Milk and curd
Is the milk causing the loose stools?
Why adult dogs digest milk poorly, why curd is a straight upgrade, how much of it to give, and where paneer, ghee, cheese and chaas sit on the same shelf.
Act · 8 min
OhMyDog.Rocks: Health
The decisions, and where they sit
Everything on this shelf is a decision about an intervention, whether to medicate, whether to operate, whether to change what happens at the bowl. 13 of the 38 argue against one you are likely being pushed toward. The plate shows where each decision sits on the animal.
38 guides5 regions439 questions answered315 minutes in total
Plate I, where the decisions are
Mealtime
12 guides · 108 min
How the bowl is offered, and what that teaches.
The supplement shelf
Does your dog need any of this?
An honest sort of the supplement shelf, what has evidence in dogs, what is low-risk but unproven, what can actively harm, and how to read a label that is trying not to tell you anything.
Hold · 10 min
What must not go in the bowl
How worried should you be about what your dog just ate?
Toxic foods with the actual thresholds where they exist, xylitol, grapes, onion and garlic, chocolate by type, plus the Indian kitchen hazards the internationally-copied lists leave out.
Act · 11 min
Golden paste
Should you be feeding your dog turmeric every day?
What the evidence actually supports for turmeric and joint pain, the dose that matters, the drug interactions nobody mentions, and the lead adulteration problem specific to Indian turmeric.
Hold · 9 min
The home-cooked bowl
Is your home diet complete, or just homemade?
A working template for a home-cooked Indian dog diet, the two failures that appear in nearly every one, too little animal protein and no calcium, and when home cooking is the wrong choice entirely.
Hold · 11 min
The portion
Is the number on the bag the right number for your dog?
The veterinary formula for daily calories, the multipliers that matter, how to convert it to a real portion, and the 1-9 body condition score that tells you whether the arithmetic was right.
Act · 9 min
Changing the food
Did the new food disagree with your dog, or did the speed?
The seven-day transition table, when to allow longer, what to do when you have run out and have no choice, and how to tell a transition problem from a real intolerance.
Hold · 7 min
The indie bowl
Is roti and milk actually feeding your dog?
Indies are carbohydrate-adapted, not carbohydrate-preferring. What the research on India's free-ranging dogs says about the bowl, why milk is the wrong ritual, and what to feed instead.
Act · 10 min
The puppy portion
Does your puppy need a calcium supplement?
A puppy feeding chart built from the veterinary RER formula rather than a bag label, calories by weight, meals by age, when to switch to adult food, and why calcium syrup harms large-breed puppies.
Hold · 11 min
Raw feeding
Can you hold the cold chain?
What raw feeding does and does not deliver, the risks stated properly, why the Indian cold chain changes the calculation, and the cooked middle ground that keeps most of the upside.
Hold · 10 min
The senior bowl
Should you cut the protein for an ageing dog?
Why the standard advice to cut protein for old dogs is backwards, when a dog actually becomes senior, what "senior food" really means, and why weight change in an older dog is a symptom rather than a phase.
Hold · 9 min
The feeding ritual
Does your mealtime routine need restructuring?
A guide to the feeding ritual, fixed times, calm bowls, staying present, that prevents food aggression and builds trust at mealtimes.
Act · 3 min
Coat & skin
9 guides · 78 min
What appears on the surface, and whether it needs anything.
Dandruff
Is the bathing causing this?
Why most canine dandruff in Indian homes is created by over-bathing, what actually improves coat condition, and the second signs that mean the skin is reporting a hormone problem.
Hold · 8 min
The recurring ear
Why does this keep coming back?
Why ear infections recur, the five-minute test that should precede every prescription, how to clean an ear properly, and the signs that mean this is no longer just an ear infection.
Act · 10 min
Monsoon skin
Is the monsoon flare an allergy, or an infection?
Why skin problems climb every July, how a Malassezia overgrowth differs from an allergy, why antihistamines do nothing for it, and the drying habit that prevents most of it.
