Category Archives: Diseases of dogs

Diseases of dogs, Dogs, general, Internal diseases of Dogs

Haemorrhagic gastroenteritis

Dogs affected with haemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE) vomit and pass diarrhoea with blood in it.  It develops rapidly and sometimes owners just find their dog collapsed.

HGE is more common in small breeds of dogs. A very high red blood cell concentration, measured as the packed cell volume, PCV, or haematocrit is characteristic of HGE. Most normal dogs have hæmatocrits of 37-55%. Dogs with HGE have hæmatocrits over 60%.

We don’t know the exact cause of HGE.

We rule out other causes of vomiting and bloody diarrhoea while we start emergency treatment for HGE.  These causes include stomach ulcers, trauma, worms, other gut parasites, gastrointestinal tumours, intestinal obstruction, foreign bodies, parvovirus, and coagulation disorders.

Dogs with HGE are very ill and if left untreated die. In most cases, it runs its course in a few days with intravenous fluid therapy to combat the dehydration and shock. We give other treatments like antibiotics, anti-ulcer medication and corticosteroids as indicated.

If intravenous fluid therapy is not given the haematocrit continues to rise and the blood becomes so thick that it can hardly flow. A clotting disorder called disseminated intravascular coagulation develops which is often irreversible and fatal.

Diseases of dogs, Dogs, general

Corneal ulcers

The cornea is the transparent front part of the eyeball that admits light to the eye.

A corneal ulcer is a hole in the top layer of the cornea. The most common cause of corneal ulcers is trauma. Grass seeds, a cat scratch, shampoo and sticks cause most of the corneal ulcers we see at Hall Vet Surgery.

Dry eye develops because of abnormal tear formation in older dogs and is also a common cause of corneal ulcers.  Some diseases that affect the whole body like diabetes mellitus, Cushings disease, and hypothyroidism sometimes predispose a dog to corneal ulcers, too.

A corneal ulcer is very painful.   The affected dog rubs the eye and squeezes it tightly closed. The eye looks red and watery.

Superficial corneal abrasions are difficult to see. A drop of fluorescein stains the area of ulceration and shows it up clearly under a special blue light.

A superficial corneal abrasion generally heals within 5 days. Antibiotic eye drops or ointment prevent bacterial infections.  Atropine eye drops or ointments relieve spasm and pain.

If the corneal ulcer is deep or slow healing or a descemetocele has formed we protect the eye and promote healing with a surgical overlay of conjunctiva, the third eyelid or the upper and lower eyelids.

Atropine relieves the pain from the ulcer but dilates the pupil making the dog sensitive to light. Do not be alarmed if the pupil stays dilated for several days after the last dose.

Atropine travels down the tear ducts to the mouth and because it tastes bitter causes drooling and pawing at the mouth in some dogs.

When the fluorescein stain test is negative your vet will tell you to discontinue the treatment. This is usually after at least 5 days of treatment.

The normal cornea has no blood vessels in it. When it is ulcerated blood vessels grow in from the white part of the eye, the sclera, to heal it and may obstruct vision. If they don’t retreat once the ulcer is healed we clear them with cortisone drops or ointment.

Diseases of dogs, Dogs, Internal diseases of Dogs

Collapsing tracheas

Collapsing tracheas are common in small dogs like Chihuahuas, Pomeranians, Shih Tzus, Lhasa Apsos, Toy Poodles, and Yorkshire Terriers.

The trachea, also known as the windpipe, connects the throat to the lungs. The normal trachea is tubular and maintains its shape with a series of “C” shaped rings made of cartilage.

When a dog with a collapsing trachea breathes in, the cartilage rings flatten from top to the bottom. This makes it difficult for air to enter the lungs and causes a chronic, honking cough.

In affected dogs the cartilage rings lose their stiffness and cannot retain their circular shape.

Coughing is often worse in the daytime. The cough is exacerbated by excitement, drinking water, eating, or pressure on the trachea, particularly from a leash.

We suspect a collapsed trachea in a small dog with a persistent dry and/or honking cough. If light pressure over the trachea causes a cough we recommend a chest X ray to rule out other heart, lung and airway problems. These other conditions are common in small dogs and they often suffer from several of them at a time.

Endoscopy allows us to watch the inside of the trachea during inspiration and expiration for signs of collapse.

We treat a dog with collapsing trachea with drugs to open up and reduce inflammation of the airways.

Antibiotics control infections of collapsed airways, which are common.

Weight loss reduces pressure on the airways in obese dogs. A low fat diet and mild exercise helps them shed the extra kilos.

