Help with urinary tract problems – The Animal Doctor

DEAR DR. FOX: I read your book “The Healing Touch for Cats,” which is great. I have an 18 year old cat with bad teeth and gums, and she always demands a vigorous abdominal massage after every meal. Her digestion is unpredictable. She eats raw food most of the time and does not handle psyllium husk well.

Is there a massage technique that can soothe her tummy and make her more regular? I do my best to keep her healthy. — SC, Kenilworth, Warwickshire, UK

DEAR SC: You confirm what many cat caregivers have told me after reading “The Healing Touch for Cats”: Once they learn my basic massage routine, their cats soon start demanding it! The benefits are numerous, especially for older animals (including dogs, according to my related book “The Healing Touch for Dogs”).

Constipation in older cats can be relieved by a deep, gentle, circular massage over the abdomen in a clockwise direction. The animal should lie on his/her back, cradled on your thighs (or two pillows).

You mention trying psyllium husk, but I wouldn’t recommend it to ease bowel movements. Many cat owners have reported good results when mixing a teaspoon of pureed canned lima beans or unsweetened pumpkin into the cat’s regular wet food.

DEAR DR. FOX: A woman I know rescued a puppy that was not only thrown away, but had its mouth tied shut with string and a snout, causing deep cuts. The puppy is now being cared for by the vet for the wounds and infections and is wearing a plastic collar to prevent her from scratching it.

The puppy is healing physically, but she continues to have nightmares during her sleep. Should my girlfriend offer her something if this happens, or just let the nightmares wear off? — LH, Cleveland, Ohio

DEAR LH: Judging from my experiences with my own dog Kota — who, after living on the streets of Alabama, ended up in an animal shelter with her own litter of puppies and several wounds from dog fighting — your friend’s poor abused puppy will will probably have nightmares for the rest of her life. But given the love and safety, and because she was rescued at such a young age, it is possible that she will recover from her post-traumatic stress disorder.

There are skeptics who deny that dogs and other animals can suffer from PTSD, or that they even have emotions. Such attitudes can excuse and facilitate much animal abuse, which should be prosecuted as a misdemeanor, not merely a misdemeanor. Our legal system is behind the times and has not kept pace with the science of animal sentience.

Kota sleeps next to me, and when she has a nightmare, I comfort her as best I can. Your friend should also try to comfort her puppy.

BOOK REVIEW: ‘SOULMATE DOG’, MICHELLE B. SLATER, PH.D.

Whether or not you believe in telepathic communication as described in this book, you will enjoy reading it. It is a deeply emotional, reflective, philosophical story about a young woman’s relationship with her German Shepherd dog, Brady. This book opens the doors of our perception, sensitivities and understanding. It describes one step in what I call the empathosphere. (For details, see: drfoxonehealth.com/post/the-empathosphere-animal-prescience-and-remote-sensing.)

Given the ways in which so many animals, wild and domestic, are abused today, our doors of perception seem closed. My thanks go to Dr. Slater for providing this compelling book to help open these doors. I wish everyone could experience the love of an animal other than a human, and then give that love and respect back to all creatures, great and small.

NEW RESEARCH ON THE VOCABULARY UNDERSTANDING OF DOGS

A recently published study shows that we are not the only species with the cognitive ability to understand language. The study evaluated dogs’ brain wave activity in response to spoken words that referred to specific objects they could retrieve. The results, say the study authors, provide “the first neural evidence for object word knowledge in a non-human animal.” (For details, see the study “Neural Evidence for Referential Understanding of Object Words in Dogs” by Marianna Boros et al., published in Current Biology, March 2024.)

(Send all mail to [email protected] or to Dr. Michael Fox Attn: Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal responses, but questions and comments of general interest will be addressed in future columns are discussed.

Visit Dr.’s website Fox at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)