A Letter to a Hamster

January 20, 2020January 19, 2020 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 4 Comments

Dear Nova,

You were a good girl. The best hamster I will ever have. You meant a lot to me and I don’t know if I would have made it through my senior year without you. You taught me that it doesn’t matter how big something is to make you happy. It’s crazy how such a small creature could make me so happy and give me the perseverance to finish school.

My senior and junior year of high school were really hard for me. I was just not happy and although I had always done really well in school, it was hard for me to make it through the day. I had major anxiety and felt no motivation to even get out of bed.

Around the time of my birthday I decided to get an animal to hopefully lift my spirits. And that was you. I researched for hours on how to give you the best life possible, and while I admit I wasn’t perfect, my goal was that you were happy. And I hoped I achieved that.

You never tried to run away, you always wanted to be with me, in my hair or cuddling against my chest. You never bit me. You never bit anyone. Nova, you were everything that I needed and I will miss you dearly.

I was fully prepared when I got you that you wouldn’t live long, but what I wasn’t prepared for was the most loving hamster in my care. Losing you hurt more that I though it would, but I’m glad I had you. You made me so happy. You will forever mean so much to me. I love you and I miss you Love Nugget.

Nova was the sweetest hamster to ever live. She loved cheese, loved to be held or sit on my shoulder when I was doing other stuff, and feared heights. She was my most prized possession and I’m so happy to have had her. She was my first animal that I took care of 100% on my own and for that she will always be special to me.

Thank you for reading and I’ll be back on Thursday with something a little less sad. On my Facebook page I will be posting cute pictures and videos of Nova so check it out at Animal Digest Fur Real.

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First Day as a Veterinary Assistant!

January 17, 2020 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 1 Comment

Hey guys! I’ve got some exciting news! I am now a veterinary assistant at an animal hospital in my area!

I am very excited to start this new chapter in my life and I am so happy that the people I am working with seem to be so nice and knowledgeable. I am going to learn so much, I can already tell.

Starting this new job has made my week EXTREMELY busy. I am still working part time at my previous job and I am trying to make sure to take care of everything I need to. I have been so tired, soar, and kinda bitter this past week but I am still really excited to go back tomorrow. (However I’m not excited to be getting up at 6am)

For today’s post I wanted to tell you guys about my first day there. In case you guys want to know what it will be like. Obviously everyone’s experience will be different but this is a good start.

My day started at 7:15 in the morning and I began by meeting up with the person that I was going to be shadowing that day and talking to her about what that day was going to look like. We took care of the animals that were being boarded or that were there overnight for post-op surgery. We took dogs outside, gave everyone fresh food and water and then started to do some laundry.

Throughout the day we worked on the laundry and cleaning the equipment that the veterinarians had used for surgery or other situations and helped them with anything that they needed.

That’s basically all I did all day. I just kinda walked around and helped with whatever needed to be done. I watched some surgeries and got to learn so much on how a clinic is run in such a short amount of time. I really liked it. I know the more I work there the more I will be able to do and the more I will like it, but I am really excited for this new chapter in my life.

There will be many more stories to come on my experience as a veterinary assistant so make sure to subscribe to my blog to know when those new posts come out.

Sorry for the short and kinda lame post for the day but I am still getting used to this new schedule and figuring out how to get everything done. Thanks for being patient with me during this time!

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What is a Heart Worm?

January 13, 2020January 10, 2020 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 1 Comment

Welcome to my first official blog post of 2020! I am very excited for what is to come this year. I have a lot of fun stuff planned so make sure to subscribe to know when I post something.

Today’s post is all about those pesky heart worms. These parasites live in the heart, lungs, or blood vessels of dogs and cats and can create serious problems. They restrict the blood flow to the rest of the body causing the heart to work a lot harder than normal to try and compensate for it. With this constant hard work the heart can easily get overworked and become strained. It’s kinda like if you were to do a lot of exercise without stopping- you would eventually get tired and overworked.

The scientific name of heart worms is Dirofilaria immitis and is a kind of parasitic worm. It travels between animals through mosquitoes. Baby heart worms (called microfilariae) are small enough to get sucked up by the mosquito when drinking blood from an animal where they can then grow and thrive before getting passed into the next victim.

These tiny, string like worms can be found in blood tests taken from an infected animal.

