Dogs are prone to diseases just like humans, but due to their high tolerance for pain, careless owners often overlook the pain they are suffering.
Heart Disease
Definition: Very common. Severe heart failure can lead to decreased blood flow, which reduces the amount of oxygen received by the body’s tissues. At the same time, reduced output from the heart can lead to accumulation of salt and body fluid.
Symptoms: Low, suffocating cough, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, decreased exercise capacity, significant weight gain or loss, loss of appetite, abdominal swelling, high blood pressure, weakness, wheezing, depression, and pale gums (these symptoms may also be caused by other diseases).
Causes: Originating from defects in disease or the formation of the heart, the heart’s conduction system, or the blood vessels. The conditions that cause heart failure can be congenital or acquired.
Diagnosis: The veterinarian can detect heart murmurs and pulmonary edema by listening to the heart, or detect abnormal pulses by palpating, and detect heart enlargement and fluid accumulation by X-ray, and detect whether there is infection with heartworm and the function of other important organs by laboratory blood and urine tests, or detect the size and abnormal structure of the heart by ultrasound.
Care: Most heart disease patients can live a normal life as long as they change their lifestyle slightly. Veterinarians recommend that heart disease patients eat special foods with low salt content. Let them drink plenty of clear water. Softened water has a high salt content, so if you have installed a water softener, it is best to distill it again.
Pancreatitis
Definition: Inflammation of the pancreas.
Symptoms: Vomiting, diarrhea, fever, dehydration, weakness, weight loss, and abdominal tenderness.
Causes: The exact cause is still unknown. Influencing factors include hyperlipidemia, obesity, diet, infectious diseases, trauma, and negative reactions to drugs.
Care: The veterinarian will recommend fasting for a period of time, during which time it should not eat anything, including water or medication, to let the pancreas rest. After that, let it eat a small amount of easily digestible and low-fat food with nutrients. Do not feed it fatty meat, biscuits, leftovers, or fat supplements, and provide adequate clean water.
Colitis
Definition: Inflammation of the colon.
Symptoms: Diarrhea (usually with blood and mucus), abdominal pain, depression, fever, weight loss, and dull coat.
Causes: There are many reasons, including whipworms, tumors and polyps, food changes, allergies, foreign bodies, and pathological conditions.
Care: The veterinarian will recommend that you choose mild foods, foods with new sources of protein, or foods with moderate fiber content. When eating canned food, be careful to heat the can to body temperature, and add a small amount of warm water to dry food, wait 10 minutes before eating, and remove any wet food that has not been eaten after 1 hour.
More diagnostic techniques see:
