Talk:Dog health

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Contents 1 Overweight dog 2 Rabies 3 Heartworm 4 Splitting and titling of dog-related health articles? 5 Sorting "Miscellaneous" 6 Cancer terminology 7 Dog disease list 8 Alcohol as treatment for antifreeze

[edit] Overweight dog

About the overweight Australian Cattle Dog pictured in this article: I did not put his picture into the article myself but he is my dog: Yoda. I'm sure people would be happy to know that his vet put him on a diet about a month after that picture was taken. He isn't too happy about the diet but he is certainly looking healthier in the last 4 months since his diet changed. I was surprised to see his picture in this article since I uploaded it just as an ACD example but since his health was apparently a big enough concern to list him as an example of overweight dogs in this article I thought I'd give a health update on Yoda. He is losing weight and the vet is happy with how he is doing.

--Starladustangel 08:02, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

That's awesome news. (Dogs are NEVER happy about not being able to eat everything in sight, are they!) I did ask someone--I thought it was the uploader--about using the image as an example of an overweight dog because I didn't want to dreadfully offend anyone, and I remember asking whether we could have an "after" photo to go with the "before" photo after the diet and/or exercise has done its work. That would be perfect! Keep up the good work; you're doing the right thing for your dog and Yoda will be much happier for it in the long run. Elf | Talk 16:30, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Rabies

First, I am sorry I forgot to put in an edit summary. It won't happen again. I eliminated the part about necessary euthanization of unvaccinated dogs and added information about unvaccinated dog and cat quarantine after biting and being bitten. I also eliminated the part about treating rabies in dogs and cats, because this is not done.

I do have a question as I am new here. There really aren't any footnotes or references for most of the article. Should I automatically add one for every edit? I am a veterinarian and I can easily put in a reference to an appropriate textbook. Thanks. --Joelmills 01:22, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Please do! WP has gotten more serious about citing references even in the 2 years that I've been editing, so it would be wonderful to have specific references for information. Don't necessarily need one for every edit--but consider the article like a scholarly work where important info should be traceable. And thanks for updating the info. Elf | Talk 01:55, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Heartworm

Changed heartworm migration information and eliminated reference to consumption of cardiac muscle. --Joelmills 01:55, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Splitting and titling of dog-related health articles?

Hi, I just have a quick question for you. I'd like to add some info on glaucoma in dogs. The link from dog health goes to an article with only info on human glaucoma. I could either add the pertinent dog info there, or I could (and probably should) start a new article. So I would change the link on dog health and any breed articles to glaucoma in dogs, and possibly put a link on the glaucoma article to the new article. And eventually I would do the same thing for glaucoma in cats. It's a big enough subject to need a new page, because the characteristics and treatment are somewhat different. Please let me know what you think. --Joelmills 00:57, 20 January 2006 (UTC) (Copied from User talk:Elf)

Glaucoma in dogs etc. sounds good to me, I think. Some articles on diseases have sections in them on how it manifests in dogs, but I think that's usually if they're more likely to occur in dogs (or only in dogs) than in humans, and/or if the info for humans is currently pretty sparse. I think the options are:

• Canine xyzdisease (as in existing canine parvovirus or canine distemper)
• Xyzdisease in dogs (as in existing diabetes in cats and dogs)
• Xyzdisease in animals (as in existing Epilepsy in animals)

I don't know how to choose between 1st and 2nd choices; maybe depending on how it's usually discussed and/or whether it applies to other canidae? And the choice between specific vs. a general "animals" article with subsections probably depends on how different the manifestation & treatments are and how much there is to say about each animal... Anyway, those are my thoughts. Anyone else want to weigh in ? Elf | Talk 01:15, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. For instance I just added more dog info to entropion. Since that was a short article and the disease is similar to humans, I kept it on the same page. --Joelmills 01:39, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sorting "Miscellaneous"

Since I'm not an expert in medical topics, I put everything that I couldn't quite figure out what to do with into "miscellaneous". Breaking the list into useful categories (like others went into "parasites", "eye problems", etc.) would probably be a helpful thing for readers, but I don't know where to begin. Elf | Talk 05:29, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

I've been looking at that, but I haven't gotten around to it. I will soon, hopefully. I'm still going through the entire list one at a time. --Joelmills 05:45, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

OK, no rush, obviously! You're doing a great job. BTW, I created the list by working my way through List of dog breeds and adding everything that I found in any articles' Health sections. And SOMEWHERE I had a note about how far through the list I got--not all that far, I think--but I can't find it. Not in the dog-project to-do list, not in the talk page here, not on my user page, so I have no clue where I left off. Oh, well--someday someone should start from the top again and work on through. Doesn't that sound like fun?  :-) Elf | Talk 05:53, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

