Swine Flu and Cats

From an AVMA news bite I've just received - Cat Flu Truths and Myths -

What is most interesting is that right at the end of this AVMA post is a reference to the Amer An Hosp Asso's THREE YEAR booster recommedation! I wish more conventional vets would pay attention....

Just a few weeks ago, a 13-year-old indoor cat in Iowa was diagnosed with swine flu. "Two of the three members of the family that owns the pet had suffered from influenza-like illness before the cat became ill," explains Dr. Ann Garvey, a veterinarian with the Iowa Department of Public Health.



Although everyone recovered, many pet owners remain concerned about their own cats and families. As is the case with so many other illnesses, the facts are hard to separate from fiction. We've debunked some misconceptions, and we offer facts and pointers to help you deal with cat infections.

Feline Flu: Myths and Facts



Cats can catch H1N1, aka swine flu This is now fact, thanks to the confirmed Iowa case. It's reason for caution and concern, but not panic. "The risk of other cats becoming infected appears to be low at this point," says Dr. Alfonso Torres, former chief veterinary officer of the United States and current associate dean for public policy at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine.
People can give cats swine flu Experts believe that people can transmit the H1N1 virus to cats and ferrets. "We're seeing reverse zoonosis, with the virus jumping from people to animals," explains Torres. But few such cases have been documented. According to Dr. Kelly M. Wright, director of The Cat Clinic of Orange County in Costa Mesa, Calif., "generally, these types of viruses target different cells in the respiratory tracts of humans and other mammals." In other words, a virus that can thrive in the respiratory tract of one type of mammal isn't likely to do so well in another.


People can give cats other types of flu Experts believe this is likely but uncommon. Nevertheless, it's better to be safe than sorry. "Avoid direct contact with pets if you have the flu," advises Michael San Filippo, a spokesperson for the American Veterinary Medical Association. "Keep them off of your bed and be sure to cover up coughs and sneezes. Wash your hands regularly." He adds, "Pets are members of our families, so exercise the same precautions that you would for other friends and family."


Cats can catch other types of animal flu That statement has been true on occasion. A 2006 report from Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine mentioned that cats can contract avian flu -- aka "bird flu" -- and also transmit the virus back to birds. "This helped the virus spread between poultry farms," says Dr. Wright. It's also one of the many reasons you should always keep your cat indoors.


Human flu and cat flu are the same This is a myth, according to Dr. Wright. "The term ‘flu' is used to describe an influenza virus," she explains. "But cat upper respiratory viruses are most typically the feline herpes virus (FVH-1) and feline calicivirus (FCV)." She adds, "I think we use the word ‘flu' descriptively so that owners understand that the symptoms of these conditions can mimic a human flu virus."
How to Help Your Cat

Although true flu among cats doesn't occur often, your cat can still develop respiratory problems and other symptoms that resemble human flu, as well as symptoms unlike those associated with human influenza. A cat with a respiratory infection may not only sneeze and cough but also lose its appetite, develop a high fever and find it difficult to breathe through its nose. The cat additionally could squint, develop cloudiness or heavy discharge from the eye, and experience severe swelling of the tissue around the eyes.

Any cat that develops such symptoms needs to see a veterinarian. The veterinarian can recommend treating the respiratory symptoms with antibiotics, which will help combat the bacteria contributing additional discomfort to the cat. Your veterinarian can also prescribe an ointment to ease eye symptoms, and nose drops to relieve nasal congestion.

Although animal health experts continue to investigate how well the human swine flu vaccine works on cats, a readily available vaccine -- the FVCRP -- can help prevent most other feline respiratory infections.

"FVCRP is a common combination vaccine recommended by the American Association of Feline Practitioners every three years that will help protect against both the calicivirus and the herpes virus," says Dr. Wright. "These are the two most common respiratory viruses in cats today."

Juice Feast Day 1

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Lao-tzu.