Treatment is no fun. It is a two-step process and can be very dangerous. The veterinarian will start by giving a medication that will kill the adult worms, but this may cause the arteries to block up with the dead worms. After that, a medication is used to kill the baby heart worms, which is not as dangerous as they are so small.

Luckily, there are ways to prevent heart worms before the animal may get it. Using heart worm tablets given daily or once a month and a topical medication applied monthly the chance of an animal get heart worm is taken down significantly.

If you liked this post or found it interesting please like it and subscribe for more posts about similar topics. Thanks for reading!

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I got most of my information from my class on veterinary assistant on ed2go.com.

The Beginning of a New Year!

January 7, 2020 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 2 Comments

Happy New Year everyone!!

I’m sorry that I was gone for so long but I had some family in town and some friends come back that I wanted to spend time with and I didn’t really have time to write any posts.

This year I am hoping to get a job that works with animals that I will be able to tell you guys about. I will be taking some more courses on ed2go.com to learn some more about animals that I will share with you guys and I will be doing a lot of fun new posts.

I have a lot of big plans and hopes for this year and I am so excited to watch as this blog grows more and more every week. I am very thankful for the support I have right now on this site and I can’t wait to do so many more bigger and better things.

This year I plan on doing more posts about cool animals, experiences I have had, groups and products that I like or dislike, and some fun stories that I think will be very entertaining. If you haven’t already please subscribe to notifications every time I post something new. I also have a Facebook page where I am planning on posting a lot more pictures of my animals and my life, as well as just smaller stories at random times.

And I promise I will try to work on getting my posts out at a decent time instead of late at night. 🙂

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What Vaccines Should You Give Your Cat?

December 19, 2019 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 1 Comment

I wrote a post a little bit ago about each dog vaccine and why you should give them to your dog. Now, as I promised, I will tell you guys about cat vaccines.

For cats there are 4 vaccines that are typically recommended by all veterinarians and are what we call core vaccines. These are given to cats typically when they are young so that they can have the correct antibodies they need to fight off diseases throughout their lives. There are five other vaccines that are for different situations like if a cat lives inside or outside and for each one I will tell you why you might want to consider it.

Let’s start with the core vaccines:

Vaccine	How it is transmitted	Illness without the vaccine	Treatment
Panleukopenia	Is spread through contact with contaminated feces	Causes vomiting and diarrhea	Treatment consists of a lot of medications and fluids inserted through the veins. Most often picked up by kittens but older cats survive better
Rhinotracheitis	Transmitted through contact with contaminated snot from an infected cat	Causes eye infections and sneezing and coughing	There really isn’t a treatment for it but a secondary infection can occur but can be helped with antibiotics. Kittens can often die from this disease
Calicivirus	Same as Rhinothracheitis	——–	———
Rabies	Can be transmitted by a bite from an infected animal of any type	Creates cats to have nervous signs	There is no treatment

The next five are more important if you have cats that are going to be going outside on occasion.

Vaccine	How it is transmitted	Illness without the vaccine	Treatment
Chlamydia	Snot	Causes cat to sneeze and cough a lot and have awful eye infections	This is not usually fatal but it’s not fun. The symptoms can be tamed with antibiotic eye drops and the occasional oral antibiotics
Feline Leukemia	Transferred through bites and grooming of cats	Causes them to lose some immunity and triggers tumors to form	There is no treatment
Feline Infectious Peritonitis	Scientists do not currently know how it is transferred	Causes high fevers and fluid to build up in the chest and abdomen	There is no treatment
Feline Bordetella	Snot	Causes excessive coughing and sneezing	Antibiotics can help but do not work perfectly
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus	Passed between cats through bites or scratches	Causes the cat to lose immunity	There is no treatment

As always I am not a professional vet and I got all of my information from a class about becoming a vet assistant on Ed2Go.com. Before giving anything to your cat make sure you talk to a vet that you trust but this is a good base on each vaccine.

I hope you liked today’s post. Please like and subscribe for more!

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Vet’s Throughout the Years

December 17, 2019March 23, 2020 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 1 Comment

The root of veterinary medicine began in what scientists believe to be the early Roman Empire. Back then they were called souvetaurinarii which is where the word veterinarian stemmed from. They were considered animal caretakers that would be able to heal the family horses used to ride around town, or the cattle that you were planning on eating for dinner.

Back then animals weren’t kept as companions, and the only reason that they were worth anything was for transportation or eating. In this age everyone was working to make sure that they could sustain themselves and their family. They didn’t have time or supplies to keep animals around for any other purpose.

