Pet Grooming Orange County

Fleas Carrying Plague – Why Southern California Flea Control Is So Important!

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Fleas Carrying Plague – Why Southern California Flea Control Is So Important!

We all know how annoying fleas can be. What you might not realize is that fleas can carry diseases. This year, Southern California flea control may be more important than ever before. Just 475 miles away, in Flagstaff Arizona, prairies dogs are dropping dead from plague. Yes, you read that right. The same plague that ravaged Europe in the 14th century is being carried by fleas and killing prairie dogs today.

Residents throughout the Flagstaff area have been notified that plague is present and monitoring is expected to continue for quite some time. The situation is being assessed regularly to determine whether further action is necessary in order to contain the disease.

About Plague

The Plague, also known as the Black Death, wiped out sixty percent of Europe’s population in the 14th century. Caused by a bacterium, there have been three major outbreaks: the Justinian Plague, the Great Plague and the Modern Plague. The most recent outbreak spread through China and into the U.S. during 1860s.

With modern antibiotics and improved hygiene, plague isn’t feared today as it was in years past. However, you will still want to protect your pet from fleas and the possibility of disease. Fleas often bite humans and they are especially attracted to household pets such as dogs and cats.

The incubation period from the time an infected flea bites until when symptoms are experienced is one to seven days. Symptoms include a sudden high fever, body aches and bad chills. Anyone who suspects plague should be seen by a doctor right away.

Protecting your family from fleas is easy. Stop by Claws N Paws Day Spa to discuss flea control options. For more information, or to schedule an appointment, please contact us at 714-962-1005.

Helping your Local Animal Rescue

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Helping your Local Animal Rescue

Every year, local animal rescues help hundreds to thousands of animals and people, usually with very limited resources and publicity. Helping your local animal rescue isn’t difficult. Try any (or all) of the following:

  1. Tell your friends and family about your local animal rescue. Most rescues rely solely on word of mouth. Consider sharing the organization’s information on social media websites.
  2. Get to know your local rescue groups. Stop in to visit the people that are responsible for caring for the animals.
  3. Before adopting from your local rescue, research what to expect. You’ll be far less likely to become frustrated if you fully understand the challenges and rewards of adopting a pet.
  4. Take a moment to thank the people who work at your local animal rescue. If you’ve adopted a pet from them, show them how well your pet is doing by sharing an updated picture with them in person or on their Facebook page.
  5. Consider making toys for the animals at the rescue using fabric, yarn and recyclables.
  6. Follow your local animal rescue on Facebook and other social media websites.
  7. Donate supplies to your local animal rescue. Rescue groups always need towels, blankets, toys, cat litter and other supplies. Visit or call the rescue to find out exactly what they need. Cash donations are typically welcome as well.
  8. Consider volunteering at your local animal rescue.
  9. Perhaps the best thing that you can do to help your local animal rescue is to make sure that your pets are spayed and neutered and have proper ID at all times. Cats should always be kept indoors and dogs should be kept on a leash while away from home.

Claws N Paws Day Spa has been taking care of Orange County’s dogs and cats since 2001. We offer full service pet grooming at our state of the art pet salon in Fountain Valley, California. Additionally, we offer mobile pet grooming to all areas of Orange County. Claws N Paws also has many wonderful cats and kittens available for adoption. Two doors down from our pet salon we have a consignment shop offering several unique and interesting items. 100% of the profits from all pet supply sales at This n That Consignment go directly into our rescue efforts! For more information, or to schedule your next grooming appointment, please call 714-962-1005 today.

Keeping Your Pet Cool

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Keeping Your Pet Cool

Spring and summer in Southern California can get extremely hot. You will want to keep yourself and your furry friends cool. The following tips can help you keep your pet cool during the hotter months of the year.

Never leave your pet alone in a parked car for any length of time. It gets very hot, very fast inside a parked vehicle. Even a short period of time in a parked car can be fatal. If you will be going somewhere that doesn’t allow pets, then it’s best to leave them at home.

Offer your pet lots of clean, cool water throughout the day. In fact, a bowl of clean water should always be available. On very hot days, your pets might enjoy it if you add some ice cubes to their water.

