What is a Heart Worm?

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.

By Rodeo Warhola on flickr.com

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.

By Mendy Lindsay on flickr.com

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.

By Debra Garrison on flickr.com

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.

What Vaccine’s Should I Give My Dog?

By rudyeleazardubon on flickr.com

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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© 2019

All Rights Reserved

Cat or Small Dog Food Stand Offer!

The kind people at Valiai Design have given my readers (you guys!) a special offer. They have made eco-friendly, healthy, and easy to use cat stands to add something classic to your home for your animals.

This company is a family owned business that wants to bring unique and adorable house interior decorations with a Scandinavian style to your home TODAY!

Do you like what you see? Well this product is on Valiai Design’s site https://www.etsy.com/listing/688659993/wooden-elevated-stand-for-cats-and-small?ref=shop_home_feat_5&frs=1

AND don’t forget to use the discount code they have given to you guys specially for an extra 10% off. Use code SAVE10 available throughout all of November.

By Ann Vasilkova on flickr.com

Adopting vs Buying

aapfarrington from flickr.com

If you read my last post then you know about my dog, Knox. I got him from a breeder that I thought was reputable and I didn’t think much of what I was doing. And although I love Knox and am so happy to have him, I have now decided that I will never go to another dog breeder again. Why? I’ll tell you. 

In the future I want to be a breeder, but not for dogs or cats. I love puppies and kittens to death and my dream would be to be around them my entire life, but there’s a lot of animals in shelters that need homes. My goal is to breed animals that are not found in shelters for people looking for a companion that is a little bit more rare.

I don’t think that dog and cat breeders should be breeding at all. 

My first reason is because some of the “reputable” breeders that you find are actually doing a lot of bad things. Just like the one that I got my dog from. You may be getting a dog from a puppy mill even if you don’t think so. Puppy mill owners are good at hiding the fact that they are doing something wrong. They know what they are doing and know how to get away with it. However, not all breeders are just in it for the money. Some really do care about their animals and I believe the best way to sort through the massive amount of breeders is to ask to see the parent dogs when you go to see the puppy. If you see that the parents are in good health then they are most likely a good breeder, but if they come up with excuses then they are probably hiding something and you should report that immediately. It can’t hurt. 

In America alone there is an estimated 2.11 million dogs from puppy mills sold in a year, while about 3 million get killed in shelters that can’t take them in. There are a lot of dogs and cats in this world and a lot of the most amazing pets get killed because there simply isn’t enough room for them. By adopting a dog from a shelter you can save multiple lives; one of an animal you adopted, and one of an animal that was otherwise going to be put down because there wasn’t space.  A lot of these dogs are going to be so loving towards you because they may not have gotten that in their previous home. 

Joe Kurtz from flickr.com

If I could save all of the animals in the world I would, but that’s simply not possible. If you want to save a life don’t go through a breeder, even if you believe they are running something bad. That will just give them funds to continue what they are doing. The best thing you can do is report it and go through professionals. And even some kill shelters I would suggest that you stay away from. Just let them go bankrupt so they can’t continue to hurt any more animals.

There’s a common saying, “I never know what I’m going to get at a shelter.” Well, there are ways to make sure that you know exactly what you’re adopting. Some shelters have volunteered, trustworthy fosters that take an animal into their home to give them full attention. So they can tell you in detail about the animal you are looking at. And if you want a certain breed there’s an easy solution to find one! A lot of shelters have a waiting list for specific breeds that come through the shelter. They will save that dog for you if you just ask. 

If I haven’t convinced you yet then maybe this will: it normally costs less to adopt! So, take this information and come up with your own idea of what to do, but I highly recommend that you adopt. 

Friend’s of Manchester Animal Shelter from flickr.com

Here is where I got most of my information from

https://www.petfinder.com/pet-adoption/pet-adoption-information/misconceptions-pet-adoption/

https://www.animallaw.info/article/what-puppy-mill

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-puppy-mills

Meet My Dog Knox!

For my first ever blog post I thought I’d do something that I know a lot about and have a lot of experience with. My dog!

Photo taken by an amazing friend!

Meet Knox! He is a pretty interesting character. He loves to run, whine, and wreak havoc in the house. Even though I am a major fan of adopting dogs and cats from shelters, my parents and I wanted a specific breed. So we got Knox from what we thought was a really good breeder. Turns out he was born in a puppy mill which, if you don’t know, is where a breeder has a lot of dogs that they don’t take care of and just uses them to make babies. The year after we got Knox we heard that the place was shut down. 

Knox is a cavachon: a mix between a cavalier king charles spaniel and a bichon frise. They are full of energy and are great with kids. However, they are extremely tiny when they are puppies and should be watched very carefully when around young children. The slightest thing could damage the puppy badly. Like the spaniel they are good sniffers and like to dig. They normally are around 12 to 13 inches in height and weigh between 15 and 20 pounds. They do require quite a bit of grooming, however, because of their long, curly coats. Overall, I would recommend this kind of dog to almost anyone. I would advise against having them with young children or around a lot of larger animals. 

This is Knox as a puppy with a full grown Yellow Labrador.

We got Knox when he was about 8 weeks old and weighed about 4 pounds. Tiny! We had to watch him constantly and it took him a long time to get potty trained.  He didn’t eat very much and would sometimes skip meals but always begged for a treat. As he grew older he continued his strange and adorable antics but amplified them. Now he is three years old and has his daily runs around the house, at least three treats a day, and is almost always talking in some way. He’s not a fan of other dogs but loves his people. He cries whenever we leave and has massive separation anxiety. 

When I say that Knox loves attention that could be a bit of an understatement. If I am sitting next to someone and he’s not being included he whines and barks until he gets his way. If we leave food or empty plates out he sits there and cries until we take it away. We thought he was supposed to be a quiet dog but he is faaarr from it.

He’s caused us a lot of trouble, too. Knox is still not fully potty trained and we have tried everything, but sometimes he still likes to pee in our basement. He also loves to get into the neighbor’s yard. Our neighbor has two dogs, a Blue Healer and a Great Dane, which are both pretty territorial dogs. We had no clue how Knox had been able to get through the fence until we finally saw him climb a tree and jumped over it. What a nut! We had to have multiple attempts to figure out how to keep him out, and it took a while. 

He loves going anywhere and likes to ride on our pontoon boat, but one time something bad happened. We were just taking a nice casual ride when all of a sudden we heard a splash. He fell in! He had fallen off of the front of our boat right into the water and we had to save him because he is not a water dog. He hates water. So, needless to say, he’s not allowed on the boat anymore. 

A picture I took of him.
ADORABLE

There are tons of other hilarious stories about Knox that I would love to share but for now here’s an introduction. I hope you grow to love him as much as I do.