Pet Health Guide

The immune system is a very broad and complicated subject that can baffle most brains (mine included)
as you delve into the complexities of the system.

Luckily though, the basic concepts are fairly straight forward and should give you some
understanding as to why you need to look at your pets health from the pet’s point of view
and not yours!

We can start by saying that, in our case (i.e. dealing with animals) the immune system is what
protects the animal’s body from harmful substances. These may be bacteria, viruses, fungi, toxins
or even, in the case of cancer cells,products of the animal’s body.

For a simple illustration, imagine that the animals body is a country, then the immune system would include
customs and passport control at the border posts, the army patrolling the borders to prevent

illegal entry or an invasion, and the police within the country working on crime prevention.

The border itself represents a barrier to entry as do the skin and mucous membranes of our
pet. A lot of potentially harmful substances get stopped right there. Those that have the right
passport and visa are allowed in (food, water, oxygen etc). However, some insurgents(infections) might
bypass the border control, or have false passports and it is the patrolling army’s job to
find these and arrest them.

Similarly, some inhabitants of the country might indulge in criminal activities (e.g. cancer cells)
and it is up to the police to identify these and get rid of them.

Now remember that the country (the animal) is under constant threat from outside sources (infectious agents)

and from internal criminal activity (production of undesirable cells).To cope with this situation and survive,
the passport and customs officials, the army and police have to be constantly ready for action. They have to be well
equipped, well trained, fit and motivated!Any slip, and the door is opened for something
to go wrong (disease).This is why it is so important that you get the basics of petcare right because these factors
support the development and maintenance of a competent and primed immune system!

In addition to the “frontline troops”, the immune system also has a massive “administration” system in place that deals with
functions such as provisions, logistics, recruitment and so on.

For example. When an “intruder”(possible infectious agent) slips across the border(enters the body) and is caught by the patrolling army (a branch of the
immune system), the prisoner is taken to a safe place (another part of the immune system) for questioning.The authorities (immune system) go through
all their files to see if they recognise this intruder.They also have to decide what sort of threat, if any, this intruder poses to the country (the animal).

If they can identify the intruder and decide it is a risk,then they know what they are dealing with and can alert
all patrols, border personnel etc to be on the look out for this type of intruder.

If however they do not recognise this intruder (a new infectious agent), then they first have to study the intruder, find out how
it operates, train personnel to deal with this new threat, and then get that knowledge out
through the organisation. This obviously takes longer to do and involves a lot of “paper work” and “personnel” other than
the front line troops.

What we have described above is also the basic theory supporting vaccinations. By vaccinating your pet, you challenge the immune system.
The first vaccination makes the immune system aware of the potential threat and allows it to prepare and train it’s defences. The
second and subsequent vaccinations allow the immune system to test that training by activating the defence mechanisms it has prepared.
It also serves as a reminder to the front line troops as to which intruders they need to be on the lookout for.

Unfortunately, the immune system is not a full proof system. Like any other system it can develop glitches and malfunction
or it can simply be overwhelmed. When this happens, disease results and we look to other resources (surgery, medication etc)
to help the immune system win the battle.

Ironically, in some cases the immune system can work against a happy outcome. Organ transplants are an example. Here, although
the new organ is obviously vital for the survival of the recipient, the immune system will go all out to get rid of it because it
is perceived as being an intruder! Thus the need for a host of drugs to suppress the immune system and allow the new organ
to function in the new body.But of course, the immune system is then operating less efficiently and this opens the door for other
“insurgents” to invade the body.

The immune system is a complex, amazing system that we still do not understand fully. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t
do our best to ensure that it is in the best possible shape throughout a pet’s lifetime by applying sound basic pet health
principles.

Keith Perrett is a Veterinarian.
http://www.pet-health-for-humans.com

Share This

Many pet owners often wonder if it’s worth it to purchase pet insurance. The way I see it, there are two main considerations, your opinion when it comes to risk-taking and the expected health of your pet.

