Vet Tails

National Bite Prevention Week May 16-22

rolesvillevh — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:03:02 +0000

Let’s face it, we all – humans and canines alike – have a bad day now and then, some more than most, but we humans can discuss our stress and emotions. Unfortunately, dogs cannot. They may express their stress and anxiety with body language, vocalizing, growling and when feeling threatened, biting. Dogs will pick up on your anxiety and stress as well.

Never approach a dog you do not know. When you do approach a dog, do so calmly and relaxed, with a smile on your face, and avoid eye contact. Always ask permission of the “pet parent” before petting the dog. A dog may not be happy to meet you just because he is wagging his tail. This may be his way of exhibiting his anxiety. When a dog walks away as you are approaching him, ignore him; allow him to come to you when he feels it is safe. Most importantly, never leave children unattended with a dog, even if you know the pet well.

Everyone deserves respect, and dogs are no exception.

For more information, visit:

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/prevent_dog_bites.html

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/avoid_dog_bites.html

http://www.avma.org/animal_health/brochures/dog_bite/dog_bite_brochure.pdf

American Veterinary Medical Association www.avma.org

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention www.cdc.gov/injury

American Academy of Pediatrics www.aap.org

United States Postal Services www.usps.com

IS THAT BABY ANIMAL AN ORPHAN?

rolesvillevh — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:20:24 +0000

HSUS >> Wildlife >> Cape Wildlife Center >> Wildlife Care >> If You Find a Baby Wild Animal

IS THAT BABY ANIMAL AN ORPHAN?

Before you scoop up a young animal and call a wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife center, take a minute to determine if the animal really is an orphan. Keep in mind that if you do decide to handle a baby animal, wear gloves and use a towel to keep from touching the animal. Even babies can bite.

Songbirds

To determine if a young songbird is orphan, watch him constantly for at least an hour from inside your house or car. Parents will continue to feed a fledgling bird until he learns to fly. If the bird you’re watching is a healthy fledgling, you’ll see a parent fly to him and feed him, then fly away. It only takes a moment for the mother or father to do this, so you might miss it if you simply check on the bird every few minutes.

Ducks, Geese, or Swans

A baby duck, goose, or swan found alone with no family nearby should be considered orphaned. Placing him with a family other than his own is inadvisable, so if there’s no family nearby you should call your local rehabilitator or wildlife center about the situation.

Rabbits

Baby rabbits are fed by their mother only twice a day—at dawn and dusk. Therefore, baby rabbits found alone in a nest are usually not orphans. If the nest has been disturbed, reassemble it and cover the babies with the grass that originally covered them. To check if the mother is coming to care for them, place several lengths of thread in a grid pattern over the nest. If the grid pattern has been disturbed following the next dawn or dusk, you may assume that the mother is still caring for the youngsters.

Squirrels

These youngsters are generally seen with their mothers or not at all. If a squirrel has fallen from a nest but is not injured, place her in a cardboard box lined with a t-shirt in the location where you found her. If she was wandering around the yard, look for a squirrel’s nest (often a large ball of leaves high in the branches of a tree) and place the box below that tree.

If the baby has little or no body fur, she will need some warmth in the box. Fill an empty soda bottle with warm water, tightly cap it, wrap a t-shirt around it, and place it in the box beside the baby squirrel. Watch from inside the house to see if the mother comes. If she’s still around, she should come to get her child within a couple of hours. If the mother has not come by dusk, she won’t come that day. Call your local wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife center.

Raccoons

These youngsters are also usually only seen with their mothers. Mother raccoons are very smart and fiercely protective. They will take watchful care of their litter and won’t generally let a baby become separated from the group. If you find a young raccoon alone, he is probably orphaned. Call a wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife center.

Skunks

It’s unlikely that you will see a baby skunk without his mother, but sometimes you may find a baby skunk stuck in a window well or other nook that may actually be near their nest. To pick up a baby skunk, put on gloves and cover the skunk with a towel. Then scoop up the skunk with a cardboard box. Place the cardboard box, with the baby in it, on its side near where you found him. Skunks are nocturnal, so a baby’s mother may not come to find him until after dark. If that is the case, put the box safely under some bushes. Check on the box in the morning—if the baby’s still there, he needs to go to a rehabilitator.

