Pet Monologues

There’s a relatively new pet-food product out: an organic yogurt treat for dogs. Let’s unofficially include cats too. After all, we did our research before posting this product. Is it good for people? Probably, in small doses. Talk about bait and switch!

It’s inspired by people food and organic ingredients. The packaging is hip. Somewhere on this blog someone said our pets eat better than we do. In some cases that is absolutely true!

More information on yogurt for your dog and cat:

Good Bacteria: Yogurt and Kefir

One common homeopathic dog nutritional supplement is yogurt. It contains “good” bacteria, which can aid in digestion and help keep your dog’s digestive system clean and functioning optimally. Read the rest of this entry »

Anywhere people live, you’ll find dogs. Our species has made its way into nearly every nook and cranny in the world, and we’ve bred dogs to go with us. One of the main reasons why dogs are so remarkably adaptable is their ability to survive on a variety of foods. While cats need nutrients only found in a meat-based diet, a dog’s digestive system can pull the nutrients out of just about anything that’s edible. That’s why dogs don’t need as much protein in their diets as cats. Still, dogs are naturally meat eaters, so meat protein is still an important part of a dog’s diet. An all-around balanced diet is a six-part story: protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water.

Water

Fresh, clean water is more important to your dog than any other nutrient. About 70 percent of a dog’s body is made up of water, which is vital for cell function and tissue lubrication. Dogs can live for many days without food, but a lack of water will kill them quickly. When it’s hot outside, or if your dog is sick, especially if he is vomiting or has diarrhea, water is even more important.

If you drink bottled or filtered water because of the quality of tap water in your area, you may want to safeguard your dog’s health by also giving him bottled water or investing in a good-quality water filter for your tap. Read the rest of this entry »

The American Animal Hospital Association, founded in 1933 and currently located in Denver, Colorado, is a trade association with over 36,000 small animal veterinarian members. The AAHA sets standards for vet practices and accredits over 3,000 veterinary hospitals and clinics. It also conducts on-going education for veterinarians and provides its members access to a comprehensive Pet Care Library.

Hospitals throughout the US and Canada submit voluntarily for AAHA accreditation. To win it, each hospital and clinic is evaluated on over 900 standards in areas such as quality of care, management, medical records and facility. Each accredited hospital must have diagnostic and pharmacy services in order to start treatment of sick animals immediately.

AAHA lists accredited hospitals and AAHA members on its website. You can also take a virtual tour of an AAHA accredited facility at aahanet.org

In many families, a thorough search for ticks is part of any hike, camping trip or other journey into the woods. For people who live in rural areas, particularly those who work outdoors, looking for ticks is often a part of daily life. It’s easy to think of these tiny arachnids as something to watch out for in relatively wild terrain, but ticks don’t confine themselves to the wilderness. They’re adaptive and resilient, and you can find them in distinctly urban areas, like the parks of New York City.

feamle tick
Photo courtesy CDC/Dr. Amanda Loftis, Dr. William Nicholson, Dr. Will Reeves, Dr. Chris Paddock
A female lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum.

The typical response to finding a tick is often disgust. It’s partly because ticks are parasites — they feed on their hosts’ blood. Although people see them most often on themselves and their pets, ticks also attack wild animals, farm animals, birds and reptiles. On top of that, some ticks, particularly females, swell dramatically when they ingest a lot of blood. An engorged tick, or one that’s full of blood, can have a bizarre, even grotesque appearance.

In addition to their feeding behavior and appearance, ticks are disease vectors. They can carry illnesses from one animal to another. In fact, ticks are the primary disease vector in domestic animals. In terms of human illness, only one parasite spreads more illness—the mosquito. Ticks can spread a wide variety of disease-causing organisms, including bacteria, viruses and protozoa. Read the rest of this entry »

Dog behavior training: aggression, biting, guarding problems.

Handling an Aggressive Dog

Aggression is probably the most common reason an otherwise healthy dog is euthanized (put to sleep). Read the rest of this entry »

Known foods poisonous (toxic) to dogs AND cats.

Also foods you should not feed them.

Chocolate
It is not chocolate itself that is poisonous, it is the theobromine, a naturally occurring compound found in chocolate. Read the rest of this entry »

Interpreting dog barks and noise.

Body language is generally a silent method of communication (with the exception of the play bow), but dogs use their voices, too. Read the rest of this entry »

Stopping a dog from jumping.

Whether it’s a body slam from a bubbly big breed or the frenzied hind-leg ballet of a toy pooch, jumping up is a universal trait—and problem—in our canine companions. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine returning to your home after a long vacation. You pick up your pets from the kennel, unload your luggage and head to bed to recover from the long drive. But your sleep is anything but restful. All night, you’re plagued by tiny pinpricks and incessant itching. It doesn’t take you long to figure out that you’re being attacked by a seemingly infinite mob of hungry fleas.

An Adult Flea
Photo courtesy CDC/Vector Ecology & Control Laboratory, Fort Collins, Colo.

What happened? Did your pets pick up an infestation at the kennel? Did the vampire-like insects hitch a ride on your luggage? Or did a swarm of them decide to move in while you were gone?

It’s a creepy idea, but the most likely answer is that the fleas were waiting for you. Fleas are parasites—or life forms that feed on hosts—often harming the host in some way. Fleas use their hosts’ blood as food. They generally prefer the blood of four-legged animals to human blood, so before you went on vacation, the fleas fed on your pets, not on you.

Although newly emerged fleas need to find food within a few days, adults can go for a couple of months without a meal. Flea pupae can also stay in their cocoons for up to a year, waiting to sense the body heat and vibrations that signal the presence of nearby hosts. So when you go on vacation, the fleas don’t starve to death — they simply wait for you and your pets to come back. Read the rest of this entry »

We are seeing a lot of searches for raw feeders going through PM. We would like more opinions, tips, advice, on this food movement. There may be nothing wrong with raw food diets, after all, everyone here likes sushi, oysters, and tartar. Here comes the, “however”, PM believes raw food diets are akin to purchasing a 12-cylinder high performance car, maintaining a thoroughbred, a teak sailboat. You should know what you are doing, take the extra effort needed to do it right, and maybe take some funds out of the 401(k) to do it right.

That said, here are links to several raw feeders. Read the rest of this entry »