Do not feed cooked bones of any kind. Bone is made up of a soft connective tissue scaffolding with a hard mineral (calcium phosphorous) matrix. When the bone is cooked the soft protein is cooked away, leaving only a hard ceramic-like bone. Raw bone splinters when it breaks, cooked bone shatters with sharp ceramic-like edges. Wild dogs eat raw bones, not cooked bones, so the best bones to feed are large, long bones that are not cooked. Veterinary clinics and pet shops also sell a variety of safe chew toys. Eric Thorsgard, DVM

Pets get most of their intestinal worms from the environment. Puppies and kittens can get roundworms directly from their mother. Otherwise, they get them from the ground outside where other roundworm-infected animals have passed stools. Pets do not get tapeworms from the ground, but from eating something that is infected. Most pet tapeworms come from eating fleas or dead animals, i.e., mice. There are other types of tapeworms that come from eating raw fish.

Most intestinal worms are taken care of with once-a-month Heartgard or Iverheart preventatives. Tapeworms, however, are not-a medication specific for tapeworms is needed.

Your cat should be vaccinated for RCCP (rhinotracheitis, calici, chlamydia, panleukopenia) 3 times as a kitten, once at one year old, then every 3 years. This will protect against the common upper respiratory viruses. There are upper respiratory and lower respiratory bacteria that can cause rhinotracheitis, bronchitis, or pneumonia. Usually these bacteria take advantage of viral infections to get started, so vaccinating for the RCCP will help avoid these infections also. Avoiding sick cats will also help protect infections.

First you should have your dog examined by a veterinarian who can evaluate your dog for orthopedic problems. If your dog has luxating patellas (knee caps) or ACL rupture, there are surgeries that can correct these conditions. If your dog has a tick-born disease, such as Lyme or anaplasmosis, then antibiotics will get rid of the organisms and again eliminate the pain instead of cover it up. I have a lot of people come in who think their dog has arthritis and they think they will just have to deal with the arthritis for the rest of the dog's life. We frequently diagnose an orthopedic condition or a tick-born disease that can be treated. After determining what is causing the pain or lameness, your veterinarian can recommend a pain medication/anti-inflammatory. Eric Thorsgard, DVM

Hot spots are bacterial skin infections. Very often they start with some injury to the skin such as a puncture wound or tick bite. There is oozing that mats down the hair next to the skin-the warmth, moisture and serum next to the skin is a good place for bacteria to grow. The bacteria causes a skin infection, the infection produces more sticky fluid that mats down more hair and the hot spot grows. To treat a hot spot, we clip the hair away from the infected skin, clean up the area, and give an oral antibiotic.

Your dog is not chewing because he is teething, like a puppy would be. This is just a matter of training. He now has a habit that will be harder to break. You need to start by giving him a number of things that are "legal" to chew, and must receive immediate and strict discipline for chewing on anything else. To do this you will need to isolate him at times when he cannot be watched, such as in a kennel or pet carrier. Then when you are around and can watch him, tell him "no" and take the item away immediately. you can also use a "Gentle Leader" to train him, by pulling his nose away as soon as he goes for something "illegal". (A Gentle Leader is a collar with a nose loop, used to train dogs that pull, bite, or chew.)

You should start some basic training and retrieving at eight weeks of age. Train in short sessions using rewards. Keep it fun. I would highly recommend going to a puppy kindergarten class to get the pup trained under very distracting conditions. It would take me longer than this paragraph to explain the basic steps of obedience training, but the commands include sit, come, heel, down, and stay. Ask the dog to sit, for example, then help the dog into the sit, and quickly say, "Good dog!" when he does it. Socializing with many different kinds of people (children, men, older people, etc.) at this age is very important, as well as playing with nice dogs. Puppies should meet at least 100 different strangers before they are 4 months of age. You could contact the Headwaters Gun Dog Club for more hunting training information, as well. Good luck! Linda Saetre

1st, if your pets are indoor pets, humidify your house if possible. If you can't humidify your whole house get a humidifier for the room where your pet sleeps. 2nd, frequent brushing removes old, dead hair and skin and moves the natural oils of the skin on to the hair. 3rd, a good quality diet with added omega 3 and 6 fatty acids will help. Eric Thorsgard, DVM

Yes! Abscessed teeth are painful. They stress the immune system, fighting a losing battle day after day. They create a lot of bacteria that is picked up by the blood and circulated to the rest of the body, and can cause other diseases like renal failure. Most heart murmurs in older small dogs are caused by bacteria from the teeth growing on the heart valves. Abscessed teeth should be extracted! The other teeth should be cleaned and polished so that the tartar and gingivitis do not cause more abscessed teeth. It is a good idea to get dental x-rays of suspect teeth; sometimes teeth that have a lot of tartar and gingivitis and root exposure can be saved with cleaning an polishing if the roots are OK. On the other hand, some teeth that don't look so bad on the surface can have abscessed roots and should be extracted before the infection in the bone around the root spreads to other teeth.

