Anything For Animals

posted by admin on May 18

Here is another dose of healthy tips for horses and ponies - and for your peace of mind too!

No time to waste - let’s get stuck in with a great tip for everyday smooth running: 

1) Keep a bin for baler twine and string near the haynets and bales for storage and use.  You don’t want small pieces of twine getting mixed up with the feed or bedding and you never know when you will need a piece of twine for something!

2) Massage your horse back firmly for a short while after long rides to help it relax and recover from the pressures of you in the saddle!

3) To prevent horses sqabbling in the fiield, always try to put out several piles of hay so that they don’t need to fight for who eats first - and the losers don’t have to wait to eat anything that’s left over!

4) As with humans, if you are intrioducing a new activity to a horse, make sure you prepare them for it and take thing slowly.  Just as we ache after that one-off game of tennis or trampolining - so will an unfit horse if asked to suddenly go out for a 4 hour hack!

5) Equally, get them used to wearing certain equipment too, like over-reach boots, a crupper and even a saddle if it has been a while.  Make sure that there is plenty of movement, and no chaffing at all. 

6) And check that everything still fits!  After a winter out of the saddle - the horse could have gained weight, or if young or old your horse could have even changed shape - so make sure everything still fits perfectly before heading off out for a hack.

7) Wire or electric fencing can be more easily seen by your horse if you attach bits of ribbon to it that flutter in the wind.  This will help to prevent them (and you) from running into it by accident.

8.) Always remove your gloves when picking out your horses feet after activity as it will give you a chance to feel for any heat or small bumps that you wouldn’t notice otherwise.

9) If you find yourself pestered by flies out on a hack, then grab some elder slalks and slide into your brow bad as the smell of crushed stalks is a mild insect repellant!

10) Adding garlic to your feed has multiple benefits - and smells lovely at the same time.  It helps repel insects, keep on top of (but not get rid of) worm infestations and is great for the skin and breathing!

Anyway - get back out there in the summer sun and have some summer fun! 

posted by admin on Apr 27

Would you know what to do if an animal in your care collapsed?  Or a member of staff was seriously injured?

We all hope that these things will never happen to us - but they may well do and it is best to be prepared.  If you run a business that leaves animals in your care and you employ staff, work with volunteers or come into contact with the public - you should really get yourself trained up in case of emergencies.

And it isn’t just for work that you should get qualified either - it is for your own friends, family and pets.  Imagine being able to save a life in exchange for 1 day a year taking a First Aid course.

Animals First:
If you are a dog walker, groomer, sitter, owner or work in an animal shelter - you should really know the basics for animal health and safety.  Yes - the trained or experienced staff aren’t that far away and can come to the rescue - but sometimes it is the first few minutes that are the most important - so need you to act fast.

Sometimes - seeing that something is going to happen in advance is even better!  But you can only do this if you know what you are looking out for.

So, find a local course with a veterinary or animal care college and sign up!  You won’t ever regret going on a course - only not going!  And imagine the way you will feel if an animal dies in your care - then the course fee won’t seem that much in exchange for an animals life.

People Too:
It isn’t just your animal customers that might benefit from your help - while out walking or driving or when visiting a clients home - you could find a human in need of emergency assistance.

If you have taken an Emergency First Aid course you will know how to assess the situation in an instant and make sure that that person gets the best first aid that you can offer - and the basic checks only take about 15 seconds.

Such a short amount of your time could actually have saved their life.

Don’t Be A Stranger:
Why do you have to take this for work anyway - you might not even meet any humans in your day to day working hours?  Well, think of your family and friends.  People you know can have accidents too you know - so take the course for them if anything.

You can never know too much about emergency first aid!

posted by admin on Apr 1

You must have heard of a doxipoo, a morkie, a zuchon or a pekepoo?

But should we be creating these crossbreeds for fun?  We are messing with years and years of diligent breeding to create specific dogs that look and act a certain way - and have centuries of history - just to make a one-off cute new puppy!

If we go back to the original ‘designer dog’ which was the labradoodle (labrador x poodle) there was a new purpose needed.  A non-moulting large dog that was intelligent enough to work with the blind - a moult-free Guide Dog.

