The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too

Monday, October 31, 2011

We Have All Heard of Pet Insurance for Your Dog or Cat – Did You Know that There is an Insurance Company that Will Cover Your Horse or Pony?


Did you know that after buying a home or a car, a horse can be one of the most expensive purchases that many people make? You protect your family, home, cars and even your pets with insurance, so why not your horse?

You probably never thought about it…or even knew that there was a such thing as “horse or pony” insurance.

According to Neal King, former president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, vet’s fees are increasing at around 11% year on year. Could you afford to pay your horse’s vet’s bill if it ran into hundreds, or even thousands of pounds? Many of us couldn’t, which is why it makes sense to protect yourself should the unexpected happen, with good quality horse insurance.

I want to tell you about a company that can give you the added protection that you need for your horse or pony.


What They Offer:

They excel in offering comprehensive cover for your horse or pony. They are dedicated to providing you with competitive premiums and a great product. Horse-insurance.co.uk provides the coverage, and gives you the freedom to choose a policy that suits your requirements.

On their website, they have an easy to use quote system which will allow you to build a policy unique to your requirements. You will be able to get your instant quotation and then proceed to buying online and having instant cover. Their horse and pony insurance is an exclusive online policy.

Horse-Insurance.co.uk is a scheme administered and underwritten by Equine & Livestock Insurance Co. Ltd. (Registered in England & Wales no. 294940) which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA register number 202748). Equine & Livestock Insurance Co. Ltd is also a member of the Association of British Insurers and the Financial Ombudsman Service.


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Friday, October 14, 2011

Animals are Helping Wounded Warriors


Wounded Warriors heal with help of iconic animals. In Arlington,Virginia, when  Lt. Col. Sam Nerove grabs the reigns to guide a 2000 pound horse, she is taking control of something else too.

"I was in the deepest, darkest, hell hole," says Nerove.

She was injured in the early 1990s in Dessert Storm. She returned to combat in Iraq in 2008.

"Similar environment. More rockets, bombs, bullets, and bodies," says Nerove.

Soon her post traumatic stress disorder  was so bad she had to be medevaced out.

"It got so bad that I couldn't even tell the difference between tents and buildings," says Nerove.

She still jumps at the sound of a plane landing at nearby Reagan National. She takes a deep breath and then resumes talking.

Nerove is part of the Caisson Platoon Equine Assisted Program at Fort Myer.

"Through this program, I have learned that I can do anything. If I can guide a horse, I can guide my life," says Nerove.

At a rider's side, members of the Old Guard. These are the same horses that pull the caisson at Arlington National Cemetery.

"If these horses weren't out here carrying their wounded comrades on their backs, they'd be pulling the caisson carrying one of their fallen comrades to their final resting place," says Larry Pence, a retired Command Sgt. Major in the Army.

The program's been in place since 2006 and so far they've had about 125 wounded warriors out riding.

"The one thing they all have in common is that they all want to be contributing members of our society. It's humbling and inspirational every Thursday for me and it's just a blessing, of course, to be a part of it," says Pence.

He and retired Navy Commander Mary Jo Beckman started the program. Brian Isenhouer was stationed in Italy when he suffered a head injury in a car accident. He hopes driving the wagon is preparing him to one day get his driver's license back.

"It's helped me a lot, really it has," says Isenhouer.

The program's being expanded nationwide.

"There was nothing to really prepare me for just the magic, the magic of what this really is and what it does," says Nerove.




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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Genetically-Modified Beagle Glows in the Dark – What Do You Think?


Scientists in South Korea said two-year-old Tegon, a genetically-modified beagle, actually glows in the dark.

When the scientists from Seoul National University feed Tegon doxycycline she glows fluorescent green under ultraviolet light.  Removing the drug from her food effectively turns off the radiant effect.

The researchers hope that their discovery can help develop human treatments for some of the 268 illnesses that dogs and people share in common.

"The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases," lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun told Yonhap news agency.

The dog was created using the same somatic cell transfer technology that the University team used to create the world's first cloned puppy, Snuppy, in 2005.

