Missing dog found 4 years later in Iowa, nearly 1,000 miles from home

United Airlines flew a lost dog home Wednesday in first class for free — four years after he went missing. The Lambert family didn’t think they would ever see Sam, a Yorkshire Terrier, after he disappeared from their yard in Louisiana. But he was found by an animal control officer in in Cedar Rapids, Iowa earlier this month. He was straggly and weighed less than 6 pounds. Luckily, staff at the shelter were able to use the microchip he had to identify the Lambert family as the owners. Danielle Lambert said she was “shocked” when she got the call. “I first thought that there was no way it could be Sam. He’d been missing for four years,” she told CNNMoney. Sam was a birthday gift for her daughter Karisa when she turned 10 years old. Now she’s 15. The Yorkie was nursed back to health at the shelter until he was fit to fly home. He landed in New Orleans on a United flight at 11:16 a.m. “This just makes all of us feel really, really happy that we can make this miracle come true for this family and their little dog,” said Diane Webber, a manager at the Cedar Rapids shelter. No one knows how Sam got to Iowa, which is nearly 1,000 miles away. “We have no clue,” said Lambert. “I guess that’s the piece we’ll never know.”

SOURCE: http://wqad.com/2015/04/29/missing-dog-found-4-years-later-in-iowa-nearly-1000-miles-from-home/

Lyme Disease Awareness Month

Lyme disease is an infection than can affect both dogs and cats all over the country. Caused by ticks (usually the deer tick and American dog tick in the Ridgefield area), this disease can cause lameness and even kidney failure if left untreated. This is why it’s so important to protect your pet with a preventative and to have them tested annually. If your pet tests positive, we can administer treatment—ideally before any clinical symptoms are seen.

Quarry Ridge Animal Hospital has a number of tick prevention products available in house. These include monthly topicals, such as Frontline, Advantix/Advantage, and Vectra. Topicals are designed to sit in the oil glands or on the hair shaft and are applied between the shoulder blades. We also offer spray products, including Vetri-Repel, Avon Skin-So-Soft, and Frontline. For cats, we offer Preventic, Seresto, and Breakaway collars. And if you or your pet isn’t a fan of the topical or spray preventatives, consider Nexgard, the first chewable monthly flea and tick control tablet.

In addition to using a preventative product for Lyme, we recommend that you have your pet screened for tick borne diseases at least once a year. In addition to Lyme, some of the most prevalent diseases in our area include Anaplasma and Ehrlichia Canis. Our screening test is a color change test that screens for tick borne diseases and even heartworm disease. If a test comes back positive, we typically recommend following up with a titer, which gives an actual number that can be tracked to ensure successful treatment.

Contact Quarry Ridge Animal Hospital today at (203) 438-8878 to schedule an appointment, so we can determine which preventative product is best for your pet.