We took an existing guide dog and bred it with with a similarly sized non-moulting dog - the standard poodle.  The result was a labrador-sized hypo-allergenic Guide Dog - well a small proprtion were.  Not every labradoodle retains the non-moulting gene, or the labrador sized gene, or the easy to train gene - so can’t be used at all. 

This is exactly the same for these new designer dogs.

People originally started working breeds along the non-moulting route for all sizes - as there are 4 different sized poodles as well as bichon frises and their clan who don’t moult as much as normal dogs either - and account for a lot of the ‘poo’ and ‘oodle’ breeds, like cockerpoo, yorkapoo, roodles and schnoodles.  But then something happened.

Rather than crossing breeds to gain any sort of benefit - people just thought it was fun to be the first to cross anything at all.  There were pugs with beagles, yorkies with shih-tzus, chihuahuas with daxies and King Charles spaniels with corgis.

It was all done in the name a novelty.

And of course - these designer dogs are just one-offs.  They aren’t true breeds - they are cross-breeds by definition and can’t breed true.  This means that if you breed a cockerpoo with a cockerpoo - you won’t necessarily get a litter of cockerpoos!

True breeding takes years and a formal pattern of breeding with certain individuals - you can’t just keep shoving 2 dogs together just because they look the same!

This happens now with bad breeding - for example, by breeding any old German Shepherds together you do still get a litter of German Shepherds - but they might not make very good pets or have any of the normal German Shepherd traits.  The reason is that most bad breeders only manage to get second-hand dogs or bitches - or the individuals that the breeder didn’t want to keep themselves - hence a bad gene pool!

Now imagine a whole country full of people who have decided that they want a designer dog to carry around with them in an over-the-shoulder bag.  Are these the type of people who can realistically control breeding to make sure that these breeds stay true?  Or will their efforts only further confuse the breeds and end up making mongrels instead?

The Genetics Are Tricky: 
If you cross a yorkshire terrier and a maltese, you get a morkie (apparently) - so lets say that all the puppies are somewhere between 75% yorkie/25% maltese and 25% yorkie/75% maltese.  This is a very wide range of numbers!  But needless to say people won’t think that this is a problem.

However the very nature of cross-breeds is they are just that - a cross between 2 breeds.  So if you then breed them with either a yorkie or a maltese - they are no longer morkies are they?  They might be 87% yorkie and only 13% maltese.  Breed them again with a maltese and you might not notice any yorkie at all - but breed them with another morkie or a yorkie and you will start to see shared traits again.

This could lead to all sorts of problems down the line in terms of true breeds though.  Will it come to a point where you can’t 100% tell which breeds you are breeding?  What if someone took that Yorkie with a hint of maltese and assumed that it was pure yorkie and bred it as such - it would still hold some maltese genes.  The breed is no longer pure.

I thought the reason that people liked a certain breed of dog was because it was just that - a specific breed of dog.  However, with all these designer cross-breeds lurking about - filling up classified and rescue centres - it might not be too long before there aren’t any pure small breeds anymore.

Pedigree papers will become gold dust as dogs that look like bichons, cocker spaniels and poodles - aren’t.  There will be no other way to tell which is which unless you get a DNA test!  But then pedigree dogs aren’t the most expensive or most sought after breeds anymore - people want a cross-breed!

Some people might say that pedigree dogs have been over-breed and have inherent diseases caused by our ‘breed standards’ and that it is good to get a non-pedigree.  But then we go ahead and start breeding dogs in our back yards based purely on what they look like - or what they sound like more often than not!

We are basically creating our own breed standards - but with no rules at all…..

posted by admin on Mar 26

Losing your pet must be one of the most dreaded experiences for a pet owner.

But you don’t have to face it alone - you just need to plan ahead.  Or get someone else to do it all for you!

Now, you may be wondering how can someone else reunite you with your lost pet - but finding your pet can be achieved with just one simple step.

Bearing in mind that there are a number of ways that you can make sure that your pet is reported to you as ’safe’ before you even lose them - you need to understand hoe the whole process works.

For example - nothing can make your pet be found any faster than it could be found in the first place.  You can have a collar, tag, microchip, tattoo, name tag in the coat or a giant flag with your details on it hanging off your dog or cat - but it still won’t be found until it is found!

What you can do though is make sure that the moment it is found - is one minute before you get the call!

