6 Vital Tips for Disabled Pet Care While You Are Away Traveling
Leaving a pet at home while you travel can already be a worrisome endeavor, but for people who have a disabled pet increases that worry tenfold. Here are 6 vital tips for disabled pet care to keep your pet happy and safe while you are away.
1. Talk to Your Vet
It is important to let your vet know your plans, and ask for suggestions for care of your pet. Your vet can make suggestions based on the level of care your pet needs and what considerations to keep in mind. It will also be important to fill out an authorization to treat form giving permission for other people to take your pet in for treatment while you are gone.
2. Decide Where Your Pet Will Stay
Will you pet be staying at home with someone coming over? Will they be going to a friends or families house? Or maybe you are lucky to have a kennel in your area that specializes in elderly or disabled pet care. It is important to plan well in advance where you pet will be staying so not only can logistics be figured out ahead of time, but it give you ample time to book the kennel if needed and give authorizations to treat to the vet.
3. Create Your Care Team
Disabled pet care requires a lot more work and precautions than a normal furry friend. Creating a care team for while you are away helps ensure everything goes as smooth as possible and gives you peace of mind. Some members of the care team are easy to figure out: Veterinarian, physical therapist, groomer. Others may require a little more thought. When Teddy, our collie was at our home on our last trip we had a friend stay over. The friend had authorization up to $500 for vet care, but if a major veterinary decisions needed to be made we had our parents as the emergency contact for any final decisions in case we couldn’t be reached. These people should all be aware of your pets needs and the proper people trained on exercises, medication dosages, and how to use equipment like a wheelchair.
4. Schedule Visits
If your dog loves people as much as mine does, they get down and depressed when we are away because the house is quiet without visitors. If you are keeping your pet at your home or in a kennel, scheduling friends to come over to play and spend time with with your pet. This will make them happy to see a familiar face. Our dog-sitter worked 5 days a week, so we scheduled friends to come over while he was at work to check in and play.
5. Write Everything Down
Does your dog use different booties inside and out? Do you have to do certain exercises daily? Does your vet have an emergency after hours number? Write it down! You may know all these things by heart, but it is beneficial to both your care team and your pet to write this information down! That way the person taking care of your pet doesn’t have to worry if the are forgetting something and has easy access to information in case they cannot get a hold of you.
6. Sort Out Medication Ahead of Time
Presorting medicine has two pluses. Not only will it make it easy for the person taking care of your pet to know when to dispense what medications and how much, but it also verifies you have enough medicine for your trip. Medicine sorters are inexpensive and you can pick them up even at your local Dollar Store or Poundland if you are in the UK.
It takes a special person to take care of a pet with a disability. Disabled pet care takes a lot of dedication, but it is important to remember to take time for yourself. To an average pet owner this list may seem a little over the top, but making sure your furry handicapped pal is well taken care of while you are gone helps take the burden of worry off so you can enjoy your trip.