A Path With Paws

I’ll be away on vacation the next couple weeks, returning the week of August 23rd. While I am away comments will not get approved and I will not be checking email.

I’ll catch up as soon as I can after I return. Thanks for visiting!

My friends Jenn and Jeff made this awesome feeding box for their new cat Pascal. He is 15 years old and needs to eat in the middle of the night but they have another cat who would eat all the food if they left it out.

Jeff bought a large rubbermaid box and a cat door with a magnetic collar and put them together. I think this is genius and I wish he would start marketing these. I know so many households with one very large hungry cat and one very small cat. Jeff has some great photos on his blog of the resulting box and more about Pascal. Here is Pascal’s story.

Pascal also recently became a patient of mine and gets acupuncture and herbs for his recently diagnosed renal failure and for night time yowling. Jenn and Jeff have reported back that Pascal’s yowling is much less and he is playing more and seems happier.

Yowling can be a problem in older cats. In Chinese medicine we say it is often from the water of the kidneys being deficient and not controlling the fire of the heart. Because of this, yowling is common in cats with renal disease. Acupuncture and herbs can be a great tool for treating this in many cats. Although unfortunately I had another cat I treated recently where the acupuncture did not help.

Night time yowling can also be a sign of thyroid issues which needs to be treated with western medicine. So if your cat is yowling at night the first step is to get blood work run to rule out a thyroid issue. There is a great western treatment for thyroid disorder which involves injecting radioactive iodine which destroys the benign thyroid tumor that causes this disorder. Sounds strange but it is a safe and effective treatment. I have been through it with two of my cats and a number of the animals I work with have had this treatment including Pascal.

This afternoon I whipped up a batch of my homemade cat food for our four kitties. I serve it raw so it is pretty easy to throw together and a lot of fun to make. It feels like making cookies, only these kids like meat cookies and are much happier eating it as raw cookie dough.

Here’s my recipe if you want to try it at home

• six lbs of meat or fish ground or chopped(about 1-1/2 cup)
• 1/4 lb liver and organ meat
• 8 eggs
• One 15 ounce can pureed pumpkin, sweet potato, or yam
• 6 teaspoons Nordic Naturals Cod Liver Oil
• 6 teaspoons almond butter
• Taurine Powder 3g (if the meat is cooked or if using fish)
• 7 teaspoons Animal Essentials Natural Seaweed Calcium

Make sure the meat has been frozen for at least 48 hours at some point. I buy my meat frozen.

What can I write for you?

Is there an article that would be helpful on a topic related to animals, herbs, or holistic healing?

Let me know if there is something that would be helpful! While most of my writing will be on cancer in the near future, I like to have a little variety.

I am also happy to publish articles or stories you have written on holistic animal health or a special animal in your life.

Send me an email at lena (at) pathwithpaws (dot) com or leave a comment here or on Path With Paws facebook page.

I just found out that my favorite hydrotherapy clinic has a new blog written by Paige, the resident dog, who also happens to be one of my dog clients. It is fun, interesting and has some beautiful photos of animals during hydrotherapy.

I get to share some of the most amazing animal patients with Wellsprings. While acupuncture is great for working with pain and stimulating nerves to work better, it can’t bring back muscle. Many of the dogs I work with are too weak to be able to exercise on land enough to build the muscle back up so need some help.

I always turn to Wellsprings to help with this work.

I have been amazed how well most dogs take to the water. I had one greyhound named Love I used to treat who used to love to run more than anything. As she got older she could no longer run and became depressed. Because she wasn’t a water dog her human mom was worried that she would not like swimming.

It turns out that not only did Love do ok in the water but once she figured out she could run in the water she loved it. Her mom sent me the greatest photos of her working in the pool with a giant smile on her face.

Here is the link to Front Paige News, Wellsprings’ new blog.

Top photo – Tony. Bottom photo – Spike. Both from Wellspring’s blog. Check it out to read more about these two dogs.

As much as I love writing new articles for Path with Paws, I have found that my time has not allowed me to contribute to it lately.

