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Porcupines, skunks, raccoons

Don’t let your dog end up like this!

If you live in the north country, you’re probably familiar with these creatures of the night. They tend to be more prevalent in the cooler more temperate parts of the country and are mostly seen at night, although in areas frequented by humans, they can learn to do their scavenging whenever the time is right and the garbage is ripe for the picking. If you are a camper or RVer you will find out pretty quickly that these guys are around if you simply leave a little bit of food or a bag of garbage lying around. Whatever the case, in order to make your and your pet’s lives easier you should try to avoid feeding them or otherwise attracting them (e.g. don’t leave a bowl of food sitting around for your pet)

A few things to keep in mind: keep Fido on a short leash. Dogs love to chase any of these guys. Skunks, porcupines, and raccoons all tend to be fairly slow movers, plus in areas where garbage is plentiful they are often overweight so they tend to waddle along clumsily which makes them great sport for your dog. The problem is they all have great defenses, and when they meet your pet, the outcome is likely to be unpleasant, not to mention possibly expensive.

Remember that all three species tend to be attracted to garbage, most often at night, so keep your site clear of food and garbage and keep your pet close at hand at night. If you find it necessary to take your pet for a walk after dark make it a short one on a short leash, and stay away from the garbage sites. If you follow these simple rules, you probably won’t have much of a problem since wild animals usually prefer to avoid contact with humans and pets.

Porcupines have natural defensive instincts and a very effective means of self-protection. When approached by a potential predator, they tend to curl into a ball so that their relatively unprotected underbelly is inside the ball. All your hotshot dog runs into are the quills. If you have the opportunity, just turn around and go the other way – drag the dog away if you must – because most dogs just can’t resist the temptation to molest this seemingly helpless victim. Rover will first paw at the curled up ‘porc’, which results in a number of quills stuck in his foot. Then the dog may stick his nose down to sniff at the animal and get a few stuck in his muzzle. Finally our best friend may actually try to bite the curled up rodent and end up with a mouthful and possibly a face covered with spines. In the heat of the attack some dogs just don’t have any sense at all and the result can be a mess. Once the adrenaline of the attack has worn off, the injuries can be really painful.

If there are more than a few quills or if your dog is the really sensitive type, get her to a veterinarian immediately. The longer the quills are in place, the more the quills will soften up, and the more difficult they will be to remove properly. Removing them is extremely painful, so sedation or even anesthesia may be the order of the day. Don’t get that macho attitude and think it’s a simple task. Often the quills are lodged in the mouth or even the roof of the mouth, between the teeth, between the toes, and other places where you can’t even see. If there are only a couple of quills and they are easily accessible and your dog is easy to handle you can give it a try. You will need two tools (preferably pliers) – one to hold the skin down firmly (a slightly open pair of pliers placed loosely around the quill at the skin line works nicely for this) while you firmly grasp the quill near the skin with a second pair of pliers and give it a quick but hard pull. (When sedated, I prefer a slow steady pull. I think slow and steady is less likely to break the quill, but slow and steady hurts a lot more when the patient is awake.) Do each individual quill. If you try to rush it or attempt to pull more than one at a time, they will probably break off. If they have been left in place for too long, they will probably not come out cleanly and you will leave a fragment behind which can fester up and cause an infection. Also, quills lodged in a tendon or around the eyes can cause more serious problems. Again, your best bet by far is to get the dog to a vet ASAP and let him or her do a proper job of it. If you are in porcupine country the local vets will know exactly what to do. And do not try to cheap out on the sedation. For the good of the patient, it’s important.

Skunks are a critter of a different color. If your pet encounters a skunk, you will need a pair of rubber gloves and some soap and water. First give the pet a normal bath. Try to wash out any large glops of skunk spray. Then, to remove the stench you can use a commercial skunk preparation or you can pick up a large can or two of tomato juice and use that; or you can try the following concoction, which has been known to work just as well as pretty much anything else:

           1 Quart of hydrogen peroxide – standard drug store formula

            ½ Cup baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

            1 Tbsp dishwashing detergent (Dawn, etc.)

Whatever you are using, after the pet has first been bathed, take your time working the product into the coat thoroughly, then rinse with clear, fresh water and repeat the whole process over again. Most of the time you will not be able to remove all of the odor, but it should get rid of the really strong reek and get things down to the point where the pet may be just moderately fragrant. If there is evidence of eye irritation from the skunk spray, flush the eyes with a plain eye irrigating solution and get her to the vet.

Finally, raccoons will usually ramble off or maybe climb a tree if given the chance. If they are cornered they can and will fight, often viciously. Save your pet the grief and the pain of some nasty lacerations and puncture wounds. If there is an encounter get the pet in to be looked at by a veterinarian. She should at least get an antibiotic injection and may need to have those wounds clipped up and cleaned out. 

All of these problems can be avoided relatively easily by simply keeping your pet on a leash – shorter is better than longer. And keep her indoors at night. You’d be surprised how much trouble a dog can get into on one of those long retractable leashes. A leash isn’t punishment, it’s your dog’s best friend; and, more times than you might realize, it may actually be your pet’s salvation.

Please share this article with others.

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“Safe” Pet Toys

“safe” pet toys….

Every pet toy that you see – any pet toy that you can think of – has the potential to injure or kill your pet. There are no safe pet toys, only safe pet owners. It may be true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but safety is most definitely in the hands of the user. A toy manufacturer or even a veterinarian cannot tell you that a given toy is safe for your dog, and there is no consumer product safety commission for pet toys. Any toy can be safe when it is used properly and under supervision, and conversely what is seemingly the safest toy, if left unmonitored and unsupervised, can be a killer.

