Good vet advice

Good advice is hard to come by but when it comes to your cat or dog you need to know that what you know is reliable and solid information. Whether you are looking for information pertaining to an animal accident or what to feed your new little kitten you are sure to want the best information and know how. A reliable place to start is with vet advice.

Your animal’s vet is a trained professional in animal well being and is perceptive enough to pick up on any subtle needs or niggles that your pet might be experiencing. Vet advice can range from anything to do with nutritional health to general health and specific medical conditions. If your pet is still very young or if your animal is older your vet advice will be set to their specific age requirements with all of their individual needs taken into consideration.

One thing to remember is that vet advice is in the long run the safer bet, by following your vet advice your vet will be able to better track your pet’s developments and growth over their life time. When you are looking for information do ask around but ultimately get a vet to weigh in with reliable and good vet advice.

Pet Insurance: a good idea

Insuring your pet’s good health is the least that you can do as a pet owner to be sure of your animal’s health and of your financial security should your cat or dog ever need medical attention. A good pet health insurance package will cover you for veterinary visits and medication to any operation that your pet may need resulting from an accident or health problem. Along with the financial security offered to you by pet health insurances packages you will also receive the peace of mind knowing that your pet can and will be looked after when they most need to see a vet.

Medipet’s insurances packages offer you all of the benefits of reliable cover and peace of mind and offer you extra assistance in other and unexpected times of need. This includes helping you to offer a reward and advertise for your pet’s safe return if your beloved animal were ever to go missing. Medipet’s insurance package will also cover the cost of vet prescribed foods for up to six months. Covering your pet with a good insurance package means that you can take care of the routine vet visits and that you do not have to worry about the costs of any unexpected trips to see a vet.

Cat food concerns

Organic foods and healthy living is at the front of so many issues at the moment and with our pets as affected by the foods they eat as we are by the foods we eat maybe we should be looking around to see what healthier foods are available to us for our cats and dogs. Dog and cat food has for while a while been standardized into tins and pellets. But that is definitely not all that is out there for them to feast on.

There are more and more studies going into the affects of over processed and unnatural foods and as responsible dog and cat owners it is our duty to make sure that we are aware of what we feed out animals. With new products continually entering the dog and cat food market all we can do is be sure to check labels, talk to our fellow pet owners and consult our animal’s vets about the new and better foods to be feeding our pets.

Whether your pet is healthy or dealing with a medical concern a large part of their mental and physical well being relies on the food that they eat, so be sure to find out what is in your animal’s dog or cat food and check with a vet which food is best for your pet to be eating as a regular part of their diet.

Seeing is believing: robot litter box cleaners!

Do you want a bit of break from your pet duties? Would you absolutely love not needing to worry about having to a change cat litter box that is smelly and awful to clean? With some really useful and clever inventions you can have a pet holiday without having to compromise at all on your responsibility to your pets.

The Litter Robot is a highly effective and unique way of ridding yourself of those litter box blues. With this machine doing all of the cleaning work for you, you can have a well deserved chance for a pet holiday as a reward for all the time you have spent changing and cleaning litter boxes in the past. The Litter Robot is a machine that looks a lot like a washing machine, except that it does not completely seal up – your cat still needs a window to jump in and out of to use the litter tray. Once your cat has done his or her business the robot sifts out the waste and clumped litter leaving the litter your cat uses clean and the waste all in a easy to remove and throw away bag. Changing litter has never been easier!

To see more about this incredible invention visit:http://www.catsplay.com/litter_robot.php3 and give yourself the break of a pet holiday as this incredible machine saves you from a lot of litter box woes!

New developments in cat litter boxes

Are you tired of your cat’s litter box? It can be unsightly and really obtrusive to your home, not to mention smelly and just generally undesirable to have a round. A cat litter box is the sort of thing you need but makes you want to cringe and hide it whenever you have visitors around. But thanks to clever inventions and litter box houses your cat litter woes can now be set aside with style and convenience.

When it comes to litter box furniture you may think that it will the item of furniture will be something else that you will have to clean, but thankfully cat litter box houses are solid and convenient houses for storing your cat’s litter box. These houses are designed in various forms from elegant cupboard designs to simple cat litter box concealers to incredibly useful all in one kitty care centers. The litter box houses allow you to hide the litter box from sight while your cat still has easy access to their own private toilets.

