COVID-19 Lockdown: Keep Your Pets Safe
Veterinary services nationwide are currently under an immense amount of pressure with reduced staffing levels under the restrictions of COVID-19 Alert Levels 3 & 4. Here are some ideas that you can consider to keep your pet safe during these challenging times, and to reduce the likelihood of them requiring urgent veterinary care.
1. Keep your cat indoors, or safely confined within the boundary of your property
2. Ensure you have your dog under control on a leash when walking outdoors, no matter how obedient they may be.
3. Substitute twigs/sticks for appropriately-sized Frisbees or stick toys instead, to minimise injuries to your dog’s mouth. Be sure to supervise your dogs when they are playing with their toys as accidental ingestion of fragmented toy parts may require surgical removal.
3. Do not feed bones to your dog as these may also injure or get stuck in your dog’s mouth or gut. Accidental ingestion of bones may require surgical removal.
4. Unless previously otherwise advised by your veterinarian, do your best to not feed any human food, tablescraps or raw meat to your pet. Certain foods can increase your pet's risk of "food poisoning", vomiting, diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, pancreatitis, gut obstructions etc; while other types foods can be toxic/poisonous to pets (e.g. avocados, mushrooms, grapes, chocolate, nuts etc) leading to life-threatening conditions such as kidney/heart failure etc.
5. There is limited evidence mammalian pet animals (including dogs and cats) can be infected with COVID-19 and there is no current evidence of companion cats/dogs acting as a source of infection to humans/other animals. However, it is recommended that people who have COVID-19 limit contact with all animals until more information is known about the virus. Under no circumstances should you abandon your dogs, cats, or other pets because of COVID-19 fears.
If you are concerned your pet is unwell, or if your pet becomes injured, please call us on 063588675 before you bring your pet in - please note that you will need to observe our COVID-19 operation protocol during this time. You may also wish to also check out 13 examples of veterinary emergencies that require urgent care, by clicking here.