So what’s good? I’m a big fan of Nylabones and Gumabones and Kongtoys. They are good, solidly constructed pet products that can withstand a lot of abuse from your typical dog with normal chewing and play habits. But remember, even these products can be dangerous if not used with some supervision and a little common sense. If you give a large dog a toy designed for a small dog, bad things will happen. If a dog starts to chew off pieces of the toy, bad things will happen. It’s up to the diligent pet owner to be wary of the dangers. If your dog is a super-aggressive chewer, nothing is safe. I used to buy my dog pig ears from a local butcher shop. They were smoked and looked and smelled good enough that I wanted to eat them myself. Organic animal by-products such as smoked pig ears, beef and ham bones, beef and pig hooves, knuckle bones all make great treats as long as you are aware of the risks. Dogs can break teeth on real bones and large dogs can crack and break up bones, chew them up and swallow them, and end up with an intestinal obstruction. The upside, if you want to call it that, of a real bone obstruction is that it is very visible on a diagnostic radiograph, as opposed to the plastic or nylon bone or rubber toy obstruction, which is not nearly so evident on film. Pig ears can be very rich and very fattening and can trigger some GI upsets or even a bout of pancreatitis. Also, any of these organic treats can suffer from the sometimes all too frequent risk of bacterial contamination – Listeria, Salmonella, or something else – in the packaged product, or environmental contamination once it’s been chewed on for a while and then left to lie around exposed to the bacteria in the house or yard. I

There is no consumer product safety commission for pet toys.

Balls can be good but are not without their own risk. Most veterinarians feel that a tennis ball is a safe toy. It is… unless your dog is a super-aggressive chewer or you’re not paying attention. I took half a tennis ball out of the intestinal tract of a dead dog years ago. Once the seal in a tennis ball is broken, it is easily separated into halves and chewed up and swallowed. Golf balls and ping-pong balls can be fun for small dogs with some supervision. Baseballs are okay for bigger dogs for playing fetch but if you allow them to chew for even a short time, they’ll chew off the cover (after all it is rawhide…), swallow it and possibly get an obstruction. If the baseball cover doesn’t get them, underneath the cover it is wound with yarn, which is extremely deadly if swallowed in a long enough strand.

Remember that NO toy is indestructible, NO toy is completely safe, and the longer a toy is in use the more likely it is to become damaged and dangerous.

How about a Frisbee? I think they are pretty safe. They can get pretty beat up, chewed up, and rough edged, but all in all I think a plastic flying disk is okay. Just don’t let your dog sit there and chew it up now that I said that. The pieces, if small enough may be relatively safe, but enough of them can lead to an obstruction and we all know now where that can lead. Just pay attention and you’ll be fine.

Cats love to play with those little micey things on the end of a long elastic string hanging from the end of a stick? You’ve seen them. These are really quite safe and lots of entertainment for your cat. BUT (saw that ‘but’ coming didn’t you?), if you leave the stick hanging there and your cat somehow swallows the string – dead cat. Swallowing string is probably one of the most deadly things your cat can do. It’s easily avoided by paying some attention.

So after all of this ranting, how are you supposed to protect your pet from unsafe toys? It simply requires that you think about any potential problems before you make a toy or purchase or before you offer a toy to your pet. Then you need to watch and monitor its use. Like driving defensively, try to envision all of the ways of abusing or misusing the product and make a decision about how much supervision will be necessary. A stuffed toy will need more supervision than a Nylaboneor a Kongtoy. A nylon bone or a Kongtoy may require more of your attention than a reasonably sized rawhide chew or a cow foot or pig ear. String and rope toys can be swallowed and can kill if left unsupervised but are fine when you are actively playing with your pet or closely managing things. Your dog may act entirely different when boarding or when otherwise left alone and may chew up and swallow a toy that has remained intact for ages. And finally, unfortunately some dogs are borderline psychotic and will manage to swallow just about anything that they come into contact with when the owner is absent. This is not the fault of the toy or of the owner but is simply the nature of the dog and may require some kind of behavioral therapy and/or medication.

Remember that no toy is indestructible, no toy is completely safe, and the longer a toy is in use the more likely it is to become damaged. Soft toys get chewed up, sometimes immediately, in other cases over time. Hard toys can injure your pet by damaging the teeth. Edible toys can easily be overfed. Animals can break their teeth chewing bones, hard nylon bones, or other hard objects. If your dog is a very aggressive chewer, watch really closely and be ready to substitute something softer and safer – but then you need to monitor that for any tendency to chew it up and swallow it. Life is difficult. Love sometimes takes time and effort. But that’s why your pet has you for his best friend!

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Your Dog’s Leash

Using your Leash – your dog’s lifeline; where is his nose?

Let’s use our imagination… You’re having a great time visiting the annual WhatzIt Festival. Pets are welcome and you and Max are having a great time taking in the sites and the sounds and the scrumptious smells of cooking whatzIt at every turn. You stop and check out a menu on one of the food wagons while Max checks out the situation around your feet. He sees something interesting under the little concession stand and starts nosing around. You’re not worried. After all he’s on a 6-foot leash and nobody is nearby for him to bother, so you let him do his thing as his head disappears through a gap in the fencing under the little trailer. While you’re engaged in making up your mind over the offered food items you momentarily forget that he’s even there. Then, when he backs out from under the concession stand he has a box of rat poison stuck on his muzzle. Now what? What happens now and how do you avoid having this situation repeat? 

The really cool thing is that you will probably never even know how really effective a tool your leash really is – because your dog is still alive and sleeping safely beside you.

Obviously you need to take Max immediately to the vet and follow your veterinarian’s advice.  The doctor will need to see the box to check out exactly what the contents were, and will then offer you a recommended treatment plan. You, being the ever-conscientious pet owner, will follow those directions to a T in order to cover the worst-case scenario possibilities and, thanks to your and your vet’s prompt and proper treatment, Max should do just fine. That’s enough of this imaginary episode for now.

Now, what could you have done to avoid this fiasco? Well, in reality probably not much. You did really well. You used a nice short leash and you were keeping him carefully at your side. There’s not a lot more you can do and unfortunately accidents happen. What happened here is that you did not follow my words of wisdom to “Always keep an eye on your dog’s nose. Know where his nose is at all times.” Admittedly that can occasionally be difficult and sometimes we simply have to let dogs be dogs. However there is an upside here: because you had him close up and under your direct supervision, you were able to catch this problem when it happened – not a week or two after the fact when your dog is bleeding to death and you have no idea what the problem might be – exactly what might have happened if he were running around on one of those worthless, superlong, retractable leashes.

The real issue is that so many people don’t take the simple precaution of using a leash at all, or if they do, they use one of those long 25-foot retractable leashes. A leash is not cruel and it should not be viewed as some kind of punishment. The purpose of a leash is to keep your pet safe – out of traffic and out of harm’s way. If he was not on the leash, or if you had him on one of those 25-foot retractable jobbies, you probably would have missed this lifethreatening danger entirely. And Max would have passed on to that sorrowful status of an old pet memory.

