Care

How to Stop Your Dog from Eating Feces

Why do some dogs eat other animals’ poop? No one really knows for sure, although there are a number of theories. Some think that dung-eating dogs are fulfilling a nutritional need. Others believe that [more…]

How to Make a First-Aid Kit for Your Dog

Ideally, you have two first-aid kits for your dog — one for your car and one for home — so that you can start helping your dog immediately in an emergency when she’s hurt or injured. [more…]

How to Check Your Dog’s Pulse

To check your dog’s pulse, you need to locate the femoral artery, which lies just below the skin on the inside of the back legs, between two large muscles where the leg joins the body. [more…]

What Your Dog’s Gum Color Tells You

Look at your dog’s gums while she is at rest. Lift your dog’s upper lip and look at the color of the gums above an upper canine tooth — the gums should be pink. [more…]

How to Approach an Injured Dog

When you come upon an accident scene in which a dog has been injured, always be sure that you are safe before you try to help the dog. Every year people are killed on roads and highways because they put [more…]

How to Examine an Injured Dog

When you come upon a scene in which a dog is seriously injured and appears to be unconscious or in shock, your first step is to carry out an A-B-C assessment — check the dog’s airway, breathing, and circulation [more…]

How to Treat Your Dog’s Wounds

In the course of their lives, dogs are likely to get injured now and then. Your pet may run into a tree branch or rub against a sharp object. Your dog may even get in an occasional fight and wind up with [more…]

What to Do If Your Dog Is Bleeding

Some dogs don’t notice when they’re hurt and your first clue may be the blood trail she leaves. To stop bleeding, apply pressure to the wound with a piece of gauze or cloth for several minutes. [more…]

What to Do If Your Dog Breaks a Bone

If your dog breaks a leg, your goal is to stabilize your hurting pup — a broken bone is very painful — until you can get him to a veterinarian.

Fractures are sometimes obvious, such as when the leg is lying [more…]

What to Do If Your Dog Gets Burned

Dogs are most often burned when hot liquids or caustic substances such as strong acids or cleaning solutions are spilled on them. Dogs may also get too close to a candle, stove, or fire. Some dogs can [more…]

How to Help a Drowned Dog

Most dogs are excellent swimmers. Occasionally, however, a dog drowns because she gets caught in something underwater or gets overwhelmed by an undertow. Sometimes a dog who is an experienced swimmer drowns [more…]

How to Help a Dog Injured from Electrical Shock

Occasionally a dog, usually a puppy, will bite down on an electric cord and suffer electrical shock, often accompanied by burns. The dog may be unconscious and have burns around her mouth and on her tongue [more…]

How to Treat Your Dog’s Eye Injury

The eyes are very delicate and easily injured, especially in dogs who love to play in the great outdoors. How you deal with a foreign substance in your dog’s eye depends mostly on how big it is and whether [more…]

What to Do If a Fishhook Sticks Your Dog

Every now and then, a dog playing near a fishing pond will get stuck with a fishhook left by a careless fisherman. As you can imagine, a fishhook can be very painful, particularly if the hook is in the [more…]

How to Treat Your Dog’s Heatstroke

The temperature doesn’t have to be very high for a dog to suffer heatstroke. Dogs are descended from wolves, animals that live in northern climes and thus have not developed natural mechanisms to fight [more…]

How to Treat Your Dog for Poisoning

Substances toxic to dogs abound — in your house, your yard, and the world in general. If your dog ingests a poison, contact your veterinarian immediately for instructions. If you cannot reach your veterinarian [more…]

What to Do If Your Dog Gets Stuck with Porcupine Quills

Porcupines roam around the woods on sunny days, and sleep in fields and meadows at night. And, some curious canines just can’t mind their own business. The result is usually a face full of painful porcupine [more…]

What to Do If Your Dog Has a Seizure

Seizures in dogs can be caused by many things, from trauma to tumors to poisoning. In some dogs, seizures occur periodically for unknown reasons in a condition called [more…]

What to Do If Your Dog has a Spinal Injury

If you suspect that your dog has suffered a spinal or neck injury, be very cautious about moving him or you can further damage the spinal cord and cause permanent paralysis or even death. [more…]

How to Treat Your Dog’s Sprain or Strain

Just like you occasionally do, your dog can overextend and end up with sore muscles. A sprain is a torn ligament and a strain is torn tendon, but the results of both injuries are the same — swelling and [more…]