http://www.avmamedia.org/display.asp?sid=419&NAME=National_Pet_Dental_Health_Month_2012

Most of us know how to protect our pups in freezing temperatures (doggie sweaters, here we come!) but not everyone is aware of another winter danger for dogs: the ubiquitous rock salt used to melt ice. In the past five years, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) has received hundreds of calls about ice melt exposure. Here’s everything you need to know to keep Fido safe from salt melts till spring:

1. Ice melts are poisonous to dogs if ingested. Dogs who lick their paws after a wintry walk may be exposing themselves to toxic chemicals like potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, calcium carbonate and calcium magnesium acetate that are present in many ice melts. Consumption of ice melts can be lethal, but only if your dog ingests large quantities.

“Larger ingestions can lead to an increase in the blood’s electrolyte levels, weakness, lethargy, moderate irritation to the oral and gastrointestinal system, and even tremors,” says Nicole Martin, a certified veterinary technician and Client Services Manager at APCC.

Still, smaller quantities of ice melts can make your dog feel pretty sick. “We would expect a small ingestion, such as licking paw pads after a walk through ice melts, to lead to mild gastrointestinal signs such as hypersalivating, nausea and vomiting,” Martin warns.

2. Melts can irritate dogs’ paws. Dogs’ gastrointestinal systems are not the only part of their bodies that react badly to ice melt exposure. Though paw pads are tough, ice melts can cause them to burn, become irritated and even crack, turning a daily walk into a painful ordeal for your dog. “It’s important to regularly check in between your pet’s paw pads for signs of irritation,” Martin advises.

3. It’s relatively easy to protect your pup from ice melts. A few simple steps can keep your dog safe, but one of them is especially key: “After wintertime walks, pet parents should wipe their pet’s paws off with a clean, damp towel,” says Martin. She adds that dog boots can go a long way toward protecting your pet from the perils of winter walks.

Other ways to keep your pet safe: Wipe down your dog’s entire body if she was rolling around in the snow, don’t let your dog drink from puddles of melted snow, and keep your dog from snacking on snow near any place where ice melts may have been used.

4. “Pet-friendly” ice melts are available, but they may not be the answer. “Although these types of melts tend to be considered safer, they, too, can lead to problems if the animal has been exposed to enough of the product,” says Martin. If you’ve got ice melts of any kind at home, keep them in sealed, pet-proof containers.

Holidays can be extremely fun for humans, but are often a dreadful experience for pets. The culprits of the top Thanksgiving pet emergencies involve guests and food. Pet Sitters International (PSI) offers pet owners four tips to ensure everyone remains thankful this year.

Keep Medication Out of Paw’s Reach. One of the most common pet-related holiday emergencies is the consumption of human pharmaceuticals. If company’s coming, be sure that all guests safely store their medicine.

Knock, Knock. Who’s there? People will be entering and exiting the home and many of them may be strangers to your pets. Some pets will sneak out through an open door. Searching for a runaway pet or caring for an injured pet will put a damper on holiday festivities. So be careful with opening and closing doors. To minimize the risk, keep your pets in another room and away from guest traffic.

Stranger Danger! Pets that get scared from all of the hustle and hubbub of the holidays may bite or scratch, especially if a stranger tries to pet them or pick them up. Pets that are normally friendly and socialized have been known to become aggressive during the holiday commotion. Pet owners should know what to do if their pets bite someone and should also know how to protect themselves – and their guests – from getting scratched or bitten.

Watch What Fido and Fluffy Eat. Items such a rich, fatty scraps, bones from pork and poultry, alcoholic beverages and chocolate are all toxic to pets. It’s also important to keep all paws away from:

* Bread dough. When bread dough is ingested it continues to rise, causing an intestinal blockage.
* Xylitol. This sugar substitute causes a dog’s blood sugar to drop quickly. Xylitol poisoning can be treated, but causes liver failure if not treated properly.

