Behavior Consulting Cute Puppy

Posts Tagged ‘vet bills’

Is your animal friend safe?

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Car safety and pets

Skai Safety - car safety and petsAs a driver I have a bad  habit.  I don’t usually buckle up right away but a few minutes after I start driving and the car’s warning signal gets louder and more annoying. I finally listen and  with an attitude of a teenager I reluctantly buckle up.

I myself am puzzled by this. What  brings on the teenager like attitude within me? Why  do I  take the chances and believe falsely that accidents are less likely to happen in the first kilometer or two of the trip?  There is something in most of us that makes as do things that are thrilling and dangerous, no matter how much it doesn’t make sense.

In the 90’s, I worked in a vet clinic in Whistler, British Columbia, a beautiful mountain resort full of thrill seeking folks, who hurl themselves down the double black diamonds  runs  that are steeper than this letter A.

Before the local bylaws tightened up, Whistlerites were also infamous for letting their dogs roam freely around town especially on powder days. Dogs can walk themselves, especially with 3 feet of fresh powder waiting, right?

Unfortunately many dogs couldn’t and I remember hating the “hit by car” emergency calls.

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Dogs that eat mango pits, golf balls or fine china for dinner

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

What to do when your dog ingests a foreign body?


A friend of mine  called me recently and was very upset.  This was the second time his dog Barkley had eaten a mango pit.  The first time, he threw it up, but  this time,  it stayed down for more than a week.
The local vet recommended  surgery and my  friend was not  really happy about slicing Barkley’s stomach open. He called  me to see if there was anything else we could do.

The pit was large and flat and it was unlikely to go further than the stomach.  I thought  if  we made Barkley throw up, it could get stuck in the esophagus.  We had to find a way  that would  make the mango pit slippery enough  to make it slip out without complications.

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Happy dogs get rarely ill

Friday, January 1st, 2010

My original plan was to write about vaccines for adult dogs but because this is the last day of 2009, I felt like writing about something more fun. In the previous two blogs, I wrote about avoiding puppy mills and catteries and how to make sure that we do not over-vaccinate our animal friends.  Your dogs happiness =  health =  big savings  on vet bills

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The evil empire of puppy mills and catteries

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Sully, Brady and Skai

I never realized, how many people talk about their vet bills on Twitter.

While I sometimes joke that vets are still cheaper than most kitchen or bathroom reno’s or lawyer visits, vet bills can get out of control and seem never ending..

If you have ever complained about the cost of vet care, keep on reading, it may save you thousands of dollars.
In next few  weeks  and months, I would like to share with you a simple to follow plan of keeping your animal friends healthy and happy.

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