Dog care, symptoms, health issues, and dog health advocacy from an owner's perspective. In loving memory of Jasmine.
Your dog’s poop will become black and tarry because of the presence of digested blood. How does digested blood end up in the poop? When a dog is bleeding in the stomach or small intestine, iron in the blood oxidizes as it passes through the colon, which gives the blood a black color. It might not look as scary as…
Why does it matter what your dog’s poop looks like? Dog poop consistency is one of the most useful clues about your dog’s health. The longer I’ve been a dog mom, the more attention I’ve learned to pay to poop. It started with Jasmine who had ongoing poop issues from the day she came to us. After years of being…
My dog has diarrhea. What caused it, and what do I do? Diarrhea and runny stools in dogs are incredibly common, but they can mean many different things—from harmless blips to serious medical problems. Diarrhea isn’t a disease—it’s a symptom. It means something has irritated or disrupted your dog’s digestive tract. When things move through the intestines too quickly, there…
Everybody sneezes–sometimes–humans and dogs alike. A sneeze is an involuntary, forcible expulsion of air through the nose and mouth in response to irritation of the nasal passages. In other words, the body is trying to get rid of something that doesn’t belong. An inhaled irritant can make your dog sneeze the same way you would. Those can include dirt, dust…
Depending on your dog’s breed, you can find yourself knee-deep in hair twice a year. I can tell you that even our Rotties, who but no stretch of the imagination, are fluffy dogs, can drop an enormous amount of undercoat. You would never expect it–they don’t look like they’re wearing much. But when Jasmine was shaved for her surgeries, it…