The Berwick Village Vet Newsletter
March 2019

New Market Products

The market is full of wonderful gadgets and toys for our pets but the latest is the Animo tracker.  It is a waterproof activity tracker for your pet.  A fabulous idea for those who want to track their animal’s activity and behaviour patterns throughout the day. It is a small disk device attached on your pet’s collar. It works in conjunction with a smart phone app to deliver the information.

The data collected and shared to your phone via blue-tooth, includes exercise activity, sleep quality, calorie and behaviour tracker and presents much like a Fit-Bit or Samsung Health app.

The device enables the owner to set and monitor daily activity goals, check last walked time and view activity reports by day, week, month and year.

It can also advise you if your dog exercises sufficiently for their age, breed and fitness level, and can a distinguished between a sedate pace, a jog and a run.

The device would certainly aid those who are in need of tracking information for weight loss or just for fun and can also give a better understanding of health and wellbeing of your pet. The device retails for about $100.

Heartworm whats the hype?

Heartworm is a dangerous worm, transferred by a mosquito bite to animals. When an infected mosquito feeds on your pet’s blood, the heartworm larvae enter the bloodstream. The scary part is that these larvae mature into worms that can reach up to 30cm in length.

Heartworm is a potentially fatal disease characterised by large, parasitic worms that can infest the heart.  It is a serious disease and if left untreated can cause heart failure, lung disease, organ damage and death. It is possible to treat heartworm infection, but the treatment can cause serious complications and is expensive – thousands of dollars. Prevention is better than cure.

Change of climate and warmer weather conditions in Victoria has played a part in the increased cases of Heartworm found in our state and 10 cases in our locale.

Dogs are more commonly affected by heartworm disease but cats may also be at risk.

Please be aware that many of the intestinal ‘all-wormer’ tablets do not prevent against heartworm infection.

At The Berwick Village Vet we encourage all dog owners to have their pet protected by Heartworm and can provide a yearly vaccine to offer the best protection and if administered at 12 weeks of age (in pups) will kill any heartworm larvae that may be already present.

Call today on 9707 3855 to see if your pet is protected from this deadly worm!

Spotlight on the Retriever

The Golden and Labrador Retriever are a large-sized breed of dog.

Originally these dogs were bred to retrieve shot waterfowl and ducks during hunting.  Golden and Labrador Retrievers have an instinctive love of water, and are reasonably easy to train to basic or advanced obedience standards.  Labradors are frequently trained to aid the blind, those who have autism, to act as a therapy dog, or to perform screening and detection work for law enforcement and other official agencies.

Golden’s are long-coated breed, while Labradors have a short dense coat. Both shed copiously at the change of season and require daily brushing. The Labrador is heavier although the Golden is taller in size and the lifespan for both breeds between 12 -13 years

Labrador and Golden retrievers are both well suited to the family and have a great friendly, trustworthy and intelligent temperament.

And Next month..

As we are heading into the cooler months The Berwick Village Vet will be focusing on aches and pains in pets. Keep your eyes peeled for further information.