Dog Health

Dog diseases: What are the precautions to avoid them?

admin • 04 Jun 2023

Seeing our sick pet friends is one of the worst feelings in the world! Therefore, there is little care to avoid the main diseases in dogs. But to avoid them, you need to know what are the most common diseases in dogs and the symptoms they present.

Thinking about it, we have gathered the 5 most common dog diseases, considering the symptoms presented in treatment and how to avoid them. See what they are below!

Main diseases in dogs

Everyone knows that prevention is the best way to avoid all kinds of diseases in dogs, cats, or any other pet. But to know which preventive methods to put into practice, you need to understand a little about each type of disease.

1. Food allergy

The name itself says, food allergy is the immune process developed by the dog's organism when coming into contact with a certain substance.

Symptoms: diarrhea, vomiting, redness, skin peeling and itching.

Causes: chemical substances, preservatives, ingestion of dangerous foods such as grapes and chocolate.

Treatment: it is necessary to identify the cause of the food allergy and replace the food, for example, homemade food.

How to avoid: don't buy low-quality feed, choose a feed that doesn't have dye, preservatives, and many chemical additives. You can also replace the plastic feeder with an aluminum or stainless steel feeder to prevent food allergies.

2. Parvovirus

It is one of the most dangerous dog diseases. When contaminated with the virus, the animal becomes extremely weak, and in many cases may die of dehydration or myocarditis, which is one of the complications generated by parvovirus.

In puppies, the disease is almost always fatal!

Symptoms: blood in the stool, diarrhea, fever, vomiting, dehydration, tachycardia, hypothermia, and food refusal.

Causes: virus.

Treatment: fight only the symptoms of the disease while the animal builds immunity to fight the virus.

How to avoid: the polyvalent vaccine for dogs is the only prevention of the disease.

3. Ehrlichiosis

The famous tick disease is also among the most common dog diseases. It is considered a serious illness and deserves great attention.

Symptoms: fever, vomiting, cough, anemia, loss of appetite, bruising, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, and depression.

Causes: infected tick bite.

Treatment: done through medicine, when diagnosed at the beginning, or hospitalization, when in a very advanced stage.

How to avoid: monthly application of ectoparasites, which are remedies that prevent tick infestation in dogs.

4. Otitis

Ear inflammation is a common problem for dogs, as well as humans and other animals.

Symptoms: itchy ears, lateralized head, yellow secretion, and pungent smell.

Causes: It can be caused by fungi, parasites, or sebum.

Treatment: it is done with specific remedies to fight the cause of otitis.

How to avoid it: do not wet the dog's ears during the bath, clean the ear carefully so as not to harm the region and do not leave the dog with its head out of the car, as strong wind in the ear can trigger the disease.

5. Obesity

It is one of the most common diseases in humans and in dogs as well. This disease is characterized by excess fat in dogs that do not exercise regularly and that eat poorly.

Symptoms: shortness of breath during walks, plump body and weight above the indicated for the breed.

Causes: poor diet and lack of physical exercise.

Treatment: healthy eating, physical exercise , and veterinary monitoring to assess performance.

How to avoid: offer good quality feed or homemade food in adequate proportion with the necessary nutrients. Do not offer inappropriate food for dogs, control the amount of snacks and other goodies.

Another treatment technique widely used to treat various diseases and which has excellent results is veterinary acupuncture. In this technique, the skin is perforated with very thin stainless steel needles, in specific places. In addition, acupuncture also works with laser, ultrasound, light baths, massage stimulation and exercises.

How to prevent dog diseases

Each disease has a different method of prevention, as there is a wide variety of diseases that can affect dogs. In that case, it is indicated that you give all the necessary vaccines and that you do veterinary follow-up whenever possible. Monitoring your dog's day-to-day life and changes in its behavior are important so that you can identify any changes in its health as soon as possible.