Opossums

Young opossums stay in their mother’s pouch or on their mother’s back until they’re almost independent. If you find a baby opossum with no mother nearby, he has probably been separated from his family and needs assistance. If you find a female opossum dead, gentle roll her over and check the pouch on her belly to see if she has any young. If she does, and they’re alive, take the litter (mother and all) to a wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife center. Wearing gloves, move the body into a box for transport. Be advised, however, that very young opossums can’t be raised without their mother. The wildlife rehabilitator will be able to tell you if the litter you’ve found can be saved.

Mice

Mice make their nests in all kinds of places. If you inadvertently disturb a mouse’s nest, gently reassemble it and leave the babies alone. The mother will find that her nest has been disturbed and will move the litter to a safer location. If you come upon a baby mouse in an unlikely place, such as the middle of a shed or barn floor, you may have inadvertently disturbed a mother who was in the midst of moving her litter. Quietly leave the vicinity for at least a half hour, then return and recheck the area where you found the baby. If all goes well, the mother will have returned to retrieve him.

Turtles and Snakes

Turtles and snakes don’t care for their young, so if you find a baby reptile, you can be sure that he is not an orphan. Sometimes people are fortunate enough to find a nest of turtle eggs that are hatching. Don’t disturb the babies; they’ll disperse to their appropriate habitat after they’re done hatching. We’ve occasionally had a well-meaning person remove a turtle from his appropriate habitat because he wasn’t in a pond. Not all turtles are water dwellers, and once they’ve hatched, the turtles will instinctively know where they need to go.

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Disaster; Saving the whole family.

rolesvillevh — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:18:16 +0000

Spring is here in full force. That means longer days of sunshine, family activities and harsh weather. The AVMA has an excellent brochure so the whole family can be prepared and safe in case of a disaster. We plan for ourselves, but don’t forget about our four-legged companions. They depend on us for their safety so have plenty of food, water and first aid items for them as well. To download this brochure go the web page below.

Have a Safe Summer!!

BE PREPARED!

http://www.avma.org/disaster/saving_family_brochure.pdf

Have you ever read the back of your pet food bag??

rolesvillevh — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:58:11 +0000

Sitting here in Vegas, yes I actually do a little work on vacation too, I received a call from an old friend asking about his cat and the mystery that surrounds its constant vomiting. We discussed bloodwork, diagnostics that had been performed and then moved on to the ultimate question of what did his cat eat….ugh. ( I wont degrade the so named brand of food) Many of you already know I am very passionate about my thoughts and feelings on pet food, many of you have heard rants already, but for those of you who have not, here goes..

Always look at the first 5 ingredients, those are the most important and those are the items that are in the food in the highest percent…would you want to eat something that did not have meat as its first ingredient??

Avoid foods that have things listed in the first five ingredients that you cannot pronounce or have no idea what they are..we should not be feeding our pets something we would not eat ourselves
Have you every thought about what a by-product is?? For pet foods it is the leftovers from the market that day or week that are the cheapest and can range anywhere from turkey intestines or beaks to pigs feet… I personally say yuck…I would not want to eat that.
Think back to when cats and dogs were not domestic, they did not scrounge around for corn meal, by-products, wheat and corn, they were meat eaters and probably consumed some fruits and veggies along the way, so why force them to eat things they would not get in the wild. Which leads me into another thought…
Would we have so many problems with food/skin allergies, diarrhea, vomiting and general ill thrift if our pets were fed better?? Think about that question next time you read or pick up a bag of cat or dog food.

There are several good foods on the market that I highly recommend, some of which you can find at our clinic, others that you can find at Petco or my favorite pet store in Raleigh, Pet Mania. I urge you to check out a few websites: www.natuapet.com & www.onlynaturalpet.com. I would bet anyone a free bag of food that if we thought about what we fed our pets more closely and made a conscious effort to feed them better we would see less skin allergies and gastrointestinal diseases.

Earth Day

rolesvillevh — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:59:18 +0000

While you are surfing the internet check out these eco friendly sites for you and your pet.

Happy Earth Day!

