pet connection

In this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature,  Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori tackle one of the toughest questions pet owners ever face:

Choosing to end a pet’s life is the hardest decision we make when it comes to our pets, and we can tell you from decades of experience that it’s a decision that never gets any easier. Your veterinarian will offer you advice and support, and friends and family can offer you sympathy, but no one can make the decision for you. When you live with an elderly or terminally ill pet, you look in your pet’s eyes every morning and wonder if you’re doing what’s best.

Everyone makes the decision a little differently. Some pet lovers do not wait until their pet’s discomfort becomes chronic, untreatable pain, and they choose euthanasia much sooner than others would. Some owners use an animal’s appetite as the guide — when an old or ill animal cannot be tempted into eating, they reason, he has lost most interest in life. And some owners wait until there’s no doubt the time is at hand — and later wonder if they delayed a bit too long.

Also from Dr. Becker, reassuring news about the safety of pet microchips:

Veterinary experts say there is no evidence that cancer is a problem in microchipped pets. More than 14 million-plus microchips have been implanted with only four cases in question.

Want more? Read the entire Pet Connection for this week! You can also download it just the way we send it to our client newspapers right here (PDF).

There’s nothing cuter than a kitten, but yes, you can definitely have too much of a good thing — kittens included. Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori have the facts in this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature:

We’re on the verge of kitten season now, which means we’ll soon be getting questions about feline pregnancy from people who often had no idea they’d be midwife to pets who are often not much more than kittens themselves.

Typical questions include: How long does a cat’s pregnancy last? (On average, 66 days.) Do I need to help my pregnant cat with delivery? (Yes, usually by leaving her alone.) How do I know if she’s close to delivering? (Watch for enlarged nipples and the secretion of a tiny amount of milk.)

The question we’re asked least often is the most important of all: How soon after my cat gives birth can she be spayed? (As soon as the babies are weaned — the sooner the better!)

Eighty percent of the cats in the United States are spayed or neutered. If yours isn’t one of them, check out the rest!

From Dr. Becker and Mikkel Shannon Becker, news about a new cancer vaccine for dogs:

Dogs with cancerous growths in their mouths have the chance at an increased life expectancy after tumor removal with the help of a new therapeutic canine melanoma vaccine, Oncept. The vaccine contains a substance produced by human DNA that is similar enough to dog’s genetic material that it targets canine melanoma cells, but is different enough to be considered foreign by the dog’s immune system, resulting in a potent immune response against canine melanoma cells. Dogs with stage II or III melanoma typically survive six months or less after tumor removal, but dogs vaccinated with Oncept had a longer survival time than those not vaccinated, according to DVM360.com.

Want more? Read the entire Pet Connection for this week! You can also download it just the way we send it to our client newspapers right here (PDF).

Looking for that clean, quiet eco-friendly pet? Gina Spadafori suggests you think bunny:

In the minds of many, if not most, rabbits are a pet distantly remembered from childhood, a lonely animal kept outside in small and often filthy elevated “hutch.” A starter pet for children, and certainly not suited for life outside a cage, most believe.That impression is wrong. While rabbits remain good pets for respectful older children — the animals are too fragile for young ones — they’re really better suited to life indoors with a grown-up So-called “house-rabbits” bloom with proper care and gentle attention, providing endless amounts of quiet companionship punctuated by short periods of delightful silliness. .

And while dogs and rabbits aren’t always the best combination, cats and rabbits usually get along famously — albeit with different litter boxes.

Yes, litter boxes. Because while rabbits usually aren’t perfect about their use — a pellet here and there will testify to that, but it’s easily cleaned up — they can and do use a box for most of their messes.

Dr. Marty Becker and Mikkel Becker Shannon take a look at the practices of ear cropping and tail docking:

Of the more than 150 breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club, 13 commonly get ear crops, 48 have docked tails, and 11 have both cropping and docking. Ear crops seem more likely to disappear as a common practice sooner, as fewer pet owners choose to have their puppies’ ears sliced into an upright posture, and fewer veterinarians will perform the procedure. The American Veterinary Medical Association opposes ear cropping and tail docking when done solely for cosmetic purposes and has encouraged the elimination of these procedures from breed standards.

