Month: October 2020

Recently, a Washington, D.C. TV station WJLA partnered with Ellipse Analytics to test several brands of wet dog food for the drug pentobarbital, a common euthanasia drug used to put down pets and zoo animals. Of all the brands tested, the popular brand Gravy Train, repeatedly came back positive for pentobarbital, according to the station. Out of the 15 cans tested, nine tested positive and the FDA currently allows no traces of it in any dog foods or treats. The results of the study have prompted the FDA to announce plans for a full investigation.

It’s pretty fun to do the fetch game with your dog, and what better thing to throw than a tennis ball, right? Well, just imagine the toxins in a typical tennis ball and it doesn’t take long to speculate on some of the things that can go wrong.

So, my owner wanted me to blog about something that he’s noticed in our travels throughout Fairfield County dog parks… the trend of some humans to nicely pick up after their dog has pooped, but to bag it and leave it on a trail or by a tree for someone else to pick up.

Why would you go to the trouble of bagging the poop with a non-biodegradable bag but then leave it out on the ground where it will not decompose for at least another 50 to 1000 years?! It would actually be better if you let the poop stay out in the open so that it can disintegrate the next time a heavy rains comes.

If you’re a dog like me, you like to run around in the yard, check the trees, bushes and plants for new smells and mark the place up as best you can. I also like to chew on blades of grass every now and then… they give my sensitive belly a bit of relief.

But what if your master sprays your running place with weed killers, fertilizers or insecticides? Since that stuff kills bugs and weeds and is a POISON, doesn’t it stand to reason that it might be harmful to us dogs, too?

As it turns out, the answer is YES!

While I was at my favorite dog park today, I was viciously attacked by an unfixed male Pomeranian. You may laugh when you see the picture of one below. They look like stuffed toys, but I will tell you this guy was literally the wildest dog I’ve ever encountered. And those who know anything about dogs know that it’s the smaller dogs that tend to be the craziest.

My owner has been asking other dog owners this question for months…

“What do you do when your dog is freaky?”

He’s a first-time owner and isn’t used to some of the freaky things we can do. I don’t know what the big deal is.

When it comes to Lyme disease and exposure to the biting bugs that carry the disease… i.e. ticks, fleas, mosquitoes, horseflies, etc. … your dog may be your “canary in a coalmine.” In other words, because your furry friend is rambling through areas of higher exposure to these bugs than you, it may get exposed to Lyme disease before you do.