Cynologist
Cynology: Puppies Dogs
If you're like most people, when you look at the shelves of dog food in the store, you're bewildered by the choices available: puppy foods and senior foods, foods for large dogs and small dogs, diet foods for pudgy pooches, foods that claim to be all natural, foods that promise to improve your dog's coat, foods that make their own gravy, and foods shaped like little bones.
How can you possibly pick the best food for your furry friend that will give him all the nutrients he needs and help him live a long and healthy life? Worry not. The following sections help you make better choices when buying dog food.
Many different forms of dog food are available today. Dry food usually contains less than 10 percent water, semi-moist foods contain 25 to 40 percent water, and canned food contains 75 to 80 percent water.
You may also have heard the terms premium or super-premium to describe dog foods, but these terms don't have a legal definition — they can be used by anyone. Premium is a term frequently used to describe high-quality dog foods generally sold in pet supply stores rather than grocery stores. Super-premium generally refers to the highest-quality foods that are prepared using the best ingredients available. Likewise, Read more [...]
The first place you need to look when trying to decide on a food for your furry friend is the label on the bag, box, or can. Reading a dog food label isn't very different from reading the one on your cereal box. A certain amount of nutritional information must be included on the label, but a certain amount of leeway exists in how the dog food company presents it.
Divide the label into two parts: the product display panel (on the front of the package) and the information panel (usually on the back).
The product display panel
The product display panel is the place where the dog food company hopes to catch your eye. So it makes sense that it appears on the front of the package. You'll typically find a few key pieces of information on the product display panel, primarily the dog food company name, the product identity, the product use (whether it's dog food or cat food, for example), and the net weight of the package. You may also find a banner statement, which is where the dog food company makes claims about the quality of the food.
Product identity
The product identity section states the name of the product, such as Big Bart's Beefy Dinner.
Any terminology regarding the meat or meat flavor used in the product identity Read more [...]
Many people free-feed their dogs, which is the practice of keeping a dog's bowl full and letting him eat whenever he wants. Although this may seem like an easy approach to feeding, free-feeding isn't a good idea, for many reasons:
• Dogs who are free-fed are more likely to be overweight. This may not have been true in the past, but with today's highly palatable foods, your dog will enjoy eating long past the point at which she's full. She will likely take in more calories than she needs and carry the fat to prove it.
• You can't tell exactly how much your dog is eating. In fact, you may not recognize that your dog is ill until you suddenly notice you haven't been adding much food to her bowl in the past few days. Food intake is one of the best indicators of health, so you should always be in a position to monitor your dog's intake accurately.
• Medicating dogs who are free-fed is more difficult. If you have to give your dog pills, such as heartworm preventive, and your dog is free-fed, you will have to make sure that you pop it down her throat and she swallows it. However, if she gets fed two square meals a day, you can just add the pill to her food and it will go right down the hatch!
• Free-feeding is Read more [...]
Healthy dams of good breeding produce healthy offspring. The probability of producing healthy, vigorous puppies can be improved by breeding animals from lines known to be free of genetic problems, by avoiding inbreeding, and by breeding bitches between 2 and 6 years of age. When these criteria have been met, success depends primarily on the diet and feeding management of mother and offspring.
Feeding During Gestation And Lactation
Before a bitch is bred, she should receive a physical examination, her vaccinations should be updated, and worming should be performed if necessary. The dog should be of normal body weight and moderate body condition; excess weight may predispose to dystocia, whereas underweight bitches may have difficulty conceiving. Moderate body condition should be attained before breeding if problems are to be avoided later. Owners should be asked to measure the dam's usual food intake at this time; it will be important to remind them of this information when the puppies are weaned.
The dam should be fed an excellent-quality commercial diet during gestation. During the first 6 weeks of pregnancy she should maintain her normal weight and feeding schedule. A decrease in food intake commonly occurs during Read more [...]
The first week of the puppies' lives is the most critical to their survival. Newborn animals are physiologically immature; body fat percentage is low — 1% to 2% compared with 12% to 35% in adults — and they do not develop adequate glycogen reserves until after the first few days of nursing. Puppies have rapid respiratory rates (15 to 35 breaths per minute from 24 hours to 5 weeks of age) and heart rates (200 to 220 beats per minute from 24 hours to 5 weeks of age). The first nutritional concern with puppies is that they receive colostrum immediately after birth; all pups should be held up to a nipple to ensure they get colostrum within 24 hours of birth. The next priority is that they stay warm. Neonatal pups cannot regulate their body temperature (which is 94° to 97° F for the first 14 days). They need to be kept in an environment that is 85° to 90° F during the first week, and 80° to 85° F during the second week of life. Hypothermia makes pups unable to eat, which may result in their rejection by the dam.
A good way to ensure that pups are eating and developing normally is to weigh them daily. Pups should gain 1 to 2 g per day per pound of anticipated adult body weight. For example, if the anticipated adult Read more [...]
