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Children generally learn what they see and hear from their parents. Children who are fortunate enough to grow up in households where the pets are family members and see pets provided with love, attention, medical care and quality of life, are learning to emulate their parents and our next generation will responsibly care for the next generation of 4 legged family members, and so on with each succeeding generation... Children that grow up with neglected irresponsibly treated and medically ignored animals will not necessarily be learning the proper value and responsibility of providing for the life of a creature that is totally reliant on humans for quality and quantity of its life.
Veterinary preventative care is so much less expensive in the long run and as the name implies, PREVENTS pain and suffering. Cleaning the ears prevents ear infections. Any of you with children know how excruciating ear infections can be. Dental care prevents gum disease and rotten teeth. Anyone that has ever had a tooth ache should cringe at the thought of a pet feeling discomfort like that day in and day out. The older, more mature generation can empathize with the aches and pains of arthritis. Maintaining your pets’ weight and feeding nutritional supplements and providing quality exercise can slow the onset of arthritis and there are medications available to make your pets’ golden years more comfortable and less painful.
Heartworm prevention is necessary year round in North Carolina due to our climate. Heartworm disease may not be truly “painful” until the dog or cat is in heart failure. However, when you are at the point when your pet cannot exercise, has difficulty breathing and is in heart failure with fluid in its chest and abdomen, then your dog’s suffering gone to its limit. Heartworm disease is treatable, but due the only available drug, it can be an expensive proposition. Giving the prevention is really so much less expensive and very effective.
Doesn’t it make your skin crawl to think of fleas crawling in your hair, your ears, in your private parts and into your eyes and mouth? How do you think your pet feels with fleas and/or tick infestations? In addition to spreading diseases, these parasites cause skin infection, severe itching and make many many animals miserably uncomfortable.
The veterinary profession has so many safe products to kill the fleas and ticks that there really is no good excuse for your pet to be put through this constant torture.
The veterinary profession has brochures and pamphlets and there are library books available that you can read with your children in order to teach them how to value the lives of our pets.
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