Summertime Tips to Keep Your Pet Disease Free

Cardiff Loves to Roll In and Cover Himself With Sand at the Beach This article originally appeared on my blog for Flexcin International, Inc. With proper planning and common sense, your pet can stay free from infectious organisms regardless of season or climate. Here are my top tips for pet disease prevention:

• Talk to your veterinarian about the regional and seasonal infectious diseases that could affect your pet.
• Work with your veterinarian to best prevent or to diagnose and treat illness caused by infectious organisms.
• Use topical or oral anti-parasitic medications on a year round basis to protect your pet and family.
• Consider every outdoor circumstance as a potential site where sickness can occur.
• Minimize your pet’s exposure to environments potentially harboring infection (dog park, woods, daycare, kennels, etc).
• Closely observe your pet during outdoor activities in a contained yard.
• Keep your pet on lead during walks, hikes, and runs.
• Provide a fresh, filtered water source at least every 15 minutes to satisfy your pet’s biological urge for hydration and to reduce the urge to seek potentially unsafe water sources.
• Never permit still water to accumulate in locations which may serve as breeding grounds for insects or source of bacteria or parasites.
• Install a fence or other obstructing structure to prevent stray or wild animals from entering your yard.
• Maintain a clean home through weekly vacuuming (and immediately disposing of the canister or bag in the trash away from your home) and washing of both human and pet bedding.
• Regularly brush and bathe your pet to remove parasites and organisms from the skin and coat.
• Always wash your hands with soap and water after touching your pet.
• Never let your pet lick your face, eyes, nose, or mouth.
• Avoid close contact with pets when you are sick.

I hope you and your pets have a fun, safe and disease-free summer (and rest of the year). Thank you for reading my article.  Your questions and comments are completely welcome (I’ll respond). Please feel free to communicate with me through Twitter (@PatrickMahaney) and follow my adventures in veterinary medicine by liking Patrick Mahaney: Veterinarian Acupuncture Pain Management for Your Pets on Facebook. Copyright of this article (2012) is owned by Dr Patrick Mahaney, Veterinarian and Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist. Republishing any portion of this article must first be authorized by Dr Patrick Mahaney. Requests for republishing must be approved by Dr Patrick Mahaney and received in written format.