Reverse Sneezing... Or Worse? (Update!)

Update from:

http://rukimonster.blogspot.com/2007/09/reverse-sneezing-or-worse.html

So, I ended up taking her to the vet... And the vet said that Ruki has mild pneumonia. Her "reverse sneezing" is actually just coughing, and her licking up in her mouth was her licking up phlegm. Then her coughs would get so violent, they'd make her regurgitate. (Not "vomit"--vomiting comes from the stomach, regurgitating comes from other causes. Well-noted, Dr. Vet.) They confirmed this with x-rays.

So they gave us Clavamox--she just got off Clavamox for her pyoderma!--and the vet made some suggestions that have so far proved brilliant:

Raise Ruki's food and water bowls off the ground, about chin-height.

The thing is that bulldog's throats and airways are so short, that straining down and wolfing down food can mess with their breathing.

So I took an old Amazon.com shipping box, wrapped it in a plastic bag, and put her food and water up there. And amazingly she doesn't choke any more when she gobbles up her food! And she hasn't puked from coughing since! (But that could be just because she's getting better.)

I have to get her a new bowl since she eats with such gusto she knocks food and water all over the place--right now, I just hold the bowl while she eats. But this is great.

Now, the next step, is to look into changing her food and see if some day I can get her to actually *chew* her food!

Also, here's a link to a Yahoo! Answers post that gives some insight into too fast eating and the risk of bloat:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070329080847AAFNk1I

Micro-Chip Implants Linked to Animal Cancer

From AP News, via Yahoo!:

http://thnlnk.com/yahoo/Chip.implants.linked.to.animal.tumors/890

Published in veterinary and toxicology journals between 1996 and 2006, the studies found that lab mice and rats injected with microchips sometimes developed subcutaneous "sarcomas" — malignant tumors, most of them encasing the implants.

We got Ruki micro-chipped. This is disturbing because if every vet should have known TEN YEARS AGO that these microchips are causing cancer.

Understand, though, that the experiments were done on lab mice and not on dogs. Lab mice might be more prone to cancer than other animals, and some of the tests found the cancer incidental to other tests--so they don't know whether the mice were going to develop the cancerous growths anyways.

But this is definitely something to ask your vets about when considering micro-chipping in the future.

More from the article:

• A 1998 study in Ridgefield, Conn., of 177 mice reported cancer incidence to be slightly higher than 10 percent — a result the researchers described as "surprising."

• A 2006 study in France detected tumors in 4.1 percent of 1,260 microchipped mice. This was one of six studies in which the scientists did not set out to find microchip-induced cancer but noticed the growths incidentally. They were testing compounds on behalf of chemical and pharmaceutical companies; but they ruled out the compounds as the tumors' cause. Because researchers only noted the most obvious tumors, the French study said, "These incidences may therefore slightly underestimate the true occurrence" of cancer.

• In 1997, a study in Germany found cancers in 1 percent of 4,279 chipped mice. The tumors "are clearly due to the implanted microchips," the authors wrote.

Caveats accompanied the findings. "Blind leaps from the detection of tumors to the prediction of human health risk should be avoided," one study cautioned. Also, because none of the studies had a control group of animals that did not get chips, the normal rate of tumors cannot be determined and compared to the rate with chips implanted.

Still, after reviewing the research, specialists at some pre-eminent cancer institutions said the findings raised red flags.

Permethrin: Bio Spot and Zodiac Spot On

So I got fed up with paying $15 a pop for Frontline--and additionally am still worried about putting that toxic stuff on my puppy! So I looked into alternatives. The Petco carries Bio Spot, which has permethrin in it, and that's like $6 a pop. I then checked out the store where I buy Ruki's Innova, and they also only carried Zodiac, which also is made of permethrin.

Permethrin is an insect repellant. For humans, we used to use DEET. Now, you can buy permethrin as a clothing treatment. It's an insecticide, whereas DEET is a repellant. Permethrin kills insects on contact. But you don't want to get too much on your skin.

So I thought: Permethrin is safe enough for some kind of human use, and it's a *lot* cheaper than Frontline. I should give it a shot.

Until I did some research:

"Farnam's Bio Spot Flea & Tick Almost Killed Our Dog."

Apparently, a substantial number of dogs experience severe allergic or harmful reactions to permethrin, some of them experiences seizures from exposure.

Now, I know this isn't all dogs--and there are a lot of dogs out there. And my food vendor uses it and recommends the product. But is it really worth the risk? I decided no, and have been sticking with Frontline. I have decided, though, to use a lower dosage. Ruki's 37 lbs, but she's a bulldog, so has less surface area than your typical 22+ lb dog. So I use the "up to 22 lbs" dosage, which is half the dose of the 22+ lb product. And we won't use it at all during the winter.

I can see that we probably took the same chance when we first applied Frontline, but it appears to be the best of the pack. I wish there were a safer product, but it looks like there just isn't. If you want your pets free from fleas, ticks, and the problems and diseases associated with them, you need to use these chemicals, and it looks like Frontline's the safest (but most expensive) one out there.