In my classes and in my talks with clients I emphasize that a leash is your dog’s best friend. If you use a leash whenever you take your dog out for a walk, you will hopefully never experience the disappointment, the shock, and the heartbreak of losing your dog to an unexpected dog attack, snake bite, poisoning, or automobile encounter. It’s just not worth taking a chance. You cannot imagine the number of times I have heard a client utter the words “I don’t understand what happened. He never went in the road,” while standing over the dead and mangled body of the dog they had cared for so deeply. It’s hard to tell them that any dog will go in the road. It’s just a matter of what kind of temptation it takes to get them to do it – a squirrel, a cat, another dog, or whatever. And it’s tough to imagine a dog that isn’t going to be tempted by the swish and rattle of a snake in the brush or by the eye-catching sudden hop of a potentially toxic toad in the damp, dew-covered grass of the early evening. Remember, danger lurks – and you are entirely unaware, but your dog is on top of it all.

When we were living aboard our boat Fidelisin the Dominican Republic a dog-loving couple aboard one of the local anchored cruising boats watched their dog die from simply picking up one of the local poisonous toads in his mouth. They knew the toads were poisonous; they just didn’t realize HOW poisonous they were. If their dog had been on a leash, he might have been saved. In Puerto Rico we met a couple of liveaboards. They had stopped in for a couple of nights in the harbor in Salinas and had a beautiful yellow Labrador retriever. The dog was a real sweet guy and very pleasant and people-friendly. While walking the dog on the street in downtown Salinas on a beautiful Caribbean afternoon, they were standing on a street corner when, as they looked at the dog backing out from where he had his head poking around under some bushes, lo and behold, stuck on the end of his nose was a box of rat poison. (Sound familiar?) They brought him to me hoping I might help. The best I could do was to send him to the local veterinarian who promptly and properly dealt with the problem. So no, I don’t necessarily make up all these things! In the islands of the Caribbean they keep rat poison in a lot of very accessible locations in an effort to control the rat population and also as an aid to controlling the stray pet problem. That’s not the only place where this is done. Don’t let your dog fall victim. If you are a jogger, get a dog jogging leash. They make them. Far better idea than just letting her run along, loose and vulnerable.

There are other, less lifethreatening reasons to use a leash, such as keeping your pet from bothering your neighbor or other people, but the really important objective remains: it will very likely, at some point in time, probably save your dog’s life. And the really cool thing about that is that you will probably never even get to know how really effective a tool your leash really is – because your dog is still alive and sleeping safely beside you.

So be wise and listen to a little well-intentioned advice. A leash truly is your dog’s best friend and, if you can’t keep him tethered up tight, at least keep a close watch on where he’s sticking his nose. At some point it may very well save his life. 

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A New Puppy/Kitten

New Puppy in the House

I have a good friend who recently called me in a panic. Her married son who lives a couple hours away had left his new puppy in her care while he was out of town on a trip. When he called to check on the pup, he mentioned that she should not allow it to be exposed to any other dogs because it had not yet had all of its vaccinations. She then called me all in a dither over the possibility that the pup may have already been dangerously but unknowingly exposed prior to her son’s phone call. All of her trips out of the house – to work, shopping, visiting friends and family – could have brought home any number of dreaded diseases, not the least of which would be parvovirus. So what is a mom to do….?

The key things to keep in mind when you have a young puppy around are fairly simple. Don’t invite anybody to bring a dog or another puppy over to play, and conversely, don’t take the puppy anywhere near anybody else’s house whether or not they happen to have any pets. A good general rule to follow is to not allow the puppy to travel anywhere except back and forth to the vet for its vaccinations until at least a week after the final vaccination. (And for those of you who think that the puppy’s vaccinations are all done simply because the breeder said he “took care of all that,” go see a veterinarian for the proper procedure. If you are adopting a puppy at the age when they are commonly let go by breeders, then any vaccination that has been done is strictly temporary. One or two vaccinations in a young puppy are not sufficient to confer long-lasting immunity.)  A dog does not necessarily need to have direct contact with an infected animal or carrier to pick up an infection. I recommend to my clients that they completely avoid pet stores (Don’t even walk in the door!) and any kind of event where lots of pets are likely to congregate (pet shows, puppy classes, dog events, pet-friendly hotel rooms, etc.). Parvovirus can be transmitted before an owner is aware that their dog even has a problem, and store and business managers and event organizers generally are clueless. All you need to do is cross paths with somebody who has a sick dog at home and you could very well take the virus home on your shoes. Obviously you can’t live in a bubble, but a few simple precautions hopefully will help. And your puppy CAN pretty much live in a bubble until his vaccinations are complete.

(There is one additional step that you can take if you are bound and determined to be more cautious than the next guy. You can do what we do in our veterinary hospital when we are keeping a parvovirus case in the isolation ward. In addition to a number of other precautions that we take when handling a case in isolation, to avoid tracking any virus outside the isolation area, we place a small footbath such as a kitchen sink wash basin with an inch or so of weak bleach water (1 cup of bleach to a gallon of water) in the bottom. A folded towel is then placed into the basin to absorb the liquid so that it doesn’t get splashed all over, and another towel is folded and placed on the floor beside the basin. When leaving the contaminated area, we step into the bleach water basin to get our shoe soles wet, then step out of the basin onto the adjacent towel to wipe our feet clean. The bleach water in the basin must be cleaned and changed on a daily basis, or sooner if it gets dirty. This hopefully provides an adequate barrier between the contaminated and uncontaminated areas. At home you could similarly place a basin outside the entrance to your home for you and any visitors to utilize when entering your house. It’s probably overkill but if you are intent on impressing all your friends with your dedication and commitment to disease prevention, this should do it. But there are still no guarantees regarding efficacy.)

