Cat Aerobics

I promised a post on cats and how to encourage exercise. I'll post a few ideas, but I would LOVE to hear some ideas you guys have for encouraging cats to be active. It's not always easy!

1. Get another cat. This can backfire BIG TIME! Cats are, by their nature, fairly solitary. Some cats are social and like to play. Other cats are enormously stressed by another cat and they will instead hide. This totally depends on your cat and your situation. I know in my house the cats play a lot and having more than one is a good thing for their activity level. Once you adopt a cat, it is your family member to love and support for life. Do your homework and make sure it's a good fit. Most rescue organizations will allow extended home visits (over a period of days) to see just how well everyone gets along. Don't rush into this.
2. Get some outside time. Outdoor cats are at greater risk for quite a few things. Trauma, disease, and fights to name a few. That doesn't mean that you can't give your cat outside time. Look at this website - www.catfencein.com. We've installed it at our house and now my cats have free access inside and out, but they can't get out of the yard. I'm amazed at how much the sunshine and playing in the grass improves their attitude. I've always been reluctant to consider having a cat with unfettered access to the outdoors, but this works great for me. In Connecticut, I built a huge hutch that the cats could go play in. We had to carry them out to it, but then they could play in the giant cage all they wanted.
3. Toys - cats are funny about toys. Perhaps cats just are too important to tell us what they want to play with, or they consider it beneath their status to actually play when we ask them to. They would much rather play at night by running across our bed at warp-speed scaring the bejeesus out of us and causing us to jump up from a deep sleep while screaming out language that would make a longshoreman blush. My best results have been with milk-jug tops, feathers, empty PAPER bags, and cardboard boxes. Feathers on a string are tons of fun, but require owner participation. I've seen motorized mice that looked like tons of fun.
4. Laser pointer/flashlight. You can get really cheap laser pointers and some cats love to chase the pointer. Don't shine it in their eyes - sounds like it should go without saying, but remember that your cats eyes are just as prone to damage from the laser light as you are.
5. Catnip. Legal in all 50 states. Purchase a baggie for a steal compared to other weeds of similar appearance. The active ingredient is nepatalactone and its mode of action in the brain is poorly understood. Most cats experience a high and will have a sudden increase in appetite. Some drool. Some get angry. Some simply don't experience anything. I call them Nip-positive and Nip-negative. Grow your own - it's also legal in all 50 states to have as many nip plants as you like. You don't have to build any expensive, hidden greenhouses in your garage or dorm room closet. Cheap, very prolific plant. It's in the mint family and WILL GROW OUT OF CONTROL if you don't limit it by potting up the plant or providing space for it to spread.

How much exercise? I've heard 20min/day is a great start. If I am trying to encourage weight loss, that's my goal. To help improve the cats attitude and break bad behavior, ANYTHING will help.

Leave a comment with your ideas on how to get your cat to be active! This should be a community/interactive post!

AMH

Flatulence - aka "Honey, What's that SMELL!" part deux

Flatulence.

Children and grown men around the world find it endlessly amusing.

Basically flatulence is the passage of gas from the anus. That gas can be something swallowed or something made by the individual. If you swallow enough air, some of that will make its way through the gut. It will pick up certain odors along the way and ultimately pass through the tail pipe.

The bacteria in the gut (especially in the colon) can ferment all kinds of energy sources and can produce plenty of gas as a by-product. The worst smelling of these can be the sulfur compounds. Sulfur has the classic "rotten egg" smell. In fact, eating lots of eggs can be an excellent way to have some seriously foul gas. The cruciferous veggies are pretty bad about it too.

So how do you manage it? Watch what you eat. Your body will tell you when something isn't being digested properly. Certain foods will cause guaranteed problems in some individuals. You can also take a pro-biotic. There are lots of yogurts out there that help get your digestive system on-track. There are also oral supplements intended to accomplish the same thing.

In the case of your dog - the same applies. Some dog foods will cause problems in some dogs. For example - my dog Kate. I really wanted to feed Kate a particular food that I thought I would like. The ingredients were the kind I liked, the formula was a good one for her. BUT, within 24hrs of feeding it to her it because immediately apparent that the side effects were not worth it. She had solid stools and felt fine, but the gas was peeling the paint off the walls and waking us out of a sound sleep. So that food was not for her. Switch her back - gas goes away.

