Bark In The Park – April 28th April 26, 2012

The official Marmalade & Mobile Vet Teddy Bears will be there!

 

Mantua Township is having their annual Bark in the Park and Community Yard Sale from 9 am until 2 pm this Saturday (April 28th).  There will be a dog parade at 11 am so bring your pooch (sign-up for the parade begins at 9 am).  This is the only day of the year when dogs are allowed at Chestnut Branch Park so don’t miss out on all of the fun … and prizes awarded to the dogs in the parade.

 

Marmalade & Mobile Vet will be there!  Come out to visit with us … we’d love to see some old familiar faces and meet many new ones.

 

We will be setting up our “hospital” there for the day and offer a free teddy bear clinic for the kids.  We will be ready for action when any dolls, teddy bears, or other stuffed animals show up in need of repair.  We can sew on buttons, place stitches, apply bandages, and give injections.  If there aren’t any stuffed animals in need of veterinary care at your house we will have some of our own there.  So come out to meet us on the 28th – we’d love to see you (and if any of the kids out there want to call us to schedule an appointment for their stuffy and tell us what’s wrong, we’d love to take their call @ 856-375-1314).

 

 

peace, love, and plenty of tail wags~

Raw Goat’s Milk Ice Cream – for dogs April 17, 2012

Martin eating his Birthday Raw Goat's Milk Ice Cream - yummy!

 

Yesterday was Martin’s 1st birthday.  Martin is a Dogue de Bordeaux who was born in my family room.  Martin’s mother, Bailey, was taken to the Gloucester County Animal Shelter a week before she was due to have her puppies.  The shelter, not knowing Bailey was pregnant, contacted the Dogue de Bordeaux Society of America Rescue and they contacted me.  I had a friend who was interested in adopting a Dogue and she was all too excited to adopt Bailey.  And then we found out that she was pregnant with four puppies!  So I brought Bailey to my home so that she could have a loving and comfortable environment in which to have her puppies.  Maybe it was the stress of the situation, but Bailey rejected her puppies and myself and my husband, Tom, became “parents” to four newborns.

Martin at one week of age

 

I decided to raise my puppies naturally and chose to bottle feed them with what nature intended – raw milk.  I used raw goat’s milk from a company called Answers.  Their goat’s milk is amazing – all it contains is raw goat’s milk, bacterial cultures to help keep the milk safe, honey and organic cinnamon.

 

To commemorate Martin’s Birthday, I made him some raw goat’s milk ice cream using Answer’s milk that he was raised on.

 

 

This recipe makes 2 quarts, or so.

5-1/2 cups Answer’s raw goat milk
6 egg yolks from pastured, naturally raised chickens – important!
1/2 cup of honey
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1 avocado, peeled and sliced

Blend all ingredients until smooth in blender or Vitamix wet container. Chill thoroughly. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Serve immediately to your favorite furry friends!

 

Please consider joining me today in celebrating Martin’s Birthday by making a donation to your local animal shelter.

 

peace, love, and plenty of tail wags~

Natural Flea & Tick Prevention April 15, 2012

Some examples of natural flea and tick preventions.

 

Spring is here and so are fleas and ticks.  Protecting your pet naturally from fleas and ticks is not only possible but also very important.

 

Fleas can transmit tapeworms to your pets and fleas are also the source of a much more serious problem, Bartonella (Cat Scratch Disease).  Bartonella can cause serious illness no only in cats but it can also affect dogs and you and your family.  Bartonella can cause oral diseases, respiratory diseases, eye problems, intestinal diseases, and many other things.  If you’d like more information on Bartonella the National Veterinary Laboratory has the best information.  If you would like to have your cat or dog tested give us a call at Marmalade & Mobile Vet (856-375-1314) and we can schedule an appointment for an examination and testing.

 

Ticks can also transmit serious diseases to cats and dogs.  Lyme disease is the best known tick-borne disease here in the northeast USA but there are many other diseases that are caused by ticks.  Lyme disease and Anaplasmosis (carried by the deer tick) most commonly cause dogs to develop lameness, fevers, anorexia, and lethargy.  The lone star tick and dog ticks carry diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Ehrlichia, and Babesia that can affect your dog’s platelets and red blood cells causing problems including anemia and abnormal bleeding.  If you’d like more information about ticks, tick identification ,and tick-borne diseases Scalibor has a nice interactive website.

