0 Owning A Pet: Are You Responsible Enough?

Owning a pet is not as easy as ABC. You have to consider a lot of things. Our pets provide unconditional love and care for us, but let us not forget the responsibilities we have in taking care of them.

Owning a pet is a lifetime commitment. Pet animals and their owner develop deep bonds between them. It is a must to provide your pet shelter, food, water, medical care, love and attention.

Before taking your new pet home, you must make sure you have all the basic needs. You must secure everything your pet needs before taking it home. These include a collar, ID tag and Rabies tag, leash, food and water bowls, a comfortable bed and toys. Find a good Vet. Having your pet’s personal veterinarian is less hassle than looking for one in times of emergency.

‘Dog-proof’ home. Be sure to keep anything that can poison your pets. Not only it harms your pet, if you have kids in the house, you’re also saving them.

And above all, make sure that owning a pet is the right choice. You own a pet not be-cause your neighbor does. You bought a pet because it suits your living.

Now, if you are ready. I bet you will become a responsible pet owner.

Yza Angela E. Turingan

Freshman MassCom

St. Paul University of Manila

0 The Man Who Started It All

Sixto Almeda Carlos y Nepomuceno was born in Biñan, Laguna. His father with the same name was from Biñan, Laguna and his mother from Binondo, Manila. He established a Dog and Cat Clinic in 1927 and had his family home above the clinic; so much so that he was checking his patient (dogs and cats) as early as 4:00 AM. He was also active as a horse practi-tioner in San Lazaro and later in Sta. Ana. He was a stewart in the horse races. He was also well known by kutseros (calesa or caritella horse drivers) when services for free every Tuesdays. Being a devotee of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, he reli-giously participated in the procession. He was registered in the government regulating office in the registration with number 057.

In 1918 together with Dr. Victor Abreu Buencamino, he is the first Filipino of-ficer of the PVMA in 1918 to 1919 as treasurer and Dr. Beuncamino as presi-dent while other officers being Ameri-cans.

In 1958, his son Dr. Enrique Rodriguez Carlos took over the Dog and Cat Hospi-tal in the same building in 185 Marquez de Comillas and later renamed 839 Romualdez St. . This was the first dog and cat hospital in Manila.

Dr. Sixto Almeda Carlos was also a Philippine delegate in the 1948 London Olympics. A great grandson, Rodolfo Sebastian S. Carlos was one of the torch bearers from among the 8,000 of the 2012 London Olympics. The Carlos family have been offering services to dog and cat companion animals. Currently, Dr. Sixto Enrique Miguel Alimudin Carlos y Siap-no continues the small animal practice in the Makati Dog and Cat Hospital.

Dr. Enrique T. Carlos

0 DR. ENRIQUE R. CARLOS

Dr. Enrique R. Carlos established the Makati Dog and Cat Hospital in 1962 with postal address of Amapola, Bel-Air III with telephone no, 88-63-86 and 87-28-60 now 5426 Gen. Luna cor. Algier St. Poblacion, Makati City; while the address has changed the physical location is the same. He maintained the Dog and Cat Hospital in 839 Romualdez St. Ermita, Manila with telephone no, 3-22- 60. He took over the hospital from his father Sixto Almeda Carlos in 1959.

Dr. Enrique R. Carlos was born on April 24, 1921 and was baptized Jose Antonio Vicente Enrique Almeda Carlos y Rodriguez. He graduated from the University of the Philippine College of Veterinary Science located in the Bureau of Animal Industry (AI) compound in Pandacan, Manila, now the Malacanang Security compound in 1972. Since the Nagtahan Bridge was not yet existing students ands personel of the Bureau of Animal Industry would ride a banca to cross the Pasig River and for those with car would be picked up at the other side to San Miguel and Malacanang.

In 1972, he was appointed to the College if Medicine, University of the Philippines as part-time professor without

compensation in the Department of Medicine. He was also appointed as Visiting Scientist of the NAMRU II (Navy and Marine Research Unit) of the US Navy doing extensive research on Leptospirosis and other pathogens. He was also a Consultant of the research facilities of the Veterans Memorial Hospital.

0 God will watch over you night and day

Have you ever prayed, “The Lord is my Shepherd” from Psalm 23?

