How to Care Pregnant Dog

Are you getting ready for the pitter-patter of little paws? As with humans, one can minimize complications with proper care in pregnancy. Having puppies may sound easy and it may seem like the dog does all the work, but that is not always how it turns out.

So our first assumption is that the litter is wanted (if not necessarily planned.) If the litter is not wanted, please consider that there is a terrible canine over-population problem with some shelters in our own area euthanizing over 100 dogs DAILY. If your litter is not wanted, please consider spaying the pregnant female or having a medical abortion.

Now on to caring for the pregnant dog:

The female dog is pregnant for an average of 63 days.

Plan accordingly.

Diet

The expectant mother will gradually require increasing amounts of food to nourish her developing litter. A food approved for growth (i.e., a puppy food) will certainly be necessary during the nursing period and pregnancy may be a good time to transition into this new diet.

About 3 weeks into the pregnancy, she may experience a little nausea and appetite loss similar to morning sickness. This should resolve within a week, so if an upset stomach or loss of appetite lasts longer than that or is accompanied by listlessness, something more serious is going on and the vet should be notified.

Calcium supplementation may be tempting but is not a good idea. As long as the expectant mother is on a quality diet, supplementation is unnecessary. Further, supplementation can suppress her natural calcium releasing hormones so that when she really needs extra calcium during nursing, she will not have the proper hormone balance to get it. This can create a very dangerous situation that could easily be avoided by not supplementing with calcium.

At around 30 days of pregnancy, bring the female dog to the vet for a wellness check up and to confirm the pregnancy with a simple blood test.

Exercise

Regular walking helps the expectant mother keep up her strength but intensive training, showing, or even obedience school is probably too stressful. Obesity is a dangerous problem for pregnant dogs and serious blood sugar regulation problems can put the litter at risk. Still, pregnancy is not the time for a weight loss program. Your veterinarian will help guide you regarding the optimal nutrition plan for your individual dog.

During the final 3 weeks of pregnancy, the mother dog should be completely isolated from other dogs at home (see below). This means no walks in public during this stage of pregnancy.








Vaccination

A female dog should not be vaccinated during pregnancy; there are sera in the vaccine that could be harmful to the developing fetus. Ideally, the female should be vaccinated just prior to breeding. She will be passing on her immunity to her pups in the first milk she produces (special milk called colostrum) so we want her antibody levels to be at their peak yet we want to avoid vaccination during pregnancy.

Parasite Control

If the expectant mother uses a heartworm preventive product normally, she may continue to do so during pregnancy. All heartworm products available are approved for use in pregnancy and lactation.

Flea control is important during pregnancy though is more important after the puppies are born. It is important to use a safe product during pregnancy. There are two specifically approved products for this use:

Roundworms and hookworms can both be transmitted from the pregnant mother dog to her unborn puppies. This is a nuisance as one usually ends up with both an infected mother and infected puppies, but fortunately there is a deworming protocol to control this infection. If you have concerns about internal parasites for the puppies, speak to your veterinarian about worm control. Daily medication will be needed but it is possible for worm-free puppies to be born.

Isolate the Mother to Prevent Herpes Infection

Canine Herpesvirus infection causes a minor cold in adult dogs but can cause abortion in pregnancy as well as death in newborn puppies. The best way to prevent infection is to isolate the mother dog completely during the 3 weeks prior to delivery and the 3 weeks after delivery. This means absolutely no contact with other dogs.

Just prior to isolation, it is a good idea for the expectant mother to have a radiograph of her belly to count puppies.

Knowing how many puppies to expect will tell you when she is finished delivering.

Labor and Complications of Delivery

There is always the possibility of a problem with delivery and you will need to be able to recognize labor when it is occurring, what is normal and what is a sign you need to see the veterinarian for assistance. See birthing puppies for information on care during labor and nursing.

Dog Bathing

Dogs and cats are the only pets ordinarily bathed, and they are bathed simply to remove dirt and odors. There is no best way to bath ea pet, and no way has yet been found to eliminate the need for elbow grease. For bathing a pet the human fingers are far more efficient than any mechanical device yet developed.

Because the coats of dogs are water-resistant, the help of a chemicals needed to wash a dog with ease. A liquid detergent used to hand wash dishes is our first choice and liquid soap with either a zoo percent (or a diluted 40 percent) coconut-oil base is excellent. To dilute 40percent soap, simply add an equal amount of water. Cake soap can bemused instead of liquid, but it requires considerably more work. By whatever method the soap or detergent and water are applied, the solution must be well worked into the coat and rubbed until the dirt has been loosened or dissolved. After the lathering, the suds must be thoroughly rinsed from the coat. This is best accomplished by work-in the fingers through the hair, just as one does in applying the soap solution. Usually one soaping and rinsing is enough, but if necessary, the process may be repeated.

