Dog Care 101

Last week Best Bully Sticks covered how allergies affect our pooch pals and how a reaction will most likely look. (To find out more, read "Recognize Your Dog’s Allergic Reactions”) This week’s tip focuses in on how to treat your dog’s allergic reactions as they pertain to skin symptoms.

Allergy Testing
The first step may be figuring out exactly what is causing an allergic reaction. This usually entails a trip to the vet's office and a blood or skin test to determine the offending allergen. The next step, of course, will be limiting exposure to that allergen.

Preventative Measures
After you know how to recognize the reaction and exactly what it is, there are some avoidance measures you can take to help cut down on your pet’s reactions. For instance, keeping your dog out of the room for several hours while vacuuming and changing furnace filters will aid against house dust allergens. When treating a dog with sensitivity to pollen, keep them out of fields, keep your grass cut short, rinse your dog's feet after being outside and keep your dog inside when high pollen counts have been forecast. Read more

Best Bully Sticks hates to admit it, but it’s that time of year again. The itchy, watery eyes and scratchy throat are just a few symptoms that humans go through when the world gets a thin yellow dusting of pollen each spring. Sometimes, allergy season can wreak as much havoc on our dogs as it does us. But it’s not always about pollen. There are a lot of materials and foods that your prized pooch could be sensitive to and it's important to recognize an allergic reaction. Let’s review some allergens that could affect your dog. 

A few different sources of allergens can be:

-Tree

-Grass

-Weed pollen

-House dust or dust mite

-Flea bites  Read more

As a good pet parent, feeding your dog is something you should take comfort in, not second guess. Best Bully Sticks wants to help you feel that comfort by understanding and knowing how to read pet food and treat labels. Last week, BBS looked at reading the ingredient list and this week we’ll look at reading the guaranteed analysis. The term “guaranteed analysis” may not mean anything to you outright, but you’ll definitely recognize it when you see it. Read more

Now, more than ever, people are concerned with what’s in their food. So, of course, pet owners are no exception. We want to give those that we love good, nutritious food.  But when you flip the dog food or treat bag over and that glaring block of text is staring back at you, how do you decipher it?

Best Bully Sticks wants to help make sense of your dog’s food or treat ingredient list. Here are a few easy steps to sort through the gibberish that might make up your dog’s food.

1. The First Ingredient says a lot. The first ingredient in your dog’s food or treats is the main ingredient and that one ingredient usually makes up about 80% of the total product. Ingredients are also determined by weight but include any water content that might be present. It’s important to note that without water weight, a “meat” ingredient might be listed lower in the list.

2. Byproduct & Meal versus Meat. First let’s start with some definitions: Read more

The last part in our safety series are two things BBS never hopes you have to do, but once again, we want all of you to be ready for any potential doggie emergency. CPR, or Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, and the Heimlich maneuver are two live saving techniques that could potentially save your dog.  

We could have easily written a very lengthy article about how to complete both of these procedures, but we decided to show off the great potential of the internet and show two instructional videos. These videos are very informative and concise and you’ll have a good understanding of how these should be done by the end of each. 

CPR 

Heimlich Maneuver 

We hope this series has in the least prodded you to begin thinking about first aid for your beloved furry family member, and at most, truly prepared you for any potential emergencies.