Thursday, October 28, 2010

A cautionary tale of chocolate toxicity for Halloween

With Halloween this weekend and the holiday season just around the corner everyone will have more candy around the house than usual which is an invitation for curious pups to steal a snack.  I am using Sparkle and Lilly as an example for what can happen if your dog eats too much chocolate.  This scenario is not at all far fetched and in fact I am surprised it has never happened.

Sparkle and Lilly came in to Friendship after breaking into the Halloween candy stash one afternoon.  Milk chocolate, which consists mostly of cream and sugar, is generally not a huge concern unless massive amounts are consumed but dark chocolate is another story.  Among other treats there was a bag of dark chocolate M&M’s missing and we were not sure how much each dog consumed.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Spay and Neuter!!!

If there’s one topic that I’m extremely passionate about, it’s the importance of getting our pets spayed or neutered. I can’t stress enough how much this matters. Just the other day, a good friend of mine from veterinary school who practices in South Florida sent me the following statistics:




Miami Dade Animal Services statistics for fiscal year (October 1st- Sept 30th). 

Intake: 35,924 (465 were diseased pets and 1,149 were owner requests euthanasia)

Adopted: 8,334 
Euthanized: 20,113
Rescue: 4,074 
Returned to owners: 1,534

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Keep on with those preventatives

Frank!
Even though the weather is cooling down and fall has arrived you must still be vigilant in using monthly heartworm, flea and tick prevention for your pets. I recommend that owners use these once monthly medications year round because here in DC mosquitoes, fleas and ticks are just waiting for a warm day to emerge and attack our dogs and cats.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

It is official, I might be truly crazy


If anyone out there thought I was insane before with all the animals I have please let me solidify this feeling with the announcement of my new puppy -- Frank!  I did not seek out a new addition to my already full house but I have been thinking for some time that Poppy would enjoy a larger dog to play with as her version of play with the Lilly, Sparkle and the cats really amounts to torture for them.



Out of the blue a ten week old labradoodle puppy needed a home and I knew he would be the perfect fit for me.  I brought Frank home Tuesday night and he and Poppy have not stopped playing since.  I have never seen her interact this way with another dog before and it makes me so happy that they have found each other.  As for the other animals, the cats really couldn't care less and the little dogs are happy to play with him on their terms.  This mean five minutes of play before they get bored and jump up on the sofa to avoid him.