Pet Medical Blog - Page 2 of 2 - Welcome to Pet Medical

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Obviously, nipping and biting behaviour from your pet is less than ideal, and for a number of reasons it’s important to limit it. Realistically, they’re natural behaviours for dogs and cats. In fact, they’re natural behaviours for kids too! What's the first thing an infant does when it grasps something new? Chances are, it goes in the mouth, and if it's fun or feels good it happens again! It’s exactly the same for cats and dogs. That said, when it comes to your cats and dogs, you need to draw a line to make sure you have a happy, well-socialised pet who doesn’t terrorise the family or the neighbourhood.

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Every family wants young children and pets to bond but it’s important to maintain boundaries. Here are points to keep in mind while animals and young children get to know each other.

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Just as human vaccines have eradicated devastating diseases such as smallpox and polio, pet vaccinations are a vital weapon in the fight against the many diseases that threaten our beloved pets. Take parvo (parvovirus), for example. This horrific virus causes viral gastroenteritis in dogs that literally strips the lining of the intestine. It's hideously painful and often results in death. Parvo is also highly contagious. Just a single gram of faeces infected with parvo can spread the disease to another 1,000 animals. The virus will also stay in the environment for about 12 months, and can even survive on your shoes and clothes for up to six months.

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Our pets’ diets are getting worse and it’s coming at a huge cost—pet dental problems. But there are simple steps you can take to make your pet’s life healthier and happier. How do you spot a pet dental problem? Breath odour is a sure sign. If your dog’s breath stinks, it usually means they’ve got an infection. Get them to the vet immediately! Don’t let it get to that stage.

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Our companion pets aren’t just animals—they’re our beloved friends and family members. But while we research gourmet recipes and meal plan for the family, we don’t always think about what’s going into Fido’s mouth. Instead, we just grab the closest pack of pet food off the shelf at the supermarket, with its convenient promise of a complete food in a bag. The truth is, commercial pet food isn’t all created equal. Just like there’s a difference between take-out fries and a salad, there’s a huge scope in terms of nutrition when it comes to pet food. Does this mean you need to fork out for the ones with the fanciest packaging and boldest health claims? Not necessarily. With over two decades in clinical practice and working with animals throughout the world, I’ve learned what’s really important when it comes to feeding your pet.

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If your cat or dog is not doing the things it usually does as routine then most likely there is something wrong with them. But how do you decipher the problems and fix them before they become an issue? Most pet owners get a good idea of what their cat or dog’s regular routines are. Some cats love jumping up on a particular chair or table. Some are particularly active—others, not so much. Sometimes we all wish our furry family members could talk so they could tell us what’s wrong, so while we wait for a feline translating device to be made (ahem! Google?), you should be reading your pet’s body language and taking them for regular vet check-ups. Dogs don’t whinge, complain or tell you they don’t feel well. Whingeing is a human thing. You whinge because your partner cares about what you have to say. Dogs don't whinge because no-one likes it. It doesn't get them anything, so they’ve learned not to do it. They suffer in silence, so we don't realise they're unwell. We don't realise they're unwell unless they stop eating, or they're vomiting, or drinking 10 litres of water. We often miss the subtle signs of ageing. So, what are those subtle signs?

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Having senior pets can be fantastic. You know each other, you know each other's habits and you've got a routine happening. Gone are the days of hole-digging and shredded furniture. It’s a beautiful time. But just like us, as pets get older they start to have health problems—and they’re easy to miss in the early stages. Dogs don’t whinge, complain or tell you they don’t feel well. Whingeing is a human thing. You whinge because your partner cares about what you have to say. Dogs don't whinge because no-one likes it. It doesn't get them anything, so they’ve learned not to do it. They suffer in silence, so we don't realise they're unwell. We don't realise they're unwell unless they stop eating, or they're vomiting, or drinking 10 litres of water. We often miss the subtle signs of ageing. So, what are those subtle signs?

