Having a vet we trust as a dog owner is of utmost importance but in many years of owning dogs I have learned a few things. One big thing is that even after many years of school Veterinarians don’t know everything. Don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting you don’t take your dog to the vet! Rather, don’t take everything they say as the gospel truth! Vets are people too and as such they can be wrong.  As your pet’s advocate it is ultimately your responsibility to take care of them to use your best reasoning skills to make good decisions. 

In this information age we have access to more information than any generation who has come before us. It is true that the internet is full of misinformation too and we have to be careful of any one source. At Fidelity K9 we get a lot of information from the internet and it is an easy form for us to share with you. However, I strongly recommend we all use our ability to reason and ask questions, read and talk to colleagues and friends as well as having a vet we trust. 

Here on this page I want to share what I find about illness, safety, nutrition and mental health of our dogs. At Fidelity K9 we are blessed to have access to hundreds of dogs we know, love and have a vested interest in. But please don’t just take our word for it, ultimately your dogs are counting on you.

 One of the most common reproductive emergencies seen in a veterinary emergency room is a condition called pyometra.  The name of this disease is Latin for “pus-uterus” and describes a life threatening uterine infection that most typically affects older, intact (or unspayed), female dogs. As intact female dogs age, the hormones that fluctuate during each heat cycle change the uterus – it becomes thicker and engorged with tissue to support potential pregnancy.  As these changes occur year after year, the uterus can be permanently changed – it becomes thicker and engorged with excess tissue. These changes make the uterus especially prone to developing infection and quite poor at fighting off infection if it does occur.  More info

 · Do the Dew(claws)?  M. Christine Zink DVM, PhD, DACVSMR  I am a vet that works exclusively with performance dogs, developing rehabilitation programs for injured dogs or dogs that have had surgery as a result of performance-related  injuries. I have seen many dogs now, especially field trial/hunt test and agility dogs, that have had chronic carpal arthritis, frequently so severe that they have to be retired or at least carefully managed for the rest of their careers. Of the over 30 dogs I have seen with carpal arthritis, only one has had dewclaws. The others have all had them removed.  If you look at an anatomy book (Miller’s Guide to the Anatomy of Dogs is an excellent one – see figure below) you will see that there are 5 tendons attached to the dewclaw. Of course, at the other end of a tendon is a muscle, and that means that if you cut off the dew claws, there are 5 muscle bundles that will become atrophied from disuse.  Those muscles indicate that the dewclaws have a function. That function is to prevent torque on the leg. Each time the foot lands on the ground, particularly when the dog is cantering or galloping, the dewclaw is in touch with the ground. If the dog then needs to turn, the dewclaw digs into the ground to support the lower leg and prevent torque. If the dog doesn’t have a dewclaw, the leg twists. A lifetime of that and the result can be carpal arthritis. Remember: the dog is doing the activity regardless, and the pressures on the leg have to go somewhere.  They can be absorbed by the dewclaw, or they will move up and down the leg to the toes, carpus, elbow, and shoulders.  Perhaps you are thinking, “I never have had one of my dogs have carpal pain or arthritis.” Well, we need to remember that dogs, by their very nature, do not tell us about mild to moderate pain. If a dog was to be asked by an emergency room nurse to give the level of his pain on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the worst, their scale would be 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Most of our dogs, especially if they deal with pain that is of gradual onset, just deal with it and don’t complain unless it is excruciating. But when I palpate the carpal joints of older dogs without dewclaws, I almost always elicit pain with relatively minimal manipulation.  As to the possibility of injuries to dew claws. Most veterinarians will say that such injuries actually are not very common at all. And if they do occur, then they are dealt with like any other injury. In my opinion, it is far better to deal with an injury than to cut the dew claws off of all dogs “just in case.”  Anatomical diagram viewing the medial side of a dog’s left front leg demonstrating the five tendons that attach to the dewclaw.