Provide your pet with plenty of shelter from the sun. Dogs cool themselves by panting and this works best if the air around them is cooler than their own body temperature. Make sure that your pets always have a shady place where they can safely get out of the sun.

Keep your pets inside when it’s really hot outside. A pet’s normal body temperature ranges between 100 and 103 degrees Fahrenheit. When it’s that hot or hotter outside it can be extremely difficult for pets to cool themselves through panting. On very hot days your pets are much safer inside.

Brush your pet regularly. Brushing your pet removes any dead undercoat. This helps the air circulate near their skin, keeping them cooler. In addition to keeping them cooler, regular brushing helps prevent skin infections and matting. If possible, brush your pet every day.

If your pet does overheat then you will need to act fast. Take your pet to a veterinarian right away. Signs that your pet might be overheating include breathing problems, excessive panting, drooling, weakness, stupor and an elevated heart rate. Extreme symptoms could include seizures, vomiting, fever over 104 degrees Fahrenheit and bloody diarrhea.

We hope that this information has been helpful as we strive to provide education on all aspects of pet care.

Claws N Paws Day Spa offers quality dog and cat grooming in Orange County, California. For more information, or to schedule a grooming appointment, please call 714-962-1005.

Receive a free teeth brushing for your pet when you mention our blog!

 

Should You Shave Your Pet This Spring?

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Should You Shave Your Pet This Spring?

Spring in Southern California is often hot and uncomfortable. Many of us will be shedding down to shorts and tank tops. You might be wondering whether stripping down your pet’s coat for the warmer weather is a good idea. While you might think it will keep them cooler, many experts recommend against shaving to keep them cool.

Your pet’s hair isn’t like your own. A pet’s coat is designed to keep it cool during the hotter months and warm during the winter. When you shave your pet, you can interfere with its built-in temperature regulation. Cats in particular are extremely good at regulating their own body temperature without human interference.

Many dogs are specially bred to have thicker coats than others. These breeds can often use a little help cooling off during the hotter months. If your dog has a very thick coat, it might be a good idea to shave them once the weather begins to warm up. Just be sure to leave about an inch and a half of hair to protect them from sunburn. Resist shaving shorter hair breeds whenever possible.

If your dog spends a lot of time outside, has a matted coat and gets wet often then shaving might be necessary to avoid a condition called myiasis. Also, if your dog is prone to hot spots, then a shave might be helpful.

If you do plan to shave your pet this spring make sure that you take them to a professional groomer with lots of experience. This will help to prevent nasty cuts, clipper burns and other problems with the skin and coat.

Claws N Paws Day Spa opened in 2001. Unlike many other Orange County grooming shops, we are not a chain store that is required to follow corporate rules. Instead, we are able to bend certain policies in order to better accommodate you and your pet.

Pet safety and comfort is always our number one concern. We are not a small or un-established grooming shop that must purchase only bargain shampoos and discount grooming supplies. When it comes to the health and safety of your pets, we will always choose quality over cost. In addition, our four groomers each have between five and twenty years of grooming experience totaling a whopping fifty years of combined experience!

Grooming appointments are scheduled throughout the day so that each pet can receive individualized attention and go home as soon as it is finished. We will never keep your pet all day. Our grooming shop is sprayed for fleas every single month. In fact, we will not accept pets that are infested with fleas, without de-fleaing them first. This ensures that other pets will not bring fleas home from our establishment.

Claws N Paws is one of the few grooming shops in Orange County that is recommended by several local veterinarians. While we might not be your cheapest option, when shopping around for a grooming shop please keep in mind that you will always get what you pay for!

For more information, or to schedule a grooming appointment, please call 714-962-1005.

Receive a free teeth brushing for your pet when you mention our blog!

 

Spring Safety for Cats

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Spring Safety for Cats

Spring is just around the corner and many of us are already enjoying the warmer weather in Southern California. Unfortunately, hundreds of cats are injured during the spring. The cause of these springtime injuries might surprise you.

Cats love windows. They use them to watch birds and people passing by. They enjoy the warm sun and spring breezes, and they often sleep beside them. However, cats frequently lean on screens and sometimes pounce against them when excited. If the screen isn’t properly latched, or the window has no screen at all, the cat can easily fall. This happens so often that it is known as “high-rise syndrome”.

