Pet Vaccines

Pet vaccines create immunization in the body of animal against deadly and contagious diseases. The debate over pet vaccines’ implementation has been going on since its development in 1950’s. Before the development of Pet Vaccines, the diseases such as rabies, canine parvovirus, canine distemper, canine bordetella, feline leukemia, feline panleukopenia and other serious diseases were rampant and every pet used to suffer a lot. In such circumstances, vaccines appeared to be as blessings and helped in reduction and eradication of occurrence of most fatal diseases. Results clearly showed that pets who were vaccinated properly were less vulnerable to diseases that those who did not receive vaccine.

Vaccination type and frequency of inoculation may vary based on your pet’s age and physical health and well-being. Make sure that you are aware of your pet’s vaccination expiration date in order to maintain on-going vaccination.

Pet vaccines improve the immune system of the body against specific diseases. The body responds to the antigen by building up antibodies to protect and to fight against the disease. When vaccinated pet is exposed to the disease later, his body recognizes that and gets prepare to ward off the foreign disease through antibodies which are produced through vaccine.

Types of Pet Vaccines:

There are basically two common types of vaccines:

1. Attenuated vaccine
2. In-active vaccine

Attenuated vaccine or live vaccine:

Attenuated vaccine consists of weakened-live organism or virus that causes disease. There are many examples of highly successful vaccines in pets that have been developed using a live attenuated organism or virus. These vaccines are prepared to control diseases such as canine distemper, and so on.

Attenuated vaccine stimulates the immune response faster and last longer as compared to inactive vaccine. Although, it can cause certain severe complications in few cases under specific conditions.

In-active or killed vaccine:

This vaccine contains in-active micro-organisms that have been killed with the help of chemicals, heat, radioactivity, and antibiotics. But these micro-organisms are virulent earlier. Examples of in-active pet vaccines are influenza vaccine and rabies vaccine.

Causes Of Dog Arthritis – Some Quick Facts

In simple term, arthritis is a joint inflammation. It is estimated that dog arthritis hits 20-25 percent of the total dog population. According to rough figures, there are 77 million dogs in the United States that means, 16-20 million dogs are having arthritis today.

Aging:

Dog arthritis is basically, an old age disease that affacts joints of bones. Legs’ joints are vulnerable to this disease. Stiffness in muscles and soreness in joints are common features of arthritis in dogs or another pet or animal. A dog’s regular life span is 15 years. After 10 years, dogs require a lot of attention and care because degeneration process begins to start. Their bodies have to face the wear and tear results that make the pet more prone to developing arthritis.

Inactivity and obesity:

To maintain the weight of dog is essential to keep him fit and healthy. Sluggish and over-weight dogs are at high risk of many diseases and arthritis is one of them. Dog owners should control all the inappropriate behaviors of eating and make their animals fit and healthy. Let dogs involve in physical fun activities and give homemade balanced food.

Diseases and infections:

Different diseases and infections can leave side effects in the form of arthritis in dogs. Canine hip dysplasia is an awful condition that can cause crippling arthritis in your pets. By regular physical check up by vets, you can minimize the chances of occurrence of diseases and infections in your dogs. Give healthy life style to your dogs by monitoring their food habits and interaction with other animals.

Accidents and injuries:

Accidents and injuries are two possible causes of arthritis in younger dogs. Otherwise, dog arthritis is an old age disease and similar to human arthritis. If a young dog suffers from injuries on legs in any accidental case, he will be at high risk of developing arthritis in later life. So, make your dog’s life accident and injury free to save him from future diseases and pains.

Dog arthritis is a painful disease and can bring troubles in the life of pet. So, good medication, regular visit to vet, and healthy life style can reduce the severe effects of this disease. Sad but true, dog arthritis is not a curable, and to stay for life in both animals and human beings.