There are soaps that contain vermin poisons. If one is used, no further medication is required. However, there are several very efficient dips and rinses available that are well worth using to finish off your pet's bath. Prepare the solution just before the bathing starts. After the pet has been washed and rinsed, pour the dip or special rinse all over the coat, allow it to saturate the coat for a few minutes, squeeze out the surplus with your hands, and dry the pet.

A loosening of hair generally follows any bath. After the pet is dry, considerable combing is generally necessary to free the coat of the loosened hair and give it a sheen and tone.

Bathing small dogs or puppies may be easily accomplished by using abasing and towels. The whole animal may be dipped in the basin, leaving only the head out. The soiled water can be allowed to run out and fresh water quickly drawn while the pet sits on a towel, waiting for the next immersion.

One of the questions about bathing most frequently asked is whether it is safe in winter. It is safe in winter provided the pet is well dried before being allowed outside in the cold air. For that reason many pet owners bathe their pets at night, knowing they are sure to he dry by morning.

Another common question concerns the age at which it is safe to bathe a young animal. There is no rule about age. Young puppies that have become soiled and foul-smelling must be bathed if they are to be kept in a house. There is never an incident of bath harm a pet, provided it was properly dried. The fact is that puppies of all breeds frequently suffer from parasites and diseases. When one gets sick shortly after being bathed, the bath is all too often assumed to be the cause. Most of the harm that supposedly results from bathing has actually been caused by preexisting condition.

There are several dry shampoos available that are quite effective cleaning agents. These should be used according to directions, which vary with the type. There arc also several harmless detergents on the market that remove dirt without lathering.

• Removal of Road Tar: Dogs often run in newly tarred roads and return with a ball of tar and sand around each foot. The safest removal method is to massage lard into the tar and wash with a detergent. Repeat this procedure until all the tar is washed away. Kerosene will dissolve the tar but it also irritates the skin. In cases where kerosene has to be used it is necessary to rinse each foot in several washings of kerosene and then quickly wash off the kerosene with strong soap and water each time - it is as necessary to wash out the kerosene as it is to remove the tar. The discoloration on the dog due to the tar is hard to eliminate completely but does no physical harm.


• Removal of Paint: Most of us are cognizant of the dangers of lead in oil-based paints. Since some of these oil-based paint pigments are poisonous they should be removed immediately. If the dog comes home with still wet oil-based paint on its coat, turpentine will remove it, if plenty is used without allowing too much to come in contact with the animal's skin. The turpentine must be removed by thorough washing with soap and water after each application.
  If the oil-based paint is dry, first try to dissolve it. And if your dog's skin is especially tender, use linseed oil to do this. When you have diluted the paint greatly, wash it and the oil out with soap and water. You may, however, have to cut the paint out with scissors as a last resort, even though this may make the dog look less attractive for awhile. Of course, water-based paints can be removed by washing with water.


• Animal Odors: The sources of animal odors, aside from excrement of course, are ear canker, lip-fold or other infections, anal gland secretions, sebum from thousands of body glands, and dog collars, which absorb sebum. All of these can be eliminated by cleaning the cars, by treating the infections, by expressing the anal glands, and by thorough bathing.


• Parasite Control: Bathing in itself will not eliminate parasites, as many people seem to think, but preparations of excellent efficiency for use with bathing are readily available. Some are used as a rinse or dip following the bath; others are liquid soaps or soap cakes with insect killers added. Some manufacturers claim that their products will pre-vent fleas and lice from re infesting dogs for several days to a week after use. Some claim their products will kill the eggs of lice (nits).

In eliminating lice, it is necessary to apply the killing agent every eleven days, as this breaks the generation and so eliminates the lice. If there is any doubt about the thoroughness of the treatment, apply the preparation once a week for three weeks.

The more effective way to control pests is to use a liquid dip, soap, or rinse to kill all the insect pests during the bath and then keep the dog well powdered with a nonpoisonous flea powder. Flea collars that were once effective are less so now, thanks to the emergence of resistant fleas.

Natural High Protein in Dog Food

A second general group of essentials for every diet is proteins. These complex chemicals always have the element nitrogen as a component.All proteins arc composed of amino acids, which contain the nitrogen hydroxide (NH2) group in varying combinations.

