What Kills Dogs? What Kills Cats?

Top 3 diseases that kill dogs: cardiac, cancer, kidney.
Top disease that kills cats: kidney.

Can we do anything about these diseases? Yes. Lots.
Nutrition, herbs, acupuncture, and homeopathy are great tools for helping sick pets. Over time, we'll talk about how each method benefits these pets.

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Best Christmas Dog Toy

The best Christmas dog toy is something you can make from one of your old shirts. What no big bucks? Nope. This is pure love and sweat—don’t wash that shirt. Turtle necks work best, but any cotton shirt will do.

Place the shirt on a flat surface and imagine it divided into 3 longitudinal sections. The sections should have about equal amounts of fabric in them. Imagine making two cuts so that the sleeve and a small piece of the body along the right side are the right section, the sleeve and a small piece of the body along the left side are the left section, leaving the middle containing as much material as each of the side pieces.

Once you’ve got the picture, make your two cuts so the shirt is divided into the 3 sections. Start from the bottom hem of the shirt and cut upward toward the neck. Stop 4 inches or so below the neckline. Now, you’ll have a shirt connected at the top, with three sections. Braid the three sections together. At the bottom, tie a knot to secure the braid.

Voila!
Your best friend has one of your beloved old shirts to use as a tug toy. The best Christmas dog toy ever!

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Diarrhea in Dogs & Cats

Diarrhea squirts from the butts of thousands of pets over the holidays. You can try to treat it yourself if your pet:
· has no fever,
· is eating,
· is drinking, and
· is acting with usual enthusiasm.

Treating diarrhea
Here are the steps to control diarrhea if your pet falls victim to the squirts:
1. Give easy-to-digest food (broth and mashed potatoes or mashed sweet potatoes, or broth and rice run through the blender).
2. Feed small amounts often (every few hours) rather than large amounts twice a day.
3. Give probiotics, such as Immediacare GI.
4. Keep the bottom clean by spraying gently with a hose in the bathtub. Don’t scrub inflamed skin around the anus, but use the hose to clean the area. Then, apply a small amount of soap, massage and clean the skin, rinse three times longer than you think is necessary, and blot dry. If the anus or bottom is red, apply zinc oxide (baby diaper ointment) or Burt’s Cuticle Cream, or an herbal cream with calendula as a barrier to further harm. Never put cream on a dirty bottom.

If the diarrhea doesn't stop
If the diarrhea doesn’t clear up within 24 hours, or your pet develops a fever, stops eating or drinking, or becomes listless, see your vet. Take a stool sample with you. The vet will check the stool for bacteria and parasites. An antibiotic may be prescribed. IV fluids may be started. Your pet may be prescribed Carafate, which coats the stomach, and you may need to stop pain medication given for arthritis.

Overeating causes most diarrhea cases
Usually holiday diarrhea is caused by overeating that can be entirely prevented by feeding properly. If you don’t like diarrhea, don’t cause it. Your pet is counting on your discretion to keep it healthy. No extra fat. No extra gravy. No bones unless it routinely eats bones. Have fun in ways other than eating.

Hallelujah, the holidays are coming, we’re going to have dogs in the White House, and you’re going to have a healthy pet!

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Feeding Pets at Thanksgiving, Be Safe

We all feed our pets some of what’s on the table at Thanksgiving, so here are two tips to keep it safe:

1. Control the amount of calories.
Don’t give your pet more total calories today that it usually has. Too many calories cause pancreatitis, which is very painful, and doesn’t go away just because we stop overfeeding. Nope, we can harm a pet for life by feeding too many calories on only one day of the year.

2. Limit fat.
Don’t give your pet more fat or oil on Thanksgiving that it normally has. To limit fat intake, remove the skin from the turkey, tear it into strips, freeze, and feed a strip a day for the next couple of weeks. Avoid putting gravy on the vegetables your pet gets, and don’t give sweet potatoes baked in butter. Hold the stuffing.

