If something happens to you, how will your pet or pets be cared for?
Hopefully you’ve already considered and chosen a personal guardian for each of your human children, and have some experience with making similar plans. (If you haven’t considered making a will and choosing a guardian before now, for your children’s sake, you’ll do it ASAP.)
Many people with pets feel equally attached to a pet, as though it’s a child. How will your pet be cared for, if and when you’re gone? It can be heart-wrenching for some folks to consider.
But what happens if you’re not prepared?
Ask any pet owner from any of the states who survived a tornado or flood or other natural disaster, but couldn’t save a beloved pet because pets weren’t allowed where they were sheltered. In these circumstances, many people choose to stay behind with their pets, risking their own lives to be with them. Of an estimated quarter-million pets that were in the path of Hurricane Katrina, only approximately 15 thousand were reportedly rescued.
Since Hurricane Katrina, nearly a dozen states have enacted legislation aimed at protecting people and their pets during disasters. The PETS Act of 2006 which became Public Law 109-308 on October 6, 2006, also addresses the needs of individuals with household pets and service animals following a major disaster or emergency.
This is of little or no comfort if your pet may survive you. Think about it: who would you like to look after your pet?
Here are some questions to consider when choosing a pet’s guardian:
• Does he or she like your pet, and is your pet comfortable with its prospective caretaker?
• Does he or she have pets who get along well with your pet?
• Is the guardian certain there are no pet allergies, and no restrictions against pets where this person lives?
• Does he or she have time to care for your animal?
• Can the prospective guardian afford to take your pet in, or will you provide money for its care?
After careful consideration, a friend of mine added a provision in her will for her pets to be euthanized after her death. Another has chosen an animal sanctuary to look after her pets, with funding to be taken from her estate. Discuss these options with your lawyer, because adding these items to your will should be considered carefully.
Choosing a friend or relative who can care for your animals is ideal, but it’s important to discuss this with your prospective caretaker in advance.
Animal shelters might be considered a last resort, but they’re also a good place to find mature pets in need of a home. If you don’t want your pet to be subject to an unknown destiny, begin making plans for their future today. No one can be certain what tomorrow may bring.
What if?
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Filed under cats, dogs, ferrets, guinea pig, pets, rabbits, shelter animals
Some not-so-fun summer stuff
For wary parents, there’s all sorts of hazards to consider when sending children outdoors. Oppressive heat, sunburn, mosquito bites and ticks, stinging insects, wild animals. Need I go on? The same concern may be felt when taking pets out to play, considering that some of the critters a pet can bring home in its fur, its mouth or its innards can be passed on to humans.
The good news is that some simple precautions can make going outdoors safer for you and your family, pets included.
Heat: Monitor your pet in the sun, they can get sunburn and heatstroke too. Provide complete shade, and clean water, especially when out on hot days. Avoid taking pets out at the hottest times of day.
Insects: Follow your veterinarian’s advise on the use of heartworm, flea and tick preventives for your pet. Always do a tick check when returning from outdoors. Comb your pet and check them regularly for fleas and ticks. Learn how to remove a tick safely and without crushing it. Use flea, tick and insect repellent only as according to directions.
Roundworm, hookworm, tapeworm, and botfly: Internal parasites can cause illness in your pet, and serious illness in humans, especially children. Have your pet checked routinely for parasites by the veterinarian. When children play outdoors, keep them away from areas that may have been contaminated by animal feces. Teach children to always wash hands after handling pets and before eating or handling food.
Rabies: Rabies is usually transmitted through the bite of an animal infected with the virus. We owe the lower number of rabies-infected animals each year in the U.S. to mandatory vaccination policies for animals. Call your county’s Public Health Department to find out if there are low-cost rabies vaccination clinics for dogs, cats and ferrets, to be held in your area. Initial vaccination must done by the time the animal is four months of age, or as soon as the animal is acquired if it is older. After initial vaccination, all animals must be revaccinated regularly, according to the type of vaccine used. Teach your children never to approach an animal they do not know, even if it appears friendly, and always supervise your pet when outdoors.
