Common Fungal Diseases In The Body Of Dogs

Fungi are the primitive microscopic organisms that could survive in almost any conditions. Fungi are found in air, water, soil and even in the body of living beings. The trouble with fungus begins when these microorganisms commence degrading the systems and organs of living beings.

Apart from the humans, pets could also be affected with the fungal troubles in their body and the effects of the fungus could lead to the following common conditions:

·         Aspergillosis: Aspergillosis is the fungal trouble that is caused due to the action of an organism termed as Aspergillus. This organism is found in the environment and could spread from one affected animal to the other. Aspergillosis could lead to various kinds of symptoms such as nasal bleeding, pain, swollen nose, nasal discharge, appetite loss and other hoards of troubles.

·         Blastomycosis: Blastomycosis in pets is associated with a kind of fungus that comes from moist, organic debris and even forms due to pet droppings. When your dog inhales the fungus, these attacks the nasal cavity and cause diseases. Blastomycosis in pets could cause various respiratory troubles such as coughing, pneumonia, weight loss and lameness etc.

·         Cryptococcus: Cryptococcus in pets is caused due to yeast like fungus that pets acquire by inhaling them. These are found in the soil and could occur from bird droppings. Cryptococcus could also affect the respiratory tract of the dogs, causing cough and nasal discharge. It could also cause various mental troubles including seizures, dementia and partial blindness etc.

·         Histoplasmosis: This fungal infection originated in the USA where the nitrogen-rich soil allows the growth of fungus known as Histoplasma capsulatum. These fungi are then inhaled by the pets which affects their respiratory tract. Histoplasmosis could also cause troubles in the digestive tract, causing diarrhea, vomiting, weight-loss, coughing and body-fever etc.

These are some of the common fungal troubles that occur in the body of pets. If you diagnose your pet too of fungal disorders, offer it the vet-advised treatment in a scheduled manner. These diseases would get suppressed only upon the complete elimination of the fungus and hence require caution to be treated.

Also, you could use various pet grooming tips to clean the body and nose of your pet to prevent fungal infections and allergies. These fungi mainly enter the body through inhalation and therefore proper living conditions are immensely required by your pet to sustain effectively. 

The Notion Of Applying Nail-Polishes On Your Pets Nails

All those beautiful ladies that leave no stone unturned in keeping themselves groomed, have a concept of matching each and every object that they have or they carry. From the dress they wear to their shoes, from their hair clips and even their nail polishes, all is carried in a single shade of color.

Recently, the trend of carrying your pets to whatever place you go has experienced an utmost boom. Be it due to the Hollywood movies that offer the idea or due to the increasing love for pets, your pets such as your dogs and cats could accompany you to almost every place.

And whether you take your pets to your friend’s wedding party or a restaurant to dine, the pets need to be fully groomed, both in their manners and in their physical appearance. While teaching mannerism could take a bit of time, you could use certain pet grooming tips to enhance the outer appearance of your pets.

While you choose a pretty dress for yourself, you would try to find a match for your pet too so that it too could fit with the ‘matching-trend’ that you follow for yourself. According to the latest trends, the ladies have imbibed the idea of applying nail paints on the nails of their pets too.

Pets And Their Nail-Paints:

Though offering colorful nails to your pets is not a new concept, the trend is gaining a boom due to fashion-consciousness of the ladies. There are various pet-specific nail-paints that could be used on your pets’ nails to render them a colorful and jolly appearance.

Applying nail paints on your pets’ nails would also help to hide the irregularities of their nails.

Steps To Efficiently Apply Nail-Paints On Your Pets:

Though the beautiful ladies are already experienced immensely in the art of applying nail paints, while you do it for your pets, it could require some precautions to be followed. Some steps which you could follow in the process are:

• To commence with the process, trim any sort of hair that interfere with the nails of your pets and could prove a disturbance while you apply colors.
• After this, examine the conditions of the nails of your pets. If these are too long, trim them up to the appropriate length. Long nails would click on the ground and nail-paints have all the chances of their removal. You could also use a file to file extra bit of nails. To follow this, brush the dirt and dust out from the nails of your pets. These, if present, could interfere with the process of applying nail paints.
• If required, wash the nails and wipe them with a clean cloth. Cleaning them would keep the nail polish intact for a long period.
• Apply nail polish when the pet is calm. You could offer a handful of kibbles to it, so that its interest remains lured while you perform the job. The nail-paints would be required to get dried and therefore, you need to keep your pet calm until the process is accomplished.
• If your pet attempts to move more than just a bit, you could make use of a plastic wrap to cover its paws. This would prevent it from getting colored all over due to immense movement of its paws.
• It would also be required that your pet remains hushed until the paint dries. It could attempt to lick the nail polish owing to the sweet smell it renders, which should be prevented.