It only takes about five or six inches for a determined cat to slip through an opening, and regardless of what you’ve heard, cats do not always land on their feet. Even a short fall can cause serious injuries.

The best way to prevent injuries to your cat this spring is to make sure that your window screens are securely in place. Never open your windows more than three or four inches. This will allow the fresh air inside without allowing your cat to force its way out.

When opening doors that lead outside, make sure that your cat isn’t lurking nearby, planning its great escape. Make sure that your doors always close securely behind you whenever you leave the house. Also, it’s important that children and guests know this rule as well. If you are planning a trip away from home, you will need to let your pet sitter know that your cat is an “indoor only cat” and that they need to be very careful not to let them out of the house.

Unfortunately, high-rise syndrome is a sad reality for many pet lovers and their furry companions. While you enjoy the warmer weather of the spring and summer you will want to make sure that is a safe one for everyone, including your four legged friends!

We hope that this information has been helpful as we strive to provide education on all aspects of pet care.

Claws N Paws Day Spa offers quality dog and cat grooming in Orange County, California. For more information, or to schedule a grooming appointment, please call 714-962-1005.

Receive a free teeth brushing for your pet when you mention our blog!

 

Top Ten Situations That Groomers Face Every Day

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Top Ten Situations That Groomers Face Every Day

Despite what most people believe, pet grooming isn’t just playing with pets and giving them a haircut while they stand perfectly still. There are actually a lot of problems that can occur with grooming, caused by both the pets and their people. Believe it or not, most pets don’t enjoy having to stand still, having their nails trimmed, their ear hair plucked and having noisy clippers dragged all over their body.

Grooming a pet is very different than cutting a human’s hair. While people are able to sit still and actually enjoy the process of having their hair cared for, pets often soil themselves, wiggle constantly and sometimes even bite their groomer.

Let’s take a closer look at the top ten situations pet groomers face every day:

  • Groomers leave work looking like they’ve been in a fight
    One of the many ways that pets show their displeasure is by flailing about. This can happen while they are being groomed, bathed or simply when they are picked up. As they flail about, their claws dig into their groomer’s flesh, leaving them looking like they’ve been fighting with a thorn bush all day long.
  • Groomers must deal with persistent customers
    Many pet parents believe that persistence will pay off when trying to get a grooming appointment. These customers often try to get a same day appointment and refuse to give up, even when the groomer is booked solid for weeks.
  • Groomers are often paranoid about the way they smell
    Groomers spend their entire workday surrounded by a variety of smells including wet dog, urine, feces and bleach. This makes it virtually impossible to leave work smelling like a bed of roses.
  • Groomers must read between the lines
    Pet parents are often vague about how they want their pet groomed. Sometimes they ask for “short” when they only want a light trim, or they tell the groomer to do “whatever they think will look good.” This often leads to problems when their pet doesn’t look exactly how they think it should after their grooming appointment.
  • Appointment times are often ignored
    When a customer is given an appointment time it is generally understood that they should arrive at the correct time. However, many customers feel that appointment times are more like “guidelines” and arriving within a couple of hours of their appointed time is fine.
  • Groomer’s lung is real
    Thousands of tiny hairs blasting everywhere combined with the dander and dirt that comes off of pets and the perfumes in shampoos and sprays can cause significant damage to a groomer’s lungs.
  • A pet groomer’s hands suffer the most
    A pet groomer’s hands are constantly wet from giving baths, they get fried by the dryers, chaffed from the scissors, receive friction burns from the clippers and are constantly getting bit and scratched by pets.
  • Anal glands
    While many grooming shops empty a dog’s anal glands as part of the service, most of the time they will empty their gland’s themselves, often all over their groomer.
  • Pet parents often use misleading words when describing vicious pets
    Just because you call your pet “strong willed” or “a bit snappy” it won’t make it hurt any less when they bite your groomer’s finger off.
  • Matting and knots
    It’s not unusual for a pet parent to bring in an animal that is more knot than pet and claim that they don’t want it shaved. Unfortunately, the groomer must then explain that not shaving a pet in this condition would be inhumane.

Claws N Paws Day Spa offers quality dog and cat grooming in Orange County, California. For more information, or to schedule a grooming appointment, please call 714-962-1005.

Receive a free teeth brushing for your pet when you mention our blog!