If you are really looking for a break from the hassle of having to clean up a litter box then the latest in self cleaning litter boxes is your ideal solution!

Watching your dog's health

Your dog’s nutrition is of vital importance the happiness and duration of his or her life. By giving your dog all that he or she needs you can ensure that your pet will not only be in great physical dog health but that they will also be in great overall physical and mental condition.
Good dog health is about so much more than just what your dog eats, their health relates to how they are treated by you and how well they are doing in their environments. Just as with humans, when dogs are mistreated, are neglected or feel cramped and uncomfortable in their spaces they do not live as good, and as a healthy a life, as they could, or should.

To improve on, or to maintain your dog’s health, the best things to do are to be sure that you are giving your pet enough attention, that they are eating the right foods – in the right amounts – and that they are happy in the home that they live in. As a part of your life, ensuring your dog is happy and healthy means that you too can be a happier, healthier and well rounded person, that gives the same unconditional love to your pet as your pet gives to you.

Pet furniture

Does your cat run the house and behave as though you are just there to serve? Well, then your cat sounds the like the type that probably usurps whole sofas for themselves and leaves you feeling as though you need permission to take a seat on your own chairs. A quick fix solution to pets that act more like humans when it comes to the household furniture is to get them their very own cat chairs or dog cushions. – That’s not to discriminate though, if your dog would also prefer a chair, or if your cat would prefer a cushion then let the pet furniture hunting begin!

Pet furniture comes in a wide range of choices, from animal beds to cat or dog cushions, to miniature houses and tents that your pets can crawl into and cosily curl up in. If you are trying to get your pets off of your furniture because of the fur and dirt they leave behind then getting them a soft and comfy dog cushion or cat bed may be just the solution you have been looking for! And the great thing about animal furniture is that they look great and can easily fit into your home’s existing décor.

D.A.R.G. ADOPT-A-THON this sunday!

D.A.R.G. ADOPT-A-THON
Sunday, 25th May 2008
Main Road, Hout Bay
10am - 4pm

Please come along to the annual D.A.R.G. ADOPT-A-THON and support us in our efforts to raise
much-needed funds for all the abandoned and abused animals we rescue, sterilize, care for and try to re-home. Whether you wish to adopt a pet or not, please pop in and take a walk through our lovely cat gardens, feral park and newly-built kennels to see how donations help us improve the lives of all the animals in our care.

We have a number of fun and exciting events planned for the day:
➢ Sand Sculpting Demo W.P. Dog-jumping Demonstration The Bird Man
➢ Idols Contest Entertainment (Heather de Wit), DJ Watering Hole
➢ Art Competition Face Painting Jumping Castle
➢ Book Stall Tombola Stall Bric-a-Brac
➢ Donkey Rides in our newly-established petting farm, Noah's Ark Educational
Park, where children of all ages can cuddle the cutest piglets, guinea pigs, bunnies and also see our two-month old calf!

Light meals and refreshments will also be on sale. Please support us! Entrance: R5.00 per person. You can make a difference...

Children:
1. Participate in the D.A.R.G. Idols Contest – enquire and enter on the day.
2. Enter the D.A.R.G. Art Competition. Draw a picture of your favourite animal, write your name,
age and telephone number on the back of your entry and drop it off at D.A.R.G. together with
R10.00 by no later than Friday, 23rd May 2008.
Volunteers: We need help walking the dogs, socialising puppies, grooming cats and cuddling
kittens. If you can give a little love and attention to our animals, please pop in between 9am and
4pm on any day.

Sponsors & Suppliers:

If you can assist us in any way or would like a stall for the day, kindly
contact Heather on (021) 790-0383 or (021) 790-2050.
Should you not be able to adopt a pet or attend the D.A.R.G. ADOPT-A-THON this year, please
consider making a donation or sponsoring one of our sanctuary animals. Our bank details and
photos of all our animals can be found on our website: www.darg.org.za

Things you need to know about spaying and neutering

First of all when it comes to spaying or neutering cats or dogs it is vitally important to understand the dog and cat health implications of why your pet should be spayed or neutered. If you are an animal breeder you may feel like this information does not apply to you, but it is good that you know about dog and cat health in regard spaying and neutering so that you are able to inform those who acquire their pets from you. One of the biggest regrets about domestic animals is that so many people do not get their pets spayed or neutered and, as nature runs its course, the animals give birth to unwanted litters and as a result of this many animals end up on the street and ultimately in overloaded shelters.

