A Path With Paws

Sometimes I get so caught up in my little world of very well treated dogs that I tend to forget about all the ones out there suffering. In the Seattle area we are being given an opportunity to make a difference for those who don’t have the wonderful lives of the animals I know.

Thank you Margo for bringing this to my attention!

King County is considering an ordinance which would make it illegal to leave your dog chained outside continually. Here is a detailed article from the Seattle P-I, Law would prohibit pet owners from continuously confining dogs. Right now there is nothing within the law to help these poor animals which are left on the end of a chain for their whole lives being denied the love and family they long for. Not only is this a sad and horrible life for these dogs but chained dogs tend to have more issues with aggression and are more likely to bite and harm children and other people. In fact there is a group called Mothers against dog chaining dedicated to this issue.

Here is a wonderful explanation by Cesar Milan on why dogs should not be tethered.

If you are in the King County area please take a moment to contact your council member. For a list of the names and contact information of these folks, please visit The King County Council Directory. If you are not in the Seattle area consider contacting your local council folk to see if they will address this issue in your area.

Here is a copy of the letter Margo wrote addressing some of the horrible situations she has seen in her work with animals.

Dear Councilmember,

First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to consider this
important issue.

Chaining a dog as a way of life is both cruel to the animal and dangerous to
humans, especially children. The dog most likely to attack and seriously
injure or kill a child is a chained, un-neutered male. For more on this,
please go to Mothers against dog chaining .

As someone who has observed and tried to help a number of chained dogs over
the years, I can say I have yet to see a chained dog that has adequate food,
water, shelter or a remotely clean living area, let alone socialization,
exercise or vet care. Many dogs suffer profound neck injuries and even death
when embedded chains finally sever their windpipe. Most people seem to think
their dogs are somehow weatherproof as well.

Just a few examples of what I’ve seen personally:

A young boxer who was chained because the owner said she jumped on his two
year old son. Inadequate food, water, shelter and feces everywhere. She was
kept out in sub-freezing weather, and you could see her visibly shivering.

A pitbull chained to a tree with no food, no water and no shelter. The chain
was so heavy she could only move her eyes.

Two pitbulls at another house, one chained to the front step, and another
chained to a doghouse in the backyard. There was so much mud, the dog
refused to leave the doghouse. Both were on extremely heavy chains.

A husky-cattle dog who was chained to a tree, and wrapped himself up so
tight he couldn’t move. The owner said “Yeah, he does that”. Dirty water, no
food, and he couldn’t even get to his doghouse.

The German Shepherd whose owner would walk out the back porch and throw raw
hamburger into the dirt. The police ended up shooting and killing the dog.

The Saint Bernard who simply laid on his side in the dirt, never moving, the
picture of utter hopelessness and defeat.

The people in the P-I article never cease to amaze me, either.

The woman in Snoqualmie who got herself a young, high energy spaniel-lab,
which she sentenced to living on a chain because “he’s hyperactive”.

The couple in Maple Valley whose yellow lab is chained because “he’s not
housebroken and he sheds”.

The dog in Rainier Valley who is occasionally fed rice and has been chained
the last five years.

The fourteen year old husky mix who has probably been chained to that fence
in Enumclaw his entire life. His crime? “He runs away”.

All these people have abdicated their responsibility to exercise and train
their animals. It is simply easier to chain them and forget about them,
while blaming the animal for the problem the human has created.

The man and his son in Maple Valley who are training attack dogs. The photo
showed a young pitbull in a plywood shack of a doghouse. They did have
enough money to crop the dog’s ears, however.

The breeders and others who will yell and scream at you that it’s their
right to chain their dogs are merely keeping them as cheaply as possible
until they sell them and make a quick buck. They are no better than puppy
millers in the sense that they don’t care one iota about the well being of
the dogs, nor do they consider the possible damage the animal could do
if/when the dog becomes aggressive due to being kept chained and
unsocialized.

I hope you will pass a real anti-chaining ordinance that has, pardon the
pun, teeth.