Keep an emergency first aid kit handy. Talk to your vet about first aid items you might need to treat your pet in an emergency. For more tips on how to keep your pet healthy, visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) resources on the Internet at www.cdc.gov/healthypets/
Do you read me?
Not everyone reads my column, I know. I’m usually pleasantly surprised to hear who admits to taking a Paws break. My veterinarians. Friends from high school. Distant cousins.
They usually say they’ve learned something new from reading it.
Sometimes I hesitate covering a topic I’ve introduced before, wanting to offer a new column each time. But some topics warrant a followup. My editor recently handed me a letter with something “new” about xylitol being toxic to dogs and ferrets. I have mentioned xylitol toxicity before in December 2010, October 2008, and October 2007.
Does it deserve to be said again? Yes, because the fact that artificial sweeteners may poison your dog or ferret (and possibly other animals), is important to know.
The issue with xylitol is that it affects blood sugar levels, causing severely low blood sugar which can lead to coma and death. While humans can tolerate the sweetener, in some animals it causes insulin to be released in great quantities. Xylitol can also cause irreversible liver damage.
Reading product labels is very important. Xylitol can be found in sugar-free gum, some baked goods, and other foods. It’s also used in products that you and I would never consider eating, like paint balls and toothpaste.
But a curious pet can get into things it shouldn’t, when you least expect it.
Just a few sticks of sugar-free gum can kill a small dog.
If you know that your pet has eaten something that contains xylitol, call your veterinarian immediately. You may be told to encourage your pet to vomit whatever it has eaten, (another reason to have a first aid kit around the house that’s tailored to your pet’s needs in an emergency).
The sooner you get your pet to the vet, the better chance your pet has of surviving.
Be proactive and read those product labels, and remember even non-food items can have xylitol in them.
Keep anything containing xylitol out of reach of your pet. Even used chewing gum should go in a garbage can that can’t be overturned and pawed through.
I’ve always been curious. I read just about everything I can get my hands on. Although my column now appears in the Democrat every other week, I hope to keep on top of things that may affect your pet’s well-being, so that you can read about it here first.
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Filed under dogs, ferrets, pet health, pets
Parting’s sweet sorrow
You can feel it in your bones. School is nearly over and summer vacation is being daydreamed about in classrooms all over the country. Graduation parties and tearful partings from high school buddies are just around the corner.
The hardest partings yet may be between your child and their childhood pet.
Is there a way to make it easier? It may depend on which side you’re on. Teens going off to college or work may have already begun weaning themselves from pets during their years in high school. Younger kids going off to summer camp may make the home seem eerily quiet, for both parents and pets. Aging pets may welcome additional time to themselves, or may seek you out for more company.
Your pet may be used to the family being away during school and work, but the absence of a particular family member for longer periods of time may push your pet to its comfort limit. And the stress of pets missing their human buddies may make itself known in subtle ways: a change in eating habits, obsessive grooming, aggressive behaviors, and possibly household soiling.
The rodents — hamsters, mice, rats, ferrets and guinea pigs — may also be affected. Used to being handled differently, especially by those who are more confident in their handling technique, these small pets may regress to nipping their handlers or show frenzied avoidance when approached by a different person.
Some simple tips to try include:
• Keep a routine going in the household as much as possible.
• Transition to caring for small pets while your child is still present.
• Play and relax with pets regularly, with and without your child.
• Allow a pet to spend time in your child’s room even when your child is away. Supervise, if you have to, to prevent accidents or discourage destructive behavior. The smell of your child in those familiar surroundings may bring comfort.
• If your pet exhibits extreme behavior that persists, ask your veterinarian for help. Your pet may have other health issues affecting its behavior, with or without stress factors.
The flip side of the coin, of course, is that in helping your pet cope with the absence of your child, your pet helps you to adjust to the quiet bedroom and one less place setting at the dinner table too.
