Why are regular check-ups important?

 Why are regular check-ups important?  Every dog owner asks this type of question, often. If you failed to do the regular check-ups, then the dog may end up having some major diseases that you don’t know about.  Hence, you need to pay lot of money both to the veterinarians for consultancy and for the required drugs useful for the therapy of the clinical condition.

 One may not be able to find out the very commonly occurring clinical conditions in case of their dogs because of less experience with dog diseases or dog rearing.  This is why check ups are important.   For example, if the dog has potbelly, the condition may not look abnormal many times. But if the dog is subjected to the regular check-up, then the veterinarian immediately finds it out and gives the appropriate therapy. If not, the animal may experience diarrhea and the dehydration.

 If the dog has any signs of illness, then don’t wait for the regular check-up. Instead, you need to approach the veterinarian immediately. Check ups if done in a regular manner will help to give vaccinations against canine distemper, parvovirus, corona virus, rabies virus, hepatitis virus, and more.

 Booster vaccinations will be carried out in such cases without any delay in the injections and this helps to improve the immunity level of the dog against such diseases in a remarkable degree. Regular check up is the essential one with proper stools examination.  Hence, the deworming may be carried out with drugs like fenbendazole, albendazole, etc.  

 Abnormalities like signs of pain may be ruled out during such  examinations.  If not, helminthiasis may affect the animal and diarrhea may occur in addition to the other types of digestive upsets and anemia. Regular examinations help to rule out the external parasitic conditions like lice or tick infestations.  Dental problems are also found out during the regular check ups in reputed veterinary hospitals.  
  
The importance of the physical examination

 The importance of the physical examination need not be underestimated in case of dogs. Simple but systematic physical examination techniques may diagnose most of the disorders in dogs and hence, without physical examination of the dog, one should not resort to knowing the status of your dog’s health.

 Simply observe the dog with scratching. Catch the dog and simply separate the hair material from the itching site. To the surprise you may come across a big wound in the scratched site. The wound might be the main reason for the scratching of the dog at that site. However, one has to rule out the occurrence of wound by severe itching itself.

 Many times, when the scratching dog is examined physically, one can come across plenty of lice infestation or tick problem in the skin and coat. The parasitic condition might not be diagnosed at all if one has not carried out the physical examination. Similarly, the dog may reveal the signs of pain when the physical examination is carried out by deep palpation technique.  The dog show signs of pain when the dog is examined at the stomach or the back regions.

 Even if it is possible that by pressure based palpation, one can detect the acute renal disorders in the affected dogs turn to the examined site at the region of kidney or at the back region. The dog affected by the Cystitis with severe retention of urine is often diagnosed by mere physical examination.

 The filled bladder together with signs of pain during the examination at the site of urinary bladder indicates that the animal is affected by Cystitis.  Auscultation of the heart in both right and left sides helps to rule out the abnormal heart sounds and the pulmonary area based auscultation reveals the respiratory system disorder like pneumonia.

These types of food materials are different with different grades of liking by the dogs.  Dogs like dry foods only if they are tasty only and however, on comparison, the dogs prefer only the canned food items. Reason for such preference by the dogs is that in case of canned food items, the moisture is about seventy to eighty per cent but in case of dry food, it is only about ten per cent.

 However, if you view it in terms of nutrients, often the dry food contains nearly ninety per cent nutrients whereas the canned food items contain only less per cent of nutrients and most of the times.  It is only soy products that are structured so well to look like meat pieces.

 Hence, to make up the nutritional balance in the body systems, the dog has to eat more amounts of canned food materials than the dry food materials.  Hence, just compare the cost factor related to this feature by you.  Many dry food items are soybean and rice based.

 Now some dry food items are based on corn. Sometimes, beef based or chicken based food items come in the cans along with mineral and vitamin supplements suited for the upkeep of the dog’s health status. Larger dogs that weigh more than thirty pounds need to be fed with semi moist food items or dry food items in most of the occasions.

 This is to satisfy the food receptors in the stomach. This is due to the fact that the larger dogs need to eat plenty of moist food or the canned food items to satisfy these criteria.  But it may not be practically possible in these larger dogs.  The small sized dogs may have a satisfactory level of nutrients if fed even the moist food items.

However, the caloric density of the dry food should not be forgotten. Enriched dry food items are highly welcome ones than the non -enriched food items.  
Cost of feeds

 The cost of dog feed is one factor that is most important in the case of feeding of dogs with different kinds of food items. Yes. This is true. The cost factor needs to be looked into in various perspectives during the preparation of the food items, required for the balanced feeding of dogs with proper vitamin and mineral supplementations in the food.

 Cost will not always matter much because the dog’s value is being assessed in terms of companionship and the happiness derived from the dog to the dog owner. Though the cost of the food items is comparatively more, many dog owners don’t mind much due to the increased benefits derived from their dogs in terms of protection, guiding, etc.

 Selection of ingredients for the home made food needs to be however based on the quality factor. Even when the quality is more, general persons may seek some cheaper items only. Recommended nutrient contents may be obtained from the national nutrient academies in all nations and this will provide guidelines.

 One can correlate the cost factor with items available in their own country. Generally, the commercial food items are expensive especially the ones that use the modern technologies of food preparation like oven-baking, sterilization of cans, air drying or freeze drying of contents etc.

 Canned items cost more than the dry food items. However, the cost of the items depends on what kind of food item to be used for the dogs. Food allergies need to be monitored during usage of different food items in case of dogs due to the cheaper cost of the items. Often the quality need not be compromised because of the cost factor.

 Most of the dog food items nowadays have mentioned their cost in the label itself. Hence, the dog owner need not have any problem in taking a decision on the purchase.

In the whole range of dog ailments included in the term canine pathology there are none more bothersome to treat successfully nor more difficult to diagnose than those of the skin. There are none either that afford the quack or patent-nostrum monger a larger field for the practice of his fiendish gifts.

If I were to be asked the questions, “Why do dogs suffer so much from skin complaints?” and “Why does it appear to be so difficult to treat them?” I should answer the first thus: Through the neglect of their owners, from want of cleanliness, from injudicious feeding, from bad kennelling, and from permitting their favourites such free intercourse with other members of the canine fraternity. Overcrowding is another and distinct source of skin troubles.

My answer to the second question is that the layman too often treats the trouble in the skin as if it were the disease itself, whereas it is, generally, merely a symptom thereof. Examples: To plaster medicated oils or ointments all over the skin of a dog suffering from constitutional eczema is about as sensible as would be the painting white of the yellow skin in jaundice in order to cure the disordered liver.

But even those contagious diseases that are caused by skin germs or animalcules will not be wholly cured by any applications whatever. Constitutional remedies should go hand in hand with these. And, indeed, so great is the defensive power of strong, pure blood, rich in its white corpuscles or leucocytes, that I believe I could cure even the worst forms of mange by internal remedies, good food, and tonics, etc., without the aid of any dressing whatever except pure cold water.

In treating of skin diseases it is usual to divide them into three sections: (1) The non-contagious, (2) the contagious, and (3) ailments caused by external parasites.