Articles with dog health advocacy

Ear Infections in Dogs: Titan’s Excessive Head Shaking

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…

by Jana Rade

Loss of Appetite in a Dog: What Would You Do If It Was Your Dog? Aspen Loses Appetite

When your dog suddenly seems under the weather and loses their appetite, it can be a sign of a medical emergency. It happened fast. One day, Aspen was wrestling with her housemate and having a good time. She was enjoying her day and nobody would suspect there could be anything wrong. The next day, Aspen didn’t finish her turkey wing.…

by Jana Rade

Treating Your Dog’s Symptoms vs. Treating The Cause

Will treating their symptom(s) make your dog’s problem go away? A Google search for how to treat diarrhea in dogs returns 61 million results. I couldn’t count how many times people ask such things on my dog health support group. As I’m writing this, I have a pending question asking how to freshen a dog’s breath. The question is not…

by Jana Rade

What Would You Do If It Was Your Dog? Seizures in Dogs: Winston’s first seizure.

Winston, a neutered male Boxer, got his first seizure when he was 12-years-old. Winston started seizing in the middle of the night, which landed him at a local veterinary emergency clinic. Why do emergencies always happen after hours or on weekends? Our experience confirms that that seems to be the rule. The ER veterinarian ran a bunch of tests on…

by Jana Rade

What Would You Do If It Was Your Dog: Cody’s Lameness Misdiagnosis

Cody was an 11 months old female Labrador Retriever when she became lame after hitting a shed. A veterinary visit produced a scary misdiagnosis. You would figure that diagnosing lameness is a straightforward process. From my own experience, I can tell you that it can be far from it. I have been through most of them–a foot injury, foreign body…

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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