Pet Help Resource Center

Two cute dogs clips… one, an dog’s eye view of fun in the dog park, shot in slow motion. The second is a commercial featuring a chorus of dogs - it’s very well done and quite cute.

Beautiful Day at the Dog Park from Kelsey Wynns on Vimeo.

If you are an owner of an iPhone or an iPad, here is our breakdown of a few of the Apps out there specifically for pets:

MyDog is an iPhone and iPad app created by Dog Info USA It supports multiple profiles for every dog you own and breaks down all the information you would need to store. It’s easy to keep track of everything from veterinarians, vaccinations, medications, examinations and medical records. On top of that it allows you to easily export your dog’s profile as an email so you can send it to whoever needs it. It also contains sections that give you up to date guidelines for traveling with your pets, from airline and train rules and regulations to the locations of dog friendly hotels. There is an easy to use directory that will help you locate everything you need for your pet no matter where you are. Animal hospitals, pet shops, dog parks, dog walkers, and trainers are all easily locatable with this app. If having breakdowns of all this information and more for each one of your dogs sounds appealing to you it might be worth checking out, especially since it is FREE.

Next up is an app from Jive Media, the makers of the best selling first aid app out there for humans, has now created one for dogs and cats. Pet First Aid contains articles, videos and demonstrations on the following and more:

• Bleeding
• Poisoning
• Drowning
• Rescue Breathing & CPR
• Giving Medicine
• Muzzling
• Restraining
• Disaster Preparedness
• Bites & Stings
• Burns
• Fractures & Sprains
• Heat & Cold Injuries

With this app you can make sure you know how to properly care for your pets no matter where you are. The downside is that Pet First Aid is a little pricey for an app, costing $3.99. However a quick search of reviews and testimonials of people who have saved their pets with it might quickly convince you that it’s worth it.

Finally, on a more frivolous note, if you think your cat might be an avid gamer, there is now an app for that. In an emerging new market there are now video games for your cats thanks to an iPad App called  Game for Cats. The laser level is free to download and the mouse level costs $1.99 as an in game purchase. If you are skeptical be sure to check out the Game for Cats Blog with user submitted videos of satisfied cats playing the game.

Usually, we feature posts about house pets, but every now and again, we like to venture further afield. Today, we have a couple of clips from a hilarious talking porcupine named Teddy. These are posted by Zooniversity, a wildlife education company and exotic animal rescue located in Dallas, Texas.

Every month, Veterinary Pet Insurance posts the most unusual pet claim of the month, and at the end of the year, they accept votes for the Most Unusual Claim of the Year.

This past year, a pug named Harley earned the dubious distinction of winning the 2011 Hambone Award for having ingested more than 100 rocks. See x-rays and more about his incredible gastronomical feat here, as well as in the video below.

Running a close second was Chico, a Chihuahua that survived a harrowing encounter with an owl. You can read more about the 2011 nominees, plucky pets who survived some hair-raising ordeals.

Dropping temperatures this time of year have adverse effects on not only humans but pets as well.  It is important to keep a careful eye on your pets in the winter months due to the many seasonal dangers present.  For example, more dogs go missing in Winter than any other time of the year.  Snowfall makes it harder for animals to track scents and find their way home.  Once missing, the cold can have extremely harmful effects on your pets.

The American Animal Hospital Association has posted a helpful Winter Pet Care Guide on things to look out for and ways to protect your pet.  Make sure to check out the link for the full details, but here is a quick breakdown of some of the things you can expect:

• Take your animals for a winter check-up to check for winter vulnerabilities.
• Keep your pets inside as much as you can.
• Look for warning signs such as whining, shaking, or anxiety.
• Keep an eye on pets seeking warmth as they will curl up next to anything warm, from flames, heating coils, to car engines, all of which can be dangerous.
• Take care of their footpads when they come in contact with rock salt and chemicals used to melt ice.  Also make sure they don’t ingest any of these things as it may cause inflammation of their digestive track.
• Keep your animals away from ponds and lakes as they can fall through the ice.
• Make sure they have easy access to shelter outdoors.
• Never take your dog off its leash.
• Make sure their water bowl doesn’t freeze over.
• Be especially careful with pets that are young, old, or have pre-existing health conditions.
• Be aware of your pets susceptibility to Frostbite and Hypothermia and how to treat those conditions.

Some year-end pet tales to warm your heart and amuse you!

The 7 most newsworthy dogs of 2011
From a skydiving pug to a Navy SEAL hero, the year was distinguished by captivating canines, and this article in The Week gathers seven of the best stories.

Looking Back: The Best Shelter Cat Stories of 2011
To celebrate national Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat month in June of 2011, Morris Animal Foundation asked cat lovers to share their touching shelter cat stories. Response was amazing and posted on Facebook- but they have also archived the stories at their main site. If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of adopting a shelter cat, these stories may convince you.

Journal-World’s animal stories of 2011 feature heroism, heartbreak
They’re our fuzzy, friendly companions, and they do crazy — and sometimes heroic — things from time to time. And every year, they end up on the pages of the Journal-World for their sometimes bizarre escapades.

Question: My kitten won’t stop biting! I have tried everything to stop it but nothing seems to work. I have tried yelling, holding her down by the scruff of her neck, ignoring her, and putting her in a different room until she calms down. When I hold her down she will stop but when I let go she begins to bite again.. and hard. When I ignore her she runs after me and bites me. Is there anything I can do to stop this behavior? She is very loving except when she gets into her biting mood. I am pretty sure she is just trying to play but it hurts!

Answer: This sounds like a classic case of play aggression. It is a normal part of a kitten’s development and can be very frustrating as you know! It sounds like you have tried some of the things we would suggest but we want to stress 2 things: Consistency and Diversion.

Your kitten may be cute and cuddly and even gentle when she plays at times but if you want to discourage biting and scratching you cannot allow her to play roughly with you at all. When she does try to be playful, you should immediately divert her attention away from you to a soft toy that is about her size. Try to have toys placed throughout the house so that one is always handy wherever you may be. Instead of yelling, try clapping loudly with your hands, sometimes a loud clap can catch them off guard and get them to stop what they are doing. We understand how frustrating this can be but this phase WILL pass. Kittens usually outgrow this phase when they approach their first birthday.

We are not sure what your situation is or if you would consider this but having a second kitten can also greatly reduce play aggression with you (and other humans in the house). One might think the problems would double, but a second kitten will actually reduce the problems you have by providing your kitten with an acceptable wrestling partner!

The Pet Poison Helpline reminds us that the holidays are stressful enough without having to worry about a potentially poisoned pet. They offer a list of holiday-related decorations, plants and food items that the veterinarians at Pet Poison Helpline recommend keeping away from pets. See: Winter Holiday Pet Poison Tips

For more tips on preventing accidental exposure to poisonous substances, see:

Top 10 Pet Toxin lists - separate lists for dogs & cats

Toxic Food Guide for Pets

Holiday Plants Toxic to Pet Birds

Holiday Safety Tips from the ASPCA

If you have a problem, be sure to keep this number to the Pet Poison Helpline handy: 800-213-6680

Hunch.com recently polled more than 200,000 pet owners to find out if they were dog people or cat people. The site then crossed those responses with lifestyle surveys and arrived at the following conclusions.  Which are you? Readers Digest summarizes the results.