Bits for Pets Blog

Pet Smile Month is determined to try and help combat the biggest infectious disease of pets.

During September 2006 Pet Smile Month is providing FREE dental check-ups for pets. These check-ups are being carried out at registered Pet Smile Month veterinary practices throughout the UK. The veterinary staff are giving up their time to provide free dental check-ups and to complete a survey of pets’ oral health.

As well as the Pet Smile Check-Up, it is hoped that owners will receive a Goody Bag from Pet Smile Sponsors and the Pet Smile Month vet.

All the goody bags contain information leaflets about using a quality diet to help avoid dental disease and information about Pet Insurance.

This year Pet Smile have also created a “Pet Smile Club” – here you will be able to keep track of your pets’ vaccination reminders, worming and flea control – as well as those all important dental health checks. Pet Smile hope to bring you information and special offers from leading pet companies.

Please take the opportunity of Pet Smile Month in September 2006, to help tackle dental disease

Click Here to visit www.petsmile.org for further information

An investigation is under way after a major airport security blunder allowed a woman to travel 2,800 miles to Britain with a cat in her hand luggage.

The woman, who has not been named, travelled on two planes on her journey from Iran to Newcastle via Amsterdam.

The kitten was only discovered at the end of her journey by customs officials at Newcastle Airport, who asked to look inside the box she was carrying. The cat, named Tiger, is now in quarantine where it will remain for the next six months.

The incident comes just weeks after security at UK airports was stepped up - including the impostion of strict rules on hand luggage - following an alleged terror plot to blow up passenger jets in mid-air. A major probe is now under way as to how the woman managed to travel with the cat without airport staff spotting it.

Click Here! for the full story

The team here at Bits for Pets have updated and improved our site to make your shopping experience with us easier and more enjoyable.

Check out our new section called ‘kid zone’ its our new kids page where you will find games and puzzles to play, and don’t forget to enter our competition to win a family day out at the cinema. This is a new section and its contents is growing all the time, we hope you check in with us from time to time to see whats been added sice you have been gone.

We hope you ejoy the new site, as much as we enjoyed putting it all together.

The regional and country finalists for The National Lottery Awards 2006 have just been announced, and Paws for Kids, a charity supporting children, women and their pets who have suffered from domestic abuse will be competing for your vote against a wide range of Lottery funded initiatives to decide the best UK National Lottery funded projects.

The National Lottery Awards aim to celebrate and recognise the difference that people have made with Lottery funding. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £18.5 billion has been raised for projects across the UK and over 240,000 grants have been given out across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

Bolton based Paws for Kids is a pioneering organisation which aims to relieve the pressures on families escaping domestic violence by providing emergency pet foster care for family pets. Having somewhere safe to take a pet can, in many cases make the difference between someone staying in a violent situation or leaving it. For children who have experienced domestic abuse, pets can often be their sole source of comfort. With the help of a £390,000 Lottery grant from the Big Lottery Fund, Paws for Kids has been able to help 1,200 women and children and over 830 pets since it was established in 1997.

The regional and country Awards shortlist consists of four projects in each English region, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which have been chosen by a panel of high profile judges. The short-listed projects will go head to head in a public vote for the title of their region’s or country’s National Lottery Project of the Year.

Each of the regional or country winners will earn a place in the UK final, set to be broadcast on national television later this year

Click Here! for the full story

The search is on for a team of people with nerves of steel - to help look after the dormice of the Wye Valley.

Conservation group the WWF is looking to train up to 14 volunteers to help monitor the tiny creatures.

A spokeswoman warned that handling the mice can be “a pretty nerve-wracking experience”.

She said they are “doddle” to handle when they’re sleepy, but added they “can be very active - shooting out of the nest box when you least expect it”.

There are strict protection laws for dormice, which mean that anyone handling them must have special training.

The volunteers will make monthly checks of 300 nest boxes in Monmouthshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire from next spring.

Click Here! for the full story

The number of stray dogs being put to sleep has dropped this year, according to the Dogs Trust.

