But I Wasn't Broken!

Hi Everybody! Penny here again for my monthly contribution to Dogs on Thursday. I hope that everyone's had a great month.

As for me, it's been a big month here in our household. I had my 6 month birthday on the 12th -- yay me! -- but Mom said it was time to go to the vet and get fixed. I tried to tell her I wasn't broken, but she wasn't buying it. So this past Monday, she took me to see the people at the vet's office, and I took a little nap. When I woke up, I had an owie on my belly. And, I had an owie in my mouth because some of my puppy teeth weren't making way for my Big Dog Teeth.

Mom said that we had to do this so I wouldn't have any puppies. Why would I want puppies?? I'm a puppy! Any other puppies around here would take the attention away from me that I so richly deserve, being that I'm a princess and all. Humans are so silly.

So I've spent the week here recuperating from my surgery. Mom says she's recuperating from getting me home -- we had some bad weather in Georgia, and Mom and Dad had a tough time making sure I got back from the vet. Mom blogged about it here. Please send some good thoughts to all the people and pets who are homeless because of all the flooding.

But before I was fixed, I made up a new game:I call it "grab the toilet paper and run". Did you know you can grab the end of the paper and run with it all through the house?? Wow!!! I got it all through the great room and into the dining room one time before I was found out! Tee Hee!! Stuff shreds really well too.
I know that's not the best picture of me, but I've found that when you're playing "grab the toilet paper and run", it helps to move quickly.

Evidently Mommy and Daddy aren't real fond of this new game. I swear, they're trying to squash all of my canine innovation! They've closed the door to the magic room. But I'm on the lookout, because I know they'll get careless...

Everyone stay safe and enjoy all your fall activities! I'll bark at you again next month.

Traveling with Dogs

I know most of the "travel season" is behind some of you, for us however it seems it never ends with children, parents and relatives spread out all over the place. Take today for instance. We have arrived in North Carolina to visit my son and his girlfriend.



My pups always look forward to the trips. They know something is up the moment we take the padding out of the kennel in preparation to folding the kennel up for the trip. They beat us to the door, leash in mouth...well almost anyway, more like with tongue hanging out and slobber starting to form!



I always do a double check to make sure all ID tags are in place, as well as latest booster tags, that the collars/harnesses and leashes are all in good condition so as not to have an unexpected break in them when traveling. I put together a goody bag with treats, toys, water bottles, food for the trip/stay and doodoo bags plus their kennels.



Here are some other good travel tips from about.com:

1. Lists of rest stops and veterinary hospitals along your trip (if driving)
2. List of veterinary hospitals near the location where you are staying
3. Crate / kennel
4. Leash
5. Water and Bowls
6. Dog Food
7. Treats
8. One or two toys
9. Blankets and/or dog bed
10. Bags to pick up waste
11. First Aid Kit
12. Grooming supplies, if necessary
13. Medications, if applicable
14. Your dog’s medical records (including vaccine history)
15. Health Certificate (obtain from your vet

We will be posting pictures of our mini-vacation here and at the beach later. For now however we want to say, Happy Dogs on Thursday, wherever you may be!

Tina, HoneyDew and Sampson too!

All about Heartworms.

This month we are going to learn a little about heartworms. Heartworms are a serious parasite that all dog owners need to be aware of. Heartworms, in contrast to many intestinal parasites, are spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. The larval stages are injected into your pet and mature over the next 4-6 months into adult worms that live in the heart and larger blood vessels leading to the heart. Heartworms can go undetected for long periods of time before your dog starts showing clinical signs-the most common of which are cough, weight loss, and exercise intolerance. Heartworms, left untreated, can be fatal. However, they are easily prevented with one of several monthly preventatives which we will discuss in more detail later. But first lets go over a few more important facts about heartworms.

Heartworms are not contagious from dog to dog, however an infected dog can serve as a reservoir to infect more mosquitoes which can infect more dogs.

