Do you give in to cute requests from your pets at the dinner table? We are urged to resist the intense gazes and vocal demands of pleading pets to keep them safe. Learn about some of the biggest risks to pets.
There can be deadly consequences for animals during the holidays.Holidaythreats to animals can include seasonal decorations, ornamental lighting, and ingestion of inappropriate or toxic items, excessive consumption of rich foods or harmful food, candle flames, and many other hazards.
Before you sit down to feast, take away temptation–from both guests and pets. If you feed pets before the guests arrive you reduce the temptation for begging and stealing. You can also use a pet gate or play pen to house the pet nearby, but provide a safety barrier.
One of the easiest ways to avoid trouble is to make sure your guests know the pet rules and discourage them from feeding critters scraps from the table. The best approach is to make sure any animal is occupied with a chew toy or playmates in another room. Once the table is cleared, make sure pets cannot get to scraps or bones.
The biggest hazards to pets on include:
The solution? Keep all goodies out of reach!
Happy (and safe!) Holidays
Cold weather can be hard on pets, just like it can be hard on people. Sometimes owners forget that their pets are just as accustomed to the warm shelter of the indoors as they are. Some owners will leave their animals outside for extended periods of time, thinking that all animals are adapted to live outdoors. This can put their pets in danger of serious illness. There are things you can do to keep your animal warm and safe.
Take your animals for a winter check-up before winter kicks in. Your veterinarian can check to make sure they don’t have any medical problems that will make them more vulnerable to the cold.
Keep your pets inside as much as you can when the mercury drops. If you have to take them out, stay outside with them. When you’re cold enough to go inside, they probably are too. If you absolutely must leave them outside for a significant length of time, make sure they have a warm, solid shelter against the wind, thick bedding (hay is a great insulator that they can snuggle down in), and plenty of non-frozen water. Try leaving out a hot water bottle, wrapped in a towel so it won’t burn your pet’s skin.
Some animals can remain outside safely longer in the winter than others. In some cases, it’s just common sense: long-haired breeds like Huskies will do better in cold weather than short-haired breeds like Dachshunds. Cats and small dogs that have to wade shoulder-deep in the snow will feel the cold sooner than larger animals. Your pet’s health will also affect how long she can stay out. Conditions like diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and hormonal imbalances can compromise a pet’s ability to regulate her own body heat. Animals that are not generally in good health shouldn’t be exposed to winter weather for a long period of time. Very young and very old animals are vulnerable to the cold as well. Regardless of their health, though, no pets should stay outside for unlimited amounts of time in freezing cold weather. If you have any questions about how long your pet should be out this winter, ask your veterinarian.
Cats will curl up against almost anything to stay warm–including car engines. Cats caught in moving engine parts can be seriously hurt or killed. Before you turn your engine on, check beneath the car or make a lot of noise by honking the horn or rapping on the hood.
If you live near a pond or lake, be very cautious about letting your dog off the leash. Animals can easily fall through the ice, and it is very difficult for them to escape on their own. If you must let your dogs loose near open water, stay with them at all times.
If you light a fire or plug in a space heater to keep your home toasty warm, remember that the heat will be as attractive to your pets as to you. As your dog or cat snuggles up to the warmth, keep an eye out to make sure that no tails or paws come in contact with flames, heating coils, or hot surfaces. Pets can either burn themselves or knock a heat source over and put the entire household in danger.
It’s a good idea to have your furnace checked for carbon monoxide leakage before you turn it on, both for your pets’ health and your own. Carbon monoxide is odorless and invisible, but it can cause problems ranging from headaches and fatigue to trouble breathing. Pets generally spend more time in the home than owners, particularly in the winter, so they are more vulnerable to carbon monoxide poisoning than the rest of the family.
Pets that go outside can pick up rock salt, ice, and chemical ice melts in their foot pads. To keep your pet’s pads from getting chapped and raw, wipe her feet with a washcloth when she comes inside. If your canine friend will tolerate it there are special booties that can help protect their paws from the winter elements and any chemicals or salts that art put out. This will also keep her from licking the salt off her feet, which could cause an inflammation of her digestive tract.
If left alone outside, dogs and cats can be very resourceful in their search for warm shelter. They can dig into snow banks or hide under porches or in dumpsters, window wells, or cellars, and they can occasionally get trapped. Watch them closely when they are loose outdoors, and provide them with quality, easily accessible shelter.
Keep an eye on your pet’s water. Sometimes owners don’t realize that a water bowl has frozen and their pet can’t get anything to drink. Animals that don’t have access to clean, unfrozen water are more likely to drink out of puddles or gutters, which can be polluted with oil, antifreeze, household cleaners, and other chemicals.
