Category Archives: Dogs

Leap Year rolls around every four years. For those born on February 29, they age (numerically) 75% slower than the rest of us because their birthday happens only every four years. The chances of having a “leapling” pet are about one in 1,461. Since the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center sees 50,000+ patient visits each year, I thought there must be some leapling patients in our system and, sure enough, when I queried our medical records, there were a number of them. To celebrate Leap Year 2024, here are their stories in order of their birth!

Skin and coat disorders are common reasons dogs make a trip to the veterinarian’s office. This makes sense since skin is by far your pet’s most visible organ, and skin disease is one of the most common diseases in dogs, according to pet insurance data. Fur color changes may also indicate an underlying issue with your canine companion. I’ll discuss some common reasons for skin color changes in today’s blogpost.

Just before the holidays, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released its annual report to veterinarians on an important infectious disease, leptospirosis. As a New York City veterinarian, this report concerns me, and pet owners should be concerned too. Following several years of declining infection numbers, cases ticked up in 2022, the latest year data was available. In total, there were 20 confirmed “lepto” cases in the five boroughs in 2022, up from 18 in 2021. (To see previous years’ reports, visit the NYC DOH website.) Leptospirosis causes kidney failure and elevated liver tests, which may require hemodialysis and may be fatal. This blogpost describes some important features of canine leptospirosis.

For those of us in the dog world, much of our focus over the last couple of weeks has been on infectious respiratory diseases in dogs. While the current outbreak remains a mystery, today’s blogpost will focus on the well documented link between respiratory and gastrointestinal illness in dogs. The link between these two body systems might surprise the casual reader; however, the two systems share a common origin: the mouth. The mouth divides into the trachea (windpipe) of the respiratory system and the esophagus leading to the stomach.

Lately, there have been a surprising number of stories in the news about respiratory illnesses in dogs. First, there is the mystery respiratory illness that has been dominating the veterinary news cycle. Now there’s a shelter outbreak of respiratory disease in San Diego. And we can’t forget about the common and persistent Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease Complex, also known as kennel cough. I’ll summarize the latest in canine respiratory illnesses in today’s blogpost.