There are twenty-two amino acids, each of which has been studied both for its composition and its essentiality. Of these, ten are absolutely essential to life and as far as is known must be part of the diet of all pets. These are: Argentine, histamine, insolvencies, Lucien, lysine, phenyl, threnodies, cryptophytes, va line.

Cosine contain sulphur. The most satisfactory way to feed sulphur is not as the element, because as such it is not absorbed, but as one of these two amino acids from which ample sulphur is available. Wheat, meat, fish, milk, yeast, and egg are excellent sources of both cosine and mentioning.

The proteins found in various foods have unequal properties. Milk proteins possess all of the essential amino acids, and all are digestible.But corn, with its protein called zen, is not complete and is less val u-able to feed to pets. Here, taking milk as a standard, are the relative values of the proteins found in some common dog foods:

Most proteins contain more than one amino acid. Some protein shave one complete amino acid and others incomplete ones. Proteins,with different assortments of amino acids, can be mixed to pro-since complete rations of amino acids. Cornmeal and horsemeat, milk and cereals, alfalfa with wheat or oat flour all are compatible mix-tues. Even meat protein can be supplemented to advantage. It is the mixtures of proteins that produce the almost limitless variety in diets,varying flavors, aromas, and appearances.

Protein Requirements. If you could feed just the minimum of compete proteins, the average adult dog of any breed could probably get along on a diet that included 4 to 6 percent of available protein, and the growing dog on 15 percent. Nearly all pet foods and rations contain over 20 percent of protein mixtures, some complete, some incomplete, some supplementing others so the results are excellent. Protein is used primarily in building the body. Some is burned as energy, the nitrogen passing out in the urine, but protein foods, such as meat, are not primarily energy foods. Hunters mistakenly think they most feed their dogs great quantities of meat while the dogs are hunting but all species get their energy best from fats and carbohydrates.

Too many pet owners feel that since they prefer to have their veterinarian deal with all serious pct problems, there is no necessity for them to be able to handle difficult or unpleasant situations themselves. People who feel this way should remember, however, that emergencies have a way of happening at inconvenient moments. Even in metropolitan areas there often are times when a veterinarian is not immediately available, and in most regions of the country it may well take several hours to reach a veterinarian. As long as that is true, the owner who doesn't take the trouble to find out what he or she can do to help a pectin an emergency is risking the dog's life foolishly.

Any owner can be and should be prepared to administer first aid to an injured pet. He or she should know how to restrain an dog that is frightened or in pain so that it will not harm itself or others. An owner should know how to stop the flow of blood from a wound, how to relieve the pain as much as possible, how to protect the pet until the veterinarian is available. He or she should know what not to do. The skills and techniques are not difficult to learn or to apply. They are available to everyone the cheapest and best insurance a person can get against the loss of a pet.

Cat Neuter

If you do not want to breed your cat, please have it neutered. for its own health and as a contribution to reducing the pet population. It is not true that neutering causes obesity and laziness; overeating and getting too little exercise are to blame.



The best time for the female's ovario hysterectomy is before the first heat (but not before five or six months of age). The estrogens secreted during the heat period may prime the breast tissue for later tumor development. and approximately 90percent of them are malignant. Spaying early may help prevent tumors from developing.

The ovario hysterectomy is the surgical removal ("ectomy") of ovaries ("ova-rio") and the uterus ("hyster") through an abdominal incision. The size of the incision does not indicate your doctor's surgical skill. Some doctors make small incisions, and others like to have good exposure of the surgical area. The size of the organs to be removed will vary among animals as well.

Spaying is common surgery, but every pet is unique. and special care will betaken. A careful and thorough preoperative exam will determine your cat's ability to undergo surgery. Modern anesthesia (gas or inhalants) is very safe: an anesthetic caused death is extremely rare in a healthy pet. Your doctor will instruct you not to feed your cat for twelve hours before surgery, which will allow the stomach to empty. If there is food in the stomach during surgery, it may be vomited and pass into the breathing tubes and lungs, and an aspiration pneumonia could occur.If the monitoring equipment (which keeps track of breathing and heart functions during surgery) indicates a potential problem, your cat can be brought out of the anesthesia in a few minutes. Many veterinary hospitals have the same heart monitors used for humans in hospital intensive care units. Emergency fluids and drugs,which are rarely needed, are readily available.

Postoperative complications (such as infection) are also very rare because of aseptic surgical techniques: the operating room is well sterilized, as are the instruments, drapes, caps, masks, and gowns. Modern anesthetics allow most cats to be on their feet minutes after surgery, which also probably lessens the postoperative discomfort. Your cat may be home the same day or the next day, depending on the veterinary hospital procedure.

