Bringing home a pet may be one of the best decisions you can make in your life. However, having a pet isn’t without responsibilities. You need to make sure that they’re healthy and loved.
For new pet parents, caring for your pets can feel overwhelming – just like how it may be like to bring home a new baby. If you’re one of those overwhelmed, here’s a routine care checklist you can follow. This checklist can help ensure that your pet’s health and overall well-being is in top shape.
Stay On Track With The Needed Pet Supplies
Like babies, pets have their essentials, too. Every time you visit your veterinarian, make it a point to also stock up on your supplies. These essentials include:
- Dog food
- Playpen or fence
- Stainless steel food and water bowls
- Blankets
- Puppy treats
- Dog toys
- Collar or harness
- Potty training pads
- Shampoo
- Pet Vitamins and supplements
For the pet vitamins and supplements, you can read the full article here to learn more about some of the essential vitamins and nutrients you need to give your pet.
Pet-Proof Your Home
This is for the safety of both your pet and the humans living in your home. As your pet grows, you also need to update your pet-proofing efforts, depending on how high they can jump and reach as they grow.
Here are some insights on how you can pet-proof your home:
- Invest in trash cans with snapping lids, so your pet won’t be able to rummage through it in your absence;
- Keep any fragile home belongings out of the way;
- Lock cabinets containing cleaning agents, chemicals, and food products;
- Install a safety gate, if you have stairs at home;
- Check your houseplants to make sure that none of them are possibly toxic to animals.
Check For Ticks And Fleas
If you keep your dogs indoors most of the time, ticks and fleas aren’t much of a problem. But, if you keep your dogs in your garden or take them out with you regularly, the chances of catching ticks and fleas are greater. Hence the need to check for ticks and fleas as a part of your routine care.
While small, ticks can be dangerous both for pets and human beings. They’re classified as parasites that attach to both animals and people. Once they’ve stuck to your pets, they feed voraciously on their blood. Then, as they move from one dog to another and worse, to the people at home, the possibility of disease transmission is there.
Once the first sighting of ticks and fleas appear in your pets, it’s very important to send them to your veterinarian immediately. Proper treatment can be given to avoid the ticks from reproducing.
Send Your Pet For Deworming
The frequency of pet deworming is something to be decided upon by your veterinarian. Your job is to ask about this and be sure to strictly follow the schedule they gave you. This is very important to keep your pets safe from dangerous worms like intestinal worms and heartworm. These worms may cause severe discomfort and disease to your pet.
Train Your Pet
Training your pet is a part of their care. When you train your pet, you’re turning them into more responsible and easier-to-handle pets. It’ll be easier for you to bring around your pet out with you for a walk in public places. As your pet is not a danger or nuisance to others, you can go about your day without worries.
Most importantly, training your pet makes it easier for you to care for them at home. You won’t have to be so stressed about your pet pooping and peeing everywhere in the house all because they’ve never been taught where to pee and poo.
Follow The Appropriate Vaccinations
Pets need to get vaccinated, too. As is the case with human beings, vaccinations are important to ward off infectious diseases in pets. The proper schedule for vaccinations will also be provided by your veterinarian. This depends on your kind of pet, its age, and its overall health condition.
Conclusion
This checklist can be a good starting point to ensure your pet stays happy and healthy under your care. As you can see, being a pet parent goes beyond the cuddles and cute photos you may see on social media. But, when you truly love your pets and want the best for them, giving them the best love and care won’t feel like a chore. Your days will certainly be a lot busier – but happier, too.