The animal charity reported that 7743 dogs were put down by councils because they were unable to find them homes, compared to 7798 in 2005.

The charity said pet owners should do more to help reduce the number of strays wondering the streets.

It recommends you get your dog an ID tag and a microchip so that if you lose it you can easily be reunited.

It also said you should get the vet to do a special operation on your dog, called neutering, to stop it having unwanted puppies.

Dogs Trust Chief Executive, Clarissa Baldwin, said: “Unless dog owners think about the commitment needed to look after a dog, dogs will continue to be put to sleep.”

Click Here! for the full story

This year’s hot weather and lack of rain is hitting wildlife hard, with ducks and fish dying.

Pollution watchdogs are also concerned by the lack of water in rivers and the growth of green algae slime which cuts oxygen levels.

More than 400 fish died in the River Idle near Sheffield and around 1,000 small fish were found dead in the Counter Drain near Cambridge.

The Environment Agency is asking people to call if they see any problems.

At more than 100 sites across England and Wales over the past two months, low water and oxygen levels have caused fish to gasp for air, turned ponds green and stranded lots of types of insects that live in water.

In one instance, at least 10 ducks died in Waltham Abbey because their lake became infected through lack of water and oxygen.

Click Here! for the full story

Houdini the Burmese python gave his owner a shock after swallowing a queen-size electric blanket, including the electrical cord and control box.

X-rays showed the blanket’s wires running through 8ft of the python’s 12ft (3.6m) body and emergency surgery was needed to remove them.

Owner Karl Beznoska, of Ketchum in Idaho, US, believes the blanket become entangled in Houdini’s rabbit dinner.

Vets say it would have taken the python six hours to swallow the blanket.

They believe 18-year-old Houdini would have died had they not performed the two-hour operation.

The vet who carried out the surgery, Karsten Fostvedt, said the “prognosis is great”. Houdini is now recovering.

Neither Mr Fostvedt nor his colleague at Ketchum’s St Francis Pet Clinic had operated on a snake before and had to telephone two specialists for advice after Houdini was brought in.

Mr Beznoska told the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper that he noticed Houdini was not looking well on Monday morning - and the blanket kept in his cage for warmth had disappeared.

He said the blanket must have got caught up in Houdini’s rabbit dinner on Sunday, and the python continued to gulp down the blanket even after his food had gone.

“This is something I’ve never heard of or seen before,” he said.

Mr Beznoska has had Houdini for 16 years and calls him “a good boy” and “very mellow and very friendly”.

The 60lb (27kg) python is apparently something of a local celebrity, and a popular visitor to schools and libraries.

Click Here! for the full story and video clip

Dog destroys £40,000 Elvis teddy

A £40,000 teddy which used to belong to Elvis Presley was among scores of toy bears destroyed when a dog meant to guard them went on the rampage.

Dobermann Barney was looking after the rare Steiff bear, named Mabel, which had been loaned for an exhibition at Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, Somerset.

The dog ripped the head off the bear and attacked scores of other teddies.

Barney’s owner could only suggest that the bear had a rogue scent on it - or that Barney had become jealous of it.

The bear, made in Germany in 1909, was bought at auction in Memphis, Tennessee, by Somerset aristocrat Sir Benjamin Slade.

Wookey Hole general manager Daniel Medley told the BBC: “About 100 bears were caught up in this frenzied attack, some were merely little chews, whereas some of them had some quite devastating injuries.

“Heads pulled off, arms, legs here and there, it was a total carnage really. I’ve never seen such a mess, there was stuffing, fluff and bear bits everywhere.”

‘Model dog’

Barney also caused an estimated £20,000 damage to other bears in the collection.

Security guard Greg West, who was on duty at the time, is at a loss to explain what happened to make Barney go so “berserk”.

Mr West, 36, of Totterdown, Bristol, said: “Barney has been a model guard dog for over six years. I still can’t believe what happened.

Click Here! For the full story