People often ask what is the difference in a food formulated for an active dog versus a dog that may be more stay at home orientated. With activity, dogs tend to have a gastrointestinal tract that could expedite movement of the food through its lumen, or the inside of the GI tract. These dogs need a food that is highly digestible (so uptake happens quickly versus a long period required for digestion to occur or not at all if the ingredients of poor quality or poorly manufactured), and also need a food that may allow for slower transmission along the GI...

How much to feed my puppy is a frequent question that is asked. The answer is in your hands. So, first off, pups do best being fed 2-3 times a day. Remember also that when a pup eats they often have to go outside for a nature break within 5 minutes, so that will help you with predicting and house training much more quickly. Next, the guidelines on bags of food are just that - rough guidelines. I like to recommend feeding enough food so we can feel the ribs and still have some cushion present, thus they are not...

Pictured below is a patient of ours named “Butter.” “Butter” has 26 toes - the most I have ever seen and one off from the world record!  An interesting note here is that I have worked in two Great Lakes   coastal communities (Huron and Superior) and have seen a large over-representation of these cats that I never saw in other  veterinary hospitals where I've worked. Seafaring days gone by must have brought some cats ashore that viewed "any port in a storm” more than in the literal sense.....  A polydactyl cat is a cat with a congenital physical anomaly; a genetic mutation that...

Team Momentum Yachi Hirai & VEGA of Japan took first place in the United States Disc Dog (USDDN) World Finals Championship held the weekend of October 12-13 in Georgia. Congratulations to Yachi and Vega!

Urinary incontinence in female dogs. Do you have a female dog that leaves a few drops to a puddle of urine behind her after she rests for a period of time? This could be an issue with being able to “hold their urine” and is treatable in most cases so don’t be ashamed. After being spayed some female dogs will have an issue later in life where they start to leave wet spots where they laid down. Checking further into this it is evident it is urine. What to do next? Don’t fret, there is an answer. First thing is...

This truly is an amazing dog food. I have fed quality foods in the past and I really feel this is the best of them all. I really spend a lot of time on dog food nutrition and I like knowing what each and every ingredient is. Dr. Tim's has given my girls an awesome shine on their coats, lots of all day energy, plus firm stools. Both dogs go twice a day. It must taste good to them because one of my girls is kind of a picky eater and she will eat this with no hesitation. I did find...

Hair loss on a dog. What is normal? First, most dog blow, or lose, their coat twice a year. They will constantly be shedding some hair but 2 major hair changes occur naturally. What triggers this can vary-time of the year, light, etc. This type of hair loss is uniform, all over the body and will not typically cause bare spots to develop. You have to vacuum a lot more. On the other hand their are conditions that can cause a dog to start to lose hair that are symptoms of other problems that are developing or are in full...

Sporting dogs and Dr. Tim’s Pet Foods. That is where our roots come from in that we began by designing diets meant for those dogs that run across Alaska. From what we learned in feeding those dogs to allow them to win events such as the Iditarod and the Open North America Sprint Dog Championships we then applied that knowledge to the other diets so all can benefit. Even those couch potatoes… We would love to have more pictures of dogs doing their thing, be it sporting or not, so please send them in to drtim@drtims.com.

The large breed dog versus the rest; let’s take a look at some of the facts we know. Different investigations over they years have demonstrated a definite need for specific nutrients to be in ranges for the proper development of a puppy; for instance, let us look at calcium. Studies were done feeding Great Danes diets with calcium levels of 0.55% dry matter, 1.1% dry matter and 3.3% dry matter (DM). The puppies on the 0.55% showed pathological fractures, indicating too low of a calcium amount in their diet. This was reversible once they transitioned to a higher calcium based...

Stepping in a puddle of urine in the house...purposeful, or just can’t hold it? Here are a few reasons why this might be happening that are important to know. A dog or a cat with a urinary tract infection often will have urgency and start to urinate in the house. Usually this is evidenced by small amounts of urine on horizontal surfaces versus vertical surfaces. An animal urinating on something vertical is often marking, as if leaving a sign designating their turf or territory. This is important to distinguish, as they are completely different paths we would take to treat. Another...

What is it about a cat’s whiskers that leaves us puzzled… Whiskers are a type of long, thick hair. The importance of whiskers lies in the fact that they are deeply rooted in follicles, which are surrounded by a muscle tissue that is very rich in nerves and sensory cells. These nerve cells in the roots are then connected to a special area of the cat’s brain. While whiskers serve many functions, the main function of whiskers is to work as a type of environmental scanning system. Cats don’t actually need to touch the objects with their whiskers to detect...

Large breed dog food. Is it for real or is it just marketing? Breeds such as a Labrador, or the “large breed” type, have been shown in studies to have needs for calcium of a certain range or they risk having bone deformities occur during their puppy year. Poodles were also tested on this same study platform and shown to tolerate very high levels of calcium with no ill effects, where if the large breed received the same diet they would end up with curved bones. If both types of dogs were given the same lower level of calcium in their...