The latest DAILY PAWS Valentine’s edition has just been posted.
Check it out HERE!!
xoxoxo,
Linda
VetLocator.com Daily Paws
PS..Now go pet your Valentine!
Valentine’s Issue of Daily Paws is here!
February 13th, 2011More veterinarians are now making house calls
February 2nd, 2011
One of our most popular directories on VetLocator.com is our House Call Directory. We probably get 200+ requests for veterinarians who make house calls DAILY.
Some of those requests are from pet owners who can’t take their pets to the vet due to size or the fact that they, the pet owner, cannot travel. Many want to make the interaction with the veterinarian an easier one and wish to eliminate the fear many pets experience around strangers and strange pets.
Often pet owners have several pets who need attention at the same time and it makes much more sense for the vet to come to them than to have to make several trips to the vet to get the whole group seen.
An finally, there is a growing service of pet home euthanasia……helping a pet make their transition in a loving and familiar environment.
If you’ve ever thought about having a house call veterinarian come to your home, you can find one in our House Call Vets Directory. Just enter your zip code in the directory field and click search, and remember, if you can’t find what you are looking for, let us know. We’re here to help.
Adam
VetLocator.com
Major study of cancer in Golden Retrievers announced.
January 18th, 2011Possibly the largest and longest observational study of canine cancer in dogs, specifically Golden Retrievers, is set to launch later this year. The project is known as the Canine Lifetime Health Project, will be conducted by the Morris Animal Foundation, will follow Golden Retrievers from 2 through 7 years of age, and will span 13 years. The purpose of this study is to better understand the genetic, nutritional and environmental risk factors for cancer and other diseases.
To read more about this study, click here: http://goo.gl/pvlZP
Are you sleeping with your pets? Read this first!
January 15th, 2011In a January 14th article, WebMd’s Daniel DeNoon writes about a new report that sleeping with your pet’s may be as dangerous as having bed bugs!
While I’ve had pets around me, and sometimes sleeping in our bed my whole life (pets sleeping with me doesn’t last long because I’m a notoriously restless sleeper and my pets voluntarily choose to sleep elsewhere), this report is concerning.
“Bubonic Plague
Humans get bubonic plague from fleas. Chomel and Sun recount various cases of plague linked to sleeping with cats. These include a 9-year-old boy from Arizona who slept with his sick cat.
And a 2008 study of plague survivors found that 44% of them slept with their pet dog, while only 10% of matched comparison subjects slept with their pets. This dog-in-bed plague risk remained significant even after the study authors took into account a large number of other factors.
This last factoid is troubling because dogs — unlike cats — can carry plague fleas without showing symptoms of the disease.”
You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.webmd.com/news/20110114/bed-pets-more-dangerous-than-bedbugs
This open letter from a rescue shelter to their local county animal shelter is a MUST READ
December 29th, 2010Here is a reprint of an open letter from PetLuv, a Florida non-profit spay and neuter clinic to the Hernando County Animal Services announcing they are severing ties with the shelter and exactly why. It is a must read….
Published: December 29, 2010
Updated: 12/28/2010 06:04 pm
This is a letter addressed to Liana Teague, manager, code Enforcement & Animal Services.
If it isn’t already obvious, this is official notification the PetLuv is severing its relationship with Animal Services. Over the years we have made many offers of programs, manpower, resource, and materials to try to help you reduce your euthanasia rate and increase adoptions. Most of them have been rebuffed or ignored, no improvements have been made, and too many animals continue to die. The reasons you have given for not accepting these offers have been “we don’t have the manpower or the resources,” “my bosses won’t buy it,” or “my staff wouldn’t accept it.” The offers we made were always at no additional effort or cost on your part. And in retrospect, I don’t think you ever made your bosses or your staff aware of most of the opportunities you were being handed.
To that end, I am listing just a few of the things I proposed to you beginning with our September meeting:
Manpower. I was told that a big hurdle to increasing adoptions was a lack of clerical staff to make spay and neuter appointments and process adoptions. I offered for PetLuv to provide and pay for a permanent, part-time position for the express purpose of handling those paperwork tasks. I also said we would consider hiring a recently-laid-off Animal Services employee, to provide experience and continuity.
