posted by Tess on Jul 31
Traveling long distances can get stressful even for humans. As a pet owner, you might have faced issues with your dog while traveling. Sometimes getting the dog to get inside the car for a ride can be particularly challenging. If you have been taking your dog in the car only to visit the vet, he is likely to be averse to a car irrespective of whether you are planning to go to a playground, a holiday or the vet.
This does not mean that you cannot travel with your dog. Just as dogs have to be trained to live within the house, they need to be trained to travel in a car.
Since car rides may stress your dog, training the dog for travel in a car actually involves relieving stress in pets. It is important that you ensure that the agitation and anxiety that arises out of cramped and close environment be released.
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posted by Tess on Jul 30
From minor conditions like cat dandruff to malignant tumors, a cat’s skin can be a reflection of nearly all kinds of medical conditions. Itchy skin can potentially lead to feline hair loss, feline acne and lick granulomas. Treating skin disorders in cats, therefore, depends mainly on the underlying health condition of the cat.
Skin conditions that are caused by flea infestations can be treated by killing adult fleas in the cat. Preventing re-infestation needs a more thorough approach wherein the fleas are eliminated completely from the surrounding environment. There are new products available that act only on the receptors present in insects and are safe for cats as well as kittens.
Fungal infections on the skin caused by ringworm usually disappear on their own in healthy cats. Early treatment, however, is necessary so that escalation to other parts of the body can be prevented. Since ringworm is an infectious disease and can pass on to humans as well as other animals it should be treated as soon as the infection is noticed. Treatment is done through systemic oral medication or through topical application of anti fungal creams.
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posted by Tess on Jul 27
Most cat owners do not realize that pets face stress like humans. When you bring home a cat you are actually denying her the company of her mother and litter. This can have a great impact on the animal. Post traumatic stress and separation anxiety in dogs and cats can lead to significant abnormal behaviors in pets. Stress and separation anxiety are more prominent in cats that:
* were abandoned
* are reunited after a long separation.
* are exposed too much attention every time the cat owner returns from work.
* have been separated from mothers immediately after birth.
* are exposed to too much noise.
* suffer from physical trauma.
Post traumatic stress disorder in cats and other pets is almost similar to humans. It can be sparked off by any thing that reminds of a traumatic circumstance that they may have experienced. Your cat may show the following signs of stress or anxiety:
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posted by Tess on Jul 26
The condition of the skin and coat is an indicator of the general health of your pet. Other than specific skin conditions like cat dandruff and feline acne or serious immune mediated cat and dog skin problems, internal health issues also reflect on the skin and coat of your pet.
Most of these health conditions lead to canine and feline hair loss. The situation is more challenging if you have a canine pet since most reeds shed hair naturally to a large extent during certain times of the year. Natural hair loss combined with hair loss due to ailments can pose a major problem for pet owners. Cleaning floors, carpets and furniture can become a more arduous task than it already is. Vacuum cleaners are the obvious choice for house cleaning but many times it has been noticed that the cat and dog hair do not get completely sucked up by the machine. Some useful tips for removing pet hair can save you time and money.
With a vacuum cleaner.
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posted by Tess on Jul 17
It is extremely essential to control canine and feline parasites since they inhabit the intestines and can cause problems if not eliminated in time. Roundworms can block the intestinal passage by the sheer numbers that they exist in. Hookworm infection causes severe anemia followed by loss of iron and protein in the stomach.
A proper understanding of symptoms of worms in dogs is necessary for proper treatment of worms in dogs . However, it is imperative that a thorough understanding of the worm’s life cycle be understood to be able to control it better.
ROUNDWORMS
One female roundworm can lay up to two hundred thousand eggs in a single day. Most of the eggs pass out of the body through feces but some eggs stay inside the body. A larva develops inside the egg shell and cannot infect the dog till it reaches the second stage. This takes about a week.