Are you a risk-taker or are you conservative? If you are a risk-taker when it comes to insurance and would be okay covering any health-related costs yourself, you shouldn’t bother getting pet insurance. Right or wrong, this is what most pet owners do. However, if you are conservative, and want the peace of mind knowing that most major health costs you incur for your pet would be covered, pet insurance might be right for you!

The second consideration is the expected health of your pet. Of course, it’s impossible to predict with any level of precision how healthy your pet will be, but if you have carefully researched the lineage of your puppy, kitten or foal, and have sound information about the health of the lines, then that’s valuable information for you to use when making this decision.

Next, you might be wondering how pet insurance works. It’s pretty simple. You’d pay a monthly insurance premium for your pet, which could be as low as $10 per month (but usually higher). Some plans cover routine care as well as accidents and illnesses, while others only cover accidents and illnesses (the later would be cheaper). When your pet receives veterinary care, you’d submit the bill to the insurance company for reimbursement. Based on the plan you purchase, you’d be reimbursed a percentage of the total cost minus any deductible. Not every procedure is covered, so check out your policy carefully.

With the rising costs of pet healthcare and with the extremes that many of us would go to for our pets, pet insurance is becoming very popular with pet owners.

http://www.thepetman.com

Share This

Is your dog or cat frequently scratching his ears and shaking
his head? Is there crumbly dark debris in his ears. He may
have ear mites. This is a fairly common condition for both cats
and dogs. Ear mites are tiny parasites that reside in the ear
canal and bite.

There are a number of over-the-counter preparations for treating
ear mites. Check with your local pet supply store. If you
prefer holistic pet health treatments, you may use an infusion of
garlic, rosemary and rue in olive oil which is effective in killing ear mites.

To make an infusion cover fresh or dried herbs with the olive
oil (use more oil if using dried herbs a ratio of about 2 to 1).

Heat the concoction gently in the top of a double boiler for
about two hours. The oil is done when it takes on the color &
fragrance of the herbs. Strain the oil through cheese cloth
before using adding a few drops of tea tree oil as a
disinfecting preservative.

Put a few drops of oil in your pet’s ear canals and rub gently
to distribute. Blot any excess with a clean cloth. Apply daily
until the condition clears up.

If you have a multiple pet household and one of your
pets have ear mites it is more than likely that more if not all
your pets have or will have the condition. So it is best to
treat them all right away. Your favorite friends will love you
all the more for making them feel better! And that’s what it is
all about - Making the perfect paws in your family happy and
healthy!

If ear mites are not treated the result may be loss of hearing
and bacterial infections. If your pet is continuously shaking
his head, see a vet for it may be a more serious condition.

Here’s to the Perfect Paws in your family!

MaryLou
www.theperfectpaws.com

MaryLou Marier is first and for most an animal lover and has been around animals most of her life. She grew up on a farm and has had multiple pets ever since! She and her husband raise Registered St Charles Cavalier Spaniels. They are members of the Continental Kennel Club. MaryLou has read and done research on any and all ailments that her pets have come across over the years and now wants to share her knowledge with all you pet lovers out there!

Share This

“Pets are such agreeable friends, they ask no questions and they pass no criticisms” said George Eliot about pet animals. Pets often reciprocate the love that their masters lavish on them by demonstrating various forms of affection including licking, hickeys, even love-bites.

There’s no other job quite like keeping a pet. Pet care is in fact a permanent job, and includes the very important functions of grooming and striving to maintain good pet health care. General pet supplies could be considered a definition of useful tools for grooming and keeping your pet in good health.

Pet Supplies:

An essential list of pet supplies for purchase could include the following: pet food and food dishes, pet id tags and collars, pet medications, supplements and tonics, etc. Some other items to consider are animal carriers, pet houses and furniture, pet beds, clothes, and pet jewelry.

Online Pet Supplies:

Online pet supplies are supplies that can be purchased from pet stores over the Internet. There are numerous pet grooming product manufacturers and pet-grooming stores selling their products online through their individual official websites.