One of PetLuv’s veterinarians, in addition to being a shelter veterinarian, does veterinary consulting. PetLuv will pay her fee to provide a professional assessment of changes could be made to increase adoption rates and decrease euthanasia.
PetLuv will pay for veterinarians to come to Animal Services as required to assess animals’ physical issues and their adoptability. (Three of PetLuv’s veterinarians have years of shelter experience, as does Doctor Figarola.)
PetLuv will treat or pay for treatment for adoptable animals with medical conditions that would otherwise be put down.
PetLuv will reduce the charges for spaying and neutering Animal Services animals by half. Adoptable animals would be altered upon entry, thus allowing more animals to be adopted instead of put down.
In return for this significant commitment of money in order to save more animals’ lives, I wanted to see the following: that no animal that has been altered in preparation for adoption will subsequently be euthanized; that at a minimum, 50 percent of available cages at Animal Services will be filled with animals for adoption at all times; that the adoption fee for Animal Services animals will remain at its current rate.
I don’t know why you didn’t jump at these opportunities, but I heard nothing from you for months. I had to push for another meeting on Dec 3. At that meeting you told me that your spay and neuter budget was depleted, at which time I made another offer: PetLuv would provide all food for Animal Services, allowing you to divert your food budget to spays and neuters. And effective immediately, PetLuv would cut your spay and neuter charges by half, and provide rabies shots free.
I doubt the “powers that be” prevented you from accepting these offers. And I doubt that your staff expressed resistance to these no-cost changes that would save more animals. As I said, I believe these proposals started and died with you, as did so many others in the past.
We can no longer work with and enable an organization that rejects or ignores no-cost offers to save more animals. So all of these offers are now off the table, including the one allowing you to divert your food budget towards spaying and neutering.
PetLuv will still alter and vaccinate animals belonging to owners adopting from Animal Services.
That includes the remaining Shih Tzus that need surgery. But they will be given regular appointments after they have been adopted, and after they have been out of the shelter for a minimum of 14 days. And they will be charged our regular surgery rates. This policy will apply to ALL dogs coming from Animal Services: we will accept them, whether for shots or surgery, after they have been in their owners’ homes for 14 days and free of symptoms. This is a permanent policy, necessitated by your failure to notify us of your last parvo outbreak and continuing to send animals over directly from an infected shelter, putting all of our clients’ animals at risk. But that’s another story…
In closing, I want to make clear that this decision to alter our relationship with Animal Services is not a reflection on the staff. I have known many of your personnel for years, and I know you have dedicated and caring people. But in the absence of a manager that is willing to work to save more animals rather than paying lip service, and in the absence of a manager that creates and enforces clear guidelines, protocols, and procedures, the staff is left to flounder the best they can, with decisions being made on an ad hoc basis.
PetLuv will never turn its back on any animal, no matter where it comes from. But we can no longer continue the relationship with Animal Srvices the way it currently exists.
Richard L. Silvani
Executive Director
PetLuv Nonprofit Spay and Neuter Clinic
——
In a time when animals are being abandoned at record rates and shelters are unnecessarily euthanizing pets because of overcrowding and lack of funds, this letter is disturbing to me to the extreme.
What do you think?
What you can do to catch cancer early and save your pet’s life
December 4th, 2010
Here are some statistics on cancer in dogs that I found alarming…According to SFGate.com, 1 in 4 dogs in the US will die of cancer (in other words, 25% of ALL dogs will die from cancer) and that number increases to almost one in two for dogs over the age of 10.
That’s very concerning.
The better news is if you, the pet owner, become educated and stay alert to indications you dog or cat may need to be checked for cancer and it is caught early, chances for a complete recovery are much higher.
Here is a link to the original article which includes steps to take to check at home and what to do if you suspect your pet has cancer.
If you need to find an oncologist – a pet cancer specialist, click here for VetLocator.com’s Advanced Specialist Search
Celebrate: Giving thanks to those who share our lives
November 24th, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving from VetLocator.com
This morning I got up a few minutes later than normal and walked slowly downstairs to be greeted by 3 sets of anxious eyes and dancing paws.
