Year Round Safety Tips For Your Pets 

 

What To Do If Your Pet Gets Poisoned

Your pet has just ingested something toxic.  What do you do?  First, take a breath.  The more cool, calm and collected you are, the sooner you can seek the correct medical attention and get a handle on the situation by taking the following steps:

1.      Remove your pet from the area.  Make sure no children or other pets are exposed to the area, and safely remove any poisonous material. 

2.      Check to make sure your pet is breathing normally and acting fine otherwise.

3.      Collect a sample of the material, along with the packaging, vial, or container.  You’ll need this information to help your veterinarian or pet poison expert assess the situation.

4.      Don’t give your dog any milk, food, salt, oil, or any other home remedies.  Doing so will likely complicate the poisoning. 

5.      Never induce vomiting without talking to your veterinarian or pet poison expert first.  Doing so may be detrimental or contraindicated.  To induce vomiting in dogs it may be recommended to give hydrogen peroxide, however, peroxide won’t help to induce vomiting in cats, and a stronger veterinary medication may be necessary.

6.      Get help.  Here are the phone number that you will need:

 

Stack Veterinary Hospital: (315) 478-3161

Veterinary Medical Center: (315) 446-7933

Veterinary ER and Critical Care Center (315) 638-3500

ASPCA Poison Hotline 888-426-4435 ($65 Fee)

Pet Poison Helpline 888-213-6680 ($35 Fee)

 

Remember, there is a narrow window of time to decontaminate in cases of poisoning, and the pet’s prognosis is always better when reported immediately. 

 

 

 

 

Flea & Tick control

 

DOGSANDTICK.COM  has a lot of information regarding fleas, ticks, and heartworm disease. Visit the website for additional information regarding disease, prevention, and treatment.


K9 ADVANTIX

K9 Advantix provides effective protection because it repels and kills ticks and mosquitoes.  K9 Advantix also provides fast relief from biting fleas and repels and prevents biting flies.  K9 Advantix repels and kills major types of ticks, including: the deer tick, the American dog tick, the brown dog tick and the lone star tick.  If a tick is repelled it does not bite your dog and therefore will not spread infectious organisms that may cause diseases.  K9 Advantix is safe to use on puppies as young as 7 weeks of age.  DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT ON CATS.  The unique physiology of cats and their inability to metabolize certain compounds makes this product unsafe for cats.  The contents of one tube of K9 Advantix should be applied to the back of your dog's neck once a month year round for the prevention of fleas and ticks.    

 

 

FRONTLINE PLUS 

Frontline Plus is a fast-acting, long-lasting flea and tick preventative that will protect your dog or cat all year round.  Not only does Frontline kill fleas that are seen on your pet, it also breaks the flea life cycle by preventing the development of their eggs and larvae. Immature stages such as the eggs, larvae, and pupae may lurk in and around your home. They may thrive in unseen areas such as carpets, bedding and cracks in flooring. Fleas can reproduce indoors year-round. 

Once Frontline is applied to your pet, adult fleas may continue to emerge from the pets environment for weeks or even months. The adult fleas will be killed within hours of infesting your pet, before they can lay eggs. You may see them briefly before they are killed. It may take 3-4 monthly treatments of Frontline to bring the population under control. 

How Frontline Works
Frontline is applied on the back of the pets neck monthly. It quickly spreads all over the body and into the oil glands in the skin. From the oil glands, it is continually replenished onto the skin and hair coat. This makes Frontline long lasting and truly waterproof. Frontline does not repel fleas, it kills them. They become hyperstimulated upon contact and rise to the top of the hair coat in the process of dying. Fleas do not have to bite the pet for Frontline to work. They will die within hours of contact with your treated pet. 

As soon as a tick comes in contact with Frontline, it begins to die. A tick may attach initially, but will be dead within 24-48 hours. Some ticks may transmit Lyme disease to your pet. To kill the ticks that may carry Lyme disease, apply Frontline monthly.

 

 


Ticks and Lyme Disease

 

The deer tick often seen in our area carries the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. The tick can retain the infection throughout its life cycle and give it to hosts, such as people and dogs. Usually an infected tick must be attached for 48 hours before transmission occurs. 

Clinical Signs of Lyme Disease
All dogs have different symptoms of Lyme disease and many do not show clinical signs. Most dogs infected with Lyme disease will start limping, their lymph nodes will swell and they will have a fever. Other signs include, loss of appetite, painful joints, and lethargy. Dogs do not show signs for 2-5 months post-infection. Antibiotics help the disease but do not stop it. All dogs are at risk for Lyme disease. Your dog is at increased risk if he or she spends time in wooded areas or low-growing grassland, outdoors during peak tick season, (which is spring & fall) or lives or visits a Lyme-epidemic area of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic or upper Midwest. Although peak tick season is spring & fall, here at Stack Veterinary Hospital, we see ticks on dogs all through the year.