Photo credit: http://500px.com/photo/38963552

When ancient Jews prayed that special prayer, they’d feel an inner warmth in their hearts. Some would close their eyes and may even shed a tear or two. Because they knew what it meant to be a shepherd. They felt it. They knew the toil, the sacrifice, the hardship of being a shepherd that loves his sheep. If there was dan-ger, he wouldn’t sleep at night or take coffee breaks or read a pocketbook or even text some-one in his cell phone. He’ll just watch and be ready to lay down his life for his sheep.

But when modern Filipinos pray the prayer of Psalm 23, the only reason we’d feel an inner warmth in our hearts is if we had just eaten too much Crispy Pata before we prayed and have heartburn.

We don’t see shepherds, sheep, or lambs a lot. We’re fa-miliar with wool, yes, but the steel wool variety for cleaning pots and pans. The closest thing to sheep we’ve seen are goats, and they’re not very docile creatures. They eat anything in sight, make a lot of noise, and smell bad—reminding us of a drunkard uncle.

So to help people feel what it means to be a shepherd, I ask people to think about their first pet as a kid.

Can you recall yours?

Mine was a chicken. Well, it was first a tiny chick, and then a chicken. Finally, it became fried chicken, but that’s going ahead of the story.

I cared for that chick with my life. The first thing I did upon arriving from school was to visit my pet, feed it with rice, and rock it in my hand.

After a couple of months, my chick grew up and I started play-ing all sorts of games with her: running, jump-ing, pecking… I tried teaching her chess, but I kept getting a chick-mate. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I promise not to give another pun in my entire life, ever.)

But during the day, I went to school. And I guess that’s why one day, I came home and dis-covered my feathered friend in a platter with french fries and cat-sup. I wasn’t there for her when someone became hungry—someone who to this day has re-mained anonymous to me.

I guess I wasn’t such a great shepherd, because “shepherds need to be con-stantly there, protecting and caring, twenty-four hours a day.”

But thank goodness, God is-n’t like me at all.

He’s here for you for life.

Permanently.

Eternally.

You won’t be anyone’s fried chicken.

Or shish kebab for that mat-ter.

He’ll never leave you for one moment.

He’ll never take siestas or coffee breaks or read a pocket-book or text anyone in his cell phone.

He will watch over you night and day.

May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez

PS. If you want to read my free eBook, How To Know If Your Dreams Are God’s Dreams, visit http://www.BoSanchez.ph and sign up for it, including my Soulfood Letter for your

0 Newsletter 3rd Issue

0 CAN MY DOG GET DENGUE?

I noticed that my dog has small reddish dots scattered in several parts of his body. When I brought my pet to the Veterinarian, the Doctor said that my dog has a low platelet count. Does this mean that my dog has Dengue? Let us start from the most basic. Dengue as we know it is transmitted by mosquito-bite. With dogs, the most common infection they get from mosquitoes is heartworm disease. Most of the time, when our dogs get this small reddish dots or spots scattered or confined in some parts of their body, with low platelet, the most common disease that we diagnose is Ehrlichiosis, caused by Ehrlichia sp. (pronounced as Ehr-lee-kia).For the familiarity of disease, let us call it Ehrlichia in our discussion. The effect of this disease is dengue-like for our dogs. Our pouch could have haemorrhage around the body, in the form of tiny red dots or sometimes bruises. In other cases they could have nose-bleeding or small wound eruptions on the skin. But the most common signs that owners observe are weakness, loss of appetite (even with their favorite meal!). There are a number of dogs with a lot of eye secretion aka ‘muta’. If you check their gums and the inside of their ears, you could see that it’s relatively pale from the original pinkish color. All these signs are brought about by low red blood cell count and its components, low platelet and most of the time high white blood cell count.

How did my dog get it if you mentioned that it’s not transmitted by mosquitoes?

The main culprit in spreading Ehrlichia is TICKS. In Filipino we call them “Garapata” and in Cebuano we call “libon”. These are the spider-looking 8-legged lazy parasites that we always see sucking on our pets, and yes they look like they are asleep most of the time when they are on our dogs. These ticks either look like maroon and thin (male) coupled with a fat, gray and big female engorged with blood. Don’t be fooled by the lazy character of these parasites, ticks are very fast crawlers and they know how to find their host (dog). It means that our dog can get ticks even if there is no direct contact with other dogs. It only takes one tick bite to transmit Ehrlichia. It is also very possible that our dog could have gotten the disease way before they start showing clinical signs.

