Dog Peri-Anal Fistulas, which is anal inflammation and infection, is a very painful ordeal for a dog to suffer through and not only that it is also complicated and poses a difficult choice to the vet in terms of what sort of cure would be most appropriate.

Symptoms of Dog Peri-Anal Fistulas include the following:

1. The feces of the dog have a long stingy look to it.

2. The dog finds itself in a great amount of pain when trying to produce feces.

3. Appearance of small holes around the anus area which may be inflamed.

The cause for per-anal fistulas is not known as of yet and hence neither is the appropriate cure which is why it is so complicated and can be tricky for the vets.

The condition occurs when small holes called fistulas or even a single hole starts appearing around the dogs anus area. These holes may or may not be inflamed but they will eventually reach the tissue around the anus and then there are chances that it may spread out into further holes.

Due to the heavy amount of inflammation with the anus these holes will be very painful for the dog. Furthermore, the dog will feel severe pain while passing feces as the anus will be in a constant state of tense. This usually results in long thin lines of feces instead of how it usually looks.

As of yet there is no confirmed treatment for this condition and it is hard to diagnose it. Even though several surgical procedures and medicines have been tried there is no constant success rate and hence is up to the vet to prescribe the cure they find appropriate.

Antibiotics, cyclosporin and cortisone and other such medicines may be used by the vet to suppress the immune system.

On the other hand, the very may choose to perform a surgery. The surgical options available to the vet are to either remove the fistulas completely, to clean out the inside of the fistulas or to simply cut off the effected part of the anus and then later recreate it in order to cure the condition.

None of these treatments are certain and one may need to contact a specialist research centre in order to find the latest cure or the most up to date methods for treating this condition but after all that there are still chances that the condition may return to its original state.

Gastric bloat or volvulus can be a greatly disturbing occurrence for your pet and the discomfort they may feel can b unbearable and in some extreme cases cause death to your dog. So it will come as no surprise to you when I tell you this is an extremely dangerous condition in your dog and often escalates very fast without any previous waning. Although the chances of a fatality are greatly reduced to around a 90% survival rate in recent years, in years gone by this same rate may have been around the 30% mark.

The cause of this condition is unknown but happens when the gases within the dog’s stomach cannot be removed via burping on by wind. Normally in dogs this is a regular occurrence and happens quite a lot during the day as many of you will know all too well, but in some dogs and for unknown reasons the dog becomes unable to remove the gas and their stomach becomes more inflated and painful. As this happens the dog may start to try and burp the gases out so they can resume normal life and rid of the annoying pain, but as they do this it actually traps more wind and the stomach inflates further.

From this the dog may become panicky and start to become very agitated and nervous, trying to vomit and retching may follow but often with no results. This then becomes a desperate situation because as the dog becomes more frightened about what is happening the more air that gets swallowed making the situation worse and worse.

As the stomach gets to its most bloated stage it makes more discomfort for the dog because the stomach may twist and push against other organs and begin to make further problems. From this point in the condition is not solved fairly quickly and the symptoms are not shown to a professional then the life of the dog may be greatly at risk.

If on the other hand the dog is taken to the vet straight away then the vet will probably pump the dog stomach of all its content to reduce the pressure and relieve the dogs pain and then continue to monitor the condition over the next few weeks, and possibly suggest a few tips to prevent it occurring again such as not eating before walks or not eating in large portion and instead use more portions of a smaller size.

Dog food poisoning can come in many different forms and types and can be a frightening time for dogs and pets and can cause then to feel extremely ill with frequent bouts of diarrhea and vomiting. In this article we will discus what causes and can cause food poisoning in dogs and the most common reasons for this.

Before we continue on to see what can cause dog food poisoning it is important that we first explain how food poisoning occurs and how it affects the dogs body. This happens when he dog finds something of interest and that they like the smell of, they then eat this harmful substance and when the body realises that it should not have been consumed and is causing harm to the body, it will try to dispose of it as quick as possible so the dogs body can return to normal again.

To do this the body will first determine in which part of the body or digestive system the offending substance has reached. Normally the dogs body will pick up on the abnormality in food pretty early on when the substance has only reached the stomach or upper intestines but in some occurrences it will have reached a further stage and be in the lower intestines.

The further this unwanted food has moved down the dogs digestive system the more the difference in symptoms will be and this can act as a big clue to the vet in diagnosing the condition successfully. If the symptoms are vomiting then the chances are that the offending food and cause of food poisoning is in the stomach, if there is a case of diarrhea and vomiting then the problem may be situated in the upper intestines, and finally if the symptoms are diarrhea only hen it is probable that the cause is in the lower intestines of the dog.

The most common causes for dog food poisoning are eating ‘gone off’ food from bins in kitchens or outside, or eating food off the floor while taking your dog for a walk, so to help prevent further situations of dog food poisoning, these are the first places you should look and try to prevent. If it continues or you are worried that it might be more serious than dog food poisoning then contact your vet for further advice because diarrhea and vomiting are very common and there are many causes for it, without a proper diagnosis and examination the cause may be hard to find.

Cystitis, comparatively, is a very common infection amongst dogs as well as humans and is more likely to infect females rather than males.

Bacterial infection of the bladder is what causes bacterial cystitis in dogs and due to the shorter distance the bacteria needs to travel up the urethra to the bladder this disease is more common amongst females. In most cases, the main source of bacteria will be the anus. The relatively shorter distance between the vagina and the anus results in females being effected more so than males.

After reaching the bladder the unwanted bacterium will travel to the thin outer wall of the muscle that forms the bladder worsening the infection. Trying to maintain a healthy body, at this point the mild acids in the dog’s urine will try and fight the bacterium to stop the infection.

The infection will begin to worsen once this natural defense system fails and the acids in the urine run out. A worsening infection would mean that the dog would feel a burning sensation in its bladder which in turn may rupture microscopic blood vessels leaking them into the urine and giving it a reddish pink color. The natural response of the dogs’ body would be to contract its bladder muscles and thus leave the bladder in a continuous state of spasm.

In this state, the dogs’ bladder will create a feeling which would make the dog want to urinate and a similar feeling will be caused by the small amounts of urine filling up the contracted bladder.

What a Professional May Have to Say.

If the vet suspects the dog to have bacterial cystitis they will ask you to bring in a urine sample which will be used to test for acidic (pH) levels, glucose and blood cells.

If the vet manages to find blood vessels in the urine sample this will confirm that there is inflammation of the bladder and thus the proper diagnosis will lead to appropriate treatments to cure the disease.

If there is glucose present in the urine, which encourages bacteria growth, it might mean that the dog has a mild case of diabetes and a different treatment would be suggested to cure cystitis.

The urine sample will also be tested for pH levels and if these turn out to be too high it will indicate that the dogs’ urine does not contain adequate levels of acid to fight the bacteria which would make the dog more prone to this disease and will require further treatment such as a different diet to lower the pH level.

The vet may also want to conduct further tests such as an ultrasound scan, an x-ray or endoscopy to view the bladder. These tests will help check the presence of abnormal cells such as tumors or microscopic bladder stones (crystals).

Only after all these tests and procedures have been conducted will the vet be able to diagnose the disease properly and suggest the appropriate treatment or inflammatory medicine to use.