Author: Foster Esmund

Is Your Dog Eating Only Safe and Properly Stored Pet Food?

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Not a few dog lovers are just too willing to share everything with their pets especially food, but without first checking if they’re safe for canine consumption. Besides, every year, there’s a long list of dog food recalls as results of common
bacterial adulterants. The contaminants were discovered as originating from a manufacturer’s production and storage facilities.

Actually, bacteria from raw meat, undercooked poultry and shellfish, as well as unpasteurized milk, can cause cross-contamination. Improper handling and storage of dog food are the most common reasons. In recent years, even fruits and vegetables have also shown to have toxic ingredients proven unsafe for dogs.

How to Always Keep Pet Food Safe

The first step to making pet foods safe is to read feedback and reviews about the commercially produced-pet food you are buying.

Make it a habit to constantly check the latest list of pet food products recalled by manufacturers. Discoveries of toxicity and contaminants usually take place after the pet food has been identified as carriers of disease causing microorganisms. Other causes of pet food recalls are discoveries of foreign objects like plastics or metals in pet food silos, while still in the process of manufacturing and packaging.

Check on your own household’s food handling and storage habits as well. Some family members might not be as safety-conscious when it comes to handling pet food.

As much as possible, limit the access of stored pet food and treats to responsible adult members who practice proper food handling. Aside from following storage and handling instructions, proper handling includes not using the dog’s feeding bowl to scoop food out of a storage bin.

Make certain that pet food storage bins are kept in a cabinet that does not contain human food and are out of reach of children.

It’s also important to use the best dog food storage container because certain factors can affect the freshness of stored food. High humidity for one, can cause bacterial development inside the container, even with high quality pet food. The kind of dog food keepers that are highly recommended are the airtight containers because they have seals to prevent air from infiltrating.

Air as we all know it, can become moisture under certain conditions. If so, they will activate microorganisms that can cause the stored pet food to turn rancid and no longer suitable for pet consumption. If your animal knows better, it will refuse to eat spoiled pet food; but if not, the bacteria or mould that contaminated the food will make your dog sick.

Another matter to check when reading reviews about animal food containers are the sizes. A food keeper that is too big or too small can also affect the airtight quality of the container.

Responsible Pet Ownership : Ensuring Animal Safety Under New Norms

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Work-from-home pet parents are now spending lots of time with their animals as a new norm, making it important to adopt changes that will ensure pet safety. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warns that animals are not immune to COVID-19, as there have been cases in which humans were able to transmit the disease to their pet; particularly if close contact was made by an infected person.

The CDC warning suggests that pet parents should also take precautions when taking their pets out for a walk or run, by being mindful of safe places to bring them. Just to stay on the safe side, disinfecting their paws with alcohol wouldn’t be a bad idea at all.

Responsible Drinking When Dogs are Around

By the way, in mentioning alcohol, now that bars and liquor stores are taking on orders for alcohol delivery, pet parents must also make sure that their dog/s will not drink any of the alcoholic stuff they will be drinking. Mainly because ethanol, the intoxicating ingredient in wines, spirits and even in beers can adversely affect canines. That is aside from intoxicating the animal.

Responsible drinking includes making sure there are no spills or leftover liquor lying around after having had your fill. Dogs are naturally curious and will want to find out why you seem to like the liquid stuff so much. Veterinarians warn that there have been cases when dogs brought to their clinics suffered from organ failures due to accidental intoxication.

Apparently, these were cases of dog owners who got wasted after a night of heavy drinking in the comfort of their home. Unknowingly, they had accidentally spilled alcohol that their dog licked off of the floor. The danger is that the dog did not receive proper and immediate treatment when the animal started showing symptoms of being unwell, because their human companions were still down and out.

Common Symptoms that Something is Affecting Your Dog’s Well-Being

Although the CDC has not come up with a list of symptoms that indicate if a dog has been infected with COVID-19, the following are general signs that something is adversely affecting your dog’s health and wellness.

 

 

 

Aside from alcoholic beverages, onions and chocolates, even in small amounts can likewise affect your dog. Ethanol in particular is present in raw bread dough and syrups, and if ingested by a dog, will be manifested through the following symptoms:

  • Heavy vomiting
  • Restlessness and disoriented behavior
  • High body temperature Panting excessively
  • Seizures and muscle tremors and seizures
  • If left untreated, organ failure will likely lead to death.

Animal Care : Use of Antibiotics in Livestock Production

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To produce high-quality livestock there must be high-quality care, which is the guiding principle on the standards set by the Beef Quality Assurance Cattle. That is why livestock producers like farmers and cattle ranchers practice good management by following nutrition programs, maintaining comfortable facilities and environment, as weel as coordinating with veterinarians, especially in administering antibiotics and vaccines.

In all those aspects of ensuring good animal health, approaches and practices adopted are in accordance with regulations, as those were formulated based on scientific studies.

