Pet friendly: Northeast Animal Shelter moves to larger space
By Kristin D’Agostino/kdagosti@cnc.com

“Push!” two women shout as Hazel May crouches with tail in the air, struggling to bring her ninth puppy into the world.

The amber-colored stray collie arrived pregnant at the Northeast Animal Shelter last week and she’s been treated like a celebrity ever since. Her labor pains began last night, says Michelle Briand, 33, the kennel manager who has been here with her since 6:30 a.m. when the dog began going into labor.

“I rushed right over,” Briand says. “She shouldn’t be left alone. I offered her water and support and she was really happy to see me.”

If Hazel May had come to the shelter two months ago, she would have been turned away because she was pregnant. The animal shelter moved on May 22 from a tiny basement space on Highland Avenue into a former Honda dealership down the street that offers literally 10 times the space. For the first time in their 32-year history, they can accommodate pregnant animals.

“Before we didn’t have the space for it,” director Laurie McCannon says. “We’d rush the dog off to foster care.”

In between pushes, Hazel May sprawls out in the corner of her stall in a windowed room that bears resemblance to a hospital’s maternity ward. Staff peer in the windows and point and smile at her crop of nursing babies.

It’s not just Hazel who’s reaping the benefits of more space. Just a couple rooms over, Crackers, a black and white cat, is enjoying a leisurely stroll around his new digs in a 10-by-8 foot room complete with a small sofa and two climbing posts. At the old shelter, Crackers — who was found abandoned in an old apartment — was prone to moodiness and bad behavior.

“He was cranky and would scratch people,” McCannon says. Here in one of two new cat “community” rooms where he’s allowed to roam free, Cracker has become much more relaxed. Sure, he shares the space with six other cats, but now his time in the shelter feel less like a prison sentence and more like a night out with the boys.

The community rooms are just one attempt at improving the animals’ quality of life — a stroll through the shelter reveals many others. In one room about 50 caged cats doze and stretch to the sound of opera music piped in through the shelter’s new speaker system, an effort to help relax the animals. They seem to like it, McCannon says, though the real mood enhancer is no longer having to share their room with barking dogs.

Since moving, “there is a noticeable change in their behavior,” McCannon says. To read more of this article visithttp://www.wickedlocal.com

The Northeast Animal Shelter will celebrate the move to its new home with a special grand opening at the new location, 347 Highland Ave., Sunday, June 29 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Special activities include an auction, featuring gifts and services from local businesses. The silent auction runs 2-4 p.m. with winners announced at 4:30 p.m. In consideration of shelter residents, visitors are asked to leave their own beloved animal companions at home.

Special guided shelter tours include: Up-close-and-personal time with the animals; “Ask the Vet” and “Ask the Trainer,” an opportunity to get questions answered by the experts; Training demonstrations led by local trainers; Face painting; special appearances by favorite TV cartoon characters; raffles and refreshments; and Stuffed Animal Wellness Clinic, in which kids bring a favorite stuffed companion for a checkup by a real veterinarian and receive a personalized wellness certificate.

For information call 978-745-9888 or visit www.northeastanimalshelter.org.

Safety Warning Notification
COMFORTIS® and ivermectin interaction

The Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine and Elanco Animal Health are advising veterinarians that dogs receiving extra-label doses of ivermectin should not receive concurrent treatment with Comfortis® (spinosad) flea preventive and treatment.

For more information, go to this page:www.fda.gov/cvm/CVM_Updates/ComfortisSafety.htm

Ivermectin is sometimes used in the treatment of demodicosis (generalized demodectic mange), and as a wormer or heartworm preventive. Please speak to your vet with any concerns you may have about your own dog and the use of multiple medications.

Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA in towns such as Marblehead, Swampscott, Salem, Beverly, Peabody, Danvers, Ipswich and more with K9 acupuncture house-calls. FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

What’s Your Dog Eating?
By Holly Noonan

Have you ever noticed that dogs tend to develop growths after a decade or so of eating commercial pet food? My sister’s dog has a couple of growths on his leg that are developing their own personalities and arguing with each other. It’s fascinating in a grotesque sort of way. And did you hear about “Gus, the World’s Ugliest Dog?” He must be seen to be believed. He had some tough competition, too. Poor Gus is missing one eye and one leg and will be spending his prize money on cancer treatment.

OK I’m getting predictable in my refrain “It’s all about the food,” but doesn’t that make a heap of sense? Modern industrial commodity pet food is literally the garbagey by-products of our industrial meat system, which isn’t that clean or palateable to start with.

Our dog Tenzin started growing growths on her face and body last year and that’s when I made the switch away from commercial dog food. (Her growths have stopped growing.) Also, she is part husky and blows out her undercoat in the spring. Every year it was getting earlier and earlier, until at 7 years old, she started losing her undercoat in the coldest part of winter: February. We switched to natural dog food (more on that below) and this year she didn’t start losing her undercoat until May. It was a really conspicuous change in one year.

According to the Animal Protection Institute, we should “avoid foods that rely on by-products as the sole source of animal protein. By-products consist of organs and parts either not desired, or condemned, for human consumption…. (Another) potential problem with commercial pet food is pesticide residues, antibiotics, and molds contained in pet food ingredients. Meat from sick animals may be loaded with drugs, some of which are known to pass unchanged through all the processing done to create a finished pet food (such as penicillin and pentobarbital).”

To read more of this article waldo.villagesoup.com

“HOW’S YOUR DOG? Did you ever have a guy who asks you that? “HOW’S YOUR DOG?” …Fine, he’s all right. They’re not your dogs; they’re our dogs! Every now and then one of us has one for awhile. But they’re our dogs.