I rearranged the lists and removed the two notes. To answer them, I think nervous system is a fine heading, and CEPS and Scotty cramp are not the same thing. Actually I'm not familiar with CEPS, but since they occur in two different breeds, I think they are different diseases. --Joelmills 02:59, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cancer terminology

I hate to use cancer so much in this list, because cancer indicates malignancy. All of the anatomic areas I listed have benign and malignant tumors, so cancer is not accurate. Neoplasia would be better. However, the existing articles all have cancer in the title, and I didn't want to put in dead links. I used mammary tumor instead of breast cancer because there are just too many differences between dogs and humans in this instance. Eventually I will redirect these to dog (or more likely animal) pages in order to give a fuller description. That will have to wait until I can swipe the oncology book from work again. --Joelmills 03:41, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

• There's the ongoing debate about correct technical terminology vs words and phrases that people who use the encyclopedia will be looking for. Although I'm not unfamiliar with the term "neoplasia", I still think I'd skim over it the first time if I were looking for "cancer". I dunno. You might take a strategy from how the human diseases have handled it. Of course wikipedia does have the ability to redirect things to synonyms, so I still dunno... (Helpfully,) Elf | Talk 04:52, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dog disease list

First, I know I added a lot of red links, but I will create pages for those ASAP. After that, we need to look at the pertinent breed pages and make sure they direct to the proper page, in case they use different terminology. Most new blue links go to human disease pages, so as soon as I add dog info to them (or create a new page for the dog disease), I will add them to the dog health category. Lastly, the list is now pretty long. Should we go ahead and create a List of dog diseases page? --Joelmills 01:38, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

I think so. Elf | Talk 04:53, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

FYI, Thai Ridgeback now has a link to dermoid sinus cysts. Not sure which name is better... Elf | Talk 04:54, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

FYI, Pug refers to "granulomatous meningoencephalitis" and "Pug Dog Encephalitis (PDE)"; current list here has "Pug encephalitis". Probably all of these shd link to same place when article is created. Elf | Talk 18:22, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

PDE (that name is fine with me) is a type of chronic granulomatous meningoencephalitis. There are subtle differences between PDE and the disease we usually refer to as "GME". However, only one page called granulomatous meningoencephalitis is probably necessary, with a redirect from PDE.

Regarding butterfly vertebrae and hemivertebrae, they are actually two different conditions. Along with block vertebrae and transitional vertebrae, they make up the "congenital vertebral anomalies" in dogs. So I will probably just do one page for all of them, with redirects from each. I'll correct the list now.

One last thing. I'm not sure how to create a new page for the dog disease list. Do we just cut and paste? --Joelmills 21:31, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Yup. What I do in such a case is first edit this page to put a link the way I'd want it (something like See also [[List of dog diseases]], click Show Preview, which makes the link active, then click the link to get to where you can edit the new page, then cut from here & paste there. Elf | Talk 21:50, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and on the hemivertebrae, the Pug article identifies them as the same thing. Can you correct it so it's correct? I'm just not knowledgeable enough. Thx. Elf | Talk 21:53, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Whoops. I checked another source and I think butterfly vertebrae can be considered a type of hemivertebrae, although technically they have a different cause. The source the pug page uses considers them to be synonyms, and it's such a fine point I hate to change it. If anybody cares to check the new article when I create it, they can get a more in depth description. And if I ever get a photo of an x-ray with either a hemivertebrae or a butterfly vertebrae, I can put them up there. Of course, I've never actually seen a butterfly vertebrae...

I'll go ahead and create the dog disease list page. Would you mind checking it to make sure I don't screw it up? --Joelmills 01:02, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Looks good to me. I just added a ref back to this article & categories. Elf | Talk 04:02, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alcohol as treatment for antifreeze

An anon user keeps posting this text in the Labrador Retriever article. Is there any truth to this:

Ethanol found in alcoholic beverages can save a labrador's life in the event of ethylene glycol poisoning due to accidental ingestion of anti-freeze. Ethanol binds more tightly than ethylene glycol at the active site of the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, therby limiting metabolism of the toxin and thus its harmful affects.

Elf | Talk 23:18, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that is true, including the mechanism of action. However, it should be added that the ethanol needs to be given IV and needs to be fairly pure. In our own practice in the past we have used vodka and everclear. There are side effects such as depression and hypothermia, and a better antidote is 4-methylpyrazole, aka fomepizole and Antizol-Vet - but it is more expensive and not everybody has it. Because antifreeze poisoning needs to be treated within eight hours of ingestion, you use what you can get your hands on. --Joelmills 02:42, 21 March 2006 (UTC)