I was LATE FOR BREAKFAST.
I’ll bet you’ve had similar scenes in your house too.
And as I began the morning ritual of gathering up the food bowls and preparing the morning special pet food mix, the dancing and love flinging in my direction intensified to a fever pitch.
It’s nice to be adored 🙂
I know my pets give thanks each and every time I feed them, and for each moment I take time from my busy schedule to spend just with them, and for sharing my life with me. And you know what? I feel exactly the same about them. I give thanks to them each day, for giving me such pleasure in their company, and such love. They remind me to be real because that is what they understand most. I thank them for that.
And I have much more beyond sharing my life with my pets. I give thanks to the wonderful veterinarians that fill the directories we share with you. I’ve learned from these dedicated folks that being a veterinarian takes a special kind of person, someone who starts out with a love and need to help animals and matches it with a desire to heal. To generalize a bit, as a group, these are some of the nicest, most caring folks I’ve ever met, and I’m thankful for them.
I give thanks for being part of a great team at VetLocator.com. It’s a pleasure to work here.
And I give thanks to you as well. And I know your pets do too.
In our Daily Paws newsletter, I mentioned the video I created showcasing our Thanksgiving Pet Pictures. I created it using Animoto, a super simple online system that has a basic free account you can use to create videos from your photos or video clips and your favorite music. Animoto will also host your video on their site and will even upload your video to a YouTube or Smugmug account if you have one.
I uploaded the video to my personal YouTube account and then watched both videos side by side to see which service was better. I decided I liked the one hosted on Animoto the best because there is no bar at the bottom so it is actually a bigger image. Very nice.
Below you can see the video I created and at the bottom of the video is the logo which links to Animoto so you can make your very own videos if you want to.
Enjoy!
Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s about to be a scary time for pets…watch out
October 17th, 2010
- Image via Wikipedia
We live in an area of the country where people decorate for Halloween as much as they do for Christmas, and that is a LOT of lights and sounds and goings on. And we happen to live in a neighborhood where there is a lot of trick or treating visitors – hundreds of children knock on our door each year. It is fun for us, and for them, but it’s not fun for our pets.
Here’s our annual reminder to be good to your pets and keep them safe during this very scary time of year:
- If you purchase candy for the trick or treaters – make sure you put it in a safe spot, away from hungry, curious dogs and cats (and kids for that matter). Chocolate is toxic for our pets and can cause death if eaten in enough quantity.
We’ve listed some signs of chocolate toxicity below. - During trick or treat night, keep your pets locked in a room that has some soothing music or the tv on to keep them calm.
- Even though they are inside, make sure your pets have their id on in the event something happens and they get out, get spooked (pun intended), and run away.
- If you have your own trick or treaters that come home with candy, make sure they also put their candy somewhere your pets can’t get to it. Children sorting through their evening’s loot and spreading their candy out is a common way pets can get chocolate candy to eat.
Signs of chocolate toxicity
Pets who consume chocolate can experience vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst and urination, irregular heartbeat, tremors, seizures and even death. These problems are mainly caused by a substance in chocolate called theobromine.
Chocolate can be harmful to dogs (the most common chocolate sneakers), cats, birds, rats and ferrets. The amount of chocolate and the pet’s own system will determine what effect chocolate has, so if you suspect your pet has ingested chocolate and they are experiencing any adverse effects, get them to your veterinarian to be checked, right away.
We want everyone to have a safe Halloween night.
Related articles
- Halloween Chocolate a Serious Threat to Pets (nlm.nih.gov)
Be your pet’s advocate. Speak up for them & don’t be afraid to get a 2nd opinion
October 12th, 2010
Speak up for your pets!
Picture this. Your dog has had a chronic cough for over a month.
You took your dog to your veterinarian soon after he started coughing and have been dutifully giving him the medicine your vet prescribed, but he does not seem to be getting better.
You call the vet and he asks questions about your dog, how he’s feeling, what’s happening. You wish your dog could answer the vet directly but, unfortunately he cannot. Your dog is counting on you, as his advocate, to speak for him.
So that’s what you do.
