All The Comforts of Home Pet Sitters

Go easy on those treats for your pets. Just as humans experience gastrointestinal issues when they have overindulged, the same applies to our pets. Here is an interesting tidbit from the ASPCA on stuffing…

Sage Advice
Sage can make your Thanksgiving stuffing taste delish, but it and many other herbs contain essential oils and resins that can cause gastrointestinal upset and central nervous system depression to pets if eaten in large quantities. Cats are especially sensitive to the effects of certain essential oils.

Www.allthecomfortsofhome.org
Dave @ All The Comforts of Home Pet Sitters
Charlotte, NC

Dog visits and hospitalized children: Do dog visits help calm children who are facing the stress of being in the hospital and away from home and family? A study done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Children’s Hospital shows that while potential calming effects are inconclusive, the dogs definitely make the children happier. Results of the study, published in the winter 2002-2003 issue of Children’s Health Care Journal, confirm that hospitalized children are happier when they get a chance to interact with dogs than when they are given organized playtime. The researchers – Mary Kaminski, director of the hospital’s Child Life program; Teresa Pellino, clinical nurse research specialist; and Joel Wish, psychologist and director of Health Psychology – attribute this to the touching that’s inherent in visiting with dogs. “This is the first study to look at the effects of animals on hospitalized children,” says Linda Sullivan, a clinical instruction in the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Pathobiological Sciences and one of the coordinators of the Pet Pals program.
Therapeutic touch: A study by Rebecca Johnson, Ph.D., RN, of the University of Missouri-Columbia Center for the Study of Animal Wellness, showed that when a human pets a dog, within minutes they get a massive release of beneficial hormones-known to be associated with health and feelings of wellbeing—such as beta endorphin, prolactin, dopamine, oxytocin, and beta phenylethylamine. The release of these hormones not only make people happy—but they also decrease the stress hormone, cortisol. This is an especially significant finding with regards to the treatment of clinically depressed patients. This was the first time a therapeutic relationship between animals and humans had been scientifically measured. This pilot study could provide a safe, natural, and effective alternative to treating the clinically depressed with pharmaceuticals, without the attendant costs and side effects. To many researchers, the most exciting facet of these studies is that positive human-animal interaction may delay production of harmful body chemicals associated with diseases such as cancer. “Additionally, the study indicates an improvement in body chemicals associated with a healthy immune system. We may soon see a time when people at risk for certain types of cancers may be prescribed a pet to help delay onset of the disease,” says another researcher.
Pets in the home teach empathy, responsibility and raise IQs: Robert Poresky, associate professor of family studies and human services at Kansas State University, is one of dozens of researchers examining the impact of having a pet in the home. His findings include evidence that children who have pets – and spend time with them – develop higher levels of empathy, learn responsibility earlier and may even have higher IQs than children who don’t have companion animals.
Dogs improve children’s reading scores: In Salt Lake City, Utah, Intermountain Therapy Animals has a program where pets stimulate specific intellectual development in public schools. Trained teams of dogs and humans help children who have trouble reading to jump whole grade levels in just a few months in a simple program where children read to dogs.
Allergies: A study published in the August 2002 Journal of The American Medical Association shows that children who grow up with pets in the home have a reduced risk of developing common allergies. Moreover, the children exposed to cats and dogs were almost half as likely to have hyper-responsive and easily irritated airways – a risk factor for asthma. A number of earlier studies found similar results.
Dogs beneficial in speech-language therapy: Helen Kahn, professor of communication disorders at Northern Michigan University, is studying the effects of animals in sessions of speech-pathology therapy. Kahn says that dogs are instantly loyal and eager to please, perfect companions during the sometimes difficult therapy sessions. Her research shows that therapeutic progress occurs more rapidly when dogs are involved in directed intervention with certified and experienced therapists and dog handlers. Findings show that during therapy dog visits, a patient’s physical anxiety goes down, measured by lower blood pressure and heart rate, and less stress almost always equals a more productive session.
Dogs good for mental health: Project Chimo – the most extensive study of the use of dogs in therapy in North America – concluded in 2003 with ten recommendations to the Alberta government aimed at formally incorporating animal assisted therapy into the health-care system. The 27-month, $331,600 study funded by Alberta Health’s innovation fund, compared animal assisted therapy with traditional therapy for patients in treatment for depression and anxiety. The patients who met with therapists who used dogs in their sessions looked forward to therapy more, felt more comfortable talking to the therapist and felt they performed better at home and school than patients receiving traditional therapy. Pet ownership itself seemed to moderate the effects of mental illness. Patients who had pets were less depressed or anxious at the outset and showed lower scores on the depression severity scale after therapy than those who did not own pets.
Pets lower blood pressure: A study of New York City stockbrokers who were taking medication for hypertension found that once stockbrokers brought a pet into their homes, their stress levels dropped dramatically. Nearly half of them were able to go off of their medication entirely, according to the researcher, Dr. Karen Allen of the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Pets help keep people moving: A year-long study of elderly people living outside institutions found that pet owners scored higher on all activities of daily living, including increased social interaction. A recent British study showed that the interactions stimulated by the dog as the key to a better sense of psychological well-being.
Pets help people survive heart attacks: In her latest study reported in The American Journal of Cardiology in 2003, Dr. Erika Friedmann of Brooklyn College found that pet owners have healthier hearts than heart attack patients who don’t have a dog, cat or other pets. In an earlier study, she found that those who owned a dog were eight times more likely to survive one year after suffering a heart attack. Other studies showed that pet owners have shorter hospital stays, few doctor visits, take less medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol, and don’t have as much trouble falling asleep at night.
Pets help blunt pain: “By initiating and maintaining the relaxation response pets can take people’s focus off of their pain and elevate their moods,” says Dr. Jeff Burgess, an attending physician at the University of Washington Pain Center. “Secondly, through touch or physical contact they can block transmission of their pain from the periphery to the central nervous system shutting the pain processing centers down.”
Pets and Seniors: Seniors who have pets have far fewer doctor visits than those who don’t, according to a study of nearly a thousand Medicare patients by UCLA Public Health Professor Judith Siegel. The Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine reinforced these findings independently in the United Kingdom. Equally important for the health of seniors is having something to keep them active and to help alleviate the loneliness that many seniors experience. Spending as little as 30 minutes with a dog each week reduces feelings of loneliness in long-term care residents reports a study featured in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences (July 2002).
(Source: Dr. Marty Becker and Delta Society)