I have just started taking a course to official become a certificated veterinary Chinese herbalist and between that, my business, and being a mother I have found I do not have any extra time. I will get back to writing more for this site in the future including articles on:

• Managing chronic renal failure in cats
• First aid for your animal companions
• A guide to flower essence therapy
• The link between inflammation, diet and skin disease in animals
• and more articles to come

If you want to be notified when a new article comes out and you are on facebook, Path With Paws now has a facebook page and if you sign up I will send out notification when I get a new article up.

Thank you for all the support you have given me around this site. I look forward to getting back to writing when things slow down a little.

A benefit auction for two of the best animal groups in west seattle is coming up!

Feral Cat Assistance & Trapping and Friends of the Animals Foundation

The Problem: Two uncontrolled breeding cats, plus all their kittens and all their kittens’ kittens, if none are ever neutered or spayed add up to:

1st year: 12 ~ 2nd year: 66 ~ 3rd year: 382 ~ 4th year: 2,201

5th year: 12,680 ~ 6th year: 73,041 ~ 7th year: 420,715

8th year: 2,423,316 ~ 9th year: 13,958,290

The Solution: • spay and neuter cats from all walks of life • assist in feral colony maintenance • provide for medical and health needs of feral, rescue, and low-income cats • foster or adopt

Be a part of the solution – Join Us!

Saturday, April 10 • 2:00 – 5:00 PM

RockSport Bar & Grill

4209 SW Alaska • Seattle, WA 98116

An afternoon of great people raising funds for two groups whose work is based out of West Seattle, yet assists many Washington State communities.

Event proceeds will:

• spay and neuter cats from all walks of life

• assist in feral colony maintenance

• provide for medical and health needs of feral, rescue, and low-income cats.

Cool raffle prizes and silent auction items include home services, pet care, pampering (human and animal!), dining out, shopping, entertainment, gift items, and more.

All ages welcome; no host food & full bar. Bring cash or your checkbook, buy raffle tickets, and bid often! Fun stuff like chair massages and psychic readings will be offered on site for a suggested donation – and be ready for some surprises too!

Donations of wet or dry cat food are always appreciated and will gladly be accepted at the door.

We look forward to seeing you there!

What is doga you ask?

Well yoga with your dog of course! And it’s about time too – don’t you think about your dog sitting at home all alone everything you are in yoga class, especially while doing downward dog?

This week the first doga studio in the United States opened in my back yard! Brenda Bryan and Kelly Page just opened Westside Yoga/Doga in West Seattle.

What are the benefits of Doga?

from Westside Yoga’s website-
Doga strengthens the bond with our dogs by giving them our complete attention during class time by spending quality time engaging in a partnership activity. As we lift, stretch and massage our dogs during class we’re teaching them to trust in the relationship they share with us. They also receive physical benefits from the massage and stretching like relaxation, stress release, improved circulation and range of motion.

People also receive the benefits of stretching and strengthening through the exercise part of doga class. But there are other benefits that go beyond the physical.

The word yoga means union and dogs are pack animals, so they are all about union. Union means discovering a deep connection to all things. In doga we move toward union by first connecting to our dogs, then to the best part of ourselves, then hopefully opening up to a connection to all things. It’s a very heart opening practice and it’s a lot more fun to walk our dogs with us on the path to enlightenment.

Brenda also has a wonderful blog on Doga The Dog Yoga Blog.

Unfortunately my own little guy Mel doesn’t play well with other dogs and will not be able to attend but I am still excited to have this so near and will try to check out one of their non-dog classes.

My husband, Adam Feuer, just started a blog on how people working together can help create a better society. Click on his name to go to his blog.

Adam has an incredible job at the Grameen Foundation making banking software for microfinance institutions around the world. As a whole the Grameen Foundation’s goal is to eliminated poverty in the world by 2050 through microfinance and technology.

My business has been very busy since the new year and it’s been awhile since I’ve written a new post.

Right now I am in the middle of writing

• a detailed article on what to feed your cat and dog

and

• an article on old age dementia and anxiety in dogs.

Hopefully both will be up in the next couple weeks.
Stay tuned!