Newsletter

The costs of veterinary health care, much like those of human health care, are rising and many pet owners are turning to pet health insurance to help defray some of those costs. Unlike human health care, you don't need pet health insurance to ensure your vet treats your animal companion. For pets, insurance coverage is a choice, not a necessity. But as the pet insurance industry has changed in recent years, more options are available to pet owners for coverage levels and care options than before.

Pet insurance policies are largely similar to human insurance policies. There are annual premiums and deductibles, and plans are based on age, medical conditions, a pet's lifestyle and species. Some policies provide comprehensive coverage, and will reimburse owners for costs associated with annual wellness exams, vaccinations and other routine visits; other policies will cover only accidents or injuries. Depending on the policy you chose, there may be limits on coverage for pre-existing medical conditions for older pets.

Pet insurance plans differ from human insurance when it comes to filing claims. Following a procedure - a TPLO surgery, for example - the owner will pay the veterinarian directly and then submit a claim to the insurance provider for reimbursement. How much the insurance company pays all depends on the policy and the procedure. Some plans, such as the one offered by PetFirst Healthcare, do not cover "cosmetic or preventative surgeries" such as declawing procedures, anal sac removal and ear cropping and tail docking. Other plans, like the one offered by ShelterCare, cover cancer treatment but do not cover spay/neuter procedures. Other popular providers include Veterinary Pet Insurance and Pet's Best. Even organizations like the ASPCA and the American Kennel Club offer insurance plans.

The costs for pet insurance are small compared to human insurance, with monthly costs averaging about $30 and deductibles averaging about $100. Most plans begin enrolling pets at around 8 weeks of age and limit enrollment to pets under eight to 10 years of age (though if the pet was enrolled before this limit, he or she will remain covered).

What should you watch out for when purchasing pet insurance? First, make sure your veterinarian is approved by your provider. Some providers limit coverage to certain veterinarians in a network or provider list, though most pet insurance companies allow owners to use the veterinarian of their choice. Next, review the exclusions in the policy. Some plans will cover pre-existing medical conditions if they are stabilized, while others may exclude some conditions and procedures all together. Also look at the various caps (maximum amount paid) for each claim. In some cases, a provider will use an annual cap, limiting the amount of reimbursements paid out over a year, while in other cases, a lifetime cap may be applied.

Pet insurance is not the only option when it comes to covering health care costs for your pet. Some veterinary hospitals accept CareCredit, which reimburses veterinarians for expensive procedures and allows clients to set up extended payment plans. Meanwhile, some veterinary hospitals offer wellness packages for new kittens and puppies. These packages offer a combination of services (wellness exams, vaccinations, diagnostic tests, etc.) at a reduced rate for new pet owners.

You will need to have the following items on hand before bringing home your new kitten:

A litterbox that is the right size for the age of the kitten. Avoid boxes that are too deep and thus might be difficult for your new kitten to climb into.

Litter for the litterbox - you may be surprised at how picky some kittens can be. Some cats prefer the very fine grain litter and some prefer the coarser types. Don't give up if your kitten does not seem pleased at first. Most kittens will definitely let you know when you have hit upon the right mixture. The breeder can let you know what the kitten is used to.

Scratching Posts (or some type of cat furniture) - They are invaluable in training your kitten to avoid harming your furniture. Scratching their claws is a healthy, natural instinct for cats, and providing them with the right place to do that will keep you and your kitten happy. Be aware that some cats prefer rough surfaces like sisal rope white others go crazy for plain old carpet (the kind on your floor, if you don't have a scratching post!).

Grooming Tools suitable for the breed of your kitten - A brush and comb are indispensable for a long-haired kitten/cat, or a flea comb or special brush for short-haired cats. You'll also need clippers for their nails (human nail clippers are not recommended). Purchase clippers made especially for cats. These can be found in most quality pet stores. Trimming the nails is an important part of feline grooming. We also recommend discussing teeth brushing with your veterinarian. This requires a special toothbrush and toothpaste.

Food and Water Bowls - Believe it or not, there is a difference even in the type of food and water bowls you provide for your kitten! Certain types of plastic, wood, and even some types of ceramic bowls may contain tiny cracks that can harbor potentially harmful bacteria. Most professionals recommend using glass and stainless steel food and water bowls. These bowls should be cleaned regularly (the dishwasher is great). Make sure the bowls are not too high for your kitten to reach.

TOYS, TOYS, TOYS - Just as human babies love to play, so do kittens. It is their survival instinct and throughout their lives, kittens and cats emulate hunting in their play. Providing them with suitable toys helps to ensure they fulfill this need. You will need to be very selective in the type of toys as kittens do love to chew and nibble. Avoid purchasing toys with small strings or beads that can be swallowed easily. Toys don't have to be expensive to be appreciated by kittens and cats.