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Filed under cats, dogs, guinea pig, pet health, pets, rabbits
Befriending black cats
They’re hard to spot in the dark, but there’s no reason to fear them – black cats are no different than any other furred feline. In fact, they get bad press based on myth alone, and that seems to make it more difficult to find good homes for them.
Yet the black-as-night creatures have a friend indeed. The organization is called Black Cat Rescue, and they have a substantial following on their website, http://blackcatrescue.com
Black Cat Rescue is a no-kill cat rescue organization in Boston, Mass. Their all-volunteer network of foster homes in the Greater Boston area is “dedicated to saving the lives of homeless black cats and kittens by providing quality foster care while actively seeking loving, permanent adoptive homes.”
Through the generous nature of these cat caregivers, the placement of black cats in loving homes in at least one locale is made easier.
Filed under animal abuse, cats, pets, shelter animals
Life, and death
We shared common ground: we both loved our animals like family. And we both had had to face parting with a terminally ill pet, choosing to euthanize or have it “put down.” We had other things in common, but mostly I remember my late friend Deb speaking of her pets with great emotion and love.
It’s that love that makes choosing to put a pet “to sleep” difficult – and at the same time comforting.
The choice to euthanize a beloved pet is not easy. There are many things to consider, and they may vary from person to person, pet to pet:
• If my pet is terminally ill, will it linger in pain?
• If my pet has had an accident, will it have a permanent, painful disability?
• Can I afford the cost of treating my pet’s condition?
• If my pet’s condition is related to advanced age, how long might my pet survive and enjoy life?
• Is my pet experiencing frequent or continued pain and suffering?
Some may feel guilty even considering euthanization of a pet. But considering your pet’s health and well-being is part of caring for it. It’s the quality of their life that we might better be concerned with.
We owe it to ourselves, and our pets, to think about that inevitable time when a pet’s health is obviously failing, and to prepare for it. If we have a choice to ease our pet’s transition from pain to one of peace, we should know all we can about it so that we will make a wise decision.
Preparing children for a pet’s death was one of the concerns of the late Fred Rogers of the PBS show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. A child who knows how a beloved companion animal leaves life behind will be able to grieve for that animal. It introduces a concept that even adults find hard to discuss among themselves.
Children who have learned to grieve and accept the death of a pet will find it easier, hopefully, to cope with the death of a grandparent, parent or sibling in the future.
Rogers’ book “When a Pet Dies” helps parents to explain death and, ultimately, to direct children toward a lifelong path of compassion for others.
It is what makes us long for a departed friend, and hope that, in a just universe, whatever heaven they may enter will also have their long lost pets waiting for them there.
‘Aliens’ among us
The country life: fields of corn growing in the sun as a warm breeze stirs. Cows leisurely chewing, chewing, chewing, as they rest under the shade of maple trees. Lazy bees navigating a crooked path from flower to flower. A drowsy cat resting in an open window. A dog licking ice cream drips from a toddler’s knees. A teensy tick burrowing under the skin of a few-weeks-old kitten: hardly the bucolic image of a warm day in May.
But pet parents should include tick checks for pets on a routine basis. On a human it’s relatively easy, compared to sorting through your pet’s fur. Ticks can attach to some awkward places, so it can get a little warped hunting them down. But you’d better prepare yourself, because tick season has arrived.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends you:
– Check your pet for ticks daily. Make it a habit after spending time outdoors.
– If you find a tick on your dog, remove it right away.
– Ask your veterinarian to conduct a tick check at each exam.
– Talk to your veterinarian about tickborne diseases in your area.
– Reduce tick habitat in your yard.
– Use a tick preventative on your dogs and outdoor cats. Talk with your veterinarian.
– Cats are extremely sensitive to a variety of chemicals. Do not apply any insect acaricides or repellents to your cats without first consulting your veterinarian!
Diseases in the Northeastern U.S. that are tick-borne include Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
The Centers for Disease Control Web site has information about ticks and their control, including instructions for removing ticks safely and preventing their return.
As for me, I’m ready for battle now – armed with a flea comb, magnifying glass, and tweezers.
