Preparing for the festive season: fires, food and fireworks

Merry Christmas from Buddy (courtesy of Heike Hahner)

The festive season is supposed to be fun, but it also brings a number of hazards that can land your pet into trouble. Fires (usually of the bush variety), food (of the festive kind) and fireworks (we're thinking New Year's Eve in particular) can all cause dramas for companion animals.

In the Northern Hemisphere, Christmas is cold. But down South, it’s hot, hot, hot. While our Northern counterparts need to worry about hypothermia and frostbite in animals (like this poor dog), we need to worry about keeping pets cool – providing water, shade, avoiding heat stress and, unfortunately, bush fires.

The ACT RSPCA has produced a guide on bushfire preparedness (read it here), including planning in advance for evacuation. It’s a great reminder to also update your microchip details and make sure your pet is wearing a collar and tag where possible so can be reunited with you without delay in the event of becoming lost.

Its also that time of year where it hits home to me how seasonal companion animal work is. In the lead-up to Christmas, and its aftermath, we see a real peak in gastro (vomiting, diarrhoea), pancreatitis, and gastrointestinal foreign bodies as pet's overindulge in festive food.

Please read SAT's tips about BBQ hazards (here) and remember to be sensible when feeding treats to your pets. Pets tend to consume a more restricted diet than us, so a festive food blow-out can make them extremely ill.

If your pet is frightened by fireworks, you may want to take precautions on New Year's Eve (your veterinarian may prescribe anti-anxiety medication for your pet - they will need to examine your pet first), and/or you might consider admitting serial escape-artists to a boarding kennel for the night (or shipping in a dog sitter). You might also want to check our post about fears and phobias here.

Don't be sucked in by those adorable eyes. Buddy appears to be anticipating a few Christmas treats - be sensible about what you give your dog, and remember, you may not be the only one at the party smuggling them treats under the table.

Dilemmas in Animal Welfare

Hero literally "sitting on the fence". Some dilemmas will do that to you. But in real life we need to make decisions that impact on animal welfare. (Honestly I was so excited that Hero sat still long enough for me to take this photo. It rarely happens).

Just about everyone I know feels that animal welfare is important, but that doesn’t mean they agree on decisions that impact the welfare of animals. So it was nice to see a textbook that acknowledges animal welfare dilemmas – and explores these in more depth.

Dilemmas in Animal Welfare states that the field is full of dilemmas because our decisions around animal welfare are rooted in human values. These vary between humans but also within individuals.

The book uses case examples in animal welfare about which people may be polarised, such as the question of whether tail docking is justified or whether dairy cows should be group-housed, then looks at the scientific evidence and ethical arguments on each side. It also asks the bigger-picture questions, something that can be missing from scientific literature. For example, with regard to tail docking piglets to prevent tail-biting, and associated morbidity and mortality, Sandra Edwards and Pauleen Bennett ask whether it is justifiable to condone a procedure (tail docking) as a short-term solution to existing suboptimal practices (overcrowding) and if there is a risk in delaying more desirable, longer-term solutions.

Other topics tackled include obesity in companion animals, quantity of life – often overlooked in welfare which tends to emphasise quality of life, intensification of farming and how we factor in the environment in ethical decision making, making decisions around whom we should eat, public health and animal welfare, balancing the need for conservation of a species vs our obligations to individual animals, conflict around feral cat colony management, and what we actually mean when we talk about suffering of animals.

Of course some of these won’t look like dilemmas to some readers. If you’re vegetarian or vegan the question of whom you should eat is already answered. But the arguments are well researched and constructed, and no matter which side of the fence you stand, or lean towards, you will be challenged.

This is an excellent book for anyone working in the field of animal welfare or animal production, as well as students in veterinary science, science, agriculture, conservation, bioethics and so on. It is one of those textbooks that can be read cover-to-cover but you can also dip in and read a chapter or two – they’re nicely contained.

My one criticism is that I think the final chapter – What is suffering in animals?  by Daniel Weary – should be the first. It raises some profound and unsettling questions about what we mean when we talk about animal suffering, what we need to know to make decisions and the limitations of this knowledge.

Reference

Appleby MC, Weary DM & Sandoe P (2014)(eds) Dilemmas in Animal Welfare. Cabi, www.cabi.org

What does your dog do when you leave the house?

Phil, as captured on "Philcam" aka The Eyenimal.

Do you know what your pets get up to when you leave the house? You can think you know, but unless you can observe them somehow it’s all a bit of an educated guess. Phil and I are participating in a study (although of course he doesn’t know it and cannot consent to it) about separation anxiety in dogs (you can read more and get involved here).

As part of that study I’ve been allowed to borrow a camera called the Eyenimal – designed specifically for remote pet monitoring but also used for security and baby monitoring – which enables me to leave the house and observe what Phil is getting up to.

Hero with the Eyenimal.

I’ve had clients film their pets before. Usually these are clients who come home to find bizarre changes in the house – like all the stuffing removed from their cushions, or parts of doors chewed off. They want to know for how long their dogs are distressed, and what times of day are the times that interventions (like sending in a dog-walker) will be more effective. Their pets won’t behave badly when they’re home, so the camera means they can observe their pet from afar without influencing the behaviour.

The camera resembles a ye olde school diving helmet.

The Eyenimal camera itself reminds me of a diving helmet from an old, deep-sea diver (you know the ones that look like astronaut helmets) but I can pan it in any direction. Not that I really need to. At this very moment, as I sit outside and blog, Phil is where I left him – on the doormat near the door. Michael, my eldest cat, is sitting near him. It’s hard to tell, as I can only see her from the rear, whether she is intimidating him and trapping him near the front door, or whether she too is waiting.

In fact I was surprised last night to learn that she is the most active of the non-humans in the household, walking past the camera and occasionally sitting right in front of it, taking a “selfie” of her chest and blocking the view of anything else.

Michael sits practically on top of the camera, blocking the view of everything else in the entire room.

Unfortunately Hero, my youngest cat, is onto me this morning and is has managed to open the blinds and spot me sitting outside. He is meowing his head off. The other two haven’t twigged that I am outside.

The striking thing I found is that there is a difference in Phil’s behaviour when I leave at night as opposed to when I leave during the day. At night, he toddles off and puts himself to bed. When it’s daytime, he waits. So if I am going to invest in pet-sitting, daytime seems the better time.

One thing’s for sure. His behaviour isn’t quite what I expected and this technology is offering a fascinating insight. It’s more gripping than watching Home and Away.

Have you ever filmed your pets when you’re out?

In other news, Rosie Allister who volunteers for Vetlife wrote this interesting post which gives some insights into working on a veterinary helpline, and the fact that veterinarians often call late – not so much late in the day as late in trying to cope with a problem or two (hundred). Read here.

And for those with a religious bent, Pope Francis was overheard reassuring a little boy that his dog would go to heaven. Its kind of a big deal, although the comment is being played down. Read more here.