If you have no intention of your breeding your pets then by having female pets spayed you can save your pet undue dog and cat health issues, and physical and mental stress caused by the natural heat cycle that occurs every three weeks and lasts four to five days. In male pets you can also save a lot of undue stress as a neutered male will tend to roam and fight a lot less than an un-neutered male pet, and once neutered male cats also stop marking their territory, i.e. your furniture.

Choosing your vet

Tips for choosing your pet’s vet

In a time of true need and when your pet most requires fast and good medical attention the last thing you want to be is uncertain of where to go or who to go to. By picking a good vet before a moment of crisis you can be assured of fast and assistance because you will know where to go to, and you can be out at a bit of ease knowing that your dog or cat is the best hands that you could find. If you are looking around for a Johannesburg vet, or for a vet in your part of the country, there are certain measures to take to be sure that you are choosing the right doctor for your pet.

You can start out by asking neighbours and friends in your area where they take their pets or browse telephone directories. By finding a vet close to your home you can get your pet to medical care a lot faster than if your vet was further away. Next you can give a few of the vet clinics a visit, just to see what they are like and to meet a few vets to see which clinics and which vet you feel most comfortable entrusting with your pet’s health.
By scouting around a bit and by asking relevant questions you can feel at peace with your choice in a doctor for your pet by knowing that they have the best Cape Town, Durban, or Johannesburg vet that you could find.

Being aware of pet health and abuse

Pet health and animal safety are issues of great concern for all animal lovers and pet owners. And some the reasons for concern are mush more serious and life threatening than we may at first assume. For people who are caught up in abusive relationships it generally takes them up to seven years to leave the abusive partner, but there are reasons beyond the psychological for a person to stay as long as they do. Many people will take concern in leaving unless they have a safe place to go to and have a safe place for their pets to go to where their animal’s pet health can be guaranteed.

Many animals that get caught in or between abusive relationships bare the brunt of the abuse as they are used as bargaining tools and are threatened with their pet health and with their lives. Animals are often threatened, injured or killed as a means for the perpetrator to frighten or intimidate children or partners. In these cases the animal’s pet health and overall safety needs to be taken into consideration and the best option is for the partner to get him, or herself, and the pet out of the abusive environment and to place of safety.

Pet health concerns

Taking care of your animal’s pet health is a responsibility that can be as fun, and as interesting, as it is necessary. This means that when you are taking care of general or specific health issues, or concerns, you can use it as a learning experience instead of seeing your job as a pet owner as an arduous chore in relation to your pet health needs.

To make this job even easier, and to lighten the responsibility on your shoulders, there is the wonderful option of taking out pet insurance to cover your pet health in your animal’s time of need. With the reliability of pet insurance you can step back from the concern of your pet receiving the best medical attention and you do not even have to worry about how to pay for your pet health and veterinary costs. With Medipet you and your pet are covered. You are taken care of financially and can be free from worry while your pet receives the best medical attention, leaving you to enjoy your time with your pet without ever having to worry about their pet health or pet health costs.

Medipet offers affordable and reliable pet health insurance to both cats and dogs from R115 a month for cats to R125 a month for dogs.

Dog training

Dog training can be a very important part of you and your dog getting to know one each other. Your dog is more than just a new animal around the home; they are, as the cliché tells us, your best friend. And who better to spend time with, having fun and learning together, than your new best friend? So, as important and as practical as dog training your dog may be, it is good to now that you can and should have fun while you are training your dog.

Dog training is best started when your dog your dog is still a puppy, this will teach from the get go what they may do and how they may do things.
Getting your dog properly trained when they are older is just a little more difficult, but not at all impossible. The older dogs get the more set in their ways and habits they become, so getting your dog to know your boundaries and teaching them better habits from a younger age through good dog training habits will do them and you a lot of good.