Do NOT avoid visiting the veterinarian. Just don’t walk in with your puppy and plop down in the waiting room next to another owner with a sick dog or puppy. Let the staff know you have arrived but have somebody sit with the the pup in the car until you’re ready to be seen. Yes, it is true in veterinary medicine, just as it’s true in human medicine, that a hospital or doctor’s office offers an excellent place to get sick. But I will vouch for my hospital where I currently work and every hospital where I have worked in the past, that we do everything within our power to avoid contamination of our facility (as opposed to a physician’s office or a human hospital ER) when we have a suspected or confirmed case of parvovirus or any other possibly dangerous case. Veterinarians obsess over such possibilities. No veterinarian wants patients accidentally infected in his/her reception area or to have a reputation as a source of infectious disease. We keep suspect patients out of the waiting area when they arrive; they are moved into an isolation ward as soon as possible when hospitalized; staff members wear gowns and gloves to handle any suspicious cases; and all surfaces are liberally disinfected as soon as possible after possible contamination, even before we know for certain whether there is any actual danger. If you still have any lingering doubts or concerns, call a mobile vet, express those concerns, and have him/her come to you until the vaccination series is done.

As I told the woman who called me, if you keep your puppy away from other dogs until its vaccinations are completed, it is not terribly likely that you are going to pick up any kind of dangerous infection by violating any of the other above suggestions, but the more precautions you take, the better. Changing your whole lifestyle is probably overkill. I don’t think you have to stay home from work or avoid your family and friends. Just use a little common sense. Life is full of risks. Yes, puppies can get sick and die in spite of everything anybody might possibly do, but taking these few simple precautions certainly reduces to a minimum the likelihood of having a disaster. All you can do is whatever you can do!

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The Annual Snowbird Migration

Do you make the annual migration from the Great White North to Florida or Texas each fall? Make the trip in your RV or perhaps just driving in the car from one seasonal home to the other? Here are some ideas for you to consider.

First of all, if your pet has never made this trip before, don’t just plan on throwing him into the car at the last minute and taking off on a twenty-four hour drive without some advance planning. If your pet is an experienced road warrior, then you just need to get the food and water together and make a roomy spot for him inside the car and go. If your pet is not an experienced traveller or has anxiety issues about traveling, you should already have been working on that for months in advance. Nonetheless, don’t just expect to load her in the car and take off without some advance preparation. Be prepared to make the trip in legs, a few hundred miles or less at a time, if necessary, then a relaxing stop at a pet-friendly motel before repeating it the next morning. You may have to play it by ear. If the overnight stopover thing doesn’t help, you might have to just get up extra early, gird yourself for the grueling sojourn ahead, and make the rest of the trip in one gigantic marathon trip. Regardless, I do not recommend that you load your pet up with drugs in an effort to make the trip easier on yourself. Those drugs sometimes are safe and effective, sometimes not so safe and not so effective (and more is not necessarily better). Deal with it as best you can this time, and start working on the problem as soon as you’ve gotten to your destination and have given the pet a couple days to acclimate. These ideas may be less an issue if the pet is aboard a motorhome or other RV. Regardless, give it some thought — how much do you know about your pet’s health? 

If your pet has a history of any health issues or if she is older, greater than six or seven years old for a big dog, over ten years for a cat or small dog, consider having a thorough physical exam and blood workup done a couple weeks before you intend to leave. Your veterinarian can only glean so much knowledge from a physical exam. A blood workup can sometimes reveal serious trouble waiting in the wings. Pets with subclinical kidney disease and/or congestive heart failure may seem fine while at home in a comfortable environment with no stress and plenty of available drinking water, but I have seen them stressed to the point of death by a distraught owner who had no idea that the trip down to Florida was literally killing their pet. They shove the pet into an unventilated corner of the back seat, withhold the water for the trip (so the pet will not have any accidents, of course), and race down from Minnesota or Ontario in one fell swoop. After a day or two of being here in Florida and the pet simply “not acting right” they decide to bring her to the ER where we find the pet dehydrated and in the advanced stages of decompensated renal failure – and the owner never had a clue! Fifteen hundred dollars later we find ourselves euthanizing a pet that just never had a chance, all simply because of owner ignorance.

Do your best to keep the diet as consistent as possible for the trip. Sudden changes in food and/or water and too many treats (in an effort to quell the dog’s anxious behavior) can lead to vomiting and/or diarrhea, which then can escalate into dehydration, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, and/or pancreatitis. Stress — and a long car trip is stressful to any pet, whether they are seasoned snowbirds or greenhorns — often plays a major role in the development of this problem.

One other thing to keep in mind — what may be appropriate travel conditions for your pet up north, may actually be dangerous once you’ve left the cold weather behind. I had a dog come in with significant hyperthermia because the owner squeezed the pet carrier in down low on the seat and then piled the car full of other items, smothering the pet carrier and cutting off all ventilation – not such a big deal up north where it simply helped to mitigate the cold temperatures. Once they got to Florida however, the dog could not cool itself down. Remember, dogs self-cool by ventilating the excess heat through their lungs  – panting. For this highly efficient process to work, they need plenty of ventilation. That means lots of air circulation and abundant space around the pet and its carrier. Open the windows and/or turn on the air conditioner and make certain the airflow is getting to the pet. Cats are better equipped for handling cramped, stifled quarters than are dogs, but the same still applies.

Remember, stress is a major factor in many disease conditions. Try to make the trip as unstressful as possible. The more your pet freaks out over making a long car trip, the greater the likelihood that it will lead to some health issues. If you start preparing days ahead of time and think about your pet as a significant factor in this trip, not just another article of luggage or furniture, it should go a long way toward averting disaster.

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Pet Hoarding

Hoarding pets – rescue or incarceration? 

A television news article this week dealt with a woman whose house was raided by animal control authorities because neighbors had complained about the offensive odor emanating from the premises. When authorities entered the house they found over 100 cats living in this small tract type house, along with several dead cat bodies in the freezer, fecal material described as “two feet deep” on the floors, and cats suffering from various degrees of physical distress. The woman who kept the cats was apparently not living at the house and she told the police that the person or people who normally assisted with the care of her cats had recently been unable to help her. Needless to say, the cats were taken in by the local authorities and placed under the care of local humane groups to be hospitalized as needed and rehabilitated and then farmed out for placement with new homes. This particular incident happened in the Tampa Bay area but could just as easily have occurred pretty much anywhere.

