisted it was a urinary…

by Jana Rade

Mast Cell Tumor Treatment: JD’s Mast Cell Tumor— Surgery and Pathology Report

JD had his mast cell tumor removed last week. Everything went well and I will go into more detail on all his procedures next Thursday. Since then we were tending to his surgical sites and waiting for the pathology report. Diagnostic results The pathology report came today. That is much faster than we expected, which is great. Who likes waiting…

by Jana Rade

Mast Cell Tumor Diagnosis: JD’s Biopsy Results Revealed Mast Cell Tumor—You Don’t Know What the Bump Is Unless You Look at the Cells

Nobody, not even a veterinary oncologist, can identify a bump just by looking at it. There is no point in guessing and there is no point to watch potential cancer grow. Don’t wait. Aspirate. JD’s story We found three bumps on JD which we had checked out last week. One of them, looking like a skin tag, is a skin…

by Jana Rade

Working with Veterinarians: A Reflection on a Year of Working with Our New Vet

Every time you make a choice it bears evaluation down the road. It might have been the best decision at the time but does it still hold up? It’s been over a year since we moved to Jasmine’s ranch and started working with our new vet. One thing life taught me is that there are awesome vets out there but…

by Jana Rade

Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer by day, dog health advocate, dog writer, member of the Dog Writers Association of America, and an award-winning author in my spare time. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Endless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care into my own hands. I learned the hard way that simply seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to finally get a diagnosis for her initial issue. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to use 20 years of hard-earned experience to save others from the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way, as I did.

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