Pets eating unusual objects

PDSA has a varied case book of pets that have swallowed unusual objects and can now add a tent peg to this list following the case of 3-month-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Disa, who swallowed a 27cm tent peg!

Here’s the charity’s list of the top 10 most common foreign bodies which pets have got their teeth into!

1. Dummy/teat
2. Stones
3. Bones
4. Toys
5. Balls
6. Corn on the cob cores
7. Miscellaneous rubber objects e.g. household waste, bits of rubber toys
8. Fabric or clothing – socks are the most common, but PDSA vets have also seen bras and knickers too!
9. Linear foreign bodies such as – needle and thread in cats, tape cassette in dogs.
10. Plastic bags

Other bizarre items found in pet’s tummies include packs of condoms, rubber ducks, and corks! But what is it that causes pets to swallow these things?

There is actually a scientific name for this type of behaviour – pica. This condition can be an instinctive preference for a certain substance or possibly the result of a dietary deficiency.  Dogs use their mouth to explore objects as well as to eat. Sometimes the 2 functions get confused and a dog will eat an object by mistake, even though it had only meant to investigate it. If an owner tries to recover an object being played with, the dog may run away with the object still in its mouth, or will growl.

It is very important to stop dogs eating inappropriate items, such as stones, as they can cause serious illness if the objects become lodged in the intestine. Symptoms that may indicate your pet has something lodged in its intestines include, vomiting, abdominal pain, restlessness, abdominal distension, dehydration, lack of or no appetite, low body temperature, congested mucous membranes which appear reddened and blood shot and elevated heart rate.

Cats also display pica, and wool eating is one form of this behaviour. This may be an inherited condition, as it appears mainly in Siamese and Siamese crosses, but other breeds are also affected. The reasons behind this behaviour are unclear.  Wool eating is not the only example of unusual things that cats have eaten, other items include carrier bags, babies’ dummies and electrical cables.

Cats with pica should be monitored very closely as other dangerous items may attract their attention. For example, owners should ensure that any electrical wires are safely covered with plastic conduit or fixed to the skirting board.

There are various treatment options to help stop pets eating inappropriate items eg:- distracting a pet with a ball or loud noise, making the item taste unpleasant using something that is safe yet tastes unpleasant, and keeping dogs on a lead when they are near to tempting objects.

The best overall advice for pica is prevention, but if the problem persists, contact your vet for advice.

Wildlife Trusts Welcome £1 million SOS Success

THE refrain, "Can we save the Red Squirrel? Yes we can!" is echoing around the Wildlife Trusts of the North of England and their partners this week.

The Heritage Lottery Fund have just announced they are to help fund a major new initiative aimed at raising awareness about the plight of our native Red Squirrels, which are now extinct in most of mainland England, and promoting new conservation measures to save this
threatened species which is so close to the nation's heart.

The "Save Our Squirrels" project has been awarded £626,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of a £1.1 million initiative to be managed and co-ordinated by Northumberland Wildlife Trust on behalf of the Red Alert North England (RANEng) partnership.

With confirmation that funding is now in place, a team of 7 Red Squirrel Officers will be deployed from the Mersey to the Tyne and beyond to implement this project that will drive forward delivery of the national Red Squirrel conservation strategy which was launched last November.

Welcoming the announcement, on behalf of the RANEng Steering Group, Northumberland Wildlife Trust's Chief Executive, Mike Pratt commented:- "This is great news for all concerned with the conservation of this iconic animal from England's woodlands - the real "Squirrel Nutkin"!  We will work with our partner Trusts in Lancashire & North Merseyside, Cumbria and Yorkshire to engage everyone in this work, and with landowners and the public to implement conservation measures in the 16 designated Red Squirrel Refuges and surrounding buffer zones.

Organisations including Red Alert North West and Red Alert North East have been working for years toward this end and this project will finally bring the North of England wide co-ordination of resources and action needed. In particular, it will enable us to involve local communities and have a wider educational role as well as carry out more in-depth species conservation work.

Many more people will get closer to this magical creature through the project, possibly for the first time, through the Trusts' People and Wildlife programmes. We also believe the project will fuel nature tourism opportunities in the North.

The project has been recognised nationally as one of the most important new initiatives promoting wildlife diversity and the grant is one of the largest ever made for species conservation."

Government Forestry Minister, Jim Knight MP, said today:- "Red Squirrels are a cherished but threatened part of our biodiversity in England. I'm very pleased to learn that this significant new funding has been secured by this partnership project. It is a key step in sustaining the remaining populations of Red Squirrels in the Red Squirrel reserves in northern England and it will enable more people to enjoy these beautiful animals."

Fiona Robertson, Red Squirrel Officer for the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, added:- "This funding will allow us to employ a People and Wildlife Officer in order to encourage people's enjoyment of Red Squirrels on the Sefton Coast and further support the active involvement of the local community and schools throughout Merseyside and West Lancashire in Red Squirrel conservation. We also intend to create a new viewing site at Lifeboat Road, Formby, in partnership with Sefton Council's Coast and Countryside Service, to provide an additional place for the public to experience close encounters with Red Squirrels."

<<PUT PICTURE OF LIFEBOAT ROAD, AND RED SQUIRRELS HERE>>

YOU MAY NEED TO TAKE THEM PATRICK

Jazz at the Palm House

ON 23 April 2006 see Just East Jazz play live at the Palm House, Sefton Park, Liverpool.   Full bar and refreshments on sale, part cafe style seating.   Limited seating capacity so buy your tickets now to avoid disappointment.   Doors open at 6:30pm for a 7.30pm start.   Unreserved tickets at:- £14.50

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