Help PetPlan give us a dog's dinner!

Our fantastic partners at PetPlan are asking pet-loving Facebook fans to vote for a charity to receive up to a whopping 50,000 free pouches of food, and it's dogs vs cats as our pals at Cats Protection are the other organisation to benefit. All you have to do is click; it takes seconds and costs nothing at all.

We'd love to see the food split 50-50, but right now there are still over 45,000 pouches going unclaimed by anyone, and only five more days (including today) to vote!

Here, Sian from Dogs Trust Harefield urges you to get involved:



Please vote and share the Facebook link and video among your friends to help these doggies get a yummy dinner. We care for over 16,000 dogs are year in our centres, and each meal costs us around 23p. Every pouch of food we receive will help our resources go that bit further - and you don't have to spend a single penny.

Thank you so much for your support; now please get clicking!

Vote Now

In sickness and in health: three cheers for insurance!

This past week has been spent lying on a sofa. Sounds great, until you factor in the fever, lethargy, dizziness and other symptoms that have kept me away from my desk and this blog. Enforced rest is never as much fun as the real thing, and I still haven't made it into the office but I feel I must blog or I will burst. It's a serious condition, known as socialmediaitis.

Medicine is very much on my mind, as you might expect. As well as my own illness, which has seen me through several doctor visits, two rounds of blood tests and an ultrasound and is still a bit of a mystery, I've been worried about our cats. One of them started coughing when he over-exerted himself (read: went mental over a piece of string). So over the weekend we also had a vet visit to contend with.

It turns out little Casper has feline asthma, which is not serious in his case and can be easily managed and monitored. The visit to confirm this was so short that our vet didn't even charge us for it! But if he had, then Casper is fully insured. For that matter, so am I, so as well as a tendency to sleep all day at the moment, we have that in common...

I can't tell you how much peace of mind Casper's insurance gave me when his symptoms first appeared. Of course, it can't stop you being very worried over the health of your pet; he's a member of the family and my husband and I were both very tense and concerned - what if it was his heart? What if he had a terrible infection? The insurance can't make that go away. But it did console me that whatever he needed we wouldn't feel our hands were tied by the cost of treating it. Yes, you find a way to pay it anyway, but especially in these unstable times it really helps not to have to think about where it's going to come from.

I know I sound like an advertisement, but this really is coming from the heart. Dogs Trust has an arrangement with PetPlan, a huge insurer here in the UK, which means all dogs rehomed from us come with six weeks of free insurance from them. You need to decide which company is best for you and there are frequent debates about the different options out there on DoggySnaps, among other places.

With little Casper and I both on the mend, I should be back to blogging regularly (and more cheerfully) soon. In the meantime, I hope you've all been well!

Who are the Top Dogs and the Cat's Whiskers of the vet world?

The PetPlan Veterinary Awards 2009 are seeking nominees from you! It's your chance to nominate those people at your local practice who go the extra mile to help your pet.

The four main categories are:

• Vet of the Year
• Vet Nurse of the Year
• Vet Receptionist of the Year
• Vet Practice of the Year

So whether it's one person or the whole team who has earned your gratitude, here's your chance to tell the world about them.

To nominate someone, just call 0845 678 1063 for a nomination form or go straight to the PetPlan website.

Now in their tenth year, the awards are a wonderful way of honouring vets from those who are consistently kind and supportive to those who have pulled out the stops to perform an amazing rescue.

To top it all, just for nominating you're in with a chance of winning £250 of Love2Shop vouchers! The glittering ceremony, to which all finalists will be invited, is in April next year. Go on then, get nominating!

Watch out! Avoiding pet hazards in the 21st Century

We've all seen pictures of celebrities toting a cute 'Toy' pooch under their arm or in a little rhinestone-studded handbag. It's frustrating to most dog owners because we know that their little legs were designed for walking and that's just what they'll do! But smaller dogs are generally prone to being picked up more often, and just like cats they can catapult themselves out of your arms.

Sugar the Chihuahua (pictured) did just that when she jumped from the arms of her owner's friend - and ended up with a tiny metal plate in her leg. With a broken limb so severe that her owner, Clare Mitchell, feared the dog would lose her leg, Sugar showed amazing resilience under the careful care of a brilliant vet. Her leg saved, she was trotting around just two days after the operation, but "we haven't picked her up since!" adds Clare.

The 21st Century is definitely coming with its own hazards say pet insurers PetPlan. From falling out of handbags to being stepped on by overenthusiastic Nintendo Wii players, modern companion animals are facing dangers previous generations didn't have to worry about. As a result, 21st Century owners are being presented with enormous veterinary bills. Of 3,000 clients polled by PetPlan, over a third had caused accidental damage to their pets with an average cost of £170 to put things right.

Nearly sixty percent of those owners admitted to stepping on their pet (with dogs the most likely victim), with 21% owning up to dropping them (with guinea pigs suffering the most); the next biggest threat was accidental poisoning. Please remember, for example, to keep your chocolate well out of reach of your dog!

