Decreased immunity, increased drowsiness, lack of vitamins - these phenomena are characteristic of many of our smaller brothers in the cold season. How to help animals in winter? This question is not only asked by dog or cat owners. If your son found on the street and brought a homeless animal into the house, you should also know how to help animals in the winter.
Caring for Homeless Animals
Every day you can see a dirty, frozen and hungry cat or dog, which is basking in the hatch or pipe of the heating main. Often such a “gift” brings a child home from a walk.
You do not need to be a veterinarian to know how to help animals in the winter. In this situation, it will be useful to take care of your own health and the health of the family.
Be sure to inspect the animal. Symptoms of the disease may include:
- damage to the skin or coat;
- bald spots;
- discharge from the eyes and ears;
- swollen belly.
If this is the case, then you can’t do without a trip to the clinic.
Symptoms such as lethargy, loose stools, sneezing, require a detailed examination. Often, homeless animals have a fungus, the presence of which can only be determined by a doctor. It will be useful to measure the temperature, which in a healthy individual is 38-39 degrees. How to help animals in winter if a cat or dog has a fever or fever? It is necessary to contact the clinic. Low temperatures may indicate exhaustion.
Fleas will be detected on the animal. For such cases, veterinary pharmacies have many tools that quickly and efficiently solve the problem. As a rule, these are sprays that are sprayed to the withers of the animal, or special collars with impregnation.
It is difficult to determine the presence of parasites in an animal in the body without analyzes at home. It is better to play it safe and give anthelmintic drugs.
Find a host ...
How to help animals in winter if they are homeless? Of course, shelter. However, this is not always possible. So, the best option is to start looking for a master for a cat or dog. Submit an advertisement in the media with a proposal to give it in good hands, contact your friends living in the private sector.
There is a suspicion that the animal escaped from the owner? Browse through newspaper ads. While walking on the street, pay attention to bulletin boards, maybe someone is looking for their pet.
In an extreme case, you can attach an animal to a shelter that specializes in finding hosts. In no case should you let the dog or cat go outside again. The animal will lose the chance to find the owner and after a while it will be in the same deplorable state.
Lend a helping hand
How to help animals in winter, because it’s impossible to warm everyone? The best way is to feed. Think about it, because buying chicken bones or small fish will not hit the family budget, but it can save someone's life.
“You are responsible for those who tamed ...”
If you want to have a pet, the question of how to help animals in winter should be studied in advance.
Your pet will require good nutrition and vitamins. Heating in apartments and houses leads to the fact that animals begin to shed heavily. Regular walks and a balanced diet can ease this unpleasant process. Vitamin A, biotin, taurine and saturated fatty acids are excellent prophylaxis of vitamin deficiency.
After walking, be sure to wash the paws of the animal, since the sprinkling of the sidewalk contains a chemical reagent that can cause burns.
With the onset of cold weather, domestic hamsters, chinchillas and guinea pigs begin to stock up on food. Regular inspection and cleaning of the cage will keep pets clean. In winter, rodents add sprouted grain, vitamins and herbs to the feed.
Even fish in winter require increased attention. This is due to a decrease in daylight hours and cooling. Lowering the temperature in the room by 5-7 degrees can kill the fish, and the lack of lighting makes them sluggish.
Poultry in the cold molt intensely, refuse to eat, poorly tolerate the lack of lighting. Include in the diet of feathered minerals, amino acids, multivitamins, place the cage near the lamp.
In reptiles during the winter season, a complex restructuring of the whole organism occurs. Turtles and frogs, lizards and snakes all hibernate, slow down metabolism, practically stop eating food and reduce mobility. To prepare such a pet for hibernation, it is necessary to gradually reduce the daylight hours in the terrarium, bring it up to 4 hours a day. Turtles during this period are fed once every four to five days, lizards and snakes - once a month.
How to help animals and birds in winter
If winter is not snowy and not frosty, sedentary and wintering birds in the forests are able to take care of themselves. When especially difficult weather conditions arise, they must be fed: a third of the daily ration for the bird is already salvation.
Nomad birds that are not used to feeding troughs, such as bullfinch, blackbird, goldfinch, oatmeal, fly in search of their main food. These are the fruits of trees and shrubs, weed grasses. To help such birds in winter is simple: do not collect fruits from trees completely in autumn, leave berries on branches.
There is an opinion that city birds are able to feed themselves in the cold. This is not true. In winter, when there is no natural food, junk food is not the best option. And here there will be incidentally feeders, wooden or plastic, located in parks, squares and just in the yard.
What food should not be given to birds?
Dangerously salty, since the peculiarity of the excretory system in birds is such that an excess of salt causes poisoning in them. Roasting is strictly prohibited, since such products change the structure of the feathered liver. Brown bread causes bloating and fermentation. Refined millet or grain should also not be given; the oxidation of fats on the surface of the grains causes the birds to become sick.
Feeding wild forest animals
The huntsmen know best how to help wild animals in the winter. Forest and meadow hay, grain, silage, root crops, acorns are placed in the feeder for deer and roe deer. The branches of such trees as willow, aspen, birch are hung. They are harvested from May to June. Wormwood is added to each such broom.
Moose ignore feeding troughs, therefore feeding for them is stored in a heap. Deer are also fed with branches of deciduous trees. The favorite delicacy of wild boars is roots and acorns. In the cold season, food is under snow and ice. How do people help animals in winter? Potatoes and corncobs are poured in one place in the fall, then the animals get used to the feeding place. Moose, roe deer and deer need mineral top dressing. With a deficiency of salt, the animal loses its strength, its metabolism worsens, horns and hair grow poorly. Solonetzes in a stump are arranged for them, having cut out a funnel.
As you can see, helping animals in the cold season is not at all difficult.