Crowd-Funding For Pets
Stacey Nutini, Fund A Pet Miracle

Stacey Nutini took crowd-funding to a new high! At one time, her one-person organization directed funds to those who needed urgent veterinary care. She also described the kind of people that gave dollars to help other pet owners and the vetting process.

Stacey Nutini founded Fund A Pet Miracle, which was much like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. It allowed someone to come on and create a project over a certain amount of time for a monetary goal that they need for their animal. While they were similar, Fund A Pet Miracle was different than other crows-funding in reaching your goal. While other crowd-funding will only let you keep the funds if you have met your goal, with Fund A Pet Miracle, you received all funds raised whether or not your goal was reached.

The timeframe on projects ran up to ninety days. For instance, if your dog needed a surgery that costs $2,000, you could set up a project with that goal, which could run 30 days. People could then go on and help you in your time of need to afford the surgery for your pet. But if your pet needed emergency surgery, you could have a project that lasts as little as five days.

Stacey told us that people give to these types of projects because pet stories are very relatable. Some people relate to a certain breed that they either own or once owned and want to help. Perhaps they even had a pet they lost because they couldn't afford the surgery that someone else was requesting funding for. While they may not have been able to help their own pet, their heart allowed them to help others in the same situation.

Fund A Pet Miracle was started because Stacey and her boyfriend had a Beagle Terrier mix dog that had diabetes and kidney disease. They both invested every penny they had in her treatment. They felt lucky that they were in a good financial position at the time and could afford it. However, she knew that you are not always in a position to be able to do something like this. Everyone has highs and lows in life, and what if you are at a spot where you couldn't afford the care for your pet?

When Pet Food Is Medicine - Dr. Debbie

Proper pet nutrition is more than just diet choices for the healthy pet. It's even more important to properly feed the sick pet or those with chronic diseases. What you put in your pet's food bowl can help, or harm, his ability to cope with illness.

Peek into your average veterinary office and you'll likely find one or more brands of therapeutic diet foods created to manage pet specific pet health conditions. Veterinarians prescribe therapeutic diets to help pets with kidney disease, diabetes, pancreatitis, weight loss or heart disease. Special digestive diets may focus on hypoallergenic ingredients, fiber content or fat levels. Some diets prevent or dissolve mineralized stones in the urinary bladder. There are even diets to keep the spring in your arthritic dog's step and diets to aid in treating pets with cancer.

The grandfather of veterinary nutrition was Dr. Morris, who in 1940 designed a diet to improve longevity of his dog, Buddy, who was a seeing-eye dog battling kidney disease. His efforts led to the introduction to Hill's K/D diet, a favorite diet used today for dogs and cats with kidney dysfunction. Today, many more diets and conditions are addressed by companies such as Science Diet, Royal Canin, Purina and Iams.

As a veterinarian I recognize the value that therapeutic diets lend to managing my patients' health. But my strongest testament to their value is as a doggie momma who feeds a therapeutic diet to my own dog, Magnum.

My Labrador Magnum suffers from food allergies with frequent facial skin infections, bad skin odor, scratching and unpleasant gastrointestinal signs with diarrhea and flatulence. After several diet trials with various hypoallergenic diet approaches, he now thrives on a rabbit based therapeutic diet by Royal Canin. His doggie kisses are sweeter smelling now, he's content and he isn't a walking gaseous explosion anymore.

But be prepared to dig deeper in your wallet for therapeutic diets. The research behind these foods will cost the consumer more than average pet foods. But the investment can pay off in lower medical costs and fewer veterinary visits, justifying the additional cost. In Magnum's case, we are able to avoid continued treatment of skin infections, thereby avoiding medication use and he is spared incessant itching.

Some pet owners turn to home cooked diets in order to avoid the costs of therapeutic diets. Without guidance and veterinary nutrition analysis, pet owners may risk shortchanging their pet's nutrition. One research study identified that over 90-percent of home prepared diets for sick pets failed to be nutritionally adequate. Quality ingredients aren't cheap and a well-produced home cooked diet often ends up costing far more to prepare than commercially produced therapeutic diets.

