Dog Health

Monday - Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. | Closed Sunday

Monday - Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Closed Sunday

Call (719) 219-8569

Addison's Disease--Hypoadrenocorticism

Frankie, a two year old West Highland White Terrier, stood on the exam table shaking, head down, and looking miserable. The reason for his visit was listed as the dreaded ADR (for “Ain’t Doin’ Right”) Normally he would be racing around the room with terrier level intensity, and at the moment it was clear that ADR was a good description. He had been eating and drinking, with no vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, or sneezing, but clearly he felt rotten. His physical exam showed no fever, pain, or other abnormalities outside of fairly significant dehydration, but in spite of the lack of obvious findings it was clear that this dog was in trouble.

Allergic Skin Disease

Jingle, jingle, jingle. Jingle, jingle, jingle. No, Santa and his eight tiny reindeer are not visiting the dog at the side of the bed, it just seems you forgot to take his collar off before turning off the lights for the night and he is scratching again and keeping everybody up. This time of year many dog owners learn the importance of undressing the dog before going to bed. But why all this scratching? And why at this time of year in particular?

Bandaging Considerations

Colorado Springs is an outdoorsy sort of place. Who can resist the close proximity of the mountains paired with perfect weather for summertime activities with the dog. Sometimes in the “active” part of the activities results in cuts and scrapes on a dog’s legs and feet that require bandaging. It seems like a straightforward thing to do, but there are some tricks and pitfalls associated with bandaging that are special to veterinary medicine.

Bee Stings

queen bee

Spring is finally arriving after this long season of cold weather we have had this year, and along with the flowers and the sunshine we are starting to notice an increase in one of my favorite clinical entities: the dog who was perfectly normal when he went outside in the morning and came back in with an incredibly swollen face and itchy bumps all over his body. I like seeing these patients because although the problem is dramatic in appearance the cause is often straightforward and easy to resolve quickly. Yes, spring is the opening of bee sting season.

Bloat--GDV

There is one condition that every owner of a large breed dog should know about and be prepared to take action against at the first sign of trouble. It is casually know as "bloat", but more specifically known as gastric dilation and volvulus, or GDV. This syndrome is different from the kind of bloat your dog gets when he sneaks the pantry door open and eats three boxes of cheerios and a bag of flour. In that case he may look like he just swallowed a 55 gallon drum and he may be moving a little slow, but all of those stolen delicacies will work their way through his system out one end or the other with relatively few side effects likely to occur.

Bloody Diarrhea

Mrs. Smith was leaning against the wall in the exam room, eyes half closed with dark circles underneath. On the floor in front of her was Rambler, her normally rambunctious German Shepherd. The look on both of their faces suggested that it had been a long night last night. The note at the top of her file said “bloody diarrhea”. I have seen this scene so many times I could probably describe the events of the past evening without even hearing her story.