How To Care For A Rescued Pet

Caring for a rescued pet is something that is vitally important work. After all, they deserve love and a good quality of life as much as any other living creature. However, providing the best care for your rescued furry and feathered friends can be a complicated process of trial and error. Especially if it’s a type of animal that you have never cared for before.

With that in mind check out my post below on the best ways to care for you rescued pet. It may just make things a little easier and help them settle into their new home quickly.

How To Care For A Rescued Pet

Prepare your heart

Before you chose to bring a rescued pet into your life, there are a few things you need to know. The first is that they have probably had a bad time of it at some point or another. In fact, they may have been rejected and been passed from owner to owner. They may have even been kept in bad conditions and been treated poorly.

What that means is they not only need a comfortable place to live out the remainder of their days in safety, but they also need to be placed with someone that has a special place in their heart for them.

Rescues, as a rule, need extra love, care, and patience. If you are already stretched in this capacity with your own family and other animals, you should think twice before taking on another. Otherwise, you could end up having to send them back to the shelter and recreating that process of rejection and broken attachments all over again.

Prepare your place

Once you have yourself emotionally ready to take on a rescued pet the next step is to ensure that your home or property is up to scratch as well.

Obviously, different animals will need different environments to live in. If you are going for chickens, you need to ensure that you have a suitable piece of land, with some structures to roost in. These are usually built from wood. Although some newer ones on the market are made of molded plastic and designed to be both warm and easy to clean out and keep hygienic.

Dogs and cats tend to be based more in the home. This means you need to create a place for them to have a bed and their food and water. You must also ensure they have a quiet place they can retreat to when they need a break from family life.

Picking them up and bring them home

After getting your property in order, you can go pick up your new feathered or furry friends. This is something that needs to be done with care. You need to make the journey as pleasant as possible for them. Remember they have probably been through a lot already and you do not want to traumatize them further!

To this end, it’s important that you provide water, as well as food for a long journey, and a secure way of transporting them. Animal carriers can be used for small beasts like dog, cat, rabbits, and chickens. But you may need a truck for larger ones like goats and pigs.

Just be sure to include some hay in the back with them, so it’s comfortable to lie down. Remember too, that when loading up your rescue animal for transportation make sure that you are patient and kind. The loading process is so vital because it’s probably quite a scary activity for them and they don’t know what is happening or where they are going.

Otherwise, if you get this wrong, you could endanger your chance of creating a positive bond at the beginning of your relationship and have to work twice as hard to help them settle in when they arrive.

Getting their health up to scratch

After you’ve brought your new rescue home and got them settled in, it’s a good idea to get their health checked out. Unsurprisingly, rescued pets often have health issues that need dealing with. In fact, this is sometimes a factor in why they are given up in the first place.

A visit to or from the vet is always a smart move. Then you can get your rescued pet checked over for any serious conditions as well as receiving some advice on how to keep them as healthy as possible while in your care.

It is also not uncommon for rescue to have issues. These are caused by being kept in confinement, such as worms, and fleas. Happily, all of these can be treated. The latter with products such as Advecta. Worming tablets are also freely available from your vet, supermarkets, or online.

Love, love, love

While physical health is essential to the comfort and wellbeing of your rescued pet, love, and compassion are also vital in giving them the best life possible.

Showing love and affection is maybe a little easier with animals like cats, dogs, and rabbits that are furry and can live in your home with you. Something that means you don’t have to make a special effort to go outside or to another building to spend time with them.

However, it is important to show love and compassion and to provide opportunities for fun to all animals no matter what their type. Something that goats in the video below demonstrate beautifully.

Caring for a rescued pet is something that is vitally important work. After all, they deserve love and a good quality of life as much as any other living creature.

The right diet

Obviously, diet for a rescued pet is particularly important. Especially as they may have had time in their lives where they haven’t had access to the best nutrition.

Animals like goats and rabbits can even benefit from some fresh food additions to their diet. In particular, goats are fond of apples, while rabbits love carrots and lettuce.

Again you will find here that cats and dogs are easy to care for. This is because there is so much commercial food on the market. Although it can be really helpful to tailor their diet both to their ages and breed to maximize the levels of nutrition they consume.

Be patient with them

Lastly, remember that rescues, no matter what their type or breed need that little bit of extra love and patience.

It’s true that they may not be quick to find their place in your home. They may be a little reserved at first. However, give them time, space and love. They will eventually find a place both there and in your heart.