Healthy adult dogs have relatively small nutrient requirements compared with those in the reproductive stages of life. They may be maintained for years on a wide range of commercial or homemade diets with apparently little consequence. This adaptability maybe an explanation for the fervent belief of some owners that a seemingly peculiar diet is beneficial for their pets. The probability of a diet-related problem, however, should be lower for animals fed properly formulated commercial diets, because these diets have been more thoroughly tested, and have been fed to millions of animals successfully for generations. Because no adverse consequences are observed in a single animal does not mean that a diet provides superior nutrition.
Tech Tips: Dog Growth
When clients ask how much to feed a new puppy, the best thing to do is to teach them how to assign a body condition scoring to their pet. They will then be able to adjust the amount of food offered as necessary during the puppy's growth period. It is also a good idea to provide clients with a body condition scoring sheet, which provides a ready reference at home, as well as a pet food measuring cup. These are available through most pet food manufacturers on request.
• Read more [...]
After reproduction, work places the greatest nutritional demand on dogs. Dogs engage in guard and police work, racing, and hunting. Hard work increases all nutrient needs. For most "weekend athlete" dogs, these increases are proportional to the increase in energy needs, so they can be met by eating more of the same diet. Studies of sled dogs in the field and beagles on treadmills, however, have suggested that diets designed to support hard work and maximize stamina should have high digestibility and low bulk and should provide 50% to 60% of dietary energy from fat, 30% to 40% from protein, and 10% to 20% from carbohydrate.
The digestibility of commercial dog foods ranges from approximately 70% to 85%. Food bulk — the fiber and mineral content — therefore represents 15% to 30% of the food. Increasing the fat content usually increases the digestibility of dry dog foods. Moreover, high-fat diets often are lower in mineral and plant fiber content. Reducing the bulk improves stamina by increasing nutrient density and reducing the volume of indigestible material in the colon.
In studies comparing the influence of fat and carbohydrate on stamina in racing sled dogs, red blood cell mass responded to training and racing Read more [...]
No definition of the word old is applicable to all dogs. In one survey veterinary specialists believed geriatric should be applied to dogs based on age within breed groups. Diseases associated with aging, such as cancer and cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and renal disorders, were thought to begin to increase in frequency at the ages...
Great variation also exists among individual animals; as the saying goes, "it's not so much the age as the mileage." The physical signs of aging — graying of the muzzle, decreased activity, or loss of sight or hearing — are more reliable indicators of advanced age in any particular dog than is its chronologic age. Presence of these signs suggests loss of the reserve capacity of body systems that allow young animals to adapt to changes in their environment and should raise the index of suspicion for the presence of age-related diseases.
Dietary advice for owners of aging dogs depends on the animal's usual diet and its current health status. Although all clients should be asked about the specific brand and amount of food they feed to their pet, what "people food" it consumes, and the type and amount of supplements given, this information is even more useful for evaluating the nutritional Read more [...]
Jane Lilley raises the spectre of Horner's syndrome and describes a number of dogs with drooping eyes, some of which had suspected ear infections as a root cause, but others had no apparent cause at all. Horner's syndrome is of curse a human medical term and how our doctors love to confuse their subject by naming diseases asy syndromes So what is Horner's syndrome and how can diseases of the eat cause these symptoms in the eye?
Spaghetti Junction: Those knowledgeable in anatomy will know that many of the major nerves to the head emerge from the skull just around the inner ear and some of these supply the eye and surrounding structures. In fact the area behind the lower jaw, just below the ear, is probably the anatomical equivalent of spaghetti junction, only far more important and far more of a problem if anything goes wrong. In this small area of the body there are a myriad of nerves and ganglia, major arteries supplying the head and brain, major veins draining blood from the head, a salivary gland and towards the inner portion of this area there is the throat. It is not surprising therefore to find tht any inflammation in this area can cause problems and in particular can affect the eye. Now, as inflamed ears are Read more [...]
A sore ear is one of the most aggravating conditions a dog can suffer. Left untreated, an infected ear can become so sore and swollen the dog loses its ability to hear and the problem can spread to the inner ear and thence to the brain. I have known some dogs in such discomfort that they chew their feet in frustration. So a little attention to hygiene is well worth the effort. The outer ear is the only part most of us are aware of. In fact most of the time we refer to the pinna, or flap, as the ear and it is this piece of cartilage sandwiched between two layers of skin that we are so concerned about in the show ring, in terms of size, shape and carriage. It is, however, the outer ear canal that is most prone to damage and in many breeds its design is thought to be one of the prime reasons problems occur.
Air Filled: The external canal runs downwards, as a come shaped tube, horn the base of the ear flap. It then bends through 90 degrees and runs inwards towards the base of the skull. The external canal ends with a membrane (the ear drum or tympanic membrane) and on the other side is an air-filled space (the middle ear) beyond which is the inner ear at the base of brain. The middle and inner ear we will discuss another Read more [...]