Heartworms can’t be detected in a stool/fecal sample like other worms. A simple blood test is needed to check for heartworms. This test is ideally performed annually to make sure that your preventative is working as it should. Although all of the drugs used as preventatives are very, very effective there can be rare cases of failure. This test is also important in case your dog has spit out or vomited up a pill without you knowing or if you have forgotten to give a pill or were late giving it. It’s also important to test new dogs (6 months of age or older) before starting them on a preventative because some of the medications can cause bad reactions in a dog that is already infected.

Heartworms have been diagnosed in all 50 states but are much more common in some areas such as the midwest and southeast-where there is warm humid weather that favors mosquitoes. Although some states may feel it’s safe to not use heartworm prevention or to go off prevention in the winter months I feel the safest thing to do is to use prevention all year round. Many preventatives are very cost effective, protect against other common parasites and give you peace of mind-especially if you travel with your pet to parts of the country you are not familiar with.

If your dog is infected with heartworms it can be treated. It is expensive, painful, and there will be some dogs that don’t survive treatment-especially in the later stages of the disease. Treatment generally consists of some tests (blood, urine, radiographs) to determine how advanced the disease is. Then your pet will receive two injections to kill the adult worms-these injections can make your pet quite sore. There is then a 30-day period of crate rest while the worms die and are destroyed by the dog’s immune system. Then the dog is given a second treatment-sometimes by injection or orally to kill the baby worms and rested another 4 weeks before testing for heartworms. If the test is negative the dog can begin prevention and go on with normal doggie activities.

More information about heartworms and heartworm disease can be found at The American Heartworm Society.

Now, about prevention-the easy way to manage heartworm disease. Heartworm preventatives come in both chewable tablets and topical spot-on products. All are given or applied monthly. I’ll be going over the most common products today. Which product you choose is based on your preference and what other parasites are a concern to your dog.

Heartgard Plus from Merial is beefy chewable that also protects against roundworms and hookworms (3 varieties).

Interceptor from Novartis is also a monthly chewable that protects against roundworms, the most common species of hookworms, and whipworms. Interceptor and Heartgard are often similar in cost with the difference in the two products being Heartgard covers more species of hookworms and Interceptor protects against only one hookworm but eliminates whipworms.

Sentinel is also from Novartis and is the same as Interceptor except it also contains an insect growth regulator or IGR. This compound sterilizes flea eggs to help prevent flea infestations. Adding the IGR nearly doubles the cost of the product, however it does not kill live adult fleas. For this reason I recommend using Interceptor and a separate flea product if needed.

Revolution from Pfizer is topical product and also protects against fleas, ticks, ear mites, and sarcoptic mange mites. It is not labeled for control of roundworms and hookworms because it did not eliminate a high enough percentage of them to meet FDA standards but it does control them well enough in cases where there is not a high level of exposure and risk of reinfection.

Advantage Multi from Bayer is another topical product. I have not used this one personally but it sounds like a promising product that would be worth trying. It protects against fleas, roundworms, two kinds of hookworms, and whipworms.

I hope this has been helpful to some of you and if you have other topics you would like me to cover just leave a comment or give me an email-I’d be happy to take suggestions.

Dogs on Thursday...looking for a pet?

Hello!! How has everyone been doing? My life has been insane but here we are...another thursday so let's talk dogs.

First wanted to share that my dogs got to go swimming again and they had a BLAST! Jackjack totally is picking up on the jumping into the pool! You can check out pictures and footage over here.

So, for today's post I wanted to talk about petfinder! I'm not sure everyone knows about this site but there are TONS of resources on the site and also some great ways to find an animal to adopt. There are tons of adoptable dogs posted and you can search in your area which is so neat!

If you are looking to adopt an animal, the first place you should go is to petfinder and start searching in your area. It's just a great way to at least find out what's available. I often check it just to look at all the pictures. Some break my heart because I want to give them all homes.

If you're looking to adopt, please check out petfinder.com!

Hope everyone has a GREAT week!!!

Natalie