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You are here: Home / Archives for Dog Health

Are You The Overly Attached Owner?

January 24, 2015 By Sunny Lim

Does the thought of losing your pet cause your  mood to go into a downward spiral and ruin an otherwise perfectly good day? Do you spend more time thinking and taking care of your pet than yourself?

Or is this you?

Overly Attached Owner

If you’ve answered ‘Yes’, good news is that you’re not Tin Man, but the not so good news is that you might be overly attached to your pet.

No, there’s nothing wrong with it. We all grieve when they’re gone, we all pamper them while they’re here. It’s natural. It’s what they do, and what they have that’s rare in humans that fills the emotional void and make us fall in love with them so deeply. Their unconditional love, no matter how little time we spend with them, how we look when we put on extra weight, their affection (except Mari-kun), their willingness to listen our complaints makes them the perfect companion.

Animals And Their Wizardry 

However, it’s also their almost perfect character (‘almost’ because they have the innate ability to do the dumbest things) which led many into a trap.

Although a pet can bring about great therapeutic healing as seen in therapy dogs, we need to be honest with ourselves if we can deal with the fact that most animals will leave this place before we do. It can even be a dangerous event if someone is already suffering from mental illness. Even to most people, a pet is more than just a furry companion – they can even mean more than a significant other or family members.

Too Much Of A Good Thing Makes Me Sick, Especially If The Good Thing Is Chocolate

Most people I know take the loss of their pet in stride, especially pets who died of old age. But life, not only is it fragile, the outcomes of daily events – big and small, is beyond our control. How many times have you bought someone a gift but only to get an awkward smile when they opened it up?

It’s not about being indifferent, but knowing where to draw the line. Water and nutrients are essential for the growth of a plant, give it too much, it dies. Same goes for many things in life.

Pets are readily conditioned by positive things, they’ll soon know that all they need to do to get more treats and attention is to beg for it. Not only does it create obesity, anxiety and stress issues, having an unhealthy body and mind will manifest into in turn create more problems.

It’s A Matter Of Personal Reflection

It’s difficult finding the balance as most pet owners are either overly attached or nonchalant, both of which will create the same behavioral and health issues.

So in my opinion, only when we understand boundaries, of what’s expected of our pets (e.g. rules they need to abide), but also what’s expected of us – logically evaluating our pet’s best interests, will we be able to enjoy a healthy relationship.

 

Further reading:

Psychology Today on the technical aspects

Another psychologist talks about this in The Veterinary Expert

 

Filed Under: Cat Articles, Dog Articles, Dog Health, Home, Long Live The Cat, Pet Articles Tagged With: animal behavior, emotional attachment

How to choose the proper pet food

June 6, 2014 By Sunny Lim

So often I have customers coming in clueless about what brands of pet food to choose, often confused by the myriad of brands available and conflicting feedback from people.

Many may disagree with me but what matters most is that your pet has a healthy appetite and eats willingly anything they’re not allergic to, given at the right proportion. Animals who usually remains healthy and lives until a ripe old age seems to be fed on a good variety of food rather than a strict diet.

Although there are people who feed their dogs low to mid range kibbles all their lives and never suffered from anything serious, it’s akin to saying that there are many healthy old people who still smoke cigarettes at the age of 80 and therefore tobacco does you no harm.

Better diets will improve lives

Ask and look around and you’ll see that there are more animals developing physiological and psychological problems than before. This is because many pure bred pets we see today are badly bred from puppy mills – Animals with character flaws like aggression or genetic problems are allowed to breed indiscreetly. Also, to reduce operating costs, most are poorly nourished and as a result, pets you find in pet shops have not benefited from a healthy, wholesome head start which is so critical for their future development.

But even if they’re born with problems, a proper diet will help make up for the poor start and rebuild their immune system.

Superficial issues always surface because of internal imbalances. With a healthier diet, most obvious signs you would see if your pet is responding well to the diet is better skin, brighter eyes, cleaner ears and thicker hair. But how does one define what’s good and not? You’ve seen categories like Active, Fit, Senior, Breed Specific Diets, Limited Ingredients, Grain Free, Hypoallergenic Diets, BARF – why do they need these much differentiation and which one to choose?

To me, where and how they source their raw materials and what they put in it is more important than what they’re called and how much they cost.

My Criteria

It doesn’t mean that the longer the ingredients list the better the product is. Let me give you a simple example: Most supplements requires you to take one to two tablets in order to achieve the right dosage. So lets just say if we have a meal replacement product that has all the essential nutrients, multivitamins, a correct proportion of  of vegetables and fruits, supplements to improve joint health, digestive health, an array of herbs to improve general well-being, you’ll be looking at a huge meal to consume everything at the right dosage. That said, it doesn’t mean that a product with a long ingredient list is bull, but rather, you shouldn’t discount a product just because it has limited ingredients.

Secondly, wondered why so many people realized that feeding their pets chicken would result in allergic reactions? Although there isn’t a definitive answer yet, but a chicken usually takes 4 months to mature naturally but only a month in modern farms. How it’s being altered to achieve that and I do not know, but the amount of antibiotics used on livestock is ridiculous.

