Dog Depression: Causes and Cures

From the Editors of The Dog Daily

George and Fritz — two canine littermates — spent their entire lives together. In the mornings they squabbled over the tastiest bowl bites. Sufficiently fueled, they then seemed to collaborate on clever schemes, like stealing tennis shoe laces or sneaking into forbidden places. They went on walks together, played and napped side by side.

This went on for 14 years until Fritz died. Suddenly, George no longer acted like the same dog. He slept more, withdrew from social activities and lost interest in his food.

At that point, a visit to the vet was in order. “In such cases, I always begin by looking for a physical cause,” said Dr. Raymond Van Lienden, DVM, a veterinarian at The Animal Clinic of Clifton, Va. “I conduct a full examination, do the blood work, run x-rays and analyze the dog’s complete health history to see what may be wrong.” He added that for dogs like George, no physical malady might show up in the barrage of medical tests. “It’s then that we have to look at other possible causes, including grief and depression.”

Is Dog Depression Real?
Dr. Van Lienden says that no study has yet unequivocally proven that depression exists in dogs, but he is convinced animals have emotions. “When you come home, your dog may appear happy and excited to see you, and when you scold it, it may slink away with apparent guilt,” he said, adding that dog’s appear to suffer from physical as well as emotional pain. A recent University of Portsmouth study further found that pet owners observed emotions like pride, embarrassment, shame and even jealousy in cats, pigs, horses, rabbits, rats and hamsters, as well as dogs. Since mammals appear to experience comparable emotions, depression could be added to the list.

The challenge in diagnosing depression is that symptoms mimic those for many other health problems. These symptoms may include lethargy, weight loss, lack of interest in food, drink and social activities, and a tendency to sleep more. Medical examinations are critical to rule out health problems that may include anything from a chemical imbalance to a thyroid-related condition.

Causes for Depression
According to Dr. Van Lienden, change is usually at the root of canine depression. As for George, the change could be a sudden death, or other disappearance, of a valued dog or human companion. It might be an unwanted change of scenery, such as when the owner moves from one location to another. Or it could be an unwanted addition, like a new baby, pet, or housemate that has altered the dog’s routine in some way.

Dr. Van Lienden offered these suggestions for preventing and treating depression in your dog:

• If some kind of major change is forthcoming, try to gradually transition your dog by maintaining its usual schedule and keeping familiar toys and objects at hand/paw. Then slowly introduce your dog to the new person or place, allowing it to sniff and investigate as much as possible.
• If another dog in your family dies, consider replacing it with a new dog, as studies suggest canines enjoy having same species companionship.
• Once your vet rules out medical conditions as a cause for your dog’s problems, say something like, “Humor me, doctor. Could my dog be depressed?” Some vets are more open to the possibility than others, so you may have to step in as your dog’s mental health advocate.
• In severe cases, consider medications that your veterinarian could prescribe, such as Prozac, which can “buy some time” to get your dog through the worst period.

The good news is that, unlike humans, dogs live more for the moment. Although grief and depression can linger for weeks or even months in canines, the feelings and related symptoms are usually temporary. “Most dogs will overcome the problems on their own,” said Dr. Van Lienden. “It may just take a bit of time for them to cope and adjust.”

By Marcella Durand for The Dog Daily

Getting old is no excuse to become a couch potato—and that goes for dogs, too! As your dog ages, regular exercise keeps its muscles toned, his joints protected, his body trim and his mind sharp. He may no longer be able to slaughter the Frisbee like he used, but an exercise routine tailored to his individual likes and needs will make his remaining years truly golden.

“The most important thing with older dogs is making a routine,” says Nann Dawn, shelter manager at the Oakland Adoption Center in Oakland, California and one of the founders of the shelter’s innovative Silver Muzzle Club, an adoption program for pets eight-years and older. “Make time for exercise every day. They can’t afford at their age to be weekend warriors.”

Whether your dog’s idea of fun is swimming, walking, or playing with other dogs, build up slowly. If it’s walking, start with a few blocks and gradually progress to a couple of miles a day.

Beware of overstraining your pooch. An older dog will want to please you and might end up playing beyond its limits. Monitor the situation closely and make sure your dog doesn’t become dehydrated, overheated or too tired.  “The key is not to push a dog,” says Chuck Keicer, DVM, at the Heartland Veterinary Hospital in Kentucky. “You don’t want to push an animal beyond a comfort zone.”