It wasn’t until the Egyptians started worshipping cats that an animal became known as pets. And back then it was a bit different. Cats were kept in palaces on streets in order to defend the people from ill rats or poisonous snakes. They became a hero in Egypt for protecting the pharaoh from things that would have killed them in that period. They didn’t have very good medicine, so if you got a disease from an animal there wasn’t much that you could do to fix it.

However, veterinary practices didn’t really become a routine thing until 1761 when Claude Bourgelat created a school in Lyon, France dedicated to helping the animals. At this point, horses and cattle were the animals that vets really worked on. They relied on horses as transportation and cattle for a lot of the food source. Without these animals you would be in a lot of trouble.

In this time, nobody really cared about saving cats. There were a lot of stray cats running the streets and they were believed to only be good for chasing away verman. But they weren’t worshipped anymore. They were just another part of the ecosystem.

By the time that cars started to become popular people no longer had a large need for horses. They became a liability more than a help. So now vets had to switch their focus yet again to stay in the job.

That’s when people started to really get into owning dogs. They were used a lot in hunting at the beginning and as time progressed they slowly worked their way into the hearts of humans everywhere. Soon it became a really common thing to have a dog. But again cats weren’t really kept as pets until the 1970s. Crazy, huh?

And that is the origin of vets! I hope you enjoyed!

Please like and subscribe to my blog. I also have a Facebook page where I post updates and more content throughout the week. Like a cute video of my dog Knox going down a slide. Check it out!

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Here’s where I got my information-

A lot of it came from a class that I am taking about becoming a veterinary assistant on Ed2Go. I highly recommend!
https://knowledge.rcvs.org.uk/heritage-and-history/history-of-the-veterinary-profession/
https://www.petfinder.com/pet-adoption/cat-adoption/why-did-egyptians-worship-cats/

Meet My Pacman Frog Buffalo!

December 13, 2019 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 2 Comments

First off I want to make a statement saying that I did not name my frog Buffalo. My boyfriend’s favorite animal is a frog so I decided to let him pick the name and that’s what he came up with, so now I call the frog Buffy.

This is not a picture of Buffalo. I do not want to take him out to struggle to get a decent picture so this one is by Boon Lee from Flickr.com

In October of this year I decided that I really wanted to get another pet, but I wanted one that was cheap and easy to take care of. I didn’t have a lot of money and I was only working part time so I knew that I wasn’t going to be getting a lot in the near future. That limited my choices a ton.

I looked into getting other frogs, geckos, insects, tarantulas, etc. but I had a fascination with pacman frogs from seeing them in a video on YouTube. I knew they were boring and didn’t do much, but that was exactly what I was looking for. I already knew a lot about the animals and how to take care of them, so now all I needed was to make sure that I was going to be able to give it the best life I could.

I researched what I would need to get to keep a pacman frog and I made a list of all of the things required. If you are also looking at getting a pacman frog and you want a list of the things you will need I posted the list I created on my blog. Here’s the link: https://animaldigestfurreal.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/a-shopping-list-for-a-pacman-frog/

So I went out and bought everything that I would need and then set up the enclosure and got the frog.

I have his enclosure filled with Eco Earth coconut fiber and I have some moss sprinkled around to retain moisture since pacman frogs need their enclosure to be humid. He is in a ten gallon tank right now with a small hide, a fake plant, and a water dish. Super simple. I mist his cage at least twice a day and I change his dirt and moss about every month.

Now I have had Buffy for about two months and I think he has grown a tiny bit. He mostly just sits in the dirt and waits for me to give him food, but I think he’s cute. Sometimes I catch him in his water dish taking a bath and sometimes he will be in a new position.

In the future I am going to put him in a bigger enclosure with some more fake plants and twigs and a big water bowl and make his enclosure look super cool. I was also just given a mister from my grandma that I will add to make sure that he is always humid. Thanks Grandma!!

Buffy doesn’t do much, so he doesn’t have much of a personality, but there is one thing about him that I think is pretty unique. He is awful at eating. Maybe it’s just because he is young and hasn’t had much experience, but every time I feed him he misses his meal completely or goes for the tongs that I am using to put the food in instead of the cricket. Eating two crickets takes about twelve tries and a few minutes.

