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Tag: family

Tick Diseases In Your Pet – How To Spot Them

With the first day of summer just over a month away, in some parts of the country tick season is well underway. Spring is an especially vulnerable time for pets as pet owners who let flea and tick prevention lapse over the winter may fail to pick it back up again in time to prevent those first few tick bites of the season. Aside from being an irritant to you and your pet, ticks carry all sorts of deadly diseases that are easily transmitted to you or your pet. Do you know what the diseases are and how to spot the symptoms in your pets?

Identify Ticks here:

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/ticks/article_em.htm

Common Tick Diseases and their Symptoms

  • Lyme Disease- A particularly deadly tick disease that may be hard to spot in pets until well after they have been infected. The main symptom is a general malaise in your pet. Fatigue, loss of appetite, and lameness in one or more legs are all earmarks of this very serious sickness. If your pet is exhibiting these symptoms and you have any reason to believe they may have suffered a tick bite within the last few months, be sure to as your vet to test them.
  • Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever (RMSF) – This sickness is typically carried by what is commonly known as the “dog tick” and can result in pretty severe sickness for at least a couple weeks, sometimes resulting in death. Don’t let the name of this disease fool you either while it is more frequent in the Rocky Mountain states, it has been found country-wide. Symptoms in pets for this tick disease include stiffness and/or difficulty walking due to neurological effects, blood in the urine or nose bleeds, swelling of the limbs, and lethargy. This sickness usually results in pet hospitalization and treatment.
  • Anaplasmosis – This disease comes from the same ticks that transmit Lyme Disease. There are actually two different variations of anaplasmosis with similar symptoms. Symptoms include lethargy, vomiting, nose bleeds, and high fever. If your pet tests positive for this tick disease, it can be treated with antibiotics and your pet should start improving in 2-4 days!
  • Ehrlichiosis – This tick disease can vary in severity, affecting your pet’s quality of life for a few weeks, months, or even years. In very severe cases, pets may require blood transfusions. Symptoms include weight loss, pain in joints, depression, coughing, vomiting, and fever.

What better reason do you need to stay on top of your pets flea and tick prevention this year? Ticks don’t limit themselves to dogs or cats either. Any pet that spends time outside should be treated regularly. Be sure to use treatment specific to your pet though. What works for dogs can be very dangerous for rabbits or ferrets!

Some tick-borne illness can affect humans too so keeping your pet tick free ensures the health of the whole family! Remember, if your pet is acting out of the ordinary always be sure to have your vet consider these tick borne illnesses before the disease is allowed to progress into something very, very serious!

Carolyn Noll Photography

I recently had professional photos taken for my new website. I am ecstatic with how they turned out, so I thought I would share with our community some of the shots, along with other samples of this talented photographer’s work.

Carolyn Noll specializes in capturing intimate, artistic, emotional and natural images of pregnancy, new life, children, and family. Carolyn’s shooting style is best summed up in one word: easy-going. There isn’t a lot of staging or props; no fake backgrounds or saying “cheese”. When a shoot is going as planned, the clients barely know they are being photographed. They are instead being themselves and playing and dancing like no one is watching.

Carolyn is kind enough to offer all readers of our pet-loving community a 10% discount off your session fee and a free 8 x 10. Thanks Car!!!!

Find Carolyn on Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

Even more of Carolyn’s beautiful photography:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re interested in booking a session with Carolyn Noll Photography you can call her at 267-432-3860 or contact her via her Facebook page.

Mention this post and receive a 10% discount off your session fee and a FREE 8×10!

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Do You Treat Your Pet Like Your Child? You’re in Luck, Because Many Folks Do

Many of our pets are like family and are treated as such. I know mine are. I even dare say our two German Shepherds are treated better than the rest of our family members are, ha! Huffington Post recently had a humorous new post about how people treat their pets as their first-born children. Statements such as letting your pet sleep with you, giving your pet an actual bed, making your own organic fresh food for your pet, taking your pet everywhere, you buy your cat their very own toiling training kit (that’s a bit too far, in my opinion, but to each his own), and you dress your pet up are several of the suggestive reasons why we treat our pets like family and first-born.

Check out more suggestions via the original post by copying the link below and placing it into your browser:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/30/pets-are-children_n_4494215.html