Similar articles appear on the news a couple of times a year, usually dealing with cats but occasionally dogs, birds, horses, and even exotic zoo type animals are the victims, so the problem is out there. It just seems to be overlooked for a prolonged period before it is finally uncovered. Now – I’m no psychologist but the people who are guilty of this sort of behavior are, in my humble veterinary opinion, obviously a little over the edge. I’m sure their behavior probably began in a relatively normal way. A cat or two as pets or adopted from a shelter or off the street may well lead to a sense of self-satisfaction and the rush of feeling the part of the savior. That “high” derived from the sense of having saved these animals may well lead to an urge to repeat this feeling by “saving” more and more animals and each successive “rescue” leads to the need for another fix. In other words, not far into this behavior pattern the need for the rescuer to “save” another animal probably overcomes the actual need for the animal to be saved. No doubt, at some point the environment into which these pets are taken becomes much more detrimental to the well-being of the rescued animal than if it were simply left to its own devices in its natural environment, whether that’s the street, the forests and fields, or whatever. Rescue gradually turns into forced incarceration and an environment of squalor and disease develops.

Now I’m not talking here about the person who is hooked on cats and wants to have 10 or 12 cats but takes pleasure in providing those cats with plenty of personal attention, meticulous care, and proper food and medical attention. That situation is close to the edge but I think it falls short of the dangerous pet hoarder. (However, I have seen this situation turn into a serious abuse scenario simply by that loving and caring owner experiencing a major health problem and the cats suddenly being seriously neglected.) I’m not talking about a bunch of outdoor cats living at a particular address or about a dairy farm where often there are lots of cats who are kept around, fed a little cat food and a lot of surplus milk, in exchange for their services helping to keep the local rodent population in check. Sometimes any pet situation can appear marginal, and the ultimate determining factor should be the quality of the animals’ lives. I’m also not speaking here of legitimate pet rescue people who are out there rescuing strays and lost pets, keeping them temporarily, and fostering or adopting them out to homes with the intent of actually finding long term homes. Such an endeavor requires a boatload of money to keep it going, lots of volunteer labor, and a tremendous sacrifice in space, personal facilities, and private life. The dangerous situation arises when free-roaming cats and/or dogs are “rescued” and locked up in a building and/or in cages where they have no choice but to suffer and waste away at the whim of their captors. 

In my line of work I tend to meet up with the people who are caught in the middle ground and are frequently difficult for me to figure out. I think it sneaks up on these people, and one day it dawns on them that maybe things are getting out of hand – an animal is found dead and they didn’t even realize it was sick, or it never dawned on them that it hadn’t shown up to eat for the past several days. Hopefully this scenario serves as a wake-up call to the gradually evolving pet hoarder, but I just never get to know for sure. If this situation sounds familiar to you then maybe you have a problem. Back up and try to look at yourself objectively or ask a friend to be honest with you. Remember, anybody can fall into this category. I’ve seen veterinarians guilty of “compassion overload” who simply cannot turn down a pet in need, even if it is one that will obviously not be place-able or perhaps should be euthanized. Gradually the veterinary hospital is filled with strays and misfits, eventually to the detriment of the hospital’s medical facilities and care. And as a result you, the pet-owning client who trusts in your veterinarian’s good judgment, eventually become a victim of that doctor’s loss of vision.

Take a look at yourself and think about it. Do you have more pets than you can deal with? Can’t keep up with walking all the dogs or cleaning all the litter boxes? Veterinary care has become a thing of the past because you just can’t afford it any more with this many pets? Do you not have time to pick up and/or interact with each of the pets in your household? Do you have messes around the house that you just haven’t gotten around to cleaning up? Are you afraid to let company come over to visit because you don’t want them to see just how many cats you actually have? These are just a few of the warning signs of pet hoarding. Quality of life – for the animal, not for you – is the key. Remember, it’s not about giving yourself a good feeling; it’s about providing a proper, healthy environment for the pet.

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The Hamburger (or Chicken) and Rice Diet

The Hamburger (or Chicken) and Rice Diet

I’m sure you’ve all heard it before at one time or another – if not from your vet, then from a friend, relative, or a neighbor. If your dog is having some gastrointestinal upset – vomiting, diarrhea, or both – we frequently recommend a “bland” diet. This particular diet is intended to be something that is easily digestible in an effort to help rest the GI tract and allow things to slowly and gently return to normal. Often we will offer a prescription diet but this is one of the occasions where a home remedy can be just as effective. Probably the most commonly suggested home diet is the hamburger and rice diet, or the chicken and rice diet, depending upon your or your veterinarian’s preference. Usually your doctor will also give an injection or two and send home some prescription medications as the main component of the treatment. The diet is to help the ease the transition from illness back to sound GI health.

You need to realize that, just like the medications given to treat the condition, this special diet is only a temporary thing. Sometimes we as veterinarians are a little less than detailed in our explanations regarding home treatment and our intentions may get lost in the hustle and bustle and barks and waggles of patient discharge time. The boiled hamburger and rice diet or the boiled skinless, boneless, chopped chicken and rice diet is intended to last for just a few days. I usually try to have my patients back on their normal commercial diet within 1-2 days of their visit or within 3 days if they have been hospitalized. In addition, it is important that the hamburger be boiled and drained of any and all grease – the idea is bland. The meat is only there to help give the rice a little substance and flavor. Don’t fry it, don’t lace it with taco seasoning, Tabasco,  Lawry’s, seasoned salt, or any salt and pepper – nothing. Meat should be nothing more than about 1/4 of the total mix. The rice should be plain white rice. It’s bland and easily digestible. Wild rice, brown rice, long grain and all of those other good-for-you kinds of ricy things are not as bland and therefore not as good as plain old white rice. The rice can be quick rice, or good old fashioned slow-cooked rice. Cook everything up, mix it together, and throw it in the fridge. It will keep for two or three days, and by then you’re done with it anyhow.

Don’t be like the little old lady who came in for a routine visit a while back. As part of any visit I always try to touch upon what diet  is being fed. Now I’m not a pusher of any particular diet. If your dog does well on its diet, then I’m a strict adherent of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school of thought. But I always ask just in case something weird is going on, like the “all-Oreo” diet, or the “potato chips and hot dog diet”, or some other oddball thing. But I digress…

Anyway, in the process of examining her dog I asked about diet and she mentioned that she was feeding the dog the hamburger and rice diet that her old vet recommended. I, of course, being the inquisitive guy that I am, asked if the dog had been having some GI issues recently. She said that, no, he hadn’t had any problems like that ever since he had been on the diet. So I discreetly inquired just how long had she been feeding this special diet and she told me that back when ‘Brownie’ was a pup he had some diarrhea and old Doctor Ned said that this diet would probably help. Well, the diarrhea cleared up and the dog liked it so well that she just kept right on feeding it and he never had another problem.