Sincerely,
Margo W.
West Seattle

I just saw a dog with a similar cancer to Maggie’s this morning and wanted to add one more page to Maggie’s story. I hope this is helpful to the folks out there working with the many dogs who suffer from osteosarcoma. Here is the protocol we used to treat Maggie’s cancer. I use a similar protocol for most of the dogs I treat.

Maggie’s protocol

Also please see my cancer care page

• Three treatment of radiation and three treatments of chemotherapy towards the beginning of her illness.
• Amputation of her affected leg
• A high quality, grain free homemade diet
• A supplement called SanSheDan ChuanBei Ye, which helps to keep cancer out of the lungs. In Seattle this can be purchased at Lucky An Dong in the International District. One of my favorite supplements, it is made from apricot seed, fritillary seed, and snake bile. Often called snake oil by my clients, this supplement is very helpful for any lung condition and for keeping cancer out of the lungs.
• Missing Link supplement to support her body and immune system.
• After she was done with radiation, Artemisinin a powerful anti-cancer herb. This is a herbal supplement in research right now for treating osteosarcoma in people. It is absorbed by cancer cells (which have a high iron uptake) and produces free radicals which kill the cancer cells. This herb can not be given during radiation therapy or for two months afterwards.
• Pain medications as needed
• lots of love!

Please remember that every dog is different and that you should find a veterinarian to work with before starting any supplements.

Today is spay day and in honor of this very important day my friend Rose DeDan wrote a beautiful and very moving article on her blog, Dare to Care, the Life You Save May Be Someone’s Future Pet. If you get the time please take a moment to read it.

Many of you know that I spent my first three years as a veterinarian working at the Seattle Humane Society. While I consider it some of the most rewarding work I have done, I am still haunted by nightmares from the euthanasias I performed. It is never easy to take an animal’s life and although I think my work there saved far more animals then I had to kill it is still difficult for me. Many times I would end up curling up on the floor at home sobbing after having a particularly hard day.

I remember in particular a litter of five beautiful orange tabby kittens who came in with their mother and father, also very striking orange tabbies. The whole family of cats had been surrendered. We always tested every cat who came in for FeLV and the dad of this family came up positive. Because FeLV can be spread through drinking water and this whole family had been together they all had to be euthanized. My staff and I were heartbroken but there wasn’t anything we could do. It would take six months to know for sure if mom and the kittens were infected or not and we did not have the resources to keep them that long.

I swallowed by emotion the best I could and euthanized dad and then took one kitten at a time away from mom and euthanized them. At the end I went back to get mom and couldn’t do it. I looked her in the eyes and realized that I had just killed her whole family and for the first time in my shelter career I just couldn’t. I ran back in tears and quickly explained that I needed to leave for a while, retreating to the bathroom to cry. Someone else took over and I didn’t have to face mom but I will always remember that day.

Please, please spay or neuter your animals. I hope for a day when shelters will no longer have to euthanize animals and those who work there will be able to help without killing.

I have many tales I could tell about the animals on death row who passed through my bathroom as foster cats and went on to live and the two who never left and are still living with me. My very precious Melody and Rudy, both with chronic upper respiratory infections. But today I want to share my sadness in the hope that it helps prevent more unwanted animals from entering this world

I came upon Cappy’s story recently and his human mom, Lindsey gave me permission to share his story and the new blog she set up to help with his care.

From Cappy’s blog –
Cappy is about 1 year and 6 months old. He is a beagle, possibly pure bred, but we are not sure. Cappy came to us from D.A.W.S. in Connecticut, USA. D.A.W.S. obtained him from a rescue organization in Ohio that had raided a puppy mill and saved many dog’s lives in that raid, not to mention the future puppies that could have been tortured. D.A.W.S specializes in taking animals out of the mid west where there is an overwhelming amount of puppies due to these puppy mills. They found a family of Beagles, a mom and her 3 girls and 3 boys, that they wanted to get a home for out here in Connecticut.