Check, Plan and Prepare:
It’s all right having a microchip or a tag on your pets collar - but if your contact details aren’t correct or the best number to contact you on - then there will be an inevitable delay in you finding out your pet is safe and well.

For example, if a vets scan your chip to find you details and you have since moved - they will be ringing a wrong number until they either give up or someone else answers and tells them you have moved.  And if the number you have given on your dogs collar is your home number - you won’t hear them call you as you will be out and about local parks looking for your dog - and so will miss the call.  Lost cats are found during the day too - so make sure your work number is on there instead of your home number if you are a 9-5 commuter!

Silly little things could make all the difference in the rush to find your pet again.

Ask Others:
Asking all your neighbours is a great way to find a lost cat - but you will ultimately be calling up all your local vets, pet stores and rescue centres to ask around.

But - if your pet is chipped, then as soon as it is found by any of these or are taken to a vet at any time, they will call you.

However, if you want to call all these people up you are wasting a lot of time and effort for them as well as you!  They have to listen to all your details and write them all down in a folder - and sometimes these are volunteers doing this - so why not find a company that will contact them all for you in 1 go.

People like PetAmberAlert will fax or text your pets details to everyone on their books in your area in an instant - solving all your worries in one call!  Especially if you have lost your pet while travelling or on holiday - as you won’t know all the local vets and centres to call?

Or, just make sure you never lose you pet in the first place!

posted by admin on Mar 1

If you want to give your rabbit or guinea pig (or other small animal) a natural treat - head outside!

There are plenty of foods that may well be growing in nearby woodland or large wooded parks that will make a tasty treat to your little fluffy pets! Alongside their normal complete foods - there is no harm in offering a small amount of certain plants that may well already be growing close to your home or out on a walk - and if anything, they will actually do some good!

Don’t worry if you don’t have access to nearby woodland or glades etc, as you could easily grow many from seed yourself either in your garden or in pots. Also have a read through the other relevant Quick Guides to find wild plants and fallen nuts to find other safe natural foods for your rodents and rabbits!

However, also check the Dangerous Plants Quick Guide for things to avoid - and if in doubt about whether you should feed a certain plant, seed, berry or nut you have found - say NO and pick something else instead. There will be plenty of nice things to pick out there so don’t risk it!

Tasty Woodland Plants & Nuts:
Most bunnies and piggies get the freedom of munching on just grasses and lawns through the summer, so won’t get to taste a lot of these treats along the way.  However, there are many plants and trees that often don’t grow in gardens (or aren’t allowed to grow) so they are more likely to be found out on a coutryside walk or close to farmed land.

It is definately worth seeking these out for a bit of a change - and to leave plants and trees in your garden to attract and feed other mammals, insects and birds!

Fruit Trees - These common trees are totally safe for rodents and rabbits to nibble on and can be great for keeping those teeth in trim!  As long as they aren’t ornamental fruit trees or have been treated with unknown chemicals - you can throw a few twigs in with your pet and wash them gnaw away on the bark to get to the tasty insides!

Willow - This may also be found in gardens and often along river banks and is another safe treat for your pets.  They don’t need much of the branch to enjoy the taste - and of course you don’t want to damage the tree! 

Hawthorn Berries - Bright red berries start to form on these spiny bushes around late summer taking the place of the pretty may flowers!  Mind yourself when picking there as the plant tried to protect it’s berries with sharp spikes that can catch finger if you aren’t careful!  Don’t pick too many at a time as your pet may eat more than it should - and they are an important berry for many migrating or winter birds.

Acorns - Squirrels love them so why not offer your rodents a few?  They are tasty and nutritious nuts and fall from the tree when ripe to save you from picking them yourself.  Similarly in spring, you can also pick off a few new oak leaves for your rabbit - but only the really new leaves and only a few!

Hazel - We all know that hazel nuts are tasty - so why not give your gerbil or rat a few from the woods?  They can use their sharp teeth to gnaw their way in - and get a high protein tasty snack as a reward!  They can also chew on the branches of this tree as well - and as the hazel is usually coppiced, you may be able to find some small twigs left over after the landowners have harvested for themselves!

Beech Nuts - As with the Hazel, both the nuts and the tree itself can be eaten safely by your pets - however both the brances and the nuts are harder to come by!  Most beeches are mature and you can’t easily snap off a twig - and the nuts only fall at random times - and most years there won’t be a single nut on the tree! 