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Local veterinary clinic Pet Medical has achieved accreditation as a Cat Friendly Clinic (CFC). The CFC programme has been developed by the International Society of Feline Medicine, the veterinary division of the leading feline charity International Cat Care, and accreditation has been made available in partnership with Ceva, Royal Canin, Boehringer Ingelheim, Idexx, Elanco and Zoetis. It aims to promote well-being and high standards of care for all cats visiting or being hospitalised in a veterinary clinic.

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Dogs can be such gorgeous companions—lovely to come home to, fun to play with and a good reason to take a walk every day. As long as they are well-adjusted, relaxed and well-behaved, dogs are an absolute joy to have around. We might focus our attention on good dog behaviour, but it is the behaviour of their owners that is the real key. Training dogs is absolutely not just a matter of rewarding good behaviour with treats. That could just as easily result in dog behaviour that is quite obnoxious—like the one that leapt onto my desk and devastated my keyboard recently. This dog could do flips, but he could not behave himself in a way that made him good to have around. He hadn’t been trained, he had been taught to do tricks.

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When someone tries to describe an impossible task, they often say, “It’s like training cats”. But it is possible to train cats. Proof of that is a cat I know called Hartley. Hartley the cat is so well trained he recently went with his owner to a dog show. And was absolutely fine with it. You may expect a dog show to create some pretty antisocial cat behaviour. But Hartley came to ‘A Bark in the Park’ dog show with 300 dogs and sat in a carrier bag with a harness on; totally unfazed, because Hartley goes everywhere with his mum.

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Cat behaviour is one of the great conundrums of pet ownership. How often have you heard of cat owners buying a lovely bed for their cat to sleep in, only to find that the cat will sleep on a bit of paper beside the bed. Cats like options. They like somewhere to hide, somewhere to go up high, and they like a choice of places to go to the toilet as well. A lot of people are guilty of not providing enough options with litter trays and food areas, especially with multi-cat households. One cat will actually block another cat from getting to food and you won't even see it. All they do is sit there with a blank expression, but what they're doing is saying, "Don't even think about coming past me." This is classic cat behaviour.

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A trip to the vet with your beloved cat or dog doesn’t have to be traumatic (for either of you). By employing low-stress handling techniques your moggy or pup can be absolutely at ease for his or her next check-up. My team are all specifically trained in these techniques and the results make for a relaxed and happy pet, as well as a relaxed and happy pet parent! Low-stress handling comes down to reading your pet’s body language. They may not be able to speak, but your animals will absolutely tell you how they’re feeling. You can see how a dog or cat is feeling by understanding their body language, and learning to read it. Vets become experts at it. It’s really like learning any other language.

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When I graduated 24 years ago, and started working as a vet, it was very much a given that animals hated going to the vet. It was all about their physical health—nobody was ever looking to see what the animal was dealing with psychologically. No-one stopped to think, ‘let’s make this a cat-friendly vet’ or a ‘dog-friendly vet’. We used to get them through the door, plonk them on the table, then examine them. If they were a placid sort of animal, they’d be fine. But most of them would just freeze in fear. Some of them would try and bite. Around 15 years ago, I set some goals for what I wanted to achieve as a vet. One of them was to create a surgery that animals would love coming to. I got really tired of seeing people dragging their cats and dogs through the door and thought, well surely there’s a better way than this.

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Heartworm is a potentially fatal parasite (Dirofilaria immitis) that lives in the heart and the blood vessels around the heart. What is heartworm disease? Heartworm disease is a serious and potentially fatal disease in pets and is caused by foot-long worms that live in the heart, lungs and associated blood vessels of affected pets, causing severe lung disease, heart failure and damage to other organs in the body. Heartworm disease affects dogs, cats and ferrets, but the dog is a natural host, which means that heartworms that live inside the dog mature into adults, mate and produce offspring.

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Clients so often walk into a consult with myself or any one of our other vets and will say “Fido isn’t eating”, or “Bella just isn’t right!”. What you’re really letting us know is that your pet’s behaviour has changed. Others will let me know that Rover paces and howls and tries to dig out of the yard when fireworks go off, or that Kitty has begun urinating outside her litter tray ever since the new kitten came home. Veterinary behavioural medicine is about recognizing an animals’ emotional state, understanding how this affects their physical health and how these two things join together into the behavioural response we can see.

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