PET CARE

Jan 08, 2017 News

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By: Steve Surujbally

Pet owners seem to morph into different beings during the Festive Season where their companion animals are concerned. Let’s look at some areas in which human behaviour could be inimical to the well-being of our furry, feathered and unusual wards. (N.B. At some later date we’ll discuss the pros and cons relative to the issue of keeping wild local and exotic fauna as pets).

(1) NUTRITION
Let’s face frontally that which we humans seem to have as an unalterable compulsion, namely engorging ourselves at Christmas. We make that mouth-watering pepperpot, garlic beef/pork, ice-cream, pastels, stuffed chicken, rich black cake, egg-nog, and the list goes on. If our over-eating during the Festive Season were not enough, we feel that it is absolutely necessary to over-feed our pets — often with all the wrong stuff.
Yet, our wards couldn’t care less if they got the same daily fare which they have been served for fifty-one weeks. They do not need pepperpot with its casareep base (so many dogs get upset stomachs after being fed pepperpot with all the added spices); they do not need ice-cream (in fact, the latest research is now telling us that dogs should not be served dairy products at meal time); alcohol laced black cake should not be part of a dog’s diet; too much grain-based foods are also not good for carnivores (dogs and cats); heavily spiced-up stuffing could actually be deleterious to our pets’ health.
The point I am making is that the daily diet of dog/puppy chow makes our pets quite happy and healthy. They don’t know what the special holidays are. Sweetmeats at Diwali /Eid/Easter could in fact upset the bacteria in the digestive tract and could precipitate stomach and intestinal ailments.
The moral of this story is simple: do not suddenly change the pets’ normal and perennial diet. Once the balanced diet, especially if it is based on well-researched nutritional necessities, is offered at the usual times and with the regular quantity, there is no need to change their food, just because you feel “Rover” should get some of the goodies you are giving yourself.

(2) BATHING
Again for some unknown reason, some pet owners feel that their wards should be bathed with specially scented (fragrant to the scent receptors in our nostrils, but not to the dog’s) soaps and shampoos.
Well, again let’s be clear on a few things:
(i) “Felix”, the cat, grooms his own self and does not need a bath — practically never! It’s the same with “Rex” and “Sheba”. They too do not need baths — not at Christmas, not at Easter and not at Phagwah. Of course, if you have sprayed/smeared the poor animal with abeer/abrak and other colourful liquids/powders, you must wash off that junk quickly, so as to prevent skin damage and hair knotting. You may be making yourself happy by wetting the animal with possibly dangerous chemicals, but for the poor pet it is not fun and frolic. It is distress, discomfort and sufferation.
At some other point, I will return to this odd and pet-unfriendly fixation we have in bathing our pets. Please, just accept that there are other ways to groom and bond with your pets without the soap/shampoo torture.

(3) THE CHRISTMAS TREE AND YOUR PET
I suppose all vets, at some time or another, have been confronted with the repercussive effects associated with animals playing with the Christmas tree and their decorations.
Dogs and cats (especially puppies and kittens) are curious by nature. Those blinking lights on the Christmas tree represent a great lure. The animals playfully box the glass decorations breaking them, and in so doing can wound themselves badly. If they ingest the decorations or the plastic Christmas tree branches, the animal can actually die. Worst of all is when they bite at the electrical wires which light up the tree. There are very few Festive Seasons when I have not had to intervene — removing shards, treating electric shocks, stitching wounds and stopping bleedings.

(4) EXPLOSIVE DEVICES
The law in its wisdom has banned the import and sale of squibs and other forms of explosives “toys”. Dogs especially have very sensitive ears. The noise that emanates from a squib explosion not only terrifies your pet, but it also makes the animal temporarily mentally unhinged. They go berserk. The jump off verandahs, in an attempt to escape the loudness; they run away from home. It is not seldom that dogs and cats get lost, miles from home. It makes no sense to spend tens of thousands of dollars purchasing a puppy, caring for it, allowing it to become a loved member of the family — only to lose the animal wandering away from home because it seeks to escape the torture of ear-splitting sounds.
Let me further advocate that if your friend explodes a squib near to your pet just for the fun of it, to see the poor animal’s reaction, then that person is no friend. In fact, one has to question that person’s own mental equilibrium.
Dear pet owner, enjoy the Festive Season; enjoy your wonderful pet as part of your family; do not create an environment that is inimical to your companion animal’s happiness and well-being. (This is a late publication)

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