Guarding Your Pets: 4 Sneaky Critter-Borne Threats to Be Aware Of!
Pets bring eternal joy and delight to their owners. There is nothing like taking your dog for a walk in the park on a sunny summer day or watching your cat play with butterflies in the garden. The experiences make you feel truly happy on the inside.
Yet, along with joy comes worry for our furry friends’ well-being. And for pet owners living in the countryside, there are a whole lot of things to be concerned about. With all those critters, like rodents and wild animals, snooping around the place in search of food and shelter, the transmission of deadly diseases from wildlife to domestic animals is only a matter of luck and circumstance.
4 Critter-Borne Diseases Every Pet Owner Should Be Aware Of
Here are the four main diseases animals can get from critters that might harm your pets. Also listed are symptoms to help you notice these issues early. Plus, if you ever face a critter crisis, do not forget to check out CritterStop’s safe wildlife removal services. This company helps homeowners in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area, providing effective and humane solutions to common wildlife concerns.
- Leptospirosis. Leptospirosis spreads when a pet touches water, soil, or pee from an infected critter. Rats, wild creatures, and farm animals can all pass the disease on to pets. Leptospirosis signs are fever, tiredness, and kidney or liver problems. The solution is vaccination, proper hygiene, limited exposure to potentially contaminated environments, and critter control.
- Rat-bite fever. As is evident from its name, rat-bite fever spreads through bites or scratches left by rodents. The symptoms of rat-bite fever include the fever itself, also achy joints, and skin rashes. The solution is rodent control, proper hygiene, and avoiding high-risk environments.
- Tularemia. Tularemia spreads when pets encounter sick animals like rabbits, squirrels, mice, voles, beavers, or infected ticks. Tularemia makes the pet feel tired, have a fever and swollen lymph nodes. The solution is good hygiene, rodent control, limited wild creature interactions, and regular checks for ticks, preferably every time the pet has been outdoors.
- Plague. When you hear “plague,” you immediately know it is trouble. Pets can catch it from wild rodents or infected fleas. The warning signs are high fever, severe dehydration, weakness, lethargy, diarrhea, rapid breathing, and increased heart rate. Very dangerous and often lethal, plague can be prevented with vaccination, supervised outdoor time, limited rodent contact, good hygiene, pest control, and check-ups for ticks and fleas.
While the above diseases sound terrifying to any pet parent’s ear, they are mostly curable if detected early and treated promptly, so do not hesitate to seek professional vet help if your four-legged friend suddenly does not act like itself.
Ensuring Pet Happiness: Navigating Critter-Borne Threats with Responsibility and Care
The joy of pet ownership comes at a price of great responsibility for the animal’s well-being. A natural part of the environment, critters can be carriers of deadly diseases like leptospirosis, rat-bite fever, tularemia, and even plague. To keep your pets safe, it is crucial to always be alert and do prevention, like keeping clean, taking your pet to the vet often, and managing critters. Critter Stop offers humane wildlife removal services, helping pet owners create a healthy environment for their furry friends.