Act · 9 min
Hair loss
Does the bald patch itch?
The one question that splits hair loss into two different diseases, why symmetrical non-itchy thinning is a hormone problem, how shedding differs from alopecia, and what to bring to the appointment.
Act · 9 min
Hot spots
Is this a skin accident, or a symptom?
Why a hot spot goes from nothing to raw within hours, the clipping-and-cleaning method that actually works, and what the location of a recurring one tells you about its cause.
Act · 8 min
Paw licking
Is this boredom, or is it an itch?
Why the boredom explanation is almost always wrong, how the licking pattern narrows the cause, what to check between the toes, and the one test to ask your vet for.
Act · 9 min
The itch
Is this an allergy, or is it the thing above allergy on the list?
The diagnostic order for an itchy dog, parasites, then infection, then allergy, why monsoon humidity drives yeast overgrowth, and why the food-allergy blood test your clinic offers does not work.
Act · 12 min
Ticks and fleas
Are you treating the dog, or the infestation?
How to remove a tick without increasing disease risk, why flea infestations return, what tick prevention actually buys you, and the canine product that kills cats.
Act · 10 min
Warts (papillomavirus)
Do these warts need treating at all?
An explainer on the wart-causing virus dogs catch from each other, how it spreads, and why most cases clear without treatment.
Hold · 3 min
Blood
1 guide · 9 min
What a bite puts into circulation, and what actually stops it.
Tick fever
Does your dog need monthly tick chemicals?
A rethink of tick prevention: why tablets don't stop tick fever, and how one well-timed monsoon application beats monthly chemicals.
Hold · 9 min
Gut
13 guides · 105 min
Where most of the immune system sits, and most of the trouble starts.
Deworming
Is the deworming on a calendar, or on a hunch?
The Indian deworming rhythm and its evidence: the puppy protocol, the quarterly adult cadence, the products worth buying, the albendazole refusal, and the monsoon doses not to skip.
Act · 9 min
Bad breath
Is that smell normal, or is it the first sign of disease?
Why "dog breath" is a symptom rather than a fact of life, what is happening beneath the gumline, why anaesthesia-free cleaning does not address it, and the smells that point somewhere other than the teeth.
Act · 9 min
Straining
Is your dog constipated, or is this something else entirely?
How to tell constipation from colitis and from a urinary blockage, what genuinely helps a mild case, why fibre sometimes makes it worse, and the home remedies that are actively dangerous.
Watch · 8 min
Eating grass
Is the grazing telling you anything?
Why grass eating is normal rather than diagnostic, the change in pattern that does mean something, and why the real risk in India is the pesticide rather than the plant.
Watch · 6 min
Wind
Is this ordinary wind, or is the abdomen distended?
Why most dogs are windy and how to fix it in order, which breeds cannot be fixed because it is anatomy, and the bloat signs every deep-chested dog owner should know by heart.
Watch · 8 min
Loose stools
Does this need an antibiotic, or does it need feeding?
How to grade loose stools with the 1-7 faecal score, which signs mean go now, why the reflex prescription of metronidazole is usually wrong, and why the old advice to starve the gut has been overturned.
Hold · 11 min
Off food
Is your dog negotiating, or is your dog unwell?
How to tell the fussy dog from the sick one, why dental pain is the most under-diagnosed cause, the thresholds that differ by age, and how fussiness gets created in the first place.
Watch · 9 min
Pancreatitis
Was there a fatty meal, and is your dog in the praying position?
The festival illness that fills Indian clinics every Diwali, what a sudden fat load does to the pancreas, the posture that means go now, and why one episode makes diet a medical requirement for life.
Act · 9 min
Vomiting
Did your dog heave, or did the food simply fall out?
The vomiting-or-regurgitation question that changes everything, the red flags that mean go now, the causes in order of how often they actually occur, and what to do at home for an uncomplicated case.
Watch · 10 min
Brown vomit
Is this vomit an emergency or not?
A triage guide for brown vomit, what the colour, smell, and your dog's behaviour tell you, and which signs mean call the vet today.
