Tips of the Month
Vaccinating Your Pets Now is the perfect time to make sure that your pet is in compliance with state vaccination requirements and also protected against potentially deadly diseases, easily prevented with immunizations. Your veterinarian is ultimately the main person to ask about immunizations.
First, the law: all dogs, cats, and ferrets in Maryland are required to be vaccinated for rabies by the time the animal is 4 months old and then yearly or every three years after that.
Although only rabies vaccinations are required by law, there are other vaccines that will keep your pet and pets in our community safe. The most common immunizations for dogs are:
- DHP: Distemper, hepatitis, parvo (frequently fatal, especially in puppies)
- Bordatella/kennel cough (respiratory disease usually transmitted from dog to dog at dog parks, kennels, or even at veterinary clinics)
- Canine Influenza
- Lyme (transmitted by the bite of a tick)
Common cat immunizations include:
- FVRCP: viral rhinotracheitis, calicivirus, and panleukopenia (all extremely contagious. Pan leukemia/distemper is frequently fatal)
- FeLV (feline leukemia virus)
- FIV (attacks cat’s immune system)
- Bordetella and Chlamydophila Felis
Ferrets also should receive distemper vaccinations annually.
It is important to be prepared to take on the financial responsibilities for health care when you adopt your pet. Don’t forget to include yearly physical exams, heartworm tests and monthly heartworm preventative medication (for your dogs) in addition to the immunizations. A healthy pet is a happy pet.
From the City's Animal Control
It’s a fact: You can really make a difference.
Are you concerned about the loss of habitat for birds, pollinators, and other wildlife? Want to make a difference by creating beneficial and beautiful habitat on your own property? Don’t know much about wildlife gardening? Don’t know how to get started?
Introducing a new Prince George’s Audubon Society initiative, The Audubon Wildlife Habitat Program, offers County residents the opportunity for a no-cost, on-site, in-person visit with trained Habitat Advisor working to bring positive change to private landscapes. The Advisors volunteer their time and knowledge because they believe that, working yard by yard, we can really make a difference. They might not have all the answers, but they will work together with you to find them.
Visits go like this: Volunteer Habitat Advisors typically spend an hour visiting your property or neighborhood site. They will walk the property together with you, discussing your particular questions and circumstances while they talk with you about native plants and landscape elements that provide food, water, and shelter for birds, pollinators and other wildlife. They will discuss important topics like garden structure, lawn reduction, invasive plant removal, water conservation, and bird protection. Together with the advisors, you will set priorities and make a plan for moving forward. The Habitat Advisors will provide you with a folder of printed materials, write a follow-up report, and make themselves available for further assistance if needed.
Contact audubonwildlifehabitat@gmail.com to request a no-cost visit to your property. Visits start on September 22, and the program runs in the fall and the spring each year.
From the City's Committee for a Better Environment