The Animal Doctor

DEAR DR. FOX: My cat had vomiting and diarrhea and received extensive and expensive testing and medication with no permanent cure in spite of also being fed only prescription canned food.

I finally realized that the problem was the excessive liquid content of the canned cat food. After opening the cans, pouring out the excess liquid and allowing the contents to dry out by leaving the opened can in the refrigerator for a day before using it, I greatly reduced the liquid content of the food. The result was a permanent cure of my cat's vomiting and diarrhea problem -- without further use of medications.

I recently found out that a friend had the same problems with his cat as a result of excess liquid in prescription canned cat food, and she cured him in the same way. -- R.P., Matawan, New Jersey

DEAR R.P.: Your diligence on behalf of your cat should benefit many other cats and their owners.

It is time for a big wake-up call and a demand for pet food industry accountability. The suffering of uncounted cats and the anguish and financial and emotional costs to their human caregivers associated with various ingredients and deficiencies is criminal.

Clearly, your poor cat was either allergic or hypersensitive to and intolerant of one or more ingredients in the "gravy" -- not simply, as you contend, to the "excessive liquid content." All cats need liquid!

Check my website (DrFoxVet.com) for information on one "gravy-making" additive, carrageenan, which can cause vomiting and diarrhea and trigger symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. This disease leads many veterinarians to prescribe risky corticosteroids and even anesthetize sick cats to do intestinal biopsies to make a diagnosis and rule out cancer.

There may also be Red No. 3 dye (erythrosine), which is still used in some canned cat and dog foods. It may cause cancer and can disrupt normal thyroid gland function.

DEAR DR. FOX: In your column, I recently read about a cat not drinking water and thought I would offer a suggestion: My cat won't drink water from a dish placed next to his food bowl.

My cat growing up would drink the water left in the bottom of the bathtub, so we started putting her water bowl on the side of the tub. My current cat started drinking water from a short glass I had for myself on my nightstand. So that is where her water bowl is now.

Some cats are just picky about where their food and water are located. I discovered my cat does not like deep bowls for her food and water. She would take her wet food out of the bowl and put it on the floor to eat it, making a mess. I don't think she likes her whiskers touching the sides of the bowl. I now put her food on plates or wide, low-sided dishes. Her water bowl is deep and wide, so her whiskers don't touch the sides. It must be filled to the top, and she lets me know when it isn't!

Sometimes, feeding and drinking issues are as simple as location and container type. -- D.F., Fargo, North Dakota

DEAR D.F.: Your observations may help many readers who have cats who do not like to drink by their food bowls and who prefer to avoid contact with the sides of their drinking bowls with their whiskers (vibrissae).

Wide glasses or ceramic bowls are best, in my opinion. Metal bowls can trigger a static electrical discharge, especially indoors in winter with synthetic carpeting, which can go through the vibrissa on the lips and under the chin and shock the cat. Plastic food and water bowls may be safer in this regard, but they can be toxic. Some cats with skin lesions on their lips and chins have improved when their plastic food and water containers are replaced with glass or ceramic.

DOG BOOK REVIEW

"The Life and Love of Dogs" by Lewis Blackwell. The enormous book (almost 5 pounds) is published by Abrams, and printed in China. The odor (from chemicals used to show selected fine photos of dogs by various photographers) is nauseating, and it's possibly toxic and environmentally harmful.

This book is a sophomoric rehash of what others have written about dogs and their origins, behavior, human bond and future (with varying degrees of scientific credibility), infused with a "feel-good" sentimentalism about dogs. This does not translate into eloquent prose from one who has reflected deeply on the nature of dogs and their relationships with us over the millennia, nor does it inspire to help improve the care and well-being of dogs world-wide, especially the abused, neglected, homeless, abandoned and feral. The dichotomy in the title between the "Love of Dogs" (presumably for us) and of our purported love for them, which can lead to an almost fetish obsession to breed dogs with genetic deformities and to keep old dogs alive at all costs, regardless of their suffering, is swept away by this shallow sentimentalism and is not addressed in this book.

I, therefore, do not recommend this book as an authoritative and inspiring book for people to purchase and, in the process, support a side of the publishing industry that must become extinct. Its evident ecological impact, sacrificing trees and other raw materials as well as fossil fuels in the manufacture and shipping of these kinds of books that do not use recycled materials, is not worth the content. The book uses potentially harmful chemicals rather than certified nontoxic inks for reasons of questionable value beyond profit margins.

(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: I recently inherited a 15-year-old active and healthy Himalayan cat. She has always had a thin area of fur on the base of her tail, under her belly and between her legs.

After we got her, it got worse. She is never allowed outside and neither she nor my other cat have fleas. I took her to an allergy vet, who suggested I put her on Atopica. I don't know if I could administer the kind made for cats without her choking, so she gets a very small amount of the kind for dogs, since she's only 7 1/2 pounds.

Without expensive testing, we have concluded it is environmental. My husband is in the nursery business, and our yard is full of blooming trees and plants, which he brings into the house on his person. Atopica has worked well except for about a month in the summer when she gets a little breakout on the base of her tail.

Do you have any suggestions as an alternative? I am concerned about long-term side effects. I've been told if I take her off of Atopica, her condition could become much worse than it was before. I'd hate to have a Himalayan cat with no fur. -- D.E., Lake Worth, Florida

DEAR D.E.: The active ingredient in Atopica is an immune system-modulating drug, cyclosporine, which has proven beneficial for cats and dogs suffering from dermatitis or skin problems that are termed "atopic" because the exact cause has not been identified and corrected -- such as a flea-bite hypersensitivity or food allergy.

