Warm Weather Reminders

While some of our friends in other countries are looking forward to winter, warm weather has come to the US after a rough winter. We're all aware that we need to take certain precautions to keep our pets safe when the seasons change, but it never hurts to have a reminder.

Probably the most important thing to remember is to provide plenty of water for our fur kids. It's good to check frequently to make sure the bowl hasn't been turned over or no insects (think ants) have invaded for a swim party. My dogs love to get their big feet in the bowl and splash all the water out.





We may want to change our walking or exercise schedules and do them during the morning or evening when the temperatures are cooler.

We all know that it's deadly to leave pets or children in a closed car. They may look sad when you leave without them, but it's totally forgotten when you return and they remain safe and healthy.





If your pets are white, short haired or shaved down, you want to consider sunscreen. Also dogs with brown instead of black noses and those with stand up or prick ears can suffer sunburn to their ears and noses. There are sunscreens available made for dogs that will not hurt them if licked. Just try putting sunscreen on a dog nose without it getting licked.


Above are two of my dogs. Tsar has very pale skin under all that hair. When we put him in a lion cut he feels cooler, but we must watch him closely so he doesn't burn. Generally in hot weather he goes outside only in the morning and evening. Norma Jean has a lot of white. The skin under the white patches is pink and burns easily. If she's shaved down she needs special attention. Morgan has a pale brown nose so I slather sunscreen on her as she goes out the door.


Many of us like to open the windows and get some fresh air into the house after a long winter. Our pets enjoy it, too, but falls from open windows can cause serious injury or even death. Be sure if your dog or cat has access to an open window that there is a screen or barricade to protect them from leaning too far out while watching the squirrel on the tree limb just out of reach.


I love spring, but it brings the re-emergence of fleas and ticks and the diseases they carry.

This is the dog flea. A dog can be covered with these creatures and they get into furniture, carpeting and bedding. If left untreated they can cause hair loss, anemia and tapeworms.

The brown dog tick can cause some severe illnesses such as Ehrlichiosis with weakness and bleeding problems or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever with neurological abnormalities.


The Deer Tick, above, can spread Lyme Disease with lameness and arthritis or Anaplasmosis with it's joint pain and seizures.


Mosquitoes can spread Heartworm. All these insect borne illnesses can be prevented. Check with your vet for the prevention treatment that's best suited for your individual pet. What works best for one may not be right for another.

Poisoning is another potential hazard if your dog or cat eats your flowers from the garden. Check before you visit the nursery to see which plants are toxic if eaten. The ASPCA has a good list in alphabetical order with photos of plants that can harm your pet.

Keep your eyes open for those little signs in your neighborhood that say the lawn has been treated by a lawn service company. The chemicals can be toxic. If your dog walks thru the newly treated grass, then licks his feet, he can ingest the chemicals.


Some lucky dogs have access to water, either a lake, pond or pool. Be sure that your dog is supervised in and around the water. Even dogs that are good swimmers can fall into a pool and not be able to climb out. They can tire and drown. Lakes and ponds can have places for the dog to become entangled in roots, vines or fishing line. Check that there are no fishhooks left lying where a dog can step on them.


If you're going boating with your dog or if he's an unsure swimmer, be sure he's wearing a life vest. It will help keep him afloat if he falls overboard and it has a handle on the back to help pull him to safety.

Warm weather brings lots of new loud noises that might frighten your pet. With windows open, street noises seem louder and there is thunder and fireworks. If your pet seems frightened of these noises, there are ways of dealing with them. Check with your vet for ideas suitable for your animal.

Don't forget to have ID on your animal. With doors and windows open and new frightening noises all around, a dog or cat might try to escape the commotion and become lost. Be sure that if you and your pet do get separated, he can be identified and returned to you. Use whatever method works best for you, microchip, tattoo, and ID tags.

Let us know what other warm weather worries you have to deal with. By exchanging ideas we may help someone else keep their pet safe and healthy this summer.

Does Your Pet Have Auto Insurance?

Most of us enjoy taking our pets with us in the car when conditions are right. We all know not to confine an animal in a closed car in hot weather, but if we're going for a ride, it's nice to have Fido ride along with us. Even if Fido isn't a happy traveler, there are times when it's necessary for him to ride along, such as vet visits.


Dogs and cats, of course, should be protected with either a seatbelt, a carrier or a barricade to protect them in case of an accident.

