E-Vet Clinic - Dog Health Care

OK you all know that my dog is a Border Collie named Meme, but this is not about her but rather about a website called www.whatsmydog.com

And more specifically it is about what is available at that website. How about the age old question for those of you that have mixed breeds - what is your dog? Is he a poodle mix, a collie mix, no - a beagle mix, Oh the heck with it, he is just a Heinz 57! Well no more, now you can have your veterinarian do a blood test called the Wisdom Panel and have it tested against 130 recognized AKC breeds to determine what your dog is with a much better accuracy than a bunch of people looking at your dog and saying well he looks like an Italian Greyhound.

The test is around $150 plus whatever your vet charges to draw a blood sample and is provided by the Mars Veterinary Division…Yes the same Mars that makes candy bars has a veterinary division.

So go check it out and ask your vet if they would be willing to do the test. For all intense and purposes it is mainly a curiosity thing but some vets will use it to help with breed specific diseases. From my perspective I do not know how helpful that would be because the dog truly is not a specific breed but rather a mixed breed with different genetics and has the benefit of what is called hybrid vigor, so I am not so sure if this test that will determine genetically the breeds your dog is would actually be helpful in genetic based diseases.

Anyway curosity has got me thinking about one of my clients dogs that I have been teasing for a couple years now that it is part Sharpei. I think I will help defray the costs to prove I am right! LOL.

If you are buying dog electrolytes you are wasting your money!

I had this discussion with my trainer today and being a knowledgable person herself she agrees that electrolytes are a waste of money. Here’s why…

Dogs do not sweat like you and I or horses. They pant to cools themselves off.

When we sweat our body releases moisture through the skin to evaporate and cool us off. In the meantime we also lose the salt or electrolytes through our skin. It is part of the process to get the water through the surface of the skin..it needs electrolytes to perform this function. So the electrolytes stay on the outside of our body with no way of getting back in, so we have to replenish those with some form of electrolyte substance, usually in the food we eat or in some cases some type of electrolyte drink, i.e. Gatorade or Powerade.

Dogs pant - their mechanism is to evaporate water through breathing and their mouth. When the electrolytes are passed in saliva and the water evaporates from their tongue and mucosal surfaces of their mouth the electrolytes stay on their surface just like our skin when we sweat; however it is still in their body. All they have to do is drink water to replace everything. So those drinks that have electrolytes in them for dogs are a complete waste of your money. Dogs do not lose electrolytes during a hot day or performing an athletic event. They do however lose a lot of water and that needs to be replenished.

So do not buy electrolyte drinks for your dog, just some cool fresh water will do. You want to waste money buy them some nice bottled water that someone makes out of their basement tap! LOL

Check out K9 Clothes, my Squidoo Site. The last post I did came from a “little” dog site and it reminded me that I do have a list of dog clothing stores which can be found here - K9 Clothes

OK I am being a little stereotypical here, but it is one based in truth, more little dogs wear clothes than the big guys. I have quite an extensive list. Please if you have a doggie store that can be found on the web send me the link and I will be sure to place it on the list. I may even do a small article about your store. Otherwise if you are looking for some dog clothes I have the store list for you…it is over 200 stores large. Check it out.

K9 Clothes

Top 5 Natural Health Essentials for A Happy, Healthy Dog is an article found on www.smalldogsparadise.com written by Renee You can check out the full article here - Top 5

I will have to completely agree with this article. In my opinion, the top three are the most important with proper diet, exercise, and less vaccination being key components. The other two spaying/neutering and grooming are also important but the top three are by far the best way to keep your dog healthy.

Good Article Renee - keep up the good work.

OK this may be my last post on the Dog food Recall…not because I am not concerned about it, I truly am, but rather there is a fantastic blog I recently discovered that is right on top of this issue. So if any of you need more information on the dog food recall please visit the Pet Connection Blog

Their last post suggests three other places to go to get the most up to date information on what dog foods are being recalled (yes there are more foods being recalled)… these three are - itchmo, The Pet Food List, and Pet Food tracker

I am also going to make Pet Connection a permanent link on the side bar for future reference because they are doing a great job. Very passionate people.