I believe that many cases of atopic dermatitis have a food ingredient genesis, and as I have posted in my columns and on my website, many pet food manufacturers continue to be negligent in providing accurate ingredient labeling. Pork or chicken, for example, could be in a cat food that indicates on the label that rabbit is the sole animal protein ingredient. Other ingredients such as rice (especially from brewer's grains), soy and corn, all of which have no place in cat foods, could be the dermatitis or inflammatory bowel disease trigger.

Many veterinarians are finding that animals with skin problems get rapid relief and recovery when provided omega-3 fatty acid supplements, such as in canned sardines in water, wild salmon and fish oil for cats. Add the supplement to the cat's food, beginning with just a drop. For cats allergic to fish (which can also cause dermatitis), there is a source of omega-3 fatty acids in capsule form from algae.

Try out this kind of supplement and also my home-prepared cat food recipe (DrFoxVet.com). After four to six weeks, see how your old cat responds when the dose of Atopica is reduced, ideally under the eye of your cat's veterinarian.

MORE PET FOOD AND TREAT RECALLS

-- BRAVO RAW FOOD RECALLS: On Sept. 26, 2014, Bravo of Manchester, Connecticut, announced that it is recalling select lots of Bravo Turkey and Chicken pet foods for dogs and cats because they have the potential to be contaminated with salmonella.

The recalled product was distributed nationwide beginning on Nov. 14, 2013. More information on the Bravo recall can be found at bravopetfoods.com or by calling 866-922-9222.

-- JAKKS PACIFIC KONG AUSSIE STICKS RECALL: On Sept. 25, 2014, JAKKS Pacific of Walnut, California, announced a recall of its Kong Aussie Sticks dog treats due to possible contamination with mold.

The recalled product was sold only at PetSmart. You may contact JAKKS Pacific at 877-875-2557. Kong can be reached at 303-216-2626.

(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: You recently answered a question from someone whose rescued beagle mix was chewing his tail and knick-knacks when the owner left the house; the vet suggested he crate the dog when he left, but he couldn't do that to the dog since he spent "all that time in one" at the shelter from which he was rescued.

Perhaps the owner could get a crate and leave the door open so the dog can go in and out on his own when the owner's home to see if the dog likes the crate. It's possible that some of the anxiety the dog is having is because he was crated for a while, and he feels as though the crate was his "safe space."

I didn't believe in crating until I had a Brittany spaniel several years ago who chewed up everything he could get ahold of when I was gone. I bought a crate when he was 6 months old and crated him when we were gone, which broke the cycle of him being a "bad" dog -- we didn't have to scold him when we got home, and we weren't unhappy with him about the destruction for the rest of the evening.

He loved his crate after about one week! After all, dogs are den animals, and a crate is actually a "den" to a lot of dogs. He went in it every night on his own to go to bed, as well as whenever anyone's voice got louder than normal, because it was his "safe space." For that reason, I never closed the door to the crate when we were home.

I finally took it away when he was 2 years old and bought him a bed because he was matured and trouble-free by that age. Just some thoughts about the beagle's anxiety issues. Hope it helps! -- T.D., St. Louis

DEAR T.D.: Thank you for confirming, with your personal experience with your own dog, how a crate can become a secure safe-haven for a dog.

I have long advocated the use of dog crates for such purposes, and prefer the term "den provisioning" to the accepted "crate training," especially since far too many dogs are left locked in crates all day rather than having the crate door open so they can come and go as they please and really use the enclosure as a den.

Covering a wire crate with a large towel or blanket to make it more of a shelter adds to the "den" effect. What is especially important is the initial introduction to the crate. Coaxing the dog inside with tossed treats and getting him to go in and retrieve a favorite toy greatly eases the process of den provisioning and acceptance, rather than forcing the dog inside and closing the door. This could trigger an immediate phobia of being crated.

DEAR DR. FOX: We rescued our littermate male Russian blues 10 years ago. In the past two years, one of them has had sneezing fits every two to three months. We bring him to the vet, and he gets a shot of Convenia. Within two to three days, he is fine again for another few months.

Now his brother has started to do the same thing. Our vet wants to anesthetize the cats and scope their noses and lungs. Both cats usually produce thick, greenish-colored mucus from the nose when they sneeze.

Should we put the cats through this, or can we just continue to give him the antibiotic injection when needed? If it is an allergy, would they respond to the antibiotic injection?

Thank you for any advice you can give us. -- J.D., Arlington, Virginia

DEAR J.D.: Your cats' condition can be distressing for all concerned when it becomes chronic. I would shy away from the invasive tests being proposed, which would be extremely stressful for your cats, costly for you and would not guarantee any definitive answers.

There are chemicals and allergens in every home environment that can irritate the nasal, sinus and bronchial mucosal lining and invite in some infection, which is most likely pasteurella bacteria. A culture and antibiotic-sensitivity test of the discharge sneezed or coughed up by the cat can be helpful.

I would continue with the periodic injection under the skin of the Convenia, which is very effective against pasteurella bacteria. Treated cats should be given probiotics to help restore any possible bacterial imbalance caused by this medication. I would also consider better ventilation and air filter system in the rooms the cats occupy, and vacuuming the floor, carpet and upholstery every five to seven days.

(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.)