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Book Categories |
Introduction | 1 | |
About This Book | 1 | |
How This Book is Organized | 2 | |
Icons Used in This Book | 5 | |
How to Reach Me | 6 | |
Part I | Basic Health Care | 7 |
Chapter 1 | Canine Health 101 | 9 |
Recognizing the Signs of a Healthy Dog | 9 | |
Appetite | 10 | |
Attitude | 10 | |
Coat | 10 | |
Ears | 12 | |
Eyes | 12 | |
Gums and teeth | 12 | |
Nose | 12 | |
Pulse | 13 | |
Stools | 13 | |
Temperature | 13 | |
Weight | 13 | |
Knowing What to Look for in a Healthy Puppy | 14 | |
Avoiding hereditary conditions | 14 | |
Paying attention to temperament | 16 | |
Giving Your Dog the Once-Over | 18 | |
Brushing your dog's coat | 18 | |
Looking in your dog's ears | 19 | |
Taking a peek at your dog's toes | 21 | |
Cleaning your canine's choppers | 23 | |
Expressing your dog's anal glands | 25 | |
Chapter 2 | Preventing Problems before They Start | 27 |
Vaccinating Your Dog | 27 | |
Getting Rid of Fleas, Ticks, and Worms | 29 | |
Making fleas flee | 29 | |
Getting ticked off at ticks | 32 | |
Whipping worms for good | 34 | |
Knowing What to Expect from the Annual Checkup | 35 | |
Health history | 35 | |
Physical examination | 36 | |
Heartworm check | 36 | |
Blood chemistry and urinalysis | 37 | |
Vaccinations | 37 | |
Deciding Whether to Neuter Your Dog | 37 | |
Understanding how much work goes into having a litter of pups | 38 | |
Neutering your dog | 40 | |
Chapter 3 | Working with Your Dog's Vet | 43 |
Choosing the Right Vet for You and Your Dog | 43 | |
Helping Your Dog Enjoy His Trip to the Vet | 45 | |
Covering the Costs | 47 | |
Personal savings plans | 47 | |
Pet insurance | 47 | |
Clinic-based HMOs | 48 | |
Pet-care credit companies | 49 | |
Part II | Food, Glorious Food! | 51 |
Chapter 4 | The Building Blocks of Good Nutrition | 53 |
Proteins | 53 | |
Fats | 56 | |
Carbohydrates | 57 | |
Fiber | 58 | |
Water | 58 | |
Enzymes | 59 | |
Vitamins | 59 | |
Water-soluble vitamins | 59 | |
Fat-soluble vitamins | 60 | |
Minerals | 60 | |
Major minerals | 62 | |
Trace minerals | 63 | |
Chapter 5 | Feeding Your Hungry Hound | 67 |
Identifying the Main Types of Dog Food | 67 | |
Reading a Dog Food Label | 70 | |
The product display panel | 70 | |
The information panel | 72 | |
Figuring Out How Much to Feed Your Dog | 77 | |
Choosing the Best Food for Your Dog | 78 | |
Paying Attention to How You Feed Your Dog | 82 | |
Chapter 6 | Supplementing Your Dog's Diet | 85 |
Let the Buyer Beware | 86 | |
Determining Whether Supplements Are Necessary | 88 | |
Being Aware of the Benefits of Supplementation | 90 | |
Boosting your dog's nutrition | 90 | |
Helping your dog battle joint diseases | 91 | |
Making digestion easier for your dog | 93 | |
Chapter 7 | Good Ol' Home Cookin' | 95 |
The Argument against Processed Foods | 95 | |
The Pros and Cons of Homemade Diets | 96 | |
Come and get it!: Considering the advantages to homemade meals | 96 | |
Being sure to look at the drawbacks | 97 | |
What About Raw Diets? | 98 | |
Complete and Balanced Homemade Diets | 100 | |
Chapter 8 | Meeting Your Dog's Special Nutritional Needs | 105 |
Helping Your Overweight Dog Shed Those Extra Pounds | 106 | |
Knowing what causes obesity | 106 | |
Paying Attention to Your Large-Breed Puppy's Special Needs | 109 | |
Controlling Skin Problems | 111 | |
Battling Cancer | 112 | |
Helping Your Dog with Heart Disease | 113 | |
Getting Gastrointestinal Disease Under Control | 114 | |
Helping Your Dog Live with Kidney Problems | 115 | |
Part III | Recognizing and Treating Common Maladies | 117 |
Chapter 9 | Innerspace: How Your Dog's Body Works | 119 |
The Hipbone's Connected to the Thighbone | 119 | |
Playing Footsie | 123 | |
About Faces | 123 | |
The Pearly Whites | 126 | |
The Eyes Have It | 127 | |
The Better to Hear You With | 128 | |
A Tale of Tails | 129 | |
Got It Covered | 129 | |
An Inside Look | 131 | |
The heart of the matter | 132 | |
Take a deep breath | 132 | |
Down the hatch | 133 | |
The canine waste treatment plant | 133 | |
The puppy works | 133 | |
The Body's Chemicals | 134 | |
He's Got Nerve! | 134 | |
The voluntary nervous system | 135 | |
The autonomic nervous system | 135 | |
Chapter 10 | Tackling Common Ailments | 137 |
Paying Attention to Your Dog's Skin | 137 | |
Scratching | 138 | |
Hot spots | 139 | |
Discharge or odor in ears | 140 | |
Licking | 140 | |
Bald spots | 141 | |
Lumps and bumps | 141 | |
Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz: Dealing with Digestive Dilemmas | 142 | |
