Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Ensure Your Pets Have a Safe Trip

If you are going to travel with your companion animal, whether a cat, dog, or perhaps a reptile or other creature, you need to ensure it will be kept safe from harm and injury. Here are a few tips from the Canada Food Inspection Agency for making your pet’s journey a safe one.

Health Check
It is always a good idea to check the health of your pet before any long trip to make sure it is fit to travel. Health certificates or other documentation may be required when taking your pet on an airplane or to another country, including the United States. Find out in advance what will be required.


 
In Your Vehicle
Contain your pet. Animals that could distract the driver should be contained. Some animals, such as cats, are more comfortable in a vehicle when they are in a carrier. Pets should not be allowed to roam freely in the back of pick-up trucks or be exposed in any way to flying debris.

Watch the weather
 Animals should not be kept in parked vehicles for long periods of time, especially in hot or cold weather. Temperatures inside a vehicle can quickly rise or fall to levels that could cause your pet to suffer or even die. If you must leave your pet in a vehicle for a short period of time in hot weather, ensure it has fresh water and leave windows open a little on either side of the vehicle to create a cross-breeze.

Provide food, water and rest. On long trips, make sure your pet has food and water, and make sure that you make regular stops so it can rest or get out and walk around.

The Ultimate Human Freedom

"Every human has four endowments - self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom...The power to choose, to respond, to change."

Stephen R. Covey 

My Mother Refuses to Discuss Finances With Me; Doesn’t She Trust Me?

A - Financial matters are often the last bastion of control, so you must reassure your mom that knowing doesn’t mean taking over:

Remind her that all decisions she has made about her care and well-being will be respected, but they must be documented – are Powers of Attorney and a Will in place?


Explain that to carry out her wishes, you need to know the relevant players now, not when a crisis occurs.

Meet her banker, accountant, financial advisor, insurance agent and lawyer before they need to contact you in a crisis.

Help simplify her banking arrangements by using electronic payments, direct deposits and consolidating accounts into one branch.
Try not to take her attitude personally; your mom may be trying to spare you time and effort. As you work together on a solution, your mother may feel comfortable sharing more information and, ultimately, more responsibility.

This information was provided by, Pat M. Irwin, BA, AICB, CPCA, is founder and president of ElderCareCanada, a single-source consulting firm for adult children and their families, addressing all aspects of elder care -
www.eldercarecanada.ca

Playing it Safe

As summer beckons us to spend more time outdoors gardening, exercising or relaxing in the yard, it also beckons other creatures - insects, bees and yellow jackets. Most of the time, they leave us alone if we leave them alone. But, occasionally, they bite and sting, ruining an otherwise perfect day. Most people get over bites and stings in time to weed the sweet peas or go for a stroll by afternoon, reacting only mildly. A mild allergic reaction - including swelling, redness, pain and itching - can cause an undue share of misery.

But a small percentage of the population reacts violently to insect bites and stings. Recognizing the difference between an ordinary immune response and a severe allergic reaction can mean the difference between life and death.

Severe Reactions - Within minutes from the time an insect bite or bee sting occurs, toxic effects follow. A severe allergic reaction, or anaphylaxis, occurs when any of these symptoms are present, for which immediate emergency care is required:

  • swelling of the lips, tongue, or throat
  • trouble breathing
  • hives
  • dizziness
  • nausea, cramping, diarrhea or vomiting
  • loss of consciousness

Large skin infections and reactions to a bite or sting also call for immediate care. According to HealthLinkBC, shock may occur if the vital organs are not supplied with an adequate amount of blood.

Pest Prevention

Avoiding severe reactions is key to outdoor safety, and managing your surroundings helps prevent this from occurring. In addition to staying alert outdoors and using insect repellant according to directions, other steps also help. Keeping drinks covered, especially sweet drinks like juice and pop, is one way to help keep insects away. The yellow jacket, a common name for a predatory wasp, seems particularly attracted to sugary liquid, but its behaviour is somewhat predictable. “Yellow jackets tend to only be aggressive if provoked or if they feel their nest is threatened,” says Bill Melville, quality assurance director in the pest management industry. Homeowners should monitor their homes frequently for hives and nests. When food is brought outdoors, special precautions should be taken. “When picnicking outdoors,” says Melville, “keep food in tightly sealed containers and cover pop cans, as yellow jackets often enter cans unseen.”
Treatment Tips
If all precaution fails, and a bee sting or yellow jacket sting occurs, panicking could worsen the outcome. Move as calmly as possible away from the area, brushing away the pest. Although yellow jackets can sting repeatedly and fly away to sting another day, bees leave their stingers in the skin. If stung by a bee, remove the stinger quickly by scraping it with a fingernail: squeezing the area surrounding the stinger forces more venom into the skin. Insect bites can be treated with a cold, moist cloth three to four times a day for 15 minutes at a time. Hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion helps reduce itching and swelling. Finally, resting the affected area on a pillow above the level of the heart helps prevent further swelling. And after a run-in with yellow jackets, bees, or any other outdoor insect out to get you, there may be no better remedy than a good, long rest - indoors, of course!

Article by, Jim Tipton, Reprinted with permission from Senior Living Magazine