PetPlan's Vet of the Year, Brian Faulkner, has this to say:

"Dogs are especially inquisitive and often get under your feet when you are concentrating on something else. Luckily, most of the time they see you before you see them and manage to move out of the way before you step on them but it is not uncommon for vets to have to help them through the odd accidental owner-inflicted scrape and bruise."

In other words: watch where you're going, just in case your dog doesn't!


Disclaimer: Dogs Trust has an arrangement with PetPlan to provide six weeks of free insurance to all new owners of our rescue dogs. You are not obliged to continue with this provider, but we recommend that you consider obtaining pet insurance if you have not already done so.

Other Pets: Unusual objects swallowed by pets!

We at Dogs Trust have had animals around us for most of our lives, so we'd love to say the news that pets swallow a bizarre array of objects surprises us, but we know how unpredictable pets can be! Still, think about your home - is it as pet proof as you thought? Each one of us was taken aback by at least one item on the list...

PetPlan sent us the story of Ozzie the Staffy, who was rescued from a life-threatening stomach blockage after he swallowed a rubber duck whole! The determined dog, who belongs to Adam Townsend from Cubbington, Leamington Spa, was in a play fight with another dog and preferred to swallow his prize than lose it. When he started vomiting profusely, Adam rushed Ozzie to the vet and surgeon Emily Burton and vet Hannah Ferguson (pictured) stepped in to save the day. Ozzie is luckily back to his usual self now, thanks to their speedy work.

Still think you don't need pet insurance? Remember that the cost of removing a foreign object can range from hundreds to thousands of pounds. Here's just some of the list of foreign objects removed from pets (with the claims paid for by PetPlan):

Cats:

• 16 pellets
• 2ft snake toy
• Arrow
• Baby bottle
• Baby's teat
• Bikini
• Bra strap
• Cassette tape
• Condom
• Cotton & needle
• Cross bow bolt
• Dead pigeon
• Diamond ring
• Fishing hook
• Foil
• Hair bands/scrunchies
• House keys
• Kebab stick
• Plastic watering can
• Screw
• Tinsel
• Tip of birds beak
• Toy dinosaur
• Wishbone

Dogs:

• 10 yr old lino flooring
• 13 condoms
• 33 sewing pins
• 3kg pebbles
• 40 stones
• 5 plastic mice
• Bag of nails
• Box of matches
• Bread knife
• Cake ornament
• Chain
• Christmas decoration
• Coins
• Comic relief nose
• Corn cob with fork
• Cow ear tag
• Credit card
• Dead whole rat
• Dinosaur toy
• Doc marten boot
• Enitre mop head
• Fireworks
• Glass
• Handbag
• Knee support
• Kong
• Light bulb
• Marble
• Muzzle
• Nappy
• Poop bag containing poop
• Rabbit
• Razor blade
• Spark plug
• Tampon
• Tap fixtures
• Tennis ball (1/2)
• Tv remote control
• Watch
• Whistle
• Yo-yo

Disclaimer: Dogs Trust has an arrangement with PetPlan to provide six weeks of free insurance to all new owners of our rescue dogs. You are not obliged to continue with this provider, but we recommend that you consider obtaining pet insurance if you have not already done so.

Petplan warns of 'pet gazumpers' hitting the market

One of the UK's leading pet insurance providers, Petplan, has issued a set of guidelines to prevent puppy buyers being gazumped. The unscrupulous practice is better known in the property market, but increasing numbers of would-be owners of pedigree puppies are finding themselves done out of their much-wanted pet by rivals willing to stump up a higher price.

It is sad thing when dogs are considered fashion accessories. Here at Dogs Trust we love the pedigree pups and the crossbreeds equally and feel they can all make for healthy, happy, wonderful pets. But with the Petplan Pet Census discovering that a third of pups have homes earmarked before they're even born, competition for puppies with the 'right' bloodlines is fierce.

People spend hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds chasing the 'perfect' puppy and will travel across the country. Diana Foultier from Oxfordshire knew that buying her first dog would be memorable, but she could not have foreseen the reasons why.

"I'd always wanted a Jack Russell, so when changes in my lifestyle finally made this a possibility, I spent plenty of time searching for my perfect puppy. Numerous miles and phone calls later... I spotted Chess and was smitted. I paid a £50 deposit and patiently waited until I could fetch her. Two days before, I recieved a call from the breeder to say that Chess was no longer available but that I could choose another from the little. Apparently somebody else had simply offered more than the original price I had agreed with the breeder. I was heart-broken."

Three months later, Diana's husband found Chess (mark II) and there was a happy ending to this story. Too many people are choosing a puppy, forming an emotional bond, and losing out thanks to gazumpers.

You can read Petplan's guide to help you avoid this unfortunate situation online.

Don't forget that if you are planning on buying a puppy you must check that you are dealing with a reputable breeder and not a puppy farm. Otherwise, if bloodline and fashion don't matter to you as much as having a friendly, affectionate family pet, just head to your local Rehoming Centre who will spend much time and effort in finding your perfect match - all for a small donation to help with running costs.

Disclosure: Petplan provides the six weeks' free insurance you will receive when you adopt any dog from Dogs Trust.