And you use positive punishment to resolve the issue (hitting/kicking, lead jerk, prong collar etc).
And it works and the dog stops going for other dogs.
It is literally because you’ve physically abused your dog to the point that their desire to defend themselves against a perceived threat is outweighed by the fear they have that you are going to inflict pain on them.
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this blogger doesn’t have the time or energy for all that either
These are good for immediate first aid or if you can’t get to a vet, but in most cases you should consult a vet first!
Benadryl is also a useful for reducing swelling for mild venomous snake bites (but always go to the vet first if you suspect your pet has been bitten by a venomous snake!!).
I really really hate these “pet hacks” sort of things. They contain over generalized and sometimes flat out wrong information that can be seriously harmful for a dog. There’s so many problems with this infographic and I’m not even able to touch on whether or not the dosages are even remotely safe (I’m still a baby vetling and haven’t learned that yet!) but the fact that these are listed on a random site with no veterinary source should be a huge red flag.
1. If you think your dog has ingested something toxic, you should talk to pet poison control and/or your vet (it doesn’t cost any money to talk to your vet on the phone!) before trying to induce vomiting. There are situations where it is not appropriate to induce vomiting, which can include the ingestion of corrosive material, passage of time from ingestion, and other scenarios determined by a vet, not Dr. Google. Pet owners also tend to give too much hydrogen peroxide, which can cause very damaging (and even deadly!) ulcers and irritation. Also hydrogen peroxide should never be used for cats. I’ve never heard of mineral oil and milk of magnesia being suggested for toxin ingestion but the lack of a reputable veterinary source makes me very skeptical.
2. Ok so the common theme is going to be don’t medicate your pet without talking to a veterinarian. Just like humans, animals can have deadly allergic reactions to insect stings. If you think your dog is having an allergic reaction, call your vet. Benadryl isn’t going to stop a dog from going into anaphylactic shock. Also, again, sketchy internet source should make you skeptical about dosages.
3. What is the source on this? I’ve NEVER heard anything about static electricity making dogs anxious. I ended up doing a little research on this one because it does sound super fascinating, but all I found was a few blog posts and vague references to a “study” that wasn’t actually included in the article. I’d buy that static electricity is unpleasant and could contribute to storm phobia, but I did not see any compelling evidence that it could be a significant factor. Noise phobia isn’t uncommon–think about how many animals become agitated by fireworks around the 4th of July. Rubbing dryer sheets on your dog isn’t going to do anything to help with noise phobia. A dog with serious noise phobia is going to need behavioral management and possibly anti-anxiety drugs.
4. This ones ok. Using a rock or tennis ball as an obstacle can help slow down a fast eater. Slow feeders, Kongs, and puzzle feeders are also good alternatives and provide enrichment as well.
5. Yikes. Just, yikes. First of all, owners are not qualified to make any kind of medical diagnosis for their dog nor are they trained to be able to choose the correct medication for a condition. How does an owner know that their dog just has an “upset stomach” vs. gastric ulcers? Or that their pain isn’t being caused by a cancerous mass? Do you think aspirin is going to be sufficient for an osteosarcoma? By giving over the counter medications without consulting a vet, you are delaying treatment, potentially making a medical condition worse, giving drugs that could interfere with veterinary prescriptions, and even causing a life threatening reaction. Also, aspirin is rarely recommended by veterinarians because it can cause ulcers and impaired clotting. There are much safer pain medications that we can use. I’m especially upset about seeing multiple medications for diarrhea because there are MANY causes of diarrhea and a lot of them can be life threatening (as is chronic diarrhea). If your dog has chronic diarrhea, they need to be taken to a vet, not given pepto bismol for something that you don’t even know the cause of.
6. This one is ok as well, never leave your dog in a hot car.
This post is intended to inform, not attack or criticize.
I’ve seen many “cute” videos of cats interacting with birds, and have heard of many people saying “my cat caught a bird but it was okay and I released it/it got away”. These situations are way more dangerous to the bird than they might appear! I have a very sweet kitty, and she really wants to mother my birds. I also have a parrot that really would love to groom my cat. I never allow them these interactions, even though I believe they would not harm each other. Why not?