And there are some breeds that are worse than others. I am going to pick on Boxers and Bostons (lesser degree Bulldogs and Labs). If you own a boxer dog or a boston, you must simply accept the fact that you will be constantly serenaded by your dog playing the booty trumpet.

Yes, you can give your dog plain yogurt. That can help. You can also experiment with foods by gradually changing to a different diet (look for a diet with different primary protein and carbohydrate sources). Or you can just deal with it and laugh when your dog goes up under the dinner table and cuts loose with something perfectly horrid during Thanksgiving Dinner. Just blame it on old Aunt Alice.

AMH

The Results are In - 1st Post

I've had trouble thinking of good ideas to blog about. So I've decided to spend a couple of posts talking about "lab results."

How many times have you heard, "We're going to run some tests," or, "the blood work all came back normal." WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Let's break it down and over the next few posts talk about some of the common tests that are run and what kind of information we can get. I will discuss the complete blood count, basic blood chemistries (including electrolytes), endocrine chemistries, urinalysis, stool analysis (see previous blog on this one), biopsy (histopathology) and cytology, and bacterial or fungal cultures.

For the first installment, I thought we would start with the Complete Blood Count (CBC). It is the most straight forward to discuss.

A complete blood count is just what it sounds like. We are trying to measure all of the types of blood cells and provide information about their age, distribution, and health. There are three main numbers we look at. Total white cell count, total red cell count, and platelets.

White cells got their name because when you get a bunch of them together, they look white (or kind of white - think pus which is a few billion white cells all together). There are 5 types of white cells we generally measure and the total white count (WBC) is simply all of these types added up.

• Neutrophils - these are the fast attackers. They are shortest lived of the white cells. They are the "first responders" to inflammation or infection and it's the neutrophils that are sacrificed in huge numbers (again, think pus). Typically, the neutrophils are the most numerous of the white cells - typically 60-70% of the total count. If the neutrophils appear young or have "toxic" changes, it helps tell us more about the type of response the body is mounting. Young, toxic neutrophils are usually in response to severe, systemic bacterial infections.
• Lymphocytes - The smaller, rounder white cell. They make up the second largest population. usually 20-40%. There are multiple "flavors" of lymphocytes. T-cells, B-cells, plasma cells. Basically all of the same family tree. Lymphocytes are responsible for various roles in managing the immune system. They don't eat stuff, they tell other cells to go work, go eat, or to make certain chemicals. They take control by using cellular contact chemicals (known as cytokines). For instance, Killer T-cells will tag a cancer cell and trigger it to die. The T-cell then tells the macrophages to eat the dying cell. B-cells are largely responsible for making antibodies.
• Monocytes - These are the biggest white cell and are responsible for much of the clean-up work. They can eat all kinds of stuff. If it needs to be cleaned up or eaten, monocytes are usually involved. They are usually about 5% of the total population. When monocytes leave the blood stream and enter a tissue that are re-named a macrophage. There are some highly specialized macrophages located in certain places in the body (like in the liver) that play a major role in regulating the immune system (kind of like the lymphocytes).
• Eosinophils - Similar to a neutrophil. These guys have large, reddish granules in their cytoplasm. Usually 1% or so of the total. Eosinophils have similar roles to the neutrophils, but they are primarily "turned on" when parasites are involved or in the case of allergic reactions/chronic allergies. Cats have a very interesting ability to mobilize eosinophils and the eosinophils can cause all kinds of problems when you get too many together all at once.
• Basophils - Very few are seen in the blood. It's actually kind of exciting to find one because they are typically fairly hard to find. They are in many ways just like an eosinophil.

If white cells are increased, we look at which ones. Neutrophils usually increase with infection of some kind (but any kind of stimulation to the immune system can cause increased numbers). Too few indicate life-threatening infection or that the bone marrow has been hit (as with parvovirus or chemotherapy). Increased monocytes can be seen in fungal infections or in cancer. increased eosinophils are usually associated with parasitic or allergic causes.

There are even some blood "parasites" that can be seen inside the white cells. Ehrlichia is one such infection.

