IN A country where veterinary hospitals can be counted on your fingertips, the best way, on most occasions, is to go online. Be it a regular pet such as a cat, dog or a parrot, or something more unusual like an Iguana, all can be found if you look hard enough.
From Pet 101 caretaking tips to more serious healthcare guidelines, the web has a number of sites that carry good, useful information that can make life easier not just for you, but also for your pet.
Being more of a cat person, I may lean a bit towards the feline kind in my website consensus, but fear not. Like I said before, these sites carry information for all.
A general place to start would be www.pethealthcare.co.uk where not only can you find a bunch of articles and tips on cat and dog care, but can also write to their online vets who answer queries within a week. Tried and tested. They usually respond within a couple of days but it can stretch out to a week on occasion.
So for all those strange queries for perhaps, odd pets, you can always write to them as all us pet owners know that there aren’t very many expert vets in Pakistan.
The site also has an extensive guide to cat breeds and you may not find the exact match to your cat (considering the random road breeding we have!), but you’ll definitely get an idea as to where your fur balls’ history lies.
A rich resource for articles on cats and dogs is www.healthypet.com/Library. Ranging from topics such as Behaviour, Common Health problems, Illness and Disease and Human/Animal Bond, the site covers a huge section of your pet’s life. Like don’t yell at your cat if it’s up to something not too endearing — but instead use a distraction tactic. Shouting at your cat will only startle and put the feline in the defensive mode. We tend to forget sometimes that they are cats hence, we cannot expect them to have the intelligence of humans on all occasions.
The same web site also has a very useful Frequently Asked Questions section for cats, dogs, birds and ‘pocket pets’ that include rabbits, hamsters, mice and guinea pigs. Closest you’ll get to, will probably be the rabbit, I suppose. But browse through the cat and dog sections and you will definitely find an interesting answer or two that will help you understand your pet better.
As most vets in our country are not as qualified as we would want them to be, www.veterinarypartner.com is an excellent place to double-check the medication your pet may be on. This site focuses on animal health, medications, therapies, surgery, behaviour and safety. Some times, when a good vet is not easily and readily available, and if your pet has a health problem that it easy to diagnose, you can look up the site and find the best treatment to start until you can get across to the vet. This site also has an “Ask A Vet” section which can come in handy when you really, desperately need a solution to the pet life in your home. It’s worth bookmaring.
Not as veterinary focused or health oriented is http://www.practical-pet-care.com. The site features plenty of activism articles and stories — but of course, it’s all about issues not in our homeland. Still it’s good to know what the rules and regulations are. For instance, learn about the quarantine your pet will have to go through if you ever think of moving to another country — it is not a pleasant experience. Other than activism issues, the site has some useful topics in the Pet Information section.
“Healthy pets are happy pets” says the www.pethealthcare.co.uk tag line. Of course you ignore the Pet Insurance section as you’d be laughed at in our country if you took that area seriously. But other than that, here’s yet another excellent place to get expert information from a panel of vets who answer your queries. These ‘online vets’ cover four main areas: Behavioural, Natural and Conventional and Training (for dogs).
There’s also a section on “First Pets” and has a bundle of handy information for those who are new to the pet concept. Of course, plenty of the information is not applicable for our region of the world, but do pay attention to the basic information about how to look after a pet you may wish to keep, what it requires, what it would cost you in terms of money, time and energy — it’s always best to read up before you go ahead and make a rash decision.
Always keep a pet that you can accommodate in your lifestyle. Some people don’t realize the sacrifices they need to make once a pet is brought into the house — you would be surprised.
So if you’re one of those crazy people (like myself) who are allergic to cats and dogs and yet choose to live with them, check out http://www.hsus.org/ace/12531. The Humane Society of the United States web site carries a rich store of articles that comprehensively talk about pet issues such as neutering, introducing the pet to your newborn baby (believe me, that IS an issue), tips on how to keep your pet cool in the summer and how pets can enrich your lives and how to control your allergies amongst other topics.
However, if you are allergic, chances are nothing will make that go away. But you can learn how to minimize the sneezing, watery eye syndromes to a degree. Areas such as ‘what to do if you find a stray cat/dog’ don’t blend in too well with our country, as we have no animal shelters, yet.
But if you do find a cat or dog that appears to be lost, it would be pleasant to play the Good Samaritan role and pick up the lost soul and perhaps, place a small ad in the paper to let the owners know you’ve found their pet. And you may think it doesn’t work but I can assure you otherwise.
I once found a white Persian and placed a small ad in the paper and was inundated with phone calls from weeping pet owners hoping it was their cat I had found... and from people who were just wondering about the cat’s health! Unfortunately, the owners never called but we did manage to interview about eight families before we found the cat a new home.
Browse the web and you are sure to find plenty of sites that will teach you things you never knew about your pet. These sites are a good beginning and reading all this just proved, you do indeed care for your pet. Happy Pet Keeping!
IN A country where veterinary hospitals can be counted on your fingertips, the best way, on most occasions, is to go online. Be it a regular pet such as a cat, dog or a parrot, or something more unusual like an Iguana, all can be found if you look hard enough.