Signs And Symptoms Of Dog Arthritis

Dog Arthritis does not appear its clear symptoms in the beginning of ailment. It gradually increases internally and shows prominent signs and symptoms after years and years when arthritis becomes almost impossible to treat in dogs. However, balanced diet and plenty of exercise can alleviate the chances of occurrence of arthritis in dogs. There are different types of dog arthritis and it is not mandatory that this joint disease only appear in older dogs. It can be developed in young dogs as well. So, dog owners should be well informed of following sign and symptoms of dog arthritis.

• Problem in standing and sitting
• Reluctance to jump and run
• Avoid climbing up stairs
• Stiff or sore joints
• Pain in joints
• Unusual Sleep
• Heavy weight
• Shows less interest in playing games
• Clear signs in behavior change such as irritability, severe pain etc.
• Feels pain when one touches
• Stiffness and more pain in wet and cold season

All these signs show that your dog is having arthritis, but it can be confirmed by x-raying the dog’s joints.
Remember! Dog arthritis is not a curable disease, but it can be controlled by physical therapy and weight reduction tips advised by a veterinarian.

How To Deal With Behavior Issues In Your New Puppy

You will be excited to have a puppy at your home for the first time. Most experienced dog owners are already familiar with bad tantrums and behavior issues that puppies show in the beginning like barking, biting, chewing, digging, inappropriate elimination, etc. New puppy masters sometimes, become frustrated and annoyed over behavior issues of their pets.

Here are few suggestions for preventing behavior issues in your puppies.

Keep on examine your puppy’s body frequently:

You should make learn your puppy to behave normal when you examine his body and this learning can be ensured while handling the pet’s body often.

• Look in and clean puppy’s ears.
• Check puppy’s teeth.
• Trim the nails while holding the paws.

Socialize your puppy soon to avoid behavior issues:

Make familiar your puppies with the things that you think they might be frightening for the pets such as children, car rides, other dogs, other animals, vacuum cleaner and veterinarian’s place. You can associate all these scared things with rewards like social rewards, material rewards, and activity rewards. Hence, socialization process of your pet will improve gradually and there will be fewer chances to have behavior issues.

Enter into kindergarten to avoid behavior issues:

To teach the good behaviors and enhance the socialization, puppies should be entered into kindergarten. The best time of this is considered when puppy completes his first set of vaccination.

Select the toys carefully for your puppy:

Puppies like to chew therefore, select such toys that are acceptable alternatives to chewing and are not similar to other objects.

It is always preferable to prevent the behavior issues in pets than to solve them. 

Home Made Food For pets Is Fresh and Healthy

The days have gone when pet owners used to prefer the buying of restaurant food or ready to eat food for their pets. They used to buy this food for many solid reasons, but major motive behind buying highly expensive branded food for pets was to provide pets the balanced nutritional diet so that they stayed healthy physically and mentally and the process of their development remained fast. Now research reports show that highly nutritious and balanced food for pets can easily be made at home.

New trend of home made food for pets begins to get the popularity almost ten years ago. But still vast majority of pet owners feed their animals commercial pet foods. Nobody can ignore this fact that home made meals are fresher alternative to the commercially made pet food. Veterinarians always encourage new trends of home made food for pets and consider it a good sign to maintain the health of animals.

What should be included in home made food for dogs?

There is a general formula for dog food recipes. Each meal should comprise of 1/3 protein (meat, eggs, and all dairy products) and 2/3 grains and vegetables.

What should be included in home made food for cats?

Cat food has slightly different proportion of proteins, carbohydrates and fats from dog food because they are pure carnivores. Cat needs food that contains half proteins including meat, eggs and dairy products and half quantity of grains and vegetables. To keep in mind this ratio of food, you can easily prepare a good quality balanced meal for your cats at home.

Ingredients that should be avoided in home made food for pets:

• Onions
• Garlic
• Yeast dough
• Mushrooms
• Mustard seeds
• Chocolate
• Grapes and raisins
• Macadamia nuts and walnuts
• Coffee grounds
• Tea
• Alcohol

With few precautions and little knowledge, you can prepare a well balanced home made food for pets. 