Here in the Ozarks the weather changes at a moments notice sometimes.  As we are enjoying the cooler weather and the lovely changing leaves of fall, it is time to start preparing for the winter months.  Just as we bundle up and protect ourselves from the inclement weather, our furkids need to be bundled as well.  Smaller pooches and those with a lean frame or short hair can benefit from booties, sweaters, and even moving their beds away from windows or outer walls of the home.

According to to the American Animal Hospital Association cold weather can be hard on pets, just like it can be hard on people. Sometimes owners forget that their pets are just as accustomed to the warm shelter of the indoors as they are. Some owners will leave their animals outside for extended periods of time, thinking that all animals are adapted to live outdoors. This can put their pets in danger of serious illness. There are things you can do to keep your animal warm and safe.

Take your animals for a winter check-up before winter kicks in. Your veterinarian can check to make sure they don’t have any medical problems that will make them more vulnerable to the cold.

Keep your pets inside as much as you can when the mercury drops. If you have to take them out, stay outside with them. When you’re cold enough to go inside, they probably are too. If you absolutely must leave them outside for a significant length of time, make sure they have a warm, solid shelter against the wind, thick bedding (hay is a great insulator that they can snuggle down in), and plenty of non-frozen water. Try leaving out a hot water bottle, wrapped in a towel so it won’t burn your pet’s skin.

Some animals can remain outside safely longer in the winter than others. In some cases, it’s just common sense: long-haired breeds like Huskies will do better in cold weather than short-haired breeds like Dachshunds. Cats and small dogs that have to wade shoulder-deep in the snow will feel the cold sooner than larger animals. Your pet’s health will also affect how long she can stay out. Conditions like diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and hormonal imbalances can compromise a pet’s ability to regulate her own body heat. Animals that are not generally in good health shouldn’t be exposed to winter weather for a long period of time. Very young and very old animals are vulnerable to the cold as well. Regardless of their health, though, no pets should stay outside for unlimited amounts of time in freezing cold weather. If you have any questions about how long your pet should be out this winter, ask your veterinarian.

Cats will curl up against almost anything to stay warm–including car engines. Cats caught in moving engine parts can be seriously hurt or killed. Before you turn your engine on, check beneath the car or make a lot of noise by honking the horn or rapping on the hood.

If you live near a pond or lake, be very cautious about letting your dog off the leash. Animals can easily fall through the ice, and it is very difficult for them to escape on their own. If you must let your dogs loose near open water, stay with them at all times.

If you light a fire or plug in a space heater to keep your home toasty warm, remember that the heat will be as attractive to your pets as to you. As your dog or cat snuggles up to the warmth, keep an eye out to make sure that no tails or paws come in contact with flames, heating coils, or hot surfaces. Pets can either burn themselves or knock a heat source over and put the entire household in danger.

It’s a good idea to have your furnace checked for carbon monoxide leakage before you turn it on, both for your pets’ health and your own. Carbon monoxide is odorless and invisible, but it can cause problems ranging from headaches and fatigue to trouble breathing. Pets generally spend more time in the home than owners, particularly in the winter, so they are more vulnerable to carbon monoxide poisoning than the rest of the family.

Pets that go outside can pick up rock salt, ice, and chemical ice melts in their foot pads. To keep your pet’s pads from getting chapped and raw, wipe her feet with a washcloth when she comes inside. If your canine friend will tolerate it there are special booties that can help protect their paws from the winter elements and any chemicals or salts that art put out. This will also keep her from licking the salt off her feet, which could cause an inflammation of her digestive tract.

If left alone outside, dogs and cats can be very resourceful in their search for warm shelter. They can dig into snow banks or hide under porches or in dumpsters, window wells, or cellars, and they can occasionally get trapped. Watch them closely when they are loose outdoors, and provide them with quality, easily accessible shelter.

Keep an eye on your pet’s water. Sometimes owners don’t realize that a water bowl has frozen and their pet can’t get anything to drink. Animals that don’t have access to clean, unfrozen water are more likely to drink out of puddles or gutters, which can be polluted with oil, antifreeze, household cleaners, and other chemicals.

