Contents
In 2021, according to Mars Petcare, 63,5 million dogs and cats lived in Russian families. With interest in pets, new approaches to caring for them are also developing. Understanding what responsible content is and how to learn it
About the expert: Marina Rudenko, veterinarian, blogger Doctor Ru.
Responsible owner – what is he
Animals bring to the house not only happiness and comfort, but also additional responsibility. Pets depend on their owners throughout their lives, no matter how long it may be. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) calls pet ownership a privilege and has developed Responsible Content Guidelines, according to which the owner must:
- Take care of your pet for life.
- Choose an animal that is suitable for the home, lifestyle, without impulsive decisions.
- Recognize that content costs time and money.
- Keep only the number of animals for which it is possible to provide a suitable and safe environment, including medical care.
- For animals that spend a lot of time outdoors, provide a habitat that will protect their health, safety and well-being. And also to minimize the stress or discomfort of the animal, provide food, water and shelter from extreme weather conditions when kept outdoors.
- Provide the pet with proper identification, such as a tag or microchip.
- Provide preventive and curative health services such as vaccinations, deworming, and other treatments as needed.
- Socialize and train the pet, engage in physical activity and its mental development according to age, breed and health status.
- Include pets in your emergency or disaster plan, including collecting an evacuation kit.
- Take care of the pet if the owner is unable to do so on their own.
- Monitor your pet’s quality of life and make decisions with your veterinarian regarding proper care for your pet’s advanced age.
Pet health care
Any animal, be it a cat, a dog, a rabbit, a hamster, a parrot or a bearded agama, needs the owner to monitor its health and provide a balanced diet that meets the needs of the pet. “For example, we often see that rabbits are fed a mixture of grain, and this is an extremely non-specific diet for them, which then causes big health problems. Rabbits need dry, greens and hay. This is what is considered the right nutrition for this species, ”says veterinarian Marina Rudenko.
Prevention includes not only decent maintenance, but also regular visits to the veterinarian for preventive examinations. First, not all animals show symptoms of the disease immediately. Secondly, it can save money and time if the disease can be detected early.
Marina Rudenko, veterinarian, blogger Doctor Roo:
“A veterinary clinic is not only a place where sick animals are treated. Some establishments offer nail trimming, ear cleaning, and other grooming treatments for pets. In addition, preventive examinations are carried out here, which in fact are analogous to medical examinations in people. During them, the veterinarian examines the animal, conducts a blood test, urine and ultrasound of the internal organs. If, according to the results of examinations, health problems are found, then narrowly targeted studies are carried out – x-rays, computed tomography, and so on.
Fortunately, thanks to the development of social networks and other media, people are increasingly coming to such examinations, bringing animals to castration and sterilization, and also seeking medical help at the first symptoms. For example, it used to be considered normal to bring a cat in for a checkup if she hasn’t eaten for ten days, which means it hasn’t passed by itself. Now more and more often they come already in the first days of the appearance of such a symptom. ”
Animals cannot tell if something is bothering them. And some, for example, prey animals (rabbits and rodents), due to their species and physiological characteristics, can hide their illness to the last, because in nature, the manifestation of weakness is fraught with the fact that predators will eat them. Therefore, the same behavior is broadcast at home. Just as instinctively, cats often hide painful sensations to the last. That is why preventive checkups are so important.
How often to visit:
- cats and dogs up to 6-7 years old – once a year, older – every six months;
- rats, hamsters and other rodents that live an average of 2-3 years – every three months;
- rabbits – once a year.
Parasite protection
An important stage of prevention is the treatment of parasites. Dogs and cats become infected with internal and external parasites quite often, these can be fleas, ticks, including ear worms, various worms, and in warm regions there is an increased risk of infection with heartworms.
These parasites not only cause inconvenience, but also pose a danger to the health of animals and humans. For example, while cleaning a cat’s litter box, you can become infected with toxoplasmosis, and one of the methods of prevention is the fight against the disease in pets. And fleas serve as an intermediate host for tapeworms, which can infect both pets and humans.
Treatments for parasites take place all year round without a break, it is better to select the optimal regimen with a veterinarian, since the schedule depends on the lifestyle and place of residence of the animal. For example, if a cat lives in the country, contacts other animals every day and eats mice, then the pet is shown monthly treatments for fleas and helminths. There are flea remedies that last a month, and collars with a longer duration – then fleas can be treated less frequently according to the duration of the drug. But prophylaxis against worms for such a country cat should be carried out every month, since the development cycle of the most common cat and dog helminths lasts 30 days from the moment the egg is swallowed.
Dogs are treated for fleas all year round (because these parasites do not hibernate), and the regularity depends on the effect of the drug. The same regime is needed for cats that live on the first floors of old houses. If the cat stays at home, and goes to the country in the summer, then a few days before the departure, you need to treat it with a complex remedy for fleas and ticks.
Vaccination is also a preventive measure that helps pets develop immunity to infectious diseases. The scheme depends on age, immune status and conditions of detention. An adult, healthy and vaccinated animal, as a rule, is revaccinated once a year. Dog owners are usually more attentive to treatments and vaccinations, because the animal is constantly on the street, in contact with other animals, which means that the chances of getting infected are higher. But it is also important to vaccinate and treat cats that do not leave the house.
Marina Rudenko:
“Life is unpredictable and there are different situations when the risk of infection increases even in animals that are not walked on the street:
- A man brings home a homeless animal. It happens that, walking down the street, a person meets an abandoned kitten and brings it home. A street animal may be a carrier of some kind of infection, and then an unvaccinated pet will easily become infected from it. Unfortunately, this is one of the most frequent cases in practice.
- The animal is brought to the zoo hotel for overexposure during vacation or business trip. Since animals are brought to the institution from all over the city, not all of them are vaccinated and processed, infection becomes possible.
- The pet can run outside or jump out of the window, after which for some time he will stay in the basement with homeless animals, which may be the source of the disease.
- Visit to the vet clinic. It is impossible to predict an injury or some kind of disease, so when a healthy animal is in an institution, it can be near a sick one and become infected.”