In our email newsletter we've
been asking folk to send in their top pet tips, and here's
a few of the suggestions to make your life that bit easier...
If you have any 'Top Tips' of
your own, then email
us
I have a GSD bitch that really gulps
her food.
I have found that putting an old china mug in in the middle
of her dish works wonders as she has to come up for air
to feed round the mug! Hope this helps someone else with
the problem.
(JC)
My top tip is to get your
dog used to taking medicine from a syringe by regularly
giving a particularly nice yogurt in one on a regular basis,
just one or two shringe fulls will be enough, then when
you need to give medicine the dog is used to the proceedure
and will take it easilly. We give a syringe of something
nice afterwards so you finish on a high.
(JG)
My tip is
play with your dog with his lead (tug & fetch etc) so
that his lead is his favourite toy, that way when you are
out & about you have always got your dogs favourite
toy with you. This can make recalls when your dog doesn't
really want to a lot easier
(MS)
I recently had great success
with a lovely black cat staying in my cattery. Her coat
was thick and dusty and the scurf was driving her mad. I
put some cod liver oil in all her meals and purchased some
pet safe tea tree wipes and really massaged her skin for
several days. I then gave her a full groom with a good dog
comb and it all went away.
I never use normal cat grooming equipment on the cats as
they are not strong enough and hardly tackle the surface.
All of our own cats are on Burns and this problem does not
exist for us
(J J-L)
the best way
of getting a cat or dog to eat a tablet ,is i have found
with with my dog to wrap ,chicken ,smear butter around it,or
any other of the animals favorite food
(ER)
Having just
gone through the teething stage with my 6 month old Golden
Retriever Ozzie, I found that soaking his rope toy with
water and then putting it in a plastic bag and putting it
in the freezer over night - Removing the toy from the plastic
bag and giving the cold toy to him the following day helped
sooth his mouth.
(AB)
When bathing your dog after
shampooing, rinse out there coat thoroughly, in the final
rinse add 2 - 3 drops of tea tree oil. This is a cheap,
natural and effective way to discourage, ticks and flea's.
(DG)
My Patterdale
Terrier - Alfie and rescue boy Sam, use to go crazy barking
at the postman, now all is peaceful. It was solved by providing
the postman with a bag of little treats for Sam and Alfie.
They now wait quietly and patiently at the gate tails wagging
expectantly. HAPPY POSTIE - HAPPY DOGS
(JB)
To stop a puppy mouthing you
have to stop all contact as soon as its teeth touch you
– no eye contact, no talking, no more interaction
of any kind until it stops. If you start with your brand
new puppy as soon as you get it home you should have resolved
the problem within about a week. If your puppy is already
an established ‘mouther’ then you will need
to squeal and move away as soon as its teeth touch you.
This is a quick and easy way of stopping a puppy from mouthing
(which, after all, is a puppy’s natural form of communication)
and teaches the puppy in a way that it can understand –
if a behaviour doesn’t result in a reward then a puppy/dog
will cease to exhibit that behaviour.
(TW)
Pill Administration
to unhappy Cats
I have had years of trying to administer pills and worm
tablets to various moggies who are deeply unhappy with the
whole procedure and could never get effortless and stress
free technique exhibited by our local vet. After trying
several things to disguise the pills, I have found the perfect
solution..... cheese. Simply by wrapping the pill in a bit
of Easy Single, our two cats wolf them down. I have tried
this with the two stray cats we feed and my partners two
cats (cats seem to come in twos these days...) and they
all seem to love it. I hope it works for you too!
(LW)
The best time to deflea a cat is when its
sleeping- a very unsuspecting time
(SR)
I have just found a way
to stop my dog barking at the postman. As he always arrives
before I get up in the morning, I have linked a radio to
a timer and set it to switch on about 20 mins. before he
usually arrives. This disguises the sound of the postman
arriving and my dog doesn't bark!
(JD)
To reduce/avoid "separation anxiety":
make your leaving exciting, and your
home-coming low key.
Give your dog a treat every time you
leave the house, even if you're just
popping to the shops for 5 minutes. Ignore your dog when
you come home for
a few minutes (take your shoes off, hang your coat up, put
your shopping
away, go to the loo etc). Do NOT give them a treat or attention
or be
excited, or they'll be waiting for you to come home to get
their
treat/attention. When they're calm, give them a small pat
if you must! Our
extremely laid back 11 year old greyhound jumps up on his
back legs with
excitement when he thinks we're leaving. He rushes to the
treat bin, nearly
pushing us out the door too! When we come home, we might
get half a wag,
but usually not!
(BL)
When we undergo elective
surgery we are asked to have a bath or shower before to
minimise the risk of post-operative infection.
I follow this for advice for our dogs. When our dogs have
elective surgery,e.g. for neutering, we always ensure they
are bathed the day before and have never experienced post-operative
infections.
(JSW)
I have two 13 yr old cats. One has FiV
and one has an overactive thyroid. They are in good health
otherwise, and the vet is very pleased with them. But as
you can imagine, the need to get them to take medicine crops
up quite frequently.
Over the years I have tried many different methods to get
a pill down a cat. Some have worked but not without causing
the cat extra stress, which itself is bad for their recovery
prospects. At last I have come upon an easy and cheap way
to do this painlessly: sandwich paste.
Shippams is their favourite, of course, since it is the
most expensive, but a supermarket's own brand also works.
(just don't let them near the Shippams first). Pilchard
and tomato seems to be their favourite. But they have also
succumbed to Tuna And Mayo, Chicken And Ham, and Beef. All
you do is get some of the paste on your finger while hiding
the pill in the other hand. Get the cat to lick a few dollops
off your finger first. When you get to about the third portion,
sneak the pill into that hand and use it to scoop out the
paste. Poise it, with paste uppermost, on the tip of your
finger, and he'll lick it off in one go, pill and all. Then
give him one more scoop to take away any bad taste and to
leave him rewarded and trusting you.
I have tried this not only on my own cats but on strays
I have fostered and friends' cats when they had despaired
of the animal ever coming near them again.
(HS)
This is my tip, to deter
flys going near to your dogs water, rub garlic around the
edge of the bowl. Also if your dog is under the weather,
give them a massage, its relaxes them, just like us.
(S)
Bonjour ,
Recently, my dog has been diagnosis with arthritis and he
was put on medication. This medication was in the form of
a brown round-shaped pill. But,my dog was also prescribed
a pill for another medical issue. O-kay, I started wondering,
how am I to give him 2 pills- one round and the other oval
shaped? Solution, I had some chicken left-over from a soiree,so,
I stuck the pill,one each, in a morsel of chicken. He just
gobbled up the piece of meat completely. Oh,yeah, I did
this in the morning before feeding him. Hence,no problems
in giving my dog his medication. It went smoothly.
(AT)
