Monthly home urine testing of your pet provides helpful information to your veterinarian

Something that we often say when talking about ThePetCheckup is that we hope that our customers never find an imbalance in the monthly tests. And that the peace of mind in doing these tests each month is invaluable.

I have experienced this many times with Chloe and Kate when all their test results are in the negative/normal range. It’s a mixture of feelings: deeper closeness with them, gratefulness to be able to do these tests, and appreciation for the additional knowledge that the tests provide.

Any information that we can provide our veterinarians about what occurs in between routine health appointments is significant. Whether it is that there were no abnormal values at all, an occasional trace value, or something more significant.  It is extremely helpful for vets to know what has been going on health wise since they last saw your animal.

It provides an important key to the overall picture of your animal’s health.

 

 

southeastern Iowa Animal Shelter celebrates 1000th dog accepted by Petsmart Charities

There is some great news from our local animal shelter Noah’s Ark Animal Foundation in Fairfield, IA.

Noah’s Ark is affiliated with Petsmart Charities Rescue Waggin’ which travels to Fairfield twice/month to transport shelter dogs to bigger mid-western cities where they have excellent adoption rates.

Noah’s Ark was the first shelter in Iowa to be accepted as part of the program and it has been a huge blessing for the dogs who otherwise would have to wait a long time to be adopted in this small town of 9000.

Tomorrow August 30th, the 1000th dog will be placed on the wagon!  That’s a lot of rescues!!

There will be a celebration at the shelter at 8:00 am as the mayor places the dog into the van for his/her trip to a new home!!

 

Home urine test kit for pets includes plastic dropper

Some of our customers have been asking us about the longer plastic dropper that is included in our current kit.

Our manufacturer was not able to get the shorter dropper that we had been using previously.  We are hoping to be able to provide that one again as it is preferable to the current one.

Also, we will be sending out a newsletter shortly asking for new product suggestions from our customers.

Our manufacturer is interested in hearing what other products or ideas our customers have for future products.  So please put on your brainstorming hats and let us know what other product ideas you have and we will pass them along.

Good advice = healthy pets

In a nutshell, the best way to keep our pets healthy:

“The best prevention is minimizing exposure to carcinogens, feeding a well balanced, natural, organic diet and lots of love.”  Dr. Allen Schoen, Allen M. Schoen, DVM, MS, Ph.D. (hon.)

Proactive pet owners use at home urine kit for their pets

It’s always fun talking with our customers…they are so knowledgeable about their animals’ healthcare.

I just looked up some synonyms for the word  “proactive” and found:

farseeing, farsighted, forward-looking, visionary, and forethoughtful (I didn’t know that was a word, but I think I would like to start using it in sentences).

Nice way to describe our customers!  It’s great to be associated with people who take such good care of their dogs and cats.

Home urine test kit for pets includes dropper and desiccant

Each of our sealed tests includes a dropper and a desiccant.  That means you have everything you need (other than your dog or cat!) and a urine sample to do your test.

It is actually quite simple.  Just place a drop on each of the 10 reagents and wait the appropriate number of seconds and compare with the results chart.  You will feel super comfortable with it after your first test.

Right now we are shipping tests with an expiration date of 6/2014. The expiration dates have never been an issue since we are always shipping them with dates pretty far off into the future.  We do recommend that you buy the 24-refill pack when you have more than one animal to test.  Although some people like to do the tests more often, which of course is fine too…especially if there has been a recent health concern.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in dogs and cats

We always mention in our literature that ThePetCheckup does not test for every illness that can affect our pets.  One of these illnesses is arthritis.

There are several different types of arthritis..osteoarthritis (or degenerative joint disease) is the most common by far.  By the time you notice your pet is showing outward symptoms, it is often the case that the disease has progressed quite far.  So it is important to be aware of early symptoms as there are many things that can be done to slow the progression of the disease.

Most common symptoms to be aware of are:

Hesitation or reluctance to jump, walk up stairs, or walk.

Lameness.

Stiffness when first waking up.

Licking of specific areas of joints.

Obvious pain when you touch or rub certain joints.

We can notice many changes in behavior with careful observation.  I am giving more attention to massaging Chloe and Kate’s joints now and watching for signs of stiffness or pain.

Dealing with cat diabetes

Many cats will experience a normalization of their glucose level by switching to a canned diet.

Travel with your dog survey

A recent survey by Petplan Pet Insurance reports that over half of the 3300 people surveyed travel with their dogs.

68.8 percent travel over 200 miles with their dogs for vacations.

97 percent travel by car.

56 percent have traveled by mobile home.

28 percent have traveled by train.  I found this interesting as Amtrak doesn’t accept pets on trains.  Does anyone have any ideas how these dogs traveled by train?  I would be very interested to hear.