Dog Food Truths-Dog Food Secrets
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OK, we all know about tylenol, grapes, raisins, chocolate, toxic plants - all the stuff that can be potentially dangerous to our pets. This one just came from a personal friend in CT. Read it and heed it! We would rather waste 10 minutes of your time and have you read this than have any pet be harmed. From George Anderson: On Sunday night John & I had to put down our beloved Chocolate Lab mix, Tara, as she suddenly for no apparent reason started to have seizures and then became comatose. It was not until the next evening during a conversation with our own vet that I mentioned to her that I found a empty container of Xylitol breath mints in the back yard which she had chewed into and eaten all the mints, our vet gasped and said that Xylitol is deadly for animals. Apparently, it causes their blood sugar level to drop rapidly, they become hypoglycemic, liver failure and various other symptoms among which were the ones I just mentioned. She told us that they have been seeing this over the past year when Xylitol started showing up in our foods, it was in Europe before this.

It is a sugar substitute, which normally I never use, but it is supposedly good for humans protecting teeth (it is in toothpaste) lowering glucose all sorts of things, it is used for cooking. One dog died after eating 4 cupcakes that had icing on them containing Xylitol. Unfortunately, labeling cannot read "dangerous for animals"...it can say 'not recommended for animals' which was not on this packaging but it's going to be in the future (I spoke with the company that makes the mints). I do not know if it is on all products containing Xylitol. If you need confirmation on this check with your vet.

Other foods that are deadly to animals are: chocolate; grapes; raisins; macadamia nuts; onions; garlic and alcohol (some people actually give their dogs beer).

Thank you, everyone for doing this, maybe our loss will help others.

Alerting everyone to a dangerous toy called a Busy Buddy made by Premier It is a kong-TYPE toy, dumbell in shape of hard rubber with holes in either end of the dumbell to put treats into. Someone gave this toy with treats in it to her 7-month old pup, and after five minutes saw him scrabbling around on the floor. She went to take it from him and found him to have his tongue trapped in the hole by the vacuum it had caused. His tougue wouldn't come out and was swelling up and causing him to choke. She couldn't cut it off as the rubber was too thick and, of course, he was panicking as was she. She had to rush him to the emergency vet to have him sedated while the vet cut him free. He is now home safe but with a very bruised and badly-bitten tongue where he was biting, trying to free himself. The actual Kong toys are fine as they have a second hole in the other end so a vacuum isn't caused inside, but because each end of this Premier Busy Buddy toy was solid in the middle they aren't safe. Just a warning to anyone who may have this particular toy or anything similar that can create a vacuum.

RABIES WARNING--THIS FROM A COUNTY EMPLOYEE: You raise some very good points about Rabies and Vaccinating your dogs. I would like to elaborate if I can just a little. You have not mentioned any cases of Wildlife attacks on people/pets in our own county of Maricopa. MCACC field officers run an average of 5-10 Rabies Exposure calls in Maricopa County every month. A majority of these are Wildlife to Pet exposures. And please do not think that if you live in the city, that you are immune from your pet being exposed to a Rabid Wild animal. Bats are the major Rabies carrier in the state of AZ. This last year we removed bats from the City Hall building in Glendale, an apartment in Phoenix, and numerous inner city schools. We had to quarantine 3 cats in a household in North Central Phoenix, when one of the cats, (we don't know which one) brought a bat in through the doggie door and deposited it in the person's hallway. We have coyotes living in North Central Phoenix in an electric substation at 17th Ave/Orangewood Ave area, we had to quarantine a woman's dog, when the coyotes got into her yard and attacked it. I almost hit a coyote crossing the on ramp of I-17/Union Hills. There are quite a few in that area. Sun City is plagued with coyotes and although it seems like their behavior there is unusual, it is not. The Sun City coyotes have just lost their fear of people. One lady's Pomeranian was snatched away from her while she was walking it on a leash. Another coyote actually went into the woman's house after her poodle via the doggie door. We have had a few skunk exposures just north of Happy Valley Road. A raccoon fell from a tree and the dogs attacked it in a backyard around 7th Ave/Coral Gables area. Your pets can encounter any exposure to wildlife just about anywhere in the county including the city itself. Best protection is to keep your dogs vaccinations current at all times and keep them licensed. It may mean the difference between a 6 month quarantine (which means no agility shows people) and a 45 day quarantine. If the animal that created the exposure is deceased and we test it and it is positive for Rabies, you will not be allowed to quarantine your animal at home unless its vaccinations are current at the time of exposure. Most of the bats that we test come back positive and the bat does not have to bite your animal for your animal to suffer an exposure. If you see a bat out in the daytime, do not touch it and isolate your animals immediately. If it is out in the daytime, it is sick. Pick it up with a shovel and put it in some type of container and call Rabies Control. If it is still alive and you do not feel that your animals were around it, leave it alone and call Rabies Control.

We hope you find this information helpful