Home care after surgery consists of keeping the incision clean (don't allow your pet to lie on dirt), restricting your cat's exercise (cats will normally restrict their own activity), and checking the incision for swelling, redness, or discharge. If any infection develops, call your doctor. The sutures can be removed in a week.

Castration (surgical removal of the testes) is recommended to prevent or eliminate roaming, spraying, fighting, and breeding in male cats. The testicles are removed through a very small incision in each scrotal sac after the cat has been anesthetized. Most cats are sent home the same day, and surgical recovery is un-eventful. In fact, when our male cat CPU was castrated, he was out of the anesthesia in five minutes. I drove him home shortly afterward, and no sooner had we arrived home than he gobbled down some cat food and briskly mounted Mitzi, our tolerant female Siamese! Now that's what I call a recovery!

It may take up to a month for the roaming, spraying, fighting, and mounting behavior to stop, because it will take a few weeks for the male hormones still circulating in the body to be used up. A very small percentage of cats may still have some residual objectionable behavior. The best time for the surgery is before the behavior patterns develop - about six months of age.

Rarely, a male cat will have only one testicle (monorchid) or none at all(cryptorchid) in the sacs (scrotum). Although sperm will not be produced in the undescended testicle, male hormones will still be manufactured: your cat will continue to strut around like the neighborhood lover. One problem with undefended is that they frequently form a large sterol cell tumor after seven years of age. Again, this is extremely rare in cats.

If your female cat has been misdated (accidentally bred), an estrogen injection, followed by estrogen tablets given at home, is usually successful at preventing pregnancy if given within twenty-four hours of the breeding. The injection makes the uterine environment hostile to the sperm and egg; therefore, implantation won't occur. Estrogen can have toxic side effects, however, so this treatment is discouraged. Unless you really want to breed your cat, I recommend annotations.

Cat Nutrition

What is good nutrition, and why is it so important? Nutrition is the process of using or transforming food into living tissue. Cat nutrition is very important for a cat because poor health of a cat may lead to serious diseases and may lead to respiratory problems as well.



If not provided a complete and balanced diet, your cat will not grow properly, reproduce, maintain the health of all its body tissues, or fight infection.

Your cat's hunt for a complete and balanced daily food intake is now easier than its ancestor's hunt for thousands of years ago; thanks to commercial pet foods as they provide a complete healthy diet for a cat. The sound of the can opener or the jumbling of the dry food in the box will awaken the beast inside your cat - it will run from the comfy carpet near the fire-place to the kitchen to devour its neatly packaged and completely nutritious "prey".

Your cat's ancestors had to go for "shopping" in search for cat nutrition. The game they caught provided every-thing: protein from muscle tissue; fats, vitamins, and minerals from organs and bones; carbohydrates extracted from the vegetable and cereal matter left in the game's digestive tract. Vegetables and cereal starches aren't required by cats, but they do provide calories in bulk.

Years of research and development by the major pet-food companies have produced complete and balanced foods for your modern cat. These products, 'filch are excellent from weaning to old age, eliminate the need for home made that are time-consuming and expensive to prepare and may lack important nutritional requirements.

The following discussion will focus on

1. The composition of food,


2. The types of pet foods,


3. How much to feed at different stages of cat's life,


4. The advantages and disadvantages of each type of commercial pet food.

What is the right food for cat? Why there is a requirement for choosing right composition of food. Right food helps the cat to grow healthy and wise and to face their maternity period strongly and healthily. And also to fight against infection, diseases, etc.

In the balanced diet for a cat there should be natural raw materials which are natural solution to remain healthy. The food can be either dry or canned for a cat. Both of these foods have their own pros and cons as discussed below.

Dry food is crunchy and is available in various flavors, colors, different sizes and shapes which a cat may like to have. It is easy to store it; it should not remain open for a long time as it can come in contact with moisture. Dry food is good for the teeth's of a cat as it helps them to get stronger. But it doesn't provide sufficient water to their body. Due to this reason their body may get affected by lack of water. Dry food is still considered as good nutritious food for a cat overall as it provides sufficient nutrition to their body.

Some cats are fond of moist food which is known as canned food. Canned food has its own benefits as the canned food is moist and rich in water. It increases the water intake in the body of a cat. We can leave canned food outside for a long time also, but once we have opened a canned food we have to keep it in cool place like refrigerator as it can get spoiled. It is good food for cats and is complete cat nutrition.

