Wildlife and Pets: Protecting Your Animals From Outdoor Threats

Many of us are too young to remember the Hitchcock horror classic, The Birds, when flocks of psychotic flying predators began randomly attacking people in a small, northern California town. While this example is pure fiction, in real life birds can be particularly problematic, causing some homeowners and some businesses to hire professionals to remove them from their premises.

Flock of Birds

While our so-called feathered friends can cause structural damage, annoying noises and carry a number of different diseases, larger predatory species are capable of carrying off a kitten, cat or small dog. Depending on where you live, these smaller pets are better off left indoors during daylight hours.

What are some other ways our pets could be at risk from wildlife when they’re outdoors and how can we protect them from these threats? Here are some tips for keeping our companion animals safe from the dangers some types of wildlife can present:

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About The Zika Virus: Does This Infection Pose a Threat To Pets?

There has been a lot of press recently about the Zika virus, a disease passed through the bite of an infected mosquito. It can also be spread from a pregnant woman to her unborn fetus and can be sexually transmitted from one partner to another. It is believed that it can infect a person through a blood transfusion, but this has yet to be proven as a fact, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

What is also unknown, is whether or not animals, pets and livestock are susceptible to infection. The simple truth is that we simply don’t have enough information yet to determine if this is either a possibility or a problem. A researcher from the CDC, Robert Barrera, had this to say on the topic. “Certainly there’s the potential for a pet to become infected, (but) what we don’t know is what that means for the health of the animal.”

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How To Stop Kindness From Killing Our Canines

Overweight Chihuahua

When we think of what could be placing our pets at the highest health risk, we might imagine cancer or heart disease as the culprit, but it’s actually many instances of them becoming overweight and obese that’s putting their lives in jeopardy. According to APOP (Association for Preventing Pet Obesity), they estimate that 54% of dogs are either overweight or obese in America.

Feeding them table scraps, too many unhealthy treats and a lack of exercise seem to be the biggest causes for this growing problem. Even if they are eating only kibble and regular processed pet foods, some owners are leaving out an open buffet for them to eat from all day long and this is also contributing to their growing size. While an extra pound or two may not seem that much to us as humans, for animals it can be 10% or more of their entire body weight.

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The Pit Bull Story That Touched Our Heart

Pit bulls often get a bad rap, with the media often portraying them as a vicious bully breed capable of mauling innocent individuals. Yes, they are strong, but they aren’t inherently mean, despite what some may say.

Aggressive behavior is not a starting point, but the consequence of different factors. Many are trained for some really horrible things, like dog fighting, whereas others are just not trained properly.

Despite the common belief these dogs are mean, many pit bulls are sensitive, gentle, loyal and devoted dogs.

Don’t believe me? Here is one of the best Pit Bull stories that have touched our hearts.

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Tips on Getting Active & Exercising More With Your Dog

Especially in the warmer months, sometimes it’s difficult to get more active and exercise with our dogs due to the extreme heat. But becoming overweight or obese is a growing problem for many of today’s pets and sometimes their owners may follow suit. Animals gaining too much weight face the same type of health risks as their human counterparts, so it’s best for all of us if we can stay active and get more exercise.

Often when we think of exercising with our four-legged friend, we may imagine the traditional dog walk, which is always a good method, but there’s plenty of other ways we can get active with our animals. Here’s some tips on some more unusual methods of staying active with them:
Dog Diving Off Dock

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What Is Giardia and How Can You Prevent It?

What is Giardia?

Giardia in dogs is a barely discernible disease normally found in dogs and puppies. Contaminated water is one of the major causes of giardia in puppies in addition to general contact to the disease in the environment such as contact to infected surfaces in parks or even in your dog’s food.

Cause of Giardia

The most widespread causes of giardia in dogs are from drinking water outside, such as from a pond or stream that has been contaminated with another infected animals feces. The feces contain a cyst that enters the gastrointestinal tract of your dog. The cysts sheath Trophozoites which cause the situation. Puppies are very vulnerable as their immune system has yet to build up to its full capacity so Giardia typically transmits to dogs that are less than a year old.

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7 Tips On How to Choose the Best Dog Food for Your Pet

Introduction

Dog Eating Food We don’t consider dogs as pets; we consider them as the part of our family. So it’s useful to know which canine nourishments are useful to your dog’s wellbeing, and which you ought to avoid. With a large number of pet food items available in the market, picking the best can be troublesome, yet it’s not incomprehensible in the event that you recognize what you’re searching for. Being specific about the information provided on the label, is an incredible initial step and makes pet proprietors more mindful of what we are going to share now.

All of our editors and veterinarians at Top Dog Tips believe that as an expansive piece of your dog’s wellbeing is controlled by the sustenance that they eat. In any case, with such a large number of nourishment choices out there, how would you pick which is best for your canine? There are some straightforward rules to help you with the choice of what to feed your dog. While there is no such food which can be labelled as the “best” puppy food, there are unquestionably some that are superior to others when compared on the basis of nutritional value.

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Considerations When Buying Pet Insurance

Pets are as important as the rest of the family and they should get their very own insurance coverage. Deciding to get an insurance cover for your furry best friends is therefore an amazing idea. However, you need to put some thought into the pet insurance plan you intend to get before you commit to it. Basically, the following considerations should act as a guide for you.

The Type of Coverage

Knowing the type of policy will help you determine its extent, the limitations, the timeline, cost and a whole lot of other important information. You don’t just take to any policy. Instead you look for the one with maximum advantages at minimum costs.

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7 Myths About Jack Russell Terriers

Let’s face it, there is all sorts of bad press about Jack Russell Terriers out there. A couple of experiences involving bad pet parents and a case of a bad dog or two have made this breed into one as bad as the myth revolving around a pit bull. If you are considering looking at a Jack Russell Terrier as being a pet, but are concerned about the stories you’ve been hearing, here are some myths that we can take away from your decision.

1. Jack Russell Terriers are hyper and crazy

While this dog is definitely one who would need an active owner and lifestyle, Jack Russell Terriers are not hyper or crazy, as the myths suggest. They simply need plenty of time and space to run around, play, and interact with you. They don’t like to be cooped up in a small apartment where there is no room to move around or play. They need to run and have a great time in an open space. If you are an owner who can give him time to play and run around, you’ll see that he is actually a very calm dog.

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5 Things You Should Know About Pet Ear Care

Written by Dr Helen Burns

Dog and cat owners often ask vets about caring for their pet’s ears. The truth of the matter is that normal healthy ears are remarkably self sufficient. They are designed with their own self cleaning mechanism. It is only when this fails that we need to intervene.

How do ears stay clean naturally?

Our pets’ ears are lined with skin that is similar to that on their ear flap. Vet Examining Ears of Dog This skin contains glands that secrete waxy and oily material that combines with shed skin cells to form what we know as ear wax. Remarkably, for something that seems so simple, ear wax plays two very important roles.

Firstly, it keeps the ear drum soft and moist. Have you ever wondered what happens to all that dirt in your pet’s ears after it rolls around on the ground? Well, ear wax traps foreign material that gets into the ears, such as dust and dirt, then the skin cells lining the ear move the wax up and out of the ear like a conveyor belt. Thanks to this process, ear wax doesn’t build up in normal healthy ears.

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