Archive for the ‘Pets’ Category
Tripping on Fido
Cats and Dogs Are Household Hazards, By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor, 16 April 2010
No Bones About It: Bones are Unsafe for Your Dog
No Bones About It: Bones are Unsafe for Your Dog
The idea that it’s natural for dogs to chew on bones is a popular one. However, it’s a dangerous practice and can cause serious injury to your pet.
“Some people think it’s safe to give dogs large bones, like those from a ham or a roast,” says Carmela Stamper, D.V.M., a veterinarian in the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the Food and Drug Administration. “Bones are unsafe no matter what their size. Giving your dog a bone may make your pet a candidate for a trip to your veterinarian’s office later, possible emergency surgery, or even death.”
“Make sure you throw out bones from your own meals in a way that your dog can’t get to them,” adds Stamper, who suggests taking the trash out right away or putting the bones up high and out of your dog’s reach until you have a chance to dispose of them. “And pay attention to where your dog’s nose is when you walk him around the neighborhood—steer him away from any objects lying in the grass.”
Here are 10 reasons why it’s a bad idea to give your dog a bone:
- Broken teeth. This may call for expensive veterinary dentistry.
- Mouth or tongue injuries. These can be very bloody and messy and may require a trip to see your veterinarian.
- Bone gets looped around your dog’s lower jaw. This can be frightening or painful for your dog and potentially costly to you, as it usually means a trip to see your veterinarian.
- Bone gets stuck in esophagus, the tube that food travels through to reach the stomach. Your dog may gag, trying to bring the bone back up, and will need to see your veterinarian.
- Bone gets stuck in windpipe. This may happen if your dog accidentally inhales a small enough piece of bone. This is an emergency because your dog will have trouble breathing. Get your pet to your veterinarian immediately!
- Bone gets stuck in stomach. It went down just fine, but the bone may be too big to pass out of the stomach and into the intestines. Depending on the bone’s size, your dog may need surgery or upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, a procedure in which your veterinarian uses a long tube with a built-in camera and grabbing tools to try to remove the stuck bone from the stomach.
- Bone gets stuck in intestines and causes a blockage. It may be time for surgery.
- Constipation due to bone fragments. Your dog may have a hard time passing the bone fragments because they’re very sharp and they scrape the inside of the large intestine or rectum as they move along. This causes severe pain and may require a visit to your veterinarian.
- Severe bleeding from the rectum. This is very messy and can be dangerous. It’s time for a trip to see your veterinarian.
- Peritonitis. This nasty, difficult-to-treat bacterial infection of the abdomen is caused when bone fragments poke holes in your dog’s stomach or intestines. Your dog needs an emergency visit to your veterinarian because peritonitis can kill your dog.
“Talk with your veterinarian about alternatives to giving bones to your dog,” says Stamper. “There are many bone-like products made with materials that are safe for dogs to chew on.”
“Always supervise your dog with any chew product, especially one your dog hasn’t had before,” adds Stamper. “And always, if your dog ‘just isn’t acting right,’ call your veterinarian right away!”
This article appears on FDA’s Consumer Updates page, which features the latest on all FDA-regulated products.
Date Posted: April 20, 2010
‘Giant George’ could be the world’s tallest dog
Meet ‘Giant George’ the 7ft-long blue great dane who could be the world’s tallest dog
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 1:57 AM on 24th December 2009
Standing at nearly 43 inches tall from paw to shoulder and weighing a staggering 245lbs could this be the world’s new tallest dog?
Pictured here in the parks of Tuscon, Arizona, George, a four-year-old blue great dane, looks more like a miniature horse than a dog.
The gentle giant, who measures 7ft 3ins from nose to tail, could be a prime contender to take the title from the former record holder, Gibson, a harlequin Great Dane who passed away from cancer last August.
Now George’s owners, David and Christine Nasser, are awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records to see if he has achieved the lofty heights.
