One of the saddest parts about being a dog owner is watching them suffer from arthritis. Whether the result of a medical condition (like hip dysplasia) that makes them prone to arthritis, the breed, an old injury, or just old age, arthritis can strike a dog at any age. If you notice your dog walking stiffly, having trouble getting up from a sitting or lying down position, or hesitance jumping on the bed, there’s a good chance your dog is suffering from arthritis.
While on one of my researching missions last fall, I stumbled across a blog post from 2013 that someone had written about water playtime being deadly for dogs. The author used words I’d never seen or heard of before, ‘water toxicity’ and ‘Hyponatremia’. After I read the post and the sad comments that had been left by owners who had tragically lost dogs to Hyponatremia, I knew this was a topic I had to write about to warn other dog owners.
When it comes to giving supplements or medicine to cats or dogs, it can either be easy or difficult. Over the years, I’ve had my fair share of both ways, so I thought I’d share the methods I use and other helpful recommendations I’ve run across to help others. I also wanted to warn cat owners of some disturbing information I ran across that I wanted to pass along.
Recently, Barbra Streisand admitted she’d cloned her dog. As more details came out in a second article a few days later, as well as all the interest in cloning I saw generated online, I decided out of my own curiosity to peek into the nuts and bolts of pet cloning. Knowing nothing about it, I quickly found myself horrified reading about the dark side of the industry. It’s one that’s seldom talked about openly and definitely not during magazine or tv interviews, and of course not by Barbra or any of the other people who have decided that a clone of their deceased cat or dog is worth whatever the cost. Read more
As someone who mostly writes about naturally treating my pets, you might be surprised to learn that although there are natural methods out there for treating worms, I don’t use them. I tried the natural remedy route once and it didn’t work, so for a number of reasons, I buy conventional wormer for my cats and dogs. The problem was finding a good product that actually worked and didn’t cost me a fortune. After some trial and error and catching a break, I finally found a single product that works well for both my cats and dogs and is actually affordable.
When you imagine someone dumping out a dog, you may picture it being a pit bull or pit bull mix. Even though a lot of times the pictures or videos out there show that, I’ve only had it happen once. It was an eye-opening and sad experience. It is also another one of my rescues that I often think back on and wonder about.
When a new dog I’d taken in went into heat, I had to scramble to come up with something to minimize the mess. I tried the female dog diapers first, which were stocked locally and seemed like the best quick option, but they were expensive and too small. Ordering something online would take days to arrive, and still possibly not work, so as I so often do, I went looking for a better solution that would work and was affordable.
I know this is a controversial topic and it is not one that I take lightly. My cats and dogs all mean the world to me and I’d never intentionally do anything to bring harm to any of them. Everything I do, I try to do with their best interests in mind. I want them all to live forever and since that’s not possible, I want the time that I do have them to be the best it can be. After weighing the pros and cons, observance, and even discussing it with the animal communicator, who agreed with me, I’ve decided that my cats are all happiest when they are free to come and go outside as they please.
As I read my local newspaper’s abbreviated free version that comes out every week, I’m always drawn to the classifieds. I read in amazement and sadness, the number of people advertising puppies, varying from golden retrievers to chiweiniepoos or whatever combination of breeds someone has come up with that they can apparently sell for hundreds of dollars. Around the holidays, they make sure they include how they’ll be ready for Christmas. I cringe at those ads for several reasons, not just because they are directly across from ads that the only local no-kill shelter runs begging for monetary help with vet bills from the latest sick dogs brought in that someone found dumped or with the vet care of a kitten thrown out of a car window. I cringe because I once got a puppy as a gift, and while my situation is different than most, there are still some things I want to pass on about my experience to help others. Read more
If you have a cat or a dog, an almost certain issue you’ll have to deal with at some point is diarrhea. Whether it’s as simple as a result of eating something they shouldn’t, the result of medication use, or a change in food that suddenly creates havoc in the bathroom department, it’s a good idea to be ready to act when it happens. Luckily, there are three inexpensive and easy diarrhea treatments for cats and dogs that should help resolve the issue quickly.
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