Nice Pet Clothing Makes Your Pet A Rock Star!

To select color, style, and fabric for pet clothing is not a piece of cake for everyone. There are limitless online and offline pet shops, pet boutiques, and pet stores that can make a pet master confuse easily. Therefore, pet owners try to find two or three pet shops which are stuffed with trendy, beautiful, adorable, and cozy pet stuff, designer pet clothing and obviously cheap pet clothes. If I say honestly, It is a hectic job to find the best pet shops in pet super market if you are not having an earlier experience of buying for your lovely cat and dog and pet care.

Following are the few shopping tips that will help you find the comfortable and trendy pet clothing so that your cats and dogs look more attractive, alluring and obviously a rock star!

1. Buy the pet clothing according to the weather conditions. If it is summer, select the cool colored, printed and light weight pet clothing stuff. Cool colors such as green, blue, purple will help to keep the pet cool off. Buy warm pet clothing with hot and bright colors in winter. You can buy red sweater, black scarf, checked mufflers, etc.
2. Know your pet sensitivity and allergy to a specific fabric. If your pet got the allergy once with a certain fabric, never try to buy this again even though you like its color and style very much. Never take risk again!
3. Always take the measurement of your pet’s waistline and length before buying pet clothes and accessories. It is necessary because pets’ sizes of body keep on changing like human beings.
4. Do not compromise on the quality of pet clothing. Such dresses will go for a long time and your pet will love to wear them again and again.
5. Buy the pet accessories like glasses, ribbons, lockets, and name tags for your pet as they enhance the beauty of your puppies and kittens and they go awesome with old pet clothing as well.

Safe Toys For Your Pet

Toys are usually associated with children and pets. Every pet needs toys in their childhood in order to strengthen and advance their learning processes. When you go to purchase toys for your pet, choose the one that is harmless and hygienic for your lovely puppy and kitten. However, there are three types of toys available in the markets for pets.

• Active toys
• Distraction toys
• Comfort toys
  
  

Five factors are important that determine the safety or danger of a toy:

1. Pet size
2. Activity lever
3. Preferences
4. Pet surroundings
5. Pet health
   
   

Are Active Toys safe toys for your pet?

Following features of active toys can help you easily assess that they are good for your dogs and cats or not.

• Active toys are made of very hard rubber and easy to chew and ingest.
• They are available in shapes that pets love and in different sizes for fun. Remember, toys should be appropriate for your pet’s size. Otherwise, too small toys can easily be swallowed.
• Rope toys have always been favorite and available in a bone shape with knotted ends.
• Tennis ball is another common toy item for pets that can be used without any precaution. Only precaution is, if it is chewed through, discard it immediately.

Are Distraction Toys safe toys for your pet?

Distraction toys are amazing and help the pets fasten their learning. But through little effort, you can make them completely safe for your cute pets.

• Busy-box are made up of rubber and large in size with hiding places for treats. With a little movement through nose, mouth, or body, your pet gets the goodies.
• Kong-type toys create excitement and add more fun when they are filled with broken-up treats. Important thing is, the broken-up treats consist of butter and peanut butter that are healthy and full of nutrition foodies. To make Kong-type toys safe for your pet, you should be cautious in two ways:

• Double-check with your veterinarian about whether or not your pet should use peanut butter.

• Choose the appropriate size of toys for your animal.

Are Comfort Toys safe toys for your pet?

Soft stuffed toys have always been favorite one of pets and economical as well. However, they can be made easily at home. Keep in mind few tips while purchasing them:

• Soft stuffed toys are not appropriate for all dogs and pets. Therefore, choose the right one according to the age of your dog and cat.
• They should not be easily chewable and tear off.
• The size of the stuffed toy should be small so that your animal can carry around with comfort.
• Spare t-shirts, pillowcase, towel, socks, and blanket can be comforting to your pets. But, they are not safe at all. They are safe when you are playing with your lovely kitten and puppy.

I hope, these guidelines will help you find safe toys for your pet.