Be particularly gentle with elderly and arthritic pets during the winter. The cold can leave their joints extremely stiff and tender, and they may become more awkward than usual. Stay directly below these pets when they are climbing stairs or jumping onto furniture; consider modifying their environment to make it easier for them to get around. Make sure they have a thick, soft bed in a warm room for the chilly nights. Also, watch stiff and arthritic pets if you walk them outside; a bad slip on the ice could be very painful and cause a significant injury.

Go ahead and put that sweater on Princess, if she’ll put up with it. It will help a little, but you can’t depend on it entirely to keep her warm. Pets lose most of their body heat from the pads of their feet, their ears, and their respiratory tract. The best way to guard your animals against the cold is keeping a close eye on them to make sure they’re comfortable.

When you’re outside with your pets during the winter, you can watch them for signs of discomfort with the cold. If they whine, shiver, seem anxious, slow down or stop moving, or start to look for warm places to burrow, they’re saying they want to get back someplace warm.

You can also keep an eye out for two serious conditions caused by cold weather. The first and less common of the two is frostbite. Frostbite happens when an animal’s (or a person’s) body gets cold and pulls all the blood from the extremities to the center of the body to stay warm. The animal’s ears, paws, or tail can get cold enough that ice crystals can form in the tissue and damage it. The tricky thing about frostbite is that it’s not immediately obvious. The tissue doesn’t show signs of the damage to it for several days.

If you suspect your pet may have frostbite, bring her into a warm environment right away. You can soak her extremities in warm water for about 20 minutes to melt the ice crystals and restore circulation. It’s important that you don’t rub the frostbitten tissue, however–the ice crystals can do a lot of damage to the tissue. Once your pet is warm, wrap her up in some blankets and take her to the veterinarian. Your veterinarian can assess the damage and treat your pet for pain or infection if necessary.

Hypothermia, or a body temperature that is below normal, is a condition that occurs when an animal is not able to keep her body temperature from falling below normal. It happens when animals spend too much time in cold temperatures, or when animals with poor health or circulation are exposed to cold. In mild cases, animals will shiver and show signs of depression, lethargy, and weakness. As the condition progresses, an animal’s muscles will stiffen, her heart and breathing rates will slow down, and she will stop responding to stimuli.

If you notice these symptoms, you need to get your pet warm and take her to your veterinarian. You can wrap her in blankets, possibly with a hot water bottle or an electric blanket. As always, remember to wrap hot items in fabric to prevent against burning the skin. In severe cases, your veterinarian can monitor her heart rate and blood pressure and give warm fluids through an IV.

Winter can be a beautiful time of year. It can be a dangerous time as well, but it certainly doesn’t have to be. If you take some precautions, you and your pet can have a fabulous time.  And of course you can always call 417 Pet Sitting to take care of your furkids in the winter – we love to bundle up and take them for walks or play outside!!

• The use of rodenticides increases in the fall as rodents seek shelter from the cooler temperatures by attempting to move indoors. Rodenticides are highly toxic to pets—if ingested, the results could be fatal. If you must use these products, do so with extreme caution and put them in places inaccessible to your pets.
• It’s back-to-school time, and those of you with young children know that means stocking up on fun items like glue sticks, pencils and magic markers. These items are considered “low toxicity” to pets, which means they’re unlikely to cause serious problems unless large amounts are ingested. However, since gastrointestinal upset and blockages certainly are possible, be sure your children keep their school supplies out of paw’s reach.
• Training tip: If you and your pooch haven’t been active outdoors in a while because of the summer heat, do some remedial recall training. Dogs, like people, get rusty on their skills if they aren’t using them.
• Fall and spring and are mushroom seasons. While 99% of mushrooms have little or no toxicity, the 1% that are highly toxic (PDF) can cause life-threatening problems in pets. Unfortunately, most of the highly toxic mushrooms are difficult to distinguish from the nontoxic ones, so the best way to keep pets from ingesting poisonous mushrooms is to keep them away from areas where any mushrooms are growing. Contact your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center immediately if you witness your pet eating a wild mushroom.
• In order to generate body heat, pets who exercise heavily outdoors, or who live outdoors, should be given more food during colder seasons. Make sure horses and other outdoor animals have access to clean, fresh water that is not frozen.
• Autumn is the season when snakes who are preparing for hibernation may be particularly “grumpy,” increasing the possibility of severe bites to those unlucky pups who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Pet owners should know what kinds of venomous snakes may be in their environment—and where these snakes are most likely to be found—so they can keep pets out of those areas.
• Many people choose fall as the time to change their car’s engine coolant. Ethylene glycol-based coolants are highly toxic, so spills should be cleaned up immediately. Consider switching to propylene glycol-based coolants—though they aren’t completely nontoxic, they are much less toxic than other engine coolants.

