Colitis in Dogs
What is Colitis?
Colitis in dogs is an inflammation of the colon or the large intestine in your pet. It is often confused with IBD, or irritable bowel disease, which is a collection of several specific disorders that are quite similar in nature. If all of the forms of colitis do come together, your dog now has a full blown case of IBD. However, separately, it is considered to be colitis.
What makes this condition so very difficult to actually identify and treat, is that it can be chronic, acute, or turn into a situation that can become very serious. Most dogs will have minor bouts of colitis and never show any serious symptoms or health problems unless it becomes acute or even worse, episodic. Episodic is much different that acute, in that it is sporadic but will occur in episodes. This can be dangerous as the episodes may begin to intensify in severity or may be triggered much easier as your dog ages.
Symptoms:
Colitis in dogs in most every case will be a situation where your dog has some combination of fresh bright blood or mucus in their stool. If it is an acute form, interestingly enough they may show virtually no signs at all of any illness other than occasional vomiting. But if it chronic, they will start to show different symptoms. More »
General history of dogs
There is no incongruity in the idea that in the very earliest period of man’s habitation of this world he made a friend and companion of some sort of aboriginal representative of our modern dog, and that in return for its aid in protecting him from wilder animals, and in guarding his sheep and goats, he gave it a share of his food, a corner in his dwelling, and grew to trust it and care for it. Probably the animal was originally little else than an unusually gentle jackal, or an ailing wolf driven by its companions from the wild marauding pack to seek shelter in alien surroundings. One can well conceive the possibility of the partnership beginning in the circumstance of some helpless whelps being brought home by the early hunters to be tended and reared by the women and children. Dogs introduced into the home as playthings for the children would grow to regard themselves, and be regarded, as members of the family
In nearly all parts of the world traces of an indigenous dog family are found, the only exceptions being the West Indian Islands, Madagascar, the eastern islands of the Malayan Archipelago, New Zealand, and the Polynesian Islands, where there is no sign that any dog, wolf, or fox has existed as a true aboriginal animal. In the ancient Oriental lands, and generally among the early Mongolians, the dog remained savage and neglected for centuries, prowling in packs, gaunt and wolf-like, as it prowls today through the streets and under the walls of every Eastern city. No attempt was made to allure it into human companionship or to improve it into docility. It is not until we come to examine the records of the higher civilisations of Assyria and Egypt that we discover any distinct varieties of canine form. More »
The Decorative Deerhound
The Deerhound is one of the most decorative of dogs, impressively stately and picturesque wherever he is seen, whether it be amid the surroundings of the baronial hall, reclining at luxurious length before the open hearth in the fitful light of the log fire that flickers on polished armour and tarnished tapestry; out in the open, straining at the leash as he scents the dewy air, or gracefully bounding over the purple of his native hills. Grace and majesty are in his every movement and attitude, and even to the most prosaic mind there is about him the inseparable glamour of feudal romance and poetry.
From remote days the Scottish nobles cherished their strains of Deerhound, seeking glorious sport in the Highland forests. The red deer belonged by inexorable law to the kings of Scotland, and great drives, which often lasted for several days, were made to round up the herds into given neighbourhoods for the pleasure of the court, as in the reign of Queen Mary. But the organised coursing of deer by courtiers ceased during the Stuart troubles, and was left in the hands of retainers, who thus replenished their chief’s larder. More »
Tags: body, deerhound, Height, highland forests, kings of scotland, muzzle, Neck, open hearth, scottish nobles