But remember - don’t give too much fresh food at a time. Too much will not only upset their tummy, but it will also stop them eating their complete foods with all the vitamins and minerals in!

They only have a small tummy too, so what ever they don’t eat that same day will die overnight and will be wasted - and that could have been eaten or used by wild animals instead - or picked by you at a later date.

posted by admin on Feb 8

We all know that rabbits love dandilion leaves - but what about other plants?

There are many plants that your pet rabbit or guinea pig would just love you to bring home from a walk in the countryside - or for you to grow in the garden where their run is - but do you know which plants are actually toxic to your pet?

Yes, they grow in the wild and wild rabbits don’t get sick all the time - but they have had certain knowledge or experiences passed down to them through their parents. 

Your pet has no idea what is safe to eat - and they will give anything a try.

How you know this is true is the fact that a rabbit or guinea pig left to run free in your home would no doubt chew through your electricity cables - a very dangerous thing to do!  But they just don’t know the danger.

You have to do the thinking for them to make sure that they are safe - I mean even the common buttercup can upset their tiny tummies!

So before you let them loose on your lawn or givet hem a handful of plants as a treat - take a look at the following list of toxic plants:

Wild Plants:
Here are some wild growing plants that you may find in woodlands, footpaths and open coutryside.

Ivy: Very common throughout the year - but very toxic to nearly every living creature.
Holly: This winter fruiting evergreen will upset anyone’s tummy - unless you are a bird!
Ragwort: This plant is even an irritant if you hand pick it - so no eating…..
Yew: And most evergreen trees - highly toxic and can cause death in large doses!

Wild Flowers:
They might look pretty in the woods - but can cause you to itch or your pets to get sick.  Leave these plants where you find them!

Bluebells: Cover the woodland floor in Spring - but look and don’t touch!
Foxglove: Grow tall in the grasses - but can damage your pet’s heart muscles.
Poppies: Can cause many problems in a small pet - so leave in the fields please.
Daffodils: The flowers, leaves, or bulbs can kill a human in just hours……..

Garden Flowers:
You may be growing these in your own garden - so make sure you use a run for your pets or fence off the flower beds instead…..

Tulips:  A definate no-no for tiny tummies - and they look better in a vase anyway!
Rhodedendron:  Always a problem for pets - and will cause stomach problems too.
Lobelia: Highly toxic to small mammals and can cause your pet to salivate.
Dahlias: These pretty flowers could give you a trip to the vets if you aren’t careful!

Other Considerations:
It is also worth thinking about where you pick your plants from in the first place - as you have to think ahead.

For example, dandilion leaves picked from along the pavement would almost certainly be covered in layers of dog urine from all the dog walkers using the same route - and all the dogs scent-marking the same spot.

Leaves picked from the side of a busy road or car park could well have been exposed to all the exhaust fumes from passing traffic as well as the potential for having been sprayed with weedkiller by the council or car park owners.

Neither of which would do your bunny any good!

So, either stick to plants, treats and nibbles from a reputble pet store - or do a bit of forward thinking before you start feeding your pet unknown plants as treats.

It won’t be very much of a treat if it makes your pet poorly! 

posted by admin on Jan 5

Could you be risking an animals life with your careless parking?

When you pull up to your local vets for an appointment - do you think of just your pet - or the effects of your parking on others?  I’m sure not many people think about the health of the other animals at the vets - but maybe it could help you out one day if everyone made this a priority.

For example - what if your pet was really ill and unable to walk far - but all the spaces close to the vets front door were filled by other patients?  What can you do to get your pet inside for urgent treatment?

And how annoyed would you be if you found out that the owners of those cars were just here for routine vaccinations, could have parked further away from the entrance and walked in, or caught the bus even! 

And how much more annoyed would you be if the owners of those cars had already had their vaccines and were leaving their car there while they went for walk to the local park!

Plan Ahead:
Of course, there are many people who do only think of themselves - but if patients all start to adopt a sort of ‘unwritten rule’ about parking, then patients would get a much better deal when they arrived.

I always wanted to park out of the sun as my dog had a bad heart and she would overheat easily - but other people would park there as they didn’t want to get a hot steering wheel and dashboard instead!  Leaving my dog to suffer on the way home…..