Red blood cell counts:

The most common way to describe how many red blood cells an individual has is to use the packed cell volume (PCV) or hematocrit (HCT). PCV and HCT are basically percentages. If you take whole blood and spin it down (pack it) then you can compare the volume of red cells to the total volume of blood. Most blood is around 40-50% cells and the rest is all plasma.

Too few red cells = anemia.

PCV 30-40% - mild anemia

PCV 20-30% - significant anemia. Probably seeing "tired" pet.

PCV 15-20% - severe anemia. Something needs to be done.

PCV 10-15% - life threatening anemia. Something HAS to be done

PCV less than 10% - incompatible with organ function. Rapidly fatal.

Red blood cells are first and foremost an oxygen delivery system. Too few means not enough oxygen getting to tissues. Too many (pretty rare) and the blood is too thick and can't flow.

Baby red blood cells are darker and larger. Really immature red cells still have a nucleus (something that the adult cells have lost). Baby cells aren't very good at transport of oxygen. They're not the right shape yet and don't have all of the hemoglobin they will have as an adult. If you see baby reds in any significant number, you know the bone marrow has been told to make more. Usually this means the body is responding to an anemia.

Platelets - these are actually little cell fragments of a cell called a megakaryocyte (found in the bone marrow). Platelets are responsible for making a clot. You are always leaking. Always. Platelets go around plugging up that leak. Without them, you bleed to death. Honestly. There are usually 200 thousand or so in each milliliter of whole blood.

I could continue discussing all of the interesting things about blood cells, but I've gone on long enough. At least you have an idea of what they are looking at when a CBC is done. Complete discussions on interpretation are entire books in and of their own.

Next post - The basic blood chemistry.

AMH

In Memoriam

I should probably try to find a picture of Daley when she was perky. She was such a mellow dog.

Right after Christmas, Daley lost her battle with cancer. She survived 6 months longer than she was expected to. I diagnosed her with Stage 4b lymphoma on July 4th. That's a tumor of the small white blood cells called lymphocytes. If lymphoma is circulating, it's called leukemia.

She responded WAAAAAY better to chemo than expected. I'm a believer in quality over quantity and I would only continue chemo if she felt well. Surprisingly enough, she felt really good during her chemo (for the most part). She had off days. It took creativity to find foods that she wanted to eat, but all in all, she kept doing all of the things she enjoyed doing.

Daley was at least 15 years old. Not bad for an old girl!

AMH

Retrievers Behaving Badly - aka My New Year's Resolution

Long time, no see! No excuse, just slow to post.

Nearly everyone has a New Year's resolution. Mine include the obligatory trips to the gym, not eating everything in sight, and actually trying to loose my "baby weight" (my girls are now 5yrs old, I guess it's about time to loose the baby weight).

It's also time to walk the dog.

Here's why I mention this. Kate, my yellow dog (she's supposed to be golden retriever, I don't think so), is a nut case. She's either the most wonderful dog in the universe, or I could just strangle her. She's the typical ADHD retriever dog. She has enough energy that I could probably use her to power a small house if I could only figure out how to plug her in.

So there's really only one way to help improve her behavior when she starts to act out. EXERCISE. If I walk her, even just once a day, it's like magic. She's so much better behaved. If I throw the ball for 10 minutes, she's a new dog! I can't tell you how many times I have an owner complain about a dog misbehaving (especially puppies!) and so much of it can be improved by just exercise! When they have too much energy built up, they find some way to burn it. If you don't find a constructive outlet, they will probably find something destructive to get your attention.

I have a friend who puts her dog on the treadmill. She tried it one day and her dog LOVED it. She actually begs to get up on the treadmill (she stands by the machine and stares at mom). I need to see if she will send me a video.

Yet again, I'll draw a parallel between raising dogs and raising kids. As any parent knows, rainy days are just the kind of thing to make a parent want to start drinking at noon when they are stuck in the house with their kids. Kids NEED to burn off excess energy. Their brains don't know what to do if they don't have physical exercise. Exactly the same with your dogs.

Don't forget cats! I'll post again with some suggestions on how to exercise your cat. It is possible. I'm not saying that your cat won't look at you, frown, and then fall back asleep when you suggest they get up and play, but it's POSSIBLE. Inappropriate urination, destructive behavior, aggression, and obesity are all things that are improved with exercise.

AMH