My husband and I are big time animal lovers and activists in animal rights and especially pet’s rights. We had just purchased our first home and already had 6 cats, but I knew it was time to get a dog. I had always had dogs growing up, and my husband NEVER had a dog. We searched and petfinder.com ads for weeks debating over whether or not it was the right time for us. I finally, on a whim, put in an application for “beagle puppies.” There was no picture or anything, but I knew about beagles and their personalities, and I knew that a beagle was the perfect size dog for us. Not too big, but not a yippee small dog. Big enough to scare away an intruder, but small enough to lay on the couch and take everywhere.

So my husband and I anxiously waited to hear from D.A.W.S. and over the weeks, we were hearing from out friends, family, and our vet that they were calling for a reference. Of coarse they all gave us a good reference, WE LOVE OUR ANIMALS!

We finally got the call that we were approved for a beagle puppy and we were SUPER excited! We had to wait till Friday (we got the call on a Monday) to go meet out little puppy, but in the mean time, they asked us which one we would prefer. We told them that we didn’t really care, but I would like to have a tri-color. They had 2 boy black and white beagles, 1 boy tri-color, and 3 girl tri-color beagles. When I told them that I wanted a tri-color, they said “Perfect, because that is who we have left.”

We arrived at the animal shelter on that Friday excited to meet out new little guy. It was the LONGEST 1.5 hour drive ever. When we arrived, we told the lady at the window that we were here to meet the beagle puppy. The lady looked and us and said:

“Well, I have something to tell you before you meet this little puppy………”

A million things ran through my head – “was he psycho, food aggressive, did he hate other dogs?” Just about EVERYTHING except what was actually wrong with him.

“………….. He is missing his front right foot.”

My husband and I both at the exact same time, in the exact same way said “We’ll take him!” without even ever seeing him! The lady was relieved that we didn’t care about his little missing foot. So we went into the back where they took him out and let us play with him.

He was the best puppy I have ever met. He was only 4 months old and he was so well behaved. He wasn’t all nippy like most puppies and he wasn’t all that excitable even though he was locked in a kennel for most of the day. He also came when we called him. Oh, by the way, his name was Skittles when we met him, but over the long run, it did not suit him well.

We fell in love instantly, but had to leave him. They told us that we had to come back next weekend because he still needed to get neutered. It was a LONG week. I had to have surgery just a few days before we went to pick him up, and I was worried about having a puppy in the house while I was recovering.

So 3 days after my surgery, we went to pick him up. We were so excited that week that we went out and spent $500 on crap. We had every type of puppy toy, collar, leash, bed, bowls, food, blah blah blah.. We were going to be new parents!!
We arrived to get him and it all happened so fast that before I could realize what was going on, we were in the car on our ride home…

That was ONE YEAR AGO TODAY!!!!

So THAT, my friends, is the story of how we got Cappy!! I will be posting another post SOON to tell you about his first day home!

We created this blog because Cappy’s peg leg is getting the best of him. We were told by the vet that we were going to have to do something eventually to absorb the impact on his bone in his right front leg. Since there is not ankle there to absorb the shock of running (and Cappy LOVES to run) we need to have a custom fitted silicon sleeve made for him.

Lindsay is working to get a hosted blog up for Cappy where they can have a store to help support the care he needs. If you want to contact Lindsay, she is at lindsay (at) webdesignforidiots (dot) net . And please visit Cappy’s blog.

When I travel these days I always pack a four pack of incandescent light bulbs with me. Occasionally I will forget and then my first stop is always to the nearest Safeway or drug store to buy a pack. The more I hear about the possibility of a ban on these types of bulbs the more I worry. Should I start a stockpile of them in my basement now? Or have faith that LEDs will become more widespread before the ban or perhaps some new alternative will be developed.

So why does this worry me?

Yes there is the concern about the mercury in CFLs, a known toxic substance. But what concerns me the most is that CFLs or compact fluorescent lighting makes me sick. I can be under it for a short period of time, say an hour or two, but that’s it. If I spend a day under CFLs (or in my case also the classic tube fluorescence lights), it usually takes me a day to get back to normal. My head hurts, I feel dizzy, I can’t hold thoughts, I feel drained yet I can’t sleep that evening, and I feel irritated and depressed.