Pet Grooming Supplies:

Pet grooming supplies include items such as grooming clippers, pet hair care products, soaps, shampoo and perfumes.

Pet Health Care:

Pet health care is a very important responsibility of pet ownership. For puppies and kittens, or any other four-legged pets, important treatments would include giving a hygiene bath, cleaning, combing, brushing, checking ears, paws, teeth and underside of the tongue, nail trimming, removing fleas and insects, and fixing regular meetings with a professional veterinary. A good pet owner should follow a regular schedule of grooming sessions.

Pet care can require a lot of patience. Like children, pets often require special attention. A puppy, kitten or any other pet in its infancy needs to be handled with extreme care. In particular they must be groomed properly, fed carefully, and bedded properly.

Choosing A Pet:

The process of choosing a pet is very important. Choosing a pet depends on one’s preferences, but there are still some important things that should be kept in mind. One should always choose an animal of good breed. Secondly, the pet should be healthy especially if it is still in the initial stage of its life. A healthy young pet shows good fast growth.

Pet Grooming Business:

The pet grooming business is a flourishing business today. There are numerous pet grooming schools offering the equivalent services of a pet grooming professional. People hire the services of these professional experts for the proper grooming of their pets. Professional pet grooming is becoming quite popular in United States, Canada, and European countries.

Paul MacIver writes about pets and Pet Health Care. Visit Online Pet Supplies to read more about Pet Care, Pet Grooming and Pet Supplies. You may freely reprint this article as long as nothing is changed, and bio is included with all links intact.

Share This

The most comprehensive and reliable source of information on all aspects of animal healthcare is now in its ninth edition. With updated coverage and a new look, this landmark 50th Anniversary Edition of the classic reference for veterinary students and practitioners worldwide continues its legacy of top-notch veterinary instruction. Expanded by 400 pages, this new edition includes additional information on new and emerging animal diseases, broadened chapters on emergency and critical care, expanded coverage of exotic and laboratory animals, important coverage of animal-to-human disease transmission, plus many other added and revised chapters.

Available from Wiley only in the US, Caribbean, and Latin America.

Hardcover: 
2712 pages

Company: Merck 

(2005-02-08)

ISBN: 0911910506

List Price: $45.00
Amazon Price: $34.18

Used Price: $32.01

Share This

Is your least favorite part of the day leaving your best friend behind? Are you tired of coming home to chewed-up sofas, shoes, and garbage in places it shouldn’t be? Now, you can turn your bored dog into an active dog with 150 Activities for Bored Dogs. A great mix of activities for the home-alone dog as well as activities that let you in on the fun, 150 Activities for Bored Dogs includes chapters on Fun fur One, Fun fur Two, and Fun Fur the Whole Doggone Pack. “Fetch” will seem like puppy play when you discover activities like:

• Hide the Treats
• Rexercise
• Tetherball Tug

Author: Sue Owens Wright

Paperback: 
207 pages
Bargain Price

Company: Adams Media Corporation 

(2007-04)

List Price: $10.95
Amazon Price: $3.99

Used Price: $6.29

Share This

Spaying your female pet has many benefits, both for you, as a pet owner, and for your pet. Besides preventing unwanted litters of puppies or kittens, spaying can also help make make it possible for your female pet to lead a longer and healthier life.

Let’s start at the beginning. Spaying your pet means removing the female reproductive organs, specifically the uterus and ovaries, so that your pet can no longer become pregnant. The more technical name for a spay is an ovariohysterectomy (or OHE, for short).

Obviously, if breeding your pet is a priority for you, spaying is not an option. However, any female pet which is not a breeding animal can benefit tremendously by being spayed.

What are the benefits of spaying your female pet? Well, of course, one of the most obvious benefits is that you will no longer need to worry about your pet becoming pregnant. You also will not have to worry about your female pet coming into “heat”. This means, for a dog, no bleeding or mess associated with your dog being “in heat”.