Now there is another protection available to our pets. A few insurance companies have started providing pet coverage if your pet is injured or killed in an auto accident.


We've all seen this annoying young lady in ads for auto insurance. The company she represents, Progressive, was the first to offer the free coverage for pets. Farmers, Auto Owners Insurance and AAA also offer the coverage.

There is no additional cost for the coverage, but there are some restrictions that apply.
* The coverage typically covers only dogs and cats.
* There is usually a cap for amount paid on vet bills.
* There is a payment if the pet dies during the collision.
* In some policies coverage depends on who was at fault.


More and more companies are looking at this type of coverage. We need to be informed consumers and call our agents asking if this coverage is available thru our policies. We need to make it known that this is something we want.



Vet bills can be enormous for injuries suffered in an auto accident. This may not pay the entire bill, but it's certainly a relief to have some help with the bills so we can make the best decisions for the animals we love.


Do any of you have experience with this type of insurance? We'd all like to hear how it works. It's about time the business world started realizing that our pets are family members. They deserve consideration, not as property, but as living beings. This is a start.


Happy motoring.

My Opinion

By now most of you have read the Unsafe Toy Alert e-mail that has been making the rounds on the internet. I've received copies from friends, it's been posted on the breed lists I subscribe to and it's shown up on a number of blogs. There are a few things about this particular warning and others like it that bother me.


If you've read my blogs you know that I love my dogs. I'm concerned for their health and safety. You also know that I buy stuffed toys at thrift stores for them to play with. When I first read the alert now circulating I was alarmed, but now that I've read it a dozen times, I have some concerns about the alert itself.


First, there are no specifics in the alert. Remember from high school writing classes, ask who, what, where and when? This alert addresses none of these. Who wrote the alert. Why on earth wouldn't you sign your e-mail if this was true? Who is this veterinarian you reference? Maybe my vet would like to contact him or her for more information on what to watch for, but you don't give a name or location. When did this happen? Was it last week or was it a few years ago? What was the toy exactly? You say a teddy bear. Was it a Beanie Baby or a big stuffed bear won at an amusement park or something in between? Who was the manufacturer. You say the vet contacted the manufacturer, so who was it? Why didn't this vet contact the appropriate agencies such as the Consumer Protection Agency or the FDA or anyone else about this safety threat?


I have trouble believing that the manufacturers of dog toys are being more careful than the manufacturers of childrens toys, especially since most of each type are manufactured in China. And what about the toys that are being marketed for children and pets?


I wouldn't want my toddlers playing with toys that have this very toxic filling, so should I now buy dog toys as baby gifts?


I have a lot of trouble believing these non-specific warnings that appear out of nowhere on the internet and spread like wildfire. I feel it's cowardly to put something like this out there to scare people with no specific information and no names attached. Whoever started this, if it's true, sign your name to it.


So what do we do now? I'm not taking the toys away from my dogs. Will I buy more in the future? Yes. I will watch them when they play with their toys, but then I always have. If and when someone comes up with specific answers to my questions, I'll reconsider, but till then I choose not to give in to this type of scare tactic.

The opinions expressed above are my own and I will take responsibility for them and sign my name to them.
Sue Wilcox-Hall
Springfield Missouri

Late Edition: You can read about this on Snopes site.

Scratch, scratch...

If it tastes good, spit it out. I think we've all heard someone grumble about that after his human doctor sent him home with a list of low-sodium, low-fat, low-sugar dietary suggestions. Or how 'bout my father inlaw's favorite, "Why not just eat cardboard?" for anything high in fiber?

We've been battling Sissy's digestive system since she was a puppy. High fiber was the first plan, but she made that complicated by deciding the stand-by of canned pumpkin wouldn't pass her lips, not plain, not stirred into her high-fiber kibble. Bake it in a human casserole or muffin, or mix it with yogurt and freeze it, sure, but not straight from the can.

Sissy's adventures in fixing her food issues are now tracked - along with her own thoughts on life - on her blog, because frankly, I needed a place to record what we were doing. Honestly, without help from Sue and Nichole, reading labels and trying to keep up with Sissy's list of restricted foods, I think Sissy and I would be calling cold, diced, boiled potatoes a snack. Poor Gretchen suffers with Sissy, because the she's a tiny dog and eats so little, plus it makes life easier to have them both on the same diet.

