Oakland Veterinary Referral Services Blog

Regular Veterinary Care Alerts You to Changes in Your Pet’s Health

Is my dog or cat sick? It can be difficult to tell sometimes. Your dog or cat can seem a bit “off” some days. Just like us, our pets have an occasional bad day, tummy trouble, or are simply not feeling their best. Changes in your pet’s health and demeanor can be something mild, like they ate too much, or more serious, such as symptoms of an underlying disease.

Oakland Veterinary Referral Services believes that regular veterinary care is of the utmost importance. One reason is that it gives you a great baseline to help you know if something is going on with your four-legged friend’s health. We also review the subtle symptoms to look for when you ask yourself, “is my dog or cat sick?” Let’s take a closer look!

A dog seizure is a frightening event to witness. If your dog has one, you may feel panicky and confused, or else helpless to do something to make them feel better. Your dog may have a chronic seizure disorder like epilepsy, or a seizure may come on suddenly for the first time. 

During a seizure, your dog cannot control their muscle activity. Seizures are a disturbance in normal brain activity, also referred to as a convulsion. Since seizures in dogs are commonly diagnosed, your friends at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services want to tell you more about this neurological condition.

Standing water like ponds, ditches, and lakes contain debris, scum, protozoa, and bacteria. This can include blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, a greenish scum that forms on the top of still water. Cyanobacteria is an algae to be concerned about when it comes to your pet’s safety. 

Our dogs enjoy getting into anything slimy, muddy, or otherwise gross to us. If your dog loves to swim or enjoys time around water, they are likely to drink from one of these natural water sources. The team at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services wants pet owners to know more about blue-green algae poisoning, so you can better protect your pet.

Labored breathing in dogs and cats is triggered by multiple issues that impact a complex and vital system of the body–the respiratory system. It delivers oxygen throughout the body and removes carbon dioxide. This specialized system keeps your furry friend moving and cool, as it is essential for many aspects of health. So, when your pet is struggling to catch their breath or is breathing heavily, it is unsettling.

If your pet is having trouble breathing or has labored breathing, it’s important to get them diagnosed and treated. The team at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services provides some key reasons for this condition and what you can do to help your pet.

If you’re nursing your dog after a surgery, you want your dog’s surgical wound to heal quickly and cleanly. Most dogs experience injuries, accidents, and conditions that require surgery at some point in their life. Because of this, you as a pet owner are put into the role of nurse as your dog recovers from surgery at home. Keeping your pet’s surgical sutures or wound clean is important to their successful healing. 

The team at OVRS is here with tips so that you can help your dog recover from a surgical wound fast. The proper care will help your dog’s surgical wound heal as quickly as possible. 

Yeast infection in dogs can affect many areas of the body, making your dog uncomfortable. Yeast naturally lives on the skin in “low” numbers. As long as the numbers remain low and your dog doesn’t develop a hypersensitivity to yeast, the yeast will remain in harmonious balance with the rest of the microflora on the skin and cause no problems. 

In situations where conditions are ideal for yeast to grow, they can proliferate to the point where they cause a yeast infection. Helpful conditions for yeast overgrowth include moist, dark and warm areas. Yeast infections in dogs are common and are almost always associated with an underlying condition such as moisture, allergies, inflammation or immune compromise.

Oakland Veterinary Referral Services provides an overview of what causes yeast infection in dogs, as well as how to treat the issue.

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) only affects cats. As implied by its name, FIV weakens a cat’s immune system and allows for secondary illnesses in cats that are positive for FIV. The symptoms of FIV can stay dormant for years with the cat owner unaware. Once it manifests, it wreaks havoc on a cat’s ability to fight off disease and infections.

If your cat has FIV, or you want to know about the illness, the team at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services offers information to better help you care for your feline friends.

Soft tissue sarcoma in dogs (STS) is a group of malignant tumors that originate from connective tissue below the skin. They make up approximately 15% of all skin tumors in dogs. Most occur as a single tumor, usually in middle to older dogs and can occur anywhere in the body. Sarcomas appear on or underneath the skin. They are a relatively common form of cancer diagnosed in dogs. 

Unfortunately, sarcomas can also progress to a malignant form of tumor and can become quite aggressive when left undiagnosed or untreated. This is why it is essential to know and watch for the signs of this form of malignancy, and to have your dog checked regularly. If sarcoma develops, the earlier you can catch it, the better chance of a positive outcome for your dog.

The team at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services is here to explain more about soft tissue sarcoma in dogs.

Why do dogs howl? Howling is synonymous with the whole canidae family, from wolves and coyotes, to our domestic dogs. You may assume that your dog is trying to recreate The Call of the Wild by acting out the role of wolf, but that is not the case. Dogs howl as another way to communicate with their furry pals. In the same way that dogs mark their territory, sniff out new smells, and bark, these mechanisms are ways in which canines express themselves.

The question of “why do dogs howl” is one that the team at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services is here to tell you more about. 

You can treat minor pets wounds at home since not every scrape or injury requires pet emergency care. Our pets will occasionally experience a cut, abrasion, or other minor wound. Dogs especially have more of these instances, since they are more rambunctious than their feline counterparts. The team at Oakland Veterinary Referral Services is here to help explain the right way to treat minor pet wounds at home with pet first aid.