According to Reuters the discovery took four years of research worth roughly $3 million.




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Monday, October 10, 2011

Rare Baby Seahorse Found in London River



The discovery of a baby seahorse in east London raised the possibility that a colony of the rare creatures is living in the River Thames, scientists said.

The short-snouted juvenile hippocampus was discovered during a routine fisheries survey at Greenwich, suggesting that adult seahorses were breeding nearby, the UK's Environment Agency said Friday.

The cute creatures once thought only to visit Britain during warm weather were declared protected in 2008 after several were found near the mouth of the Thames. Those sightings raised scientists' hopes that a family could be living in the river.

The latest discovery was the furthest inland that the seahorses were detected so far.

"We hope that further improvements to water quality and habitat in the Thames will encourage more of these rare species to take up residence in the river," Environment Agency fisheries officer Emma Barton said.

Seahorses are one of the few animals that mate for life, after elaborate courtship rituals.





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Sunday, October 9, 2011

The National Aquarium, Washington, DC - Unveiled an Extremely Rare Albino Alligator



On October 7, the National Aquarium, Washington, DC, unveiled an extremely rare albino alligator in the new Secrets of the Swamp, here for a very limited time. Don't miss this opportunity to get up close to this rare and special animal!

An extremely rare albino alligator from the swamps of Louisiana is taking up residence in Washington, D.C., dazzling visitors with her brilliant white skin.

The 3-year-old is the first of its kind ever to go on exhibition at the National Aquarium,  home to more than 200 marine species from goldfish and frogs to piranhas and sharks.

"There are less than 100 albino alligators in the world," Ryan Dumas, a herpetologist  at the tourist attraction, told AFP on Thursday. "They are very rare."

Hatched in captivity in, after its egg was found in the wild, the ghost-like alligator with pink eyes came to Washington via the privately owned Saint Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida.

"Local lore in parts of Louisiana, is that it's incredible good luck to see an albino alligator," Dumas said, adding however that because of their color, few if any survive in the wild.

"A white alligator is going to have a very hard time keeping itself hidden in a dark swamp," said Dumas, because the lack of camouflage exposes hatchlings to predators or gives them away to prey.

The alligator, which dines on fish and rodents, will be on display until February of next year. A facebook campaign will be launched by the aquarium shortly, to give her a name.


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Saturday, October 1, 2011

Have You Ever Had a Hermit Crab as a Pet?


Have you ever had a hermit crab as a pet? I did…well it wasn’t exactly mine. I don’t remember where I got the idea to get my son a hermit crab. I think it was because he wanted a dog, and we were living in an apartment that did not allow dogs. He was very young maybe around 4 –5 years old.

I got the aquarium and everything all set up and showed it to him. His first response was that he took off running when he saw it move!  He came back into the room and looked at it closely and gave me that…what is that look. Then it moved again…and off running he went!

I started to let him watch it eat and he became a little more comfortable with it, however, it didn’t come out of its shell much. I didn’t realize at the time that they are nocturnal.

It’s been years…so I have no idea what happened to the hermit crab. I can assure you as an animal lover, no harm was done to it. I probably gave it away or took it back to a pet shop. We ended up eventually getting him a fish aquarium…and a dog!

Hermit refers to the fact that the crabs borrow the shell that they are in.  They have no real "home" of their own, they are hermits. As the hermit crab grows in size, it must find a larger shell.

Hermit crabs are nocturnal scavengers that will eat almost anything. They live in large groups in the wild, and do best in groups of three or more.  They wear the label “hermit” because of the shell they carry on their back that they hide in when sensing danger.

Pros
low maintenance
inexpensive
have colorful shells

Cons:
nocturnal
no bonding
not interactive

Anatomy: Hermit crabs are invertebrates, animals without a backbone. They have an exoskeleton, an outer shell that provides support for their body but does not provide much protection from predators. They vary widely in color, from red to brown to purple, with stripes, dots, and other patterns. They have ten jointed legs; the front two legs have large, grasping claws (called pincers or chelipeds) and the rear pair of legs are very small. They have a flattened body, sensory antennae, two eyes located at the ends of stalks, and a soft, twisted abdomen (which the hermit crab keeps hidden inside its shell).