It’s pretty difficult to argue with that, but the fact is that a meat and rice diet is a very bad diet. It is completely unbalanced and is likely to lead to nutritional problems when fed long term. In order to balance it out, it would require a number of modifications and then, just like any “complete and balanced” diet it would no longer be simple. So the moral of the story is multiple:

  • Dont’ feed a hamburger (or chicken) and rice diet long term unless your veterinarian clearly specifies that you are to feed it long term
  • When your veterinarian gives you directions be absolutely certain that they are complete and that you understand them completely before you go home and do the wrong thing.

Don’t wait years between veterinary visits only to find out years after the fact that you violated #1 or #2 above.

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Pet Identification for the 21st Century

As far as your pet is concerned, getting lost might be the most important issue you will ever face. Hopefully your pet will never get lost or otherwise separated from your side. In the event that somehow happens, hopefully you will have taken every precaution to aid in his safe return. To help avoid the heartbreak of a hopelessly lost pet, please give serious consideration to the following ideas and suggestions.

First, if you don’t already have one, get some type of identification tag  (get one on Amazon or go to your local pet shop and pick one up – metal or plastic) with your name, your boat name, and a functional phone number on it (your cell number or a phone in your home country where a live person is likely to answer it – one phone call may be all your pet’s rescuer has the time or inclination to give). VISIBLE identification is the form most likely to get you and your pet reunited in the event of unexpected separation. And make certain the ID tag is firmly attached (via a good quality split ring) to your pet’s collar. Don’t be lackadaisical about this. Picture your pet running loose in a strange place and then picture that one person who might actually take the time to think that this pet looks like it could be lost; that person who might actually make an effort to bend over and look at your pet’s collar for a phone number! THIS IS IMPORTANT -MAKE IT EASY! That phone number has to be readily visible and it has to work in order for you and your pet to have a chance. The single biggest problem inherent in pet identification revolves around the fixed nature of a pet ID tag or collar and the limited amount of information it can provide. Being aboard a cruising boat or riding the roads in an RV, means that the best you can generally do is to provide your cell phone number or your e-mail address or even a phone number for a close friend or relative who is not traveling. But is that enough? What if they aren’t home when that call comes in, or what if the call goes to voice mail? Will it all end up in a frustrating game of long distance phone tag while your pet is running loose God knows where? Most good Samaritans are going to stop short of taking the pet home for an entire day or an overnight stay when they can’t even be certain that someone cares about the pet they’ve found.

Right now, the state of the art in pet identification is the electronic ID tag and the vast majority of people are completely unaware that it even exists! Electronic identification overcomes virtually all of the shortcomings of the engraved or written tag and the microchip. People are so unaware that a number of very efficient and potentially very effective ideas for electronic ID tags for pets have already come and gone. They disappeared due to poor design and poor promotion by their designers and an across the board general ignorance by the pet-owning public. As a result we are left with making do using the available items that are out there. This includes waterproof flash drives and QR tags.

For medium to large dogs, consider the Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth USB Flash Drive ($30.49 on Amazon) and for cats and small dogs, I’d suggest one of the smaller water-resistant flash drives, such as the all metal Raoyi Waterproof Metal USB2.0 Flash Drive ($6.49 on Amazon) or the GorillaDrive Ruggedized USB Flash Drive ($9.78 on Amazon).

Actually any of these (among others; there are a number of weatherproof metal flash drives with hooks, connectors, carabiners, and other forms of attachment available on Amazon if you just enter “waterproof flash drive” into the Amazon search box) flash drives will work on a dog (as long as it’s not a dog with a chewing fetish) of average size or larger, but you’ll need to check them out for size if you’re fitting a cat or small dog. They all look pretty durable. Whatever you choose to buy remember that none of them are completely indestructible. Don’t let your pet (or another pet in your household) chew on it; don’t let anybody beat the crap out of it, etc. And make certain the split ring (if necessary) that you attach it with is sturdy and ready to take a beating.

This type of device overcomes most of the limitations of the printed or engraved ID tag (not to mention your pet’s microchip, which we will discuss in a moment). For our intended use the flash drive only needs to hold a few megabytes of info to suffice, although most thumb drives now hold several to many gigabytes (far more capacity than you’ll ever use for this purpose). You can enter as much or as little information as you want, you can update the information as often as you need to, and the device can be read by anybody who might find it, providing they have access to a computer. Since it’s simply a computer flash drive, all they need to do is plug it into the USB slot of any computer and voila it’s all right there – pet name, contact information: your cell number, your mother’s home phone, your boat’s name, RV park, marina or anchorage location, the color of your boat or RV and any distinguishing characteristics, special needs, your upcoming itinerary, whatever you think might help somebody find you and get your cat or dog back where he belongs. You can even include your pet’s vaccination and critical health information. You can include files in both Word and PDF format if you choose, so that somebody doesn’t inadvertently damage a writeable file. Virtually any computer can read a word or a pdf file.

Visiting a non-English speaking country? Use a free online translation site to translate your information into French, Spanish, Portuguese, or whatever, and put that on there too; label it francais, español, or whatever so that a finder who does not speak English can recognize it. In this day and age, even in developing countries most people are familiar enough with computers to recognize a thumb drive when they see one. Even if the finder does not have a personal computer in his or her possession, most communities have places where one can go and rent or borrow time on a machine, such as a library, phone company office, or internet café. Not everybody everywhere has access to a microchip scanner, but this is the computer age and most people in most places are likely to have access to a computer. Give them the necessary information and make it as easy as possible to contact you and you are at least giving yourself and your pet a fighting chance. Just don’t get too carried away. Just because someone wants to get your pet back home does not mean they want to read your or your pet’s biography. My cat’s digital tag also includes, a written promise to any veterinarian willing to take him until I can retrieve him, that I will pay any and all charges associated with his rescue and protection.

Sample Text for Your Flash Drive Message

To whom it may concern:

Thank you so much for rescuing our dog, Max. Since you are reading this message, somehow Max has become separated from us. Max lives aboard our boat and he is like a member of our family. We are desperate to get him back. We live aboard a sailboat and we are presently cruising the islands of the Bahamas. We checked into the Bahamas in December with the intention of staying until May but we will now probably stay until we get Max back.

