The Animal Doctor

DEAR DR. FOX: I am guardian to a spayed female rescue cat who is about 6 years old. She was 1 when she came to live with me, and she'd had one litter. Happily, she maintains her weight at a healthy level.

About three years ago, she had a urinary tract infection and struvite crystals in her urine. Her veterinarian put her on a urinary tract health formula diet for life. She fully recovered from the UTI well over two years ago. I asked another veterinarian if she needs to remain on that diet, and he concurred that she should.

What I am really hoping for is a different answer. I wanted to give her some plain pieces of broiled meat with no seasoning (such as salmon, chicken, lean beef or pork) instead of the canned food, but was advised against it. I also wanted to give her a little variety in her diet. Since she likes Hass avocados, I would like to add that to her diet, too.

The main reason I wanted to change her wet food diet is that all of a sudden, she decided not to touch her Purina Pro Plan Urinary Tract Health Formula diet, and I wanted to go back to a wet food like Blue Buffalo. The decision not to eat the Pro Plan came as soon as I tried to give her some from a new case with their new label design. She had been eating the Pro Plan wet food with no problem following the onset of her UTI. I called Purina and asked if it had changed the recipe and was told it had not.

I found the coincidence of the timing of her refusal to eat the food with the label change very unusual. The second veterinarian said that companies do change the recipe without telling anyone about it. Is he correct about that? -- M.F.

DEAR M.F.: I sympathize with your desire to give your cat some tasty treats, but be forewarned -- cats can be finicky eaters and go on a "hunger strike" when they don't get the food they especially like.

Considering your cat's history of developing struvite crystals, you need to explore home-prepared special diets. For details, go to feline-nutrition.org and for veterinarian-formulated recipes, visit secure.balanceit.com or call 1-888-346-6362.

In the interim, stop the treats -- your second veterinarian is correct. Actual ingredients can change from one manufactured batch of cat food to another because of different ingredient sources and quality while the ingredient proportions and amount of supplements and additives remain the same. For details, see my book, "Not Fit for a Dog: The Truth About Manufactured Cat & Dog Food."

DEAR DR. FOX: Your recommendation of PetzLife Complete Coat to kill fleas and ticks was a happy surprise. A safe, natural product -- not a spot-on insecticide!

I will definitely try Complete Coat, but would like to ask that you check into Wondercide's Evolv, a cedar oil extract that repels or suffocates fleas, ticks, mosquitoes and other pet pests. I have used it for two years on my dog and am delighted to find a safe, effective alternative to spot-on products.

Complete Coat has to be applied only every two to five weeks, whereas I have had to spray Evolv on every three to four days during the flea and tick season. It would be nice to have you compare these two products. -- M.M., Silver Spring, Md.

DEAR M.M: As you may gather from reading my column, I am an advocate of safe and effective botanical products that are not harmful to the environment, or (like many of the "big pharma" products on the market to control fleas and ticks) also potentially harmful to both the animals and to the people applying them.

Cedar oil extracts, like other phenolic essential oils from various plants, are part of the plants' insect- and disease-repelling biochemical defense mechanisms. They can be toxic to cats, who lick their fur more than dogs do. One must be cautious when purchasing such products for external and internal use: Organic certification is important, as is the method of extraction. Such chemical solvents used by some processors and marketers of essential oils can remain in the final product as potentially toxic contaminants.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: Last June, we had a fire in our home while we were at work. There was a leak in the bathroom that flooded the floor and seeped into a basement light socket. Our 11-year-old German shepherd, Lucy, was found trapped in the bathroom on the flooded floor, unresponsive. The firefighters were able to save her, thank God, and she is now doing great. We have been living with my mother during the renovation.

When I have taken Lucy back to the house, she doesn't want to be in there. I truly believe she has post-traumatic stress disorder. We will be moving back in next week. My plan is to wait until Friday night to take her home -- that way I can spend three full days with her to keep an eye on her. Is there something else I can do to ensure her being comfortable again? Thank you for your advice. -- P.S., Granite City, Ill.

DEAR P.S.: What a terrible ordeal poor Lucy went through. She is most certainly suffering from PTSD. Before taking her back to your restored home, have her seen by a veterinarian who can prescribe anti-anxiety medication such as Xanax for a couple of days before you take her back, and continue with the medication until she settles down, decreasing the dose if she becomes too much of a groggy doggy.

If she has a good buddy dog in the neighborhood to come over and visit, that could have a calming effect. She may never want to go near the floor where she was trapped, so make her bed downstairs and be prepared to sleep with her for the first few nights. Good luck to you and Lucy!

DEAR DR. FOX: We have a female Hemingway (polydactyl) cat with seven toes on her front paws and six on her back paws. She was fixed at 2 months old. She was given to a person in Key West, Fla., who wanted her to catch large water rats under her house. This is where the problem must have started.

We got her at 6 months of age. She is now 3 years old. She always eats dirt, string and broom straw -- anything she can find, really. She's well fed and always has plenty of water. Her penchant for eating almost anything is upsetting because she then gets sick.

How can we cure her of this bad habit? I think she might have been deprived of food so she'd be hungry and motivated to catch rats.

