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Pet Care
Klamath Falls is blessed to have a variety of excellent veterinarians. Your veterinarian is as important to your pet's health as you doctor is to yours. Select a Veterinarian and make sure that your pet is current on all vaccinations. An annual physical for your furry friend is also a good idea. Early detection of a health challenge is extremely important. Your veterinarian should meet with you personally and take the time to discuss any concerns to your satisfaction.
Avoid leaving your pet unattended in your vehicle on warm and hot days. Even with relatively low temperatures outside, a car can become a miniature green house inside where temperatures can rapidly climb to 130 degrees within minutes. Heatstroke can mean a quick a painful death for your pet.
- Heavy exercise during midday can overexert your dog. It's better for you and your dog if you wait and exercise during the cooler morning and evening hours.
- Because dogs don't have tennis shoes, they need pad protection. Running or jogging on hot pavement can damage and blister your dog's pads.
- Provide your pets with plenty of clean, fresh, cool drinking water to avoid dehydration.
Contact your veterinarian immediately if your pet is behaving in a peculiar way and you suspect he or she may be sick.
Obesity is the condition of being seriously overweight. Obese pets have more physical ailments and a shorter life span than those of normal weight. Obesity increases risk during surgery, and breathing and walking are more difficult for the obese pet.
Obesity is usually the result of too much food and too little exercise. Other factors, such as breed, temperament, hormone imbalance, and disease, may also cause obesity, but most cases are the result of too many calories.Weight loss should be accomplished slowly with a nutritionally balanced diet, rather than with severe short-term food restriction. In most cases, pets must be retrained to eat moderate amounts of food 1-2 times daily without any snacks.
All members of the family should be aware of the need for the pet to lose weight, and all should be in agreement before starting dietary control. One person can easily foul up the entire weight-loss program.
Work with your veterinarian on the ideal weight-loss program for your pet. Find out what your pet's ideal weight should be, and begin recording your pet's weight each week.
- Notify the doctor if any of the following occur:
- Your pet is not losing weight.
- Your pet refuses to eat the recommended diet.
- Your pet seems restless, or unusually excitable.
- Your pet seems weak or depressed.
- There is a change in your pet's general health.
Lyme Disease is the most common tick-transmitted disease in the United States. Several ticks have been known to carry the disease including the deer tick, the black-legged tick, the American dog tick, and the Lone Star tick. Lyme Disease is caused when an infected tick bites your pet and transmits the organism that causes disease.
Once infected, the pet will develop lameness and joint pain, often accompanied by fever, lethargy, a loss of appetite, and enlarged lymph glands. A blood test can, in most cases, positively identify the disease. Once diagnosed, your veterinarian will prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics for your animal that in most cases will cure your pet.
Ticks are much more likely to transmit the disease to your dog than to your cat. Cats, because of their grooming habits, frequently remove the tick before it can transmit the disease organism. There is a vaccine for dogs that is effective at preventing Lyme disease. Check with your veterinarian for more information.
In people, the most characteristic early symptom is a circular red skin rash with a clear area in the center at the site of the tick bite. If you believe you have the symptoms of Lyme disease, call your physician. The vaccine for Lyme Disease is only available for dogs, however treatment with antibiotics have proven effective in pets, other animals and people. Treatment with antibiotics in the early stages of Lyme disease helps to prevent later stages of the disease when arthritis, heart and/or nervous system complications can occur. A blood test for the organism may be utilized to aid in the diagnosis of Lyme disease. It is important to know the disease is not directly transmissible between humans and animals.
If you suspect that your pet has been poisoned, call your veterinarian or the National Animal Poison Control Center at 1-800-548-2423 or 1-900-680-0000.
- Have the following information available if possible:
- Exact name of the plant or poison
- How much the animal ate or came in contact with
- How long ago exposure or ingestion occurred.
- The animal's vital signs (temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, capillary refill time, and mucous membrane color).
- The animal's weight
Specific Home Therapy is based on ridding the pet's body of the toxin.
For topical poisons:
Wash the animal with large volumes of water. If your pet has a reaction to a flea product a mild hand soap or shampoo can be used. If the poison is an oil-based toxin (such as petroleum products) use dishwashing liquids to wash the toxin off the skin.
- If the poison is in the eye, flush with large volumes of water.
- If the poison is a powder, dust or vacuum it off the skin.
- If the poison is inhaled, take the animal to fresh air as fast as possible.
For ingested poisons:
- It may be OK to induce vomiting, but ALWAYS check with your veterinarian or the National Animal Poison Control first.
- With some caustic substances it may be appropriate to administer milk, but this needs to be decided on a case by case basis.
- DO NOT induce vomiting if the animal is having difficulty breathing, having seizure, depressed, abnormally excited, or unconscious.
- DO NOT induce vomiting if the toxin is caustic like drain opener, acidic (battery acid), or a petroleum-based product.
- DO NOT induce vomiting if the animal's heart rate is very slow, if the object eaten was pointed or sharp, or when the poison container says not to.
How to Induce Vomiting
- Give household Hydrogen Peroxide 3% orally at a dose of one teaspoon (5ml) per 10 pounds of body weight. This may be repeated every 15 to 20 minutes up to three times.
- If you do not have peroxide place one teaspoon of table salt into the animal's mouth.
- ALWAYS save the vomitus to show your veterinarian.
Common Dangers for Animals
- Be extremely careful with antifreeze. A teaspoon of antifreeze can kill a pet. Watch out for drips under parked cars.
- In cold weather outdoor cats sometimes climb up on warm auto engines. Always bang the hood or honk the horn before starting the engine.
- Below is a table of common plants that are poisonous to pets. Always assume a plant can be harmful unless you know that it isn't. For a more complete list contact the National Animal Poison Center.