It is very important to remember that 90% or more of domestic cats (which as a species includes feral cats too) carry the Pasteurella bacteria
in their saliva. Dogs can carry and transfer this bacteria too, but
with much less frequency than cats. Small predators such as raccoons can
also carry this bacteria. Cats are known to carry this bacteria under their claws as well.
Why is this important?
The Pasteurella bacteria, once
transferred to the body of a small animal (especially birds) usually multiplies
rapidly. It can become systemic quite quickly (cause a serious infection),
and for some birds is known to be commonly fatal (approximately 50-60% of the time according to the sources I located)
unless a course of antibiotics is administered quickly (within 24
hours).
A LARGE bird might be able to fight
off this infection if they are otherwise healthy, but it can quckly cause
serious problems for smaller birds, babies/fledglings, and birds with weakened
immune systems. That said, even healthy, adult birds can succumb!!
In this way, a small puncture from cat’s teeth or a scratch can be
quite harmful indeed. For some birds it can be fatal, even if the
scratch or bite is superficial and is not in itself a bad injury. If the bird and cat are friendly with each other and demonstrate play or even simple grooming (running of fur through the beak, or licking or nosing by the cat), the bird may also ingest this bacteria and be susceptible to infection.
Cats are especially deadly predators to small animals (especially wild
birds), which often perish within two or three days of escaping a cat’s
attack, even if the cat did not injure it fatally or “only” had it in its mouth and didn’t even bite at all.
Given this knowledge, it is important to monitor any birds that have
been attacked, groomed by, or played with by a cat, or dog.
*WARNING* Some links contain images of animal injury (intended to educate).
[…] “Even birds with trivial wounds caused by cats must be classified as emergency patients. The risk of an infection after a cat bite is about 56%.”
Dosage of antibiotics depends on the weight of your bird; always consult with a local vet (or, with wild birds, your local wildlife rehabilitator). Please do not administer antibiotics on a whim or without vet consult, but at the same time, if you fear for your bird, please take it seriously.
As always, I am not a veterinarian and you should always consider the advice of a trained avian veterinarian over mine!!
“BUT I HAVE LET THIS HAPPEN AND MY BIRD IS FINE GEEZ DON’T SCAREMONGER, ETC” That’s great news, friend! I’m glad your bird is okay. I just wanted to share this info because a lot of people don’t seem to know it and are taking unnecessary risks with their birds. You’re lucky, but it’s up to you if you want to continue to press your luck. It’s not worth it, to me. I can tell you that at every show I do, I have countless interactions with people (once they realize I love birds) that feel the need tell me how their pet birds have needlessly perished in totally preventable ways (why do people do this, it’s distressing!) and the #2 reason after “it flew away” was a pet cat or dog. Just sayin’, my dudes. “But does this mean I can’t have multiple species in my house?” Nah, it’s totally possible to have a house full of animals and not have problems, but only if you inform yourself on stuff like this and just be smart and thoughtful about keeping interactions safe. In this case, simply don’t let your predatory mammalian pets physically interact with birds. Pretty straightforward! If you are experiencing trouble keeping them from touching, please do some research on training, desensitization, and evaluate your pet’s spaces carefully to mitigate it.
“By the way” Our dirty saliva isn’t good for birds either (not as bad as a cat’s, but not great either) so please refrain from giving them actual kisses with your human lips, or letting birds do things like pick your teeth or climb into your mouth (I’m looking at you, caiques). Instead, blow them a sweet little kiss and give them lovely head scratches, aw yeah.
“TL;DR” Even if you have the most friendly cat/dog in the universe that would never harm your bird, their saliva can seriously sicken or kill your bird (or a wild bird) accidentally.
So today I heard this story. I won’t say from where just to cover my butt, but it happened.
