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Tag: Pets and Animal Tips

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Cat Grooming

General Info:
A clean, shiny coat is a sign of good health and nutrition, and by grooming your cat you can help encourage growth and shine. Cats are naturally clean animals so your cat may need little grooming.
Long haired cats need to be groomed regularly, as much as once a day. A good idea is to get the cat used to grooming when it is a kitten. If you can get your cat or kitten used to being groomed then regular grooming of the cat can be something you both enjoy. If the cat or kitten is nervous spend some time playing with it until it is comfortable with you touching it. Let it play with the comb or brush before attempting to groom it.

Technique:

  • Groom all the dead hair out of the coat using a comb or soft bristle brush. Be very gentle when combing the head.
  • Groom down the body, the tail, and the legs. Once groomed thoroughly go over the coat with the brush to remove all loose hairs.
  • With long haired cats and kittens the fur can become matted. The matted hair will need to be removed before attempting to groom. If the matting is severe it may be necessary to have your cat sedated and then clipped. Always seek expert advice if this problem occurs.
  • If the cat is dirty, a clean damp cloth may be used to wipe the cat down. Wet the cloth with warm water only. Bathing may be nessesary when there is a flea infestation.
  • When you are grooming your cat, you will have a good opportunity to check its skin for any lumps, rashes, discharges or other signs that your cat is not well. If you find any problems seek advice from your vet.
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Cat Odors

General Info:

Have you ever had a guest visit your home and say, “Oh, you have a cat, don’t you?” If so, you may not be diligent enough in cleaning your cat’s box. If you clean the cat box with gusto, you might need some additional ammunition: a cat box deodorizer.

Technique:

    • There’s really no secret to how add-in cat box deodorizers work. They mask odor, absorb the ammonia that causes odor or do both. Some odor-control products make mighty promises that they don’t deliver on, so ask pet store staff for advice. Other than that, trial and error may be your best bet. An easy and economical solution may be as close as your refrigerator the open box of baking soda you might store in your fridge keep the contents smelling fresh. A box of baking soda can be placed in the area near your cat’s box (put it where your cats can’t knock it over), or sprinkle about a quarter cup into the litter and mix it in.
    • Add only the recommended amount of deodorizer to your cat’s litter, follow all label instructions and never apply any product directly onto your cat.
    • However, the best way to reduce cat box odor is to thoroughly wash your cat’s box on a regular basis, change the litter as your nose deems necessary and scoop out waste daily. With diligent cat box maintenance and a little help from a deodorizer, your guests will never know you’ve got a feline sharing your homeunless you want them to.

By Ellyce Rothrock

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De-Skunk Solution For Your Dog

I got this recipe from a vet to get rid of skunk odor on our dog. It has worked well after he has rolled on dead fish and other unknown things. Mix 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda, and 1 teaspoon liquid soap (any mild dish detergent). I use a rag and wipe it on. I don’t rinse it.

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Dog’s Eyes

General Information:
Dog owners are very good at noticing signs of sickness since you spend so much time with your pets. You should look for inflamation, redness, discharge or scabs. Looking for the signs and catching an infection early is important.

Unless there is an problem, you should not need to clean your dog’s eyes regularly. When you give your dog its regular cleaning, you can put mineral oil in its eyes. This will protect the eyes from the debris or shampoo that might get into them. While it is not a cure for dry eye, it does lubricate the eye.

What is dry eye?

Dry eye is simply what it sounds. It is when your eyes become dry. While that may not sound like much, it can be incredibly painful. The medical term for it is keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) and is caused by things like infection, tumors, immune reactions, trauma, or nerve degeneration. It can also be cause by chemicals that fall in the eye. This is why it is a good idea to put mineral oil in your dog’s eyes when you are bathing it.

How do you clean your dog’s eyes?

Before you do anything, you need to see your vet for medication. Usually dogs are given Optimmune and some type of antibiotic ointment. The first dosage will likely be given at the vet and will give you a lesson on how to do the same procedure at home.

The most common way to administer any ointment is to hug your dog under its chin. This should put you in a spot to be looking into its eyes. You might need to administer them on the side of the eye, so it will seep inward, in case your dog blinks.

