Blogs

I follow the Tails of the City Blog by Amelia Glynn on the San Francisco Chronicle website and every once in a while I like to share some of Amelia’s posts with my friends on this site. This post she put up last week is about getting your pet prepped for spring. I thought it was full of useful information. Hope it helps!

Shelters are overflowing with pets this year as more and more people are forced to give up their pets because they can no longer afford to feed them. One 9 year-old boy in Florida, Zach Wilson, didn't think this was right, so he and his mom, Erica, decided to open the Central Florida Animal Pantry. This pet food bank is helping people in his community keep their pets during tough times. Every Thursday, Erica Wilson and other volunteers open the pantry to distribute pet food to people who can't afford to buy it.

Over recent years, we’ve been learning more and more about the benefits of treating human aliments with natural remedies. The same holds true for our companion pets as well. Older dogs and cats suffer from painful arthritis as their joints begin to deteriorate over time. Instead of turning directly to prescription drugs which can be costly and come with nasty side effects, many people are looking for alternative options for arthritis pain relief for canine dogs.

The latest data from The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) shows that for the first time there are now more AVMA members than ever before with a total of 79,432 vets as of December 31, 2009. And for the first time in history, there are more female than male veterinarians! In 2009 female vets (44,802) finally surpassed the total number of male vets (43,196). Up until then, men had traditionally outnumbered women in the profession.

The most recent episode of Animal Wise radio includes an interview with Tamer Elsafy, the CEO of Flexcin International. What was a great pain relief supplement for his grandmother turned out to be a great supplement for people's pets. Find out more about the development of Flexpet and how it can help your aching or aging pet by tuning into the show HERE.

According to the Baltimore Sun newspaper, Veterinarians and Web MD are teaming up to bring the same resources to pet owners that people have through Web MD. A team of vets from the American Veterinary Medical Association are going to answer consumers’ questions via Web MD’s online forum called Pet Health Exchange.

Humans aren’t the only ones who have to deal with Arthritis. Dogs and cats are both susceptible to it as they age. arthritis is sometimes caused by infection of the joint, but most likely it’s just due to wear and tear throughout the years. Unfortunately, pets can’t explain their symptoms, which can make it hard to diagnose in the beginning. You may notice some changes in your pet’s behavior but be unsure of the cause.

Hydrotherapy or water therapy is great way to provide a low impact exercise for your dog, with or without joint pain. For dogs with joint pain and arthritis, regular exercise like running or walking can be painful due to amount of weight that your dog’s joints must support. Exercise in a pool, a lake or the ocean can be a great alternative since the buoyancy of the water takes much of the strain off the joints that is normally caused by their body weight. Swimming can help your pet with range of motion, strengthening, endurance and general health.

According to the ASPCA blog…Hard work by legislators, the animal welfare community and animal advocates helped bring many wonderful state-level bills over the finish line in 2009. Many states continued to pass anti-animal fighting laws, multiple states passed laws to restrict tethering, increase penalties for intentional acts of animal cruelty and allow pets to be included in court-issued orders of protection. The organization has listed all the laws that were passed to help in the mission to protect our nation’s animals from cruelty and neglect.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, four million cats and dogs—about one every eight seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year. Spay/neuter is a proven way to reduce pet overpopulation. Many cats and dogs who die as a result of pet overpopulation could have made wonderful pets. Between six and eight million dogs and cats enter U.S. shelters every year; far too many to all find homes. The organization has initiated a marketing campaign to get everyone involved in spreading the message.