I am a huge believer in adopting pets from the local animal shelter to give them a second chance on life. Unfortunately, our local animal shelter has to euthanize almost 80% of their animals. They also don’t have the money to give them any preventive care before adoption. When we went to the shelter to pick out a cat, a small black kitten kept climbing the cage and meowing at us for all she was worth. Informed we wanted this cat, the shelter worker murmured, “This is your lucky day, cat,” as she brought her to the office for us to fill out paperwork. We took her to the vet for a checkup the next week and discovered she was infected with parasites. “It’s good you brought her in,” the vet informed us, “or she would have died. With this medicine I’m prescribing 90% of all kittens recover.” That’s when I realized the importance of regular checkups for our pets. Regular checkups can find medical problems in early stages, meaning I don’t have to pay for costly emergency treatment.
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Mitzie turned out to be an extremely nervous cat, licking and biting off her fur, along with leaving huge raw places on her skin where she would rub her skin raw. Establishing a relationship with a vet was important so she could detect any changes in Mitzie’s health. While I like to think I am an amazing pet parent, a trained eye is needed to spot diseases and I don’t have that! If you remember Sassie, our antisocial cat’s story, it took me several weeks to realize something was amiss before she had to be rushed to our vet one afternoon.
Our foster cat, Trix, looks happy and healthy after his vet visit.[/caption]
Fact: According to Dr. Ashley Gallagher, veterinarian at the Friendship Hospital for Animals in Washington D.C. ,“Dogs and cats age much faster than us, so missing even one yearly appointment could be like you not visiting your doctor for over 5 years.”
The best way to keep your pet healthy is regular vaccinations, checkups and making sure your pet has product nutrition, like Hill’s® Science Diet® Adult Perfect Weight dry. That’s pretty awesome.
How do you keep your pet healthy and happy?
This post is sponsored by Hill’s. I am being compensated for helping spread the word about Hill’s® Science Diet® Healthier Pets. Happier Lives.™, but Simply Southern Mom only shares information we feel is relevant to our readers. Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. is not responsible for the content of this article.
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I keep my babies healthy and happy with good food and regular doctor visits. Just like I keep the rest of my family healthy and happy. haha
Sassie and Mitzie are gorgeous and I’m glad they have an amazing “mommy” that wants to keep them healthy and happy. I love the ways you list here – thank you for the awareness!
Am I strange… I’m one of those people who are allergic to cats, but think they are absolutely wonderful. It’s a cruel joke. I wish I could adopt one, but alas… I cannot, but I do mention it to people that I know looking to get a pet. There are so many wonderful pets to love… and kudos to you for finding one. <3
I agree, visits to the velt, nutritional meals, and plenty of fresh water and exercise is the best way to get healthy, happy pets. 🙂
Aww, poor thing! Luck for her though that you adopted her.
We stay current with our dog’s appointments too. It’s built into the schedule, like everyone else in the family.
We’ve adopted our pets from animal shelters too. I keep mine healthy by being proactive.
I commend you for saving your cat from a shelter. I’m not sure if I could do it since you never know how they really are since they’re most likely in bad health when you got them. But I do love what Science Diet is doing!
It’s a good list. We’d love a little puppy, but my husband is a mailman and says no, lolol Mailmen really do get a lot of dogs that hate them. 😉
I’m just back to get the vet quote (about cat’s missing an appt once being like they’ve missed five years) because my MIL were talking about her cat and I told her I just read that…and she wanted a link. -_- lol (hi ma! if you’re reading 🙂 )
Such a good reminder. We were bad pet parents for our cat, we kept skipping appointments thinking it was fine since he was indoors only. Thankfully when we wised up, he was no worse for the wear, but it could have been bad!
Great tips. We just got two puppies from the shelter (brother and sister). What a great addition they are to our lives.
That’s a really awesome chance to win! Vet visits can get costly!
our dogs are our babies. we take care of them like our kids
This is a great post! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Regular check ups for pets are so important, while I never really thought much about cats because usually mine have been inside cats, I have taken them to ensure they get tested and vaccines so that in case they eat a sick mouse or something inside and get sick. My dog recently went to get her vaccines and swelled right up – she’s allergic to either her rabies or the distemper (or both) so now in three years when she gets them again, she will need benedryl before visiting. She goes annually to get a health check up and blood parasite test, as that’s the norm for pets 🙂
We love our pets. We make sure they get plenty of exercise and healthy food but most of all love. We also keep them on regular vet check ups.