Pets and Pumpkins is a “Rain or Shine” event and the cost is $2.00 for kids (ages 2-16) and $2.00 for pets (fur-kids). With paid admission, attendees are given an orange wrist or collar band and can take part in ALL the activities at no cost. This includes the walking parade and costume contest! NOTE: Adults and children under two are admitted free but WILL need to purchase a wristband ($2.00) to take part in the parade/costume contest. Besides all the fun, one of the BEST things about Pets and Pumpkins is 100% of money raised from the sale of wrist/collar bands is donated to local non-profit organizations. The event helps support organizations dedicated to saving the lives of homeless animals and working to educate the public about pet overpopulation.

Join the fun at Pets and Pumpkins festival on Historic C-Street October 22 from 12-5pm. For more event and vendor information, email connie@tamepetmag.com or call 417.830.8121. For activity schedule and regular updates visit http://www.facebook.com/PetsandPumpkins .

Charlotte Dumas is an animal photographer who specialized in capturing the relationships and emotional ties between animals and people.  Her work is moving and filled with passion and intimacy – to put it mildly.  “Four Horses” was her first published work in which she captured the spirit of police horses.  Subsequently she published “Day Is Done” and “Palermo 7″ – both focusing on horses.  “Reverie” took her to Norway to capture the enigmatic character of wolves in 2007, while “Tiger Tiger” brought her stateside to photograph tigers in sanctuaries and zoos.

Her last three projects have all been focused on the amazing heart and soul of our beloved K-9 companions.  In “Heart Shaped Hole” as well as “Heart of a Dog” she captured strays in the cities of Palermo and New York.  Her photos are breathtaking and truly let you look deep into the soul of her subjects.  While all  of her works are moving and tug at your heart strings – her newest work will truly reach to your inner core.

“Retrieved” focuses on the last remaining dogs who worked selflessly and tirelessly to find survivors in the 9/11 remains.  While there were hundreds of K-9′s dispatched, these 15 dogs are still with us living out their days in retirement.  Dumas wrote this past summer on how Retrieved, the series,  came about:

On June 24, thousands of businesses across the United States and abroad opened their doors to employees’ dogs in celebration of Pet Sitters International’s 13th annual Take Your Dog To Work Day® (TYDTWDay®).

While thousands of workers around the globe enjoyed a fun-filled day of puppy kisses and tail wags to celebrate dogs and promote pet adoption, most working pet owners are unable to take their dogs—or any pets—to the office. Pet Sitters International (PSI), the event creator, urges pet owners to look to professional pet sitters when company policies, long work days or vacations prevent them from being with their pets.

According to PSI’s 2011 State of the Industry Survey, PSI’s member pet-sitting businesses service more than 740,000 pet-owning households and perform more than 18.5 million pet-sitting visits each year.

“Professional pet sitters provide peace of mind for pet owners by letting them leave their pets in the comforts of home while they travel for work or pleasure,” said Scott Black, 2010 Pet Sitter of the Year™ and owner of Personal Touch Pet Sitting in Kingwood, Texas. “My service also offers pet transportation for grooming or veterinary appointments when pet owners are unable to leave work.”

