Dog care, symptoms, health issues, and dog health advocacy from an owner's perspective. In loving memory of Jasmine.
Dogs shake their head in response to an irritation–pain, itch, tickle, or a bug bite. Excessive head shaking is a common sign of an ear infection. Titan is a big boy. He’s six years old and weighs about 130 pounds. He has a heart of gold. Titan has been shaking his head regularly every morning for years but it didn’t…
Atopy, or atopic dermatitis, is the equivalent of human hay fever. But dogs don’t get a runny nose and sneezes, they get itchy skin. Very itchy skin. So itchy they are willing to scratch the flesh right off themselves. There are many potential treatment options but they don’t always do much to help the poor suffering dog. Immunotherapy is the one…
In dogs, the main way allergies manifest is through the skin and chronic ear infections. A dog can, however, have [sometimes serious] respiratory symptoms. Thank you, Krystn Janisse, for sharing Shadow’s story. Shadow’s story Shadow was a healthy active 5-year-old Labrador Retriever. He found his forever home with my family in the fall of 2003 at the age of 4.…
For the longest time, Jasmine’s vet and us couldn’t agree whether allergies could be behind Jasmine’s episodes (and some of her other off-and-on issues) Allergies have always been one of the theories on the table, with our vet being quite convinced that this is at the root of the problem. Allergies might be the most viable theory we have, at…