Please help if you can. -- H.A., Long Beach Township, N.J.

DEAR H.A.: One of our formerly feral cats exhibits the pica -- or depraved appetite -- that your cat displays. This vice can have various origins, including starvation that triggers the urge to ingest anything that might kill the hunger pangs.

Cats, dogs and other animals will engage in this behavior when their digestive systems are upset, when they have an inflamed mouth or are experiencing nausea and eat grass, string, leaves and whatever they can find to induce vomiting. The underlying trigger in some cats can range from fur balls in the stomach to anemia and feline leukemia.

I advise a full checkup for your cat to rule out any physical/medical causes. She may simply want more fiber in her diet and will enjoy nibbling on a box of sprouted wheat grass or alfalfa.

RETAILERS CONTINUE TO SELL CHINA-MADE JERKY TREATS

Although some 3,600 dog illnesses and 10 cat illnesses have been linked to jerky treats made in China, retailers are not pulling the products from shelves or posting warnings for consumers. Representatives of some retailers say they are following the Food and Drug Administration's lead, noting that recalls are issued only when a contaminant has been identified. Despite extensive testing, the FDA has yet to link a compound to the illnesses and to the approximately 580 deaths connected to the treats. Consumer and pet advocate groups argue that the companies should do more to let people know that the treats are under intense scrutiny so they can make informed choices.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: My 9-year-old female English bulldog mix has been struggling with some kind of bowel disorder for the past 18 months.

I've worked with vets at Banfield Pet Hospital and Webster Groves Animal Hospital's internal medicine department. She has been on numerous cycles of antibiotics and dewormers. She has been given vitamin B12 injections over an extended period of time. She has had blood tests out the wazoo, stool testing and other testing.

We have tried prescription, raw, grain-free, wet and dry food -- we've tried every possible food I could find or was recommended/prescribed. Her issue does not seem to be a food allergy. The problem seemed to develop around the time we began feeding her a raw diet, although I fed the same food to my other two dogs without issue.

While on the antibiotic/dewormer cycles, her stool is mostly solid. But within a week of being off the meds, she is back to pure liquid stool. The veterinarians want to do an endoscopic biopsy before they will proceed with any specific treatment tailored to inflammatory bowel disease. I've read of some success with Budesonide, but Webster Groves is unwilling to give it a shot without the biopsy.

I'm roughly $2,000 invested into testing and vet care, but we're still right where we started. If you have any advice on how to proceed, I would greatly appreciate it. -- D.P., St. Louis

DEAR D.P.: This is a distressing condition for your poor dog and a constant worry for you. So-called inflammatory and irritable bowel conditions have increased in incidence in dogs in recent years. After the costly proposed biopsy is done, ask the veterinarians: Then what?

You make no mention of giving your dog bacteria-rich supplements such as yogurt or kefir and probiotics, or providing good fiber such as inulin (not insulin!), psyllium husks or canned pumpkin. Make sure to keep all soy and grain out of his diet. Some dogs do not do well on a wholly raw-food diet. A basic white fish and potato diet helps many food-intolerant dogs.

Try potentially beneficial supplements such as aloe vera oral juice, licorice, marshmallow herb, glutamine, N-acetyl glucosamine, montmorillonite clay, calcium aluminosilicate and digestive enzymes from papaya, for example. Discuss these with your veterinarian. You can suggest a fecal enema infusion from a healthy dog donor living with her to help repopulate a healthier gut flora. For more details, visit my website, DrFoxVet.com.

Let me know the outcome.

DEAR DR. FOX: I have a 12-year-old golden retriever. She has numerous bumps on her body, but this is common in goldens. I was going to have them removed last year. The vet was going to start with her bottom half, then work his way up to her neck; he would remove four cysts. If she showed no signs distress during this procedure, he was going to take a growth off of her inner eyelid.

Her blood work was fine before the scheduled surgery, and one of the cysts he aspirated didn't show anything. I canceled the day before because I felt that these cysts weren't bothering her, and I was nervous about having her under anesthesia.

One year after the canceled surgery, one of the cysts burst, and I took care of it myself. It seemed to heal well, but then it filled up again after two weeks and exploded again. This time, I took her to the vet, and he cleaned it out and gave her antibiotics. He said it didn't show any infection under the microscope. This cyst keeps filling up and draining, and when it drains, there is an open hole. I don't know how much longer to let this keep filling up. I'm afraid she'll get an infection. Now it's draining blood, where previously it was kind of a brown cheesy substance.

Should I take the chance of having her put under anesthesia at this age? Is there anything else we can do for her? She is the sweetest dog. -- P.L., Washington, D.C.

DEAR P.L: Older dogs, and especially those of certain breeds such as yours, are prone to develop usually benign cysts or tumors in hair follicles and sebaceous glands in the skin. These are best left alone until they become significantly enlarged, get abraded and develop secondary infection or ulcerate and burst.

Your old dog could be at risk under a general anesthetic and may do fine given a mild sedative and local anesthetic around the open cyst. Discuss this option with the veterinarian who would be doing the surgery.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)