Dog owners, beware!!! The Arizona Humane Society issued a valley-wide warning about two new strain of Distemper disease, a deadly disease for man’s best friend. If you want to help protect your dog, make sure his vaccination is up to date. Many people ignore their own annual checkups and biannual dentist visits. So, it is easy to ignore the recommended vet visits. But this can be dangerous especially since Distemper disease is very easily spread among pets.

According to the Arizona Humane Society, there is not known cure for this deadly disease, which starts as a respiratory infection and spreads quickly throughout the body. Distemper spreads among dogs just as fast as the flu spreads among humans, especially in communal areas for dogs like dog parks, dog spas, and more. Typically, an increased number of cases of the disease are observed during the spring due to increases in the number of puppy litters. However, signs of the condition have been appearing much sooner and cases have spread as far away as Ohio and Georgia.  Dr. Bradley, veterinary and member of the Arizona Humane Society stated that this was not considered an outbreak as of yet, but the number of cases is noticeably on the rise.

Pets are part of the family too, so it’s a natural instinct to want to keep them healthy and happy!  In doing so, it’s important for pet-owners to realize that when you purchase some Benadryl or Vicks Vapor Rub, you’re in fact buying medicine for your pet as well!  Yes, it’s true, pets can benefit from some of the same exact human medicines that you take for your health; but you always must confirm with your veterinarian before taking any risky action!

So you’ve just become the proud owner of a beautiful box turtle.  Problem is, you don’t have enough box turtle health know-how to care for your little bundle of joy.  Fortunately for you, the tell tale signs of box turtle health problems are not overly detailed.  Turtles are cold blooded, so they don’t have fevers like mammals do when fighting illness.  Unless you are noticing actual physical changes in your turtle, or its eating habits or droppings have drastically altered, you can safely assume that your animal is healthy. 

So what health problems may you encounter with your box turtle and how do you treat them?  Here’s a quick list of common issues that may arise and the appropriate treatments.

Cuts and scratches
Clean the wound with a disinfectant solution that can be found in any home first-aid kid.  Continually clean the wound daily and cover the area with gauze if the wound is particularly deep.   If the area becomes red, releases pus, or starts to have a foul smell, use antibiotic ointment immediately.  Additionally, if the injury was caused by a dog or raccoon, take the turtle to the veterinarian as a bone could possibly be exposed.