What are the clinical signs of Ehrlichiosis?

Aside from the common clinical signs already mentioned, some dogs may show the-not-so-common clinical signs like blindness, neurologic signs like seizure and lameness (trouble walking). So far, we have noticed quite a number of Golden Retrievers having seizures when they turn positive for Ehrlichia. Other dogs could have liver and or kidney failure. And some they could have pregnant-looking tummies, we call ascites, because of enlarged spleen or there is abnormal fluid accumulation in the abdomen. In short, Ehrlichia may show a lot of different clinical signs, depending on the organ system it affects. German shepherd needs extra attention if they turn positive for this disease because the effect to them is worse than any other breed, and may be fatal.

How can this be diagnosed?

Once we notice at least one of the clinical signs, and with history of ticks, normally I check the Complete blood count (CBC). If there is something wrong with the CBC then I would recommend the Ehrlichia Antibody test kit. If the condition is worst, then more complete blood test are recommended to check for liver, kidney and electrolytes.

Can my dog be treated once he gets this disease?

Yes! If your dog has acute or newly acquired Ehrlichia it is highly treatable. In fact, for acute cases of this disease, the dog gets better after a day or 2 of treatment. Don’t get me wrong, the treatment of this disease is not short at all. It could last from few weeks to months to years. For chronic (long-term) phase of the disease though, the chances of recovery is relatively slim.

If I get bitten by a tick, can I also get this Ehrlichia?

So far, there are no reported cases of Ehrlichia from dogs transmitted to humans (yet!) in the Philippines. BUT there are reported cases of this disease transferred by ticks to humans in the country of Venezuela, South America. Again, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

How can we prevent the spread of this disease?

This is a serious problem that affects a great population of dogs. It’s complicated because it circulates with the blood, then affecting most of the organ systems. Early prevention will help eliminate this problem. Get rid of the ticks to get rid of the disease! There are monthly tick and flea preventatives that we can use for our dogs. Also, don’t forget to clean the surroundings where your dog normally stays, by brushing. These ticks can hide in cracks and crevices for 6 months up to a year-and a-half without feeding. Once hungry they will attach back to their host and the cycle repeats again.

For more questions, visit:

animalwellnessveterinary.com or Facebook:

Animal Wellness Veterinary Hospital

Ivy Alvarez, DVM

0 Humans and Heartworm Health

For many, heartworm infection has always been associated with dogs and cats. While the disease causes severe consequences in infected pets, transmission to humans has not really been highlighted or commonly known among pet owners or the general public. Heartworm infection in people is often classified as accidental, if any.

Several journals reported human dirofilariasis cases and an infective larval stage of the worm Dirofilaria immitis was identified as the culprit. The same worm affects both dogs and cats to cause heartworm infection. These larvae invade various human tissues without any evident clinical signs in the affected person during development. More common tissues affected by the larvae’s migration include connective tissues and the pulmonary arteries. The migrating larva would embed itself in the human tissues but will be unable to thrive in this environment. It eventually dies in the tissues and an inflammatory response occurs which results in a granuloma or nodule in the affected tissue. This can be seen in x-rays as a dense “coin” lesion in the chest area.

Earlier studies reported no clinical signs in affected humans, but recent data report chest pains, coughing (sometimes with blood), fever and pneumonitis as more frequently observed effects. Extrapulmonary infection was mentioned in an article where the brain, eye and testicles were affected. Extensive diagnostic tests were conducted on the infected individuals to rule out other infectious agents and cancer. And in almost all scientific research conducted on human dirofilariasis, there is mention of misdiagnosis as a common occurrence in the affected patients presented to medical doctors due to the very common signs found in these patients. As with any disease, arriving at a definitive diagnosis is a very costly, time-consuming and emotionally draining process which affects the quality of life of the infected individual as well as his loved ones. For those diagnosed with human dirofilariasis, the surgical removal of the granuloma was the most appropriate solution.

