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February 20th, celebrates National Love Your Pet Day.  This “unofficial” National holiday is a day set aside to give extra attention to and pamper your pets that you love everyday.   This is a good day to focus on the special relationship that you have with your pets. Our pets give us so much.  TheyRead more

Humane Society International World Spay Day is an international day of action to promote the sterilization of pets, community cats and street dogs as a way to save animals’ lives. It takes place each year on the last Tuesday of February — this year, on February 23, 2016. Created as Spay Day USA by theRead more

What is a vaccination? A vaccination in an injection that stimulates an immune response in your horse against a specific disease. A vaccination program ensures that your horse has maximum protection against the disease. It doesn’t mean that your horse can’t contract the disease though. If contracted, symptoms will be much milder than in non vaccinated horses, withRead more

VACCINATION OF YOUR PETS by Dr Liesel van der Merwe  Much work has been done to determine the optimal frequency with which we need to vaccinate our pets – the aim being to minimise the overstimulation of the immune system with foreign substances,   whilst still maintaining protective immunity against disease. Core vaccination is a termRead more

Vaccinations – What is all the fuss about? by Liesel van der Merwe   I am going to try and demystify the whole vaccination process for all you pet owners out there. This will involve me taking some liberties with the exact detail of the immunological process, so to those with a bit more knowledgeRead more

Canine Coronavirus(CCV) Canine coronavirus, sometimes called Corona, is a rare viral intestinal infection of dogs which is usually short in duration. The virus itself causes mild transient diarrhoea in dogs and is certainly harmless to other species – however, most infections in dogs go completely unnoticed. How is it spread? Infected dogs normally shed theRead more

Feline Chlamydophila Feline Chlamydophila (formerly known as Chlamydia) mainly causes conjunctivitis in the cat. Conjunctivitis may be defined as the inflammation of the delicate membranes or conjunctiva that cover the inner surface of the eyelids and over the white part of the eye (the sclera). However, this infectious organism is not responsible for the fullRead more

What is Feline Bortedella? Feline bordetella is a contagious respiratory infection of cats. The symptoms of the disease can be mistaken for a wide variety of other upper respiratory illness in cats or can be overlooked entirely. What Causes Feline Bordetella Infection? Feline bordetella is caused by the bacteria bordetella bronchiseptica. The virus is transmittedRead more

What Is Canine Herpes? Canine herpes virus (CHV), also known as “fading puppy syndrome,” is a viral infection that affects the reproductive organs of adult dogs. While adult dogs infected with CHV usually do not show any symptoms, the infection is the leading cause of death in newborn puppies.Canine herpes virus lives in the reproductiveRead more

Babesiosis Babesia infections occur in dogs and other species, and are transmitted mainly by ticks. Babesia are protozoal parasites that attack blood cells. Babesia infections have a wide range of severity: they can be very mild (dogs may not even show symptoms) or very severe (sometimes fatal). The severity depends mainly on the species ofRead more