This section is on miscellaneous dog topics including nutrition, basic dog questions, etc. These are all questions that have been submitted or that I have been inspired to talk about because of a question submitted. If you have any topics that you would like to have discussed please feel free to email me with the topic or question.
Vaccines come in two basic types -- one consists of dead virus and the other of live viruses that have been weakened so that they can still replicate in the body but do not cause disease. The vaccines that consist of the dead viruses are weaker and, thus, produce less immunity than the live viruses. In fact, the vaccines with the dead viruses have to have irritating substances in them in order to get the body to produce immunity. It is usually these irritating substances that lead to the bad vaccine reactions association with vaccination problems. On the other hand, the live virus vaccines stimulate the immune system on their own since they replicate and, thus, the live virus vaccines have no need for the irritating substances in the dead virus vaccines. The risk with these live virus vaccines is that disease might result but with all the testing that vaccine companies have to do today this is a VERY low risk. In addition, the dead virus vaccines have to be given twice to create immunity while the live virus vaccine only has to be given once. For all these reasons, if a safe life virus vaccine is available it is the better choice. Many people do not understand that the dead virus vaccines cause far more problems than the live virus vaccines and incorrectly think that the dead virus vaccine is safer. It isn't.
No. The association between white dogs and deafness comes from the Boxer, pitbull, and related breeds. Commonly in these breeds a solid white dog will be deaf. But there are many dogs that are white that are not deaf. Some breeds are exclusively white such as the Kuvasz and the Samoyed and do not have a breed problem with deafness. Incidentally, white cats are often deaf too.
The primary researcher into beet pulp has been the Iams food company. Their research shows that the cells that line the intestine are capable of getting nutrition directly from intestinal contents in the form of compounds known as short chain fatty acids. Short chain fatty acids are created by the fermentation of fibers, or starches, by intestinal bacteria. In addition, the intestine needs a certain amount of non-digestible material in order to stimulate proper motility and bowel emptying. In their research, moderately fermentable fibers such as beet pulp provided the optimum balance of short chain fatty acid production for intestinal cell energy and non-digestible material for proper intestinal motility. Highly fermentable fibers gave too little non-digestible material and slightly fermentable fibers gave too little short-chain fatty acid production. Thus, moderately fermentable fibers of which beet pulp is the most readily available is an important part of the Iams / Eukanuba line. There may be other dog food companies that also do this, but I am not aware of them.
The answer to this question is extremely complex. Obviously, life expectancy is determined by health, medical care, situation in life, and finally breed. Factoring out health, medical care, and situation in life by saying our hypothetical dog is a well-cared for dog with no inherent genetic problems that is a pet (not a police dog, guard dog, hunting dog, etc whose job involves increased risks), we are left with the effects of breed. As a rule, the larger the dog the shorter the life span. Toy to small dogs typically live 15+ years, medium to large dogs 12+ years, and giant dogs 10+ years. To even further complicate this as a whole Oriental breeds tend to live 2 to 3 years longer than comparably sized breeds of Western origins. For example, the Chow and the Labrador are medium to large breeds. Chows can be expected to live 14+ years; Labradors can be expected to live 12+ years. Of course, individual dogs vary tremendously in their life span. Dogs as a whole can be expected to live anywhere from 10 to 18 years.
I have researched and answered these questions to the best of my ability. But I am human and make mistakes. If there is any part of my answer that you feel is incorrect, please let me know. The last thing I want is to disseminate false or incorrect information.