Watch · 7 min
Gut health and immunity
Does your dog's gut need active support now?
An explainer on why most of your dog's immunity sits in the gut, and what actually helps, food, outdoor time, and probiotics only when needed.
Hold · 9 min
Giardia
Does this diarrhea need testing and treatment?
A guide to the gut parasite behind greasy, foul diarrhea, how dogs pick it up from water, how it is diagnosed, treated, and prevented.
Act · 8 min
Antibiotics
Does this antibiotic course need to happen?
A short warning about what unnecessary antibiotics do to your dog's gut bacteria and future infections, and when they are genuinely needed.
Hold · 2 min
Reproductive
3 guides · 15 min
The surgeries and seasons, and when they are actually due.
Cryptorchidism
Should this retained testicle come out now?
A full guide to the undescended testicle, why it is dangerous, how vets find it, what surgery costs in India, and when to book it.
Act · 10 min
Her first heat
How do you manage her safely through heat?
A calm walkthrough of your dog's first heat, keeping her indoors and leashed, managing discharge, and preventing unwanted pregnancy.
Watch · 2 min
Spaying
Should you go ahead with this spay?
A plain walkthrough of the spay surgery, what happens in theatre, what recovery looks like, and the health risks it removes.
Act · 3 min
The word in the margin
- Hold
- The guide argues against an intervention you are likely being pushed toward.
- 13
- Act
- The guide concludes the intervention is worth doing.
- 18
- Watch
- The guide asks you to observe and manage rather than intervene.
- 7
What this shelf is not
It is not a second opinion, and it is not permission. Where a guide here argues against an intervention, it is arguing against the reflex, the course prescribed without a test, the chemical given monthly out of habit, and never against the vet standing in front of your dog, who can see what this page cannot.
What these guides are genuinely good for is the question you ask next. Knowing that a retained testicle has no medical fix, that a fever under a day old is not yet an antibiotic, that the tick bite infects before the tablet kills. That is what turns an appointment from a transaction into a conversation.
And if something is worrying you about your dog right now, stop reading and call a vet. Nothing here is worth the delay.
About this collection
Why is this page organised around the body rather than by topic?
Because a decision about an intervention always has a place. You are not deciding about "wellness" in the abstract. You are deciding whether something goes into the gut, whether a surgery happens at the reproductive organs, whether a chemical goes in to protect the blood. The body is the one axis that holds for every guide here and does not need you to already know the right word. If you do arrive with a word, type it into the finder: it searches every question inside every guide.
What does “Hold” mean? Are you telling me not to treat my dog?
No. Hold marks a guide that argues against a specific reflex, the antibiotic course prescribed before anything was confirmed, the tick chemical given monthly out of habit, the wart that would have cleared on its own. It is an argument about the default, not about your dog, and never about the vet who can actually examine her. Each guide carries the sentence its verdict was read from, so you can check the reading yourself rather than take the label on trust.
How is this different from the diseases sheet?
The diseases sheet documents named infectious diseases, what they are, how they spread, whether a vaccine exists. This shelf is about the decisions of everyday medicine, prevention and recovery, which mostly are not about a named disease at all: whether to spay, what to do about vomit, how to run mealtimes, whether the antibiotic is necessary. Two subjects appear in both places, from different angles. If you have a diagnosis, start with the diseases sheet; if you have a choice to make, start here.
Do these guides replace a vet?
They cannot, and a page that argues about interventions has a particular duty to say so plainly. Nothing here can examine your dog, read her bloodwork or weigh her history. What these guides are for is the question you ask next, walking into the appointment knowing that a retained testicle has no medical fix, or that a fever under a day old is not yet an antibiotic, changes what that appointment produces.
Why are some guides two minutes and others ten?
Because the shelf was written over several years and the older pieces are genuinely short. The register prints the real extent of every guide rather than rounding them all up to look substantial, a two-minute answer that is complete is not a worse answer, and you are entitled to know which one you are about to open before you open it.