A lot of people will think that Buffy’s pretty boring, but I think that he is so fascinating. Maybe not the most entertaining, but I am loving having him in my life and I can’t wait until I can get him in a new, big, super cool enclosure.

That’s it for today! Thanks for reading and I will be back on Monday with a new post! If you liked this one please like and subscribe and follow my Facebook page for more cute pictures of my animals and updates on new posts.

What Vaccine’s Should I Give My Dog?

December 10, 2019March 23, 2020 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 1 Comment

Are you thinking about getting a new dog? Well this article will explain to you all of the vaccines that your dog should get, what they help prevent, and which ones your dog doesn’t need. If you enjoy this post I will be making another one soon about vaccines for cats.

There are five core vaccines for dogs that almost all veterinarians (and a lot of state laws) say that you need to get. They are Distemper, Parvovirus, Hepatitis, Parainfluenza, and Rabies. Other vaccines include Leptospirosis, CoronaVirus, Lyme, Bordetella, and Canine Influenza. I know there’s a lot but I will break them all down for you.

Let’s start with the core vaccines:

Vaccine	How it is Transmitted	Illness without the vaccine	Treatment
Distemper	It is picked up by the dog coming into contact with snot from an infected dog’s nose	Pneumonia and seizures are the main symptoms	Treatment is hard and most dogs don’t make it through
Parvovirus	It is picked up by the dog being exposed to contaminated poop	Vomiting and diarrhea	Treatment requires a lot of fluids and meds being inserted into the veins. Older dogs survive better as this is mostly a puppy disease.
Hepatitis	It is picked up from feces and saliva from an infected dog	Causes fever, vomiting, and diarrhea	It requires aggressive fluid therapy and most dogs don’t make it through
Parainfluenza	Transmitted by snot	Causes coughing and sneezing	Antibiotics help speed recovery. This disease is part of the kennel cough complex.
Rabies	Transmitted by a bite from an infected animal	Causes nervous signs and habits	Right now we don’t really have a treatment for rabies

Now there are five other vaccines that are not required to get most places but can be helpful depending on how you are planning on keeping your dog.

Vaccine	How it is Transmitted	Illness without the Vaccine	Treatment	Why you should get it
Leptospirosis	Picked up from water infected with urine from an animal with the disease	Causes kidney and liver disease	Severe infections can often be fatal, but a lot of the times they go unnoticed	If you plan on taking your dog to a lot of parks or trails that have ponds you should probably consider this vaccine
CoronaVirus	Picked up from infected poop	Causes vomiting and diarrhea	Most older dogs recover without treatment but puppies have a harder time	If you plan to take your dog in public places or dog parks you may want to consider this one. While it may not be fatal it can be inconvenient for you and the dog
Bordetella	Transmitted by snot	Causes coughing and sneezing	Antibiotics can help speed recovery but that is the only thing that can help. It is part of the kennel cough complex.	If you plan on boarding your dog ever or taking it to a place with a lot of dogs you might want to consider this vaccine.
Lyme	Transmitted by ticks	Causes fever and joint inflammation	Treatment is usually successful with antibiotics	If you want to be outside a lot with your dog this one might be good to get.
Canine Influenza	Transmitted in kenneling situations	Causes mild upper respiratory infection with some coughing with the occasional high fever and pneumonia	Possible death	Again if you are going to kennel your dogs have have them with a lot of other dogs this one is good

You should always do your research and talk to a trusted veterinarian before doing anything like giving your dog a vaccine. I am studying to be a veterinary assistant so I do not have a ton of experience with these vaccines yet, but this is a good place to start looking or to see what there is to protect your furry friends.

Thank you for reading! I will do a post on cat vaccines soon and in the meantime please like and subscribe to this blog for more posts.

I got all of my information from the veterinary assistant class on Ed2Go.com. I highly suggest this course and I will be doing a full review on the classes I’m taking a bit later.

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What’s It Like Owning a Domestic Fox?

December 6, 2019March 23, 2020 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 1 Comment

I will admit, I want a pet fox. Bad. And I considered it for a long time before I decided to actually do research on the adorable animals. What I found was that foxes are amazing animals, but they are not pets.

Foxes are wild and have a lot of energy. They need lots of space to run around, climb, and dig. If you decide to lock something with this temperament up you’re going to have a messy house. Foxes are known to tear up carpet, eat through furniture, and mark their territory all over the house. And let me tell you, you do not want a fox to urinate in your home.