Elderly animals and pets should be able to park closer to the entrance than others just out of basic courtesy - and able-bodied owners and pets should feel happy to park further away and walk in - just because they can!

I would have walk her in if I could!  Instead I had to always book the first appointment of the morning so that the sun wasn’t at it’s hottest if I had to park out of the shade.

Other Considerations:
Added to the normal parking available - make sure that you don’t park in a restrictive location either!

For example, no matter how late you are for an appointment - you should never block an entrance or park on clearly marked ‘No Parking’ areas - even if they are big enough for a car!

Sometimes these spaces are essential for staff, pet ambulances or turning vehicles - and you could be stopping all those activities, sometimes to the detriment of someones pet.

You may think that it is quite simple for someone to come and get you from the waiting room if necessary and you can move your car then - but imagine if your pet had been involved in an accident, was bleeding and was going into shock - but you couldn’t get into the carpark as someone had parked there ‘just for a few minutes’.

Those vital minutes could help save your pet - but you have to leave your pet unattended in the car to run to the reception to find out who owns the car, there will be some more wasted  time discussing why they have to move it, then another few minutes for them to get someone else to hold their pet while they run to the car, then they have to find another place to move their car to before you can get yours up to the entrance - all the while your pet is bleeding out.

Would you think that leaving your car there for a few minutes was such a harmless action now?

posted by admin on Dec 31

Have you ever needed a vets appointment at a certain time - and there isn’t one!

It’s probably because there are some people in the world who think that if they don’t turn up to an appointment - it doesn’t matter; they won’t get charged for it.

Well, of course it matters!

Even though your kind vets have not set a charge for missed appointments - it doesn’t mean that they are free by any means.

Your Vet:
Not surprisingly - your vet still gets paid whether you attend your appointment or not - as do the receptionists and the many other nurses and staff at the practice.

You just don’t directly get to pay for that time you just wasted.  It comes off in little pieces all around the surgery - including the service you can be offered, the equipment you can use and of course the cost of medication and treatments in general.

The money you would pay for your appointment is only a small part of the surgery as a whole and if you don’t turn up without having called in advance - you set off a chain of events.

However, don’t just think that your actions have caused this alone - but you can guarantee that around 30 people a month don’t cancel their booked appointments - and this all adds up.

Start The Ball Rolling:
I am going to use arbitrary figures here that add up simply and they do not in anyway represent true costs and figures.

So your appointment may have cost £20, and with your vaccination or treatment for £20 on top of that.  However, if you don’t turn up - they can’t fill that appointment at the last minute - so they lose that £40.  And let’s say that those 30 people all do the same as you leaving the vets £1200 a month - that’s £14,400 a year - basically a whole member of staff.

So now imagine your vets needs to either get rid of a receptionist or trainee nurse to cover that loss.  This means that they may well take longer to answer your original phone call as there are less people on the desk, or they may have to reduce the number of operations they can do a week as they have less nurses to care for the animals afterwards.

Alternatively, they could try to get that money back by charging more for their appointments and treatments so that they can keep a full team. 

Neither of which would make them the vet of choice - yet you may have left them no choice.

The Results:
It might cost you 10 pence and 2 minutes of your time to ring ahead and warn them that you can’t attend - and so they could fill that ‘empty’ appointment and keep their money coming in, but without that call - you could be costing them a lot more.

I know it all sounds a bit of a huge fuss to just you as an individual - but it is never just you - it is always multiplied up to a grander scale.

And, think of those sick pets and owners who have difficulty getting their animals to the vets - the appointment you are not going to turn up to could have been perfect for them - but now they are going to have to wait until next week to see a vet when they needn’t have to.

Even calling to tell your vets on the morning of your appointment that you can’t make it could create an opportunity for another person to fill that gap and keep everything running smoothly.

If too many people just don’t bother - then maybe your vets won’t be so cheap, friendly, or as customer-focused when you next call for an appointment!

posted by admin on Dec 12

It’s getting cold out there - and your four-legged friends need all the care and attention you can offer them to get through the winter.

