I’ve always been fond of animals and now own two cats and a dog. They feel like members of our family and I love to spoil them. My dog Tex who is just a little over 7 months old follows me around everywhere. It’s funny actually! I make sure to keep all the animals up to date on their needles and check ups.
Have you heard of VCA Animal Hospitals? They have 540 locations throughout the US! You can find the closest one to your home by visiting their Facebook page and using the Hospital Locator. VCA offers FREE initial health exams to all their new pet patients. If you have never been to one, now is the time to go and get your pet a check up. The Free Initial Health Exam form can be found on Facebook, along with other coupons and deals!
Check out VCA on Facebook and Twitter @VCApethealth for daily pet news, fun facts and health tips. You can also visit www.VCAhospitals.com for more info, including an expansive pet health resource library.
I also wanted to share an important article by one of the VCA veterinarians Dr. Donna Spector. It’s titled, “ Keeping Your Pets Safe in the Summer”.
Heatstroke
Overheating and dehydration can happen easily in the summer time. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Common early signs of an overheated dog are: noisy or labored breathing, excessive panting, and bright red mucus membranes.
- Heat stroke is a life-threatening emergency! If you are concerned your pet is overheated, check their temperature. The normal canine body temperature is 100 to 102.5. If the temperature registers over 105 degrees, contact your veterinarian immediately!
- Always keep a water bowl with you whenever you are out with your pet. There are some easy to use collapsible bowls available…some that can even clip on your leash.
- You can place a cool, wet towel over your dog or place him in a bath of lukewarm to cool water. NEVER use ice or very cold water to try to cool a hot pet. If you have a garden hose handy, you can run cool water over them
In addition to heat stroke, warm sunny days can pose a risk of sunburn for light-haired pets or for those with very thin hair. Remember that pavement becomes very hot on sunny days—easily able to burn and blister your pets paw pads.
Other Tips for Pool & Backyard Activities
- Summer is a popular time for grilling and outdoor parties. Remember to keep your pets leashed or inside to prevent them from eating potentially toxic party foods (chocolate, grapes, onions, etc.)
- Watch pets carefully around water! Like children, water poses a number of dangers to pets also. Make sure outdoor pools are properly secured to prevent accidental drowning. If your property has ponds or lakes make sure you have fences to keep your pet and neighborhood pets out. Keep your pet out of stagnant water to lower the risk for certain infectious water-borne diseases.
- Summer toxin hazards—nicely manicured lawns can pose certain hazards to pets such as cocoa mulch toxicity or snail bait toxicity. Avoid these things or ask your lawn service to avoid these products if you have pets. Always be on the look-out for antifreeze—many people drain their antifreeze during the summer and its sweet smell can attract many an inquisitive pet.
- $50 Amex gift card
- Digital picture frame
- VCA pet gifts and more!
Check out the list of all my current giveaways!
IMPORTANT: Please leave your entries above using the Rafflecopter form. Comments do not count as entries. If you are having issues with the form please leave me a comment here. It’s a new software and feedback is appreciated!
About Stacie
I wish I win this giveaway. I participated in VCA pets Twitter party July 26, but lost. It was heartbreaking to not win anything because of the horrible situation we are in financially. I couldn’t stop crying that night, that is how much I wanted to win for my dogs. I am still depressed about it to this minute.
I have FOUR pugs:
1. Mugsy – 19 year old, Fawn, Male, Pug
2. Ernie – 10 year old, Black, Male, Pug
3. Princess – unsure of age.. we rescued her 3 years ago. She looks like she is around 5-6 years old, Fawn, Female, Pug
4. Busta Wu – we also rescued him and he looks like he could be 4-5 years old, Fawn, Male, Pug
I am so glad to find this giveaway. I hope to win because right now my family is in such a struggle financially we couldn’t even afford $15 to get our 19 year old pug his medication which we were 5 days behind in. Someone was so kind to lend us $15 so we can finally get his medicine. We always put are dogs before ourselves and we are finding ourselves behind in all of our bills, to the point we are all stressed out, extremely nervous and depressed. We are so used to helping others and giving, begging is something we not used to. We are scared, and lost. My family has became soulless and more like miserable zombies because of this economy. This economy has put us in so many difficult situations and have restricted us from getting many things our dogs need, which has made me even more depressed. I am especially stressed out about my 19 year old pug, Mugsy. I am an only child and as an only child I was lonely, especially since my father was always working. When I turned 5 years old, I was blessed with Mugsy. He completely changed my life from that moment on. He cheered me up and made me feel like I was not alone. I can not count how many times he has brought a smile to my face or made me laugh. I am 24 years old now and he continues to make me smile. I want to make sure I make Mugsy smile just as much as he makes me smile. I want him to be happy and live the rest of his life happy and comfortable. I love Mugsy so so so much, it kills me inside to know that we can not afford his medication or even a dog bed for him. We try to make him comfortable with blankets and pillows but he ends up losing his balance or a pillow slips from under him or the blanket does not support him well and he ends up falling to his side and flopping like a fish. He sleeps in my room at night on a blanket, because I fear he would fall of my bed when I am a sleep. His blanket is by my door. I woke up to him flopping and banging against my door, because he fell over again and couldn’t get up. He was banging against my door so hard it sounded like someone was slamming a cannon against my dog. I had to hold him and cradle him the rest of the night. I wish someone would be so kind and help us with an orthopedic dog bed and anything else to help him with his severe arthritis and hip dysplasia. He cannot even hold himself up to drink water from his dish and I have to hold him up while he drinks water. Everyday from February until today, I have been contacting companies, non-profit organizations, churches, humane society, salvation army, you name it, asking for some sort of assistance, donation, or help, to just get no response or “no” as an answer. Some just tell me to go to non-profit organizations or to go somewhere else. I have been pointed in so many directions I probably made 1,000,000 circles by now. I even enter contests in hope to have some luck one day. I find myself losing hope and becoming more depressed. I don;t want anything for myself, I want to help my four pugs, especially my Mugsy. I won;t be able to live with myself if something happens to my Mugsy or my other pugs. I can’t sleep anymore, that is how sad I am and when I do go sleep, I end up crying myself to sleep. I wish someone would help us and anything they need I will do to show my appreciation. My family will too. I just hope someone can help, please.
I call shenanigans…
Hope to win for my pet
What a fun idea about the Blogger of the Week. Is there a way to apply to be picked at some point?
Thanks for the giveaway! Just entered.
-Lauren
This is my tweet link for 8/2. I put my blogfrog link in by mistake.
http://twitter.com/#!/akritical/status/98489436731482112
Thank you for the great giveaway – (emscout9 at Hotmail dot com)
leave a comment to activate rafflecopter
i voted for you on Picket Fences August 7
Just wanted to drop a line and say thank you for the giveaway for fur babies. They are hands down my faves to enter. My three boys LOVE to get mail so I enter to win things for them as often as I can. Lol. Beau, Max, and Huck say thank you too.
yes i can use it
Thank you so much Stacie this is so amazing to have won…I can put all of this to good use