You can try to reach our daughter who lives in Maryland in the US. Please call her, collect if necessary, at 410-555-1234 or on her cell phone at 410-555-4321 and leave your phone number and a message stating that you have Max and are trying to contact us.

The name of our boat is the sailing vessel Second Wind. It is a white fiberglass catamaran and is 40 feet long. We normally anchor in harbors rather than visiting marinas.

If you have access to a high frequency or HAM radio, someone can contact the Cruiseheimers radio network any morning. The net starts at 8:30 AM and meets on the 8152 kHz frequency. Just break in and tell them why you are interrupting.

Please feed and take care of Max for us until you hear back from us. We will gladly reimburse you for all expenses associated with his care and his return to us. If you cannot keep him, please take him to a veterinarian or a shelter along with this flash drive so that they can try to reach us.

Message #2:

To whom it may concern: Thank you for saving me. I am lost. My name is Maxwell and I live aboard a boat with my owners. They are probably frantic because I am missing. The boat is a sailboat and its name is Desperation. My owners are anchored out in Dakity Bay here in Culebra. You can call them on a VHF radio by calling “Second Wind, Second Wind.” If they don’t answer, please make a general call on the VHF telling people that you have found me and need to contact my owners aboard Second Wind.

If you cannot reach anybody, please at least place a call to my owners’ daughter Jeannie in Maryland. Call her at 410-555-1234 or on her cell phone at 410-555-4321 and leave your phone number and a message stating that you have Maxwell and are trying to contact them. Please don’t let me go until you have found my owner. They will gladly reimburse you for any expenses.

These drives are supposedly tough and/or waterproof but I would be leery of placing a metal ID tag on the pet’s collar adjacent to the device unless the device is somehow protect, e.g. wrapped in tape, or similarly protected.

My cat’s digital tag does include a written promise to any veterinarian willing to take him until I can retrieve him, that I will pay any and all charges associated with his rescue and protection.

We’ll talk more about flash drives and such below, but here and now let’s discuss the other practical option that you have available for electronic protection of your pet, the QR tag. We have all seen QR codes in number of places, from products we buy, to billboards and the sides of vehicles. Even election candidates are starting to include QR codes on their junkmail campaign mailings. The QR code is that little (or sometimes big) square box with all the pixelated-looking gobbledygook inside the square. You simply point your phone at the code (with a free QR code reading app installed) and the code will connect you to a website where you will find more information, or in the case of your pet, the scanner will reveal your personal contact information which you had previously uploaded when you got the tag. These tags are available, often for less than $10 and range from tags that are specifically for use on pets to those intended for just general purpose identification use, such as on luggage. You buy the tag, go to the associated website and, often at no charge, sign up for inclusion in their database, providing all of the information needed to get your item (or your pet) returned. Check out the pet-specific combination QR tag from CNATTAGS that serves double duty with an engraved name and address on one side like a traditional pet ID tag, and a QR code on the backside – a truly great idea. There are also pet-specific QR tags from Dynotag, Red Dingo , PetDwelling , and others. Or you can order up a set of general purpose tags from Dynotag. Just remember to check if the purchase price includes free lifetime registration. I think that on most of these brands, that is the case.

(A special note to those of you living and cruising aboard boats (and also, to some extent, RV’s) when using a flash drive for identifying your pet:

As an example, if you are cruising aboard a yacht in the Bahamas, your flash drive should say so and might offer your intended itinerary. Not only should it give contact information for someone in your home country, it should also instruct the person finding the dog to contact the Cruiseheimers HF radio network. Tell them the daily time and frequency for the net and how they can break in and give the net your boat name and the pet’s return information. Cruiseheimer listeners, if they have the information, will seek you out even if you don’t have a HF radio aboard. These are the kinds of things that no conventional pet tag or microchip can do.

(Other cruising locales have similar regional HF radio nets that you might utilize, such as the Caribbean Safety and Security Net or even Chris Parker’s Caribbean weather net. [See cruiserswiki.org] Some popular cruising destinations also have local VHF nets. Thisis the sort of emergency that just about anybody is eager to help with.)

A couple of minor points worth mentioning: I would not offer a reward or make mention of anything more than reimbursement of expenses. If someone is concerned enough to take the tag and read your message, they will probably expend the necessary time and energy trying to contact you without any further incentive. You don’t want to come across as a wealthy yacht owner and turn a generous humanitarian gesture into some kind of extortion attempt. After the pet is returned, you can then (and you really should) express your gratitude any way you choose

Remember that you as a cruiser take your lifestyle for granted and tend to forget that most people have no idea whatsoever that people might actually live aboard boats and travel the oceans. Even in the U.S. normal people (after all, we can all completely agree on this – cruisers are not “normal people”) do not give this much thought. Inthe Caribbean, the average person on the street, unless he/she specifically deals with cruisers, generally assumes that you are from a resort or a cruise ship, not a private yacht. If someone finds your pet, it is important that they know the situation. And there is still no better insurance than a leash. Do not think of a leash as some kind of restriction or punishment. It’s your pet’s lifeline. Use it!)

Keep the above discussion for liveaboard cruisers in mind if you are a land cruiser living in a motorhome. You may very well be able to modify these ideas to fit your special needs.

If you are more into lowtech (i.e. not your typical cruiser) at least put some sort of small, waterproof container (A small zip-lock baggie attached to the collar with wire ties would work.) on the pet’s collar containing a paper or card with as much information as possible to help get your pet back in the event it becomes lost. Just like with the flash drives, you should include personal information, boat or RV information, home contact information, (how about a boat card or personal card?), etc. – everything and anything that might help – particularly a functioning e-mail address and a textable phone number that will reach you wherever you happen to be. This option is far inferior to the above devices, but it’s still better than nothing.

