There is always the latest fad on dog’s health and remedies on the Internet. Some of these are marketing heavily and most often contain miraculous cures and ease in fixing skin conditions, allergies, gastric issues, cancer and more. All these fantastical ideas fall to the wayside sooner or later, and interestingly enough, some have been recycled years later! Ah well, people trying to make a buck just continually keep trying!

This month’s newsletter is more of a blog than a single topic newsletter. Somehow, I will magically tie all the above topics together! This will address some old husband’s tales I see often on the internet, along with some helpful tips to help you improve your dog’s diet.

Many people associate vitamin D with sunshine. While people can easily absorb vitamin D3 from the sun, this is not true for our canine friends. Because of the dog’s thick coat and the oil on their skin, their ability to absorb vitamin D from the sun is poor. Dogs need to get their source of vitamin D3 primarily through their diet.

Lew Olson started sharing her canine health information to her readers in the form of Newsletters in 1997 and over the past 23 years, she has shared 215 of them with her readers.  This month we compiled and organized Lew’s Newsletters into in alphabetized categories. We have done this a couple of times over the past two decades because it provides Lew’s readers an easy and convenient way to find their topics of interest quickly and easily.

Yeast is the most over-looked cause of itching in dogs. It can also cause brown discharge in the ears, chewing of the feet, itching by the tail, flanks, belly and feet.  It is often misdiagnosed as environmental allergies, flea bite dermatitis or food allergies. This article will discuss easy ways to get rid of pesky yeast!

That answer is easy enough! Just make sure to add 900 milligrams of calcium to the diet. You can use carbonate, calcium citrate or ½ teaspoon of ground eggshells per pound of food fed to your home-cooked meals. Design the recipes to be at least 75% animal-based protein and 25% low-sugar (low-glycemic) cooked and mashed carbohydrates.

Dog owner’s most common health concerns are about skin and coat problems, digestion problems and urinary issues including crystals, stones and infection. Once again, I am going to address questions about allergies, allergy testing and skin problems. My most immediate reason for this is that I am seeing more references by dog owners using saliva or hair testing to determine allergies in dogs, and these are completely bogus. I plan on offering several references to this in this month’s newsletter and a short discussion on how these tests have been debunked. I do hope you read the references here to gain better information and understanding on this issue.

Regardless of the diet choice you make for your dog — kibble, raw or home cooked — the vast amount of supplements on the market today, including vitamins, minerals, digestion aids, and anti-inflammatories can make choosing the right supplements for your dog very confusing. It seems just when we might be getting comfortable with our choices, new products pop up or we read an article that warns us to avoid the supplements we have already been giving to our dogs! We want to feed our dogs the best we can and we want to make sure what we are giving them enhances their health and gives us the best value for our dollar.

    Let’s start by talking about Kidney Disease. We will discuss what it is and what it isn’t. Recently I have had several people sending me questions about their dogs that were recently diagnosed with having kidney disease. They are scared, searching frantically for what to do next, what…

People love their dogs, but as our companions begin to age, we begin to worry. I get asked a lot of questions on what is the best nutrition for dogs as they enter into their senior years. Most people want to make sure their companions are comfortable and getting everything they need. In this month’s newsletter we take a look at an overview of diet considerations, common senior health problems, and suggested supplements for seniors.