1. Weight Management
Extra pounds on overweight or obese dogs puts excessive pressure on their joints which can result in cartilage breakdown and decreased joint fluid production. Maintaining your pet at a healthy weight is one of the best ways to prevent arthritis, as well as a variety of other health problems such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

2. Regular Activity
Keeping your pet in good physical shape with regular activity can help keep the joint fluid healthy and productive, which helps to prevent their joints from stiffening up as they age. Additionally, keeping pets in good physical condition will help to promote strong muscles that better support their joints, improve balance, and reduce the risk of injury.

3. Joint-Friendly Exercise
While it’s important for your dog to get plenty of exercise, it’s best to choose appropriate activities that won’t put excessive stress on their joints. For example, running a puppy too hard or taking an older dog for a long walk on hard pavement is not recommended. Instead, try playing fetch in the grass, walking on a soft track (if you have one in your neighborhood), or taking your dog for a swim.

4. Complete and Balanced Nutrition
Like all parts of your pet’s health, joint health is directly related to nutrition. Feeding a diet that meets AAFCO’s complete and balanced standards and is appropriate for their size and age will promote optimal bone and joint health. This is especially important for puppies while their bones are actively developing. Once they have matured (usually around 12 months), switching to an adult food is also important to help maintain a healthy weight as they advance into their adolescence and later years.

5. Joint Supplements
Conditions such as arthritis can be prevented, managed, or even slowed with proven joint supplements. Dogs who are at high risk for joint problems are working dogs, agility dogs or dog’s with underlying musculoskeletal conditions and can benefit the most from starting joint supplements early in life. Older dogs could also benefit from supplements, even if they are not pounding the pavement every day, as it is estimated that 20% of dogs will experience arthritis in their lifetime. Talk with one of our veterinarians about adding a joint health supplement to your Golden Retriever’s diet.

At Sleepy Hollow Animal Hospital, we are proud to provide our patients with highly personalized care. We tailor our veterinary care to the specific needs of each individual animal based on their age, species, breed, medical history, and current condition, ensuring we provide them with everything they need to have their best chance at living a full, healthy, and happy life.

To learn more about the comprehensive, personalized care available for pets at Sleepy Hollow Animal Hospital or to schedule your pet’s next checkup with us, we welcome you to contact our office today.

1. Heartworms Cause Permanent Damage to the Heart and Lungs
Pets get infested with heartworms when they are bitten by infected mosquitos that are carrying immature worms called heartworm larvae. Once injected into your pet’s bloodstream, the worms travel through the blood until they mature and get big enough to get lodged in the blood vessels of the lungs. After this happens, the worms continue to grow into full-sized adults and eventually start to reproduce. When enough heartworms get lodged in the lungs, they start to damage the heart and lungs and cause respiratory symptoms. This is called Heartworm Disease and if not treated can be fatal.

2. Prevention is Key
Heartworm infestation is easily preventable with monthly heartworm preventative medications. Since a heartworm infestation is so serious for pets, the American Heartworm Society recommends protecting pets year-round and not just during mosquito season. Continuous protection is the only way to ensure your pet is never exposed to the risk of getting heartworms. These preventatives are 99% effective when used appropriately.

3. Treating Heartworm Disease
Prevention is best, but if your dog tests positive for heartworms, the treatment and outcome will depend on how severe their symptoms are (if they have any at all). For dogs who do not have any symptoms of Heartworm Disease or who have minimal symptoms, treatment outcomes are usually good. The treatment involves a multi-month’s long plan of oral and injectable medications that need to be given according to very strict guidelines. For dogs who are symptomatic, the damage to the heart and lungs may be too advanced and treatment may not be effective.

4. Heartworm Preventatives Require a Prescription
Administering a preventative heartworm medication to an animal that has already been infested with heartworms can be detrimental in some cases. For this reason, heartworm preventatives are only available with a prescription from your veterinarian. If you have missed more than 2 months of preventative administration, it is best to call and speak to one of our veterinarians before restarting the preventatives.

5. Dogs Should Be Screened Annually
Sleepy Hollow Animal Hospital recommends screening dogs annually for heartworm infestation, even if they don’t have symptoms of Heartworm Disease, because treatment outcomes are much more favorable if treatment is started before symptoms occur.
This screening involves a simple blood test that looks for evidence of the parasites in your dog’s blood. Doing this every year ensures that if your dog was infested with heartworms, it is found early so that treatment can be instituted immediately.

At Sleepy Hollow Animal Hospital, we take parasite prevention seriously and ensure it’s a part of every one of our patient’s preventative care plans. We can talk with you about protecting your pet from heartworms in addition to helping you select a safe and effective flea, tick, and intestinal parasite preventative. We welcome you to contact our office to schedule a parasite prevention appointment for your pet today.

Floppy ears are a health risk because yeast and bacteria can grow and thrive in the warm, moist environment. For routine prevention of these infections Goldendoodle’s should have their ears cleaned once a month to remove any debris that may have accumulated. However, if you live in a humid climate, your dog goes into the water often, or has a history of multiple ear infections, you may need to clean the ears more often.

