Healthy Paws

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Does your pet have chronic or intermittent diarrhea, but otherwise feels great? Does he or she itch and scratch constantly, have hair loss, repeated skin infections, ear infections or rashes? If you answered yes, read on, as your pet could possibly have a food allergy.

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Have you ever heard your doctor or pet’s veterinarian rattle off a list of strange words that seem to make no sense? Most of these are derived from Latin roots and serve to concisely describe what otherwise may be a wordy description.

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

So you want to run with your dog?

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

One of the most common questions we discuss with new dog and cat owners is when to spay or neuter their pet.

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Have you ever gotten the dreaded email reminder from your pet’s veterinary office that your pet is due for his or her yearly checkup and vaccines, and shuddered at the thought of having to take them into the office, even though you know it’s necessary. Stress not — you are not alone, and there is recent good news on this front.

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Body condition scoring . . . It’s more than just weight.

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

In the spirit of the 2016 Olympic games in Rio, we were wondering what the sports would be if dogs had their own Olympics?

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Flea season in our area tends to be late summer and into the fall months, so this is a good time to brush up on your flea knowledge (sounds exciting, right?) to be sure you’re fully prepared for the onslaught of these prodigiously breeding insects.

Editor’s Note: Healthy Paws is a column sponsored and written by the owners of Clarendon Animal Care, a full-service, general practice veterinary clinic. The clinic is located 3000 10th Street N., Suite B. and can be reached at 703-997-9776.

Stress and anxiety are not a uniquely human problem. We see our pets display behaviors that indicate they are stressed or anxious in a given situation and how they express these anxieties can vary from hair pulling (barbering), pacing, digging, chewing/destructive behaviors, barking/vocalizing and inappropriate elimination, to name a few. What is important to understand is that at their root, these behaviors are based in NORMAL behaviors, but are inappropriately or exaggerated in how they are displayed – and over time can get worse. Author and researcher Laurel Braitman, PhD gave an interesting TED talk and wrote a book on the topic – and is worth watching/reading if you are further interested (especially if you’re interested in how study of animal mental disorders relates to evaluation and treatment of human mental disorders).