Extra precaution against health problems is oftentimes a conscious effort. And in the Philippines where mosquitoes (which are vectors of the Dirofilaria larvae) are everywhere 24/7 all year round, heartworm infection is very much an expected occurrence in dogs. Regular preventives against heartworm for our pets (and consequently for us, too) are available to keep us worry-free and disease free. Talk to your vet about it.

By: Ayn Arejola

0 Pet Shelters during Disasters and Emergencies

Greetings to everyone! I hope everyone is having a pleasant day. I would like to continue on our topic for Disaster and Emergency Preparedness for Pets in this first of a series of 3 articles regarding Pet Shelters.

In creating this article I have divided the topic into 3 parts in order to fully explore the concepts for each part as well as to allow the readers to fully appreciate and grasp the idea for each part individually and the whole concept in its entirety.

The 3 sub-articles for Pet Shelters during Disasters and Emergencies are as follows:

* Defining the role of pet shelters in Disasters and Emergencies

* Types of Pet Shelters

* Pet Shelter Options – Your Vet, Your Relative, Your Bug-out site

As in my previous article let us define the relevant terms and concepts involved before proceeding to the descriptive and technical aspects of the topic.

Now to begin let us start off with our first sub-article: Defining the role of pet shelters in Disasters and Emergencies

Defining the role of pet shelters in Disasters and Emergencies (Part 1 of 3)

To start things off let us review the definition we’ve been using for Disasters and Emergencies and that is Emergency Preparedness as addressing instances such as common household emergencies to events that affect your immediate family while Disaster Preparedness deals more with Natural and Manmade disasters affecting more people in a wider area such as a community, province, or region.

Having mentioned the above, let us also create a definition of Pet Shelters as used in the context of Disasters and Emergencies. For Emergency situations, such as accidents, a pet shelter is used to help your pet remain calm and relax, aid in the treatment of injuries, and prepare your pet for transport to more advanced care facilities such as your Veterinarian.

In a Disaster situation, pet shelters also play the same roles as those in Emergencies only in this case the stress levels on both pet and owner are greatly increased. This is due to the fact that the normal flow of daily life has been greatly affected by several factors. Some examples are:

* Environmental – your surroundings may have been greatly affected by a natural disaster such as a flood or an earthquake

* Health – your pet may be forced to be restrained or caged for prolonged periods of time plus the upheaval that follows a disaster can cause stress on your pet affecting their health.

* Quality of Life – Food, Water, and Basic Services (including Veterinary Services) may be very hard to come by or at the very least rationed and sourced out with great effort.

In both Emergency and Disaster situations and the factors listed above the more we encourage pet owners to have a preparedness mindset.

That is, make a checklist, build your pet’s Bug-Out Bag, and identify evacuation sites, and so on. In all of these activities the pet shelter plays a vital role in your preparedness plans. As pet owners the responsibility for caring for your pets lies with you. Your pets will rely on you to have the best quality of life possible during the best of times. But, as Emergencies or Disasters occur (And in this country Disasters will ALWAYS occur) your pet’s reliance on you to keep them safe and healthy will greatly increase.

On the human side of that equation being knowledgeable in what to do in an Emergency or Disaster to your pet is similar to what we feed in the rescue community when arriving at an accident. That is, instead of fear and panic taking over you become proactively involved in alleviating your pet of any further pain and suffering during Emergencies and Disasters.

For the pet’s owner this also helps to alleviate the emotional stress they go through when they see or even know that their pet is in a bad situation.

I hope this has helped the readers and especially those that are pet owners to think about their roles and responsibilities in Emergency and Disaster preparedness for their pets and the definition of Pet Shelters in those preparations.

In part 2 of this article I will be discussing the different Types of Pet Shelters. In it I will be describing the items needed to put together your pet shelter, their different uses according to the situation involved

Until the next newsletter I wish you all to Stay Safe and Be Happy!

I hope this was helpful for you. Should you have any questions or concerns I would love to hear from you. Please contact me at pateros_14@rocketmail.com and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks and Stay Safe.

Benedict “Dinky” de Borja has been a volunteer Firefighter + Medic for the Pateros Filipino-Chinese Volunteer Fire and Rescue Brigade for the last 5 years. He helps Dr. Sixto Carlos on topics such as Emergency and Disaster Preparedness, as well as First Aid.

0 Fit Pets = Fit Owners

0 Healthy dog

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