Steer clear of high-impact activities like jumping which can stress aging joints. Keicer recommends swimming as “absolutely the best” for older dogs because it is low-impact. Walking is a close second for the same reason.  Surprisingly, however, Keicer also likes agility training, which he says can be easily adjusted to suit a senior dog’s ability. “There are lots of ways an agility course can be modified for an older dog,” says Keicer. Lowering jumps is a good example. “It can still be a blast for them to participate.”

Obedience training is another option to get senior dogs moving. “Every adult dog who joins the Silver Muzzle Club goes through obedience work,” says Dawn. “We have yet to find one that doesn’t like a little round of treat training,” she says. And a lot of the senior dogs have gone on to do pet therapy. “Most dogs don’t make it to old age without being really good dogs.  Sometimes they’re really ready to work.”

Dawn also recommends at-home toys, such as Buster Cubes and Kongs filled with kibble, because they keep a senior dog entertained and exercise the jaw muscles. As for social activities, she prefers large dog parks where an older dog might avoid getting bullied or crowded by younger aggressive dogs.  “Older dogs can’t take those adolescent body slams,” she says. “Most of them can’t keep up with the youngsters.”

By knowing your older dog’s likes and limitations, the two of you can develop an exercise regimen that will keep both of you having fun for years to come.

By Kim Ribbink for The Dog Daily

Stem cell research often conjures images of political firestorms and futuristic science, yet it’s a field that’s already offering hope for humans and dogs alike. While the ideal of fixing spinal injuries and curing disease may be a long way off, dogs treated with stem cells are enjoying a new lease on life.

Pepper, a 10-year-old standard poodle, is a case in point. Crippled with arthritis in both his hips, Pepper came to James Gaynor, DVM, M.S., medical director of Animal Anesthesia & Pain Management Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., with his owners, who fully expected to have to put their pet to sleep. Conventional treatments hadn’t worked, or had made their dog even sicker. In fact, Pepper’s owners were so certain nothing could be done that they bought another puppy. “At our 60 day recheck, the owner was hugging me and crying out of happiness because, in her words, we gave her back her dog,” Dr. Gaynor says. “The only problem was she now had Pepper and a puppy.”

Healthy Bones
It wasn’t long ago that dogs like Pepper with arthritis had few options beyond conventional anti-inflammatory treatments — including a variety of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Metacam, Previcox, Rimadyl and phenylbutazone; steroid medications such as Prednisone; and disease-modifying osteoarthritis drugs (DMOADs) such as Adequan Canine — that sometimes don’t work. Now stem cells are providing an alternative. One California-based company, Vet-Stem, uses stem cells from dogs’ own fat to treat animals in pain.

According to Julie Ryan Johnson, DVM, vice president of sales and marketing, studies have shown that fat is very rich with stem cells, making it an ideal source, and one that is nearly free from controversy, given that most of us don’t mind having a bit of fat removed. “The way we do this is a veterinarian will send us a sample of the dog’s fat,” Dr. Ryan Johnson says. “We isolate the stem cells from that and then send the stem cells back to the veterinarian who injects them back into the dog — for example, into an arthritic hip or elbow.”

Once in the dog, the stem cells communicate with other cells in their environment. While it’s not known exactly how they work, they do decrease the dog’s pain level. “It’s provided the veterinarian with another solution for helping these animals that have pain or difficulty moving,” Dr. Ryan Johnson says. “Most importantly, for the dog and the dog owner, it offers quality of life.”

The Possibilities
Richard Vulliet, Ph.D., DVM, professor and director of the Laboratory of Veterinary Cytotherapeutics at UC Davis, says stem cells haven’t cured any diseases yet, but researchers are working hard to change that. “I think that stem cells in general will rewrite the medical textbooks in the next 10 to 20 years,” Dr. Vulliet says. “They will have an impact on human, canine, feline and equine health and will allow us to treat diseases that we can only dream about at this time.”

Tony Kremer, DVM, an Illinois-based veterinary surgeon, says that as research progresses into the origin of diseases, there is hope that stem cell therapy might one day be used to treat diabetes and muscular dystrophy in dogs. “It is hoped that this research can repair or replace diseased organs, severed spinal cords, or brain cells destroyed by Alzheimer’s disease in humans and dogs,” he says.

Dr. Vulliet works with adult bone marrow stem cells to investigate potential cures for diseases that cause misery for many dogs. Your dog may soon be able to get breakthrough treatment in the following areas:

• degenerative myelopathy, a debilitating autoimmune disease that attacks the central nervous system, particularly of German Shepherds;
• enlarged and weakened hearts in Dobermans;
• lung and metabolic disorders.