Cat Carrier (Pet Taxi) - You'll need to have a carrier for safely traveling with your kitten, as well as trips to the vet. There is also a new "Pet Seat" available, which secures your kitten/cat (up to 30 pounds) in your car, allowing for more interaction between you and your kitty.

Food - Check with the breeder or veterinarian to be sure you have the proper food on hand. Changes in diet and water, even litter and environment, can cause minor diarrhea and other problems. It doesn't hurt to pick up a few bottles of Pedialyte liquid to keep in the cupboard in case of diarrhea and/or dehydration.

Bedding - A nice cozy bed is a great idea for the new member of the family. Your kitten will soon know that this is her/his special place. Choose a bed that is well constructed and one that is machine washable.

The staff at our hospital would like to develop a close relationship with you and your pet. You will find that among the members of our staff, we have interest and expertise in many species and specialties. Hopefully, your pet will never require more than routine care, but sometimes more complex issues arise.

In many cases, early detection and monitoring can help prevent problems and provide long-term management of existing conditions. We have found great satisfaction in keeping our patients comfortable and happy! Because some health conditions have a genetic basis, we know that puppies of certain breeds are more likely than average to show specific problems. We would like to offer you help with early detection of these, so that their effects, if present, can be minimized. Please scan the list below; it is an illustration of how pervasive genetic diseases are. If your breed is listed, please ask a member of our staff about the linked disease, screening test(s), and recommendations.

German Shepherd

This list is just a sample and is not exhaustive; ask us if your pet is pre-disposed to something so that we can discuss how to help. Some problems, such as heart valve disease, dental/periodontal disease, and skin allergies are seen in many breeds. Some of our suggestions may be hospital-oriented (lab-work, X-rays, etc.) while some may relate to home management. For example: a large breed puppy that is checked for hip dysplasia may have a long, relatively comfortable life if he/she avoids games of Frisbee and long runs; a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel placed on cardiac drugs pre-emptively may significantly increase its life expectancy.

King Charles Cavalier Spaniel

When should these problems be addressed? Before the problem is so severe that your pet is showing symptoms. More often than not, a few simple tests can give a diagnosis. From there, we work with you to keep your pet comfortable and symptom-free.

Boxer

"To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs." - Aldous Huxley

"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshiped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this." - Anonymous

"Whoever said you can't buy happiness forgot about little puppies." - Gene Hill

"Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow." - Jeff Valdez

"Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear." - Dave Barry

"Cats are rather delicate creatures and they are subject to a good many ailments, but I never heard of one who suffered from insomnia" - Joseph Krutch

"A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down." - Robert Benchley

"My husband said it was him or the cat...I miss him sometimes." - Unknown

"Outside of a dog, a book is probably man's best friend, and inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

"Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God." - Anonymous

"I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers." — Unknown

The most important thing to remember in training a new puppy is this: puppies and dogs learn best by being praised when they do the right thing. They rarely learn by being punished when they do the wrong thing. House training is challenging, but can be made easier if you follow these basic dos and don'ts...and stick to them.

DO:
Keep in mind that a puppy is the equivalent of a human baby and has to eliminate frequently. Take the puppy out every two hours (by the clock) during normal waking hours, in addition to immediately after eating, waking and playing. It will also need to go out right before being bedded down for the night.

Pick the puppy up and take it to the same place each time. Praise and reward the puppy with a small treat immediately after it urinates or defecates in the designated place.

Allow the puppy to "go" several more times before bringing it in. Puppies don't have the ability to eliminate everything in their bladder and bowels on the first squat. If you bring it in prematurely, chances are you'll end up with an unwanted puddle or pile.

Make a loud noise to startle the puppy if you catch him in the act of eliminating in an improper place - this will make his body contract, and usually stop mid-stream - scoop him up and take him to the designated place to finish eliminating.

Thoroughly clean accident areas with a disinfectant and/or odor neutralizer.

Feed the puppy at regular intervals. This makes it much easier to regulate bowel movements and predict when it has to defecate.

Keep the puppy close to you when you are home. Confine it with a gate, or keep it on a leash that can be attached to your belt or slipped under the leg of a chair or table. This makes it easier to keep an eye on the puppy, and monitor when it has to go out.

Utilize crate training.

Be patient and consistent, and make your puppy feel like it is the best puppy in the world when it eliminates in the right place!

As important as it is to know the right things, it is equally important to know the wrong things to do for housebreaking your puppy. The "wrong" things not only hinder your house training efforts, but can cause permanent unwanted behavior. Remember, puppies and dogs learn by being praised when they do the right thing, not by being punished when they do the wrong thing.