Halloween Safety Tips

No Scaredy Cats This Halloween: Top 10 Safety Tips for Pet Parents
Attention, animal lovers, it’s almost the spookiest night of the year! The ASPCA recommends taking some common sense precautions this Halloween to keep you and your pet saying “trick or treat!” all the way to November 1.
1. No tricks, no treats: That bowl of candy is for trick-or-treaters, not for Scruffy and Fluffy. Chocolate in all forms—especially dark or baking chocolate—can be very dangerous for dogs and cats. Candies containing the artificial sweetener xylitol can also cause problems. If you do suspect your pet has ingested something toxic, please call your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435.
2. Popular Halloween plants such as pumpkins and decorative corn are considered to be relatively nontoxic, but they can produce stomach upset in pets who nibble on them.
3. Wires and cords from electric lights and other decorations should be kept out of reach of your pets. If chewed, your pet might suffer cuts or burns, or receive a possibly life-threatening electrical shock.
4. A carved pumpkin certainly is festive, but do exercise caution if you choose to add a candle. Pets can easily knock a lit pumpkin over and cause a fire. Curious kittens especially run the risk of getting burned or singed by candle flames.
5. Dress-up can be a big mess-up for some pets. Please don’t put your dog or cat in a costume UNLESS you know he or she loves it (yup, a few pets are real hams!). For pets who prefer their “birthday suits,” however, wearing a costume may cause undue stress.
6. If you do dress up your pet, make sure the costume isn’t annoying or unsafe. It should not constrict the animal’s movement or hearing, or impede his ability to breathe, bark or meow. Also, be sure to try on costumes before the big night. If your pet seems distressed, allergic or shows abnormal behavior, consider letting him go au naturale or donning a festive bandana.
7. Take a closer look at your pet’s costume and make sure it does not have small, dangling or easily chewed-off pieces that he could choke on. Also, ill-fitting outfits can get twisted on external objects or your pet, leading to injury.
8. All but the most social dogs and cats should be kept in a separate room away from the front door during peak trick-or-treating hours. Too many strangers can be scary and stressful for pets.
9. When opening the door for trick-or-treaters, take care that your cat or dog doesn’t dart outside.
10. IDs, please! Always make sure your dog or cat has proper identification. If for any reason your pet escapes and becomes lost, a collar and tags and/or a microchip can be a lifesaver, increaing the chances that he or she will be returned to you

Animals should never be left in a car with the windows rolled up—no matter the season.

Safety Tidbit brought to you by:
www.allthecomfortsofhome.org
All The Comforts of Home Pet Sitters
Charlotte, NC

If you could interview your pet, what would they say?

Reply to Dave@allthecomfortsofhome.org
Www.allthecomfortsofhome.org