After the process is over, wipe out any extra applications with a clean cotton-ball and you are there with a pet, which is ready to grace any kind of a festive or celebratory occasion.

Extra Precautions:

In attempt to get your pet groomed with less expenses, do not apply the simply human nail-polishes that the ladies get for themselves. These could contain toxins such as:

• Dibutyl phthalate
• Toluene
• Formaldehyde

These compounds, if licked even in the dry form, could do all sorts of damages in the body of your pets.

Therefore, it is a mandatory step to buy only pet-specific nail-paints to groom your pets and forbid the usage of human colors to offer them a cheerful appearance, which is not on the cost of their health. 

Do Pets Too Require Antioxidants With Their Foods?

Just as human beings are exposed to the process of oxidation in their body, your pets too could experience the same in theirs’. Oxidation is the process when the food is exposed to oxygen and it causes a breakdown in the nutrients and fat in the body causing symptoms such as discoloration and rancidity etc.

This is why the use of antioxidants is imperative in the food of pets as well. Antioxidants are the substances that block or slow down the process of oxygen to cause damage in the body.

Most of the pet owners are under an impression that antioxidants are added to the food of pets for the sake of extending its shelf-life, but in contrast antioxidants are imperative for some major kinds of body functions too for the pets.

Functions Of Antioxidants In Pets:

Just as you make use of all the pet grooming tips to enhance the outer appearance and personality of your pet, the antioxidants maintain the inner health in their body. This is due to their functions of protecting the damage of cells and restoration of the body immunity.

Similar to the human beings, the body of pets too produces harmful free radicals which are deficient of an electron. These free radicals try to derive the electron from some part of the body, thereby rendering it unstable. Due to this, even pets could experience conditions such as tumors and cancers.

Antioxidants are the substances that provide the required electron to these free radicals containing oxygen and turn them stable and harmless. In turn, the antioxidants do not become unstable on their own and thus are harmless to the body.  

Free radicals could also be said to be the by-product of metabolism in the body and have more chances of occurrence when the pet is sick, elderly, intoxicated or suffers due to poor nutrition. These, while being deficient of the electrons, are highly reactive and could attack the electrons of body-proteins, cell membranes and DNA.

However, due to the functions of antioxidants, these reactive molecules obtain stability and are settled harmless in the body. While the pets are young, it is with the effects of antioxidants that they could derive a superb immunity in their body. This is helpful for them to fight the diseases until the pet gets vaccinated.

 Antioxidants are also helpful in preventing the allergic reactions and inflammations in the body of pets. Due to the depression in body immunity, the pets could experience allergies and it mostly affects to degrade their skin and outer coat. With the presence of antioxidants in the food of pets, it is ensured that the pets would have a supreme immunity in their body and would stay safe from inflammations and allergic reactions.

Sources Of Antioxidants For The Pets:

The best sources of any kind of nourishment for the body are always obtained from the natural sources and the antioxidants are no different in this. A regular balanced diet could be highly imperative for the pets’ body to ensure a proper supply of antioxidants.

Some powerful antioxidants that are vital in the food of pets are Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Beta Carotene, carotenoids and Selenium etc. These could be obtained from the pet-foods that are obtained commercially and could also be supplied with the food that you prepare at home.

For naturally supplying them with antioxidants, you could offer them various seasonal fruits and veggies in either raw or cooked form. Cranberries, carrots, apples and citrus fruits etc. are supreme containers of antioxidants that immensely help the body of pets to combat the effects of free radicals.

Apart from the natural sources, the pets could be offered some kind of antibiotics too, which offer them assistance in fighting the damaging radicals. While investigating the pet food, you could look for the presence of BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin in them, which denote the presence of antioxidants in them. BHA and BHT are almost similar to Vitamin E that is derived from the foods and helps in restoring the lost body immunity.

Ethoxyquin however, was considered rather unsafe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration previously, but now its use has been facilitated much and is rather a safe option when used in appropriate quantities.

While choosing a particular kind of commercial pet food, it is essential to take the advice of an expert vet beforehand. This is because the vets could offer you advice on appropriate amount of nutrients, which are imperative in the day to day nourishment of pets.

Antioxidants too play a significant role in healthy existence of pets and keeping them safe for certain perilous disorders such as cancer and tumors. Make sure that they are present in the diet of pets for their long and blissful life in the future. 

Dry Food Or Wet Food, Which Is Better For Dogs?

