Ensuring you and your pet have a Happy Christmas and New Year
Christmas is a wonderful time of year – but not always for your pets!
Here are some tips for keeping your pets out of danger.
- Chicken or turkey bones – these splinter very easily and can get lodged in your pet’s throat or can puncture the intestinal tract.
- Fallen Christmas tree needles are very sharp and can easily can easily get stuck in your pet’s paws or throat.
- Do not hang chocolates from the tree as they are highly toxic and can be a great temptation.
- Make sure the tree is really well anchored so that your pet can’t pull it over.
- Holly, mistletoe and yew tree are poisonous to pets and must be kept out of reach.
- There is something about shiny strands of Christmas ribbon and tinsel that drives kitties wild. Eating these can cause serious damage to the intestine and often requires major surgery.
- Christmas lights will cause electrical shock and even death if chewed on.
- Bulbs and ornaments look like toys to pets but shattered glass can cause intestinal perforation if swallowed.
- Ham is a meat which is very high in fat and will cause severe gastrointestinal distress - if eaten even in small quantities.
- Chocolate can cause vomiting, diahorrea an hear arythmias if eaten by pets.
- Flashing fairy lights can cause pets fear and stress so are best avoided.
- Once Santa has been ensure any small parts of children’s toys are not left lying around for pets to chew off and choke on.
Please check Abbeyfield’s opening hours over the Christmas period, and have our phone number to hand 01889 590449 - 24 hour emergency
Christmas Quiz Answers
- Pigs in Blankets
- A hen
A bell from Santa’s Sleigh- A turkey
- The Robins
- “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas”
- The ability to speak for an hour at midnight
- Seven
- The donkey
- Donner, Dancer and Dasher
- Flocks of Trukeys
Let us know how you got on and Merry Xmas!
Click here to go back to the quiz page
Ferrets
Recently we had some unusual visitors to our vets…three ferrets! We don’t very often see ferrets here at Abbeyfields, but just like dogs and cats, ferrets can suffer from illnesses, some of which can be prevented with vaccinations, so this friendly bunch (or “business” – see below!!) came in to be vaccinated against distemper.
Did you know these following facts about ferrets….
- The Latin name for a ferret is Mustela Putorius Furo, which roughly translates as follows…
- Mustela = mouse as long as a spear / mouse killer / mouse catcher
- Putorius = bad smell / stench / smelly
- Furo = thief
- Ferrets spend 14-18 hours a day asleep and are most active at dawn and dusk.
- A group of ferrets is known as a “business”
- When excited, ferrets can perform the “Weasel War Dance”, a series of sideways and backwards hops, usually performed with an arched back and frizzy tail, often resulting in them bumping into things!
- One of the ancient laws of Kings College, University of Cambridge, stated that: "... no scholar, fellow, chaplain, or clerk, or other servant of the King's College shall keep or have dogs, hunting or fishing nets, ferrets, hawks, or falcons, nor keep in King's College any monkey, bear, fox, stag, hind, doe, or badger, or any other wild animal or strange bird ..."
3rd November 2011
Foster Mum!
Today I saw a dog called Lizzie for a lump check. We had noticed a lump on her mammary gland a few weeks ago but as she was just coming out of being in season we thought it may just disappear as her hormone levels reduced. We decided to monitor the lump as mammary cancers can be highly malignant (they can spread rapidly) and so she came back in today for a check up.
Examining Lizzie was easy, especially with a few treats at hand! When I felt for the lump I noticed a firm swelling in the gland, and as I manipulated it there was a gush of milk from the teat! Occasionally dogs do suffer phantom pregnancies as they produce the same levels of hormones for 9 weeks after a season whether they are pregnant or not. Common signs include nesting behaviour, carrying toys and occasionally milk production.
However Lizzie was beyond this 9 weeks so why was she producing milk?
Well we knew the owner had recently acquired 2 Springer Spaniel Pups that were now 3 months old, and when asking the owner he did mention that they had been trying to suckle Lizzie and they preferred to sleep snuggled in with her! The result is that Lizzie has effectively fostered the two pups so that they think she is mum, and by suckling they have made her think that they are hers! Once suckling begins more milk is 'let-down' and so that is what I saw today, a rather full mammary gland.
Unfortunately the discreet lump is still there so we will monitor that and likely remove it if it is still present once the milk has gone. It is likely that the suckling will resolve with time and I suspect Lizzie will get a bit fed up with it!