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Let’s Talk Turkey

Let’s talk turkey

It’s the holidays – party time, gift giving, time for celebrations and dinners and friends and family. It’s easy to want to involve the pets in the festivities. Throw down some turkey, offer up some stuffing and some potatoes and gravy – not a lot, just enough to let them feel a part of things. Not a good idea. Your dog can end up with a case of holiday-itis. It comes in a number of variations but the symptoms often start out similarly – depression, lack of appetite, vomiting with or without diarrhea, or sometimes constipation. There are a number of illnesses that we encounter all too frequently during the holidays. “Dietary indiscretion” as we sometimes euphemistically describe it, can just lead to plain old vomiting and diarrhea, which can sometimes become protracted and dangerous due to the possible dehydration and/or electrolyte loss. Just a sudden departure from the common everyday feeding routine can throw some pets into a tizzy. Pancreatitis can be difficult to diagnose but is sometimes triggered by exposure to one of those greasy holiday meals, like roasted turkey with potatoes and gravy and all the fixings. It is often characterized by a patient that just doesn’t act or feel well. Frequently there is vomiting and sometimes diarrhea, and a visit to the vet or even a hospital stay may be the order of the day. Even if your pet is accustomed to eating table scraps and gets this sort of food as a matter of routine, he may still have a problem, although he is much less likely to react adversely. However, if your pet leads the kind of life recommended by most veterinarians and gets her nutritional needs strictly from a commercial kibbled diet, then your effort to treat her to a special day may result in some potentially serious problems. Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE) is a condition that often comes on for no apparent reason at all, but can be triggered by a case of “dietary indiscretion.” HGE is characterized by vomiting and/or diarrhea, usually with blood in it, and usually strikes the smaller dog breeds, although I have seen it in Labradors and Golden Retrievers and other large breeds. In HGE the vomiting and diarrhea is accompanied by a fluid shift within the body, with fluid moving out of the vascular compartment and into the GI tract and the circulating blood can become concentrated, sometimes to the point where it literally becomes thick, potentially putting a strain on the heart and cardiovascular system to keep functioning. Treatment involves hospitalization and the rapid administration of a large volume of IV fluids in an attempt to dilute the blood back down to its normal consistency.

 

One other issue that is seen more often at holiday time is constipation, with or without a potential intestinal blockage. Sometimes it involves old Roscoe breaking into the garbage after everyone has gone to bed and having his own holiday with the bones he has found in the garbage can. Other times an overzealous owner offers too many bones as a holiday “treat.” Either way, an excessive amount of bone can result in a potentially serious blockage, usually down in the lower intestinal tract. Many people think that the danger associated with eating bones involves the sharp shards of bone fragments potentially piercing the esophagus or the intestine. Although that is certainly a possibility, a far greater risk is that of developing a fecolith, a large rock made of bone that forms in the colon. As the chewed up bone passes through the stomach and the intestine, the protein portion of the bone is digested away, leaving just the rock-hard mineral portion, made of mainly calcium and phosphorous. As this material passes on into the lower intestine it is compacted and then dehydrated by the large bowel. It is the job of the colon as ingesta passes through, to reabsorb excess fluid so that formed feces are produced rather than diarrhea. When digested bone passes through and the water is reabsorbed, what is left takes on the characteristics of a chunk of stone. The nature of the bone causes the rock to have tiny pointed spicules protruding from the surface all around and the result is a mass that often irritates and gets stuck in the colon and cannot be passed. This sometimes necessitates general anesthesia and digital rectal exploration, repeated enemas, and sometimes even surgery to remove the offending chunks of bone. This can happen with any kind of bone but is most likely with poultry type bones. Don’t put your dog through this kind of torture. Just don’t offer up the bones, and don’t allow access to the garbage.

 

The other type of holiday blockage is sometimes simply the result of too much fun. Dog owner decides to buy Fifi or Max a dozen rawhide treats for the holidays and offers too many at one time. Some dogs will wolf down as many as they can possibly swallow, and an obstruction may result. Usually, when given in any kind of moderation, rawhide is readily digestible. Just remember that overdoing it can overwhelm even the most efficient digestive tract. Moderation is the key!

 

So make your holiday season a joy. Enjoy your turkey, or your ham, or whatever it is you traditionally choose, but be reasonable with what you offer to your pets. Both cats and dogs can become victims of too much of a good thing, and sometimes it takes very little to be too much. If a problem arises involving more than one or two brief episodes of vomiting or diarrhea, get him/her in to your veterinarian and nip it in the bud. It may not just be cheaper and easier to catch it early, it could save your pet’s life.

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Cruising with Your Pet

Whether you live aboard a boat or a motorhome with pets, or simply take extended excursions with pets on board, there are issues that must be faced that are unique to that lifestyle. After years of offering up advice on cruising with pets, in person at boat shows, online via my webinars, and here on my website, I have offered up a lot of information and disseminated a lot of ideas that I have gleaned from cruisers out there who have in the past or are presently cruising with pets aboard. Much of what I pass along was learned from the myriad of cruisers we encountered in our eight years of living and cruising aboard our sailboat, and some has come to me by way of cruisers and liveaboards that I have encountered since that time.

If you cruise with a dog or cat aboard, you face a number of unique issues. Admittedly, the issues as an RV’er with pets pale next to those of long distance cruising aboard a boat, but the savvy RV’er may also find something useful in this article.

My first and foremost concern for all pets that travel is proper identification. Read my post on Pet Tags for the 21stCentury. In a nutshell, your pet needs a highly visible ID, preferably in the form of a plastic (more readable than engraved metal) engraved ID tag and/or (more is better) an embroidered collar. A working cell phone number is the best thing to display. Your pet may get only one chance for someone to make that call before that person decides it’s not a useable number. If you live aboard a boat, a boat name would be great. If you have a radio aboard, radio contact info might help. Second, have a computer identification tag visible and accessible on your pet. I suggest the Gorilla Ruggedized USB Flash Drive or a QR tag of some sort, either of which should always be kept up to date with current contact information, both for you on the road or underway and for someone somewhere who has permanent stationary-type contact info. Remember, if you are moving (aboard a boat or a motorhome), your situation is dynamic and your information will change on a regular basis. Don’t forget to keep it updated. This info is your lifeline to your pet, and in the unlikely event of separation it’s the ONLY thing that might get your best friend back home again.

DO NOT RELY ON A MICROCHIP to get your pet back. From a practical standpoint, combined with your paperwork, microchips are only useful for proving that your pet belongs to you. Frankly, microchips more often than not link up to a dead end when authorities and veterinarians try to make contact and in the busy world of animal control work and veterinary medicine there is often only time for one or two phone calls. Too often we find the chip unregistered or it leads to outdated owner information. There are too many registration agencies and the whole mishmash of attempts to make contact is unsuccessful more often than not. Again, one phone call may be all your pet will get before people give up. Don’t blow it!