For a cat, it means not having to tolerate the unpleasant behaviors that your cat experiences while being “in heat”. For those of you who have never been around a cat “in heat”, these behaviors include loud and frequent vocalization, which can disrupt your entire household, pacing, and urine marking in your home. Unspayed female cats can come into “heat” every few days. This behavior is often a deciding factor for cat owners when considering whether or not to spay their female cat.

There are a number health benefits for your spayed female pet also. If left unspayed, female pets often develop a condition known as pyometra. Pyometra is a severe, life-threatening infection of the female uterus. It is frequently a fatal condition if left untreated. Even with treatment, some female pets do not survive a pyometra infection. Because your female pet’s uterus is removed when she is spayed, the possibility of developing a pyometra is completely removed. Spayed female pets cannot develop this disease.

In addition, because your female pet cannot become pregnant, you don’t have to worry about complications which can occur during or after the birth process of pregnant female pets. There is no need to worry about puppies or kittens being to large to pass through the birth canal, or in the wrong position to be born normally. Conditions such as metritis (an infection of the uterus which occurs after pregnancy) and mastitis (infection of the mammary glands, or breasts) cannot occur in spayed female pets either.

Another benefit to spaying your female pet is a lower chance of developing breast tumors later in life. This primarily applies to pets which are spayed at a young age. If spayed before the first “heat” cycle, the chance of your pet developing breast cancer later in life is very low.

It is a proven fact that pets which are spayed lead longer, healthier lives. Some estimates indicate that spayed females can live as long as twice as long as unspayed females.

Spaying also tends to make your pet calmer and more affectionate, without the mood swings that can accompany the “heat” cycle.

As you can see, there are many strong reasons for spaying your female pet.

Copyright 2006 The Pet Med Site

Share This

Can you imagine that your pet may be in pain and you might not know it? Unbelievable as it sounds it is all too common. Learning to detect the signs of pet pain is really crucial to your pet’s health care and well being. And pets don’t always act like people do when they are suffering.

Animals can suffer with toothaches, joint pain, infections, just like people. Unfortunately, because they can’t tell you about it you might be neglecting a serious or painful condition. One of the main things to look for is a change.
That can mean change in behavior, temperament, eating or sleeping patterns. It can be very subtle.

One sharp cat owner noticed that her cat was simply
meowing more than usual for a few days. Not crying, just more meowing. She took “Max” took the Vet and a horribly infected tooth was discovered and treated. No more meowing.

A typical cat reaction to pain is to hide. If you notice your cat is gone most of the time, check it out.

With dogs, less interest in eating, eating less or even slower than usual, can signal a toothache. Food falling from the dog’s mouth is also typical. It may hurt to chew.

When “Doobie”, usually a frisky boxer pup, was just lying in a corner quietly, something was wrong. A visit to the vet revealed a painful abscess that needed treatment.

If your pet is suddenly hyperactive or listless, pay attention. Both are possible signs of pet pain.

Older pets can suffer from chronic conditions like arthritis, hip pain, and other age related problems. Symptoms can be slow movement, limping, balance problems, subdued or nervous disposition. Pain can make a calm animal irritable or even aggressive.

There is no reason your pet has to suffer. Your vet can prescribe pain medication that can bring relief. Never give a pet human medications, though. This is very dangerous and can even kill. Cats especially, because their liver is different than a person, can be poisoned easily.

Often an animal will lick a painful area, or even rub it against a surface. A sign of this is can be a flattened or wet area on your pet’s coat. Try to separate the hair to see if you can detect anything. The appearance of redness, swelling, an open wound, or even local heat all are best checked by a vet.

If you notice your dog scratching constantly, check out and treat for fleas if needed. If Poochie scratched herself raw and is bleeding, keep your eye on the wounds and get help if it’s not healing up quickly.

So, if your pet seems to be acting different,it could be pain that’s behind the change. When in doubt, go to your local pet clinic for security. You never know. When it comes to pain, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

You may end up saving your beloved pet’s life!

