www.roanoke.com

Paws & Claws

Jill Bowen has practiced veterinary medicine in England and Texas. She lives in Blacksburg now, and answers local pet owners' questions every week in The Roanoke Times and roanoke.com.

Recent columns

• Bacteria can cause ear infections in cats
• Chiari is a malformation of the back for some spaniels
• Your plant smells like a great spot to ...
• Sting salve: meat tenderizer

Q My daughter loves to play the piano and often plays for two or more hours at a time. Unfortunately our Labrador starts to howl whenever she plays. Using the soft pedal or shutting him in the bedroom has no effect as we live in a small apartment. I worry about the neighbors. Does the piano hurt his ears?

A Your Labrador is just joining in. Before a hunt, a wolf pack will gather together and howl. As you are now his pack as far as your Labrador is concerned, it is a type of bonding howl and a natural way for him to behave, and does not need to be punished.

There are a few things you can do to try to minimize the desire to howl. But all must be done before he starts the howling, otherwise he will consider it a reward for howling and redouble his efforts.

First, try taking him out of the room and shutting the door before starting to play and either take him for a walk or give him a rubber Kong toy stuffed with food.

Since he is a Labrador, this should be sufficient to distract him. Keep the Kong packed away and use it only for the piano-playing times. When my youngest daughter was learning the violin, our Labrador used to howl in accompaniment, although in her case it could have been as much in displeasure as bonding.

Q My son is raising two rabbits for 4-H; the rabbits live in a run off the ground with a ramp to an attached grass run. We are finding that rats are tunneling into the run. What should I do, as I hate to deprive the rabbits of their run?

A Although fancy rats make good pets, wild rats can spread disease.

Putting poison down has to be done very carefully so that other animals or birds cannot be harmed.

One method: After you have shut the rabbits in for the night, put the poisoned pellets in bowls round the run and remove them in the morning before letting the rabbits out.

Make sure all rabbit food is stored in metal containers and feed the concentrate food to your rabbits in the hutch, rather than in the run. Just put hay and grass in the run, as it is not so attractive to vermin.

Finally, the run should have wire underneath it to prevent the rats from tunneling in. Garden stores have a wire that is stronger than regular netting, with smaller holes, which prevents rats and mice from gnawing through but allows grass to poke through for the rabbits to eat.

Q How do I keep my rabbit's water bottle from freezing at night now that winter will soon be coming?

A The simplest way to keep rabbits warm and bottles unfrozen is to move the whole hutch indoors or into a shed or garage in the really cold weather.

Rabbits do not mind cold weather; it is drafts that cause problems. Make sure that the rabbits have extra bedding in cold weather.

Newspaper is an excellent insulator on the floor of the hutch as well as being easy to clean. Add plenty of hay so that the rabbits can burrow into it to keep warm. If the water bottles are still showing signs of freezing they need to be replaced as often as five times daily.

Water bottles have several disadvantages compared to a pottery bowl in the winter. Water bottles all have a metal nozzle. This metal nozzle is prone to freezing quickly because it is narrow and metal conducts the cold more quickly than glass. Once that nozzle freezes, the rabbit has no water to drink. With a bowl, the rabbit can still lick the ice to get some water, even if it is frozen.