“In the past several years, we have developed methods for recovering a therapeutic amount of bone marrow stem cells and safe, relatively non-intrusive methods for administering the cells,” he says. “We are now starting to enroll patients in these areas.” In terms of fat-derived stem cells, progress has been made in several areas of canine health, including muscle inflammation and a disease known as immune-mediated anemia, which is when the immune system destroys red blood cells, leaving your dog weak and listless.

There has been a lot of excitement over umbilical cord blood banks — centers that collect and store the blood from the placenta and umbilical cord after birth as a future source for blood stem cells — but don’t expect that to translate to the dog world anytime soon. “When the puppies are born, you would have to match that umbilical cord to the puppy and that might be a little complicated since there are often multiple puppies in a litter,” Dr. Ryan Johnson says.

Taking the Plunge
If you are going to consider stem cell therapy for your dog, it pays to think ahead. ”The fat in the abdomen holds stem cells so my recommendation is if, for example, a female dog is going to be spayed, as long as someone is in there, grab that fat, ship it to the lab and bank those stem cells,” Dr. Gaynor says.

You’ll also want to think about the risks involved in putting your dog through stem cell therapy. Dr. Vulliet says putting safety first is the primary concern. After it was found that injecting stem cells into the coronary arteries of university-owned dogs created mini heart attacks, the procedures were stopped until the technique had been improved.

According to Dr. Gaynor, there are three things to consider. The first is the same as any operation — the general risks associated with anesthesia needed to perform the procedure. “But there always is some anesthesia risk, especially as patients get older and sicker, but we can minimize that with good anesthesia,” he says. The second is the risk posed by the surgery itself. The biggest health threat he has seen is fluid pockets forming at the site of the surgery, which is a relatively minor problem.

Finally, there are the stem cells themselves. “Because they are the dog’s own stem cells, there’s virtually no risk,” he says. “The biggest thing we’ve seen is a few dogs whose nails grow faster than expected; that’s as bad as it seems to get.” With the benefits likely outweighing the risks, there’s a good chance that many dog owners, perhaps even you, will be exploring canine stem cell treatments in the not-too-distant future.

Kim Ribbink is a freelance writer and editor based in Perth, Australia, who specializes in health care and the life sciences, as well as pets. She has been a journalist for 20 years, working for magazines, newspapers and online publications covering a broad range of topics.

By Brad Kloza for The Dog Daily

As a senior emergency clinician at New York City Veterinary Specialists, Trisha Joyce, DVM, has seen her share of doggie trauma. But she says some of the saddest cases are the least dramatic: dogs suffering from severe arthritis.

“One family brought in their Labrador that was so arthritic he couldn’t even get up to go to the bathroom,” Dr. Joyce says. “His overall health was OK, but he was just too big and too arthritic. The owners came in to euthanize, which was a really hard decision because it’s not like he had a life-threatening disease. But there was no practical way to manage it at home.”

Dog Arthritis Is Common

Scientific studies indicate that 20 percent of middle-aged dogs and 90 percent of older dogs have osteoarthritis in at least one joint. it’s hard to stop the disease once it has set in, according to James Cook, DVM, at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

“There are two problems we see in osteoarthritis,” explains Dr. Cook. “One is we don’t have a cure, and the other is that we still see progression of arthritis even after the best treatments. Both of those problems come from the fact that we diagnose it too late.”

A Research Breakthrough

Dr. Cook and his research team, however, may have found the key to early diagnosis. It’s what he calls “the Holy Grail” in the fluid that surrounds and lubricates the joints of both dogs and people. Dr. Cook sampled this fluid from dogs known to have osteoarthritis and from others without the disease. As he wrote in the American Journal of Veterinary Research, when he analyzed the proteins in the fluid, a pattern became evident.

The scientists noticed that quality and quantity of this fluid were altered in arthritic dogs. Examining the fluid even more closely, they identified seven proteins that appear to be linked to arthritis. The proteins increase and decrease in patterns that “are consistently different than [patterns] found in normal patients with no arthritis at all,” notes Dr. Cook.

The Next Steps

Dr. Cook and his team plan to follow healthy dogs over time to see if the pattern can correctly predict which dogs end up getting arthritis. If everything happens as theorized and according to schedule, he hopes that a screening test will be available for young dogs in three to four years.

Until then, here is some practical advice for dog owners worried about, or already dealing with, canine arthritis:

• Warning signs Watch for decreased activity and signs of pain. These may be overt (e.g., limping, lameness, whimpering) or subtle, like a typically pleasant dog becoming snippy. Some arthritic dogs may consistently stop doing only specific activities, such as jumping on the bed or into a car.

