Passion4 Pets

Posts Tagged ‘Pets’

Puppies are so sweet and cute and letting them off the hook easily after a mistake is bound to happen. You will ‘awe’ when you find those tiny muddy paw prints all over your kitchen floor as they were probably made so innocently. Don’t be fooled by those huge adorable puppy eyes when they need something from you. You need to train the puppy at this stage otherwise you will regret it later on when you just can’t discipline them.

Puppy training can be a difficult job especially if you have no prior training experience. With the following steps, you’ll be on the right track;

1. Start the training as soon as the puppy gets home. Do not wait until later on when they are too spoilt and head strong. It is much easier when they are young as the basic instruction is bound to stick and they will never forget it.
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Stress isn’t ever fun to deal with. There are several ways to reduce it, including improving diet, getting more sleep, exercising and medication. However, have you ever thought about the fact that pets reduce stress and anxiety? Pets, in fact, are one of the best stress relievers and provide their owners with a number of other health benefits, including reduced blood pressure and improved allergies. Here are five ways that pets can help to reduce stress:

1) Pets Help Decrease Blood Pressure.
Pets have been known to reduce blood pressure better than medications. They can sense tension and have a natural ability to keep us calm. When humans are stressed, their blood pressure tends to increase which intensifies the health effects of being stressed.

2) Pets Encourage Exercise.
It’s sometimes difficult to get ourselves to work out, but when the health of a pet is in your hands, you’re pretty much forced to! Pets encourage us to go on walks, jogs, and to play fetch in the backyard. Exercise is good for stress management and overall health, so owning a pet can be credited with increasing these benefits.

3) Pets Help With Social Support.
Dogs and cats can make us more approachable and give people a reason to stop and talk. This gives people an opportunity to increase their network of friends and acquaintances, which also has great stress management benefits.

4) Pets Improve Your Mood.
For those of us who love animals, we know it’s impossible to stay in a bad mood with pets in our lives. Some studies have shown that people who own pets are less likely to suffer from depression.

5) Pets Prevent Loneliness.
Animals can be there for you in ways that people can’t. They don’t judge and they definitely won’t ever cancel plans. They offer love and companionship and keep our secrets, no matter what. It may sound silly, but pets can be even better listeners than humans can be! In this way, pets reduce stress that may come from social isolation.

If you don’t already have a pet, hopefully reading this article encourages you to go out and get one! And if you already own one, you’re probably appreciating them more than you did before. Remember that if you’re constantly feeling stressed and anxious, even with a pet around, it would probably be best to see a doctor to discuss other options to relieve your stress.

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Spring and summer are quickly approaching, which means it’s almost time for warm weather and outdoor festivities. Summer days are made even better when they’re shared with pets. By following a few summer pet care safety tips, you can keep your animals healthy and enjoy the fun-filled summer months!

1) Never leave your pet in the car. No matter how long you’re going to be gone or how cool you think it is outside, the temperature inside the car can raise to 120 degrees F in a matter of minutes. This can be extremely dangerous for animals, so play it safe and leave them at home when you run errands!

2) Keep your pet leashed. Letting your dog run free could create problems. He/she could end up getting lost, in a fight with another animal or ingesting something dangerous.

3) Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. This could be the number one summer pet care safety tip and goes for humans as well-whether you’re indoors or outdoors, both you and your pet must consume plenty of water during the summer. If you leave the house, be sure to bring water bottles along with you and your pet.

4) Don’t forget to groom. Protect your dog from the sun by keeping him well groomed. This will help him to be more comfortable and insulated from the heat. Dogs with thick hair should have it trimmed regularly during the summer.

5) Never leave them unattended. Some animals are left outside for the majority of the summer. However, when it gets very hot, it’s not safe to keep them outdoors for a long period of time. You may want to keep your pets inside during the hottest part of the year to prevent illness and dehydration.

6) Be aware of heatstroke. Heatstroke is a dangerous condition and requires veterinary attention immediately. Signs of heatstroke include:

a. Panting
b. Staring
c. Anxious expression
d. Refusal to obey commands
e. Warm, dry skin
f. High fever
g. Rapid heartbeat
h. Vomiting
i. Collapse

If you notice any of these symptoms, contact a veterinarian as soon as possible. In the meantime, attempt to lower the animal’s body temperature by applying towels soaked in cool water to the hairless areas of the body. Heatstroke can be fatal, so take every step you can to prevent it from happening.

