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/

Book Review: The Holistic Cat by Jennifer A. Coscia

This newly published book is a very personal account of life in the author's rescue group and how her background as a nutritionist has helped the cats that live with her.

Coscia is an internationally recognized nutritional consultant specializing in disease prevention. She has combined her background and her love of animals to form TARAA - The Animal Rescue and Adoption Agency, Inc. - a nonprofit, no kill organization for the betterment of animal welfare. Partnering with Petco, Coscia has rescued and placed hundreds of cats into loving homes.

In this book Corscia presents a complimentary approach to health care by combining conventional veterinary medicine and alternative methods to focus on disease prevention, using first hand knowledge and experience from her shelter cats.

She covers a variety of topics and illustrates each with personal experiences involving her cats with photos as well. Some topics included in her list are holistic nutrition, vaccinations, caring for feral colonies and using TNR, the dangers in the house and outdoors for cats, bringing in new pets and moving or traveling with cats. She also gives nutritional treatment suggestions for many feline illnesses - URI's, eye issues, kidney, heart and intestinal problems and allergies.

Her book is full of useful suggestions and honest opinions based on her experiences. I particularly like how she presents the vaccination dilemma, explaining very simply the way vaccines work and how they can adversely affect cats. Even if you are not a big holistic medicine follower, her her honestly written stories and anecdotes about life with her rescued cats are heartwarming and informative as well. She has dedicated her life to rescuing homeless cats and caring for them if they cannot be placed in other homes. I find her extremely admirable and enjoyed her book very much.