Posts in Category: For The Dogs

With Halloween coming soon, there are a lot of changes around your households including the endless barrage of children ringing door bell’s looking for candy. While these changes seem routine for us, pets may react differently.

Most pets have things they fear, but phobia is much more serious. While fear is a natural and appropriate (from a dog’s perspective) response to a potential threat, a phobia develops when your dog has an irrational, persistent fear of something that doesn’t pose a real threat. Phobias are ongoing, extreme reactions to the same stimulus that typically begin after a bad experience.
Continue…

With Houston’s schools having just opened for the fall term, pet separation anxiety is a real concern. Oak Forest Veterinary Hospital understands that this transition can be especially difficult for our beloved pets. When our dogs show signs of anxiety or depression when left alone, we often develop feelings of guilt and worry. Pet parents can take comfort in the fact that separation anxiety is largely due to a dog’s natural instincts. For canines in the wild, abandonment can be life-threatening. Undomesticated dogs are with their packs continuously and are rarely alone. Isolation means they are vulnerable to predators and could even face starvation without their hunting partners. It’s only natural, then, for dogs to suffer anxiety when they are separated from their human pack.
Continue…

If you own a small breed dog, you may have encountered the puzzling symptoms of tracheal collapse. Most characteristic of these is a honking cough that sounds something like a goose. Although episodes are usually brief, they can seem frightening to you and your dog.
Continue…

Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease of dogs and other mammals that primarily affects the liver or kidneys. Infections is uncommon in areas where widespread vaccination of dogs has been practiced for many years. Outbreaks of the disease are still seen from time to time.

How is Leptospirosis Transmitted?

Leptospira bacteria are carried mainly by rats and other rodents, but can also affect almost any mammalian species, including people. Infected or recovered “carrier” dogs may act as a source of the infection.

Ingestion of infected urine or rodent-contaminated garbage is the most important means of transmission, but some forms of the bacteria can penetrate damaged or thin skin. For instance, when dogs swim in contaminated water, they may become infected through their skin. The incubation period (from infection to onset of clinical signs) is usually four to twelve days. Continue…

If you’re like many Lone Star State pet owners, the latest outbreak of canine influenza virus (CIV) across the South, and now here in Texas, may have you concerned. The latest strain of canine influenza has been making its way across the states since early 2015. While CIV has been around for a few decades, the most recent strain infects almost all unvaccinated dogs who are exposed to it.

Continue…