Aliza Levine RNMH runs a busy Clinic, Pharmacy. Learn more about Dog health care at http://www.DogHealthCare.info

Share This

Pet care is important to ensure that pets live long and healthy lives. However, first time pet owners have much to learn about how to take care of their pets. Today, first time pet owners can gain access to the information they need, which can help them know how to properly care for their pets. Resources include the Internet, pet stores, and veterinarians. If you are a first time pet owner, you have the obligation to find out all you need to do to properly care for your pet.

One of the first things you need to do is to ensure that your pet is eating nutritious and healthy food. There are quite a number of good quality pet food brands to choose from. It’s just as important to know what you should not be feeding your pet, as there are cases where the food that humans eat may prove lethal to some pets. Another important thing you need to ensure is that the housing and the space you provide for your pet should be adequate enough for your pet to move around so that it can get the exercise it needs. If you have limited space available, make sure you take your pet outside where it can exercise. In addition to these, you should also try to bring your pet to the veterinarian as regularly as possible so that your pet would get the necessary vaccinations and treatments to keep him healthy. Getting insurance for your pet may help offset the costs of such treatments.

For first time pet owners, the responsibility of taking care of their pets can be a bit daunting. Fortunately, the information that pet owners need to help them take care of their pets is readily available from a number of sources. Moreover, taking some necessary yet simple steps can make first time pet owners into knowledgeable owners in no time.

Share This

Americans are more concerned about health than ever before, so we should also have an equal amount of concern for our pets … particularly with regard to the ingredients in their food. We would want the ingredients in our pets’ food to be acceptable for human consumption.

After all, If byproducts are not tolerated in our food, why should they be tolerated in our pets’ food? We’re also starting to realize that our dogs and cats need daily supplements the same way that we do, in order to take care of their bodies for the inevitable ravages of aging. In the span of an animal’s life, an early start at good health ensures less vulnerability to degenerative diseases, joints that are less likely to creak with pain and a healthier heart. Naturally we want our dogs and cats to live with us for as long as possible.

Renowned holistic veternarian Dr. Jane Bicks says that when looking at dog food, one should be be weary of dyes, chemicals and artificial preservatives as much as possible. For example, BHA … one of the most common synthetic antioxidant preservatives mainly used to prevent food discoloration and rancidity … has been found in scientific studies to cause stomach cancer in lab rats at certain doses. In lesser doses, the preservative doesn’t have a cancerous effect but there is no telling what BHA can do to the body in small doses over a long period of time.

Dr. Jane states that the maximum life span of dogs is estimated to be between 25 to 30 years, but the average dog often lives no longer than 13 to 14 years.

And she says that this difference is caused primarily by inadequate nourishment.

She also states that protein is a critical part of a dog’s natural development so pet owners should look for foods which have whole ingredients like meat, eggs, fish and dairy as opposed to byproducts.

Harder working or more energetic dogs require more protein and fat in their diet to maintain stamina and good body form. A dog food that is complete and balanced and includes at least 26 percent protein and 1650 kilocalories of metabolizable energy per pound is ideal. During the seasons when dogs are not working, their energy requirements decrease. Feed less of the high calorie food or change to a less nutrient-dense dog food.

Unbleached rice is one of the more digestible carbohydrates and supplies a wide array of energy for your dog. Corn and wheat, meanwhile, are considerably more difficult to digest. It is also a great idea to look for antioxidants. In recent years, we have become much more conscious of our antioxidant intake, so why shouldn’t we have that same attitude towards our pets?

Dr. Jane Bicks has been honored on many occasions by the veternary profession and is the author of several books inlcluding ‘Thirty days to a healthier, happier dog’ and ‘Dr. Jane’s Natural guide to a healthier, happier dog’. She has been involved in many advisory boards including Canine Companions for independence and has served as the President of the Veterinary Medical association of New York City. She formulates Life’s Abundance premium dog food as well several types of dog supplements. For more information about Life’s Abundance dog food and dog supplements go to http://www.dog-food-nutrition.info/

About The Author

A.M. Wilmot is an author and researcher in the fields of human and pet health. For more info. go to http://www.dog-food-nutrition.com/ or http://www.dog-food-nutrition.info/

Share This