Tag Archives: dogs

When I was a kid, our family dog ate the edges of my mother’s beautiful living room drapes. Because she loved that dog more than her children, she blamed us for touching the drapes with sticky fingers. In her mind, the food residue on the drapes enticed the dog to eat them and thus, the dog, but not the children, were forgiven. Fast forward to the present and, as a veterinarian at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center, I routinely encounter patients who eat items with no nutritional value, a condition called “pica.” If you follow us on Facebook and Instagram, you’ve seen the dramatic x-rays of animals that have eaten items like a string of lights, an airtag, rocks, magnets, an ethernet cable and all manner of other non-food items. Today’s blog takes a closer look at pica—what it is, why it happens, and why it matters.

Every month, I answer pet owner questions on the Ask the Vet podcast, or when I’m invited on Dr. Frank Adams’ Pets and Your Health program on SiriusXM’s Doctor Radio. It’s not often that a caller stumps me, but a few weeks ago someone asked about the poodle fading gene—a term I had not heard of before. Apparently, poodle owners have noticed a progressively lightening or "fading” in poodles’ coats over time, and suspect a genetic connection. After a lot of reading, this blogpost will “shed” some light on the poodle fading gene.

If you watch television, you’ve likely seen advertisements promoting the health benefits of yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi and kombucha. These foods contain probiotics—“good” bacteria and fungi with health-promoting properties. Just like humans, all living creatures have a resident population of bacteria and fungi called the microbiome, and I’ll discuss the microbiome of dogs in today’s blogpost.

About ten years ago, I developed an educational presentation for veterinarians titled “A Cat Is Not a Little Dog.” This presentation highlighted diseases that affect these two species very differently. For example: Diabetes: Dogs can develop Type I diabetes, while cats develop Type II diabetes Thyroid Disorders: The most common endocrine disorder in dogs is hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid gland), while cats more often have the opposite condition, hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid gland) Mast Cell Tumors: These skin tumors are most common in dogs, while in cats they often occur in the spleen. However, there are a few medical similarities between dogs and cats that might surprise you. Today’s blogpost highlights three key areas where our feline and canine companions face similar health challenges.

Human body language refers to nonverbal communication that includes facial expressions, amount of eye contact, gestures, posture, how close you stand to someone, how you touch them and your tone of voice. While some people are very good at reading body language, others struggle. Since animals have a limited verbal repertoire, body language is their primary means of communication. Today’s blogpost will highlight some telltale nonverbal cues of cats and dogs.