That photo, taken a couple of weeks ago, actually helps me accept that Sis isn't too thin. Thin, to be sure, but not too thin. I do need to weigh her and see how close we are to having those last two pounds gone (aren't they ALWAYS the hardest?). It also shows you her long back and short legs, which make the vet so interested in keeping Sissy as lean as possible.

I hope none of you have to deal with the severe food allergies we battle, but I know of two other dog-blog friends who have similar problems. Keep in mind that a chronically soft stool, the frequent scooting and/or icky scent that warns of anal glands that are too full, regular scratching, especially IN or around the ear, could be a sign of a food allergy. Be very aware if there is a food that seems to make your dog sick. Anything with corn or chicken MEAL or by-products, along with highly acidic foods (some fruits) wants to come back up rather than work its way out for Sissy. (And no, that isn't the whole list of her allergens.)

Please know that not all vets have a lot of background with food allergies. We are blessed to have found one locally who specializes in them, who is plugged into a network of other vets who also work a lot with food allergies. We are both blessed and grateful to have the knowledge and support we have, especially through our dog-blog friends. Sissy will forever hold Sue in high esteem, because Sue was a very strong advocate for the need to find a treat that was not the two-ingredient prescription kibble we feed. It only took one short, sweet conversation with our vet for her to agree and to begin to help me figure out how to find treats for Sis.

Hopefully, we're nearing the end of this phase of Sis's journey towards digestive health. If all goes well, in a few weeks we'll begin trying to determine which red meat(s) upset her system, so that the other(s) can return to her diet and give her a bit more variety.

Are you aware of any foods that don't seem to agree with your pet?

A Weighty Issue

Big or small, canine, feline or human, we all have weight issues.

Chan and I each have a dog who firmly believes we're trying to starve them for no reason. Chan's Sissy speaks about it on her blog, Don't Mess With My Tutu. My Samba is on high doses of steroids to combat an auto-immune disease and is constantly hungry. What do you do with a dog who is always so hungry that she'll resort to stealing food? How do you know if your dog is overweight? What's a good weight for a dog?

My Lucy was a Chihuahua/Pomeranian mix and when she came to live with us at eight weeks she was starving. The family she was born into wasn't interested in the puppies and didn't feed them enough and Lucy was in very poor condition. She never outgrew that mindset and throughout the rest of her life, she was convinced she was starving.

Rob and I allowed her to overeat and her weight blew up to 28 pounds. She looked like a long haired sausage and one morning when she was about five years old, Lucy couldn't get up. Her back couldn't handle all the extra weight and we were afraid she'd never walk again.

Dr B gave Lucy meds for her back, but he also put her on a strict diet and scolded us for letting her get into that situation. After all, we controlled the food, not Lucy. We stuck to the diet and Lucy lost half her body weight and for the rest of her life weighed about twelve pounds.


Two of my dogs, Lola and Noah have always seemed too thin to me. Every time I ask the vet, he tells me they're perfect. He says that dogs who are kept 25% under what is commonly considered normal weight have fewer joint problems, and tests on rats have shown that the thinner ones have less auto-immune disease. Even though the study used rats, he feels the same would apply to dogs.

Dr B has told me on many occasions not to go by the numbers on the scale. Feel the dog's ribs. A padding of 1/8" is perfect. 1/8" isn't very much padding. He'll allow up to 1/4", but over that he tells me to have them drop some weight.

I currently have only one dog that needs to lose weight. Sky is a lot like me. He loves to eat and he hates to exercise. His idea of a perfect day is to eat breakfast, grab his glow ball and stretch out on the window seat to snooze till dinner.

I've cut Sky's food by 1/2 cup and substituted green beans. Sky isn't crazy about green beans, but he's hungry and eats them. The beans make him feel full without adding a lot of calories. Morgan eats green beans every day with her dinner and her weight is perfect for the first time in her life. Samba is also eating green beans to make her feel more full. We buy them by the case.

Sky doesn't like to exercise. He doesn't run much. If we throw his ball, he'll lope down the hill after it, grab it and stroll back to us. Since he isn't putting a lot of effort into the program, we need to increase the repeats. To give him the exercise he needs, we have to throw the ball till our arm feels like it's going to fall off. He'll bring it back as often as we throw it.

On my other blog it seems like my dogs are always getting treats. It's not as frequent as it appears on the blog. We do have a party occasionally, but most days our afternoon treat is carrot or apple or melon. When I buy dog treats, I look for ones that are nutritious and low calorie. We buy four different types of dog food to meet the needs of different dogs. It's not one size fits all.

