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Are you thinking about switching your dog’s diet? If you are considering preparing dog food yourself, a necessary resource is the book Home Prepared Dog & Cat Diets: The Healthful Alternative by Donald R. Strombeck, DVM, PhD. Strombeck specializes in gastroenterology and has been a veterinarian for over 40 years. You get over 200 recipes, some of which are formulated for the management of specific diseases (ie. kidney disease, obesity control, heart disease). It is dangerous to feed a home cooked diet to your pets without the proper guidance of a nutrition expert, so this book should be a welcome addition to your veterinary library.

If you are hard pressed for time, but want to try local, home made dog foods here is a list of companies to check out:

Scooter Food
FreshPet and their Homestyle Select Food
Zen Chien
The Healthy Pet Gourmet
Trudy’s Homemade Dog Food

Chicken and turkey recipe image from Trudy’s website. Mmm, palatable.

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Spay and Neuter. It isn’t just something Bob Barker told you to do. Pet owners in the northeastern US choose this option of sterilization for
their pets because there are not any other effective and cost-efficient options available right now. The average cost in New York City to spay or neuter a dog is between $290 and $600 (and this price does not necessarily include the pre-surgery examination or any bloodwork to make sure the pet is healthy enough to withstand anesthesia).

Since this is a tad out of the price range for some pet owners, there are alternatives like the Big Fix.

At the Center for Animal Care & Control, you can have a spay or neuter performed for $35.00 per dog or $25 per cat. This is a life saving program for some people who have taken in pets but are unaware of the financial situation they face in the first year of pet ownership.
The procedures take place every Monday at the Bronx shelter (464 East Fordham Rd) and every Thursday at the Brooklyn shelter (2336 Linden Boulevard). You need to call ahead to book an appointment (212-788-4000).

Here are other low-cost spay/neuter options from a recent NY Daily News report:

The ASPCA recently unveiled its third state-of-the-art mobile spay/neuter van available to New Yorkers on public assistance. And at the Humane Society of N.Y., low-cost surgery is available to pet owners of all income levels, beginning at only $48 for a female cat.

Purchasing coupons to use toward the cost of spay/neuter surgery from participating vets can also help defray costs. For a nominal fee, the Friends of Animals‘ spay/neuter programs certificate covers the cost of a routine procedure including exam, surgery, anesthesia and pain relief medications at participating vets.

The Muffins Pet Connection offers discount spay/neuter certificates at 83 participating local veterinarians, starting at $38 for a male cat to $72 for a female dog.

The reality is that pet ownership requires taking good medical care of your pets. Spay/neuter is just one part of being responsible. Here are a spay procedure play-by-play and neuter FAQs.

(Cartoon via the Volunteers for Animal Welfare website of Oklahoma)

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News reports first stated canned foods (chunks + gravy styles) were the only affected foods, but now the list continues to grow as Del Monte lists new recalled snacks and foods. Even a dry food, one not manufactured at Menu Foods, Hills Prescription m/d for cats has been recalled.

This writer can tell you from experience, talking all day, every day, with pet owners, that people are freaked out. One person has now proclaimed he’ll no longer feed his bull mastiff manufactured dog foods and will only give sliced deli turkey (packaged) and cottage cheese until a better food source can be determined by his veterinarian. Yes, his dog is smiling and eating happily. But how long will this unbalanced diet continue? When will food manufacturers stop giving this pet owner reasons to freak out?

New York Tails magazine is calling for people to submit letters and photos of their pets (via snail mail) so they can send a huge mailing to the FDA that says: “Hey, we care about our pets and want you to do a better job protecting them from harmful foods.” Visit the link for the form letter.

Don’t forget to keep an eye on that Menu Foods list, here. Also, Brad over at Poop City has been covering the recall in detail.

(Illustration by Jessica at Indexed. Check her out for more venn diagram goodness.)

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Tom over at Poop City Atomische passed along the word that there is a pet food recall in effect for several brands made by Menu Foods and sold between December and March for both dog and cat foods. The contaminated food may cause kidney failure. Take a minute and make sure you aren’t feeding any of the recalled foods now by visiting the link or calling (866) 895-2708.
Scary.

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Pet insurance is a daily topic of discussion for those of us in the veterinary field. To insure or not is a difficult question to answer for many pet owners. As a pet owner pondering this very question, here is exactly what you should do:

1. Get a caffinated beverage.
2. Find a cozy chair if you have a laptop. If you aren’t mobile with your computer, tilt the chair back or grab an ottoman, because you will be doing a bit of research.
3. Read Urbanhound.com’s guide to pet insurance thoroughly and ask yourself if this is enough information before going to the websites for the companies reviewed in the article.
4. Read this, this, and/or this.
5. Remind yourself that veterinary offices will want payment (most likely) when services are provided. Insurance should send a check after you have paid your bill.
6. Check out any or all of the following companies:
-ASPCA Pet Health Insurance or parent company, PetsHealth
-Pet Assure (Not a standard insurance plan, but more like a discount club)
-Veterinary Pet Insurance, aka VPI (A bonus for members of NYU’s Alumni Association: you are eligible for a 5% group discount)
-ShelterCare or parent company, PetCare Pet Insurance (For those thinking of adopting a new furry friend)
-Embrace Pet Insurance
- Pets Best Insurance
7. Now that the day is probably about half over if you followed all the previous steps, take a nap. Then you’ll be ready to get quotes.
8. Finally, let us know what you decided and how insurance is or isn’t working out for you!

(Image by IsolatedIguana from Flickr)

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The parks department is accepting applications for vendors of pushcarts to hawk their dog-friendly wares in city parks. While it could become a good thing for dogs (eg. the carts could sell dog water bowls or portable water caddies in the summer and booties for cold, wet paws in the winter), it sounds like these carts will emphasize the more edible dog stuffs (read: Cookies, snacks, biscuits, nibbles, kibbles, etc.).
While it could be fun and cute to swing by the cart for a treat for the pooch, couldn’t it also be just one more way to unfortunately fatten up Fido?
Hopefully, these new carts will sell the doggy diet sticks. They are yummy, crunchy, and better for dogs than baked treats!

(Carrot Image from Kind Planet)

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Bordetella. AKA kennel cough. Unfortunately this season, bordetella is running rampant on the Upper West Side. At one local animal hospital, this outbreak of bordetella is bringing in at least one new case a day. Patrons of Camp Canine informed us that the facility will be closing for a thorough cleaning.
The blame does not lie with daycare/boarding facilities, grooming salons, or veterinarians, however.
The spread of this problem can be attributed to living in a city where all the dogs are in close contact and where some dog owners (knowingly and not-so-much) are taking their coughing dogs to daycare or overnight boarding.
Do not take your coughing dog to the kennel, groomer, local dog store, or dog run. Just don’t do it.
Many healthy dogs will thank you. As will their owners who are less out-of-pocket!

For the record, this fall at one UWS veterinary hospital, we have seen deadly leptospirosis in Manhattan (one dog), numerous ticks on dogs from Central Park, Giardia (late summer/early fall), and most recently pneumonia.

Stay safe. Make sure you talk everything through with your veterinarian and keep up with vaccinations and health checkups, Pooches!

(Image of the girl looking sad when she had to wear the E-Collar.)

UPDATE 11-30-06: CAMP CANINE IS OPEN AND ALL CLEANED UP. ALL OF THE KENNEL COUGH CASES WE HAVE SEEN AT THE ANIMAL HOSPITAL ARE ON THE MEND AND DOING FINE.

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