The Desert Tortoise is a long-lived fascinating creature well adapted to survive in the desert environment.  It is found throughout the Sonoran Desert region and is commonly kept as a backyard family companion pet in southern Arizona.  As a family pet, it is relatively a low-maintenance animal, but the Desert Tortoise does have some very specific requirements that will ensure its health and longevity.

Diet

Desert Tortoises are primarily herbivorous, and grasses comprise the bulk of their diet.  [Read more…]

Here in Pima County, at every major collection point for lost and stray animals, and at most veterinary offices, there is equipment that is used to detect, read and decode microchips in animals. Armed with that information, a person can access a 24-hour data base and determine to whom a lost pet belongs, how to contact that person, how to contact an alternate person, and how to contact that animalís veterinarian. The microchips are unique, and once they are implanted, they cannot be tampered with or removed. For this reason, a microchip may be used as indisputable legal proof of ownership, as well as a device to return a lost pet to their worried and distraught family. [Read more…]

We are all very fortunate that most cats are such clean animals – they will defecate and urinate in their litterbox because it is the cleanest and most effective way to hide their waste materials. If their litter is not to their satisfaction, cats will use alternative litter areas in the potted palm, a pile of clean laundry, your bedspread. If it’s clean and they can “bury” stuff in it, it’s fair game.

Traditionally, cat litter has been clay litter, which is actual clay that is mined from the ground, pelletized, scented, etc. It’s good for [Read more…]

As it is with so many other things in life, the prevention of problems, such as preventative medicine, is by far the preferred and more effective path to follow. This axiom applies to the world of veterinary medicine (all species excluding humans) as well. In the older patient, preventative medicine may mean special diets, dietary supplementation, weight maintenance or reduction, prophylactic dentistry and the identification of chronic disease processes before they become severe and/or affect other organ systems. Veterinary medicine cannot stop the aging process or some of the consequences that it brings, but it can lessen the severity of some of those consequences, prolong life, and increase the quality of life, if health problems are identified at an early stage. This statement is especially true of the feline species. [Read more…]