Early in the novel coronavirus, aka, COVID19, pandemic in the United States, when little was still known about its full implications, the Maybeck Animal Hospital doctors and medical team never wavered from their commitment to serving the health care needs of our patients and our beloved clients who love them.  Unable to social distance in the waiting room and exam rooms, we began by serving our clients curbside donning masks for our clients' protection in early March, 2020. 

Maybeck Animal Hospital Certified Veterinary Technician, Jill Goldenberg, and I recently traveled abroad to join the Isla Animals Rescue in its annual spay/neuter campaign in Mexico.  Based out of Isla Mujeres, a resort island off the coast where many Americans, Canadians, and Europeans own homes, Isla Animals is dedicated to rescuing and homing stray dogs and cats that are a rampant problem in the area. 

Leptospirosis is a deadly disease caused by the Leptospira bacteria.  Leptospira is a cork screw shaped bacteria that self-propels itself effectively in fresh, standing water, such as puddles, ponds, and lakes.

As many dog owners are aware, the FDA published a list of 16 grain free diet brands linked to a significant uptick in the incidence of the deadly canine heart disease, Dilated Cardiomyopthy (DCM), and an incidence of DCM in dog breeds where it was never before seen.  DCM historically was a strongly genetically linked disease in a small handful of large to giant breed dogs, such as Doberman Pinschers and Great Danes.  Alarmed by seeing a growing incidence of DCM in breeds where it was never before seen, a large group of veterinary cardiologists in the Baltimore area performed retrospective h

This is a question that is commonly posed to me in clinical practice, and to be fair, a fair one.  If you are giving your dog year round heartworm prevention, why do we still ask you to have your dog get a heartworm test once a year to renew the heartworm prevention prescription?  If you live in an area where the mosquito vector responsible for transmission of the disease is seasonal, why the recommendation for year round heartworm prevention?  Why treat at all if you live in a region with no mosquitoes? Below are the answers to these questions.

Dogs are susceptible to any number of diseases, many of which they share in common with humans.  While a lot of these diseases have their roots in genetic inheritance as the result of inbreeding, unethical breeding, and in some cases just bad luck, the 4 health concerns below are the most prevalent and preventable areas of disease in canines.

Countless dog owners deal with the often heartbreaking circumstance of their beloved dog experiencing sheer panic during thunderstorms that tend to occur in late summer.  Here in my home state of Florida, dogs prone to thunderstorm anxiety suffer on a near daily basis from July through October.  I have an 11 year old yellow Labrador who began experiencing thunderstorm anxiety as he neared 2 years of age so I deal with this issue not just as a veterinarian but also as a dog parent who loves his dog dearly.

Heartworm disease is a worm parasite that infects the heart and lungs of dogs. The disease has devastating consequences for positive dogs as the worm damages heart and lungs tissues leaving the infected dog prone to clots, inflammatory lung and heart disease, and eventually heart failure.  The disease is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito when it feeds on a canine host.

Related: Heartworm Disease In Dogs & Cats