In this article, we give special focus on the use of antibiotics in livestock production. Antibiotics after all, help farmers and cattlemen face the challenges of livestock diseases, which livestock producers must properly use by coordinating with veterinarians.

Understanding Why Antibiotics are Used in Livestock Feeds

Understanding the importance of antibiotics use in animals is important as there have been discussions about the safety of their use in raising and caring for animals. Although antibiotics are basically used as animal medicine to treat or control a disease that has afflicted a livestock, use of low-level antibiotics as feed additives, has raised questions about the safety of antibiotics.

Animal industry statistics in the U.S. indicate that about 40 percent (40%) of antibiotics produced are used as animal food supplements. Studies show that if low-level antibiotic feedlot systems are not allowed, disease problems are likely to increase and as a result, increase the therapeutic use of antibiotics.

What Makes the Use of Antibiotics as Animal Feed Additives, Safe?

Government regulations require rigid scrutiny of antibiotics before they are approved for use in livestock, either as feed-supplement or medicine.

When used for purposes of disease-treatment, animal antibiotics undergo three levels of approval : firstly for animal use, secondly on its impact on the environment and thirdly, of its safety for the meat-consuming public.

Antibiotics are passed on for approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), only after the medicine has been determined as safe for all three aspects.

Moreover, even if animal antibiotics have been FDA-approved, they still undergo annual re-evaluations and are subject to constant monitoring to ensure that they remain safe for use of the livestock production industry.

Use of Animal Antibiotics Does Not Change the Complexity of Running a Livestock Production Business

Keep in mind though that proper use of antibiotics does not change the fact that the livestock production business is quite complex in nature. Providers of a business plan writing service take into consideration, not only the prevailing and future trends in the market. As a standard procedure, business plan writers develop strategic planning that will allow livestock producers manage the effects of external forces that can affect their client’s business.

External forces after all, are events over which farmers and cattle ranchers have no control; such as the topography of the farm or ranch, the soil type, and the weather conditions and disturbances affecting the environment.

Other external forces that require proactive business planning include industry issues, be they local, national or international. As uncontrollable forces, they can affect market prices, as well as influence consumer preferences and/or demand for a livestock product.

Useful Tips When Aspiring to Turn Your Pet into an Influencer

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Having an irresistible pet, be it a dog, cat, hamster or any popular animal, makes a good material for a website.

As a matter of fact, successful pet bloggers soon made it their full-occupation to take Instagram photos and make YouTube videos of their pet, when the advent of “pet influencers” became a lucrative concept.

Share Instagrams and YouTube videos of pet antics, pet grooming hacks, and other heart-warming stories that tap into the hearts of animal lovers. Those contents enabled pet owners to draw the attention of advertisers looking for posts or videos where their products can get good exposure.

Yet what does it take to make your pet, Instagram-famous or become a YoutTube sensation in order to attain the numbers that brand advertisers look for? Follower or subscriber number is one of the important criteria that pet-product advertisers look into, when looking for a pet influencer with which to collaborate.

There are social media marketers who can instantly help you  beef up your follower and subscriber numbers for a fee.

Will Buying Social Media Followers and Paying for “Likes” Help Make Your Pet Website Attractive to Brand Advertisers?

Buying followers and paying for “likes” is just one way to make your website attractive, but definitely, it is not the only action to take if you want to get noticed. A common mistake among buyers of social media followers is that they tend to forget that they are only buying appearance boosters, and not the entire formula on how to turn their posts, websites or channels into a cash cow.

Appearances in terms of a great number, matter; but so does having contents that can increase real-follower engagements or generate genuine Facebook “likes.” Some misconstrue follower-buying as the only social media marketing solutions in order to advance their pet to the influencer level. Brand advertisers are savvy enough to checkout numbers that do not really represent genuine engagements, since their ultimate goal is to generate real sales.

Exploring Ways of Increasing Genuine Engagement

When looking to develop your pet as an influencer don’t slack off just because you are paying a social media marketer to increase your follower number.

Increasing engagement takes a lot of hard work just like any business. Since genuine engagement is the real key, your first objective is to make your website attractive to pet or animal lovers. That being the case, explore ways on how to keep your followers truly interested, as they will not only “like” your Instagram post or YouTube videos. They are likely to share your posts in their own circle of social media contacts, which is a natural way of curating your contents among Netizens.

BTW, Do You Focus on Your Pet’s Unique Character Alone?

Your pet’s unique character or feature is the first thing that your audience will find interesting about your website. Yet genuine engagement is not just between your pet and your audience. It is also between your audience, viewers, readers and you, as the owner of a super pet.

Be sincere in socializing and interacting with your followers and other pet bloggers, as doing so will likely give you additional insights on the type of contents that have potential to generate genuine engagements. Still, do not forget to give your pet the exposure it needs; be creative in linking or associating its uniqueness to whatever project you have in mind.