Healthy Pets, Happy Families: Tips for Taking Care of Pets in the Transitional Season
By: Arditya Laksono – Freelance English Tutor
The transitional season, or the period between seasons, often brings extreme and erratic weather changes. The scorching heat of the day can suddenly change in a matter of hours to heavy rain with thunder in the afternoon.
Image 1. (Source: pexels-anastasia-shuraeva-5495067)
Therefore, it is important for pawrents/owners to increase their vigilance and take preventive measures to keep their furry friends and themselves healthy. Here are some tips and tricks that can be done:
1. Pay Attention to Diet
Make sure the pets gets nutritious and balanced food to increase its immune system. Provide clean drinking water, it would be better if given boiled or cooked water to minimize the risk of disease transmission .
2. Keep the Cage and Environment Clean
If the pets is placed in a cage, clean the pets cage regularly, at least once a day. Make sure the cage is always dry and not humid. Keep the environment around the anabul clean from dirt and stagnant water.
3. Bathe the anabul regularly
Bathe the pets at least once a month using animal-specific shampoo. Make sure the pets is completely dry after bathing to avoid the risk of mold and other skin diseases.
4. Provide a Safe and Comfortable Place
Make sure the pets is in a place that is not exposed to rain or direct sunlight. Animals that are outside continuously are more susceptible to disease. This can be exacerbated if they interact with wild animals of unknown origin and are at risk of carrying diseases.
5. Have your animal’s health checked regularly
Take your anabul to the vet regularly for health checks and disease prevention. In addition, the owner should also ensure that the pets receives complete vaccinations and deworming at regular intervals as recommended
by the veterinarian.
Read Also : Zoonosis in The Food Chain
Image2. (Source: pexels-pranidchakan-boonrom-101111-1350591)
Image 3. (Source: pexels-tima-miroshnichenko-6235118)
What about Pawrents’ health?
It is not only the pets that is important to take care of its health, but also its owner. The transition season, which makes the environment humid, can accelerate the spread of bacteria and viruses. Even pawrents can also be at risk of contracting diseases from infected pets. Adapted from the Indonesian
Ministry of Health page, there are some important tips for pawrents to stay healthy in this uncertain weather season:
1. Maintain Personal Hygiene
Wash your hands with soap and running water, especially after doing activities with your pets such as playing, feeding or cleaning its cage. In addition, bathing twice a day can also help eliminate germs on the body.
2. Keep the Environment Clean
As a good animal owner, it is important to keep the environment clean. A dirty environment can increase the risk of zoonotic disease transmission, such as leptospirosis which is transmitted by rats through their urine and feces.
3. Eat Nutritious Food
Encertain weather can weaken our immune system, therefore it is important to maintain our intake of nutrients and vitamins by eating nutritious food. This will be even better if followed by a healthy lifestyle such as; regular exercise and adequate sleep.
Get to know Zoonoses more closely
Zoonoses are diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans or vice versa and need to be watched out for, especially during the transitional season. Quoted from the WHO website, zoonotic pathogens can be bacteria
or viruses and parasites. Pathogens can spread to humans through direct contact with animals or through contaminated food, water or the environment.
Image 4. (Source: pexels-gustavo-fring-4017417)
Zoonoses Day is celebrated globally every July 6 to honor Louis Pasteur for creating the first rabies vaccine on the same date in 1885 and to raise awareness about the dangers of zoonoses. By implementing the right preventive measures, we can keep our pets and our selves healthy from zoonotic diseases. On this year’s Zoonosis Day, let’s increase our efforts to prevent zoonotic diseases by maintaining the health of our pets and ourselves, especially in this transitional season by always keeping ourselves, animals, and the environment clean. Remember that the health of our animals and ourselves are interrelated, so it is important to always maintain the cleanliness and health of both.
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Photo Source:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-practising-yoga-on-the-terrace-with-her-cat-and-dog-14751175/
https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-happy-couple-dancing-with-their-dog-5495067/
https://www.pexels.com/photo/mother-playing-with-her-children-4017417/
https://www.pexels.com/photo/vet-vaccinating-adult-tan-pit-bull-terrier-1350591/
https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-pomeranian-getting-checked-by-a-a-veterinarian-6235118