When you want to start training your dog, find out about local dog training centres or even trained and qualified private trainers, and remember to be consistent with whatever you teach your dog and to take the training habits home with you after any dog training classes.

Animal safety tips

Animal safety tips are invaluable when it comes down to the crunch of needing to ensure that your family and your animals are well protected and looked after. A lot of good animal safety advice is not about essential safety or disaster procedures but the tips are rather about the best and most effective ways of avoiding the need for real safety concerns, following the old saying that prevention is far better than cure.

Animal safety tips in regards to children are pretty basic – you need to make sure that your child is not susceptible to getting sick through their handling of animals. This can be ensured by washing, and teaching your child to wash, their hands after having played with or even just petted an animal. Kids are known to touch a lot of objects and the washing of hands is especially important before eating a meal. And by making sure that your animals themselves are kept clean you can prevent unwanted germs, viruses and diseases from entering your home. Other things to teach your child about animal safety include not approaching animals that are unfamiliar to them; this means strays, and other animals that may prove dangerous in any way – from violent temperaments to illnesses.

Choosing Puppies

When we walk through the streets of suburban areas we generally see the same types of dogs and puppies, from beautiful golden Labradors to German Shepherds, sausage dogs, and a whole lot of other gorgeous animals that make popular pets. But there are also the occasional and very intriguing less popular dog breeds that we will at times come across and there are even those that are so rare that we will never actually see them in person but that are very intriguing and interesting to hear about. Some of these less usual dogs include the beautiful and regal Weimaraner, the Pharaoh Hound, the Spanish Water Dog,

Weimaraner’s and full grown dogs and as puppies are sleek, elegant dogs that are bred either with short or long hair, while the Pharaoh Hound is completely distinctive from any other dog breed with its long pointed ears and perfectly almond shaped eyes. If sleek smooth furred dogs and puppies are not quite your thing then the Spanish Water dog is your ideal – with its furry, soft and extremely cute puppy dog eyes tucked in a head of really curly fur! Unusual dog breed’s are an absolute pleasure to own, so when choosing your own new dog or puppies remember to scout around a bit first!

Cat Litter

How frequently do you change you the litter in your pet’s cat litter box?
Litter boxes can be the bane of existence for most indoor cat owners but they are necessary and they fulfill a very important purpose. Something that has oft been spoken about and is still the question that haunts many cat litter box owners is how often the cat litter should be changed. I have two cats and they both use the litter box, so I clean out the box daily but only change the litter every second day.

The trick with a cat litter box is that you preferably want to get it cleaned out and filled with fresh litter before it starts to smell. My two cats do not get outside at all, and so they are both very reliant on using the cat litter box, if your cat uses the cat litter box less, or infrequently, then you may be able to get away with cleaning it out daily and changing the cat litter less frequently, if this is the case then your better option may be just to put less litter in the box and to still change it every two or three days.

A little bit of animal assistance

Do you ever find yourself looking around for a little bit of animal assistance? Taking care of our pets is a job that comes with a lot of love but also comes with a number of responsibilities. Thankfully we do not have to carry these responsibilities on our own. With the likes of great veterinary services, great pet ranges and products and with extremely reliable pet insurance we can be comfortably assured that we can and do give our animals all that they need and deserve.

Needs for animal assistance can range from anything like advice on bathing and the right foods to feed your pet, to your cat or dog needing medical attention. A lot of this animal assistance you can get from local pet shops or by simply asking your vet but there are instances when animal assistance needs some extra planning. This is where pet insurance comes into the picture to make your life easier and worry free knowing that you animal will have all the help he or she needs whenever they should need it.. Planning ahead is one of the best ways to ensure that when it is needed you have easy, fast and reliable access to the best animal assistance that you can provide for your cat or dog.

Some interesting kitten thoughts

Have you ever watched your cat in awe and wondered how he or she manages to move with such constant grace and agility? And if they do ever falter they mystically have an uncanny ability to land upright and straight on their feet. All this sets the cats and kittens apart from any other creature on the face of the earth…but just how do they do it? Well cats are built to sustain physical movement and to do it all with agility and the rightfully coined ‘feline grace’. Cats and kittens have more vertebrae in the backs than humans do and they these bones give them an unusual sense of flexibility and this allows them to twist their whole bodies right around when they are falling, this is a built in instinctive ability and is known as the “righting reflex”.

