Pet Fire Safety - and a GIFT!

With much of the U.S. heartland in a severe drought, the danger of fire is on the increase. In fact, it's become almost commonplace lately to see fire advisories posted for our area by the National Weather Service.

National Pet Fire Safety Day is sponsored annually by the National Volunteer Fire Council, ADT Security and the American Kennel Club (AKC). Since we were participating in the Blog the Change event yesterday, we missed Fire Safety Day. So we're naming today Belated Fire Safety Day!

The apartment complex where Sebastian & CJ lived, Feb 24

We care deeply about fire safety. We have seen, up close and personal, what it's like to lose everything you own - and to lose a beloved pet. If you've been following this blog for a bit, you know we're referring to the fire that destroyed the homes of bloggers Sebastian and CJ. That same fire took the life of CJ's older brother Cosmo.

Ever since that tragic event, I have wanted to design a pet alert sign that you can print off and post in the windows of your home. Unlike other pet alert signs, this one would allow you to customize it, so you can let firefighters know exactly who needs rescuing inside.

You'll find these signs below, at the end of today's post. It's our gift to you.

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We also learned a thing or two during this year's National Pet Fire Safety Day, and we wanted to pass this info along to you:

New data from the National Fire Protection Association indicates that almost 1,000 fires each year are accidentally started by pets. This surprised us! At least until we read the story posted by the AKC about a curious dog named Lucy. 

All Lucy wanted was to sample that yummy cake her humans had left on the stove. As she reached up to snag a bite, her paw knocked the knob and turned on a gas burner. Within minutes the house was filled with smoke. Fortunately, the owners had a security service that called the local fire department. Lucy was rescued and the fire put out. (read more here)

It never once occurred to us to remove stove knobs to prevent such a thing from happening. Thanks, AKC, for sharing that info!

Water as a fire hazard?

Yep, you read that right! We were shocked to learn that you can actually cause a fire by placing a bowl of water out on your deck. Seriously. 

If your pet spends any amount of time outdoors - or if you're just trying to be kind to neighborhood pets and wildlife - you probably have a water bowl placed conveniently nearby.

Believe it or not, that can actually pose a fire hazard. There's a potentially dangerous combination that the National Volunteer Fire Council urges you to avoid, and that's water in a glass bowl.

A glass bowl filled with water can have a magnifying effect when placed on a wooden deck. Both water and glass can filter the sun's rays in such a way that they can ignite the wood beneath.

So please choose a ceramic or stainless steel bowl instead (and please... for your pet's sake, place it in the shade!).

You can read more about fire safety awareness at the CATalyst Council, at 1-800 Pet Meds and at AKC.org.  

We've mentioned this before but we're taking this opportunity to mention it again: be sure to have a pet emergency kit stored near your main exit, and think through how you will respond should an emergency such as a fire occur in your home. 

Our Gift to You

For the longest time, we've wanted to make window signs that leave space for you to tell firefighters exactly what pet or pets you might have inside.

So we created these printable alert signs with enough white space for you to write in exactly what kind of pet - and how many! - your firefighters need to rescue.

(We've even considered printing off small photos of  Allie, Maxwell and Faraday and adding them to the white space, so there's no confusion!)

All you need to do to download these signs is to right click and select "Save image as." This will download a JPG file to your computer that you can then print and hang prominently in a window or two.

Taking them to a print shop and having them laminated might be even better!  If you'd like a higher resolution file, please email us by clicking on the Contact Us tab at the top of our blog. 

We'll be happy to send you a higher resolution PDF file - just specify which one, dog or cat (or both!).

The ASPCA also offers free generic Pet Alert decals that will adhere to any surface. Visit their web site to order their free Pet Safety Pack.

Please stay safe during these hot summer months!  

Monday Medical Issues: Da Boyz are Albinos! Part 2

Yep, da boyz are albinos, as we discussed last week. Temperature-sensitive albinos, to be exact. That's what causes breeds like Siamese, Burmese, Himalayans and Tonkinese to have pointed coats - darker in the extremities and lighter in the torso.

But did you know this albinism extends to eye color, too?

There are two layers in the iris of the eye that determine what color your eyes are (both in humans and cats) – the stroma and the epithelium.

In most cats, pigmented cells are scattered throughout both layers. 

But for cats who have Siamese or Burmese alleles, (that gene pair we discussed last week that causes temperature-sensitive albinism) there is no pigmentation in the stroma.

And, whereas other cat breeds with blue eyes have pigment in that lower epithelial layer, the blue of a Siamese is due to the absence of pigment in both layers.




Whoa… if there's no color in Maxwell's eyes, why do they appear blue?

For the same reason the sky is blue.

(here you go, moms! the answer to the age-old question kids everywhere ask.)

In really basic terms it has to do with the fact that, of all the colors in the visible light spectrum, blue has the shortest wavelength, and colors with shorter wavelengths scatter more than colors with longer wavelengths – it's called Rayleigh Scattering. Since blue light is the predominant light that is bouncing around in the stroma layer, that is the color you see (shown by the cool red arrows in the diagram above!).

You can read more about it at Science Made Simple.

So there you have it, folks. Siamese cats: living out the answer to the age-old question of why the sky is blue.

Oh, and yeah. Da boyz are albinos!

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source:
"Ocular pigmentation in white and Siamese cats", Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1980 May;19(5):475-86. Thibos LN, Levick WR, Morstyn R.

Comparative Opthalmology, Chapter 11, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

Monday Medical Issues: Pet insurance - worth it?

Just a few weeks ago, on May 7, Wall Street's MarketWatch published an article written by contributing author Jeanette Pavini that suggested pet insurance was a waste of money.

We do not agree.

First, there are an increasing number of affordable plans that begin as low as $4.08/month in the U.S. (at the date of this publication) for accident coverage only.  That's less than half the price of a movie ticket these days. Excuse me? Have you seen what's playing on the big screen? Let's talk "waste of money" here.

Second, the Wall Street article included a statement that inaccurately describes the coverage provided by most pet insurance companies. Here is the statement in question:

"...with most plans, the premiums rise and coverage declines as your pet gets older—when they are more likely to need costly procedures."

This seems highly counter-intuitive. If that were truly the case, what person in their right mind would purchase it?  This is irresponsible journalism on the part of Ms. Pavini. A bit of time spent searching several well-known U.S. insurance sites provided absolutely no evidence whatsoever that coverage shrinks as a pet ages. [One wonders where Ms. Pavini did her research...?]

So I went to three of the top pet insurance companies in the U.S. and asked them, point blank, if they did this. The answer, in all three cases, was unequivocally NO.

VPI: "Our coverage does not decline as a pet ages. We will not drop a pet or reduce coverage simply because a pet is getting older."

Trupanion: "Trupanion coverage does not decline as the pet ages. Perhaps they meant to say that coverage options (pre-enrollment only) decline?"

Quite possibly that's what the author meant. Because it is true that the cost to insure a pet increases as the pet ages. And the older the pet, the more potential exclusions there will be if you opt into coverage at a late date. It's the same with human insurance, as well.  But if that's what the Wall Street article intended to say...it failed. The article certainly didn't leave one with that impression. In our opinion, Trupanion was being very kind and diplomatic to give the author an "out."

Then, at the recommendation of friend and artist Bz Tat, of Okey's Promise, I spoke with Laura Bennett, CEO of Embrace Pet Insurance, and Chairman of the Board of the North American Pet Health Insurance Association.

Bz Tat, who also worked for decades as a child and family therapist, has a well developed ability to take the measure of a person and is someone whose opinion I respect. So when she referred to Ms. Bennett as a person who runs her company in a very principled manner, I asked for an introduction.

I then asked Ms. Bennett if she thought pet insurance was a waste of money, and if she would like to respond to the Wall Street article.  Here is what she said:

“I was really disappointed that the author of the article, Jeanette Pavini, based her opinion of pet insurance on one friend’s experience with one company.

Regarding the example she provided, it is true that a few pet insurers exclude hereditary conditions and given a Bernese Mountain Dog is prone to hip dysplasia amongst other conditions, that might have been the surgery she mentioned that was not covered; however, there are a number of pet insurers that do cover hereditary conditions (Embrace and Petplan being two of them) and even some of those that have not covered them in the past are adding optional coverage for breed-specific issues now (such as VPI and ASPCA).

I would love to discuss pet insurance with Ms Pavini just to show that pet insurance is not all the same and a high deductible policy to protect against large unexpected vet bills, just like her friend would have wished for, is worth getting.”


Finally, I personally believe Ms. Pavini's logic is flawed. She recommended that, instead of pet insurance, a person would be better off starting a pet emergency savings account. You can never convince me that the average American household is going to set aside funds for a pet's health care, despite the advice of Ms. Pavini's MarketWatch recommendation. Even if they did, the sticker shock factor of the large volume of money required all at once for an injury/illness may negatively impact the decision to seek care for the pet.  Again, Laura Bennett:

"Budgeting is for predictable expenses; insurance is for unpredictable and financially impactful veterinary costs. Unless you are very wealthy, budgeting can never replace insurance if you would do whatever it takes to help the health of your pet in a veterinary health decision."

Ryker, after sonogram test for lymphona

Having pet insurance may mean the difference between several more years of companionship or making that painful decision to euthanize.

And -- call me crazy, but in a way, I see pet insurance as another way to cut down on the number of deaths at animal shelters in the U.S. annually. (Yes, some people, upon discovering their "beloved pet" has an expensive disease, will simply abandon it. Seen it firsthand.)


Ryker was insured. A few months after he passed away, I did the math. In the end, we came out ahead (not by much, but we did end up spending less on our vet bills with insurance than we would have without).

All three of our kitties are insured, and they will remain so. If nothing else, the peace of mind, for us, is worth it.

And no, I was not compensated in any way for this post. I simply happen to believe personally that pet insurance is worth it.

Monday Medical Issues: Microchipping

Since May is Microchip Your Pet Month, we thought it would be a good topic for a Monday Medical Issues post.

Microchipping is growing in popularity, with an increasing number of animal shelters offering it as a free service to all animals upon adoption.

But what are the statistics surrounding microchipping?

What are the risks? What are the benefits? And - most important - do the benefits outweigh the risks?

photo: Adobe Veterinary Center

Microchipping your pet involves embedding a rice-sized pellet between your dog or cat's shoulder blades just below the back of the neck. (On other animals the location may vary, and in Continental Europe, the practice is to locate the microchip in the left side of the neck).

No anesthesia is required, though I have to admit, I requested it be done while Faraday was anesthetized during his teeth cleaning after I saw Allie cry out when she was injected - those needles are just a teensy bit bigger than standard!

This pellet contains a tracking number that is maintained in a database. That database contains owner information and, depending on the database, can also contain veterinarian info and even medical records.

When an animal is found, one of the first things a veterinarian or animal shelter does is to scan the animal for a microchip.

Microchip Myths, Facts
and Scientific Stuff

One of the stories circulating around microchips is that they cause cancer. That fear may be related to the fact that some vaccination injection sites have proven to cause cancer in some animals, particularly cats. (this will be the topic of a future Monday Medical Issues post). Here's what the research tells us: the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) maintains a database on the adverse reactions of microchips on animals. At the time the study was posted, only 391 animals out of 4 million were reported experiencing an adverse reaction. That's 0.00010%, or 1 out of every 10,000 animals microchipped.

And the majority of those issues involved the migration of the microchip, not cancer. Two of those cases recorded were dogs who had developed cancer at the site, but one of them, according to the BSAVA study, may have been caused by something else.

In comparison, you're about 4 times more likely to die in an auto accident than your pet is to have any kind of adverse reaction at all, and 4 times more likely to be struck by lightning than your pet is to get cancer from a microchip.

As a result, the American Veterinary Medical Association has deemed microchipping to be worth the risk. 

Picture Source: ainhoap and Animal Photos!

Why? Let's talk about the benefits for a few minutes. 

A study of almost 8,000 stray animals at animal shelters concluded that dogs who were not microchipped were only reunited with their owners about 22% of the time.

Dogs who were microchipped were reunited over 52% of the time. 


That more than doubled your pup's chance of finding you should you become separated. 

And the odds for cats exponentially increase. A non-chipped cat has less than a 2% chance of being reunited with his owner. But microchipped cats went back to their families almost 40% of the time.
We're all for increasing the odds of any lost pet being rehomed, so we give microchips four paws up.


Next week:  

The science behind how microchips work 

and other reasons for microchipping you 

might not have considered





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sources:  Lord, et al, "Journal of American Veterinary Medicine Association", July 15, 2009