Bless you for wanting your pet to enjoy its food. If your pets aren’t used to human food, give only small amounts of deeply pigmented fruits and vegetables, and small amounts of meat, fish, eggs, or other proteins. For example, give a Labrador a half dozen blueberries, a quarter cup of sweet potatoes, a quarter cup of cooked broccoli, and a quarter cup of turkey. Give a little poodle, 3 blueberries, one tablespoon of sweet potatoes and a tablespoon of cooked broccoli, and a tablespoon of turkey.

Let’s give gratitude to our pets for what they bring us all year long by feeding them well on Thanksgiving and every day of the year.

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Holiday Care For New Pets

Anyone with a new pet at the holidays, whether the pet is in the White House, or your house, needs to provide extra attention. What we shouldn’t provide are extra calories from our wonderful holiday meals. So, let’s look at the attention we should give our new pets:

Calm petting. The more noise and commotion is in the house, the more our dogs and cats need a quiet reassuring hand to confirm all is well.

Calm hiding spot. If pets prefer to hide under a bed, they’re telling us they’re not feeling safe in their own home. Remove the extra noise by closing the door and putting on a calming CD. Open the crate or sleeping kennel and let your pet ease into its safest place.

Calming pheromones. Use DAP Comfort Zone for Dogs or Feliway for cats to provide the signal that all is well directly to the oldest part of the brain. The rhinencephalon registers the message from DAP or Feliway and bypasses the cognitive, thinking part of the brain. It soothes pets without their even being aware of it.

Calming routine. Pets enjoy routine exercise and play times and routine bedtimes. Even over the holidays when children and households are taking breaks from routine, pets need the same old exercise, feeding times, and bed times. If they get more exercise than normal, they should have more sleep than normal. Keep the balance.

What's coming?
In the next Caring for Pets blog, let’s look at holiday nutrition, especially holiday nutrition for a new pet.

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Mixed-Breed, Any Breed, The White House Puppy Needs Love & Care

President Obama’s girls want a puppy, and we’ve looked at dozens of kid-friendly breeds, from small to giant, but why not get the best of all breeds, the mixed-breed. Mixed-breed dogs are mutts, and having a mixture of genes usually allows mutts to be healthier than are dogs bred to have a specific size, color, shape and personality.

No matter what type of dog Sasha and Malia choose, we know they’ll give it lots of love. They’ll also feed it and take it to the veterinarian. Let’s look at what Malia and Shasha and all families with new pets need to consider. First, let’s cover how to keep new pets healthy over the holidays. Then, let’s look at pet’s long-term health and see what nutritional guidelines we can recommend to get them started on the right track.

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Best Puppy for Malia and Sasha Obama

The Obama children, Malia and Sasha Obama might want a puppy that grows up to be a big dog. There are many large breeds known to be good with children:

· Bearded Collie
· Bernese Mountain Dog
· Black Russian Terrier
· Bloodhound
· Bouvier Des Flanders
· Boxer
· Collie
· English Setter
· Flat-coated Retriever
· Giant Schnauzer
· Golden Retriever
· Gordon Setter
· Irish Wolfhound
· Labrador Retriever
· Newfoundland
· Old English Sheepdog
· Pointer
· Redbone Coonhound
· Spinone Italiano

Boxers are light on their feet, gloriously playful, and have short hair. The Golden, while it has long hair, is world-reknown for gentle disposition. The Bearded Collie is known for its humor. If it’s a large dog that Sasha and Malia are looking for, they’re got wonderful breeds to choose from.

Almost always, though, mixed-breed dogs are just as wonderful as our purebreds. And, often mixed-breed dogs are healthier than pure-breed dogs. The Humane Societies and animal shelters are full of loving, trustworthy large and small dogs, both mixed-breed and pure-bred. We hope Malia and Sasha Obama turn their hearts toward the millions of puppies and adult dogs that need a good home. We know that dogs’ hearts will be open to the entire Obama family, no matter what dog the children choose.

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