For pets, good grooming means good health
By Pet Connection Staff
February 10, 2010
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).

From Dr. Marty Becker, Gina Spadafori and Christie Keith, an update on a 2007 feature on animal pain control in this week’s Pet Connection newspaper feature: