Preventive Health Care For Pets
Owners must regularly provide Preventive Health Care for their pets. A Preventive Health Care programme includes disease prevention, risk factor management and wellness programmes, and is aimed at promoting the health and well-being of pets. Owners are obliged to ensure that their pets receive all the health services recommended for them. The Preventive Health Care concept also differs from the traditional veterinary perspective which focuses on diagnosing and curing individual disease entities.
Preventive Health Care is also an important component of companion animal practise and responsible pet ownership. It involves all aspects of a pet's health such as genetic factors, its history, age, oral health, nutrition and the environment. The history of the individual pet, the results of its physical examination and laboratory data are essential elements of a good health care programme.
Risk Factor Management
Intrinsic to health maintenance is the detection and management of health risk factors. There are two complementary approaches that can be used to reduce risk factors in pet or animal population. The first is aimed at the general pet population while the second is targeted at individuals with defined risk profiles. Genetic and environmental interactions play an important role in determining chronic disease outcomes. There should be an effective prevention strategy aimed at the general pet population. This should be complemented with recommendations for individual patients who are at high risk.
Vaccination and parasite control are some of the traditional Preventive Health Care services offered by veterinarians. Advice on pet selection and prophylactic dentistry are equally important for an effective health maintenance programme. The services provided in the programme vary according to the animal's functions, its age and the environment in which it lives.
Choice of Pet
It is advisable for prospective pet owners to consult veterinarians or animal behaviourists before they select a pet that would best suit their lifestyles and perceived needs. Wrong choices and inappropriate behaviour result in pets being abandoned, euthanised, sent to animal shelters or returned to pet stores, breeders or the original owners. Behavioural problems make owners dissatisfied, and adversely affect the pet's health.
Choosing A Puppy
For illustration, I have provided below the personalities of two different breeds of dogs: |
Chow Chow
It has a unique confirmation, one man loyalty, highest ranked breed in territorial defence, ranked moderate in terms of snapping at children with perhaps lowest ranking in obedience training. It is a strong dog and such breed can only be used as guard dogs and as companion animals for adults. |
Retriever
Good with children - very seldom snaps at children, moderate and does not demand attention from a single person, ranks average in terms of protection, easy to train and house break. A good family dog. |
Choosing A Cat |
Cats, like dogs, make good companion animals. The size of cats often makes them more suitable than dogs for some environments. The fact that cats use litter boxes for elimination and do not make as much noise or nuisance as dogs, contributes to the popularity of cats in high rise buildings and high density residential areas. Furthermore, cats can be left alone for most of the day, which makes them optimum pets for those who are working.
Cats should be carefully selected according to size, coat, breed predelections to medical problems, colour and gender, to meet the lifestyle of the family. The most common being the short-haired or long-haired depending on individual taste and likes. However, they make very good companions for children and adults alike. |
Other factors a pet owner needs to consider when caring for a pet are environmental factors:
The environment in which a pet lives profoundly influences its health. Pets housed in-doors are less susceptible to environmental extremes such as weather, motor vehicle accidents and other trauma while animals that roam freely are at greater risk of trauma and weather-related injuries. 75 percent of all trauma suffered by dogs and cats involve motor vehicle accidents, interaction with animals and other injuries.
Neutering
Neutering pets at an early age will help prevent the occurrence of tumours of the reproductive tissues.
Anyway, what do we understand by the term neutering? To 'neuter' means to sterilize a male cat by removing its testes; another term for this operation is castration. These two endocrine glands secrete testosterone, other male hormones as well as produce sperm. Testosterone is the major male hormone that has effects on behavior.
Neutering and spaying are not known to be inhumane as believed by some pet owners, since it is done under humane conditions under general anaesthetics. It is a small operation which is routinely carried out by most veterinarians and they are competent in doing their job. The reason for neutering and spaying is to stop unwanted propagation of life. Cats can litter 3 times in a year and the kittens can litter in geomatical progress. That is why many people are unable to control the reproduction; throw unwanted kittens and puppies on to the streets.
To be a Responsible Pet Owner we have to be first responsible to ourselves by giving the maximum attention to our pets and prevent them from breeding. We also have to be responsible to our neighbourhood by not letting these animals dirty the surroundings and become a social nuisance. When these cats are allowed to wander around they might get into fights with neighbouring cats that may be carriers of 'Feline Aids' and your cat may invariably become a carrier thus, affect his immune system.
Removal of the testes prevents the production of sperm and also removes the major source of male sex hormones. Small amounts of both male and female sex hormones are produced by the adrenal glands in males and females but the amounts are so small that they are behaviorally unimportant.
The testes are inactive until sexual maturity. This early surge of hormones has an organizing influence on the brain, sex organs and other parts of the body, so when the testes are activated at puberty the young toms act and look like males. Without this early hormone surge, males would not respond to the male hormones in adulthood.
The early hormone surge and the presence of testosterone in adulthood produce the typical male behaviors of spraying urine, roaming, fighting with other males, caterwauling, courting and mating with females.
Nutrition
Optimal nutrition during all the different stages of a pet's life is an important part of any health maintenance programme. Manufactured pet foods contain more than adequate levels of all the essential nutrients needed by dogs and cats. Optimal nutrition is important when feeding reproductive females, stressed animals due to extreme climates, emotional disturbances, over-exercise, general debilitation and in managing obesity.
Preventive Health Care programmes can lessen existing problems of ageing and add quality years to a pet's life. Nutrition is a vital part of this process.
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