It’s all right here in this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature, thanks to a grant from Pfizer Animal Health, sponsor of our searchable PetConnection article library.

Our Dr. Marty Becker’s push to help pets “rise up (off the concrete), lie down (on a comfortable bed) and move out (to a new home) jumps into the Pet Connection syndicated newspaper feature this week, and already shelter pets around the country have new beds on the way.  He writes:

Let’s help shelter pets rise up, lie down and move out.

Turns out the people at the Kuranda company of Annapolis, Md., are already on this. These cot-style beds are popular with shelters (and pet owners, too, of course) because they’re easy to assemble, durable, chew-resistant and easy to keep clean. The company has a program where people buy beds and have them sent directly to any of hundreds of shelters. The cost for a donated bed is discounted 30 percent off the regular price.

In just a few days of sending the word out through our PetConnection.com Web blog, and my Facebook and Twitter accounts, the 100 beds OCAS had requested had been donated.

It’s a great start, and now I’m reaching out even more, to help pets in other shelters.

Can you donate a bed for a shelter pet? It’s easy! Go to Kuranda’s Web site and click on “Donate a Bed.” You can then choose from dozens of shelters, sorted alphabetically and also searchable by state. When you’ve chosen your shelter, the site will display what kind of beds the shelter has requested. Buy a bed, and the company will send it to the shelter you’ve chosen. It’ll take you just a couple of minutes and a credit card.

Dr. Becker also warns that yarn is dangerous around cats, and Gina explains how to fill a litter box for a rabbit. It’s all right here, now and forever, thanks to a grant from Pfizer Animal Health, sponsor of our searchable PetConnection article library.

Image: Happy pets, happy staff at the shelter in Orange County, Fla., where the pet bed drive began.

Grooming isn’t just about how your pet looks. It can keep him healthy, and strengthen the bond between you, too. From Dr. Marty Becker and Gina Spadafori in this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature:

Keeping your pet well-groomed not only gives you a clean-smelling companion, it also helps keep your dog more comfortable and allows you to spot health problems before they become serious, even life-threatening.How important is grooming to your pet’s comfort? Consider a simple mat, so easy to overlook. Have you ever had your hair in a ponytail that was just a little too tight? A mat can feel the same way to your dog, a constant pull on the skin. Try to imagine those all over your body, and you have a good idea how uncomfortable an ungroomed coat can be.

Your dog need never know what a mat feels like if you keep him brushed and combed — but that’s just the start of the health benefits. Regular grooming allows you to look for lumps, bumps and injuries, while clearing such things as mats and ticks from his coat. Follow up with your veterinarian on any questionable masses you find, and you may detect cancer early enough to save your pet’s life.

Discover the rest of the benefits of grooming here.

And from Dr. Becker, a warning about a deadly threat to pets:

Pet lovers have two ways to protect their animal companions from lapping away at deadly antifreeze — one relatively foolproof, the other not.

• Not foolproof: Use a safer antifreeze made from a different formulation than the more popular variety, store chemicals properly, and wipe up spills promptly. While this should eliminate most of the risk for dogs, these strategies are not foolproof for free-roaming cats because you cannot control what your neighbors will do when it comes to using or storing deadly chemicals.

• Foolproof: Keep cats inside. Free-roaming cats have relatively short life spans because the outside world is full of deadly hazards. To antifreeze, add cars, coyotes (even in cities!) and cat-hating neighbors to the list of things that can kill a free-roaming cat.

If you even suspect that your pet has gotten into some antifreeze, get him to the veterinary clinic immediately. There’s no “wait and see” period with this stuff.

Want more? Read the entire Pet Connection for this week, or see it exactly as we send it to our client newspapers here (PDF).