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Dog Symptoms of Illness – It is quite common for puppies to have genetically acquired hip dysplasia and/or elbow dysplasia. Unfortunately, these are the results of improper breeding, and with the huge amount of puppies being born each year from people that are not dog breeding professionals, you may come across a puppy with these conditions often.

Elbow and hip dysplasia are essentially the same thing, except where the problem occurs, one being in the hip joint and the other being in the elbow joint. In normal dog growth, the femur head is supposed to grow into the joint socket and then be able to rotate freely around as a puppy moves. Dysplasia occurs when the femoral head grows outward and when the bone thickens, there is a gap left in the front. This gap unfortunately causes slight falls in motion, which induces high levels of discomfort and makes a dog’s walking and running unstable.

If your puppy has been diagnosed as having hip or elbow dysplasia, there are a few ways in which you can make his life a lot more comfortable. Below are some pointers to help guide you along:

1. For starters, look to the future and avoid passing this genetic disorder on. This can be accomplished with the simple procedure of neutering your dog.

2. Think twice before supplementing your dog’s diet with calcium. Calcium may create deposits in the bone area that is causing the problem in the first place. The best thing to do if you wish to add extra vitamins and minerals to your puppy’s diet is to talk with your veterinarian for his advice and suggestions.

3. Feeding your dog too much food in high amounts of calories may cause him to grow at a faster rate. This can cause the disorder to become highly aggravated. Simply feed your dog a balanced diet and try to avoid inducing growth spurts with too much food and protein.

4. Help cushion your dog’s walking by laying carpet in your house and in as many areas as you can. By adding a layer of softness to hard floors, the pain your dog feels will be diminished significantly.

5. Do not encourage fast pace running or jogging from your dog. Although hitting the great outdoors and taking long strides through nature can be a fun way to bond with your pet, you are only doing him a disservice when the disorder of hip dysplasia is prevalent. His joints can become inflamed and induce pain and irritability.

Discover helpful tips about Training A Dog and get the latest Dog Training Tips

The market for luxury watches is vibrant and well, despite what is happening in the wider world economy.  This year sees the launch of a whole range of different designs from both the traditional watchmakers to some new entrants. Some are based on long standing associations, such as the new Tag Heuer SLR which with the brands strong inks with the motor racing world, is based on the Mercedes SLR. Others are more conservative additions to an existing range and styling such as the latest series of Mont Blanc watches.

Historical market downturns have little impact on the luxury end of the market, and this year seems no different. Prices at the top end such as the range of Urwerk watches are near the $200,000 mark, with more reasonable offerings from the mid range such as Seiko Watches. If you want to pick up an exclusive and luxury watch without paying a crazy price there is a healthy market online.

With any purchase online there is always a risk that the goods you pay for may not be up to specification or very different to those advertised. This risk can be reduced by doing some standard due diligence before making a purchase. One of the big risks you need to mitigate in this sector, is that of being sold poor quality replicas of the real thing. This risk can be avoided by remembering the old adage that ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’ if it looks too good to be true, walk away. Having said that, some of the best genuine deals on something like a Bvlgari watch is invariably found online, where you can pick up some genuine deals that offline merchants with their big overheads, simply can not match.

Does your Dog Have Parvo Virus?

What exactly is parvo virus, what dog parvo symptoms do you need to look out for, and how is parvo virus spread?

Parvo virus was first identified in 1978 and within two years’ time it spread all over the world. Over the years, the parvovirus has mutated into two different strains and there is evidence of a third strain present in Italy, Spain and Vietnam. Every case of canine parvo virus or CPV comes from the first two strains. It was originally felt that this virus would mutate into feline panleukopenia, a feline parvo virus, but there was no truth to this. Every different specie has its own parvo virus and it cannot be spread outside of the specie.

Parvo virus cannot be spread from a dog to a cat or from a bird to a cat, but it can be spread by contact. For example if you cat happens to wander through your neighbor’s yard and picks up the virus on her feet, she can bring parvo virus into your home and your dog could be infected in this way. Unfortunately, our 8 month old puppy that we acquired from the pound recently came down with parvovirus. She had all of the classic dog parvo symptoms, yet we did not realize what was wrong. We took her to our vet and treatment was commenced immediately. After a four day stay at the veterinary hospital, Lucy was ready to come home. We were very pleasantly surprised by our vet bill!

The parvo virus works in one of two ways – through the heart or the intestines. The intestinal infection is picked up by an animal through oral contact with contaminated feces. In other words, a dog has to come into contaminated feces from another dog. The intestinal dog parvo symptoms happen when the virus attacks rapidly dividing cells in the intestinal crypts, lymph nodes and bone marrow. This allows normally occurring bacteria from the intestine to enter the blood stream make the animal contagious. The virus is shed in the stool for up to three weeks making this disease very contagious to non-vaccinated pets.

The cardio form of this infection is often seen in puppies that are infected from the womb or shortly after birth. It is well worth noting that the cardiac form of CPV is not as common since the mother passes immunity on to her puppies from birth. The parvovirus then attacks the heart in the infected pup and death results shortly thereafter.

Dog parvo symptoms are usually present within 3 to 10 days of contact. They include vomiting, lethargy, diarrhea and fever. The diarrhea will cause severe dehydration and secondary infections. Rather than dying from the virus itself, it is usually the secondary infections that kill.

A veterinarian will recommend that you get your pet vaccinated against parvo approximately eight weeks after the puppy is weaned. With the prevalence of this virus and its ability to kill, some precaution should be taken to protect your dog. Get your puppy vaccinated – we speak from experience!

But vaccinations don’t always give full coverage. Survival rate depends on how quickly parvo virus is diagnosed and treatment is begun. If it is not caught early enough, the usual conventional treatment is an IV through which fluids are pushed to re-hydrate the dog more quickly. In addition to the fluids, antibiotic and anti-nausea shots may be given intramuscularly. With the proper care the prognosis is good, but without it your dog is sentenced to an early death.

There are also natural methods of treating parvo virus. But whichever type of treatment you choose, choose it quickly. Do not delay in treating this deadly condition. A dog can die within hours of the first parvo symptoms appearing.

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