Avoid exacerbating the cough with excitement and vigorous exercise.

Because medical therapy only treats the cough and does not correct the problem, affected dogs will always have a bit of a cough. Our aim is to minimize the cough, and make them more comfortable and active.

Diseases of dogs, Dogs, Internal diseases of Dogs

Bladder stones

Bladder stones form from minerals excreted into the urinary bladder. They range in size from grains of sand or tiny pebbles to a large, single stone.

The main signs of bladder stones are blood in the urine (hæmaturia) and straining to urinate (dysuria). Urinary tract infections also cause hæmaturia and dysuria.

Hæmaturia occurs because the stones mechanically irritate the bladder wall and make it bleed.

Dysuria occurs when stones obstruct the passage of urine out of the bladder. Large stones sometimes cause a valve-like obstruction at the neck of the bladder. The dog passes some urine and then despite straining cannot pass more. Small stones flow with the urine and obstruct the urethra, especially of male dogs.

Stones form from a high concentration of crystals in the urine. The crystals form because of abnormalities in the diet or because of disease in the bladder, especially bacterial infection. Sometimes they form because of a fault in body chemistry.

We suspect bladder stones if the bladder is painful or when there are recurrent infections. We can feel some bladder stones through the abdominal wall but most bladder stones are diagnosed with x-rays or ultrasound.

The fastest treatment is surgery to open the abdomen and bladder and pick out the stones.

Alternatively, if the dog has passed a stone in the urine we analyse it and prescribe the specific diet that dissolves that type of stone. Diet is not successful in dissolving some kinds of stone and is not fast enough if the pet is already toxic from a back up of urine in the urinary tract.

Some types of stone can be prevented. Regular tests for urinary tract infections and appropriate antimicrobial treatment prevent stones formed as a result of bacterial infection.

Specially formulated diets help prevent the formation of some other types of stone. We determine the chemical composition of stones removed at surgery and prescribe the best preventative diet for that particular type of stone.

Cancer in Dogs, Dogs, Medicines & Treatments

Chemotherapy And Cytotoxic Drugs

What is chemotherapy?

Cancer chemotherapy uses cytotoxic drugs to kill cancer cells. Unfortunately they also affects normal rapidly multiplying cells like those that line the gut and bone marrow cells that produce blood cells.

What is cancer?

Cancer is a disease of uncontrolled growth of cells. Cells are the basic structural units of the body. Normally they replicate to replace themselves as they age. In cancer a particular cell line multiplies in an inappropriate and uncontrolled manner.

What are cytotoxic drugs?

Many anti-cancer drugs are cytotoxic. Cytotoxic means “damaging to cells”. These drugs block cell growth and division and thus prevent cancer cells from multiplying. Cytotoxic drugs act only on rapidly dividing cells such as cancer cells but they can also harm normal body cells.

What side effects do cytotoxic drugs have?

Because cytotoxic drugs affect all rapidly dividing cells in the body, normal cells in blood-producing bone marrow, the gut, skin and reproductive organs are also affected.

Many animals on chemotherapy experience no side effects. However, they are more prone to infections, bleeding, vomiting, diarrhoea and loss of appetite.

Animals do not lose all their fur with chemotherapy drugs. Reproductive function is usually not relevant.

Some cytotoxic drugs cause liver, kidney or heart problems. The most serious side effect of chemotherapy is infection. We monitor for these problems with regular blood tests.

Am I at risk of exposure from these drugs?

Cytotoxic drugs are very potent and must be handled with care. We admit animals to hospital to administer most chemotherapy. Some are given by injection while other drugs are given as capsules or tablets.

Do not to handle urine or faeces after any chemotherapy session.

This information is of a general nature only, and must not be used as veterinary advice except where directed by your veterinarian. Hall Veterinary Surgery does not warrant the suitability of this information for specific cases. If your animal is unwell or you want to act on this information, please contact us on 6230 2223.

Diseases of dogs, Dogs, general, Poisoning, Today's News

Muffin mania – the dangers of sugar free sweetners

Riley is an energetic Pointer cross who helped out with the baking once too often. A couple of hours after eating a whole batch of apricot rough muffins he started drinking every bowl of water in the house dry. His owner Jenny brought him in to see us when she found he’d vomited the water up all over the lounge.

Used under licence from iStockPhoto.comRiley was very flat by the time we saw him. His gums were yellow and he was very dehydrated. The muffins contained what seemed like a list of very healthy ingredients but alarm bells rang when Jenny said that she’d used a sugar free sweetener containing xylitol instead of sugar.