• Diagnosis If you think your dog has arthritis, schedule a visit with your veterinarian for a comprehensive diagnosis of the problem. Knowing which joints are affected, and how severely, can greatly help determine which treatment options to consider.

• Treatment Dr. Joyce says that while arthritis is forever and can’t be undone, certain medications can alleviate pain and symptoms. Other considerations include alternative treatments like acupuncture and hydrotherapy. Surgical procedures are an option for extreme cases. Most dogs will achieve a higher quality of life with any of these treatments.

• Activity The best way to treat and prevent arthritis is to help your dog stay in good shape. Maintain its weight in the low end of the normal range and keep your pet active just enough to sustain muscle tone and strength. Start with moderate levels of activity — a brisk walk, limited periods of playing in the park — and work your way up. Through trial and error with careful monitoring, you can find your dog’s “sweet spot” of exercise for optimal joint health.

• Diet A healthy diet is a big part of staying in shape. Dr. Cook recommends going with name brands that commit to putting science into dog food, offer well-balanced nutrition and are tailored to specific breed sizes. He says that while supplements cannot prevent the disease, they can help alleviate pain. “Pet foods with glucosamine and chondroitin or fish oil can help manage the disease because they reduce inflammation and degradation,” he adds.

A Cure on the Horizon

Is the ultimate solution — a cure for arthritis — within reach? Dr. Cook says he hopes his research is starting to point in the direction of a cure. If his pattern of biomarkers can truly predict arthritis, scientists will be closer to determining the root causes of the disease.

“Now we know earlier steps in the process,” he says. “If we can address those steps, we could potentially have a cure. We are getting to the foundation steps, or the critical cogs in the wheel, of what becomes arthritis.”

Brad Kloza is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Discover.

Who says pet strollers are just for walking?           

Most people think of a pet stroller for its obvious use, giving your dog a ride (in particular senior dogs who need help walking), but thanks to some creative customers we have learned that there is so much more that you can do.

Here are the top 5 ‘creative’ uses for your pet stroller:

1. Highchair – If your older dog is challenged with mobility issues you are very familiar with the dangers that lay all around them. Stairs, floors, obstacles, etc. can pose safety issues. At the same time, if your dog is like mine, they always like to be able to see you or be close to you, which is why using your pet stroller in a highchair-like fashion is so clever. Not only does it allow them better visibility of you and what you are doing which they love, but most importantly it keeps them safe. I have heard from customers who use this method to keep their dogs nearby and out of harm’s way when working in basements and garages and some even use their pet stroller in family rooms as an extra chair for hanging out or watching TV.
2. Walking support – I am hearing more and more from our older customers of the human variety who find certain pet strollers like the Dogger sturdy enough to act as a walking support for them, helping them get out and about with their dog. What I love about this is both dog and human are finding ways to overcome their mobility issues and stay active.
3. Overheating – As dogs age, just as humans, their ability to cope with the heat diminishes. Even if your dog is not a senior, but struggles with the warmer temperatures, you know all about the risks and challenges of overheating. A pet stroller can give your heated dog a must needed break to cool off. In most cases, the soothing nature of the stroller helps them to relax long enough for them to bring down their body temperature. As many of you know, I use my Dogger dog stroller on a daily basis for my 15 year pug Mackenzie, but I find it to be a huge help in giving Paige, my 5 year old French Bulldog, a much needed break when walking. Paige overheats extremely easily even with an endless supply of water, so when she does, I place her in the stroller with Mackenzie for about 15 minutes, giving her enough time to cool off and then she is back to walking on her own. If I didn’t have the Dogger, I would only be able to walk very short distances before having to return home with her.
4. Paw protection – Have you ever tried to walk your dog when salt has been scattered across roads and sidewalks? How about the hot pavement during the summer months? Well a great way to help protect your dog’s paws from these conditions is to place them in a pet stroller, at least until you have cleared these troublesome areas. While footwear can also help with this, some dogs refuse to accept anything on their paws, making a pet stroller a viable alternative.
5. Shopping – Depending on the size of your pet stroller and the storage it allows, you may find taking it along while you pick up a few things very helpful. Perhaps you prefer to combine a walk with running errands? Rather than carrying a bunch of bags home you can use the stroller as a cart to help lighten your load.

Do you have any unique ways that you utilize your pet stroller? We’d love to hear from you.

Ann-Marie Fleming is the Founder of DogQuality.com, a site focused on products that help older dogs enjoy life.