Dr. Friedman talks about the change of season and our pets. It’s still pretty warm for our pets because they are carrying so much extra fur on them. Dr. Friedman says when the sun is out, still be cautious about limiting activity especially when it is 70 – 75 degrees and above. She goes on to say they are not the greatest at setting their own boundaries when it comes to overworking themselves. Make sure they come in and take a break, take some water.
Dr. Friedman says, “The other thing we worry about is indoor cats getting out as the weather is getting nicer, maybe you have the windows open and the screens up, maybe your screens are a little faulty. I know my dogs, put holes in screens before and that’s how cats have gotten out, so maybe just doing those precautionary checks around the house because I know at this time of year, we all keep our windows open to get some of that nice cool air.”
She says in terms of spending more time inside make sure they have mental stimulation because they won’t be outside as much, is really important. They won’t be running around in the yard as much, so things like instead of using a regular bowl to feed them, they have puzzle feeders so it takes them longer to eat and it is fun for them, and it can expend a lot of their mental energy as well. She says she thinks people forget that it is just as important as physical energy especially depending on the type of dog that you have, the same thing for cats, not that they are spending more time indoors now, but a lot of cats will eat too much and then vomit so those puzzle feeds are good for cats as well.
Another thing to think about as we are approaching even cooler weather in the next few months is to make sure that we checked furnaces and all the filters in the house near heaters because, she says, you know the first time you turn on the heat for the the smell can be off and smell burnie and our dogs and cats are much more sensitive to that, cats especially. She says they can get asthma, and this can trigger it and make it worse.
Dr. Friedman says in their physicals they can often catch things without blood work, they may hear a heart murmur and need to take x-rays or they feel a lump in their belly and those are things that people don’t catch at home especially since our pets are so stoic and don’t tell when they don’t feel well until gets really bad and we want to catch these different disease processes before they get worse and they end up in my exam room in the emergency room.
Dr. Friedman says, “I always recommend people have a savings account or a Care credit card, some sort of emergency option for pets because you never know when an emergency is going to happen and you never know when your pet is going to be unlucky enough to come down with a really severe illness that’s going to need a specialist or hospitalization or thousands of dollars of care because unfortunately it’s not like heath care where people have insurance and don’t have to pay everything up front, veterinary care can get really expensive when they get really sick, so that preventive care, you know keeping them up-to-date on vaccines that can prevent really bad illnesses is really important as well as flea and tick prevention.”
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