Best food for cats can be dry or canned as already discussed above. There can be some more category of food like it can be premium, or it can be super-premium. Any of this food can be a perfect cat's balanced diet.

Dog Bedding

Bedding for dogs can also be a problem. For indoor dogs you have a choice of several different kinds of mattresses, canvas stretched across metal or wooden frames, and all sort of beds. You can make beds out of pieces of thick carpet or cast-off mattresses cut down, or you can allow pets to sleep in old chairs. An old blanket that can be laundered when necessary is a simple solution.

Some people like the smell of cedar in bedding, but the smell of stale cedar mixed with dog odors is unpleasant. After a while the smell pervades a whole house - even the clothing hanging in closets. Ordinary pine shavings can be bought for a fraction of the cost of cedar and actually makes better bedding, especially if you add some flea powder to the shavings.

Some dogs refuse to sleep on soft beds. Great Danes often develop large elbow joint swellings from irritation caused by sleeping on hard surfaces, and almost everyone has known at least one dog that insisted on lying right by the crack under the door. Heavy dogs that refuse to sleep on the softer bedding provided for them sometimes develop sores or stiffness. Light dogs usually show the marks only at their elbows. In outside kennels, oat or wheat straw is as satisfactory as any bed-ding. Marsh grass is also excellent. Wood shavings are likely to be tracked out, create an untidy appearance, and are difficult to rake. If straw is placed in a kennel, there should be at least four inches of the packed material under a dog in cold weather. In summer less is needed. It is seldom necessary to dust outdoor dogs for fleas if a liberal amount is shaken in the bedding each time it is changed. In wet weather the bedding may have to be changed every few days, whereas in dry weather it may serve a month. If it stays over a week, flea powder should be dusted over it every six or seven days.

Dog Bedding Choices

While buying a bed for your dog you must be aware of the fact that you are not buying the bed for your use rather it is for your dear pet. So, you are advised to buy the kind of bed that would be preferred by your dog. If you are up to buying a bed of your dog’s choice, try to buy do a little amount of research on the breed to which your do0g belongs. Try to get some suggestions from your friends and associates who have dogs of the same breed. You may yourself try out a bit of self study to know the choices of your dog.

While buying the bed for your pet dog you should buy the bed that can be easily washable. To keep your dog away from the attack of diseases you are recommended to wash the bed of your dog on regular intervals to keep the bed and the surrounding environment clean and germ free.

Types of bird cages

The first thing that you need to consider while purchasing a pet bird is a place for the bird to stay. Ideally you should keep the bird in the cage itself. For keeping the bird as a pet you should have a bird cage. There are so many bird cages available in the market of different size and shapes and you have to select the cage for bird according to your need. While buying the cage for bird one should consider certain aspects of bird caging. The caging requirements of birds vary from one species to another.

The certain aspects that one should consider while buying pet bird cages are:

• Length of cage: The cage should have good length as all birds prefer to stay in large cages. It is significant for one to provide spacious and tall cage to birds as birds like to fly from one side of the cage to the other.


• Cages are available in different types of materials but one of the best materials with which one can go with is stainless steel. One can also have powder coated metals cage. One should prefer cages that are made up of metals than cages made up of plastics as the cages that are made up of metal are easier to clean compared to the cages that are made up of plastic.


• One should also consider the spacing of the bars while purchasing bird cages. The large sized birds prefer cages that are huge in size and that have wide gaped bars. Whereas small size birds require large sized cages as well because of their behavioral nature of flying from one end of the cage to the other. However, the bar spacing for small birds should be very small.


• The cage you choose for your bird should have wide doors and easy sliding trays at the bottom.

Types of bird cages

1. Breeding Cages: This type of bird cage is actually designed for two birds that are attached to one another but partitioned by a thin panel. One should remove the panel during the breeding period in order to facilitate mating process in birds.

2. Dome top Cages: This type of bird cage allows the birds to fly freely. This is the most spacious bird cage.

3. Parrot Perches: This type of bird cages are usually for large sized birds. Parrot perches can be made from different materials like - wood, rope, concrete etc.

4. Flight Bird Cages: This type of bird cage provides enough space to birds to exercise freely this will allow the bird to enjoy a full flight. The type of cage is ideal for community bird breeds.

These are the common types of bird cage. Many other types of bird cages are - the single bird cages, the play top bird cages and travel bird cages. One should consider the size of cage before purchasing it so that bird can fit in comfortably. It is significant for one to clean the bird cage regularly.