pet health questions.

ZeroOne, Flickr Cats are territorial creatures and you are their most prized possession -- it only makes sense that an older cat would not want to share you. But with planning and supervision, you can help bring the kitten successfully into the pride, reducing incidents of hissing or other bad behaviors. Felicia Smith, a retired veterinarian in central New York, counsels cat owners to keep the new pet in a "safe room." "Depending on how young the kitten is, and where the kitten has come from, give both pets privacy for three or four days, and longer if you feel it will benefit them. If you adopt a pet that has already received a vet exam and clean bill of health, and your older cat has ...

Zer0_pt, Flickr Meet Mary Burch, American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Director and Paw Nation's new expert columnist addressing your questions on animal behavior. Dr. Burch has over 25 years of experience working with dogs and she is one of less than 50 Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists based in the United States. She is the author of nine books, more than 200 articles and has been a lobbyist on legislation concerning hazardous dogs and responsible dog ownership. Dear Dr. Burch, My dog has a disturbing habit -- he eats his own poop! Why does he do this? Dr. Burch Says: If there is a dog behavioral issue that makes us cringe, it's when dogs eat their own waste. We're talking ...

put that down, Flickr Did you know that 34.2 percent of people who give up their pets have had them for over two years? Clearly, these folks didn't give up their furry family member at the first sign of inconvenience--which, lets be honest, happens the first day you bring a pet home. But due to changes in housing, the potentially high costs of pet-owning, behavior problems, and a host of other reasons, many animal adoptions don't quite take. That's why this March, Petfinder.com is introducing their new FurKeeps program. (Though you can go online now and preview some of the features.) Prospective pet parents can go the section "Starting Your Adoption Right" which features an adoption ...

Dr. Marty Becker, center, with Dr. Oz, right. ZoCo Productions LLC Do you let your dog lick you on the mouth? That may not be such a wise thing to do. "Your mouth is such a portal for zoonotic diseases that the days of the 'canine tonsil swab' are over," veterinarian Dr. Marty Becker tells Paw Nation. "We can still love our dogs and hug them, but it's really not a good idea to let dogs kiss you on the mouth. Let 'em lick you on the cheek instead." On Thursday's episode of The Dr. Oz Show, Dr. Becker (of "Good Morning America" fame) talks about diseases you can catch from your dogs and cats. "Because we're living more intimate lives with our pets – hugging and kissing our pets, and ...

"Can I get some chicken soup please?" Photo: rogue3w/Flickr After a kennel closed in Virginia due to a dog flu outbreak, panicked headlines screamed, "Protect Your Dogs from Deadly Canine Flu." Despite a smattering of recent cases, vets have assured us you can hold off from forcing your dog to clean their paws with hand sanitizer, wear a surgical mask, or even get the much talked about canine flu vaccine. The dog flu strain, dubbed H3N8, has floated around the horse population for decades but jumped to dogs in 2004. So far there have been relatively few cases around the country. Dr. Jean Dodds, a veterinary vaccine researcher and founder of pet blood bank and diagnostic lab ...

Thompson, the author's cat, shows off his AeroKat feline asthma inhaler. Photo: Kirsten Taylor Sometimes feline asthma can just sound like a bad hairball. But if your cat is making hacking noises without spewing blobs of hair, it might be something more serious. Feline asthma causes cats to wheeze and cough, making sounds that are often mistaken for the gagging, retching sounds that go along with hairballs. About one in a hundred adult cats suffer from feline asthma, according to the Winn Feline Foundation. Untreated, the disease can be deadly. Feline asthma goes by a variety names, such as chronic bronchitis and allergic bronchitis. "Really, [feline asthma] is a hypersensitivity to ...