Although you might choose to skimp on your own health care because of financial reasons, your pet cannot make that choice. Your pet does a lot for your health – lowering your stress levels, lowering your blood pressure, making you exercise (depending on the pet) – so investing in your pet’s health care will also help benefit you. There is a lot you can do for your pet’s health care than just take him or her to the vet once in a blue moon.
Spay Or Neuter
The spaying or neutering of most pets is now a common practice in vet surgeries. Even smaller animals like guinea pigs and rabbits can safely go through the procedure, unlike twenty years ago, when survival from any surgery was a bit iffy. There are some animals like mares or goldfish where spaying would be too dangerous. However, guinea pigs, ferrets, rabbits, dogs and cats can all be safely spayed or neutered.
There are so many health advantages to getting your pet spayed or neutered that I do not know why humans don’t get themselves spayed or neutered. The pet is calmer, less prone to fight and can use it’s energies on self-healing, rather than on making offspring. For example, if you get your female puppy spayed before her first heat, she is 99.9% sure of never getting breast cancer. Considering that dogs have six breasts, that a lot of protection.
Monitor Their Weight
Another key element in proper pet health care is making sure they are the right weight. Too thin is bad for many health reasons, but so is being overweight. Fat pets are prone to heart disease, diabetes and lots of other health problems. To keep your pet from having to go to the vet a lot, make sue they eat sensibly and get regular exercise. If you are not sure what your pet’s ideal weight should be, consult your vet.
Daily Attention
One of the most overlooked elements of pet health care is spending time with your pet every day. You need to get to know their normal ways of doing everything – of lying down, getting up, eating, drinking, scratching and eliminating. Just a change in behavior is often an indication that something is wrong with a pet’s health. This aspect of pet health care gets easier over time. If you can run your hands over your pet every day, you can find the beginnings of any illnesses that usually can be cured when caught early.