Comments on: Pets: Emergency preparedness in case of earthquake, fire, etc.

By: Bruce Macler

Bruce Macler — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:21:52 +0000

Am working with others in my community to get an animal emergency response element into the city’s emergency plan. One issue is adequate sanitary water, which could be in short supply. We have creeks around here, though. We were talking about the fact that our dogs seem to drink all kinds of unsanitary water (and will also eat unsanitary food), without apparently getting diarrhea or generally throwing up. How can they tolerate pathogens that would make humans sick? Is it built-up immunity, or inherent?
Thanks for the help.

By: Jess

Jess — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:22:43 +0000

Thanks for this important post. There is a store in Dublin called Your Safety Place that vacuum-sealed my cats’ regular dry food, so that it will stay fresh for several years. I’m sure there are other ways to get it vacuum-sealed and it seems like a great idea. Some commercial emergency kits contain vacuum-sealed pet food, but it seems better to seal the food your pet normally eats, so as to avoid stomach problems.

I actually hadn’t thought about having litter and pan in my earthquake kit, so thanks for that tip–I will add those items.