‘He’s 42.625 inches at the shoulder,’ said David. ‘He’s very very unique.’
According to David, George consumes 110lbs of food every month, and sleeps alone in his own Queen Size Bed.
David and Christine raised George from when he was 7 weeks old, but never expected him to grow so big.
The couple eventually had to move their aptly named dog out of their king sized bed, when he grew too large for the three of them to share the same sheets.
Dr. William Wallace of the Buena Pet Clinic in Tucson, who witnessed the documentation necessary for the Guinness record, said: ‘In my 45 years of experience working with giant breed dogs, without question, George is the tallest dog I have ever seen.’
David is currently rushing to get that necessary documentation into Guinness as other dog owners are coming forth claiming the record.
As they wait for the results to come through, George is busy occupying himself with his new found stardom and even has a Facebook fan page and Twitter accounts for his adorning fans.
It appears as though the sky’s the limit for this mammoth hound.
Thoughts on feeding your pets
I have fed my dog and my cats a raw diet for years now. Believe it or not, one factor that guided me to raw food was the cost. Despite what I thought initially, commercially available premium raw food (Primal Pet Foods or Nature’s Variety for example) is about half the price of commercially available premium canned food. For instance, premium canned food for cats is about $2 a can and contains about 80% moisture. That moisture plus the packaging cost is what makes the cost of canned food so high.
I was looking at a vet’s site on the Internet and came across the following comments regarding raw, canned, and dry diets for cats. The author is Lisa A. Pierson, DVM, and the home page of her web site is at: http://www.catinfo.org/
What follows is the conclusion of Lisa’s web page at http://www.catinfo.org/#My_cats_are_now_eating
Some Final Thoughts
Congratulations if you have made it to this point in this article. You must really care about feeding your cat a healthy diet and are open to new ideas regarding their nutritional needs. This paper has outlined what constitutes optimal nutrition for an obligate carnivore in a home environment.
The most common complaint that I hear from people is that their cat will NOT eat canned food and will ONLY eat dry food.
My cats fell into this category which was not surprising since they had been on a 100 percent dry food diet their entire lives and ranged in age from 2 -10 years at the time of the transition to a healthier diet. It took me several months to convince them that they are carnivores and need meat – and not in a dry, overly processed form that also includes far too many carbohydrates and too little water. It was a little rough, at times, since two of my cats get very crabby with their housemates when they are hungry. These boys were occasionally taken into a separate room during the transition period and fed some dry food because I do not like unrest in my home.
Surprisingly, one of my most stubborn dry food addicts is now happily eating a home-prepared raw or parboiled meat/bones/organs diet that he actually likes better than the canned food. To be very honest, it does my heart good to see my little carnivores gnawing on meat – eating a diet that was meant for their species. My cats are now eating a species-appropriate diet consisting of raw or parboiled meats (chicken and rabbit), finely ground bones, and organs using a properly balanced recipe.
Some people feed part homemade and part commercial canned for variety and convenience. I rarely (2-3 times per year) feed any commercial canned food to my cats – preferring to stick with the food that I make for them.
I no longer feed any dry food and can’t imagine ever feeding my cats this type of diet again. Cats do not need, or benefit from, any dry food in their diet. They also do not need access to food 24 hours a day.
Many people who are at work all day worry that their cat will suffer without access to food continuously. A healthy cat will not perish if she does not have food available at all times. However, I routinely leave canned food out for up to 12 hours at a time for my foster cats and kittens. Keep in mind that a cat’s gastrointestinal tract is much different from ours.
If you are worried about leaving canned food out, you can always leave part of the food out at a normal (‘mouse body’) temperature and part of it frozen. The frozen portion will thaw within a few hours and will add some time to the ‘freshness’ of the food. This is also a great trick if you need to be gone for 24 hours or if you can’t find a pet sitter that can come to your home every 12 hours when you go on vacation.
Wripen Roll 