Don't:
Reprimand or punish the puppy when it has an accident. Puppies don't have the ability to understand that they are "in trouble" because they went in the house. This only frightens your puppy and makes it think that the act of urinating or defecating in itself is bad.

Take the puppy over to it's "mess" and put his face in it or show it to him. This is meaningless to the puppy, and again only frightens or confuses it. Furthermore, their train of thought is very short, and it will not understand the message you are trying to send.

Put the puppy outside by itself to eliminate. If you are not there to praise it immediately after it goes, it will not learn that it is supposed to urinate and defecate outside. If you wait to reward it when it comes back in the house, it will think that coming back to the house is "good," not because it went to the bathroom outside. Remember, their train of thought is very short!

Have unrealistic expectations of your puppy. Puppies don't have the ability to "hold" their bladder and bowels for extended periods of time. On the average, during waking hours, they don't have the ability to hold for longer than three to four hours until they are six months old.

Bring the puppy in immediately after it goes. It takes several "squats" for them to eliminate everything in their bladder and bowels.

Feed irregularly or feed excessive amounts of treats. A treat only has to be the size of a pea, and should only be used to reward good behavior. When house training puppies, it is important that they associate urinating or defecating outside with the yummy treat that they are going to get. If treats are given "for free" then they don't develop the motivation to do the right thing.

Lose your temper, use corporal punishment, or loud verbal reprimands when the puppy slips up - because it will.

This is all part of the house training process. Your puppy's progress depends largely on your patience and consistency.

This is Part II in a series of articles on caring for rabbits. Look for additional featured articles in upcoming issues of our Newsletter.

Rabbits make intelligent, friendly and quiet house pets. The average life span for a bunny is 7 to 10 years, with records of up to 15 years of age being reported. The following information is designed to help you take the best care of your pet and enjoy a happy, healthy life with him or her.

Cage: Puppy crates with solid floors work great as cages for rabbits.

Litter Box: Rabbits can be litter box trained relatively easily. Initially, you need to keep your pet in a small area, either in a cage or a blocked off section of the room and place a litter box in the corner. Try to pick the corner your pet has already used. Make sure the sides of the box are low enough so your pet can get in and out easily. It is helpful to put some of the droppings in the box.

You can reward your pet with one of the treat foods listed previously whenever he or she has used the box successfully. Do not punish your pet while in the litter box. Do not worry if your pet sits for extended periods in the litter box. Sitting in the box can be allowed as long as he is not soiling himself.

Pelleted paper or other organic products make the best bedding. These products are nontoxic and digestible if eaten, easier to clean up than shavings or clay litter, control odor better and are compostable. Some examples are Cellu-Dri and Yesterday's News (which are paper products), Mountain Cat Kitty Litter or Harvest Litter (pelleted wheat grass products), and Critter Litter (pelleted out hulls).

There are many more products on the market and we suggest consulting your pet store. Avoid cedar and pine shavings as bedding!

Temperature: Rabbits should be kept in the coolest and least humid area of the house. Studies have shown that bunnies kept in warm humid environments with poor air circulation have a dramatic increase in the incidence of respiratory disease over those animals kept in cool, dry environments with good air circulation.

Damp basements are one of the worst areas to keep your pet. If your rabbit must be kept in a basement, invest in a dehumidifier and a fan to keep out dampness and improve air circulation.

The optimum temperature range for a bunny is 60-70 degrees F. When the temperature gets into the mid 70s, one may see an increase in drooling and nasal discharge. If temperatures reach the upper 80s and beyond, and especially if the humidity is high, the potential for a fatal heat stroke is very real.

On very hot days, when air conditioning is not available, it is helpful to leave a plastic milk jug filled with frozen water in the cage to work as a portable "air conditioner."

Please keep fresh, cool water available, as this will also help to keep the body temperature down. If your pet should actually experience a heat stress reaction, try holding an ice cube on the ear or gently wetting your pet down with cool, but not cold, water. If the heat stroke is severe, veterinary attention will be necessary.

If your bunny is being kept outdoors in either warm or cold weather, make sure that part of the cage is sheltered from the wind and the sun. For the winter, it is advisable to use straw bedding in the sheltered area for insulation and make sure that the water bowl is changed daily, as your pet can dehydrate rapidly if the water is frozen for days.

Handling

There are a number of ways to pick up your pet depending on how calm he is and his size. The main thing to remember is to always support the hindquarters to prevent serious spinal injuries. Rabbits' backbones are fragile and can easily snap when the hind legs are allowed to dangle and the animal then gives one strong kick. Unfortunately, these injuries are usually permanent and frequently result in the euthanasia of the pet, so the best policy is prevention. Never pick up a bunny by its sensitive ears; it's very painful and totally unnecessary! It is better to grasp the loose skin over the shoulders and then place your other hand under the back legs to lift your bunny from the floor. Work near the floor when first learning to handle your pet so that if they jump out of your arms they don't have far to go.