Okay, you’re home at night, got the TV on, but you got the lights on too ’cause you’re reading, doggie’s there, doing a crossword puzzle, answer the phone. You got a Pepsi, bag of Doritos, hey…Does this happen in your house? If a dog is shown on television, do you try to get your dog to look at the dog? “Look at the dog! Look at the dog! Look at the doggie! LOOK AT THE DOG, YOU *******!” They never look where you want, do they? They look at your hand. “Look over there” “What’s his hand doing up there, man? His hand is on my head! What did I do wrong?” “Well, for one thing, you missed the dog!”

Jeanie Marie Kraft, Lic.Ac. is keeping tails wagging on the North Shore of MA with veterinary acupuncture house-calls. All house-calls include a nutritional and herbal consultation with an acupuncture and laser acupuncture treatment.

This includes the following towns of Massachusetts :
Marblehead MA
Swampscott MA
Lynn MA
Salem MA
Peabody MA
Danvers MA
Beverly MA
Hamilton MA
Ipswich MA
and a few others located in the near by vicinity.

Contact FourPawsAcupuncture.com for more information.

10 holistic pet care tips you can trust

By Christie Keith, Special to SF Gate
Wednesday, June 10, 2008

For more than 22 years, I’ve been raising and caring for my pets using alternative and complementary methods. In that time, I’ve seen dozens of supplements, herbs and nutritional theories hailed as the one true way to pet health, and then fall by the wayside.

After interviewing dozens of holistic vets, following a lot of tips that sounded promising and undergoing a great deal of trial and error with my own animals in the past two decades, I’ve come up with a list of 10 tried-and-true holistic tips that have worked for my pets as well as many others.

One caution, and it’s a big one: Talk to your veterinarian before trying to treat your pet at home. It’s one thing to give a gingersnap to see if it helps a healthy puppy’s mild carsickness; it’s another to think you can treat a pet’s violent or chronic diarrhea at home. There is nothing “holistic” about treating conditions without a diagnosis.

1. Peppermint and catnip
Peppermint (Mentha piperita) and catnip (Nepeta cataria) are wonderful remedies for nausea and car sickness. Peppermint also regulates peristalsis, so it can help with irritable bowel syndrome, and even with symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease.

Catnip has similar effects on digestive upsets while being more palatable for felines. Even if your cat doesn’t experience a euphoric reaction to the herb — and 20 percent of cats don’t — it still has digestive benefits and can also serve as a mild appetite stimulant to both dogs and cats. It may help with some forms of vomiting in cats, but it’s important first to have your veterinarian determine the cause of the vomiting.

If your cat is attracted to catnip, you can just put some of the dried, crushed herb on the ground for the cat to roll around in. If not, you can add the dried herb to their food at the rate of around half a teaspoon per pound of food. You can also give cats or dogs a glycerin-based tincture (available at some health food stores), half a milliliter for every 20 pounds of body weight.

Glycerin-based peppermint tinctures are widely sold in health food stores for use by children. Dogs can be given these products dosed by body weight according to the guidelines on the label; those that also contain ginger are especially helpful for car sickness. (And yes, a gingersnap will also often do the trick.)

Because dogs tend to like the taste, they will usually drink a weak peppermint tea given in a bowl instead of water. It should be offered lukewarm or at room temperature rather than very hot or chilled.

Peppermint is contraindicated for pets with reflux, as it relaxes the esophageal sphincter.

2. Medical grade honey
When one of my dogs developed a drug-resistant staph infection, I spent weeks and hundreds of dollars on antibiotics, only to have the infection come back again and again. I finally banished it, hopefully forever, with the aid of an FDA-approved bandage containing medical grade honey.

This honey contains an enzyme that is believed to prevent bacterial growth. It comes from bees that feed on the flowers of the Manuka plant in New Zealand. It’s being used in both human and veterinary medicine to treat and prevent resistant bacterial infections. The product I used is called Medihoney.
To read the rest of this article click on www.sfgate.com

This is Park who is 8 years old and Judd who is 6 1/2 months old basking in the San Diego sun. Such stunning dogs. A special thanks to Marilynn, their owner for allowing me to post their picture.

German Shepherds are my favorite breed of dog. I was fortunate to have three shepherds, Merlin, Nina and Liberty while living in San Diego. All have passed on since.

German Shepherds are very intelligent and love to have jobs. They were originally bred to herd sheep. The herding instinct make them an excellent dog to have around children. The GSD need activities and exercise. Training is essential for this breed. If they become bored they can become very destructive. They are fearless, loyal and devoted. There are no words for the bond between a shepherd and their owner.

For those who need help in training your GSD please read “How to be your dog’s best friend”, by the Monks of New Skete. These men are Dr Dolittles in monk robes! I have never in my entire life met such well behaved dogs as the ones at New Skete.

Unfortunately many Shepherds suffer from hip dysplasia. Other problems may include allergies or arthritis in old age. Acupuncture, a change in diet, supplements and Chinese herbal formulas can help with many of these ailments. My dog Merlin suffered from hip dysplasia in his later years. After incorporating Traditional Chinese medicine, cooking for him and giving him acupuncture. His symptoms improved. Merlin lived to be almost 15 years old. Not bad for a GSD! Four Paws Acupuncture began as a result of Merlin’s success.

For more info visit The Official Blog Blast for Peace site.

During your phone consultation, I will take time to understand your dog and any health concerns, then provide recommendations and instructions drawn from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to help your dog. A session will cover:

* A complete health history, to learn more about your dog, her or his health issues, and other factors that may contribute to these issues.
* A discussion about your dog’s diet and nutrition, and suggestions of several food brand options, recipes and other information on nutrition as applicable to your dog’s health.
* A discussion about supplements, Bach Flower Remedies and other products that will help your dog.
* Recommendations of Chinese herbal formulas that may help your dog.

For more information www.fourpawsacupuncture.com