Recurrence of ear infections can be minimized with 2-3 times weekly ear cleanings with a good canine ear cleaner. This is a preventative measure, not a treatment. Veterinary care would be required if there is evidence of an ear infection. This would include debris, odor, painful ears, redness or scratching at the ears. Underlying causes such as hypothyroidism or allergies can result in recurrent ear infections. One of the most common causes of ear infections reoccuring is if the ears didn't completely clear up from the previous infection. Treating your dog's ears as directed followed by an exam by your veterinarian to make sure the treatment completely cured the ear infection is essential.

Yes. The insect that causes swimmer's itch can burrow into the skin of dogs or people. Usually the areas of less hair are more affected, i.e., the belly and arm pits. To avoid swimmer's itch, towel dry your dogs as soon as they come out of the water. The insect that causes swimmer's itch does not enter the skin until the water droplets dry up. Eric Thorsgard, DVM

Yes it will; however, prostate problems are not as common with unneutered male cats as with unneutered male dogs. With dogs there is a much higher incidence of prostate problems. Neutering your male cat will also keep him from spraying in your house, and keep him from roaming, reduce cat fights, and reduce his chance of being hit by a car while seeking females.

Dogs are not pure carnivores, they do like to eat some vegetable matter. Green grass in the spring is lush, rich, moist and tastes good-especially when it's topped with dew. If the dog is eating an excessive amount of grass, it may be an indication of mineral deficiency. If the dog is on a high quality diet, then that's not normally the case. There isn't a guaranteed way to discontinue this behavior. If annoyed when the dog vomits grass in the house, one suggestion is to leave the dog outside for longer periods of time and hopefully he'll vomit outside.

There is a medical condition known as Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CDS) that does effect some older dogs. CDS is caused by physical and chemical changes in the brain. Some symptoms are disorientation/confusion, less interested in interacting with family members, messing in the house, changing of sleep patterns, barking at night, etc. If concerned that your dog may have CDS, schedule an exam with your vet. If a diagnosis of CDS has been determined by the completion of a behavior history form, your vet may prescribe a drug called Anipryl to control the clinical signs associated with CDS.

The stiffness could be caused by several different things. An exam by your veterinarian with possibly blood testing and x-rays will help determine the cause. Arthritis, Lyme disease and hip dysplasia are some of the more common causes. Once the cause is found, the best course of treatment can be started. The treatment for Lyme disease is different than the treatment for hip dysplasia. Accurate diagnosis is key in keeping your pet healthy. Paul N. Koskinen, DVM

Both dogs and cats do respond to changes in their environment, especially loss of a person or other pet. Lethargy and inappetance are the most common signs. This reaction to a loss or big change is normal and natural, and is best treated with TLC and time. We do not know if dogs and cats suffer from irrational depression that is unrelated to their environment. I have never used medication for depression in pets. Separation anxiety is a different subject from depression and can be dealt with using both behavior modification and medication. Eric Thorsgard, DVM

Yes, dogs are susceptible to Lyme disease, even more so than humans due to their mass exposure to ticks. In fact, we have diagnosed over 150 dogs at our clinic within the past year with Lyme disease. It seems to have become very prevalent in our area in recent years. We have an in-house blood test that detects exposure to Lyme disease, often times dogs can harbor the disease and not show any signs of it. If caught early enough and treated, they can often be spared discomfort associated with the disease. Our general recommendation for the prevention of the disease is to vaccinate against it and to use the topical spot product Frontline that kills ticks before they get a chance to transmit the disease. Early spring and in the fall of the year is when we see an increase in the deer ticks that are the main vector in spreading the disease so make sure to protect your pet well.

Deer ticks have a 2-year life cycle. If the temperature is below 37 degrees F. the deer tick goes dormant, but if it warms up they are on the move. Be sure to use a good tick preventative from March to December. I also recommend applying the tick prevention every 3 weeks instead of every 4 weeks. Doxycycline is the drug of choice for the treatment of anaplasmosis. Since there is more than one tick disease out there you should have your dog tested if you think there might be a tick borne disease. Eric Thorsgard, DVM

Many active dogs don't need their nails trimmed because they keep them worn down by use. If your dog's nails are long, you can have your veterinarian or a veterinary technician show you how to trim the nails. There are probably videos online that show how to properly trim the nails. Eric Thorsgard, DVM