Holiday Tips Revisited

Santa is coming!

Judea always loved seeing her stocking hung on the mantle. She anxiously awaited getting her very special treats from Santa.

Shoreline Animal Hospital’s Pet Holiday Safety Tips

The veterinarians at Shoreline Animal Hospital, Dr. Julie Berman, Dr.Michelle West, and Dr. Lynda Perry want to wish all pet owners in Clinton safe and happy holidays. To help ensure the holidays are safe for all pets, they are sharing holiday safety tips to prevent serious illness or injury. 

Oh, Christmas Tree: Securely anchor your Christmas tree to prevent tipping from curious feline family members. If you have a live tree, securing your tree will keep stagnant water from spilling, that could contain fertilizers and bacteria. Wrapped gifts under the tree, such as boxes of chocolate could also be dangerous if Fido follows his nose and opens them on his own, so keep them out of reach until after Santa comes.

Sparkly Tinsel: Kitties can find tinsel and ribbons irresistible to play with and carry in their mouths. Ingestion can lead to bowel obstruction, severe vomiting, dehydration,and could require surgery.

Holiday Treats: Your holiday guests might want to slip treats to your pets, and holiday leftovers might be tempting for Rover to steal. Fatty and spicy foods, bones,raw bread dough, alcoholic beverages, onions/ garlic, chocolate, and grapes are on the please do not feed list! A well-intended treat could trigger GI upset, diarrhea or pancreatitis. Sugar free sweets could contain xylitol that can be lethal to pets. If your guests want to give some extra attention to your pets they can provide a walk or some extra cuddle time.

Nostalgic Snow Globes: Snow globes may contain ethylene glycol, (also found in anti-freeze) which is a highly toxic substance if ingested. If a snow globe is broken the sweet smell can attract a pet to lick it up, leading to potentially fatal intoxication. Please keep all snow globes out of reach of pets.

Open Suitcases: Family pets often like to investigate your visitors’ suitcases. Pets can get into pill vials and weekly pill reminder cases. Please remind your guests to secure all medications in a cabinet and to close their suitcases! 

New Year’s Celebrations: New Year’s Eve noises from poppers to fireworks can be terrifying for pets. Please be sure to provide your pets an escape proof area that is quiet with fresh water and places to snuggle as midnight approaches

Hogan's Hope: News Article on Deaf Puppy

This blind, deaf puppy was just rescued from the snow by a kind delivery driver

From Mother Nature Network

MARY JO DILONARDO December 17, 2019

The puppy has been named Starla. (Photo: Speak! St. Louis)

Winter is a tough time of year for our precious animals who are destined to live outside in the harsh elements of cold temperatures, lack of shelter, and little or no food. Mary Jo DiLonardo offers us an uplifting story that warms the heart and hopefully encourages us to be on the lookout for the less fortunate animals who need our love and attention. Special appreciation is given to those who love and accept our animals for who and how they are. Thank you, Mary Jo!

“This time of year, delivery drivers are rushing around, darting in and out of their trucks as they race to drop off packages for the holidays. But one UPS driver picked up a very special package this week on his route in rural Missouri.

He was heading down the highway when he thought he saw something alongside the road. Not sure if he was right or not, he decided to stop, just in case. He found a tiny white puppy nearly hidden in the snow.

He warmed up the little dog in his truck and took it to the local shelter, where they soon discovered that the young Australian shepherd was hearing and vision impaired. She’s likely a double merle.

Merle is a beautiful swirled pattern in a dog's coat. Some disreputable breeders will breed two merles together in hopes of getting popular merle puppies. Those puppies have a 25% chance of being double merle — which results in a predominantly white coat and usually means they have hearing or vision loss or both.

When double merle puppies are born, they are often discarded.

Fortunately, for this little one, a guardian angel in a delivery truck saved the day.

‘We see this all the time’

Starla the rescued puppy sleeps on her way to her foster home. (Photo: Speak! St. Louis)

At the shelter, they knew the puppy would need special care. They reached out to Speak! St. Louis, a rescue that specializes in blind and/or deaf dogs. Volunteers at Speak quickly agreed to take in the miracle puppy; they named her Starla.

The shelter has to hold Starla for a few days just in case someone claims her, but no one really thinks that will happen.

In the meantime, she is being treated for all sorts of worms, which is typical for a puppy. Fortunately she has tested negative for parvo, an often-lethal disease found in young puppies.

‘We see this all the time," Judy Duhr, director of Speak, tells MNN. "These puppies are cast aside because of their preventable disabilities. But they deserve to live a happy and healthy life just like any other dog. Society needs to see their worth.’”