DEAR DR. FOX: I read your recent column about how to deal with cat issues. I was amused while reading, because people are so stupid -- why would anyone want a cat in his home? I'm in the opposite camp: My problem is how to totally clear my yard of live cats.

I spent more than 15 minutes cleaning poop out of my lawnmower wheel last time I mowed. I live in a city that will not allow me to terminate these feral cats -- permanent elimination would be great! I tried trapping with no success. I just want a clean place to walk with no odor. -- A., Norman, Oklahoma

DEAR A.: Thanks for raising this issue. It is a complex one with no easy solutions.

My wife and I caught a free-roaming cat on our property in July. We learned when we surrendered the cat to the Humane Society that he would be assessed to determine if he was adoptable. After the stress of capture and being in a shelter, many cats will hiss and spit defensively, since they are in terror. Our kitty was deemed an unadoptable wild or feral cat. We could pick him up as a "working cat" -- he would be released where he was caught on our property! Otherwise, he would be given to anyone who wanted a cat around their barn or garage to keep rodents down. Putting him back on our property under their trap-neuter-release (TNR) "Community Cat Initiative," where we had seen him kill chipmunks and songbirds, is absurd. It's crazy to me that just a day after the poor cat was given a general anesthetic and surgically castrated, and after a week in the noisy shelter in a small cage with nowhere to hide, he would be released. He'd been given only a rabies vaccination, and no vaccines to protect against contagious cat diseases, and no prior test for feline viral leukemia and immunodeficiency disease. I hope that no so-called humane society has this kind of TNR policy for stray, rescued cats where you live.

Clearly, this is a big issue, which I will address again. Cats can transmit a score of diseases to humans, so this is a significant public health problem, which may carry some weight in your municipality if you file a complaint. Bottom line: Legislation is called for to outlaw people allowing their cats to roam free.

Maybe you should get a dog to keep the cats out of your yard!

DEAR DR. FOX: This morning I read your column and I have to comment on the recent recommendation that you made to a reader. You mentioned that your neighbor puts her cat outside on a long leash with a collar harness. I used to do this with my cats and found out the hard way that cats are very curious and can and will do things you never dreamed of. Both cats decided to jump over the fence (one that they had never climbed or jumped before). The lines were long enough for them to jump over, but one decided to come back, and the line wasn't long enough. My cat hanged itself -- the harness slipped up around it neck and choked it to death. I was in the house cooking and was unaware of the situation until it was too late.

I would make sure your readers know to never leave a cat unattended in a harness, leash or rope situation around fences or on decks. They can get themselves in trouble, and if a dog or wild animal enters the yard, they will be unable to escape and possibly be unable to defend themselves.

I hope you remind your readers that tethered cats must always be under observation; it takes only a minute for them to get into trouble. If you can't watch them, don't tether them -- they are safer on their own. I used the tether to protect my cat and ended up killing it. I now go by a strict indoor-only rule for all my cats. -- S., St. Peters, Missouri

DEAR S.: Thanks for emphasizing the risks of putting a cat out on a long line in the yard.

Many cats have been strangled as you sadly experienced. Others, kept as indoor-outdoor cats -- which should be made illegal -- have caught their collars and have been strangled or starved.

Breakaway cat collars (bearing ID and rabies vaccination tags) are safer for all cats, since indoor cats could also slip outdoors and get caught wearing a regular collar. Cats on outdoor lines should best wear a harness, and the yard should be fully enclosed to keep out other cats and coyotes, who will make a meal out of them. And, as you write, they should never be left unattended.

POPULAR PLANT POISONOUS TO PETS

The seeds of the sago palm are especially poisonous when eaten by dogs, causing acute liver damage. The survival rate for sago palm poisoning is between 30 percent and 50 percent, according to Lynn Hovda, director of the Minneapolis-based Pet Poison Helpline, available for veterinary professionals or pet owners at 800-213-6680. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals also has a helpline, at 888-426-4435. Other popular indoor and outdoor plants that can harm companion animals include azalea, autumn crocus, cyclamen, daffodil, dieffenbachia, kalanchoe, lilies, oleander, tulips and hyacinths.

(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.net.)

DEAR DR. FOX: My Yorkie-daschund mix has been diagnosed with mange. So far, she has had three shots of ivermectin, just finished Simplicef tablets and has some special shampoo.

Her condition seems to be improving, but now she has matted patches of hair on her hind legs. When you scratch the matted hair, it comes right off. The vet says the entire family -- my husband and I -- needs to be treated for mange, but so far our medical doctors will not help. My husband has a recurring rash on his back, arms and legs. I have had few symptoms. 

We don't know how the dog came into contact with mange, although there was a mangy timber wolf in our pasture. We actually saw the wolf a number of times when he was sleeping in our pasture; we burned the brush pile he was sleeping in this spring. The doctors have been clueless, and my husband has visited the emergency room twice, a walk-in clinic twice, a dermatologist (who said he had dry skin), his regular doctor and the same dermatologist. I have only experienced minor irritation.

When my husband burned the brush, he thinks the smoke may have gotten on him. But my mother and brother-in-law were diagnosed with scabies recently. We told all this to our doctors, but all we have gotten so far is various creams for ourselves, none of which are working very well.What else can we do -- for the dog and ourselves? -- M.J., Bemidji, Minnesota

DEAR M.J.: First, good for you for at least giving that poor wolf some shelter through the winter in your pasture. Many wolves with mange, having less and less fur insulation, die during the winter. The disease can wipe out one pack after another. Although it's against state wildlife regulations, providing food for such suffering wolves is one humane option. Severe cases should be euthanized or captured, treated and released.