If your veterinarian recommends nutritional management with a therapeutic diet, discuss all the options with your doctor. Inquire about different brands and sizes of food packages available, as many choices are available. Get your money's worth on these diets by following your veterinarian's recommendations. Avoid mixing therapeutic diets with regular foods. This only hinders your pet's results and give you a false sense of saving money by making the food last longer.

As for Magnum, I choose to feed him his therapeutic diet and avoid popping pills into him. That's my gauge of a therapeutic diet success - food that serves like medicine in the doggie bowl, but without the hassles.

Featured veterinarian known as "Dr. Debbie" on national pet radio program, Animal Radio. Ebook author of "Yorkshire Terriers: How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend"; "Pugs: How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend"; "Mini Schnauzers: How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend"; and "Shih Tzu: How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend." Dr. Debbie's books.

Visit Website

The Dogfather's Grooming Tip with Joey Villani

Maintain Healthy Ears & Nails On Your Cat
Something you may never think about is your cat's ears. However, just like dog ears, they need to be maintained to stay healthy.

The main difference between a dog's ear and a cat's ear is that cats don't have hair in their ears, so there is nothing to be removed. This is a good thing, because can you imagine plucking hair out of cat's ears? Good luck!

The easiest way to maintain healthy ears in a cat is to go to your local pet store and buy ear cleaner (you will need cotton balls) or ear wipes that they sell over the counter. Then just swab the ear out.

You can also make your own ear cleaner with four parts water and one part white vinegar. Just mix the solution together and wipe your cat's ears.

You don't want to go in very deep at all. Just wipe out the canal, which you see, and take out any debris. If the debris is really heavy and crusty and has a horrible odor to it, take your cat to the veterinarian.

As far as a cat's nails go, they are much easier to cut than a dog's nails. The problem is the cat itself! Joey doesn't personally recommend cutting a cat's nail at home unless you have experience holding cats, or there is someone there who has the experience holding them while you cut their nails. Cats are not going to sit still like most dogs will while getting their nails cuts. Some cats will, but most won't allow it.

Longest Serving Police Horse Retired
Black Jack, the longest-serving police horse in St. Paul, had been a workhorse. In his 14 years with the department, he never once called in sick or missed a day of work. The 18-year-old horse was returned to his owners, who had donated him to the police department to live out his remaining years in pasture. Because it can take a while to find a good police horse and get it trained, the mounted patrol worked to get a new horse ready before Black Jack retired. When a woman heard the police department was looking for a new horse, she offered to donate her horse. She stated, the 10-year-old Oldenburg breed "has a ton of personality and is kind of a busy horse." "He thrives on things going on, and it seemed like a perfect fit for him. ... It's really a good feeling that he can do something like this." The mounted patrol operates year-round, and the horses wear special horseshoes with studs, so they have traction on the snow and ice. Black Jack's horseshoes fit the new horse and they also got Black Jack's police saddle.

Stolen Cat Food Resulted In Grand Theft
A man in Clearwater, Florida was charged with Grand Theft after attempting to steal over $300 worth of cat food from a local Wal-Mart. Officers responded to the Wal-Mart to investigate a shoplifting case involving cat food. Loss prevention staff had detained the man for loading up a shopping cart full of cat food and then walking to his car without paying. The man explained to officers that he had done this in the past and that he steals the cat food to sell in what he calls "hustling." He also said he has a friend with 300 cats and he sells the food to him and others. I'm not sure what part of this story I find most alarming: That "hustling" is actually a term used to describe stealing hundreds of dollars worth of cat food to sell on the black market, or that there are apparently people out there with upwards of 300 cats that warrant this type of illegal activity!

Deer Droppings Art
An angry artist in Canada expressed his or her displeasure with the city's deer population with a deer statue covered in deer droppings. An anonymous resident left the statement piece on the steps of City Hall. The mayor called it a "very effective way" of letting them know that there was a problem that needed to be resolved. However, city officials apparently already knew that there was a deer issue in town and had been waiting for a decision in a legal battle over a nearby deer herd, where they voted to spend $15,000 on a project to relocate the deer.

Listen to the entire Podcast of this show (#1315)