Conversely, cleaning too frequently can cause the ear canals to dry out which can also lead to pain and other problems. If you feel your dog needs more frequent cleaning, please speak to one of our team members for advice.

FLUTD can be painful and irritating, so it is important to know what signs your cat may exhibit when they are experiencing pain in their lower urinary tract. If you see any of the following, it could mean your cat is struggling with FLUTD:

• Posturing to urinate for an extended amount of time
• Frequent visits to the litter box
• Tail wagging while attempting to urinate
• Non-productive litter box visits
• Excessive vocalization when urinating
• Blood in the urine
• Accidents outside of the litter box
• Multiple, small amounts of urine production
• Excessive grooming of the penis/vulva

If your Frenchie has a dermatologic problem, you might notice some of the following signs and symptoms:

• Excessive itching (pruritus)
• Redness
• Swelling/inflammation
• Sores
• Hot spots
• Crustiness or scabbing on the skin
• Dandruff (seborrhea)
• Fur loss or bald spots
• Dull or dry coat
• Frequent ear infections
• Foul-smelling skin or ears

There are several underlying causes that can result in a dog developing a cough. These conditions can be broken down into four primary categories:

1. Infections

Bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic infections can all cause canine cough. Examples of some of these infectious diseases that can lead to canine cough include Bordetella, Canine Distemper Virus, Parainfluenza Virus, Canine Influenza Virus, lungworms, and heartworm disease.

2. Inflammatory and Auto-Immune Issues

Like people, dogs can suffer from inflammatory disorders like allergies and asthma, and both of these issues can lead to coughing.

Allergies in dogs most commonly cause dermatological problems that affect the skin and coat, but they can also cause a cough. A dog with asthma or other auto-immune diseases will typically experience worsening symptoms (coughing and wheezing) with exercise and other activity. 

1. Give the medicine when they are hungry
Pets are smart, so it is best to try to get them to eat their medicine when they are hungry. They will more willingly eat food or treats (with the medicine hidden in it) right before their normal meal time when they have an increased hunger drive. Just be sure that your other pets don’t eat the food with the medicine in it.

2. Use high-value food items
This can be a very useful trick, as long as you choose the right kind of food to disguise your pet’s medicine. Go for a strong-smelling, high-value food that can easily conceal your pet’s pill like wet canned pet food, peanut butter, cheese, or a piece of meat.

3. Use Special Treats
There are several brands of treats available to purchase that are made with a soft formulation and a pill-sized pocket inside. With these, you can simply squish a treat around your pet’s pill for easy administration.

1. Instincts

Responsible pet owners provide their dogs with a balanced diet containing all the nutrients their pets need, but dogs didn’t always have their meals served to them in silver bowls. Some think that dogs’ tendency to eat grass is an instinct left over from when they had to fend for themselves and find their own meals, fiber, and well-rounded nutrition.

2. Nutritional Deficiency

Pets and people can experience a condition called pica which is characterized by the instinct to look for nutrients in strange places. Pica often occurs when a pet or person has a nutritional deficiency, and it makes them crave odd things. Some people believe that a dog’s drive to eat grass is actually pica and could indicate a lack of fiber or other nutrients in the dog’s diet.

3. Emotional Issues

Dogs experiencing stress, anxiety, boredom, or separation anxiety tend to eat grass more frequently than calm, entertained, and happy dogs.

4. They Like It

Another possible reason why your dog might be chowing down on grass is simply that he likes the way it tastes or feels in his mouth.

1. Behavior Changes

Unexplained changes to your pet’s normal behavior, such as unusual aggression, restlessness, hiding or sleeping more than usual, could all indicate pain.

2. Accidents in the House

If your pet is normally very well house trained and suddenly starts having trouble making it outside or to the litter box in time, this could be a sign of pain or other illness.

3. Posture or Facial Expression Changes

A pet in pain might stand, sit, rise, walk, or rest in a slightly different position than usual. They may also stare, have a fixed gaze or dilated pupils, and can squint their eyes more than usual.

4. Limping or Limb Favoring

Your pet might favor one limb or hold it off the ground when walking or even at rest.

5. Excessive Panting, Purring, or Vocalization

Panting at rest, purring constantly, whimpering, yowling, hissing, growling, or howling can indicate pain.

Any changes – even subtle ones – to your pet’s behavior, appetite, appearance, energy level, or routine could be an indication of pain or illness. If you notice anything unusual about your pet, we encourage you to schedule a sick pet appointment at Sleepy Hollow Animal Hospital.

Utilizing The American Hospital Association’s Guidelines for Pain Management as our guide, we can provide immediate and ongoing relief of your pet’s pain by examining your pet, determining a diagnosis and providing safe and effective treatment to address the underlying cause of your dog or cat’s pain.

To learn more about pet pain management, visit our Pain Management Page or contact Sleepy Hollow Animal Hospital today.