[Intro]

Hello, Internet. Can we talk about your funny dog pictures and videos for a second? That clip of the golden retriever barking the national anthem and the photo of your chihuahua dressed as Santa Claus? Those are great. But not all those pics you've been posting to Tumblr are as funny as you think, like the photo of your dog or your cat pressing their head against the wall, or the video of your dog sliding his butt across the front yard, or that picture of Otis eating your entire bowl of guacamole. Those are all things that your dog should not be doing, the head against the wall thing arguably being the least funny of all of them. If your dog or cat is doing that, stop taking pictures and take them to the vet as fast as possible.

The condition is known as head pressing, and it's often a sign of a neurological problem or damage to the central nervous system. In most cases, this behavior means that either a congenital defect or some kind of injury has caused damage to the dog's forebrain, or specifically the thalamus, the part of the brain that processes sensory information, but head pressing can also be accompanied by strange behavior, like pacing in circles or unresponsive reflexes, and it can be a sign of other problems including a brain tumor, a stroke, or liver shunts. These are defects in the veins of a dog's liver that end up sending blood around the liver instead of through it. As a result, toxins aren't filtered from he dog's blood and eventually make their way to the brain. In older dogs, cirrhosis, or scarring of the liver tissue, can also cause the liver to malfunction and eventually lead to head pressing.

Now, at one point or another, you've probably seen a dog do the boot scoot. Yeah, it looks funny. Uh, you don't want to have them do it on the carpet, but, you know, on the ground, that's OK, right? Well, it actually means that your dog probably has impacted anal glands. Anal glands are the two scent glands around the anus of a dog that release an identifying scent that's unique to each individual, which not only explains why your dog immediately sniffs the butt of any new dog it encounters, but also why dogs feel the need to kick up sand after doing their business. They're just trying to spread that scent around. This isn't unique to dogs, by the way. All 280 species in the carnivora order, with the exception of bears, have anal scent glands.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear, anal sacs can become impacted and the glands fail to empty on their own. It may be related to a bacterial infection, and it often occurs after a dog has had diarrhea. When this happens, the glands swell, and as you might imagine, become pretty uncomfortable, hence the butt dragging. You need to get a vet to drain the anal sacs, which sounds like an unpleasant job, but trust me, your dog will be much happier.

Finally, we've told you before that chocolate is poisonous for dogs, but did you know that other foods like garlic and onions are also no-nos? Onions, and to a greater extent garlic, are toxic to dogs because they contain sulfoxides and disulfides. In some animals, including cats, dogs, and horses, these sulfur compounds can damage red blood cells by binding with hemoglobin, the protein that blood cells use to carry oxygen. When the hemoglobin is damaged, your dog can develop anemia, and if she's eaten too many onion rings, she might even die, so it's best not to give in to your dog's begging when they're eyeing that slice of garlic lover's pizza.

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