With luck, the medication will kill the infection, and your dog will be back to normal. Sometimes, however, dry eye is chronic. While it might not be convenient, it is not fatal. Your vet will give you something to administer daily.
If you notice any signs of infection later, you will want to take your dog to the veterinarian immediately.

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Bathing a Ferret

Technique:

    • I quickly learned that the best results come from being prepared. Gather the shampoo, conditioning rinse (optional), and towels at the bath site. A deep sink or a tub will work best, as anything too shallow will encourage escapees! Prepare a draft-free drying areaperhaps the floor of a ferret-proofed bathroom with a pile of absorbent towels or blankets that your fuzzy friend can burrow through. Clean his ears and trim his nails first, if needed, since those can be messy tasks. And finally, encourage the ferret to visit the litter box before heading to the bath.

  • When running your ferret’s bath, make sure the water feels quite warm to you but is not scalding. Remember that your ferret’s normal body temperature is higher than yours; you want her to be comfortable.
  • Oh no, not shampoo! But into every ferret life a little soap must come. Select either a shampoo made specifically for ferrets or a kitten-safe tearless shampoo. If your ferret seems comfortable standing on the non-slip mat, put a hand under her belly to support her spine while washing. Otherwise, drape her along your arm to support her body, letting her legs dangle on either side. Work the shampoo into her fur by rubbing against the direction of growth to get through that dense undercoat.
  • Use a washcloth to safely scrub the ferret’s cheeks; the glands there secrete sebum, which may discolor the fur, and hormones in the sebum leave an odor. And don’t forget the tail!
  • The bathwater may cool quickly, so try rinsing your ferret under running water to ensure warmth and a faster, easier rinse. Using a conditioning rinse may result in silkier-feeling fur for a while. Again, working the rinse into the dense fur is the key to a good result. Once she realizes the bath is over, your ferret will try to fly out of your arms like a damp rocket, so be quick with a towel for a brisk rub! Then let her loose in the drying area and sit back for a laugh. Expect a bottlebrush tail, chattered complaints, war dancing, frantic shaking, and a general blur of fur as your girl indignantly bounces off of everything in sight!

Precautions:
And here’s the most important tip: Don’t overbathe your ferret! For most ferrets, once every 3 months or when getting into a mess demands it is plenty. More frequent bathing may actually result in a stinky, itchy ferret. Washing strips the oils from fur and skin, causing the body to work overtime to replace them. Since the oils are what contain the light musky odor of a normal ferret, the smell may become stronger within a couple of days of bathing, then fade again. Better to be scrupulous about clean litter boxes and weekly changes of cloth bedding to keep your ferret fresh!

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Hamster’s Cage

Tools & Techniques: Animal safe cleaner,newpaper,cleaning rags

General Info: A dirty cage brings more potentail for infection and sickness for your Hamster as bacteria grows freely in a dirty wet environment.

SOME TIPS FOR PROPER CAGE MAINTENANCE:

1. Clean the cage floor twice a week by removing the litter and cleaning the inside of the cage completely. Place newpapers all around and under the cage. Remove toys, wheels,food trays, etc.

2. Remove all the bedding and clean the bottom using the animal safe cleaner and rinse with water. Roll up the newpaper will all the bedding etc. and throw in garbage.

3. Clean all the toys food trays etc., do not use soap on food trays just warm or hot water and a rag or sponge.

4. Never use phenols or carbolic acid type cleaning chemicals like the kind you might find in the grocery store. They contain chemicals that are harmful to your pet.

5. Always follow the instructions on any chemical you may buy for you pet. If you clean on a regular basis it will reduce the need for allot of chemicals keeping your pet safer.

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Aquarium Glass

General Info:
Regularly cleaning the aquarium glass keeps the tank neat and attractive.

