How to maintain Dog Hygiene: necessity, techniques, tips
Having a dog as a pet is a joy for the family, but it also imposes responsibilities, such as paying attention to the care of the dog in every aspect.
Dog care, hygiene and health is a fundamental issue for all owners. This is an aspect that can be scary at first but which becomes sustainable the moment we start doing it as a routine operation.
It’s kind of like taking care of our body, basically. If we don’t shower for a week, nothing happens (apart from the smell). While if we start not doing it for longer we risk a series of less pleasant situations that can lead to infections, situations to be avoided.
For this reason, in this article we will try to understand how dog care operations are put into practice , in a simple but complete way. We will do it mainly from the point of view of health, because ahivoi I am not a groomer, I am a veterinarian.
Dog care: the eyes
If the eyes are the mirror of the soul, conjunctivitis are… well, a comparison cannot be made, but they must be avoided. In dog care the eyes are always a part to consider, especially if you notice a profuse tearing that leaves the trail of the tear under the eye and on the nose.
Unlike us, in dogs the whites of the eyes are not seen, and therefore redness is not seen. The problem is that owners often don’t think about it, while drying the dog’s tears, especially thick ones, helps avoid skin infections around the eye. Then, if we see that we take them off and they keep coming back, a vet check-up wouldn’t hurt, because the dog with burning eyes is not well.
Dog care: the teeth
How to clean a dog’s teeth ? Let’s say that here nutrition plays an important part. If a dog eats mainly dry food, which it scratches, it will never be particularly bad at the level of the teeth, while if it eats wet food you have to pay attention to this aspect.
The dog should be accustomed from an early age to having his teeth brushed, with a toothbrush especially for him and without toothpaste. In reality, it’s not even good for us, a toothbrush does much more, but for him it’s toxic. Alternatively, there are their own dog toothpastes. They can also be brushed not every day, but doing so means removing the plaque, which if not removed becomes tartar (irremovable plaque). Tartar then usually becomes gingivitis, and then you have to give the vet a hundred euros to remove everything. Better then to brush your teeth yourself.
Dog care: the paws
The legs are also a point to take into consideration, because being always in contact with the ground they are at risk of small cuts (NB. The leptospirosis , which is deadly, so absolutely do the vaccine !!!) they poke in, or even just plain dirt which sometimes causes annoying infections. Ah, they are also a perfect place for the nice forasacchi.
Taking care of the paws is not difficult. Every night, they wipe themselves with a damp cloth and check if there was something wrong. If there is not, better, if there was a small cut, it disinfects itself, as we would do with our wound, and we try to keep it as clean as possible.
Dog care: the coat
Absolutely the part of the dog’s body to which we must pay more attention is the hair. Unlike us, in fact, the dog is not hairless, and what is under the hair … go find out.
The hair must be brushed at least once a day, to remove dead hair, which would otherwise be a nuisance, and this is a good opportunity to check for ectoparasites. What are? These are ticks (gray or brown balloons attached to the hair that do not come off) and fleas . The latter, on the other hand, are not seen, but their poop is seen, in the form of black dots at the base of the hair.
You can also notice dandruff , an index of skin peeling that could have various causes (including the dangerous Leishmaniasis ). And then you can find red patches (erythema, to understand what caused them) or whitish (usually skin infections).
At least once a month the dog should be washed with a special shampoo. And at least once a month, after washing it (otherwise the soap takes it away) you need to give the external pesticide . It serves to keep away the parasites we talked about before and also those that fly, such as mosquitoes and sand flies.
Also important is the treatment against filariasis , which serves to avoid this 30 cm worm that lives in the heart (yes!). This must necessarily be prescribed by the veterinarian because it is a medicine.
The veterinary check-up
I say it, but anyway the vets don’t seem to listen to them.
Once every six months you have to bring it there. The dog, if he has something, does not tell you, and if you are not a breeder or dog expert you do not realize it. If it has something, even trivial, the vet will point it out to you and if it is solved when it is not very serious it is not a problem, if you wait for it to get worse it becomes a problem. Therefore, a veterinary visit to a healthy dog costs nothing (unlike emergency surgery …) and it is worthwhile to face it, at least a couple of times a year.
