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Hello February - hot weather and pets

By Pet Labs
What a kick-start already? Apologies for not keeping in touch with the folks for two days as I was working hard on my patients and was too tired to blog

I had four critical patients right on the 1st of February; three of them were down with dog tick fever and one with viral diarrhoea

Talking about tick fever in dogs, it's raising its head again these days due to the hot weather here in Sri Lanka. The ticks who were less active during the cold weather are now more active and are laying more eggs. There will be an increase in the dog tick population in the months to come as it will be more hot outside

Every week from January to until now, the number of both contagious and non contagious diseases have increased due to the prevailing hot weather and all you have to do now is to protect your pets from these diseases and illnesses 

Here are some important tips:

1. Vaccinate your pets on time
Give space to your veterinarian to explain to you the importance of routine annual vaccines for your pet. Do not miss any. Listen to your veterinarian and follow the advice accordingly 

2. Keep your pet dog or your pet cat away from the not-vaccinated and even from the not-properly vaccinated pets as they might carry contagious diseases

3. Follow effective and safe tick and flea control medication on your pet regularly 
Always read the product label before using it on your pet

4. Follow effective tick and flea control on the kennels, crates and elsewhere regularly 
Pet safe methods should be adopted 

5. Improve hygiene in your pet's environment
Disinfect often with a pet safe disinfectant such as the chlorhexidine solution or as oer your vet's advice

6. Regular grooming of pets to keep them clean
Bathe your pet regularly; once a week or once in two weeks or as per your vet's advice.  Always stick to a veterinary specific shampoo for dogs and cats

On a small note, if your pet dog or your pet cat is not healthy enough to be bathed, there's a product in the Sri Lankan market, the "Waterless Bath" for pets. It's available for puppies, adult dogs and cats. Very effective (through my experience on my pet). So, don't worry, be happy 

Image : waterless herbal bath for adult dogs
This is available for purchase @vet4petanimalclinic

7. Provide your pet with ad libitum clean drinking water
Make sure the source of water is trustworthy as contagious diseases such as leptospirosis and non contagious diseases such as E. Coli infection can spread through water. Some diseases can be transmitted to humans as well 

8. Provide a cooling method for your pet
Adopt to a pet safe cooling method to keep your pet away from over heating. Water sprinklers on the roof of kennels, air conditioners, coolers will help in this matter. If you're placing a water bath for your pet, make sure that the pet is not wet with water all the time!

9. Quarantine the new pets
When introducing new pets keep them isolated for a minimum of 2 to 4 weeks under observation for any illness or disease. Gradually introduce them to the older ones

10. Regular check up at the vet 
To keep up with your pet's health a visit to the vet is the best

I'm curious, what other remedies, tips do you adopt to keep your pet safe? 
Share with me in the comments below 

What happened to the critical patients that I mentioned about? 
I will write about them in an upcoming post 
Stay tuned 💜

Have a great day folks!

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