All these alterations made to produce weakens the body and at the same time strengthens bacteria and viruses. And to put the body back in balance, choose meat produce that has been sourced from responsible farms. Everybody can add fancy stuff inside their diets and boast about optimal levels of protein etc, but if the quality of the product is questionable, you’re just be feeding your pets optimal levels of poison.

Other things to note 

There has been arguments if a high protein diet could lead to or worsen kidney diseases and raise uric acid level as a result of protein metabolism. My simple suggestion is to stay on the safe side and choose a formula that has a protein level around 30-35%. Besides, more protein is not an indication that it’s a good product! Our fingernails, hair, skin are all protein, but it ain’t good sources isn’t it? The best way to prevent that and many other illnesses, is to make sure that your pet has enough water so that the body has enough fluids to flush kidney stone forming substances and other toxins out from the body.

Is is also imperative that your pet has enough exercise as it will help the body utilize the nutrients and functioning well especially with a high nutrient diet. Goodness unspent and not utilized will do more harm than good.

Any particular brands that I should choose?

I know you’re waiting for this and the short answer is: No. But I do offer some brands I personally think that are not bad and for different budgets.

If you’re here reading this, then you have a good idea that education is the key to take good care for our body and mind. Same goes for food that nourishes your pet. Rather than spending hours on Zalora choosing that perfect dress, take half an hour, just go through some of the websites of brands that has crossed your mind. Don’t bother reading about their manufacturing process and what they put inside because if we are talking about better brands, most of them doesn’t differ much from each other.

Rather, find out where they have sourced their food from. But in all honesty, food manufacturers, be it food for personal consumption or for pets, can say so much, yet mean so little. Like politicians, most of the time labels are just pure confusing.

Since most pet foods are from the United States, here are some of the commonly used food labeling and what they really mean.

Therefore, as mentioned in the beginning, it’s always a good idea to provide variety in one’s diet. Like how different vegetables provide different vitamins, different pet foods brands are formulated differently and provide different amounts of nutrients. Staying with one brand or formula may cause deficiency in the long run.

So change around every few months, how often really depends on the individual pet. For a fussy eater, rotating food when you have not managed its choosy behavior may make their habits worse.

My next article will be on raw diets if you have the time and want the best for your pets.

 

 

Filed Under: Dog Health, Home, Long Live The Cat, Pet Articles Tagged With: pet food, pet nutrition

Anesthesia free dental cleaning: The danger that runs deep

November 24, 2013 By Sunny Lim

The assumption that putting elder pets under general anesthesia would a high risk of death has been long-held. As pet owners, we are all afraid that we might become the accomplice in causing our pet’s premature death and vets don’t want to either. As a result, many have chosen to let establishments that boast anesthesia free dental scaling handle their pets teeth cleaning.

Imaging the difficulty some of you are already having when cleaning your pet’s teeth with a normal toothbrush. Fact is, grooming like cutting nails, teeth brushing is a very unnatural and invasive process for animals. Nothing in the wild would give them the same feeling that would make teeth brushing feel natural, and pets let us brush their teeth only because of trust.

Dental Disease Recall the last time you went for your regular dental checkup. Even when we brush our teeth twice daily and your teeth looks healthy, there’s still the need to remove calculus and plague from under your gumline; a procedure that many would agree, far from comfortable and soothing. So imagine a grooming salon using the same ultrasonic teeth scalers for your pet. Although they might be able to get rid of obvious tartar, it would be hard to imagine how does one do a thorough cleaning below the gumline without the use of anesthesia on our pets.

As saliva loses its antibacterial properties as your pet ages, or as the tooth becomes rough from tartar buildup, you might find that calculus can build up even with daily brushing. Take a small dog for example, it’s considered geriatric beyond 7 years old and I’ve seen a lot of dogs who are 17. But to be reasonable, lets say it lives till 13, are you going to deny your dog dental treatment for 6 years? You see, poor dental health doesn’t just cause bad breath. Especially at old age, tartar and decaying tooth can cause a myriad of problems. When I just adopted my Maltese, the nose and eyes had yellow discharge and diagnosis by the vet said it was a result of the poor state the whole set of teeth was in. Even in old age, giving your pet a dental overhaul, if it needs one, will do more good than harm.

“A more serious danger is the bacterial infection and resultant inflammation in the gums, which can send bacteria through the dog’s bloodstream, where it can wreak havoc with the heart, lungs, kidney, and liver. Dogs with chronic health problems that affect these organs and dogs with immune-mediated disease are at special risk of experiencing complications due to periodontal disease. For this reason alone, owners of these dogs should be the most proactive in keeping their dogs’ teeth clean.” – Nancy Kerns, Whole Dog Journal

Unless the animal have existing health problems, there are so many aged animals rescued from pet farms and their new owners would bring their adopted pets to have them sterilized and have their teeth cleaned and extracted if necessary without any complications. I believe that if the clinic is responsible, ethical and proper tests and screening are done prior, it’s relatively safe to put your pets under anesthesia.

Here are some professional opinion that’s able to address this matter in further detail:
Anesthesia-Free Pet Dentistry – By Animal Dental Care and Oral  Surgery
Nonprofessional Dental Scaling – By Mercola.com
Anesthesia-Free Teeth Cleaning For Your Dog – By The Whole Dog Journal

Filed Under: Cat Articles, Dog Articles, Dog Health, Long Live The Cat, Pet Articles

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