It may also be useful to put your bunny on its back when trying to trim nails and examine the underside of your pet. Most rabbits will learn to relax in this position and can withstand quite a bit of handling. Work on the floor and put the rabbit on its back with its head just over the edge of your knees so that it hangs down a little. Restrain the body firmly between your thighs. Talk softly and stroke its chest and abdomen gently. It may be necessary to have a second person hold one set of legs when first learning to trim nails in this position. However, many pets become so relaxed that one person can do all the grooming by themselves.

Young children should always be supervised when handling rabbits!

On July 30, Procter & Gamble Pet Care division expanded its July 25 pet food recall to include additional veterinary formulas and some specialized Eukanuba dry pet food products as a precautionary measure. The original recall, just five days earlier, involved Iams feline renal dry food formulas. Although no illnesses have been reported, the possibility of salmonella contamination prompted P&G to recall the following dry pet food brands:

-- Iams Veterinary Dry Formulas: All dry sizes and varieties, “Best Buy” dates: 01Jul10 - 01Dec11; All UPC Codes

-- Eukanuba Naturally Wild: All dry sizes and varieties, “Best Buy” dates: 01Jul10 - 01Dec11; All UPC Codes

-- Eukanuba Pure: All dry sizes and varieties, “Best Buy” dates: 01Jul10 - 01Dec11; All UPC Codes

-- Eukanuba Custom Care Sensitive Skin: All dry sizes, “Best Buy” dates: 01Jul10 - 01Dec11; All UPC Codes

These products are manufactured in one specialized facility where testing by the Food and Drug Administration detected salmonella. As a precaution, P&G is recalling the products voluntarily in cooperation with the FDA. The contamination is limited to this facility, but affects all the products listed above.

Consumers who purchased the specific dry pet foods listed should discard them. People handling dry pet food can become infected with salmonella, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after touching the products or containers. Salmonella can also be transferred to surfaces in contact with the products.

Pets infected with salmonella may have decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Left untreated, pets may become lethargic and develop diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever and vomiting. Even healthy pets can become carriers and infect other animals or humans.

Consumers may receive product refunds by calling Procter & Gamble toll-free at 877-340-8823.

Lyme disease, an illness that is transmitted by hard-bodied ticks such as the deer tick, is a serious disease affecting humans and pets across the country. While being around ticks may be hard to avoid, there are many things you can do to prevent Lyme disease from becoming a debilitating disorder for you and your pets.

Although Lyme disease has been diagnosed in people in all 50 states, over 80 percent of human cases have occurred in the eastern states from Massachusetts to Virginia. The disease was named after Lyme, Connecticut, where the first human cases occurred in 1975. Ticks obtain the disease from the mammals they feed on, which include rodents and deer, and pass it on to humans and other animals, such as dogs, through a bite. Symptoms of the disease in humans include a rash and / or symptoms of the flu, followed by joint pain and possible arthritis.

Pets handle the disease differently, however. For example, canines will not show signs of the disease for several weeks or months after infection. If it is caught early, they will respond quickly to a round of antibiotics. Symptoms in dogs include arthritis and occasional fever. If undiagnosed for a long period of time, dogs can develop glomerular disease, a type of kidney damage caused by overstimulation of the immune system by an infectious organism.

Similarly, the methods for prevention of infection differ for humans and animals. A vaccine exists for dogs, which should be boostered annually. It is also advisable to avoid tick-infested areas, if possible. Use of a tick collar or monthly topical preventative such as Frontline Plus, K9 Advantix or other similar product and careful examination of your pet after she or he has been in an area that ticks may be present are additional ways to prevent Lyme disease in your dog.

While the FDA approved a human vaccine in 1998, it was removed from the market in 2002 due to poor sales, according to the Winter 2001 / Spring 2002 issue of “The Lyme Times” (a publication of the Lyme Disease Research Center). The Centers for Disease Control recommends that people follow these guidelines to avoid or prevent ticks from biting:

• Use a repellent with DEET on skin or clothing or permethrin on clothing and wear long sleeves, long pants and socks. Do not allow children to apply repellants with DEET themselves.
• Wear light-colored clothing, so that you can see ticks if they are crawling on your clothing.
• Tuck your pant legs into your socks so that ticks cannot crawl up your legs.
• Examine yourself for ticks after being outdoors and remove any ticks you find.

Being outdoors is a fun way to spend time with your family and pets, and it also gives your pet the exercise he or she needs for a healthy lifestyle. Following these guidelines can help safeguard the people and animals in your life, ensuring fun and good times for all.