Your kitties are too cute! It’s so sad that so many pets have to be euthanized. I wish I had more room to take more precious animals in!
Pets need to be healthy too! They are members of the family!
Who knew? I’m not a cat owner but important for all pet owners.
Vet care is so important to pet ownership. That shelter sounds horrible, I’m so glad you were abto to save the cat!
Your cats are so cute. I love what you did for Mitzie. You are her hero! 🙂
The cats are so cute! I make sure to give them the right food and take them for a walk.
Your cats are gorgeous <3 I like to hope we have happy and healthy pets, we try and do everything we can. x
Oh my goodness. Your kitties are just adorable. I’m a sucker for cats – we juts got two new kittens!
This is great advice. Taking care of your pets is so important. We are all they have!
Good advice. So important to care for our pets.
I use to have pets when I was younger. They made me so happy so keeping them healthy and safe was s important to me. I wish all pets could be health and loved.
We just adopted our newest family member today. I love our vet because they will only give our animals what they need. He has several vaccinations that he will not give them simply because he knows our living environment – they are not needed. Healthy diets are a big part of being a good pet parent.
All of our dogs have been adopted. We currently have two!
Aww, poor animals. I wish we could adopt them all. We used to adopt dogs from Shar Pei Savers but had a few animals that made live really hard so we decided to give it a rest for a while. Maybe we’ll start again once the kids are all older.
Great tips, and love the pictures. They make me miss my two dogs.
These are great tips. My hot doggie is happy with food, snuggles and walks.
Aww we adopt from our local shelter too. Our little kitten had fleas and tapeworms when we got him. Your kitties are adorable!
Both of our pets are rescues, as well. Especially since one of them is TERRIFIED of all things vet (they have to sedate her to examine her) we keep a close eye on them to make sure they aren’t exhibiting any health issues. It’s helpful that our vet is always available to call and ask questions of, too!
Even the most fastidious owners can miss things. It just happens. You can’t spot everything. Good job on the Science Diet. That’s a super high quality food. We recommend it at our practice.
We keep our pets healthy by giving them lots of love, healthy food and regular trips to the vet. Knowing your pet and listening to their actions and body language sometimes will help you see things a little quicker:) Your kitties are so cute!
We no longer have a pet but when we did we used Science Diet. It was actually recommended by our vet and our animal did really well with it.
Those cats are so cute! Poor Mitzi. Since they are part of the family, regular check ups and good diet are always important at our home
We make sure our pets get regular care so they will live long healthy lives. We consider them part of our family and we get regular checkups so it’s important for them as well.
We were just discussing adopting a kitten the other day. It is true you have to be vigilant when it comes to pet care. Thank you for raising awareness.
Lloyd and Rosie love this food!! They are so funny- they ignore each other unless they want to sleep and then always cuddle.
Kitty was a rescue! Doo was bought from a family that had puppies! No mills or profit pet stores here!
When and if we do get a dog we will get a shelter dog. We have a cat right now and he’s enough for us. He need special diet food and has already cost us loads of money at the vet. This is a great thing to win!
My Daughter lost her cat about a month or so ago. Someone.. probably one of her friends dropped off a small kitten .. the problem is. It has worms and now she is worming it.
We’ve been discussing getting a dog and are thinking about getting one from the shelter. I definitely think getting them regular check ups and quality pet food is important. This sounds like a healthy brand.
Do your research, Erica. We got ours from a shelter and he was definitley not what they advertised.
Your little kitties are just too cute! I bet my cats would like this pet food too, thanks for sharing!
Lots of snuggles and kisses!!! Our cat is ridiculously spoiled, but was not happy when we tried to add to our family. Instead, I volunteer at our local SPCA once a week and help other pets find fur-ever homes. We have a length of stay that is less than a month, which is awesome for a shelter!
Awww, poor Mitzie. My parents old dog used to do that, too. The vet gave them something to put on the areas that he was biting and it really seemed to work.