I know I’m not the only one. I’ve talked to others who have similar problems and there have been some reports about CFLs increasing migrants, depression, and worsening symptoms in diseases such as Lupus. Traditionally healers, such as Barbara Ann Brennan, have long advised to never do healing work under fluorescence lighting of any kind to avoid making yourself ill. These lights drain our energy and especially for us in a healing profession this can be very dangerous.

Studies have also show that children do much better under normal lighting. From Earthwatch – Compact Fluorescents vs. Full Spectrum Bulbs

Elementary school Principal William Titoff, in his Ph.D. dissertation, found that “there was a statistically significant difference between students who worked under old-style fluorescent lights and those who worked under full-spectrum, visually-efficient lighting.” His study also found that depression was reduced among those students who studied under full spectrum lights and that it increased among fourth graders who sat under fluorescents.

A similar study, conducted in Florida in 1973 by light pioneer Dr. John Ott, found that students under fluorescents were more likely to be irritable, hyperactive, fatigued and have trouble paying attention. The students under full spectrum lights were better behaved and performed better academically within one month of the lights’ installation.

Here is another interesting letter to the editor about CFLs from Dr. Magda Havas, B.Sc. Ph.D a researcher in electromagnetic pollution from Trent University which explains part of the problem.

As Dr. Havas states –
Compact fluorescent lights (CFL) produce radio wave frequencies. These frequencies radiate directly from the bulbs and go on the electrical wiring in the home or school causing poor power quality or dirty electricity. The closer you sit to the bulb the greater your exposure. Because the high frequencies travel along the wire you can be exposed in other rooms of your home as well as the room that contains the CFL.

So why do I bring this up on an animal site?

I worry as more and more people replace their traditional bulbs with CFLs that these new bulbs will affect the health of not just the people in the house, but also the animals. I am lucky enough to be able to tell that CFLs make me sick and do something about it, but how will you be able to tell if CFLs are making your animal sick? They cannot tell us if they are having headaches or just feeling bad.

Also new research has come to light that indicates that CFLs emit a high humming sound that is not in our range of hearing but is in the range of hearing of cats and dogs. Can you image hearing a high pitched humming sound all day long. It would be enough to drive you nuts! Many pet owners report that their cats or dogs do not want to be in rooms with CFL bulbs on and will become anxious if they are forced to be.

See the articles Don’t like CFLs? Ask your pet and CFL Bulbs: Save the Plant Make Your Pets Insane.

I ask you to consider alternatives to CFLs. In a few years the technology for LED lighting should be better and LEDs should be available for about the price of a normal bulb. LED bulbs last possibly forever (at least ten years or more) and use much less energy than CFLs. Most importantly they are safe! In the mean time keep your normal incandescent light bulbs. Even without taking the health effects of CFLs into consideration, we are going to have an environmental nightmare from the mercury in these light bulbs in a few years.

Also remember that if you break these light bulbs you need to be very cautious about how you go about cleaning up. You don’t need a full haz-mat team but some precautions are needed and make sure to get your animals and children out of the room immediately. Here’s the snopes.com article on what you do and don’t need to do.

1/30/12 I have now began replacing some of my bulbs with LEDs. The prices are starting to come down and the quality is getting better. The light quality is still not what it is with the incandescent light bulbs but much better than the CFLs in my opinion. Spending $80 on three light bulbs today I felt a little silly but they are supposed to last over twenty years and use about $1.00 of electricity a year, so overall I think it is a win. Plus since there are many places in our home that require ladders to reach I am excited that this may be the last time up on a ladder for a long time. Happy light bulb hunting!

11/16/13 LEDs have now come down in price and there are even better options like this $10 light bulb Lighting EVER 7W A19 LED Bulb. They even now make LEDs that can replace traditional fluorescent tubes like this one, LEDwholesalers Brightest LED Tube Fluorescent Tube Replacement. I hope that we reach a day when CFLs are no longer made.

We have all heard the saying , “you are what you eat”, but most people haven’t heard, “you are what you think.”

Intention has an amazing role in healing and medicine. Even in Western medicine the power of intention and the placebo effect has been scientifically proven to exist.