Be particularly gentle with elderly and arthritic pets during the winter. The cold can leave their joints extremely stiff and tender, and they may become more awkward than usual. Stay directly below these pets when they are climbing stairs or jumping onto furniture; consider modifying their environment to make it easier for them to get around. Make sure they have a thick, soft bed in a warm room for the chilly nights. Also, watch stiff and arthritic pets if you walk them outside; a bad slip on the ice could be very painful and cause a significant injury.
Go ahead and put that sweater on Princess, if she’ll put up with it. It will help a little, but you can’t depend on it entirely to keep her warm. Pets lose most of their body heat from the pads of their feet, their ears, and their respiratory tract. The best way to guard your animals against the cold is keeping a close eye on them to make sure they’re comfortable.
When you’re outside with your pets during the winter, you can watch them for signs of discomfort with the cold. If they whine, shiver, seem anxious, slow down or stop moving, or start to look for warm places to burrow, they’re saying they want to get back someplace warm.
You can also keep an eye out for two serious conditions caused by cold weather. The first and less common of the two is frostbite. Frostbite happens when an animal’s (or a person’s) body gets cold and pulls all the blood from the extremities to the center of the body to stay warm. The animal’s ears, paws, or tail can get cold enough that ice crystals can form in the tissue and damage it. The tricky thing about frostbite is that it’s not immediately obvious. The tissue doesn’t show signs of the damage to it for several days.
If you suspect your pet may have frostbite, bring her into a warm environment right away. You can soak her extremities in warm water for about 20 minutes to melt the ice crystals and restore circulation. It’s important that you don’t rub the frostbitten tissue, however–the ice crystals can do a lot of damage to the tissue. Once your pet is warm, wrap her up in some blankets and take her to the veterinarian. Your veterinarian can assess the damage and treat your pet for pain or infection if necessary.
Hypothermia, or a body temperature that is below normal, is a condition that occurs when an animal is not able to keep her body temperature from falling below normal. It happens when animals spend too much time in cold temperatures, or when animals with poor health or circulation are exposed to cold. In mild cases, animals will shiver and show signs of depression, lethargy, and weakness. As the condition progresses, an animal’s muscles will stiffen, her heart and breathing rates will slow down, and she will stop responding to stimuli.
If you notice these symptoms, you need to get your pet warm and take her to your veterinarian. You can wrap her in blankets, possibly with a hot water bottle or an electric blanket. As always, remember to wrap hot items in fabric to prevent against burning the skin. In severe cases, your veterinarian can monitor her heart rate and blood pressure and give warm fluids through an IV.
Winter can be a beautiful time of year. It can be a dangerous time as well, but it certainly doesn’t have to be. If you take some precautions, you and your pet can have a fabulous time.
Come in and check out some of our pet supplies. We have everything from food and treats to toys and leashes!
One of our suppliers, “Sandia Pet Products” is local is can accommodate to almost any special order, which ranges from leashes, harness’ and leashes. Stop in or give us a call for details. They’re adorable!
Follow this link for some pictures of our retail area 
http://tlcpethospital.net/pet_library.html
Why Adopt A Rescue Dog?
“After all, aren’t they like used cars? Who wants someone else’s problems? If the dog is so wonderful, why would anyone give him away? If he was a stray, why didn’t someone try to find him? I’d rather buy a puppy so I know what I’m getting, and besides, they’re so cute”.
This lil guy got his paws on a ham bone, as good as they taste, they definitely aren’t good for our pets. For a couple days he had not been his himself, lethargic and throwing up. The owners knew he had eaten a ham bone. We took a couple x-rays and sure enough, there it was.
The bone was stuck in his colon and he was not able to pass it on his own; we had to help him out and go get it!
7/21 PM: After a long afternoon, Logan is up and awake doing great from his surgery. He did great, no complications other then getting a little cold (which is common during long procedures). Below our a few pictures from his surgery, if you have a weak stomach please be cautious while scrolling!
About a week we ago we had the pleasure of meeting a 7 year old Akita named Logan. He came in because his leg was swollen and had been limping on one of his front legs. With the doctor’s recommendations, Logan had some x-rays done, revealing there may be a tumor, and whether it is malignant or benign is unknown. His owners took him home on pain medication hoping it would help him and that maybe his swelling and pain was due to an injury. Unfortunately his leg got worse giving us a reason to believe that he does have a malignant tumor.
Dr. Salas can now do some fracture repairs! Unfortunately, accidents occur with our pets and we would like for you to keep us in mind if your pet should happen to need orthopedic surgery. Here are before & after pictures of a fracture repair Dr. Salas did.
We now carry retail items! We have re-cently remodeled the dog side front lobby area so that we can carry more products. We carry bowls, toys, shampoos, more variety of dog treats, Kong items, tennis balls, etc. We are also carrying Sandia Pet Products. They are a local company that makes leashes & collars right here in Albuquerque. Some of the brands we carry are JW, Bamboo & Fat Cat. Changes coming soon to the cat side!!
