What are the best and safest dental chews for cleaning a dogs teeth and bad breath?

I have a question about our 13 yo dog who likely has a bulging disc. He is a mutt (probably part Border Collie, part Shepherd). Soon after a small slip on our stairs, he had lameness in his one back leg; this went away after one day, he limped for a few days after, and he quickly recovered from those things.  Though he was walking fine fairly quickly, he showed stiffness, showed hesitation going up stairs unless we gave him a treat (we have only stairs to the outside), and his tail was down and only wagged from the tip of it. We had him quickly on an anti-inflammatory (Novox) and a pain med (started on Gabapentin but had to discontinue). He was fine on a walk; we went on short walks and he always craved for much more than we allowed. We prevented jumping, aerobic exercise, stopped him from using stairs by having a ramp to the outside, etc. We continued the Novox. His symptoms continued, then got better, and then seemed to regress when he started showing signs of pain (panting even when lying down and even when it was cool outside and some anxiety); the pain thing was probably because of taking him off Gabapentin. We took him to the Neurology Dept at a local, large vet hospital and a physical exam indicated that he “likely” has a bulging disc. When they inspected his back, he showed signs of pain and anxiety and his back legs bent and his rear went down. We don’t think we want to do surgery due to his age. He has not had an MRI as the regular vet and my husband and I thought that the treatment would be the same if we did not do surgery — treatment being restricting movement, continuing anti-inflammatory and pain meds, and looking into possible physical rehab. A switch to the pain med Amantidine helps a lot and the panting and anxiety are gone. He now continues to crave longer walks and, at the rare times we forget to block off the couch, he will try to jump up on it. We have been continuing to restricting movement but we just don’t know what to do about activity restrictions and have not had a lot of advice from neurology. He has always craved movement and exercise and when we take him around the block his stiffness seems to go away a bit and he seems energized and maybe even more comfortable. He has always craved a lot of exercise and movement. His spirits are lowered a lot if we keep in him in a small space — it almost seems like he wants to move around. He is eating and drinking, can do #2 (though he struggles some if doing it a long time). If allowed to do some movement, he is mostly happy and getting around with walking. Questions are: Should we restrict his movement altogether despite all this? Should he we do no walks at all? Is it bad if he is free to walk around the first floor or should he stay only in a very small area? I feel we are so confused as to what to do and how to know how to prevent regression. We’d love the input of any veterinarians or other owners with the same experience!

My 3 year old toy poodle, bailey, is currently having behaviour issues. He is well trained and we have even had a trainer not too long ago but despite all of this he is continuously going through phases a misbehaving/reactivity. These phases started to occurred since he was about 1. During a phase he typically gets very possessive aggressive, temperamental, reactive and starts to ignore all of his commands! Does anyone have any tips to help or stop these phases all together?

Hello,

We are a group of individuals that help the street dogs in Turkey. We have a recent case of a baby girl that is below the age of 2 and has heartworm disease. She and a bunch of others were locked up into an abandoned shelter with no food and no clean water (there was water with only blood hence, bacteria and the disease). The medication advised to us by the vet (immiticide) does not exist in Turkey therefore, the baby girl cannot get the treatment. Is there a way you could help us out with this issue we are having?
We would be truly grateful.
The vet is ready to show videos, send necessary documentation and prescription etc.

Thank you in advance.

My dog was recently given the prognosis of intervertebral disc disease or herniated disc. His hind legs currently are not working and are possibly paralyzed but he still has feeling in them. The surgery for him to get better is something that we can not afford and our not sure what to do. Is there any way for him to walk again without the surgery? Is there any other treatments we can try?

My dog ran out of my house and got bitten by dogs and returned back . The right front leg has some bite marks and that’s all. It’s day two and he is yelling in pain. In day 1 , he used to walk with 3 legs. But in day 2, he is struggling to walk at all. He got pain in the other 3 legs too. I think rabies is not the issue as it shows symptoms only after a week.

Hi Dr. Krista,

My name is Yana and I have beagle mix Charlie who injured his neck on 07/08/20 last week. We took him 10 flights of stairs for exercise and 30 min later he started crying in the dog park then yelping in the car and screaming at night. We took him to the ER and he was diagnosed with neck disc injury and prescribed Methocarbamol, Gabapentin, Tramadol and Caprofen. He seemed to be fine, not paralyzed but screaming 1-2 times a day usually on potty brakes. Then he started having episodes when he became more stiff and lifted his front paws…usually in the morning after sleep. We took him to a neurologist on 07/13/20 but he said he is 1 from 6 and not that bad. He stopped Caprofen and prescribed Prednisone, Fentanyl Patch and Acepromazine with other medications from the ER. So we were spacing out medications because we were afraid to give too much. He did not seem to be improving and we started all meds. He seems better after he screams like pressure relieved and he can lift his head and move more free.

Long story short, we placed him in a boarding hospital due to us living in a studio in highrise on the 10th floor, working from home and being 7 month pregnant. We are planning to visit another neurologist on monday and hopefully get x rays or mri.

Questions:

In your video with Hank he was paralysed and recovered in 17 days. So far I don’t see much positive progress in our dog and he is not paralized. How much chance do we have or what we should do moving forward?

October 2019 he had a similar episod and I took him to the vet, no x-rays were performed. Two reasons indicated neck or teeth. More towards teeth inflammation which I was focusing on by brushing and adding supplements. Medications prescribed Cephalexin and Carprofen. He got better in 3 days but his screams were not that severe. Should we try Cephalexin?

Any help, suggestion on advice will be highly appreciated! If we can bring him to your facility for boarding and recovery at least till he doesn’t have those screams we would like to do that! Please let us know how much it costs since it adds up quickly and I know that surgery is very expensive.

My 11yr old Lab/Mastiff mix was diagnosed with a mass on her spleen. It’s currently not bleeding, but we are trying to figure if we should go ahead with the surgery or not. I feel in my heart she has still more life in her, but I also know that if it’s cancerous she won’t have long. I know in the long run it’s my decision, but I just need to hear what others think.

I have a 2 year old pug that has started acting strange since Monday the day he went to get his anal glands expressed. Hey has stopped welping at the table when we eat , he has also stopped eating his canned food and only eats his kibble at night, and he has stopped snoring at night like he used to. The thing I’m most worried about is that he has lost two whiskers this month.