Blog

By Tari Kern, DVM, CCRP, CVMA, CVSMT

Fun ways to show your pets your love…

Loving your pets doesn’t need to involve feeding our pets treats.  In this blog we look at fun ways to show our pets love.

Schedule Play Time

Life gets busy, but who loves us more than our pets and unconditionally too.  Setting aside time to enjoy each other’s company is a win-win!  It’s good for both of you!

Provide Mental Stimulation

We are the biggest source of mental stimulation for our pets – good or bad.  Make it good!  When we leave the house, we have plenty of opportunities to experience new things.  Our pets rely on us to provide mental stimulation.  This is especially important because bored pets may find their own ways to explore and potentially act out.  Mentally stimulated pets are happy and relaxed and don’t destroy the furniture! Continue…

A Look at Weight in Pets

By Cathryn Fields, LVT

Why does your pet’s weight matter?

Maintaining a healthy weight is more than just looking good, a “healthy” weight is well…healthier.  Correlations between obesity and other health concerns for dogs and cats are plentiful and include: poor quality & quantity of life, osteoarthritis, Intervertebral Disk Disease (IVDD), diabetes, urinary disease, effects the lungs and heart, and more (1).

Severely obese pets tend to have poor flexibility, tire quickly, and tend to not groom themselves well.  It does not take much weight loss to see improvement in the quality and ease of movement.  An overweight 20 pound pet will improve with a loss of a pound, while an overweight dog of 75 pounds will see improvement with a five pound loss (2, 3).

In 2002, Purina released a landmark study on the lifelong effects of maintaining a healthy weight in Labrador Retrievers.  After studying the group of dogs for 14 years (the study began in 1987 and ended in 2001), it showed dogs maintained at a healthier weight had the median extended lifespans increased by 15%.  Putting that to terms we can relate to, that is 2 years (4)!    Continue…