The food that your dog consumes usually depends on its body structure. A short breed of dog would require lesser nutrition than the one which has a good height and body. But more or less, the nutrition value of the food is similar for all the dogs.

Dogs’ food is mainly divided into two categories:

1.     Wet Food

2.     Dry Food

These are unique in their own ways and contain distinct nutrition. While one of them might be beneficial for some, it could lead to troubles for others. The consumption of these foods is totally according to the requirements and recommendations.

Discussed below are the conditions in which they could be helpful or harmful:

Dry dog food:

Advantages:

·       Dry foods are easily measurable. You could without difficulty, come up with the appropriate proportion in which it is to be fed.

·       It possesses a high shelf-life with long expiry date. You could purchase it in bulk and store it for a considerable period.

·       Dry foods have a lesser expense than wet foods. You could easily save bucks while you purchase it.

·       It is good for the people that travel. You could keep it with you at the time of travelling with lesser chances of mess. Also, you could feed your pets at any time.

·       Some dry foods help to clean the teeth of dog. It means dual benefit out of single investment.

Disadvantages:

·       Most dry foods have a high amount of carbohydrates and lesser fats. It would not be beneficial for the pets that are highly active and perform heavy activities.

·       Dogs may find it difficult to break the Dog Dry Foods due to certain teeth disorders. It could also affect their gum health.

·       If the dry consumables are high in protein, it may render it expensive and increase your budget.

Wet Dog Foods:

Advantages:

·       Wet food is richer in flavor and taste. Your dog would certainly love the food if it tastes well.

·       Wet foods do not prove a threat for the digestive system and urinary tract. These are high in moisture which makes their digestion easy.

·       Wet foods fulfill the requirement of liquids and water in the body. Your pet would have lesser chances of dehydration in the summers.

·       It contains a larger amount of protein that helps the dog to perform better if it is young and active.

Disadvantages:

·       Once you open the wet foods, they need to be refrigerated for longer uses. Refrigeration may reduce the nutrition value of the food.

·       These perish very easily due to a lesser shelf life. Throwing this away would not help your pockets and enhance your budget.

·       Wet foods do not offer to clean your pet’s teeth. This could add to the chances of plaque-buildup in the teeth.

·       An insufficient or high amount of protein would not help your pet. Therefore, care should be taken that this is balanced in the wet foods.

While there are certain limitations for the both, you cannot deny that both of them could be essential at times. It is you who needs to decide on which food is better according to your pet. A mix of both the items is not at all a bad idea.

Bathe The Dog In Style Using The Pet Grooming Tips

How many times one can see dog staying away from water? Owners compel them to take bath but they resist and some of them might attack in retaliation. It is an unfortunate situation and should be handled with extreme care. To start with, you need to the bath dog platform which is raised. It goes a very long way in deliver sterling results to the users. If the dig has a habit of sliding down during taking bath, make sure that it doesn’t get hurt. One can use the rubber mat that provides extra level of cushion to prevent injuries.

Buy a customized tub:

The tub set up should be slightly higher and need to be bigger as well as spacious. Final size depends on the size of the dog and how active it is. If you have numerous pets, the tub solution is quite amazing and feasible for the users because it helps to optimize space and accomplish the task quickly as well as effectively.

Important Equipments required for the bath:

Pet shower is an ideal tool for taking bath however a plastic pitcher could be used as an attractive alternative. It is bound to deliver impeccable results from a long term perspective. Use the device so that the dog can take bath without any problem.

Do not wrestle:

• Wrestling with the pet can lead to lots of problems when you are forcing it to take bath. Acclimatization is very important for the dog as sudden pressure of water could scare him to a great extent.
• Lots of cuddles are required for the pets to ensure that the whole process becomes a wonderful event. Puppy would wait eagerly for at the end of the whole session he would get a treat from the owner. It is a wonderful way of encouraging the dog to take bath and relish the moment without being stressed.

Use good quality coat conditioner:

• High quality coat conditioner would enhance the luster of the skin and improve the appearance by many notches. Herbal conditioners are mild and do not cause any side effect. In addition, it provides essential nutrition to the hair preventing their shedding during the spring season.
• In order to protect the eyes of the dog from shampoo, place the eye protection gel as it not only eliminates pain as well as redness. 

Select the brush: 

• Conventional brush is used for combing the hair however pets that have itchy skin should be handled with the help of special brushes. They play a crucial role in brushing without causing irritation.
• In case the dog has thick hairs, dryers need to be used as they are different from the conventional cousins. They do not emit heat but use plenty of air volume to reach the internal roots of the skin without any problem.

With the help of dedication, perseverance and by following the Pet grooming tips you can easily cajole the pet to take bath and enjoy the health benefits to the hilt.