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/celebrate-earth-day-pet.html

http://www.petside.com/wellness/green/living-green-with-pets.php

Green your pet for Earth Day

rolesvillevh — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:47:26 +0000

We are always looking for ways to help the plant. Check out http://dogtime.com/make-dog-eco-friendly.html

Learn ways to help Mother Earth and lower your pets’ carbon pawprint as well.

What a week!

rolesvillevh — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:10:28 +0000

Poor goat prior to the loss of his manhood

What a great Monday morning! It is nice to see a goat sometimes, especially on a Monday morning. He was a sweety and sat nicely for his photos prior to his surgery. Dr Hummel was super excited about the neuter because she could play with the Emasculators. (Dr Hummel loves using odd tools for surgery)

Just calling them for what they are!

I had a little trouble spelling Emasculators, therefore I went for the alternative spelling when I wrapped them and put them in the autoclave. I’m sure that they can be used to remove the man-hood of other animals though.

Dr Hummel looks Fabulous while removing the goats privates

After all the build up to the Emasculators….they didn’t work. Dr Hummel had to go back to the old stand-by. (The scalpel) Poor little goat man. He did fine after his surgery. He was up and moving very shortly after we took him off the anesthesia. Now he is probably back to his normal goat self. I’m glad we got to neuter him though, great learning experience.

They are so angry at that age!

Dr Hummel was nice enough to bring in two servile babies this week. They are so cute and cuddly and hissy. Lisa and I got a chance to attempt feeding them with their bottles. They were not willing to accept the feeding, but they did snuggle up and try to fall asleep. Lisa and I both wanted to curl up with a servile baby and go sleep in a corner, however that was impossible because the critters of Rolesville needed us to be awake.

Kitten earned more bottle time by this trick!

Dr Hummel rescued a litter of five kittens from the shelter. I have been mothering them on and off. We are going to find loving homes for all of them once they get beyond the need for bottle feeding. We have Moo Moo jr (in the picture), Leroy Jr, Roamer, Fritz, and a big fat grey kitty that no one has named yet. They are all adorable and crazy and require lots of attention.

It has been an interesting week but we all love every minute of seeing all the crazy and wonderful pets that our great clients have here in Rolesville. Shae

Test your knowledge about Feline Heartworm Disease

rolesvillevh — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:12:53 +0000

Hey! Test your knowledge about Feline Heartworm Disease. Take the poll and find out more information at http://www.vet.cornell.edu/FHC/ and http://www.heartwormsociety.org/pet-owner-resources/feline-heartworm.html

The answer will be revealed at the end of the month.
Good luck.

We had a visit from a pac man frog…

rolesvillevh — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 01:32:03 +0000

Wow, what a day of exotics. Not that it was not fun, but there were some challenging cases. The day started with a pac man frog that came to visit us due to a potential injury to his eye. He was quite the character. He was constantly hopping around on the table while I was trying to examine him. (for those of you who know pacman frogs, you know they are not the most active creatures:)) We then moved onto the birds that came in today, took care of the hospitalized ferret and managed to squeeze in a rabbit with an infection in his eyes and ears. And of course we saw our regular dog and cat patients as well. Did I mention there is a goat neuter scheduled for Monday:)

It can be quite interesting when we get exotics in the clininc and they definitely make for challenging cases. We get all varieties from our favorite pig patients to the bird who screams help me every time we try to trim its nails…I am going to have to say I think my staff has gotten pretty good and learning how to handle each of the exotics, even the serval cats that come in on occasion.

Just a Quick thought

rolesvillevh — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 01:12:12 +0000

The weather turned lovely….and it is so welcome! The ticks and fleas are very un-welcome though.

Today we had a lunch meeting to discuss some new vaccines. We decided to inquire if anyone had heard of these vaccines and if anyone would like to have them available for their dogs. Canine Influenza and Lyme Disease are the two vaccines in question here. Coming soon on Vet Tails we will be having a poll to get input about these two vaccines. Stay tuned!

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. We had a little fun last week hiding eggs around the clinic for the staff to hunt for and the chalk outline of the crawfish made with the remnants of the fecal float. (Photos will be coming soon). Lets all have a good week and hug our doggies and kitties. I will be hugging the five adorable kittens that are crying for their milk right at this moment. Hungry kitties call! Shae