Bloat | 143 | |
Bad breath | 144 | |
Drooling | 144 | |
Loss of appetite | 145 | |
Vomiting | 146 | |
Diarrhea | 147 | |
Constipation | 148 | |
Gas | 148 | |
Scooting | 149 | |
Walk This Way: Knowing What to Do When Your Dog Has Trouble Putting One Foot in Front of the Other | 150 | |
The factors that contribute to orthopedic problems | 150 | |
The orthopedic problems dogs commonly face | 156 | |
Handling Problems with the Plumbing | 160 | |
Excessive thirst and urination | 160 | |
Incontinence | 161 | |
Bladder infections | 162 | |
Kidney failure | 164 | |
Chapter 11 | Fighting Off the Bugs That Want Your Dog | 165 |
Vaccinating against Viruses | 165 | |
Rabies | 166 | |
Canine parvovirus | 167 | |
Kennel cough | 168 | |
Distemper | 169 | |
Battling Bacteria | 170 | |
Lyme disease | 170 | |
Leptospirosis | 172 | |
Fighting the Fungus among Us | 173 | |
Preventing Parasites | 174 | |
Fleas | 175 | |
Ticks | 175 | |
Worms | 176 | |
Being Aware of Which Bugs Infect Humans | 176 | |
Chapter 12 | Canine First Aid | 179 |
Being Prepared | 179 | |
Assembling a canine first-aid kit | 179 | |
Getting familiar with your dog before emergency strikes | 184 | |
Knowing What to Do in an Emergency | 186 | |
Approaching an accident scene | 186 | |
Handling an injured dog | 186 | |
Examining an injured dog | 187 | |
Administering CPR | 188 | |
Giving first aid treatment | 191 | |
Chapter 13 | Drug Therapy for Dogs | 205 |
How Drugs Enter Your Dog's Body | 206 | |
Oral drugs | 206 | |
Injected drugs | 206 | |
Topical drugs | 207 | |
Where Drugs Go When They Get In | 207 | |
The Kinds of Drugs Your Dog May Need | 209 | |
Chemotherapeutics | 209 | |
Just a Spoonful of Sugar: How to Give Your Dog Medicine | 214 | |
Getting your dog to swallow a pill | 214 | |
Making sure your dog gets all the liquid medication he needs | 214 | |
Giving eye medication to your dog | 216 | |
Administering ear medication | 217 | |
Getting comfortable with giving injections | 217 | |
Toxicity: Too Much of a Good Thing | 217 | |
Chapter 14 | Complementary and Alternative Therapies | 221 |
Complementary and Alternative Medicine 101 | 222 | |
Knowing what complementary and alternative therapies are | 222 | |
Recognizing that many theories haven't yet been proven | 223 | |
Understanding Which Complementary and Alternative Therapies May Help Your Dog | 224 | |
Acupuncture | 225 | |
Aromatherapy | 226 | |
Bach flower therapy | 227 | |
Botanical medicine | 228 | |
Chiropractic treatment | 229 | |
Homeopathy | 231 | |
Magnetic therapy | 232 | |
Massage therapy | 232 | |
Nutraceutical therapy | 234 | |
Nutritional therapy | 235 | |
Physical therapy | 235 | |
Part IV | Health for the Body and Soul | 237 |
Chapter 15 | Stocking Up on the Supplies You and Your Dog Need | 239 |
Getting the Essentials | 239 | |
Crates | 239 | |
Leashes | 241 | |
Beds | 242 | |
Brushes and combs | 243 | |
Toys | 245 | |
Knowing Which Tools Can Keep Your Dog Safe | 249 | |
Confining your dog | 249 | |
Making sure your dog can be identified | 252 | |
Chapter 16 | Getting the Lead Out: Exercising Your Dog | 257 |
Recognizing the Benefits of Exercise | 257 | |
Getting Started | 258 | |
Being Creative with Your Dog's Exercise Routine | 259 | |
Instinctive activities | 259 | |
Walking | 260 | |
Trotting | 261 | |
Skijoring | 262 | |
Fetch | 262 | |
Swimming | 263 | |
Trying Your Paws at Canine Sports | 265 | |
Exercising Indoors | 266 | |
Paying Attention to the Heat When You Exercise Your Dog | 268 | |
Getting Your Puppy the Playtime She Needs | 269 | |
Giving Your Dog Things to Do While You're Away | 270 | |
Occupying busy paws | 270 | |
Doggie daycare | 272 | |
Dog walkers | 273 | |
Pet sitters | 274 | |
Chapter 17 | We Want You!: Enrolling Your Dog in Basic Training | 277 |
DogSpeak 101: Figuring Out How to Communicate with Your Pet | 278 | |
Knowing how your dog communicates | 278 | |
Reinforcing your dog's good behavior and correcting the bad | 280 | |
What Every Dog Should Know: Teaching Your Dog the Basics | 285 | |
Come | 285 | |
Sit | 285 | |
Down | 286 | |
Stay | 286 | |
Let's go | 287 | |
Training Your Dog to Eliminate on Command | 287 | |
Knowing Why Dogs Misbehave | 288 | |
Knowing why they do those things they do | 288 | |
Being the leader of the pack | 290 | |
Coming up with a plan to solve problems | 292 | |
Finding solutions to common problems | 293 | |
Part V | Caring for the Canine Senior | 301 |
Chapter 18 |
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