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posted by Tess on Jul 13
Undesirable and destructive behavior from your dog can get extremely irritating. It is especially peeving if you have made sure that he is trained adequately right from the time that he was a puppy. After you are sure that your dog is fully trained, bad behavior does become difficult to tolerate and cope with.
However, it is important to understand that there are many reasons why your dog can relapse into untrained, destructive or extremely submissive behavior even after years of training. It is common for perfectly restrained dogs to go berserk at times with no apparent reason.
One of the reasons why some dogs can forget all that they have learnt is anxiety. Even though dogs are intelligent animals, they are incapable of controlling stress and anxiety that they may feel due to various reasons.
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posted by Tess on Jul 11
It is not easy to break the life cycle of intestinal parasites like roundworms and dog tapeworm.
The main hurdles are the encysted larvae that can remain in a dog’s body for years. Since the worm eggs have a huge appetite of bearing vagaries in their environment, they can remain dormant for a long time before becoming active.
Looking for an appropriate treatment at the first visible signs of worms in dogs is the first thing that should be done. Noticing the symptoms of worms in dogs depends on the amount of time that you spend with your dog and the level of care that you provide for your pet. Keeping your eyes open for such symptoms should be a priority as these parasites can pass on to humans too. Preventive measures become equally important so that you can ensure that your pet does not get infected again.
Prevention
There are three broad ways by which roundworms get into dogs.
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posted by Tess on Jul 5
Hookworm is a parasite that lives in the small intestines of mammals. It is also the most common of the intestinal parasites that infest dogs. There are different types of hookworms that can infest dogs and cats.
* A.caninum can infect a dog.
* Uncinaria stenocephala can infect both dogs and cats.
* A.braziliense and A. tubaeforme species of the hookworm infect only cats.
Hookworms are smaller than other intestinal parasites like dog tapeworms and roundworms. Their affect on the host’s body is also different from other parasitical worms. Worms in dogs are usually excreted and are visible in stools but hookworms are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. In most cases even a microscopic examination is unable to reveal their presence.
Hookworms are also different from other worms in the manner in which they cause diseases. The other kinds of worms mechanically obstruct the intestinal passage and migrate through tissues but hookworms cling to the intestinal walls and suck the host’s blood.
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posted by Tess on Jul 4
Understanding your dog’s body language can be a complex task. Researchers now believe that a single behavior may have multiple meanings and therefore an action cannot be generalized. Dog behavior has to be understood contextually.
We tend to generalize that when a dog wags his tail, he is happy. However, there are times when a dog will wag his tail (for example when you are leaving him to go out) to convey anxiety rather than excitement.
Domesticated dogs also form a healthy bond with the owner and their family. This leads to overdependence on the owner which can at times become overbearing. More than anything else, overdependence can lead to fear of separation. Over time, if unchecked this anxiety can lead to abnormal behavior from an otherwise friendly dog. Fear and aversion to isolation is one of the main reasons behind anxiety that can cause undesirable and abnormal behavior in dogs.
Treating separation anxiety in dogs with medication is the route that many pet owners take since it is probably easier than the other options. But anxiety medication has its own drawbacks.
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posted by Tess on Jul 2
Worms are parasites that derive nourishment from the host and thrive. In turn parasites do not provide any benefit to the host but they do not kill the host also. Worms in dogs normally find shelter in intestines.
If your pet has worms, these can be transferred to humans as well. Spread to humans does not necessarily involve close contact. Humans get infected when the egg infected excreta is ingested in some form or another. Children are at very high risks of getting affected since they tend to play in the dirt and this could include feces infected areas as well.
There are four major types of worms in dogs.
* Roundworms
* Hookworms
* Tapeworms
* Whipworms
The two to four inches long roundworm is the most common type. Tan or white in color, these spaghetti shaped worms are detrimental to your dog’s general health and overall appearance. Dogs that are highly infested with roundworms may vomit them out or pass the whole worms in stools. Roundworms can multiply at a fast speed and can even block the intestines making normal bowel movement impossible.
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