Because of the placebo effect drug trials in people have to be double blinded, meaning that both the patient and the doctor administering the drug are not told if they have the real drug or the placebo.

Did you know that drug trials in animals also have to be double blinded? Obviously the animal doesn’t know if they are being given the real drug or not but the doctor or researcher also needs to have no knowledge of this. They have found that if the person administering the drug knows if it is the real drug or the placebo, then the results will be influenced by this knowledge.

Yes there is a placebo effect in healing for animals but it is created through us! That’s pretty amazing when you think about it.

So how can can we use this power of intention in helping our animal friends heal?

Primarily we can believe that they can heal. If we have confidence that our animal companion can heal they can sense this and it will help them also believe in their own healing. When we think positive thoughts we release certain chemicals in our body which affect our nervous system in a positive way. This enhances our immune system and helps direct our body back to homeostasis.

Because our animals are deeply connected to us they are also calmer when we are positive and get the same positive immune and nervous system response. While we can often share disease with our animal friends, we can also share health.

Many studies have been done on the power of intention. One of the most well know was a study done on reducing crime by meditation and positive thought in Washington DC in the summer of 1993. Though meditation alone the rate of crime was dropped by almost 25%. A National Demonstration Project of Transcendental Meditation. Other studies have also been performed with similar results.

Here’s some simple exercises you can do to help your animal if they are sick

It is amazing to see how the little things we do can help our animal companions!

Here are links to three very good books and audio tracks on meditation
A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life
Meditation for Beginners
How to Meditate with Pema Chodron: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind

Thanks to Pamela for forwarding me this important legislation pending in Washington State.

If you are in Washington State please check out Save Washington Pets for information on how to contact your lawmakers and support these bills.

Pawsitive Alliance, a volunteer organization devoted to ending the killing of adoptable dogs and cats in Washington state, is proud to support two bills currently in the Washington State Legislature: Senate Bill 5329 and House Bill 1406.

If passed, these bills would enable low-income owners to spay or neuter pets for a co-payment of only $10 for cats and $20 for dogs, likely resulting in a drastic reduction in the number of homeless dogs and cats living in Washington state shelters. Presently, shelters report that because of overcrowding, over 1,000 dogs and cats are euthanized every week in Washington.

The bills do not make spay/neuter surgery mandatory. Instead, they encourage people to spay/neuter their pets by making surgery affordable and accessible.

This aggressive statewide spay/neuter program would be funded by a fee paid by distributors who ship more than one ton of pet food in a six-month period. On the consumer end, the direct financial impact would
amount to less than a penny per meal for most pets. To put this in perspective, the fee’s direct cost would typically be less than $10 per year for a family with one dog and one cat.

Members of the community can easily and effortlessly support Pawsitive Alliance and 50 other animal welfare advocate groups in their efforts to make this crucial legislation happen by going to Save Washington Pets

For anyone who was outraged by the recent puppy mill seizure, cares about animals, believes that they should not be killed because of a problem with our system, or simply wants to save taxpayer money, now is the time to help in this small way!

“Apart from the humane aspects, which should bother anyone, the cost of handling and euthanizing unwanted animals from litters is staggering—and less affordable than ever for many people in these difficult economic times,” said Washington Senator Craig Pridemore, the prime sponsor of SB 5329.

Pridemore points out several problems that could be solved by the legislation, “First, it reduces the number of unwanted animals that are needlessly killed each year. Second, at a time when many people are struggling to make ends meet, it helps those least able to afford to spay or neuter their pets. Third, it reduces shelter costs and frees up money to house strays until they can find homes, instead of destroying them.”

Eight other states have adopted similar spay/neuter programs for pets of low-income residents. After New Hampshire founded a comparable program in 1994, the state saw a 75-percent decrease in euthanasia and a 34-percent decrease in shelter admissions in its first few years. This is in addition to significant taxpayer savings from reduced animal impoundment costs due to the program.

“We’ve all seen the pictures of lonely pets in cages and without owners, and we know the only fate waiting for most of them is to be put down,” Pridemore said. “It doesn’t have to be that way. This is a problem we can solve for pennies.”