Technique:

  • Inside – Commercial pad-type scrubbers are abrasive enough to remove algae and other growths, but not enough to scratch the glass. The new, plastic blade scrapers are even more effective, but dull fairly quickly. Single edge razor blades are even more effective, but care must be taken not to scratch the glass or slice into a seal. Each style works best if held directly in the hand, but long-handled or magnetic models are available for those who wish to remain dry.
  • Outside – A squeegee works very well if there is no concern about a little water on the floor, but a soft cloth or paper towel with plain water works, too. Ammonia based glass cleaning chemicals can be carefully used on the outside of the tank, but they should be sprayed on the cloth rather than the tank itself, to avoid contaminating the aquarium. Plain newspaper, lightly moistened with plain water, gives amazingly streak-free results.
  • Great care should be taken to avoid scratching the glass. This is most often done by using too abrasive a cleaner, or by getting aquarium gravel trapped in the cleaning device and dragging it across the glass.
  • Acrylic (Plexiglas) aquariums require extra special care, as they are easily scratched by common glass-cleaning devices or chemically damaged by glass-cleaning chemicals. Use only products specially labelled as safe for acrylic.

    • By Jim Kostich

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Aquariums & Fish Tanks

General Info:
On (hopefully very rare) occasion, the aquarium hobbyist will find a need to “nuke” an aquarium – that is, to remove all fish, then thoroughly clean the tank and hopefully remove most of the parasites and parasites it may have contained. Such drastic measures are of course most often undertaken after a massive outbreak of disease, but may be sometimes used to prepare an aquarium for a challenging species or for breeding certain delicate egglayers.
Technique:

  • Potassium Permanganate – is an excellent oxidizing agent that can destroy most organic compounds, then itself breaks down into quite harmless compounds. We have used Jungle’s “Clear Water” at five to ten times the directed dose with very good results. After adding permanganate, stir the gravel, then allow to percolate through the filter system until the pink/purple color begins to turn brown. Completely drain and refill the tank, and it should be ready to go again in a few hours.
  • Chlorine Bleach – is even more effective, but harder to remove, and more dangerous if not 100% neutralized. Add about one teaspoon of bleach per gallon of water, and let flow through the system for one hour. Then, remove all water, refill, and add any cheap chlorine neutralizer at about 10 times its normal dose. Wait another hour, then change all water and refill again. Caution: this treatment kills everything, including beneficial bacteria, so tank will certainly cycle again once fish are added. It may also fade artificial plants and colored gravels.
  • Aquarium Salt – is less effective than either of the above, but very safe and easy to remove. Perhaps the best way to utilize salt is to drain the tank first, then make a slurry of a handful of salt to scrub glasses and stir into gravel. Repeat until all surfaces have been scrubbed. This highly concentrated salt solution is very deadly to most parasites. After treatment, fill, drain completely, and refill the tank before using.
  • Fresh Water – is to a salt water tank what the above salt method is to a freshwater tank. To administer, simply drain the marine aquarium, then refill with fresh water. Allow to filter for 24 hours, then drain and refill with salt water.

Precautions:
Any “nuked” tank might go through a “New Tank Syndrome”, so the aquarist should be prepared and restart with a few, hardy fish. Also, please read product labels for directions on how to safely handle chemicals.

By Jim Kostich

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Fish Tank Filters

General Info:

  • Aquarium filters are marvelous devices, saving aquarists a lot of work as they collect waste products for easier removal. But that “removal” remains the hobbyist’s job, and one that should not be taken lightly.
  • Nearly all filters, even so-called “biological” filters like undergravels and certain slow-flow canisters, perform “mechanical” filtration; that is, they collect a certain amount of solid waste. Some, like most power filters and fast-flow canisters, are specifically designed to collect such waste efficiently, rather than allow it to accumulate in the aquarium.
  • But collecting waste is only the beginning, with removal and disposal completing the picture. Is it good enough to just collect garbage in the kitchen wastebasket indefinitely, without ever taking it out to the garbage truck? (Men and teenagers: ask your wives or mothers if not sure about this.) Well, it’s not good enough to simply put a filter on an aquarium, and consider the job done.
  • For one thing, aquarium filters often double as circulation/aeration devices. As they become clogged with waste products, their flow rates drop or even cease altogether, drastically reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen available for the livestock. In extreme cases, whole tanks full of fish can be lost in a few hours. Under less drastic circumstances, fish can become more prone to disease and overall health and growth can be diminished.
  • But even if there is adequate circulation from other sources, there’s no good reason to allow filters to become overloaded with waste. Rotting waste in a filtration device fouls the water every bit as much as rotting waste in the aquarium itself. In fact, it can be said that a filter isn’t a filter unless it’s cleaned.By Jim Kostich
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