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While 2020 had its ups and downs for New Yorkers, the pets of Brooklyn and beyond had a banner year! With so many home during the pandemic’s lockdown and stay-at-home orders, pets of all shapes and sizes reveled in having their peoples home and hanging out.

Pet owners seem to have enjoyed this trend, too. Not only have there been plenty of laughs and snuggles with our fur-friends, but an increased opportunity to get to know our pets, their behaviors, and their health better, too.

We are grateful that so many of you turned to All Creatures Veterinary Hospital’s pet blog for some insight into your pet’s needs and quirks, and hope you enjoy a glimpse of our top 5 most-read pet blogs this year!

For animal lovers, thinking about the millions of pets languishing in shelters across the country is heartbreaking, especially around the holidays. Ideally we would save them all, but for many of us adopting even one pet is out of the question right now. 

Fortunately there are plenty of ways to help shelter animals without making the commitment to adopt. Everyone has a skill or a few hours to offer, and every little bit makes a difference in the lives of animals in need!

For those who don’t know better, cats are commonly perceived to be aloof creatures who prefer to be left to their own devices and knock a tumbler of whisky off a table rather than interact with their human slaves. But for those of us in the know, cats are often anything but solitary, unfeeling creatures who would rather curl up on your lap and make biscuits while you sip on that much-needed whisky. 

Indeed, cats are, more often than not, intuitive and loving pets, who thrive on love, attention, and interactive play. They sense and respond to our moods, make us laugh, and generally love to nose their way into our affection on a regular basis.

With that in mind, it’s only natural that we would want to give our cats a little extra love from time to time. There are many ways to pamper your cat and, as their human companions, it’s likely that you know what they would best purr-fer, but in case you need a little inspiration, the team at All Creatures Veterinary Hospital has a few ideas to get you started. 

We are so fortunate to live in a time of preventive medicine. When it comes to the human-pet dynamic, we can easily stay in front of many potential problems. 

Zoonotic diseases, for example, play a huge role in the world of prevention. With many pets sleeping with their owners and sharing kisses, responsible attention to hygiene, sanitation, and vaccination is of the utmost importance.

Health considerations will inevitably pop us as we age, even for the most resilient and vital among us. Additional physical examinations and diagnostic testing to ensure health and well-being are an essential part of aging. This is equally true for our pet companions. 

While age is not a disease, wear and tear on the bodies of older pets can set them up for disease and illness. We all want our pets to stay as vibrant and healthy as possible, which can be achieved when we make proactive senior pet wellness our top priority. 

Let’s take a closer look at this important focus!

While it may not be the most comforting thought, Americans are not alone in our attempts to make sense of our upside down world. People around the world are struggling to cope with the immense challenges of COVID, and social unrest has reached a boiling point in global and local communities. 

But where do our pets fit into this new paradigm? Pet safety is always a priority, but there are new threats to their normal city-living routines.

Ordinary Living’

There are easily a million pets living in NYC homes, and more than half of them are dogs. In fact, the rate of pet adoption is higher in urban areas than anywhere else – for good reason. City dwellers are keen on providing the best possible lifestyles and living conditions for our pets. 

The last couple of months have been unbelievable in many ways. The good news, for pet owners anyway, is that they didn’t have to shelter in place by themselves, and the companionship offered by their sweet pets really hit the spot in these times of shock, despair, fear and sadness. But now that we’re approaching going back to a semi-normal way of life, pet separation anxiety may be just the beginning of our challenges.

Helping Pets with Transitions

Many pets relished in all the extra time their people spent at home, doting on their every need. This is especially true for pets that were adopted shortly before or in the midst of sheltering in place.

Mandatory quarantines and stay at home orders created a different way of life for pets and their people alike. Despite relaxing restrictions we cannot expect our pets to simply accept roll with these particular punches. In  other words, don’t be surprised if your pet suffers from separation anxiety.

We all know it’s inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any easier to cope with pet loss. Whether sudden or unexpected, the death of a beloved pet is never easy – and the path to healing can seem never ending.

Sadly, our society doesn’t take pet loss, and the associated emotions, as seriously as it should. This leaves grieving pet owners with few avenues for support as they process their sadness.

At All Creatures Veterinary Hospital we empathize deeply with the loss of a pet, and we hope to connect you to resources and ideas that can help you cope and begin to heal. 

Most of us don’t enjoy getting up close and personal with our pet’s body odor. Even the cleanest among them still has that unmistakable doggie or kitty smell. But if you have ever gotten a whiff of your pet’s feet, you may have noticed something peculiar about it. That’s right! They smell like corn chips.

If your pet’s feet smell like Frito’s, you may wonder if something is wrong. Is it normal? Thankfully, the team at All Creatures Veterinary Hospital of Brooklyn is here to explain this phenomenon and why it occurs in so many pets.

We would get so much more done if our human communications hinged on subtle expressions, sleek movements, and specific flicks of appendages. Cats are, unlike us, very efficient in their use of the eyes, ears, fur, body positioning and of course, their tails to convey exactly what they’re thinking and feeling. From fright to pleasure, suspicion to affection, feline body language is incredibly adept at communication. 

Amazingly, the more we know about the way our feline friends communicate, the deeper our human-cat connection can be!