Re: Heat Pads

[recuer...@aol.com]

Hi Juliet,

 

The Constant Companions bed plug into English House Sockets & also come with a Cig. Lighter plug too.

 

Ebay.com have loads of heated pads that look good, I've been looking at them for my car. Nice Cat beds too!

 

Vicky xx

 

Vicky Martin
Recuerdo Magyar Vizslak
A Dog is for LIFE - NOT for Puppy Farming!
www.home-boarding4dogs.co.uk

[Chrissie Diron]

Not a permanent heat solution, but we've used SnuggleSafe heat pads before, both at home and on the road. They look like a round disc thing and you zap them in the microwave. They can then be stuffed into a bed and give off a radiant heat for quite a while afterwards. Very safe too. 

From Chrissie and the Vitali Vizslas

DON'T SWEAT THE PETTY THINGS AND DON'T PET THE SWEATY THINGS!

www.vitalk9.ca
www.canine-health-concern.org.uk
www.aunaturelk9s.org

[sallyegg]

yup we have a snugglesafe pad - charlie was most bemused by it at
first and seemed to think it was a frisbee! It's pretty good for
short periods - takes 5mins in the microwave to heat up. i think we
have a microwave at the appt juliet. perhaps the boys should don
their sweaters and snuggle up together!

Sally

[Susie Zarpanely]

I would like to add a little possible controversy to this discussion. Are we doing our dogs any favours by keeping them over warm? Maybe by doing so we are preventing them from growing the coat and producing the oils that they need to protect themselves from the cold? We keep them in centrally heated houses then expect them to go out in the cold and wet to pee and to excersise. Unless you are going to road walk or run them singly on a playing field it is dangerous to run them in a coat, it may well get caught with disasterous results. Gundogs do not even wear collars when working for that very reason. Yes my dogs do wear a towelling coat after working or if they are cold and wet and have to be in the car, static for more than the time it takes to make the journey home. My home is heated for 3 hours in the morning and 4 in the evening, usually the heater in the car is set at 19 degrees and the dogs are on vet bed which wicks away wet and throws back heat. Bill Meldrum heated the sandringham kennels but advised against allowing the dogs to sleep near the aga or a radiater as it would aggravate the onset of arthritic pain? Yes heat pads are a brillient invention for whelping or for a sick dog but should a healthy dog really need all this or are we anthropomorphizing
IMHO  and I hope I will not cause any offence for which I humbly apologise now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
 
Susie
 
> Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:27:13 -0800
> Subject: Re: Heat Pads
> From: sally....@gmail.com
> To: ukvi...@googlegroups.com

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[Radar Red Dog]

Thank you all for your suggestions re heat pads...we'll be doing a bit
more research before heading off into the wilds of the French Alps.

Susie...no offence taken...no need to apologise!! You made some
excellent points. Normally we wouldn't have considered a heat pad as,
like you, we tend to put Radar's fleece on after agility or exercise
when he's got particularly wet &/or cold. However, the temperatures in
France last year were regularly -12 or below (ok Chrissie...that's
probably toasty for you!!!) & the inside of our van was often colder
still if it had been left for any length of time...we were often out
walking/snow-shoeing for up to 3 hours - hence we thought that a heat
pad might take the edge off the cold while the van warmed up!!

Happy 2010 to everyone.

Juliet

On Dec 29, 2:51 pm, Susie Zarpanely <susiez...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to add a little possible controversy to this discussion. Are we doing our dogs any favours by keeping them over warm? Maybe by doing so we are preventing them from growing the coat and producing the oils that they need to protect themselves from the cold? We keep them in centrally heated houses then expect them to go out in the cold and wet to pee and to excersise. Unless you are going to road walk or run them singly on a playing field it is dangerous to run them in a coat, it may well get caught with disasterous results. Gundogs do not even wear collars when working for that very reason. Yes my dogs do wear a towelling coat after working or if they are cold and wet and have to be in the car, static for more than the time it takes to make the journey home. My home is heated for 3 hours in the morning and 4 in the evening, usually the heater in the car is set at 19 degrees and the dogs are on vet bed which wicks away wet and throws back heat. Bill Meldrum heated the sandringham kennels but advised against allowing the dogs to sleep near the aga or a radiater as it would aggravate the onset of arthritic pain? Yes heat pads are a brillient invention for whelping or for a sick dog but should a healthy dog really need all this or are we anthropomorphizing
> IMHO  and I hope I will not cause any offence for which I humbly apologise now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> Susie
>
>
>
> > Date: Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:27:13 -0800
> > Subject: Re: Heat Pads

> > From: sally.math...@gmail.com

> > To: ukvi...@googlegroups.com
>
> > yup we have a snugglesafe pad - charlie was most bemused by it at
> > first and seemed to think it was a frisbee! It's pretty good for
> > short periods - takes 5mins in the microwave to heat up. i think we
> > have a microwave at the appt juliet. perhaps the boys should don
> > their sweaters and snuggle up together!
>
> > Sally
>
> > --
>
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ukvizsla" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to ukvi...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to ukvizsla+u...@googlegroups.com.

> > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/ukvizsla?hl=en.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[sallyegg]

I hear what you're saying Susie, and yes, we also use the heat pad
when c is left in the cold in the back of the car when I'm treating
(in sight etc. etc., you'd be surprised how many horse places don't
want another dog running around!).

arthritis aggravated by heat though? Sounds completely bizarre to
me! Most patients report a worsening of their symptoms in the cold
and wet. Yes we use ice in acute inflammatory states but heat is
usually therapeutic for chronic pain (IMHO :-))

Sally

[Chrissie Diron]

Yes, Susie, you are right that we shouldn't overdo these things. We can certainly mollycoddle too much and it isn't good for the dog's health. But I think in Juliet's situation something is warranted. We don't get really bitter temperatures here on Vancouver Island actually, but it can get down to -10 or so from time to time. We're in a part of Canada that is very similar to England in many ways - a tiny bit more snow and cold in winter, but it sounds like we've had it warmer than you this year and just a sprinkle of snow so far! Anyhow, as Juliet's concern was for her holiday in the mountains, I think it's very sensible to have a means to generate some warmth in the vehicle when it's left standing. We occasionally go up the local mountain to ski or tube, which means leaving our guys in the car for 3 hours or so at a time in the car park. The vehicle temp drops very quickly and the only reason it is OK is because we run them to get them warm first, wrap them up warm in a preheated car and there are 4 of them to snuggle together. I will take my Snuggle Safe if I think I have access to a microwave to charge it. But a dog alone in a car without a means to really burrow and keep warm could get hypothermic. The staff up the mountain said they have even seen idiots tie their dogs to the bumper of the truck and go off skiing/snowmobiling for the day! The dogs are lying in ice and snow and go under the trucks to try to get warm. Even outdoor dogs, heavily coated breeds should not be left like that and the SPCA is called if that is seen, so I can well imagine our shortcoated breed, unable to move around to generate heat, without some additional heat source could get into difficulties in a frozen vehicle. Whistler has a doggy daycare facility specifically to address this problem and allow people to go off and enjoy their day, whilst the dogs are kept safe, toileted, entertained and warm indoors. Travel safe with your dogs and keep them comfortable, but as Susie points out, don't forget they are dogs with a different thermoregulatory system to us and we can create problems by overdoing any of this.

[Chrissie Diron]

There are many different manifestations of arthritis (rheumatoid and osteo division, in turn experienced differently by the individual) and no one solution works for all those types of pain and as such it's not always true that cold and damp are the only things to aggravate it. My arthritic boy Pash does so much better in cool weather, so I see this every day. He is one of those who wake up refreshed, stretch, shake and are at their best after a good rest. If we have snow on the ground and crisp frosty air, he can go and go and go - even the rain doesn't really bother him. Too much heat however totally brings him to a halt. He is exhausted by it and it likely makes his already swollen joints swell even more. He has to pant so hard that I imagine he can't get oxygen around those extremities fast enough to flush them (inflammation is a build up of lactic acid) and even relaxing doesn't allow his body to heal, so he is definitely a dog that does better for cool temperatures, doesn't mind wet conditions and is better for movement (the more he does, the more he can do). Homeopathy acknowledges these variations in manifestation of a disease and provides different remedies for bodies that do better for cold, do better for warmth, do better for rest, do better for movement etc. The trouble is the fact that "arthritis" as a label doesn't mean much. It's a blanket name for an inflammatory condition which can have many causes and many faces - this is why no one remedy help all cases and no two individuals experience it the same.

Chrissie

[sallyegg]

Hi Chrissie

There are many different types of arthritis -and the actual term
'itis' is incorrect in a number of cases where inflammation isn't the
primary issue.

I was just concerned that saying that heat is bad may have worried
some owners, in particular the reference to it *aggravating the onset*
of arthritic pain - implying that heat predisposes one to arthritis.
As far as I am aware there is no medical evidence of such. There of
course may be an association between the type of person who sits in a
hot house and who does little exercise, gets overweight etc etc...but
again that would warrant further investigation to establish
causation!!

Anyway like you say, Juliet and I are going to the mountains so her
question is very sensible.

Sally