So a woman went into one of the two major chain pet stores and asked to buy… all of their birds. 27 birds, of various types. Employees questioned her and couldn’t find anything that was expressly a red flag (aside from you know… wanting to buy… ALL the birds they had in stock… weird…) and ended up selling this woman… all their birds. She didn’t buy cages, she didn’t buy supplies, just… almost a thousand dollars worth of… bird.
Then she went over to the OTHER chain pet store in her town, and attempted to buy all of THEIR birds. Second store employees got suspicious, called the first store to ask if she bought cages. Denied the sale upon hearing she didn’t, I think.
but wait, there’s more! You can probably guess where this is going…
Next day, the woman comes into chain store #1 and asks to purchase all their guinea pigs, mice, and reptiles. All of them. Obviously, staff is weirded out. One of the managers apparently gets suspicious and gets into contact with the apartment the woman lives at, by the address she put on the paperwork from the purchase of all the birds.
Apartment manager tells the store manager that the apartment has a 2 pet limit.
Actual red flag, refuses to sell her anything else.
It comes out this woman was going to RELEASE all these animals after buying them, and even goes so far as to insist the employees should let her do it if they ‘love animals’.
And I just. Wow. There’s so much wrong with that idea.
These are all captive born and raised animals. Pets. Species that don’t naturally exist around here. So for one, they cannot survive in the wild. They largely don’t know how to get food aside from having it given to them by humans. The birds she probably already let go will get eaten by any number of things, or starve to death more likely. If the animals do survive, they’re invasive and can seriously fuck up the ecosystem.
And yet this woman was convinced, spent HUNDREDS of dollars (if it wasn’t a stolen card idk really like… really?) because she thought releasing these helpless animals to wreak havoc in the wild was some kind of kindness.
It just boggles my mind. How can you claim to love animals and understand them so little? What she was doing was torture, perfectly happy to sentence those animals to a painful death.
And yea, chain pet stores sell animals to people who don’t take care of them, which isn’t much better. But um… dropping thousands of dollars to… let them into the ‘wild’ …. is not the answer holy shit.
Reminds me of the time PETA bought a bunch of lobsters to ‘save’ them from slaughter for food and released them into a freshwater river. Where they fucking died because they’re saltwater. lol.
I just I CANNOT BELIEVE people. Aiyeee. I feel bad for the birds this woman did manage to buy.
I once read a story about a lab in California raising baby condors from the egg, hoping to eventually release them into the wild. Well one night, some “animal rights” activists broke into the lab and “freed” all the juvenile condors with exactly 0 survival skills.
All of the condors died. They starved, were eaten, or shot. An entire generation of critically endangered birds lost because of some incredibly disillusioned assholes.
If you buy animals from a pet store guess what they will do with the money. Buy more animals to sell.
Personally, while I think the idea of freeing such animals is nice, I doubt simply letting them go would work. Rather, one would likely have to aclimatize them to the wild first.
No. It doesn’t work like that. These are captive bred non-native animals. Take a syrian hamster, for example. It’s out of its native habitat (which would be… Syria), in a place where temperature and enviornment is not correct for it (it would freeze to death in the winter here for one thing I’m fairly certain) and it has no idea how to find its own food, if appropriate food is availible because again, it’s not native. It would die of starvation, or malnutrition or cold even if it acclimated to finding food on its own bc it is not in the proper enviornment.
Not to mention the damage of introducing a non-native species into an enviornment. When non-native species are introduced into the wild and conditions ARE right for them to thrive, they take over, and out compete native species and THOSE die. It’s very damaging to the enviornment. This is a rampant problem in florida with animals that do well in the warm humid temps.
So no you really should not just release captive bred PET animals in the wild on some silly notion that they want ‘freedom’. They don’t miss the wild – they’re captive bred. What we should be advocating for is PROPER CARE of these animals, because as long as they are getting everything they need for their health and wellbeing in captivity, they can thrive. And the goal is for the animal to thrive, not suffer. Which is likely what it would do if you let it go.
it took me 3 times reading this post to realized that (wild) meant living in the wild and wasn’t just a casual remark on the longevity of these organisms
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