This is a quick note to tell you how useful I've found the Merck/Merial manual for Pet Health. There is a home edition that you can pick up in the $15 ballpark that will cover everything you want to know about caring for your own pets. It covers mostly dogs, cats, and horses, but also exotics from fish to prairie dogs. The text is a simple read, probably at 11-12th grade level.
At what age does a cat normally develop tumors or polyps? What is lung worm? How is FIP treated? Diseases that are zoonotic are important to know and can be found in this book also. Can you deal with behavior problems in horses? Colic - there's a word that makes horse owners shudder, but there's an entire chapter on Digestive Disorders of horses in this hefty book.
Over 1300 pages of information of the like that I learned in veterinary college, and some things I didn't know about at all! How to make a first aid kit for your birds, info on sugar gliders, viruses of amphibians, ferret hazards, and so on. I have to say this is my go-to first book when I am puzzled by something with my Animal Cornucopia.
It also covers emergency care for horses, dogs, and cats, drugs used to treat specific disorders (informational, not a formulary), trauma care, bites, and poisoning symptoms and what to do in different cases. If you are searching for a gift for an animal lover, animal person, pet parent, this is the book to get. Just click! You'll be glad you did! (Clicks help support the blog, you can always search for other products once you get there.....thanks!)
So get this book for the pet lover on your gift list.
If you need pet sitting service, be sure to visit our website at www.AllPetsCS.com Coming to Las Vegas? We can take care of your pets in your hotel while you are enjoying the city. Visit us first!
The recent cold snap across America has a lot of folks scrambling to cover pipes and protect pets from the unusually low temps. I am one of those folks, with nearly 30 animal outside that are hostage to my efforts to keep them safe.
I've been asked sometimes about blanketing horses and feeding extra grains and corn during cold spells. Um, no, that's not the best course of action in most circumstances. Of course, an explanation follows!
Here in Las Vegas we have pretty mild winters, and are not generally set up for snow, or even much rain for that matter (less than 4 inches per year average). We are set up to combat heat and sunlight, with shade and misting systems, and we are usually set up for wind, being a desert it is usually windy here if nothing else. Shade covers sloping west or south west, pvc and brass mister systems, and five foot high solid or semi-solid panels on the north side are the usual protections.
For horses over 20, and temps that go below freezing, I will use a blanket that is not for Alaskan winters but has a light to medium poly-fill and a water resistant nylon outer, or even a heavy canvas rug if the horse has a good winter coat. My miniature looks like a bear and will never need a blanket in any Las Vegas winter unless he was clipped, something I have no need to do for him.
My Tennessee Walker mare, however, is 23 years old, and although she grows a decent coat, I hate to think of her leggy ectomorphic frame shivering in the cold, so the lightweight blanket goes on in the evenings, and it comes off in the daytime. We have yet to experience a daytime high of less than 32F so given that's my criteria, if the sun is out, the blanket comes off. I remove the blanket so she is not "acclimatized" to wearing it. It's the body getting used to a temp and then adjusting its personal internal thermostat so the environment. If she wears the coat all day, it will not generally keep her "as warm" than if we remove it for part of the time. When it goes back on, it resets the thermostat to keep the cold away better.
I have a hard time explaining it, but that does seem to be how it works. If you wear a coat in the house where it's warm, it doesn't help as much when you go outside - you need a heavier coat. If you walk about your comfortable house, you put on a coat to go outside and it keeps you warm. Of course, if the horse has a heavy coat, you can't do this, but nature gave the horse what it needs for the climate it's genes hail from - Shetland is cold, Shetland genes grow bigger coats, American minis have Shetland genes, thus - you get the idea. Arabian horse blood will not give a horse nearly as thick a coat, being a desert creature from the equatorial latitudes.
The same goes for a horse clipped for winter time shows. Put that blanket on because you've removed the weatherproof hairs and left only the fuzzy stubs that will dry quicker after a ride but won't do anything more than a T-shirt would for you. A barn should not be closed up and hot, it should be in the 50F ballpark, and a blankets on clipped horses.
The other thing people often will do in an attempt to keep their horses warm is to increase grain. Please don't increase your horses' grain rations. Continue to feed the same amount of grain as always, if any, and increase the hay and roughage. Grain simply encourages founder, and the bacterial flora will have a party and send their waste products straight to your horses' feet. By the time winter arrives, it's too late to "fatten up" your horse for winter. That is supposed to happen in the wild during summer when food is available.
Alfalfa on the left, Orchard-Timothy on the right
Increase hay rations by about 25% for every 10 degrees of F temp below normal. If your normal winter is 30F at night and 50F in the day, and it's down to 25F with 40F daytime highs, give an extra 2-3 pounds of hay at night. This should be a high quality grass hay like orchard or timothy, not a legume like alfalfa. Alfalfa has a high percentage of calcium which can cause an imbalance in potassium and other electrolytes. When water intake is reduced, as it will be in the winter, it is easier to become dehydrated and in imbalance. If temps are staying below freezing, don't be afraid to increase grass hays by 50%. It creates much more heat to digest the hay and roughage than it does the corn and grains, and won't contribute to hoof maladies.
Well, here is a new one I've heard about. I've seen a lot of things removed from a dog's stomach, but this one is sad because it came too late. It came out during a necropsy (animal version of autopsy) and the killer was an AA battery.
I've seen dogs eat rocks, jewelry, cat poo covered in clay litter, a tea bag with staple and tag, peach pits, a Scrunge, a sponge, chocolate of course, but never had I thought that a dog would pick up something so innocuous as a battery, and a dead battery at that.
The toxins in a battery do not go away, they just become inaccessible to the electronic thing that needs the toxins to run.
This is just one example.
And that isn't the only kind of battery you need to beware of. Watch batteries, hearing aid batteries, remote control batteries, smoke detector batteries, toy batteries - anything that uses portable power is a potential killer. The smaller the battery, the easier it is to swallow, altho a small battery in a big dog may be found in time before it's too late.
Radiographs! If your dog is vomiting or having diarrhea, and the vet doesn't have an answer, try an X-ray. Yes, they're pricey. Yes, they find things that you'd never guess at. I spent a lot of money on my dog getting acupuncture and supplements when a single x-ray would have shown the stone in her bladder, which, once removed, cleared up her incontinence in 12 hours flat.
It is the time of year we hear "Batteries not included" with just about every item on the Christmas list. You buy batteries, batteries can roll off a tabletop, you won't miss them when they're gone (like your wedding ring would be missed). They don't necessarily cause a blockage, but serious gastrointestinal pain and suffering follow their ingestion. They rarely come out without doing some damage along the way (unlike, say, a dime or the cat poo). Don't leave batteries laying around - 9 volt, AAA, AA, C, even D can be swallowed and kill.
Speaking of cats, don't forget that tinsel from the tree can snare up their intestines like an accordion, and death happens quickly. It's so fun to play with, shiny, and irresistible, just use garland and keep the tinsel off the temptation list. It is a surgery that is rarely successful if even the cause is discovered in time.
Going away for the holidays? Call a trusted Pet Sitter to care for your furry friends while you are vacationing. In Las Vegas, call me at 702-560-8234, or visit my website at All Pets Concierge Service, LLC. I am a licensed veterinary technician who has never had a dog eat a battery or a cat eat tinsel!
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