One of the more tragic circumstances we face in the veterinary industry are times when owners are left with the impossible decision of putting themselves or their families in financial peril by paying for much needed pet health care, versus opting for minimal care that they can afford or even euthanasia if an injury or illness is grave enough.

Let's face it, our cats and dogs rarely have pleasant breath, but because we are so accustomed to our dogs and cats having some level of stinky breath, pet owners all too often write off offensive breath as just a normal part of canine and feline existence. Of course, the word offensive is a subjective term observed by the person taking in the scent of the breath, but let's just say that once breath reaches the point of smelling like a decaying fish carcass or fecal matter, it has reached the point of offensive.

We are all too familiar with the epidemic of high blood pressure, aka. hypertension, in people, but most pet owners are not aware that hypertension is a common and potentially serious condition in dogs and cats.  Studies have concluded that up to ten percent of dogs over the age of 7, and a whopping twenty plus percent of cats over 7 suffer from hypertension.

This blog post is for pet owners that really want to get serious about their pets’ nutrition, and the first step of getting serious is letting go of fad or fashionable diets, sensational and unfounded ideas about pet nutrition that are touted on internet chats forums, or by non-medically trained people in the pet industry that try to pass themselves off as nutrition experts (groomers, breeders, etc.).  Getting serious begins with trusting your veterinarian first and foremost to advise you in your pets’ nutrition rather than a person with no veterinary medical training that somehow came to b

Having set the stage in my previous post to help free my readers of commonly held pet food myths, in this week’s post, I endeavor to share with you the newest and most innovative form of pet nutrition: disease preventive nutrition.

According to veterinary industry experts that track incidences of poisoning cases in dogs and cats, hundreds of thousands of pets suffer from poisoning from household items in the home each year. Between the Pet Poison Helpline and the Animal Poison Control Center of the ASPCA, over 300,000 calls of suspect pet poisonings are logged per year.

We all love spring time.  The weather warms, daylight hours increase, new plant life and leaves on trees begin to grow, our lawns begin to thrive again, and all of our spirits just rise with more time outdoors and the world around us teaming with life.  Indeed, it is a time to celebrate and feel lucky to be alive, however, with regard to our dogs and cats, we need to be careful about dangers that spring time brings with it.

Our pets provide us unconditional love and companionship, and thus it is natural for us to want to spoil them in light of all the joy they bring us. As we all know, for many of our pets, a favorite pastime of theirs is to eat, and looking at those pleading innocent eyes as you eat dinner or experiencing your cat weaving between your ankles and meowing the moment you walk into the kitchen, it can be hard to resist the temptation to give them a little something. When we see them wanting more after having been fed a meal commensurate with the feeding guidelines of their pet food or the recomme