 

There are so many natural flea and tick preventions out there in the market and I can’t personally comment on the ones I haven’t used.  The products that I’m mentioning here in this post are only the ones that I have personally used and found to be effective.  If anybody has a product that they love that I didn’t mention please feel free to post in in the comments section.

Buck Mountain Parasite Dust

 

Cedar Oil from the Cedar Oil Store is the main product that I use for my dogs when it comes to tick control.  My experience has been that fleas are much easier to prevent than ticks and my best success with tick control has been with cedar oil.  I live in what I call “tick central” because I have a lot of tress, shrubs, wild grasses, a stream, etc … .  This is what I do to in the war against ticks.  Once a week during peak tick season (spring and fall) I mix up a solution that I make from the Nature’s Defender Vet’s Choice concentrate (2 oz. of concentrate to a gallon of water) and “dip” my dogs.  I sponge it over my dog’s entire body, being careful to avoid the eyes.  This dip procedure helps to repel the ticks for up to a week and it can be especially useful for dogs that have a long coat and are difficult to spray.  For my daily regimen I use the Dr. Ben’s Paws & Claws treatment or the AromaDog Flea Flicker to kill any ticks that might have made it past my “dip” procedure.  If you don’t live in a high tick area you might be able to skip the “dip” step and only use the once a day sprays.  The AromaDog Flea Flicker is an awesome product, especially for small short haired dogs.    I also really like Buck mountain’s Herbal Gold Parasite Dust.  The parasite dust uses Neem and diatom flour which can be sprinkled on your pet’s back and combed in against the grain of the fur. The only reason I don’t use Flea Flicker or Parasite Dust as my primary products is because I have 4 mastiffs and 1 Chihuahua so the large spray bottle for the cedar oil is more convenient.

 

For cats there are two products that I recommend.  The first is the Ectopamine spot on which is convenient because it lasts for 3-4 weeks (the Ectopamine also comes in a spray that can be used for dogs).  The other product I like is AromaCat’s Scat! No Fleas Please.

Ectopamine for Cats

 

One of the most important things to remember with any parasite control program is that a high quality diet is very important.  When you feed your pet with high quality ingredients they will be healthier and less attractive to parasites like fleas and ticks.  Foods that are rich in B-vitamins like sea vegetables help to make your pet less likely to pick up parasites.  Small amounts of garlic (I don’t recommend using garlic for cats as their red blood cells are much more sensitive to potential toxicity) in the diet can also help to deter fleas and ticks.  The two supplements that I love for adding into my pet’s food are Animal Essential’s Green Alternative and Wholistic Pet’s Wholistic Sea Blend with Garlic.  Never feed a food that has by-products, artificial preservatives, food colorings, animal digest, propylene glycol, or grains that aren’t whole grains.  Home prepared diets are a wonderful option.  You can use the recipes in a book like Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats or if you are short on time you can have somebody like Loreen at the K-9 Pet Chef cook for you.  And if you feed kibble, support a local natural pet food store like Daminger’s Natural Pet Foods.

 

 

peace, love, and plenty of tail wags~

Introducing Marmalade & Mobile Vet !!!! April 9, 2012

I’m very proud to announce that I have started my own veterinary practice: Marmalade & Mobile Vet!

High quality holistic and modern veterinary care with old-fashioned service and honest pricing.

 

Creating my own veterinary practice has been a real labor of love and I couldn’t have done it without all of the encouragement, support, and love from all of my family, friends, and clients.  From teaching me how to blog to taking my new photos, to answering my phone calls, to walking my dogs, to offering to hand out my business cards, to offering to help clean my house, to just telling me how much you love me being your pet’s veterinarian I couldn’t have done it without you!

Victoria - the Office Manager/Veterinary Technician at Marmalade & Mobile Vet

 

I also want to introduce you to Victoria.  She is my office manager/veterinary technician.  She has been working as an emergency technician for the past two years and she has a background in business studies and hospitality management.  I think that this unique combination will make her perfect for Marmalade & Mobile Vet … and for you and your pets.

 

We will be officially starting our House Call appointments May 1st and we can’t wait to see you in the comfort of your own home!

In the next few weeks we will be getting our website up and running and our phone system perfected.

 

 

peace, love, and plenty of tail wags ~