Following all of these summer pet care safety tips should keep you on the right track for keeping your pets safe during the summer. Remember that if your pet is very young, elderly, or ill he may have a harder time regulating his body temperature. You will want to keep a special eye on him/her if that is the case to prevent problems.

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A large percentage of dogs, cats, and probably most other animals suffer, at least to some degree, from seasonal allergies- just like humans. Airborne pollens and molds are probably the most common culprits, but the list of possibilities is practically endless. Finding and removing the exact allergens that cause your pet’s misery can be virtually impossible. It doesn’t matter where you live either – with spring comes a plethora of potentially allergenic particles— particles that are everywhere— in the wind, and in the water dish.

So what to do? A trip to the veterinarian may yield a prescription for an antihistamine or, if symptoms are severe, a corticosteroid drug. Although either one can be effective toward shutting off the symptoms of seasonal allergy, neither will help correct the underlying immune system dysfunction that causes the problem. And in the case of corticosteroid drugs (such as Prednisone) the side effects of extended use can be far worse than the allergy itself.

So, what to do?

First and foremost, clean up the diet. If your purchasing choices are driven more by cost than by quality, chances are you are compounding the problem by throwing poor quality food ingredients into the mix. You may even be feeding ingredients that are causing your pet’s allergy. Regardless, poor quality meat and grain bybroducts, artificial flavorings and preservatives and things like soy protein may be compromising the natural immunity of your pet. So make changes. Buy good food– recipes that feature whole meats (“chicken”, beef”, “duck”, etc.) and real vegetables as top line ingredients- not meat byproducts or cheap grain fillers.

Second but equally important: start supplementing your companion’s diet with fish and vegetable oils that are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids right now. Omega 3 fatty acids are essential components in the animal body’s regulation of inflammatory response to any allergen that enters the body system. Without enough Omega 3 fatty acids in the diet, the body’s inflammatory response to an invading allergen cannot be properly regulated, making the whole problem much worse than it should be. In my opinion, the best essential fatty acid supplements use fish oil as the primary ingredient- and the best fish oil is that which comes from the whole bodies of wild harvested cold water fish. Avoid products that are made from farm raised salmon or other cultivated sources, as they might contain potentially carcinogenic contaminants, like PCBs, or residual amounts of antibiotics and growth hormones that are used to farm the fish.

Finally, to help alleviate some of the symptoms, you might want to try adding a few herbs to your pet’s daily regimen. The following herbs are safe for dogs, cats, and most other mammals, and are all part of my favorite “Spring Tonic” tincture formula for hay fever.

NETTLE (Urtica spp.)

At the top of my list of anti-allergy success stories is nettle leaf. Many people and their animals find symptomatic relief from daily use of this herb, especially when its use is commenced at the earliest onset of hay fever season. One of the predominant theories of how nettle works is centered on the release of histamine. Histamine is a protein produced by the body that contributes to the body’s inflammatory responses. If histamine is released by the body too quickly or in too much abundance, symptoms such as swelling, sneezing and coughing are more likely to occur. Nettle’s chemistry includes an interesting assortment of proteins and histamine-like compounds that herbalists (like myself) believe may slow the body’s own release of histamine, thus lessening severity of allergy symptoms.

EYEBRIGHT (Euphrasia officianalis)

Herbalists have used eyebright herb for centuries to help relieve inflammation of upper respiratory mucus tissues. Eyebright is also thought to help support and strengthen various liver functions, meaning that it helps with the body’s elimination of systemic waste that may otherwise compound the allergy scenario.

BURDOCK (Arctium lappa/minor)

Burdock has been used since ancient times as a safe, gentle liver tonic. In both Western and Traditional Chinese Medicine (where it is known as “gobo”) burdock has been long regarded as a specific remedy for various forms of chronic dermatitis. It is thought to work by supporting the liver in the elimination of protein byproducts and other metabolic waste that may otherwise cause allergic reactions if left in the body. The idea: get the allergenic stuff out of the body before inflammation is triggered.

LICORICE ROOT (Glycyrrhiza glabra/uralensis)

I regard licorice root as perhaps the most broad-spectrum anti-inflammatory herb available. In addition to strong liver-support attributes, this herb contains an assortment of phytosterol constituents that may serve to supplement the body’s natural production of cortisone; a hormone that serves to further slow and regulate the body’s inflammatory response. It is also anti-tussive and expectorant, meaning that it will help make your pet’s coughs and sneezes less violent and more productive.

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