Paws & claws: From a guinea pig with zoomies to a cat with awful bad breath - your pet queries answered
He is on a mission to help our pets… and is here to answer your questions. Sean, who is the head vet at tailored pet food firm tails.com, has helped with owners’ queries for ten years.
He says: “If your pet is acting funny or is under the weather, or you want to know about nutrition or exercise, just ask. I can help keep pets happy and healthy.”
Q: One of our guinea pigs, Treacle, spins in circles when he’s happy. It’s a bit like dog zoomies. Do guinea pigs get them, too?
Sarah Setcalfe, Birmingham
Sean says: Spinning on the spot is quite unusual, but if Treacle runs around in circles then yes, that is absolutely normal guinea pig zoomies.
It’s a sign of happiness, contentment and excitement, and often it also involves “popcorning”, which is when they jump in the air and twist their bodies as they run around.
Chirps, whistles and squeaks can accompany this ritual, too. I’m happy to say Treacle’s antics are normal, and something to take joy in.
Q: Milo, my cat, is a hunter. He wears a bell, but he still seems to catch things. He’s 18 months old and I don’t think he’d be happy as a house cat. Can you recommend anything else to help as I am a wildlife lover?
Sean says: While this is natural behaviour for a cat, it’s not natural for our native ecosystem and wildlife to have so many domestic cats hunting in really high densities.
As well as my vet work, I also run a community-led conservation group and we have been reintroducing rare harvest mice to wilder areas of habitat that we’ve helped restore. But we’ve given up on even trying in some locations because there are too many cats entering to hunt, even on nature reserves.
One of the main things you can do is keep Milo in at night, or even at dawn and dusk. When out, two bells side by side on his collar can alert wildlife to his presence. Cats often learn to stalk silently with just one bell. And there are now colourful cat collars which are very effective at reducing their kill rate.
Try to redirect his behaviour with fishing rod toys and others that encourage “hunting” without the actual killing part.
Q: My Yorkshire Terrier, Popsie, is obsessed with the post. She rips it to shreds as soon as it arrives. How can I stop this?
Brian Brown, Plymouth
Sean says: Good girl, Popsie! You get those intruders putting unwanted things into your precious home without your permission. If you think about this from a dog’s point of view, she’s defending her territory from intruders - and it works.
Every time the postie comes, she starts barking and attacks the post. And what does the postie do? Retreats hurriedly and disappears again for another day. For Popsie, it’s a case of job done - home and family safe.
She’s learned it’s the right thing to do. The challenge will be to teach her she doesn’t need to, perhaps with a very patient postie giving her treats each time they arrive.
Set up loads of false postie arrivals and reward her for ignoring them, or command her to do something different like go sit on a mat and get a reward for doing so. You could also get a letterbox cage to stop your mail being shredded.
Q: Our five-year-old cat, Treacle, has really bad breath. There’s nothing obviously wrong with her teeth, but should I get her a check-up? She seems well otherwise.
Tony Powell, Cardiff
Sean says: Yes, you should definitely get her a check-up. We don’t generally brush our cats’ teeth, so it’s inevitable they will need some attention during their lifetime.
Dental disease is fairly common, but ignoring it and accepting our pets’ bad breath as normal can leave them vulnerable to more complications with their health later on.
(Article source: The Sun)