Taking Care of Dog's Health Benefits Whole Family

While life with a new baby can seem overwhelming at times -- I would certainly know with a 2-month-old baby girl -- it is still a good idea to keep taking your dog (or cat or any other animal living in/at the home) to his or her veterinarian on a regular basis.  It might be easy to forget about taking your dog to the vet for wellness checkups. Our vet's office sends us a postcard in the mail to remind us to make Sydney's yearly wellness exam a month before her exam is due (approximately a year after the previous appointment).  It seems like a lot of people only take their new puppy to the vet for the first shots and stuff, but after that a trip to the vet is only for problems. Wellness exams are still very important!

Even if your dog is healthy and doesn't seem to need veterinary care, it is still a good idea to take your dog to the vet at least once a year to make sure he or she is still a healthy dog.  THIS ISN'T JUST FOR THE DOG'S SAKE.  It is also for the sake of the rest of the family, especially the new baby.

If certain bacteria is passed between the dog and baby -- or any other family member for that matter -- things like hookworms can infect the baby.  By keeping up with the dog's health and having him or her tested for heartworm and other types of worms, like intestinal worms, on a regular basis, you can prevent your child from getting worms from the dog.  So, if your vet's office asks you to bring in a stool sample, bring it!  They'll test it for worms!

My husband and I had been interested in a lot of natural and holistic preventions and remedies for Sydney.  Heartworm (and worms in general) seems to be one of those ailments that there isn't an easy prevention available for the dog.  Last year I tried giving Sydney a holistic worm prevention by adding drops to her water, but it was hard to find a way to keep giving Sydney the medicine since she's very picky with how fresh her water is.  She typically refuses water that is more than a few hours old.  Unfortunately, this meant a lot of wasted holistic worm prevention medicine.  I've tried "tricking" her into taking it all, but she's too darn smart sometimes!  If the instructions didn't say to keep the drops at room temperature, putting them in ice cubes would have been ideal since she LOVES ice cubes!

We debated on whether we should give her the heartworm prevention treatments sold in vet's offices despite preferring holistic prevention treatments.  We knew that if she ever got heartworm and died from it because we did nothing to prevent it -- or gave her something that she wouldn't take much of -- we'd never forgive ourselves.

I talked to our vet about it, and she said that the heartworm prevention options that they provided were safe.  She also reminded me that with a new baby in the house, it's important to prevent a worm infection for both Sydney's sake AND Taylor's sake (as well as ours).  Once Taylor starts to crawl and discover more of her surroundings, she'll also discover more of Sydney's surroundings (doggy toys, doggy's water, etc.). And, as we all know with babies, everything goes in the mouth!  Can't always prevent the baby from starting to put something like Sydney's Nylabone, for example, in her mouth.  So, heartworm prevention treatment would stop any heartworm/intestinal worm infection inside Sydney, which in turn would prevent a potential infection in Taylor and possibly us.

Tough decision... try to prevent heartworm/worms with natural medicines that Sydney doesn't seem to take to -- and potentially not work if she doesn't take it -- and risk an infection someday OR have Sydney take something that a lot of vet's offices recommend and would be easier to get into her?

We decided on her taking Iverheart, which prevents not just heartworm but intestinal worms as well.  So, I left Sydney's yearly vet appointment with Iverheart and gave it to her at home.  It's a monthly treatment, and we were given a 6-month supply.  She took it no problem.

I still wonder if we made the right decision on not getting a holistic treatment, but we figure that some type of prevention would be better than none.  And not just for Sydney's sake, but for the entire family as well. We had to think big picture!

Make sure your dog's vaccinations are updated.  Sydney's vaccinations are good for 3 years, so hers weren't due this year, but next year she'll need them.  Something like rabies can be passed from any animal to a human with a bite.  What if your dog gets bitten by a raccoon outside at night?  You don't know if that raccoon was rabid.  Rabid animals don't act like themselves and may bite you, even if they love you.  And the treatment for a human with rabies is nasty -- all those shots to the belly!  Any animal found with rabies will be put down.  Potentially a devastating scenario: your dog gets bitten by another rabid animal, gets rabies, bites your or a member of your family and has to be put down.  And your child gets infected as well and has to go through a nasty treatment. Bad scenario overall! Just get the vaccinations updated!

The most important reason for keeping up with your dog's health is simple: a healthy dog is a happy dog, which can translate to a happy and healthy family!

Let your dog be healthy and happy for many years so that your little one and doggy can be best buds for many years to come!  Good health will help them to truly grow up together!