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Friday, September 30, 2011

Meet Frank and Louie, the Two-Faced Cat


In Worcester, Massachusetts, a cat with two names and two faces was born. Meet Frank and Louie. He has two faces, two mouths, three eyes, and there was lots of doubts about his future.

A Veterinarian looked at the kitten and found it to be perfectly healthy with an excellent chance of survival. The Vet was right.

Twelve years after Marty Stevens rescued him from being put to sleep because of his condition, the exotic blue-eyed rag doll cat is not only thriving but has made it into the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records.

He's the longest surviving member of a group known as Janus cats.

, named for a Roman god with two faces. Janus cats almost never survive, and most have congenital defects, including a cleft palate that makes it difficult for them to nurse and often causes them to slowly starve or get milk in their lungs and die of pneumonia. The condition is the result of a genetic defect that triggers excessive production of a certain kind of protein.

"Every day is kind of a blessing; being 12 and normal life expectancy when they have this condition is one to four days," Stevens said, stroking Frank and Louie's soft fur as he sat on her lap purring. "So, he's ahead of the game; every day I just thank God I still have him."

Frank and Louie's breeder had taken him to the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, where Stevens was working at the time, to be euthanized when he was just a day old. Stevens offered to take him home, but experts told her not to get her hopes up.

But Frank and Louie did not suffer from most of the common Janus problems. Stevens used feeding tubes to nourish him for three months, hoping that would also save him from the danger of choking on food going down two mouths.

It turned out she didn't have to worry about him choking, because Frank and Louie used just one of his mouths to eat.

"The condition itself is very rare, and I think that the fact that this cat became an adult, a healthy adult, is remarkable," said Dr. Armelle deLaforcade, an Associate Professor at Cummings and head of the Emergency Services Section.



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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Labrador Retriever Puppy – Protects Brothers with Diabetes


A recent addition to a household in Hampton, Virginia, is helping to protect Zajdel Kazee, and his 8-year-old brother, Lucas. Both brothers  have Type I Diabetes.

The new addition is Skittles, a Labrador Retriever puppy who comes from Diabetic Alert Dogs by Warren Retrievers. "They do a scent recognition training and choose the dogs that pass the test with flying colors, and those are the dogs that are places as diabetic alert dogs, " explained the boys' mother, Liza Kazee.

Because of the high cost, the family continually raises funds, and Warren Retrievers' Guardian Angel Service Dogs assists it and others in covering the price of the dogs. Price for a dog and the training, which includes in-home visits for several days 3 times a year, is $17,000.

The boys named Skittles after their favorite candy.  If their blood sugar drops, 10 pieces of the sugary treat brings their levels back into the normal range. Skittles already is going to stores and church with the family, sporting his bright orange service dog vest. Eventually, he will go to school with the boys.

"It's every parents decision, but it's about keeping your kid safe. If he can keep my kid from having one seizure, he's done the job, you know, the money was worth it," said Kazee.

"When they check their fingers, we involve him. We make it exciting for him, you know. We call him over: 'Let's check Wyatt. Let's check Lucas,'" described Kazee of some of the training and bonding process. "He sits or jumps on them, and, then, checks while they're doing it, and if it's high or low, we 'treat' him. We give him a treat for doing a good job."

Although glucose monitors are supposed to let you know when the blood sugar is going out of range, Kazee said there often is a delay. In the short time Skittles has been on the job, he has noted problems with the boys' levels as soon as they started leaving the normal 100-150 range. "He'll jump on me, bite me on my ear," offered Zajdel, "but for Lucas, he'll just sit right next to him or try to come to him."

"It's rough, but you can get through it as long as you're confident," Zajdel said of living with Diabetes. In the past 6 years, the Tucker-Capps Elementary School student has had 14 seizures related to his Type I Diabetes.

"He's taken over my pillow, so I end up sleeping at the end of the bed," shared Zajdel, pointing to the only drawback.

             Video: (Place your mouse on video for start button)



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