A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.758.3849. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: May 10 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be e-mailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, student correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Nick Young, photographer; Heather Darrow, contributor; Shawn Stewart, contributor; Lydia Gober, contributor; Tatiana Shehedah, contributor
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Taking care of man's -- or woman’s -- best friends
By Lisa Huang
Central Park Campus LRC Reference Librarian
The phrase “a dog is a man’s best friend” is a well-known truism.
Aside from providing companionship, pets are good for one’s physical and mental health. A study published in the American Journal of Cardiology found that men who owned dogs were significantly less likely to die within one year after a heart attack than those who did not own a dog.
A 1999 study in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society looked at nearly 1,000 men and women (average age of 73 years) and found that owning a cat or dog helped to maintain or even slightly enhance their Activities of Daily Living (ADL) score.
For those of us who are multi-taskers and juggling many roles in our hectic lifestyles, pets can provide a source of consistency, allow a feeling of security, an outlet to build self esteem, and more importantly, provide non-judgmental love and acceptance, which are all vital complements of our mental well being.
However, the relationship is reciprocal. Pets, like their owners, suffer from illnesses and diseases. Today, advanced medical breakthroughs, the availability of transplants, MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging), ultrasounds, acupuncture, etc., are readily available for not just pet owners, but to pets. These treatments are often available, but unfortunately, at an exorbitant cost to the average pet owner.
Access to veterinary care and veterinary care issues such as pet insurance can be an expensive prospect for many pet owners. Preventive care is the best remedy and a necessity as pets age seven times faster than humans. Pet owners can search for easily accessible comprehensive and quality consumer information amid the plethora of resources available.
Some of the best online resources are:
The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) offers quality health care information through its Healthypet.com website (healthypet.com). The website includes a pet library for hundreds of articles on pet care related topics and an AAHA hospital locator.
The Intelligent Content Corporation has partnered with Tufts University and Angell Memorial Hospital to produce Petplace.com, the largest Website library of unbiased, authoritative pet health and wellness information written specifically for pet owners on the Internet. The website has more than 5,000 articles written by more than 80 veterinarians. There are libraries established for types of animals and the website includes a comprehensive veterinary drug library.
American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) (avma.org) produces a Public Resources section for pet owners to access brochures and resources on animal nutrition, awareness concerns and guides for disaster preparedness. American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)(aspca.org) has a PET CARE section devoted to comprehensive information on basic pet care and nutrition, grooming and behavior tips, poison prevention, emergency preparedness, and much more.
VeterinaryPartner.com (veterinarypartner.com) is a user-friendly website that offers advice and numerous articles on animal behavior, diseases and drugs. An “Ask a Vet” feature is available for those with questions. MedlinePLUS (medlineplus.gov), a free consumer health website produced by the National Library of Medicine, has a section which can be accessed by searching for Pet Care in the search box www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/petsandpethealth.html.
The webpage includes links to credible directories, glossaries and organizations that provide health information for the public. Pet owners should also consider their local library for resources.
At the Consumer Health Information Center at Central Park Campus, the following materials are available for pet owners: "The Complete Book of Pet Care" by Peter Roach; "The International Encyclopedia of Pet Care" by David Alderton; "The Encylcopedia of Natural Pet Care" by C.J. Puotinen; "The Complete Home Veterinary Guide" by Chris Pinney; "ASPCA Complete Dog Care Manual" by Bruce Fogel; "Kindred Spirit, Kindred Care" by Shannon Fujimoto Nakaya; and "ASPCA Complete Cat Care Manual" by A.T.B. Edney.
The books are transferable between Collin libraries. For further assistance, pet owners are welcome to stop by the Consumer Health Information Center at Central Park Campus Library or call 972.548.6869.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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