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Dog Health Conditions and Terms You
Should Know... Part 3
Author: Daniel Lesser
Epilepsy/seizure disorder
When your Boxer is between 2 to 5 years old, he may develop seizure
disorder.
When he has an epilepsy attack, he'd be unconscious and may look
like he is not breathing but he is. He is not suffering.
The information that would be important to your veterinarian regarding
such episodes includes:
- Duration of the attack
- The type of muscular activity your Boxer exhibits during seizure
- Any abnormal behavior during the attack
- Frequency of the seizure
What you do in such instances is not panic and time the attack
by actually looking at a watch or clock.
It may only take place for 30 seconds but may seem forever to you.
You need a veterinarian if it lasts more than 5 minutes.
Emergency treatment is definitely called for if your Boxer goes
into seizure for 10 minutes or longer, twice in the span of 24 hours,
or if he has a second attack before he could completely recover
from the first seizure attack.
Remain by your Boxer's side; be there when he comes out of the
seizure to calm him. Stroke and comfort him.
To keep your Boxer from hurting himself during the seizure, move
away furniture from the immediate area and protect him from water,
the stairs and any sharp objects. If you can, place a pillow under
his head to protect him from head trauma.
Unlike seizure attacks in human, animals do not swallow their tongue.
So you don't have to put your hand or spoon or any other object
into your Boxer's mouth when he has an attack. You might get bitten.
Also, keep children and other pets away from your sick Boxer.
Coming out of the seizure, your Boxer will be groggy, confused
and feel like he has done something wrong. He may make unusual sounds
and stumble around.
Do not allow him on the stairs until he has fully recovered. In
the mean time, sooth him by talking to him softly, offer him some
water, stroke and comfort him.
And if he doesn't recover fully after 30 minutes, consult your
veterinarian or any emergency vet facility.
Flea-infected Boxers
Flea-infected Boxers can develop skin diseases especially those
allergic to fleas.
Black specs in the fur and bite marks on the skin tell if your
Boxer has them. To check further, spread some newspapers and place
your Boxer on top. Brush him and look for the black specs falling
off.
Fleas live up to 6 weeks, feeding on blood and during that time
would have laid hundreds of eggs that mostly land on your Boxer's
bedding, carpets and other favorable nests around your home.
The eggs hatch into larvae that seek nice, dark places while feeding
on flea's droppings, dust, human shed skin, dandruff and other such
tasty morsels.
The larvae turn into hardy pupae that could survive for months
before changing into adult fleas.
Fleas are host to tapeworms. Both problems are likely to occur
together in your Boxer and, therefore, the treatments are also usually
given together by the vet.
A bit of garlic a day may keep the fleas away from your Boxer.
Heart ailments
- Bradycardia or slow heart rate may be a symptom of thyroid disorder
in Boxers.
- Dialated cardiomyopathy constitutes a serious, emergency case.
Your dog may collapse from it or the back legs have sudden pain
and paralysis.
It is a serious heart condition whereby the heart muscle is enlarged
and thin walled. Your Boxer will experience shortness of breath,
coughing and can't take to exercise.
Another serious heart condition is called cardiac conduction disease
that is affecting Boxer's longevity. It was previously known as
Boxer cardiomyopathy but the new term is used to differentiate it
from dilative cardiomyopathy.
Cardiac conduction is difficult to deal with due to 3 factors.
- One is many Boxers will not show any symptom (asymptotic) but
will just drop dead suddenly from it.
- The Boxers develop this disease later in life, often after they
have been bred.
- There was no good screening method for it until the one recently
developed by Ohio State University researchers, called the 24-hour
Holter monitor test.
However, there is still no assurance that Boxers "cleared"
now from cardiac conduction disease by the Holter test will remain
so in the future.
Many breeders and Boxer experts are now working to refine the test
procedures, expand the database and come up with a guideline to
select only, for breeding purposes, those Boxers with high probability
of being free of the disease.
There are also concerns elimination of too many dogs from the gene
pool would be bad for the breed diversity and could cause more problems
in the future. Some opinions hold that extensive culling should
only get done after more studies on genetic diversity in Boxers.
Hip dysplasia
This is a bone disorder whereby there is an improper fit of the
large femur bone with the hip socket, causing lots of pain and lameness.
It occurs more in male dogs.
About the author: Daniel Lesser Dog and Puppy Articles, Pictures
and Resources http://www.thingsfordogs.com
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