Fireworks season and your pets (Especially for dog, cat and rabbit owners)

Let's hide together.

Chinese New Year is here and you are all wondering what to do when the fireworks go off and your pets are all going frantic. Okay, maybe not all of you care so much, but here at Little Earth Gnomes of Sabah we do care. We believe that this is part of our responsibility to make sure that our pets are comforted when the fireworks go BOOM! Animals are afraid of fireworks, since it makes them think that their life is endangered, and also it might cause shocks, just like a thunderstorm, when they hear it, their natural instincts tell them to hide. This is especially true for small animals like dogs, cats, mouse, or rabbits. My fish don’t get bothered by the tremors that have been going around. Anyway, it is our responsibility to make sure they feel secure, like taking care of a baby. Here are some things you can do.

-          For dogs and cats, you can help them create a safe spot before the fireworks season. You will need to make them a small space filled with blankets and their favorite toys, if it isn’t possible, just fill their kennel or cage with some blankets and their favorite toy or some stuff that they really love. This will help them feel at home.

-          Play them some nice soothing music like classics or just some ballads, or if you want to you can switch on some waterfall or beach sounds.

-          Speaking of sounds, you can train your dog or cat to not be afraid of thunders or fireworks by helping them get used to these sounds, if you have a recording or a CD with sounds of fireworks or thunder storms, play it frequently but at a low volume, gradually raise the volume from time to time when you feel that you pet is feeling comfortable and is able to handle it.

-          Talking to your pets and patting them or grooming them slowly can help them reduce stress as well. Talk to them gently; start off by whispering to them. Keep talking to them to drown out some of the firework sounds.

-          Keep your pets indoors. This helps a lot since keeping them indoors will shut out some of the noise and they get to be closer to you. Leaving them outside and they might also be exposed to smoke from the fireworks, which they absolutely hate/fear as well.

There are also things you shouldn’t do, like altering their home too much before fireworks season. Animals like humans need time to adjust to the new environment. So do not change their home way too much or they will feel stressed. By sending them over to a friend’s place is not such a good idea too. Since a new place/environment might give them stress.

Every Chinese New Year in Sabah, KK, there will be a lot of fireworks going off at midnight of the New Year eve. This is what I did for my pet rabbit. I let her stay indoors (she usually lives on my balcony where she gets to run around freely but sheltered from rain and the afternoon sun, she gets the evening sun). Next, I switch on the air conditioning, she loves the cool air with the fan blowing on her; bring in some of her favorite toys (boxes), she plays with them every day, especially the huge ones. Then I shut all the windows to reduce the noises; and turn on the music, I turned on Bjork’s ‘Cocoon’ and let it go on repeat. Occasionally, when the bigger ones go off, she will rise up her ears straight like an antenna trying to find the source of the sound, then after a few seconds, she will continue to run around in my room messing with my stuff, sometimes she will come to me as if to ask me to pat on her head. I will only let her out after the smoke has all gone and I will monitor her even after I let her out just to be sure the air is clean enough for her. My mum handled the dog, she comforts him by talking to him and playing with him, that way the sounds aren’t so obvious.

Remember that we all have responsibilities towards out pets, we must help them overcome the fear of fireworks or to be there and comfort them throughout the season. Love your pets! Oh and if there is anything you want me to add to this, let me know! Or if you want to share what you do to help your pets, let us know and comment. Lastly, Happy Chinese New Year to Everyone!

The Portuguese Man-Of-War, small scale version of a battleship.

The Portuguese man-of-war is also known as the blue bottle which is what it resembles while floating. It may look like a pretty colored object drifting while you spend your summer holiday swimming at the beach. But beneath this beautiful object are many tentacles that will give you a sting that will leave a scar on you for the rest of your life. Despite how the man-of-wars look like, it is not a jellyfish, it is a siphonophore. A siphonophore is not a single organism, but a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids. These zooids are not capable of independent survival.

The name man-of-war comes from the 16^th century armed sailing ship called the Portuguese galley. Doesn’t really look like one in my opinion, it looks so much more like an alien spaceship that hunts for human brains using long tentacles while it floats around the sky. Okay, maybe too imaginative. But seriously, it doesn’t look much like an old century war galley. It loves the warmer waters and is most commonly found in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific and Indian oceans and in the northern Atlantic Gulf Stream. Man-of-wars like the galley have no means of propulsion and will just float wherever the tide, current and wind brings it to. Strong winds may bring them onto beaches. Just like those jellyfishes at Tanjung Aru Beach, when kids enjoy walking around the beach looking for an up-turned jellyfish to poke. The man-of-war does not come alone; it brings all its friends and family together to have a huge sting party. At some places in the world, the finding of one single man-of-war might lead to the closing of the whole beach.

I won’t go into scientific details as most of my other posts are. There is lots of information about how the structure of the man-of-war is formed, so do your research if you’re interested. Next, let’s talk about the fun part, its venom. Did you know that this species and the smaller Indo-Pacific man-of-war are responsible for up to 10,000 human stings in Australia each summer? This usually happens on the east coast, with some occurring off the course of Southern Australia and Western Australia. Their venom can paralyze small fishes and prey. Even those that are dead (washed up on shore), or their detached tentacles, can remain potent for hours and days. Stings cause severe pain to humans; you’ll look like you’ve been whipped. The venom might also cause an allergic reaction such as fever, shock or an interference with heart and lung functions. Sounds scary? Yup!

Here is a small guide on how to treat a man-of-war sting that I copied off Wikipedia.

1.       To avoid any further contact with the Portuguese man-of-war and to carefully remove any remnants of the organism from the skin (taking care not to touch them directly with your fingers and any other part of your body to avoid secondary stinging)

2.       Next is to apply salt water to the affected area (not fresh water which tends to make the affected area worse)

3.       Follow up with the application of hot water (45 Celsius/ 113 Fahrenheit) to the affected area anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes which eases the pain of a sting by denaturing the toxins.

4.       If eyes have been affected, irrigate with copious amounts of room-temperature water for at least 15 minutes. If vision blurs or the eyes continue to hurt, tear, swell or show light sensitivity after irrigating, or there is any concern, see a doctor as soon as possible.

It is known that vinegar does not work for the man-of-war stings, not only that, it adds up to the pain as well. So never use vinegar unless you’re asking to visit hell for more excitement. Also make sure to identify whether the sting is from a man-of-war or a jellyfish to avoid the wrong treatment.

The Portuguese man-of-war is a carnivore, feeding on small fishes that it paralyzes with its venomous tentacles. Preys include the loggerhead turtle, which has skin that is too thick for the sting to penetrate. The sea slug (Glaucus atlanticus) and the violet snail (Janthina janthina) also feeds on the man-of-war. The blanket octopus is immune to the sting and younger specimens carry broken off tentacles of the man-of-war presumably for offensive or defensive purposes. Lastly, the ocean sunfish also loves munching on the man-of-war. There is also one small fish called the man-of-war fish that lives among the tentacles of the man-of-war. It is partially immune to the stings. It tends to avoid the larger tentacles but feed right off the smaller ones. Other marine life such as the clown fish also resides under the tentacles. This in turn attracts other fish that eats the smaller fish and without it knowing, got trapped in the dangerous tentacles of the man-of-war. So this is how friendship works in the ocean.

So next time you think the ocean is polluted with shiny blue, pink, purple-ish rubbish, think again, you better start swimming to shore.