Fabulous photo of me by John Clark of Clark Creative
These Five "Habits" for a healthier pet were written by Shawn Messonnier, DVM, and published on Nature's Variety website. As you might recall from one of our previous posts, we did a review of Nature's Variety Boost Bites ( a freeze-dried raw snack) for Chewy.com, and we think that the Boost Bites are an excellent product-in fact, Parental Unit is still ordering them for me.
But we digress... We think these five habits (yes, they're definitely habits, rather than just tips), are important for you pet parents to get into for the new year (That includes you, Parental Unit!). They sound deceptively simple, but it's hard to break other longstanding habits, like not questioning your vet about routine vaccinations that your pet might not necessarily need. Now, we are a proponent of vaccinations-look at the amazing amount of disease prevention and unnecessary deaths to both our pets and ourselves that they've prevented. But there's a growing concern about the long-term effects of vaccines and the current consensus seems to be that owners should work out an individual vaccination protocol with their veterinarian based on the specific needs of their pet. (We've tried to do this, by the way, and it's not as easy as it sounds-more on that later!)
And the other habits described are just as important, like routine dental care. Reminder everyone: February is national Pet Dental Health Month!
So enjoy reading and maybe even internalizing these five habits for effective pet owners (and healthy pets), and let us know what you think. Are you in the habit of doing these things already?
P.S. Stay tuned later today when we announce the lucky winner of Dogs of Courage: The Heroism and Heart of Working Dogs Around the World.
But we digress... We think these five habits (yes, they're definitely habits, rather than just tips), are important for you pet parents to get into for the new year (That includes you, Parental Unit!). They sound deceptively simple, but it's hard to break other longstanding habits, like not questioning your vet about routine vaccinations that your pet might not necessarily need. Now, we are a proponent of vaccinations-look at the amazing amount of disease prevention and unnecessary deaths to both our pets and ourselves that they've prevented. But there's a growing concern about the long-term effects of vaccines and the current consensus seems to be that owners should work out an individual vaccination protocol with their veterinarian based on the specific needs of their pet. (We've tried to do this, by the way, and it's not as easy as it sounds-more on that later!)
And the other habits described are just as important, like routine dental care. Reminder everyone: February is national Pet Dental Health Month!
So enjoy reading and maybe even internalizing these five habits for effective pet owners (and healthy pets), and let us know what you think. Are you in the habit of doing these things already?
P.S. Stay tuned later today when we announce the lucky winner of Dogs of Courage: The Heroism and Heart of Working Dogs Around the World.
4 comments:
The vaccines are very interesting. We are fortunate to have a vet who doesn't push too many vaccines, but others do and many patients feel they have no choice.
That's the way we feel at the moment, Mr. Pip. Do we take the chance that my immunity is fine? We were told that the immunity tests are quite expensive...
Mom will never over-vaccinate! It made angel Maggie very sick when she was young. We learned our lesson well!
Love ya lots,
Mitch and Molly
We'd love any advice you can give us, Mitch and Molly and/or any of our friends out there! What exactly is over-vaccinating? As we send in the post, it sure is easy to say, but much more difficult to understand as applied to a particluar dog or cat...
We vow to do some research in the next few weeks or so, and write another post that gets into the specifics. Again, any help any of you all could provide is very much appreciate. Neither Bocci or Bella are due for their "shots" until May, but we want to be ready by then, and to help others before hand!
Thanks!
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