While xylitol is quite safe for humans it is very toxic to dogs. It causes liver failure in dogs and is fatal if not treated intensively.

Xylitol is also found in many chewing gums and in Rescue Remedy pastilles. Wrigley’s list xylitol as an ingredient on the labels of their EXTRA Professional sugarfree chewing gums, Strongmint and Spearmint flavours. One to two sticks of one of these gums can make a small dog very ill. A whole packet might kill a Maltese terrier.

Riley spent a week in intensive care on a drip and with a combination of agents to support his liver. Next baking day he is banished to the back yard until all the muffins are eaten – by Jenny’s children!

Caring for your Cat, Caring for your Dog, Cats, Diseases of dogs, Dogs, general, Today's News

Free dental check in August

August is dental month at Hall Vet Surgery.

Bring your pet in for a free dental check this month and learn how to improve dental health.

Phone us a few days ahead to make an appointment.

Dental health is essential to overall health in our pets as well as ourselves. Dogs and cats hide pain from us. Often they have just got used to a level of dental pain that would cripple us on the first day!

Make sure your pet is happy, healthy and pain free . Phone for an appointment during Hall Vet Surgery dental month.

Dogs, general, Internal diseases of Dogs, Today's News

Puppy vaccination changes

Pups should be have their final vaccination for distemper, hepatitis and parvovirus at 14-16 weeks according to the latest recommendations from the World Small Animal Veterinary Association.

High levels of protection from the dam may interfere with the pup’s own immunity up to the age of 14 weeks, according to recent research. As we cannot be sure of any individual’s level of protection we recommend that all pups have a last vaccination after 14 weeks.

We have changed our puppy vaccination protocol to 3 vaccinations: at 6-8 weeks, 10-12 weeks and 14-16 weeks.

Some breeds, such as Rottweilers, are late developing immunity to parvovirus, and we have always recommended a third needle for them.

Brain and nerve disease, Diseases of dogs, Dogs, general

Seizures

Seizures are not uncommon in dogs but rare in cats. Seizures are also known as convulsions or fits.
Seizures consist of three stages:

  1. During the pre-ictal phase, or aura, affected dogs hide, appear nervous, or seek out their owners. They whine, shake and salivate for a few seconds or a few hours.
  2. The ictal phase is the seizure itself and lasts from a few seconds to several minutes. All muscles contract strongly. The dog falls on its side and seems paralysed while shaking violently. The head bends back. Urination, defecation, and salivation usually occur. Most dogs lose consciousness and don’t respond to human contact. Some pace, run in circles or exhibit uncharacteristic behaviour such as aggression. If your dog does not recover within 5 minutes, it may go into status epilepticus, going from one seizure into the next without respite.
  3. During the post-ictal phase, they salivate and pace, and are confused, disoriented, restless and sometimes temporarily blind.

Used under licence from iStockPhoto.comDespite the dramatic signs of a seizure, the dog feels no pain, only bewilderment.
Dogs do not swallow their tongues. Do not put your fingers in your seizuring dog’s mouth as you will get bitten.
All you can do is to prevent your seizuring dog from falling or hurting himself.
As long as he is on the floor or ground and away from steps or drops, there is little chance of harm occurring.

Epilepsy for no detectable reason is the most common type of seizure. Some toxins such as lead, hallucinogens or snail bait cause seizures. Blows to the head and, in older dogs, brain tumours also result in seizures.

What tests can we do to find the cause?
We start with a full general examination and a neurological examination. Blood and urine tests help rule out metabolic causes for brain dysfunction.
If all tests are normal and there is no exposure to poison or recent trauma, we may consider further tests including a cerebrospinal fluid examination, MRI or CT scans.

How do we prevent future seizures?
If there are no more seizures in the next few weeks, treatment is not given. If the seizures become frequent, last longer than 5 minutes each time or occur in clusters then we start anticonvulsant therapy. Usually Phenobarbitone (also known as Phenomav or Phenobarb) is the first drug we try. Potassium bromide (also known as Bromide or KBr) is added in if Phenobarbitone is not as effective as hoped or is not tolerated well.

Diseases of dogs, Dogs, general, Internal diseases of Dogs, Musculoskeletal - dogs, Today's News

Digital imaging

Dr Helen admires Bull Mastiff George’s X ray on our new digital X ray system. The high quality of the X ray images increases the accuracy of our diagnoses. We are able to fine tune and individualise your pets’ body and dental X rays and save them directly to their computer records.  Copies of the X rays can also be sent electronically to veterinary imaging specialists and an opinion returned the same day.  Already many pets’ lives have been improved or saved by this leap forward in technology.