Dealing with Dog Mange

Spring brings warm weather, longer days, flowering trees, fleas and mites. No one would really want to see their favorite dog rolling all over to ease the pain felt from these fleas and mites. Like fleas, mites are also microscopic bugs that burrow under your dog's skin and this is not visible to a human eye. Other parasites that affect dog health are ticks and lice. Although fleas are the most common parasitic skin disease found in dogs, mange is a skin disease which is caused by mites.

According to most veterinarians, dog mange is a common disease in skin that can greatly affect dog health. A mange is a persistent and contagious disease of the skin causing inflammation, itching and loss of hair that can affect domestic animals like dogs (and sometimes people). There are two types of canine mange: demodectoc and sarcoptic mange (scabies). Puppies are usually afflicted by mange because their immune systems are not fully developed yet. Signs of demodectoc mange is when hair or fur loss occurs in round patches resembling ringworm. Oftentimes, the skin appears red and scaly. Demodectoc mange is caused by Demodex canis, a minute size, cigar shaped mite that affects puppies from three to 12 months old. The most commonly affected areas are the face and the front legs. With sarcoptic mange, symptoms can be loss of fur and crusting of teeth. It is caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, which also causes human scabies. The dog's ear, front legs, chest and abdomen are most commonly affected by sarcoptic mange or scabies.

Several treatment methods can be done to cure dog's mange. Most veterinarians recommend the antiseptic method by clipping the infected area and washing it thoroughly. Anti-mite dips and shampoos can be useful too. Most cases of mange respond well to this treatment. In cases of ear mites, thorough cleaning of the dog’s ears while the animal is sedated is also advisable. This treatment can be followed up with home treatments using special solutions like insecticidal dips, sprays, powders and shampoos. These are just few on how to secure your dog health away from dog mange.

Taking note of the condition of dog's skin and coat is important to ensure good pet health . As always, the key to fast recovery from mange is early detection and treatment. If these kind diseases are not treated early, then the possibility of chronic illness and damaged organs can occur.

BARF Diet for your dog health

Are you feeding your dog with the right food to ensure its optimum health? Do you think that what you see as a good stuff for your dog health is really appropriate and could give you and your dog the security that what you've been feeding to him/her is safe? Now what kind of food is it really that can not only satisfy your dog's hunger but will also optimize its health?

It has been a practice for pet lovers, dog lovers specifically to feed their dogs with processed foods. Branded dog foods are just what they would prefer. They think that by feeding their dogs with this kind of stuff, they will have no worries or whatsoever regarding their nutrition. But little did they know that these processed foods can just bring about more harm to their dog health. Most of these foods contain a long list of additives, preservatives and grain products.

So why not stick to the traditional manner of feeding our pets? Why not feed them the way they would feed themselves into the wild? Why not give them the kind of food that their ancestors feasted originally when they were once scavengers and hunt for food to suffice their hunger? Feeding your dog with fresh, raw foods is just what I am talking about. Giving them exactly what the typical food chain would allow them to have is more likely to guarantee you a supreme kind of healthy lifestyle for your dog.

BARF (“biologically appropriate raw food") or "BARF" diet is the healthy, safe and nutritious way to feed your pet. The natural way your pet or dog used to eat just before all those manufactured, highly-processed and grain-based foods entered the system of their food chain is what this BARF diet is trying to portray and win back to all dog lovers all over. This diet is typically made up of 60-80% of raw meaty bones(RMB), that is bones with about 50% meat, (e.g. chicken neck, back and wings) and 20-40% of fruits and vegetables, offal, meat, eggs, or dairy foods. The BARF diet looks only to the freshest whole raw food sources rich in vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids derived mostly from human edible ingredients.

The presence of bacteria in raw food often worries pet owners and vets. They assume these bacteria will imperil their dog health. However, dogs, being scavengers, have evolved to eat and thrive on bacteria laden food, requiring them for immune system maturity. Living enzymes are proteins found in raw foods which help the body function. Enzymes are only beneficial to the body if they are living. Once food is cooked or processed, it no longer contains living enzymes. Living Enzymes in a raw diet restore, repair, and maintain health. Animals replenish their enzymes systems by eating raw unprocessed foods. As a result, feeding your dog with raw food is more likely to give out a lot of benefits for the betterment of your dog health.

So if you want to improve your dog health, lengthen the span of its life, give your dog stronger teeth and fresher breath, indestructible immune system and fully-developed bones or body structure, then settle for something that's natural and proven to have made supreme developments for your dog health. If we people are now trying to resort to alternatives or those natural ways to improve our lifestyles, then why leave out our dogs with the least essential stuff if we can give them the most appropriate and rewarding kinds of food to feast with?

Dog Lyme Awareness: Taking Care of your Dog Health

If you have a pet, perhaps a dog that you just cant take your eyes off; would you always give most of your time and efforts to cater to its needs especially when it comes to your dog health? Pampering your dog and taking care of it like it is one of your own is such a very rewarding and satisfying treat for yourself. And whenever you tend to face problems regarding your pet's health, you just cant help but worry and panic.

So, when talking about your pet, are you always aware of the changes happening to your dog? Have you ever noticed that one day, your dog just seemed so weak and silent in pain when in fact your dog has never been that way for it would always seem to be so energetic and vibrant? And then for the next day, it would wail in agony due to swollen joints that if you don't give a proper remedy or bring to a pet hospital would go limping for a long period of time? Would you even believe that despite all the attention and care that you give to your dog, it can still get bitten by ticks? Now that is the major reason of the alarming changes in your dog that can make it sick or even paralyzed.

Dog Lyme or Lyme Disease in dogs is a condition wherein dogs are admitted due to limping (usually one foreleg and from three to four days, the degree of limping will be from mild and barely noticeable up to the complete disuse of the painful leg), the affected limb's lymph node is swelling, fever, loss of appetite, cough, depression and even lethargic behavior. Your dog health is greatly to be affected by this kind of disease when it gets bitten by ticks especially the smallest one called the deer tick, because ticks are the carriers of the bacteria ( Borrelia burgdorferi) that develops this disease.

At least three known species of ticks can transmit Lyme Disease. However, the great majority of Lyme Disease transmissions are due to the bite of a very tiny tick commonly called the Deer Tick, or Black-legged Tick. The tick's body size varies depending on the stage of its two-year life cycle. These ticks are hard to see for they are smaller than the head of the pin. They don't make dogs itch and don't glow in the dark. They are like vampires that sucks the blood and breath out of your dogs body. The dog lyme or lyme disease is actually named after the town (Lyme) in Connecticut where an early outbreak was first noted.

To to ensure your dog health against the development of this lyme disease, you must follow or practice certain habits of prevention by trying to minimize the number of ticks growing in places possible as their breeding place by spraying insecticides on the parameters or merely just staying away from those sites, injecting vaccines for tick prevention, application of anti-tick insecticides, sprays or repellants and carefully picking off the ticks as soon as you find them on your dog's skin especially if you go outdoors. Now if you really want to take good care of your dog health, better be aware of these information and ask your specialist about the things that you are just not so aware and sure of.