Ear infections are one of the most common reasons dogs end up at the vet, and they spike in warm seasons for a straightforward reason: water. Between swimming in the Ottawa River, splashing at the cottage, and the general humidity, dog ears spend a lot of time damp, and a damp ear canal is exactly…

When the pollen counts climb around Ottawa, a lot of dogs get miserable. Not sneezy the way people do. Dogs show allergies through their skin. The result is a dog that won’t stop scratching, licking, and chewing at themselves, often working a minor itch into a real problem over the course of a few hot…

Summer is road-trip season, and for a lot of Ottawa families, that means the dog is coming too. Cottages up the Gatineau, campgrounds in the Thousand Islands, long drives to visit family. Pets generally handle travel well, but a change of routine and environment is exactly the kind of thing that produces the avoidable emergencies…

Most stings are a non-event: a yelp, some swelling, a sulky dog for an hour. The reason a sting is worth a second thought at all is that the small minority of dogs who react badly tend to do it quickly, and the early minutes of a serious reaction look identical to a normal one….