Labrador Retriever Dogs Blog

Dogs have very sharp auditory faculties, no matter which breed they belong to. Ears of dogs obviously differ with the breed. So if you are interested in gaining knowledge about avoiding dog ear difficulties or even learning the right procedure to keep your dog’s ears dirt free, then this is the article to read.

The inner as well as the outer curve of the dog’s ear is extremely sensitive. Hence try to tackle diseases of the ear in the symptom stage i.e. before they actually infect.

Here are five methods via which you can keep your dog’s ear dirt free and also deal with infections in case they occur:

A. Plug your dogs’ ears with cotton very tenderly and then take him or her for a shower. The cotton will not allow water to trickle into the ears.

B. To keep your dog’s ears dirt free, wipe it at least once every month. The procedure is quite simple. Firstly, wet cotton with alcohol, diluted peroxide, mineral oil, or any other commodity that your doctor has suggested.

Be very cautious as you mop the curves of the outer and inner ear and slowly remove the wax. Your hand movements should not be such that the wax is pushed into the ear. Also mop only the bits that you can see or else you might hurt his or her ear or even injure the inner ear.

As the wax is important in taking care of the ear canal, do leave some at the end of your wiping procedure. However, this is little problematic as a little wax left behind after every clean up venture will ultimately lead to an increase in wax.

C. The dog ear lobe comes into play in case your dog simply adores high grass as well as shrubberies. Leaves and other parts of the plants often fasten themselves to the dog’s hair around the ear region. These external agents must be taken care of immediately or else they can get inside the ear and affect the membranes and thus lead to contagions.

D. English Spaniels as well as Poodles are distinct strains of dogs that have excessive hair growth around their ears. Thus they are more prone to contagions as air movement is hindered. Their hair must be cut and combed on a daily basis to avoid all ear diseases.

E. Any contagion that has occurred beneath the ear lobe can aggravate very quickly. Small wounds or injuries need to be looked into immediately. These can occur if your dog has recently been engaged in a brawl with another creature.

Special Illnesses that Affect Old Dogs

A dog hardly loses its sanity in its old age. The illnesses that are connected to the spinal cord as well as the brain hardly affect this breed. The most fatal illness, arteriosclerosis, which is also responsible for insanity is not common with dogs.

Cerebral hemorrhage, referred to as apoplexy or stroke, is also rare in this species. Rabies virus attacks the nerve tissue and is transferred through a bite by an animal that has contracted the disease. Studies have revealed that rabies is also caused via air. It has been the general notion for centuries that a rabid animal is incurable and hence is a threat to animals and people around him or her. Hence they are generally euthanized in case they have not yet dug their tooth into someone.

However, there has been a case where a couple of humans who had contracted the disease have been saved. Thus this can lead to an excellent situation for rabid dogs. They can be cured of rabies now. There is no absolute need for you to fret over your rabid dog as the proficient and secure vaccines will keep him or her away from such illness.

Food and diet play an important role in health. Every day, research in fields such as epidemiology and nutritional biochemistry teach us more about this relationship. Through scientific investigation and effective consumer communication, functional foods are becoming an important tool in promoting health.

According to Health Canada, a functional food is “consumed as part of a usual diet that is similar in appearance to, or may be, a conventional food, and is demonstrated to have physiological benefits and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions.”

Functional foods may come from plants or animals. Active ingredients effective in promoting human health include amino acids, fats, dietary fibres, antioxidants, pigments, vitamins and minerals.

If you follow the studies that document the stress put upon our digestive tracts when processed and refined foods are eaten, you will then realize how the body has to respond in a completely unnatural way to digest food matter that the body does not recognize.

Interestingly, when cooked foods are eaten, large amounts of mucus are secreted. Foods that are particularly mucus forming include all processed and refined foods.

When cooked food is eaten, the T-cells, which are so vital to immune function, increase in the gastrointestinal tissue to protect our system from certain foods, which are interpreted as foreign matter. If we consume cooked and processed food day after day without adequately eating raw food and fibrous foods, protective mucus will form in excess and build-up on bowel tissue, similar to the age rings we see in the trunks of trees.

As a result of faulty eating, nature’s protective coating — which was designed for occasional use only — becomes enraged and inadvertently contributes to ill health.

Consequently, the immune system is taxed and the presence of this excess mucus creates a perfect medium for the multiplication of bacteria, viruses, parasites and worms. Autoimmune diseases may develop due to the fact that the immune system has begun to attack the body, rather than invading microorganisms.

Continually eating “lifeless” foods — cooked, refined or processed foods devoid of fibre and enzymes — over-stimulate the immune system in a way that compromises its function. As a result, the animal becomes susceptible to every virus and bacteria.

Raw food is living food. It’s food that has not been processed or heated above 118oC (244oF). It’s food that contains the enzymes necessary for digestion as well as all the natural vitamins and minerals inherent in the specific vegetable or fruit. Raw food is probably the only basis for optimum nutrition. In an article in “Alive” magazine in May of 2000, nutritionist Dr Paavo Airola stated that an optimum diet must be at least 75-per-cent to 95-per-cent raw. And that was a reference to human diets. That would leave little room to doubt that canines and felines should be consuming at least that much raw food.

Dr Edward Howell, author of the definitive book “Enzyme Nutrition” blames the national state of disease on malnutrition due to the consumption of cooked and processed food. This food destroys all enzymes and therefore makes it impossible for the body to metabolize nutrients. More than anything, the raw food revolution is about enzymes.