Foxes smell awful; a mix between skunk and ammonia. And there is no way to make the smell go away or prevent it from following the animal wherever it goes. The smell stains, and even the most powerful cleaning solution will never be able to completely get the smell out. Mix that with a diet full of raw meat and bones and your house is going to smell worse than a farm full of cows.

Even though foxes are incredibly smart, they do not do very well at potty training. Some owners will try to get their fox to use a litter box or to go outside but it takes a long time for them to understand what you are asking. Most won’t take the hint and will continue to go in the house their entire lives. And it is basically impossible to fully potty-train a fox. Ask any owner.

If you’re looking for an animal that is similar to a dog but a little bit more fun, look somewhere else. These animals are more like cats than dogs, but they have the energy of a puppy or a kitten for their entire lives. They can be moody and everything is solely on their terms. You want to cuddle? Only if the fox allows it. You want to play? Only if the fox is in the mood.

As each fox continues to age it’s going to have a lot more behavioural problems. The aggression towards other animals and specifically other humans will increase tremendously. Cats and dogs have been kept as pets for centuries and have become accustomed to being domestic, but foxes have not. People have only been trying to keep foxes as pets for about 60 years, and still only about 35% of the foxes born are really able to be kept as pets. Foxes have the instinct to run from humans, and if they can’t run they will fight. So if you force an interaction the animal will most likely try to keep the human as far away from them as possible.

If you ever consider buying a fox, you better do lots of research and understand what you are getting into. Foxes need large yards, lots of enrichment, and they need to forage for food quite a bit. That might mean burying the food, putting the food in something that they have to tear open, or even feeding live. In my opinion, foxes should not be kept as pets. I don’t blame anyone for wanting a pet fox but very few people can actually take care of one properly, even though many think they can. As for me, I will never get a pet fox.

And remember, foxes can jump up to 3 feet, make it over a 6 foot fence with ease, and has perfect claws for digging under. And if you lose your pet fox you can be in lots of trouble.

If you liked this post please like and subscribe for more posts like this. Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a fabulous day!

Read this article to learn the background of domesticating foxes-
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/domesticated-foxes-genetically-fascinating-terrible-pets

Here’s where I got most of my information

https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/real-life/foxes-dangerous/

A Shopping List for A Pacman Frog

December 2, 2019December 1, 2019 by animaldigestfurreal ♥ 3 Comments

For anybody that is thinking about getting a pacman frog here is a shopping list of things you will need.

10 gallon tank- if you are getting a young pacman frog then a 10 gallon tank is the perfect place to start, but as the animal grows older you will need to upgrade the tank to at least a 20 gallon
Hydrothermometer- you will need a way to measure the heat and the humidity in the tank
Some type of substrate- I recommend using Eco Earth coconut fibers at least two inches deep so that the frog can bury himself. I also added some moss to mine to keep some water in.
A water dish- you will need something deep enough that the frog can sit in the dish having everything but the head covered. This is a good way for it to get water and my frog loves to bathe.
Repti safe water conditioner- This will make tap water or bottled water safe for them to drink and bathe in
A hide- my pacman frog never uses his hide because he buries himself in the dirt all the time, but it is nice for them to have something to hide in if they want
Plants- I choose to use fake plants but you could use live as well. This will help bring in some color to the tank and add some more places for the frog to hide
Heat pad- since pacman frogs like to dig to the bottom of the tank I suggest putting a heat pad on one side of the tank to warm up that area without having their bottoms be too hot
Crickets- My frog is still very young so I feed him two small to medium crickets every other day
Calcium powder- Most amphibians and reptiles need to have lots of calcium in their diet in order for them to grow properly, so sprinkling some calcium powder on the crickets will help them get what they need
A spray bottle- pacman frogs need humidity, I spray my frogs enclosure twice a day
Heat light- This is only needed if the heat pad is not making the enclosure warm enough for the frog (75 to 85 degrees fahrenheit)

Make sure to do a lot of research before purchasing a pacman frog and think if it’s right for you. Also I will be doing a post introducing my pacman frog very soon so make sure to subscribe to know when it comes out. And like this post if you want more like this.

That’s it for today! I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! I’m sorry to go silent for a couple of days but I was spending a lot of time with family. Thanks for reading and please like and subscribe.

Animal Digest Fur Real

A blog on all things animals

Author: animaldigestfurreal