I found this amazing story today, Cat nips owner’s lung cancer, about a cat named Tiger who diagnosed lung cancer in his person. He would not stop pawing the left side of this man’s chest which he mentioned to his doctor. They found a lung tumor right under where Tiger had been pawing! Because of Tiger’s quick action they were able to remove the tumor and it sounds like his person has a good chance of full recovery.

It is amazing to me how acute animals’ sense of smell is and how they are willing to help us. There have been a number of accounts of dogs diagnosing cancer by smell although this is the first one I have seen involving a cat. Service dogs can detect when people are about to have seizures by smell making it so that people with epilepsy can live normal lives. We all know the tales of the search and rescue dogs who find people buried under buildings or in the snow. And of course there are also the drug and explosive sniffing dogs at the airports and ferry docks.

I have had clients mention that sometimes it is another animal in the house that detects illness in their animal companion long before that animal shows any signs we can see. I know if I wound myself, my dogs will usually find where and want to check it out.

Here is another interesting story about cancer sniffing dogs, Can Dogs Sniff Out Cancer?. Puts a whole new meaning to getting a cat scan (or in a dog scan)!

I don’t often post links to videos but this little guy is so cute! Meet Kingsford the pot belly pig! The music is a little scary.

Do you know we have a pretty amazing pig rescue called Pigs Peace Sanctuary outside of Seattle? I have never been there myself but have friends who have gone out to volunteer and help Judy with the pigs.

I never knew that pigs could be litterbox trained. Pigs are smarter than dogs, in fact they are consider number four in intelligence behind chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants! You can train a pig to do anything you can train a dog to do and more. Pigs contrary to common belief as very clean animals.

Unfortunately many of these little guys are purchased when they are small without people realizing that they can get to 200lb or more. There are many organizations that help with pig rescue and information. If you are thinking of getting a pig contact them first and do your research.

Incontinence may not be life threatening but it is sure hard to deal with. Dog diapers are expensive and messy and many dogs are just horrified when they accidentally pee in the house. As much as we love our animal friends it is difficult to always have to worry what they will leak on next.

The Chinese view of old dog incontinence is fascinating. They see the kidneys as a large black lake with a fiery blue sea serpent that raises out of the water. The fire of the serpent decreases as we age and when it gets low enough the kidneys can no longer hold the urine and it leaks out of the body.

Deficiency in the kidneys also cause many of the symptoms we view with old age, weaker bone, gray hair and poor hearing.

When I treat incontinence, I get to be the snake charmer, circling the burning moxa stick over the kidneys to raise the mighty fire serpent out of the lake water.

With this form of incontinence, the main herb I use is praying mantis egg casings (along with herbs which strengthen the kidneys). These little casings work wonders! I’ve often had clients ask, “can you please make up some more mantis for my dog? She’s been dry since she started them!” In addition I have found that clients like to tell their friends and family that their dog is on praying mantis.

How many of you have jobs where you get to work with praying mantises and mythical sea serpents?

So a little about incontinence: there are two main types of urinary incontinence, not related to disease or structural abnormalities, one in young female dogs and one in older dogs.

I’ve seen a great response with both these conditions to acupuncture and Chinese herbal treatments without the side effects of drugs.

Old dog incontinence occurs in older dogs of either sex and often develops when the muscles that keep the urine in start getting weaker with age or there is a lack of nerve function to these muscles.

Incontinence in young female dogs usually develops shortly after they are spayed. This is not a reason to avoid spaying a dog. Unspayed dogs have many more disease problems including mammary cancer and life threatening pyometra.

Chinese medicine views young dog incontinence as cold that has found its way into the body during the spay operation. Treatments are aimed at warming the kidneys and bladder and expelling the cold. I usually use a heated moxa stick over the kidneys, as with the sea serpent, to chase the cold away and warm this area.

Out, cold, out!

The moxa stick lets off infrared heat which penetrates down into the kidneys to warm and increase circulation to that area. In addition warming herbs are used. The goal with these dogs is to cure them so that they do not need long term treatments, herbs, or drugs.

I love when acupuncture can cure conditions that are not supposed to be curable!