Here's another article from the National Resource Defense Council, generally about flea/tick treatments, and the kinds that are being banned from the market:

Pet Products May Harm Both Pets and Humans

The simple truth, however, is that the poisons in many of these products are not safe, either for pets or humans. Government regulation of these products has been sketchy, and testing of their impact in the home has been inadequate. The result is that many of the products sold by the millions in grocery, drug and pet supply stores, even when applied as instructed on the box, can cause serious health consequences to pets and humans.

The main culprits are products that rely on a family of chemicals called organophosphates. One of these, tetrachlorvinphos, is still found in stores. Six others were removed from the market, one by one, from 2000 through 2006: chlorpyrifos, dichlorvos, phosmet, naled, diazinon and malathion. Many pet owners may still have leftover supplies of products containing these chemicals in their homes. They were used in brands marketed under a variety of names, including Alco, Americare, Beaphar, Double Duty, Ford's, Freedom Five, Happy Jack, Hartz, Hopkins, Kill-Ko, Protection, Rabon, Riverdale, Sergeant, Unicorn, Vet-Kem, Victory and Zema. Another family of chemicals, called carbamates, is also of potential concern. The two most common carbamate chemicals used in pet products are called carbaryl and propoxur.

Links for First-Time Home-Buying in Cambridge

So we're also looking to buy a place in Cambridge. Here's where I'm going to put a list of useful links for the process.

• First-Time Buyer Education Programs from the City of Cambridge


• First-Time Home Buyers' Guide to Taxes - From Boston.com and Bankrate


• First-Time Home Buyers Blog - from Move.com and Realtors.com


• How Much of a Mortgage Can You Afford? - from Fannie Mae.


• How much house can I afford? - from Yahoo! Real Estate and LendingTree.com.

Scooting? Anal Gland Expression?

Ruki started scooting a few days ago. Nothing that was too noticeable. I first noticed it when she was playing in the snow and then just started scooting in the snow. And then I noticed that in the morning she might do a few scoots--three or four scoots on the carpet.

Here's a thread from the Bulldog Domain on scooting and anal glands/tail pockets:

http://thnlnk.com/bulldogdomain/Anal.Glands/907

So we're not sure if it's an anal gland issue just yet. We're going to keep on it. Keep her area clean with baby wipes. Watch the scooting. Check for the poo/fishy oil smell. And feed her a wheat biscuit or two every day. And give her some real good play and exercise and maybe her anal glands will express themselves.

Dog Mouth Warts

Update: Added gross pictures of Ruki's warts. 

So Ruki developed some warts on her lips a few days ago. I found the one on the inside of her lip first. It looked like a weird, white mushroom--not the bumpy, sea anenome type that you expect. I thought that maybe it was a cyst or something weird, like a tumor. I worried a bit, thinking it would just go away.

Then, almost directly through the skin, on the outside of her lip, she got the typical wart: pink and bumpy. I bet if you stuck a pin through the outside wart it would go right into the inside wart, like they're the same thing.

I then found some pictures to confirm that the weird-looking inside-the-lip white, mushroomy thing might also just be another kind of wart:

http://thnlnk.com/crvetcenter/Oral.papillomas.warts.in.a.dog/670

So, OK, a wart. It should just go away over time. Apparently, they're also pretty typical in older puppies. I might try the recommendation on the above page ("Viroplex contains lysine, an amino acid; copper, zinc, calcium citrate, vitamins A, C, B1, B2, niacin, and periwinkle, mustard, and broccoli. The latter 3 ingredients contain natural anti-neoplastic (tumor inhibiting) compounds.") to see if that'll help things improve more quickly.

Part of me hopes that when she's playing with other dogs, maybe one of the dogs will bite them off. Maybe!

Trying the Harness

So today we're going to pick up a harness and see if that works any better than the regular collar. I'll let you know if that works any better... I just don't like the look of the harness, but it might be worth it.

The recommendations seem to be the same type: Sensation or Hightower Harnesses:

http://www.softouchconcepts.com/

http://www.waynehightower.com/

(Update: I e-mailed Wayne Hightower about availability of his leashes, and I haven't heard from him in about a week.)
(Update: We decided not to buy the harness in the end.)

Also, here's a link to a YouTube video on leash-training:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Oy5AANTpw

Links on Crate-Training

• American Dog Trainer's Network - How to Successfully Crate-Train Your Puppy.


• Housetraining Tips - curiously, recommends scolding a dog to prevent barking in the crate.

Link Suggestions for English Bulldogs

Here I'll keep a running list of links that I visit and read often to learn about care of our English bulldog:

• The Bulldog Club of America (BCA) - Basic Care for Your Bulldog


• Bulldog General Discussion Forum


• http://thnlnk.com/bulldogdomain/General.Health.Discussion/543


• http://thnlnk.com/bulldogdomain/Immediate.Health.Issues/408


• http://thnlnk.com/bulldogdomain/Bulldog.Feeding.Issues.and.recipes/408


• Fantastic post on bulldog temper tantrums. Read Reply #3 from Lynn King.


• Good post on a bratty bulldog.


• The Human Society on Crate Training - we don't follow the "feeding in the crate" advice, but some clear tips on handling whining in the crate.


• PetLovers.com Question and Answer Forum


• Training the Bulldog Puppy - I wish I would have found this a bit sooner! Or maybe not--maybe I wouldn't understand the wisdom the article contains before going through a lot of the trouble myself!


• Another good article on leash-training a dog called Shut up and walk away!.