But of course - it’s not just in the winter they need you to think 2 steps ahead for them - so take a look at these top 10 tips for their health and well-being: 

1) Don’t leave your horse or pony in a stable without any bedding as they don’t like splashes!  Needless to say, this could mean that they will ’hold it in’ for hours to avoid the mess - and of course that could make them quite ill!

2) If your horse needs to be fed wet hay instead of dry - then make sure you leave it to soak in a dustbin of water for at least 2 hours before feeding for best effect.

3) Returning from a ride with a wet horse?  Put his rug on inside out and stuff full the underneath with straw.  The straw allows the air to dry him, the coat stays dry as the waterproof side is on the inside - and your horse stays warm underneath it all!

4) Thinking in advance - Make sure you choose a vet that can offer you the best emergency care - and find out things way before you need them.  There’s no point having a great vet close by for all the routine things - as anyone can do that - You need to know you will get the best response when you really need it!

5) It goes without saying really that in an emergency - time is everything!  So make sure that you keep your vets number in your mobile or right next to your yard phone! And have the numbers of other people at your yard to hand incase you can’t get there one morning or evening and something important needs to be done for your horse that can’t wait! Offer the same service in exchange.

6) If your horses roller or surcingle slides back or rolls around it will become very uncomfortable until you get back to fix it - so have yourself a breast band made that slides through the rug and hold it in place safely.

7) Prevent your horse eating too fast by putting a large piece of rock salt in his bowl - that will slow him down and give him a chance to add minerals to his diet along the way!

If you have to bandage an injured leg on your horse or pony; then make sure that you also support the opposite leg too - as it will now be subject to more strain until the other one has healed!

9) If you have to clip your horse in their stable rather than a yard, then make sure that you remove all the bedding after you have finished. This way you won’t have left any shorn hair or clipper oil on the bedding which could be eaten by mistake overnight! 

10) Make sure you build the bedding in the stable right up to the door in winter to prevent draughts - and if the bottom of the door has a noticeable gap then consider adding a rubber edge to it to reach the floor.

Knowing that they spend a lot of the time out of your sight should be your reason for making sure that you can prevent any problems in advance - and these tips should help to start you off on the right foot.

posted by admin on Nov 20

Here’s your chance to get your rabbit the publicity it deserves!

Rabbits are currently the 3rd most popular pet in the UK - and it’s not suprising really since they are sociable, intelligent, can live indoors and most importantly: are cute and fluffy!

Ever since pet stores began encouraging people to welcome the humble bunny into the home - it has come on in leaps and bounds!

It is now well known that rabbits can be litter trained, learn tricks and make great homely companions - so more people are seeing the benefits of the indoor life.

Inside Information:
Well, we all know that they can wreak havoc in the home with their insatiable gnawing and those teeth can be a whole different problem of their own - clocking up some costs at the vets too!

So, before setting out on the rabbit path to pet heaven, it is worth considering a few basics about their health and general care - and that is just what the RSPCA as well as many other small animal charities are hoping to do.

Thousands of rabbits end up in rescue centres across the country every year due to people not realising the very basics in rabbit care - the worst offender being that they really do breed like rabbits!

It seems so obvious that a male rabbit left alone with a female rabbit will produce babies - but endless strings of pet owners seem to think that it won’t happen to them!  A classic excuse is that the rabbits were brother and sister!  As if rabbits have human morals and decline from mating with their close relatives or rabbits they ‘don’t like the look of’!

Another reason for rehoming is that certain breeds of rabbits can grow to quite a size and can live for up to 8 years on average.

Other problems that seem to ’suprise’ new rabbit owners are that they: dig up the lawn (even though they are natural diggers), they smell (only if you don’t clean them out), they chew things (they have to chew to keep their teeth under control) and they fight (not if matched correctly or in a large enough environment - I mean what do you think would happen if you left 2 teenagers trapped in a room for week without toys, games or books, one cup and non flushing toilet?).

Still Interested?
If you love animals and will try to do the best for your pets no matter what the demands - then share your stories and help make a difference to those pets that aren’t so lucky.

Visit the ‘We’re All Ears’ campaign webpages and check out tips and hints on rabbit care and be in with a chance of winning loads of rabbit related goodies!

And make sure you come with a story about your rabbits to enter on the site - to share with others and hopefully inspire a new generation of rabbit owners to come forward and rehome some of the less fortunate bunnies in rescue centres across the country!