The cat’s amazingness can also be attributed to their great eye sight. A cat can see about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.
Kittens and cats are also very perceptive creatures and can also ‘see’
vibrations and movements through their finely tuned whiskers.

Animal injections - keeping up to date

Are you keeping up to date with your animal’s required shots? Every two years, domestic animals – of any kind from cats and dogs to horses and other pets that need it – require shots from vets, which are specifically made up with your animal health needs in mind. The injections are quick and are a relatively painless experience if you pet does not mind a trip out to see the vet. For your larger animals you can even have a vet come out to you to give your animal their required injections.

The biennial injections are designed to protect your pet from common and even less common ailments that have been known to affect domestic animals. These ailments range from cat flu to viruses and other potential animal health risks. Having the shots means that your pet will be well protected from a host of diseases and with a boosted immunity they will be better able to fight of any viruses that they may get into to contact with. Even if your pet is an indoors animal having the injections is still highly recommended to ensure that your pet is healthy with a great immune system that can fight off any potential health risks.

To clone or not to clone?

Dear Readers,
With sci-fi fiction and fantasy books making an all-time high in popular culture nowadays, we thought you might be interested to hear about the latest scientific research that could affect your pets. The following article represents a breakthrough in modern technology, and is from the News24 website if you wish to pursue the topic further. Enjoy!

Seoul - A South Korean biotech company is offering dog owners the chance to
clone their pet through a service that can cost up to $148 000 (R1.1m) for
a puppy.
RNL Bio, affiliated with the South Korean lab that produced the
world's first cloned canine, expects to deliver its first cloned dog in about a
year to a US woman in her 50s who saved biological material from her beloved pit
bull that recently died.
"These days, dogs are treated like family members.
There are many owners who would rather clone a favourite pet than adopt a new
one after it dies," said RNL Bio President Ra Jeong-chan.
RNL Bio is
affiliated with the team at Seoul National University (SNU) that produced the
world's first cloned dog, which has been verified through independent testing.
The same SNU lab has been implicated in a scandal for deliberately
fabricating data in separate studies on human embryonic stem cells.
RNL
expects it can clone about 30 pet dogs a year at present and increase that
number to about 200 by 2010, with costs going down as the cloning technology
increases in efficiency, Ra said.
Costs will drop
Lee Byeong-chun, the
Seoul National University professor who has led previous canine cloning
projects, said of the partnership: "Within one or two years, we will see costs
drop to a reasonable level."
Dogs are considered one of the most difficult
mammals to clone because of their unpredictable reproductive cycle as well as
difficulties in inducing ovulation and fertilising eggs in the lab.
RNL and
the university lab have also teamed up to clone drug-sniffing dogs, seeing-eye
dogs and other types of dogs used by governments and charities at a much cheaper
rate than for pet owners, they said.
The Korea Customs Service said it has
signed a memorandum of understanding with the team for cloning drug-sniffing
dogs.
The SNU lab was once led by disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who is
now standing trial on charges of fraud, embezzlement and violating the country's
bioethics laws.

You can find related stories when you follow the thread from this story's original location at http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2270675,00.html

Dog and Cat health

Maintaining and making sure that your pet has good dog or cat health is something that you can easily do at home. Before rushing off to a vet, or to a cat or dog grooming parlour there are some simple checks and grooming practices you can do on your own at home. Grooming your pet gives you a great opportunity to get a hands on and close up check of your animals overall dog or cat health.

When you are grooming and checking your cat or dog you can easily spot fleas, ticks, rashes, scars and other potential and unknown health problems. Cat health is very important to maintain and looking after you pet’s well being is a job that does not require a lot of time or effort but just needs to be done with a few simple checks on a consistent basis.

It is also a good idea to do overall body checks on your cat or dog before a visit the vet, so that if there are any problem areas you can bring them to your vet’s attention and find out if anything is wrong. Good dog and cat health is necessary for your pet’s well being and for you and your family to maintain a happy, healthy household.