Posts in Category: Pet Safety and Emergencies

Diabetes is a complex disease affecting how your pet’s body uses glucose. This sugar gives the body the energy it needs to function, but it requires insulin to help it do its job. When a pet has diabetes, the insulin isn’t working as it should, which can lead to an energy starvation situation.

If left untreated, diabetes can lead to serious health problems like blindness and organ failure. So as your dog or cat gets older, it’s essential to watch for diabetes symptoms in pets. 

The team at Bayside Animal Hospital shares the top five signs to watch out for when it comes to diabetic pets. 

Routine pet preventive care is the key to helping pets live long, healthy lives, but it can be difficult for some pet parents to pay for this care in one lump sum at each appointment. This is where pet wellness plans can help. Not to be confused with pet healthcare coverage through insurance, pet wellness plans offered by veterinary practices divide the cost of routine pet preventive care into smaller monthly payments. 

At Bayside Animal Hospital, we offer pet wellness plans for each life stage to help make cost-effective pet care more accessible.

Read on for the benefits of wellness plans and tips for choosing the right plan to meet your pet’s individual needs. 

Inflation has been pretty intense over the last year or so, and we are all feeling the pinch from multiple angles. Veterinary care is not exempt from the rising costs of, well, everything. Bayside Animal Hospital knows that you want to provide the best care for your beloved pet, but sometimes money comes into play. Learn if pet health insurance might be a benefit to your furry family. 

It may not be pleasant to think about emergencies like flooding, wildfires or earthquakes, but when minutes count, disaster readiness can help lessen the trauma for your pets and your family in the event of a manmade or natural disaster. 

Our caring team at Bayside Animal Hospital has assembled the following pet safety tips to help you with your emergency planning before disaster strikes. 

Moving to a new home is an exciting time, but for our pets, suddenly landing in an unfamiliar space can lead to pet anxiety. So while you’re packing up boxes and making plans for moving day, keep these pet relocation tips from our team in mind.

When you gotta go, you gotta go… that is, unless you can’t. Constipation is no fun, whether you are a human or a dog. It is only natural to want to help your canine companion when you see they are having trouble, but what is the right way to do so? Bayside Animal Hospital is happy to help get your pup’s digestive health back on track.

Heartworm disease is a serious problem for dogs and cats across the country, especially in California. Unfortunately, it is a disease that not many pet owners do not know enough about. Bayside Animal Hospital is excited to celebrate Heartworm Awareness Month with our readers and help animal lovers everywhere keep their pets safe from this dangerous disease.

Until the ups and downs of spring level out, snakes stay close to their dens in case it starts to rain or get cold. They can be found under or near their rocks or inside their hibernaculum until weather stabilizes. Then, all bets are off! In search of food, mates, or just expanding their range, snakes explore their surroundings with gusto. Granite Bay residents are all too familiar with snake sightings near homes and on trails. If your home has rock outcrops, freestanding piles of wood or metal, accessible crawl spaces, and infrequently used outbuildings, you might want to start thinking about pet-safe snake repellents. 

Coping with a cat who urinates outside their litter box can be extremely frustrating. You may suspect these mysterious creatures have some kind of vendetta against humanity (or at least against you)—after all we’ve done for them! Before you start sleeping with one eye open, let Bayside Animal Hospital unbox the messages your cat is trying to send, so you can tell your cat, “message received,” and take the appropriate steps to fix the problem.

#1: Your cat has a medical condition

Urinary tract disorders will cause the most fastidious cat to miss their litter box. Increased urgency can prevent cats from reaching their box. Painful urination may become associated with their box, which may cause avoidance. Cats will indicate their pain by vocalizing when urinating. Urinary tract conditions include:

Your insanely curious dog is constantly poking his nose in off-limits places. He also loves to join you on hiking and camping trips during warm spring and summer weather. Both situations place him at risk of encounters with rattlesnakes.

From April through October, these cold-blooded animals are most active in areas popular with hikers and campers. In warmer weather, rattlers look for places out of the afternoon sun. They frequently hang out in woodpiles and heavy shrubs. They’re also found under logs and good-sized rocks.

The Sacramento region has a higher-than-normal risk of rattlesnake bites, and dogs are often the unlucky recipients of the snake’s venom. Rattlesnake bites can cause bleeding, swelling, super-low blood pressure, and shock. Rattlesnake bites can be fatal for dogs.