Ask The Doc

Question from 12-09-16

My 11yr old Rottweiler has lumps, moveable, lumps on her body. What are they? They don’t cause her pain.

Answer

Lumps of any kind need to be checked out because they could be cancerous and able to spread to other parts of the body.  We can take a fine needle aspirate versus a biopsy and look at it under the microscope to determine if it is a benign fatty growth or a cyst or something cancerous which would need to be removed. Rottweilers are very prone to cancer so even though it doesn’t seem to hurt her it needs to be looked at by a vet. Cancer is one of the most common diseases of older animals and dogs suffer from more kinds of cancer than any other domestic animal. One out of four will develop it in their lifetime. There are more than 100 different types!  But no need to panic because if caught early enough some forms can be cured and most will be helped by some form of treatment including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, cryosurgery, immunotherapy or a combination of treatments.

Question from 11-25-16

Duckie is a one-year-old dog that we adopted from the humane society. We love him so much, but he is scared of everything. The pool man, tv, the wind, the ice maker noise, doors closing, etc. We can’t even take him for walks because he freaks out if he sees another human, dog, squirrel, leaf blowing or car driving by. How do we help him become a happy, normal dog who can see another human without having a barking/panic attack? Also, he sounds like a rooster when he bars and it’s LOUD so we really make a scene when we encounter another human or dog. HELP!

Answer

First and foremost all behavioral issues or a sudden change in your dog’s behavior could be the result of an underlying medical problem. For example, hypothyroidism is a very common cause of strange behavior in dogs and is easily treated with Thyroid supplementation. Once a blood test and physical exam have ruled out any underlying problem you then need to work on Building Duckies confidence. Most people think a dog like this was abused but it could simply be a combination of genetics and lack of socialization. One of the most critical periods of development is called the socialization period, which occurs from 3 to 12 weeks of age in puppies. During this time your puppy is very impressionable with regard to social influences. To start building Duckies confidence you could simply have people come over and throw him a treat so he starts to associate strangers with a positive reward, also carry treats on walks. The other thing to remember is that a lot of veterinary behaviorists will temporarily put pets on medication like Prozac to help ease the training process. We have a dog in our office who has completely turned around with behavior modification and Prozac!