Help for Easily Frightened Pets

Does your dog or cat startle easily at any sound, even sounds they hear every day? Does your pet spend a lot of time hiding or slinking from one safe spot to another?

Bach Flower Remedies can offer help. Aspen (Populus tremula) calms fear and apprehension when the cause is unknown. It helps sudden anxiety, trembling, shaking. Aspen restores calm and normal breathing and reduces muscle tension.

This remedy works well for animals that have been skittish since birth, for pets that easily freak out when something new happens in the house and for those who fear going outside.

I suggest to give the remedy several times a day or put a few drops in the drinking water for at least five days in a row to seee the best results. Aspen works well when given with the remedy Mimulus.

For more information about flower remedies I recommend Bach Flower Remedies for Animals by Helen Graham and Gregory Vlamis.

Electrolyte Solution Recipe

Sometimes when our pets are ill and vomit or have diarrhea, they lose fluid - severely dehydrated animals can lose up to 10 percent of their body weight in fluids. One way to tell if they are dehydrated is to gently pinch a bunch of skin on their neck or shoulders and if it falls back quickly, they are fine, if not they need fluids.

Electrolyte solution replenishes this fluid. Make your own rather than pay for expensive brands at grocery stores which also have preservatives and chemical in them that your pet may not be able to handle.

1 quart clean water (no chlorine or fluoride)

1tablespoon sugar or honey

1 teaspoon common table salt

Mix well and refrigerate unused portions in a clean container. Warm only amount to be used to room temperature before use. electrolyte solution hat is left out will turn moldy. For extended use, make a fresh batch every day.

The following amounts should be given over the course of a day until the pet is drinking on its own from the water bowl. For less acute dehydration simply offer as much electrolyte solution as the animal will drink on its own from a bowl. I like to use a plastic syringe and give a dose of the intake periodically.

Kittens and puppies - three tablespoons

Pets weighing five pounds - four to five tablespoons

Pets weighing ten pounds - three quarters of a cup

Pets weighing fifteen or more pounds - one quarter of a cup for each five pounds of body weight.

This information from Kaetheryn Walker's Homeopathic First Aid for Animals.

Wordless Wednesday - Al's Silent World

For more Wordless Wednesday posts visit here.

Read this to learn more about living with deaf pets

Lost Pets

Even with our best intentions, sometimes our cat or dog will escape and get lost.

A new way to find lost pets has come to my attention. Another cat blogger has lost her two cats and she posted them on Find Toto. This is similar to the Amber Alert for lost children.

Besides using this web site - make sure you contact all the vets in your area, the local shelters, and animal control. Post fliers with the pet's name, a photo, your phone number and reward if you can afford it. Put these in every place you can.
You want to get the word out to as many people in your area who may see your lost pet.

For more info on the web site check out Find Toto.

Feline Wellness Magazine

Animal Wellness Magazine has come out with a cats only version called Feline Wellness. I really enjoyed reading it and found the articles well written as usual and very appropriate for me because I live with a group of rescued cats.

The magazine has 10- 12 feature articles ranging from flea control to explaining homeopathy, health issues and more. The regular columns consist of book reviews, health questions and answers and Cat Chat- trends and news about cats and ending with the Tail End - an amusing reader submitted article as the last one in the magazine.

I found the ads to be helpful - listing companies providing food, litter, toys and health products. I would highly recommend Feline Wellness magazine if you only have cats. The Animal Wellness focuses mostly on dogs now or on articles relating to both cats and dogs. A great pair of magazines and resources for healthy natural American made products for your pet.

Check Feline Wellness out online

Little Lotus Hearts

I found a wonderful web site for animals and their humans at http://littlelotushearts.com/home.html - set up from a Buddhist perspective about caring for all being on this planet. Find out what you can do to help animals, create a tribute to your animal companion or just learn more about Buddhist views. Check it out.

Urgent - Nutro Cat Foods Recall!

Some Nutro pet foods have been voluntarily recalled due to contamination. The brands recalled are Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care and Nutro Max - both dry foods for cats. None of the dry or canned dog food are affected nor the canned cat food. This Press release was issued by Nutro:

Today, Nutro Products announced a voluntary recall of select varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. The cat food is being voluntarily recalled in the United States and ten additional countries. This recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in our finished product resulting from a production error by a US-based premix supplier.

Two mineral premixes were affected. One premix contained excessive levels of zinc and under-supplemented potassium. The second premix under-supplemented potassium. Both zinc and potassium are essential nutrients for cats and are added as nutritional supplements to NUTRO® dry cat food.

This issue was identified during an audit of our documentation from the supplier. An extensive review confirmed that only these two premixes were affected. This recall does not affect any NUTRO® dog food products, wet dog or cat food, or dog and cat treats.

Go to the following web sites to check out which ones were recalled and why.

http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/nutro05_09.html

http://www.nutroproducts.com/