There may be medical reasons why your dog is overweight. Thyroid is a common one. Check with your vet, have a simple blood test done, discuss the results and ask for help in maintaining a healthy weight for your pet

The control is in your hands. Don't kill your best friends with kindness, you want them to be around as long as possible.

Let's See Those Pearly Whites

Last month was dental health month and we attended a seminar on canine dental care.

Now, I must admit I am not good about brushing my dog's teeth. Back when I had two dogs I brushed a couple times a week and when Bailey met a skunk last year, I brushed her teeth several times a day for a week or two till the odor was reduced. With ten of them, I seldom brush.

After our annual check ups last week, I'm going to get more serious about this tooth brushing stuff. None of my dogs had serious dental problems, but several had a specific area in the mouth where tartar was building up and could cause problems. Our vet recommended that I concentrate on those specific teeth if I don't feel I can do the entire mouth.


There are several types of toothbrushes available for pets. This variety has a double head so you can brush both sides of the tooth at the same time. My vet says it's only really necessary to brush the outside and the tongue will take care of the inside, but this brush is a good idea. Unfortunately, it takes some time and effort to get it positioned around the teeth so it works the way it's meant to. I've found when I do brush their teeth that I need to work fast. They don't want to stand there with their mouths open while I chat and work on each tooth till it's gleaming. They want me to get it over as fast as possible and their tongues are fighting me. I'm not skilled enough to use this particular toothbrush.

This is the type of toothbrush I used to use with Bentley and Lucy. It fits over the finger and I felt I had a lot more control over where I was brushing when I used it.


There is a problem with this type of toothbrush, too. When you brush a dog's teeth, they keep moving their tongues and trying to close their mouths. That can cause them to close their mouths on your finger while it's still inside the mouth. While these work pretty well for small, or older dogs, I don't think I'd want to try them on my current pack. I might sustain a painful injury.


Here are our new toothbrushes. The vet gave us these last week. They're childrens, soft bristle toothbrushes. The teeth I need to concentrate on are the big molars in the back, so the long handles should protect my fingers.

The next question is what kind of toothpaste to use. Toothpaste marketed for humans can cause stomach distress in dogs who tend to swallow a lot of it. There are toothpastes made just for dogs and cats flavored for their tastes. The toothpaste I'm using now is just called fresh flavor and my guys aren't crazy about it, but I've found other flavors they might prefer. The choices are beef, malt, poultry, seafood and vanilla-mint.

My immediate reaction was to buy vanilla-mint flavor, but then I remembered this is for my dogs. I love seafood, but it turns my stomach to think of popping out of bed in the morning and brushing my teeth with seafood toothpaste, but my dogs will probably love it. I've ordered a tube of seafood and a tube of vanilla-mint. We'll alternate and see which they prefer.


One day a week we apply this plaque prevention gel to their teeth. I gave up on this stuff a few years ago because it was so hard to apply. They provide a long cotton swab to apply it with, but the gel is the consistency of vasoline and it all stuck to the swab. I tried using my fingers but it wouldn't spread on the teeth and fell off in big globs.

Our vet has advised soaking the package in hot water for about five minutes to soften the gel, then with a finger apply a thin coat to the top and bottom teeth, then let the tongue action spread it around. It works. They don't mind it and now I'm not wasting so much of the stuff.

I don't guarantee that each of my dogs will have their teeth brushed every day. I know better than to promise that, but I will really try to do better than I have been. Do you have any tips or suggestions? How often do you brush the dog and cat teeth in your household? Anyone want to join me in trying to provide better dental care in 2010?



Be sure and answer the polls in the sidebar.

Introducing Ciara

There seem to be a lot of new babies to welcome lately. That's a very good thing!


This little beauty is Ciara. She's a Siberian Husky and she made her debut last week as the new baby sister of Phantom and Thunder.


Isn't she a sweet little girl? This was on her way to her new home. She hadn't yet met her new big brothers.


She thinks this is going to be a great new home where she has her own bed and lots of toys to play with.


Here is a family shot of Phantom, Ciara and Thunder. They're still getting to know each other and how the order will change.


Why do I think this little girl will be running the show before very long? She has that determined look about her. Congratulations guys on getting a new sister. Take good care of her.