5 Easy Hacks To make Your Pet Live Longer
Clearly there are basic health concerns like making sure they are parasite free and immune to the most common diseases and that they get regular physical examinations. That is a given and not the checklist I am talking about!
These are the first five, easy-to-implement, steps you can start tomorrow and already impact your pet's life expectancy positively.
Even though they seem obvious at first glance, it has been my experience that more than 80% of my patients that come see me for the first time, are NOT following these recommendations correctly.
This is not to imply that [pet owners are negligent or are willfully harming their pets, but maybe they just did not know. So you will forgive me if I repeat some seemingly obvious advice.
Stay on top of weight gain in your pets
Exercise
Standardized eating habits/avoid bad habits
Routine schedules
Mental stimulation
Because these first three hacks seem so obvious that you might be disappointed I am giving you 3 more!
Diet rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants and probiotics.
Learn to prevent diseases rather than treat them after they occur.
Age appropriate medical screening
Obviously one can write many books on each of these subjects so the object of today is not to go into great detail about this, but to just give you an outline in checklist form and then briefly touch on each subject just to make you aware.
1.Stay on top of weight gain in your pets
If everybody would
1. Stop feeding people food of any kind
2. Stop giving treats as a reward,
95 % of all pet obesity problems would be eliminated on the spot.
The majority of the rest of the pets will benefit from owners measuring the exact amount of food needed and don't’ go over that amount each day. Leaving food out all day, or just giving them more when they demand it leads to problems. When pets on a balanced diet/exercise regimen do not loose weight, it is usually not their problem, but because of permissive parenting, which could be very harmful.
Sure there are 5% of pets with medical conditions or hormonal disturbances that also need medical supervision, but just start with the obvious.
2.Exercise
Look, be serious, just walking your dog on a leash around the block, or getting your cat to chase a string for five minutes does not count as exercise.If you can keep up with your dog without getting a little winded, they are not getting enough to benefit.
They need to run the equivalent time of hunting prey and running and twisting and running for 30 to 60 minutes per day. If you cannot keep up, use a tennis ball, or frisbee, or ride your bike beside them to keep up the exercise level.
3.Standardized eating habits/avoid bad habits
Stop feeding pets when they beg. People are forever telling me how the pets won’t let them sleep or leave them alone if they don’t give them their favorite food. Even worse if they don’t feel like eating their favorite food and the owners go out and buy every other kind of junk food available to see if maybe they like that more. You are your own worst enemy, you created this monster.Ignore whether they like the food or not, it is irrelevant. I want you to buy the best quality food you can afford, but I don’t care if at first they like it or not. If the can afford to be picky, clearly they are not hungry enough to starve. Tomorrow they will be hungrier and they will eat it. But if nature tells them they are full enough and they don’t feel like eating, don’t keep giving them stinkier and tastier garbage.
You are teaching them How Not To Eat Regular Food!
I LIKE IT when the food is healthy, but not super appetizing, even if it is boring. Then I know the pets are only eating when they need to. If that turns out to be once every 48 hours, so be it. The “being hungry” stage is very important for health.
There is no law that says unless they are wolfing down food several times per day, they are unhealthy. In nature, wild dogs and cats only eat once every three days!
Stop freaking out about one or two missed meals. And when they are that hungry, believe me, they are not picky about which food comes next, they will eat dead cockroaches or rotten flesh, no problem.
4.Routine schedules
There are few things that are more calming and soothing and mentally rewarding for pets, than having a constant routine. Most of the phobias and behaviorism can be treated by instilling daily school or training sessions, so the pet can understand their environment better and keeping top strict routine with few deviations. Over-nervous or paranoid owners cause most of the freaky behavior in pets. You owe it to them to create a stable daily routine. By the way do not fall for the trap that giving in to their every demand is a kind thing to do. They need a parent that teaches boundaries.
5.Mental stimulation
Be aware of the fact that as your dog gets older, you need to continue to keep the brain exercised through challenges , training exercises and brain games. Pay close attention to any changes in activity levels and consciousness and have them checked out early Get a copy of
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Aa. Diet rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants and probiotics.
Obviously start paying more attention to feeding top quality health food and cutting out junk food. But this is also a good time to start teaching yourself about supplements and antioxidants that might benefit your dog (and by the way yourself!)
Every pet, but especially pets over 5 years old will benefit from some omega3 fatty acid supplements, a balanced antioxidant formula and quality probiotics,
If you want in-depth analysis of this we recommend the Ebook The Tibetan Formula below
Bb. Learn to prevent diseases, rather than treat them after they occur.
Besides just doing the bare minimum routine health care, ask about what additional tests and diagnostics may be helpful and take care of dental disease and allergies and arthritis before it gets out of hand.
Cc. Age appropriate medical screening
Be very aware of changes in behavior or attitude that could signal early diseases that need your attention. Look for pain or swelling, or limping, or increased thirst and urination, or increase or decrease in appetite. You might notice signs of early deafness or blindness becoming evident, that needs more attention. You can even get some urine test strips from the pharmacy to use in your home-screening.
As they get to be 5 years or older you may want to start visiting the veterinarian more frequently and request more diagnostics to detect problems earlier.
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Sincerely,Dr. Albert Nelmapius
Provided as a service by Safari Animal Clinic Tampa, Florida (813) 988 8880
