Archives for December, 2009
Pet health insurance
Pet health insurance is highly required nowadays because of the escalating cost factors pertaining to the health maintenance in dogs and other animals. Dog owners need to find pet insurance firms that settle dues to the pet owners without much delay and in a more appropriate manner. Pet health insurance firms recently come forward to settle the dues in a proper manner after the due verification of the claim. If anything happens, dog care costs can add up without insurance.
Hence, know the approved list of your local animal care hospitals. Even have the list of veterinary experts who are specialized in dog’s health care and disease management measures. Many firms cover up the cost made towards undertaking of surgeries, radiographic examinations, treatment of specific conditions, laboratory fees towards undertaking of various laboratory examinations, and more. There is a weighting period before the approval of your policy by most of the insurance firms after the enrolling from you so it’s good to start early.
If you don’t like the insurance firm, at any time, you can cancel the insurance policy. A licensed veterinarian list should be available with all insurance firms. Many payment options are available for the pet owners.
It is better to enroll the dogs or other pets before they become adults. The animals when they are young need to be enrolled as a priority.
It is always better to the consumers who are the dog owners. Before the dogs have any illness, accidents, or get into the pre-existing conditions as quoted by many pet health insurance firms, insurance coverage needs to be entered by the dog owners. The medical history of your dog will be subjected to the full review by the insurance firms, so start soon.
Dec 29, 2009 | | Health
Spaying of the Female dog
Spaying of the female dog is undertaken to control the unwanted pregnancy by crossing of some unknown or country or non-descript dogs. The spaying of the dog reduces the aggressiveness of the dog. By spaying, one can reduce the incidences of the commonly encountered reproductive diseases like pyometra.
Spaying also helps to control the population in case of stray animals and many nations are doing these operations by removing the ovaries from the female animals. Experienced veterinarians are required to do the spaying in case of female dogs and the postoperative care is to be given more emphasis. If proper control measures are not taken after the surgical operation for the removal of ovary, then the infections may start setting in and the animal may end up in development of peritonitis and then toxemia sets in, causing unwanted health problems.
Death of the dog may finally occur, if the dog is not provided an effective and proper veterinary care. A female dog that is spayed before the occurrence of first heat will have almost a zero chance of development of mammary cancer, which is more common with the dogs that are not spayed.
A female dog generally comes to heat once in eight months or so. During the heat occurrence, there is bleeding from vagina and the dog may cross with the unwanted male and the spaying activity prevents all these. In case of aged dogs, the dog may often get signs of increased thirst, anorexia, vomiting etc. that are so common with pyometra.
Pyometra means the presence of pus in the uterus. Once pyometra occurs, it involves many discomforts to the animal in addition to the cost factor involved for the therapy also. Such pyometra is totally prevented by spaying because in the case of spaying, you are removing both ovaries and the uterus.
Dec 22, 2009 | | Health
Why are regular check-ups important?
Why are regular check-ups important? Every dog owner asks this type of question, often. If you failed to do the regular check-ups, then the dog may end up having some major diseases that you don’t know about. Hence, you need to pay lot of money both to the veterinarians for consultancy and for the required drugs useful for the therapy of the clinical condition.
One may not be able to find out the very commonly occurring clinical conditions in case of their dogs because of less experience with dog diseases or dog rearing. This is why check ups are important. For example, if the dog has potbelly, the condition may not look abnormal many times. But if the dog is subjected to the regular check-up, then the veterinarian immediately finds it out and gives the appropriate therapy. If not, the animal may experience diarrhea and the dehydration.
If the dog has any signs of illness, then don’t wait for the regular check-up. Instead, you need to approach the veterinarian immediately. Check ups if done in a regular manner will help to give vaccinations against canine distemper, parvovirus, corona virus, rabies virus, hepatitis virus, and more.
Booster vaccinations will be carried out in such cases without any delay in the injections and this helps to improve the immunity level of the dog against such diseases in a remarkable degree. Regular check up is the essential one with proper stools examination. Hence, the deworming may be carried out with drugs like fenbendazole, albendazole, etc.
Abnormalities like signs of pain may be ruled out during such examinations. If not, helminthiasis may affect the animal and diarrhea may occur in addition to the other types of digestive upsets and anemia. Regular examinations help to rule out the external parasitic conditions like lice or tick infestations. Dental problems are also found out during the regular check ups in reputed veterinary hospitals.
Dec 15, 2009 | | Health
Vaccinations
Vaccinations need to be undertaken always by the pet owners and the dogs need to be vaccinated at the appropriate time. This helps to improve the resistance of the animal against some specific diseases causing frequently problems in dogs. The dogs that are orphaned due to the death of the mother have lesser protection in their immune system.
Such animals are to be particularly protected against various diseases.
Vaccination is usually started at the age of five to six weeks and prior to this age, the maternal immunity will be helping the animal to have natural disease resistance. It is always better to deworm the animal before the vaccination and this is given emphasis many times. Vaccination against the parvo virus is done at an early age because pups are often being affected by parvo viral infections. The booster dose for each vaccine needs to be given at appropriate time and this helps to build up the immune status to an appreciable manner. Vaccination is carried out in many countries against rabies disease.
Hence, vaccination against rabies is given more emphasis always. Even rabies tags are fixed on to the dog collar of most of the dogs. Rabies vaccine is given at age of thirteen to fifteenth weeks of age and is repeated in fifteenth months time. However, this depends on the type of vaccine used. Once in three years, this is repeated.
In dogs that have not received colostrums or dogs at high risk areas, give measles virus vaccine and killed parvovirus vaccine before five weeks of age itself. Leptospira serovar vaccine is given at six to eight weeks of age and again at tenth to twelfth weeks and at thirteenth to sixteenth weeks.
Then annually repeat this. Bordetella and lyme disease vaccinations are only optional ones in case of dogs. Vaccinations against the canine parainfluenza, canine parvovirus, and canine adenovirus type- two is similar to the schedule maintained with leptospiral serovars.
Dec 08, 2009 | | Health
Nursing a sick dog
Nursing a sick dog is one of the vital measures that a dog owner needs to understand. Similarly, when a dog becomes sick, the dog is in need of more care and affection based activities by the dog owners. Nursing a sick animal is often considered as an art and this should not be taken as a causal measure.
Yes. You need to take extra care to the dog when it becomes sick. For example, the sick dog with high fever needs to be given only some bread pieces and bulky non-vegetarian items may be avoided. Such dogs should be kept in some calm place after medications are taken and should not be disturbed. During the nursing of the dog who has taken the drug, the animal needs coaxing and stroking by the owner. Don’t raise the dog’s head too much to avoid the passing of drugs given by the mouth directly into the respiratory organs like lungs. During the nursing measures, take care by giving warm fluids.
Safety is to be given more priority during the nursing activity in any dog. When the dog has severe diarrhea, the animal may start showing signs of dehydration. Hence, the nursing care for dehydration includes an addition of small doses of salt and glucose to water in a careful manner.
Similarly, the vomiting dog also needs proper nursing care. Ice cubes may be given in such cases along with egg whites to smooth the esophageal passage.
Nowadays, a non-contact based infrared thermometer has come up in the market to obtain the temperature of the animal without much stress. Place the dog in a shaded place if the temperature is so high and provide good ventilation to the suffering animal. If the animal is suffering from hypothermia, provide warm blankets to given comfort to the animal.
Dec 01, 2009 | | Health