To protect your dog:
Apply Frontline or Vectra 3D monthly to your dog. Brush your dog frequently and conduct thorough tick checks. You may also want to consider getting your dog vaccinated yearly for Lyme disease.

 

 

 

Heartworm disease

Heartworms are parasites that live in your dogs circulatory system and heart. The adult heartworms produce offspring called "microfilaria" which circulate in the pets blood. They are found more commonly in dogs than in cats. 

How Heartworm disease is transmitted
A mosquito feeds on the blood of a pet that is already infected and the mosquito ingests the microfilaria, and then serves as a host while the microfilaria mature for 2 weeks. The mosquito then transfers infective heartworm larvae into a healthy pet when it bites.

The heartworm larvae reaches the dogs heart in 5-6 months, where they arrive as small worms about 2 inches in length. Once they are in the heart, the adult worms grow and reproduce. They may stay in a dogs heart for several years. In a severe infestation, a dogs heart may contain up to 300 worms. 

All dogs are susceptible to heartworm disease. Breed, age, and sex of a dog does not affect the susceptibility to heartworms. Outdoor dogs, and indoor dogs are at risk for as an infected  mosquito can easily come into your home.

Physical Signs of Heartworm disease
There are several signs of heartworm disease. They may include sudden weight loss, difficulty breathing, a soft, persistent cough, easily tired and listlessness or weakness. Most of these signs are most noticeable after exercise. Heartworms clog the heart and/or the main blood vessels reducing the blood supply to and from other organs. Major bodily functions, including breathing, are affected.

 


Heartworm Prevention
Highly effective preventive medications are available through your Veterinarian. These medications are prescribed for dogs that are not infected with heartworms or that have already been successfully treated for heartworms in the past. Your Veterinarian will test your dog for the presence of heartworms before prescribing medications. Here at Stack Veterinary Hospital, we test for Heartworm disease, Lyme disease, and two other tick diseases every year. 

Interceptor
Interceptor is a flavored, chewable, tablet that is a monthly heartworm preventative for your dog. Not only does Interceptor prevent heartworm disease, it treats any intestinal parasites your dog may have. Interceptor treats Roundworms, Hookworms and Whipworms. Roundworms and Hookworms are commonly seen and infested of the intestines of dogs, and may be transmitted to people. More than 90% of puppies are born with roundworms or acquire them shortly after birth from their mothers. Dogs of any age can get roundworms from an environment contaminated by feces of infected animals. Serious infections may be fatal to puppies.
Signs of roundworm infection in dogs include: diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, weakness, weight loss, and swollen abdomen. 

Hookworms are potentially lethal, especially to puppies. They attach themselves to the intestinal walls of infected dogs and feed on their host's blood. Dogs may be infected with hookworms by accidentally ingesting larvae in contaminated soil or blades of grass. Hookworm larvae also infect dogs by penetrating directly through their skin.  Some signs of hookworm infection include : dark or bloody diarrhea, weakness, pale gums, weight loss, and even death. 

The same roundworms and hookworms that infect your dog, may infect people as well. People may acquire these worms by coming in contact with objects or areas contaminated by the fecal matter of an infected dog. Some objects or areas include: toys, gardening tools, playgrounds, sandboxes, beaches, crawl spaces under porches and houses, parks and other public spaces frequented by pets. 
Whipworms live in the large intestine and cecum of an infected dog. They can become infected with whipworms by ingesting food or drinking water contaminated with whipworm eggs. Some signs of a dog infested with whipworms include: diarrhea, weight loss, inflammation of the intestinal wall, and hemorrhage into the intestine can occur which may cause anemia. Some dogs do not present with any clinical signs of whipworms. A fecal flotation exam is the only way to determine if your dog has whipworms, or any other intestinal parasite. 

Heartgard
Heartgard is also a monthly preventative for heartworm and intestinal parasites.At Stack Veterinary Hospital, we carry both Interceptor and Heartgard, but prescribe Interceptor more often because of the whipworm problem in our area. 
 
The doctors and staff at Stack Veterinary Hospital care most about your pet and want to always help keep them healthy. We strongly recommend the usage of Interceptor or Heartgard monthly, all year round for the prevention of Heartworm disease and treatment of intestinal parasites.