Your dog probably picked up the Sarcoptes scabiei (itch mite) while sniffing around where the wolf had been sleeping in the brush, and then infected you and your husband. I came home from India one time after treating dogs and other animals and developed itchy bumps on one arm, which I recognized as probable scabies. I went to the emergency walk-in clinic at a major teaching hospital, where they did a scraping and found nothing -- which is not uncommon. The only thing I needed was Benzyl benzoate cream.

This is what you and your husband need. Essential oils of lavender, black pepper or citronella can also help. A lime-sulfur shampoo may help your dog. Usually, no more than two injections of ivermectin are needed to clear up the infestation in dogs. Boil all sheets, covers and clothes; don't sleep with your dog; and put out clean sheets for the dog to sleep on to break the infection cycle.

DEAR DR. FOX: I have a 3-year old tonkinese cat who chews off all my purses' leather zipper pulls. She does not chew the leather purse itself, or leather shoes, just the long leather fringelike pulls. I have been replacing these pulls with beaded pulls as I find them, but she always seems to find another purse fringe to chew on.

My guess is that chewing on dyed and processed leather is not healthy, but is there a small leather chew toy suitable for cats? Is this indicative of something missing from her diet? -- M.G., Alexandria, Virginia

DEAR M.G.: One of our cats likes to chew and swallow any kind of threadlike material -- string, clothing tassels, shoe laces, etc. This can put cats in jeopardy from swallowing harmful materials, including needles on the ends of threads, and in large quantities could cause intestinal blockage and perforation. A cat-safe environment includes keeping all such materials out of cats' reach, which calls for vigilance!

Your cat may crave more fiber in her diet, and part of a cat's natural diet includes skin, tendons, etc. from their prey. In some cases, this becomes an obsessive behavior and may be associated with underlying chronic infection/inflammation, which chewing and swallowing may help alleviate. Try giving your cat some sprouted wheat grass to chew on and scalded raw chicken wing tips or very thin, 3- to 4-inch long strips of raw chicken or turkey with the skin attached. Be sure to scald or briefly microwave first to kill potentially harmful bacteria that contaminate these kinds of factory-farmed animal products.

(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.net.)

DEAR DR. FOX: After reading your article about the importance of giving animals the purest possible water to drink, I purchased a water purifying system for my cats and myself. In a few days they were drinking more water and had fewer, if any, episodes of vomiting and loose stools.

Thanks for pointing out this important aspect of health care. We take water for granted, but what comes out of our taps, as my cats confirmed, may not be fit to drink. -- G.C., Duluth, Minnesota

DEAR G.C.: I am not the only veterinarian advocating pure drinking water, especially for cats, many of whom do not drink sufficient water on a regular basis. Some enjoy a bubbling water dispenser, but the water must not come straight from the tap. Surprisingly, "spring water" sold in stores may not be the best, and distilled water lacks essential trace minerals. I use a ZeroWater filter; the reverse ionization method is a good investment for every family.

We are facing a global water quality crisis that is reaching critical mass as governments around the world do little to protect this vital resource. I live in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 (many now seriously polluted) lakes. This state's recent abolition of the Pollution Control Agency's Citizens' Board -- for dubious political reasons -- casts a shadow across the state's image of responsible wilderness management and protection and is a potential national disaster in the making. The business-friendly initiative of abolishing the Citizens' Board underscores the influence of various industries that marginalize long-term environmental risks and costs. Public health consequences are virtually ignored and trumped by the promise of jobs and taxable products and services.

Surely, without containment and immediate environmental remediation of the multiple existing and well-documented harms of Minnesota's major industries (agriculture, mining, energy and forestry), further industrial expansion is imprudent. But this continues virtually unabated, as fracking, sod-busting biomass fuel and livestock feed production, expansion of concentrated animal feeding operations and yet more mining take finite water resources at a non-sustainable rate. And what of the downstream public health costs and irreversible loss of biodiversity?

The worldwide problem of ever-expanding, biodiversity-diminishing and polluting carbon footprint of industrial exploitation gives short-term benefits to a diminishing few. Will it deprive our children's children of their right to purer water, cleaner air and more wholesome food? Climate change, loss of biodiversity and the obesity and cancer epidemics are all interconnected. Land, water and air are part of the global public commons. Minnesota, with fresh water as one of its greatest natural resources, should steward this hydrological ecosystem/watershed as a national treasure. If every governor, aligned chamber of commerce and legislature were to make the waters flowing out of their states purer, we might yet get on the right track for the recovery of democracy, public health and a more viable future.

To tout water quality remediation/purification as the ultimate solution is to continue the tradition of bad, albeit profitable, conventional medicine. It treats the symptom, but does not address the problem. The more we harm the Earth, the more we harm ourselves, and the quality of our drinking water mirrors the quality of our relationship with the natural environment.

DEAR DR. FOX: My 6-year-old dachshund-greyhound mix was recently diagnosed with granulomatous meningoencephalitis (GME). She is under the care of a neurologist and is being treated with steroids and antibiotics. When I did research on her condition, medical literature states it is a common neurological disease in dogs. However, no dog owner I know has ever heard of it. We were told the prognosis is poor, even though she is responding well to the medication.

Is there any information you can give me about this disease? Is there anything I can do to extend this period of remission? I was told that the treatments can give her a good quality of life for a certain period of time, but the disease is ultimately fatal. -- J.B., Newark, New Jersey

DEAR J.B.: This is certainly a devastating condition for your poor dog. It is a fairly common condition of unknown origin, affecting smaller female dogs in particular at around 5 years of age.

There is increasing evidence that this is an autoimmune disorder that could be triggered by certain components in vaccines. Treatment with oral procarbazine and prednisone can help subdue the inflammation. I would also explore potentially beneficial anti-inflammatory and antioxidant supplements such as Resveratrol, fish oil, quercetin and melatonin, especially before bedtime.

(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.net.)