About one year after I graduated vet school, I took routine screening chest radiographs of my senior Golden, Mulan. I looked them over, frowning at a small, mottled spot near her sternum. "She has cancer," I thought. It's not an unreasonable conclusion to come to with Golden Retrievers. Before I panicked, I asked my colleague to look at the x-ray, and she agreed it looked suspicious. I was devastated. I took Mulan to the local specialty hospital, where an intern I knew from vet school ... Read more »
pet food
Food Rules for Dogs
It's generally accepted that of all the controversial people food trends out there, the paleo/raw/low carb/low fat rules of ingestion, the one thing everyone seems to agree on is Michael Pollan's Food Rules, which at its core is this: don't eat so much processed food, and don't eat so much food in general. Agreed, and you can certainly extrapolate this to pets too. However, with over 50% of US pets overweight or obese- a condition with definite and real consequences- I'm more concerned with ... Read more »
What’s in your meal? Aside from BS
Every now and then I get a sample of food for the dogs to try. As I've said before, I rotate through multiple brands, and if I've written about a specific food on the blog, it's one I've given to the dogs at some point. I don't mind trying new brands- my local pet store just started carrying some new brands this week, and I bought a couple to try out. I'm not averse to new foods, as long as giving the label a good once over doesn't give me reason to feel otherwise. I look for several things: ... Read more »