Symptoms

Swelling and Lethargy in a Dog: My Love Is Still Sleeping At My Feet—An Unexpected Update

When your dog gets seriously ill, how do you decide when to give up and when to push on? Thank you, Penny, for sharing My Love’s story. I came upon this blog several months back; my immediate thoughts were so happy to see how active it still is, to know that Jana is as passionate about dogs as I am.…

by Jana Rade

Urinary Incontinence in Dogs: Living with an Incontinent Dog

Urinary incontinence is a common problem in spayed female dogs. The working theory was that Cookie’s intermittent leaks are estrogen-responsive incontinence because she was spayed extremely young. On the off chance, that there is a neurological component, we also keep up with chiropractic adjustments which Cookie would need anyway because of her old pelvic injury and having one hind leg…

by Jana Rade

Seizures in Dogs: All From a Tooth Abscess? “Help, Roxy Fell”

Even though canine epilepsy is what people think about when they hear about seizures, seizures in dogs can have numerous causes. The potential causes of canine seizures include toxins infections liver or kidney failure too low or too high blood glucose electrolyte abnormalities high blood pressure tumors It is important not to jump to the epilepsy conclusion without ruling all…

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by Jana Rade

Canine Iliopsoas Injuries Symptoms: Sometimes You Don’t Even Know What You’re Looking At—Cookie’s Hind Legs Transiently Fail To Work

Canine iliopsoas injuries symptoms can be anything from subtle signs that you can easily miss to profound lameness. These injuries often go undiagnosed in dogs. Things you might notice in your dog include difficulty or stiffness when getting up reluctance to jump gait changes/ outward rotation of the affected leg stance changes intermittent lameness not lifting a leg to pee…

by Jana Rade

A Word on Compensation: The Domino Effect

The body adopts an abnormal posture that compensates for the weakness by a redistribution of body weight. I get to write about myself because I believe it is relevant to dogs as well. Sue already wrote an excellent article about compensation, but this is my recent personal experience. My story I don’t get hurt often. When I do get hurt…

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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