PSI’s 2011 State of the Industry Survey also found that, like Black, other PSI member businesses are offering added services to meet the needs of increasingly busy pet owners. More than 62 percent of PSI pet sitters offer pet transportation in addition to basic pet care and dog walking visits; and nearly 60 percent also offer overnight pet-sitting visits to accommodate traveling pet owners who do not want their homes left unoccupied.

PSI recommends that any pet owner who needs the services of a professional pet sitter interview the sitter in advance and ask for proof of credentials, including:

• insurance and bonding

• background check

• education or training, such as PSI’s Certification Program

• client references.

“Discriminating pet owners now have more qualified pet-care options than were available a decade ago,” said Patti Moran, PSI president and industry pioneer. “Instead of depending on family members or relying on a neighborhood teen, pet owners can easily secure the services of professional sitters with the experience and training to handle any situation that may arise when the owners are away.”

To locate a PSI member pet-sitting business in your area, visit the Official Pet Sitter Locator at www.petsit.com/locate. To learn more about PSI or the pet-sitting industry visit www.petsit.com.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The nation’s economy may be struggling, but many Americans aren’t skimping when it comes to the care of their pets. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that many pet service companies in the St. Louis area are thriving.

Several pet-sitting firms say their business continues to increase even during tough economic times. Carol Mees, owner and operator of St. Louis Pet Sitters, says people care about their pets like family and prefer not to board them or leave them home alone.

Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show the number of non-veterinary pet care companies in the St. Louis area rose from 84 in 1999 to 152 in 2009. Those numbers don’t include home-based
businesses or sole proprietors.

For many people, nothing beats lounging in the backyard on the Fourth of July with good friends and family—including the four-legged members of the household. While it may seem like a great idea to reward Rover with scraps from the grill and bring him along to watch fireworks, in reality some festive foods and products can be potentially hazardous to your pets. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center offers the following tips:

• Never leave alcoholic drinks unattended where pets can reach them. Alcoholic beverages have the potential to poison pets. If ingested, the animal could become very intoxicated and weak, severely depressed or could go into a coma. Death from respiratory failure is also a possibility in severe cases.
• Do not apply any sunscreen or insect repellent product to your pet that is not labeled specifically for use on animals. Ingestion of sunscreen products can result in drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst and lethargy. The misuse of insect repellent that contains DEET can lead to neurological problems.
• Always keep matches and lighter fluid out of your pets’ reach. Certain types of matches contain chlorates, which could potentially damage blood cells and result in difficulty breathing—or even kidney disease in severe cases. Lighter fluid can be irritating to skin, and if ingested can produce gastrointestinal irritation and central nervous system depression. If lighter fluid is inhaled, aspiration pneumonia and breathing problems could develop.
• Keep your pets on their normal diet. Any change, even for one meal, can give your pets severe indigestion and diarrhea. This is particularly true for older animals who have more delicate digestive systems and nutritional requirements. And keep in mind that foods such as onions, chocolate, coffee, avocado, grapes & raisins, salt and yeast dough can all be potentially toxic to companion animals.
• Do not put glow jewelry on your pets, or allow them to play with it. While the luminescent substance contained in these products is not highly toxic, excessive drooling and gastrointestinal irritation could still result from ingestions, and intestinal blockage could occur from swallowing large pieces of the plastic containers.
• Keep citronella candles, insect coils and oil products out of reach. Ingestions can produce stomach irritation and possibly even central nervous system depression. If inhaled, the oils could cause aspiration pneumonia in pets.
• Never use fireworks around pets! While exposure to lit fireworks can potentially result in severe burns and/or trauma to the face and paws of curious pets, even unused fireworks can pose a danger. Many types contain potentially toxic substances, including potassium nitrate, arsenic and other heavy metals.
• Loud, crowded fireworks displays are no fun for pets, so please resist the urge to take them to Independence Day festivities. Instead, keep your little guys safe from the noise in a quiet, sheltered and escape-proof area at home.

Remember if you are traveling for the holiday, tell your pet sitter if your pets need to be medicated during the fireworks or even thunderstorms.  That one more way your pet sitter can help keep your pets safe and comfortable at home!