You can’t add anything to what you already told the vet and, while he has some other suggestions for your dog, you’re not feeling too good about what he’s saying.
Should you get a second opinion?
Maybe.
Whether you should get a second opinion depends on several things. First is your relationship with your vet. do you feel like you are working together to solve your pet’s health problem? Is the relationship already suffering from a poor communication level and this is the straw that’s about to break the camel’s back?
So when should you get a second opinion for your pet?
When you’re told something health-related for your pet, you need to use the same kind of judgment you would use in dealing with your own health or the health of your child.
Consider what kind of situation you have (how serious, what you’ve just been told, what the options are, etc.), then think about what you would do if you’d just received similar advice from your physician or your child’s pediatrician.
Would you feel comfortable working with your health provider in trying to work for a better solution or would you feel better asking for a second opinion?
The same advice applies to your pet’s vet.
The decision for asking for a second opinion becomes a lot easier when your vet tells you your pet needs surgery or an expensive treatment in order to fix what’s broken. In a scenario like this, it is a good idea to ask for a second and maybe even a third opinion.
Here are some questions to answer when considering asking for a second opinion:
- Does my vet seem to know about what’s wrong with my pet? Sometimes taking your pet to a veterinarian who specializes in, for example, feline medicine if you have a cat, is a good idea if your general medicine vet is not having success in treating your cat.
- Is my pet not getting any better or deteriorating under my vet’s care? This certainly is a good reason to get another opinion, and FAST! If you are close to your current vet, ask for a specialist recommendation. Most vets are fine with recommending a specialist and can give you the names of some they trust. They are on your side in improving the health of your pet.
- Has my relationship with my pet’s vet been close up until now? If it is, do I feel like my vet can help us find the right solution for my pet’s health issues? You should be able to answer yes to both of these questions. If you can’t get a second opinion.
- Am I unwilling to take my vet’s advice for tests and procedures because I’m unsure if he/she is right? If your vet has been recommending tests and treatments that you aren’t willing to do because you think they may be unnecessary, you are not working with your vet and this is not helping either of you. If this is the case, get a second opinion.
- Do I feel like my vet has answered all of my questions and I have a clear understanding of what’s wrong with my pet, what my options are and what the costs might be? If the answer is no, then it’s time to either get with your vet and get your questions answered or ask for another opinion.
- Does my vet listen to my suggestions when discussing my pet’s condition or does he/she treat me like I’m stupid and my suggestions are without value? Obviously if you leave your pet’s vet feeling like you’re questions and needs have been ignored, it’s time for a second opinion.
- Ask your vet “What would you do if this were your pet and you were me?” If you are comfortable with the answer then take your vet’s advice for treatment. If you are not, get a second opinion.
How do you ask for a second opinion?
If you’ve decided you need a second opinion, here are some suggestions on how to find one.
- Ask your current vet
- Use one of VetLocator.com‘s pet pro directories. Local, House Call, Specialty, Holistic/Alternative and more.
- Ask for suggestions from friends. If you are a ‘social web’ person, using Facebook and Twitter can give you some good suggestions from pet owners in your area.
When you take your pet for a second opinion it’s important to come armed with as much information as you can. Your pet’s medical history, medicines, operations, age, vaccines, etc. Be up front and honest with the second vet on what your previous vet told you about your pet, what tests were run, etc. It’s a good idea to let your original veterinarian know you’ll be asking for another opinion because the 2nd vet will need to have access to your pet’s health records. Staying on good terms with your pet’s original vet is a good idea because most of the time they have a relationship with both your pet and you.
And realize that getting a second opinion and even taking your pet to another vet does not mean you’ll need to switch permanently, especially if you’ve gone to a veterinary specialist.
And then there are those times when we don’t want to accept what our pet’s vet is saying, and we blindly take our pet for other opinions hoping someone is going to tell us something different.
We’ve heard from some vets that say they’ve given ’15th opinions’ to to pet owners who refuse to accept what they are being told about their pet’s health. That’s not good. Not good for your pet, not good for you, not good for your pocket book.
So don’t be afraid of being an advocate for your pet and don’t be afraid to get a second opinion if you feel one is warranted. Your pet will thank you for it.