Greetings and Welcome to my First Long Juice Feast!
It's day 1 for me and I expect this to be a fabulous journey! As a holistic/homeopathic veterinary blog you might be surprised to see such a personal thread. I think it is important to practice what we preach and often in the office at HolVet we advise and counsel pet owners on issues with their own natural health quests. So I’m making a public record of my juice feast. I’ll be documenting my weight and changes in appetite, energy, mental state and disease symptoms just as if I were taking my own case as a dog or cat! Feel free to comment on which breed you think I could be!
I’m open to doing the gold standard 92 day feast with the support of the encyclopaedic website juicefeasting.com. I’ve signed on for 30 days to start. If it feels right I will continue from that point. As you can imagine I’m well versed in nutrition and natural healing, and experienced with some short term (3-21 days) water/juice/master cleanse fasting and feasting. So imagine my surprise when I felt trepidation about a 92 day juice feast.
I’ve gotten off to a rough start on the practical side of things. I have a brand new GreenStar juicer and today was the first day I tried doing a predominantly fruit juice. It was a disaster with lots of pulp in my juice and sloppy pulp backing up the chute and spraying everywhere! I was very surprised. The GreenStar is considered by many to be the best. I spoke with the rep from GS and I tried their suggestions only to get lots of pulp still in my juice and now lots of juice in my pulp! I ran the pulp through a second and third time and it was still very wet. My old Champion did much better. I got the GS so I could do wheatgrass and because of the reputation for better quality and quantity of juice. I'm not so sure now. There was a lot of juice lost in that pulp. I finally ran it through a nut milk bag and got clean juice. However, that's just too much time for everyday of a 3 month feast. I may try a Samson. David Rainoshek of juicefeasting.com seemed to write well of it, and his advice of, "The best juicer is the one you'll use," is really, really smart.
After I juiced for the day I went for a run. It was also an unexpected challenge. I knew I'd be really sore from yesterday's “6 mile, 11 hill” race, and the lactic acid in my quads, hams, and glutes did not disappoint. But then an old knee pain flared up and I was reduced to a walk in my first mile. So I went for a nice walk.
So... I'm borrowing back my old Champion (thanks Kathy) for tomorrow, and doing my corrective exercises for my knee alignment! And if there is anyone out there looking for a juicing partner post a note!

Raw Food Diet for Me

Three years ago, my wife Lauren snapped another branch of my conventional diet paradigm tree without even realizing it. She found a magazine article on the supermodel Carol Alt. It was about raw food diet for people. Carol Alt was sharing how her many health problems had greatly improved eating a “high raw” diet. High raw is rather arbitrarily defined as a diet consisting of 80% or higher raw foods. As Lauren was recounting the candid account of vanishing disease conditions I had an epiphany. An OMG, How-Could-I-Have-Missed-This-All-These-Years epiphany.

I had to go raw. For me, there was no choice not to. I had been preaching this for years for my patients! I had been going over the common sense philosophy of this diet with every new client for many years! Yet, it had never occurred to me to apply it to my own life. How could I have missed it? Oh sure, I always ate a great cooked food diet. Plenty of local, organic food. Low in all the problematic stuff - red meat, fats, refined sugars, and dairy. And, of course, I had near zero tolerance for the really toxic crap – artificial chemicals, colors and flavors, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, etc.

So I’ve been mostly raw, sometimes 50%, sometimes 100%, for the past three years. And soon I’ll be doing a juice feast. It will surely change my life, and how I practice veterinary medicine.

Rabid dogs: the other kind

Not all dogs that suffer from rabies have aggressive symptoms. This video shows the other most common form the disease takes.

My Raw Food Conversion

Three years after graduating from vet school I was helping the well known veterinary homeopath Richard Pitcairn create his first-ever certification course for veterinary homeopathy. Richard is often referred to as the Father of American Veterinary Homeopathy. He solicited my opinion on including the topic of nutrition in the course. I rolled my eyes. “That’s not what vets will be coming to the course for,” I said, knowing full well he’d be talking about that stupid raw food stuff. But he included it anyway (thank goodness) and we all learned a lot more than we had in school. And Richard has a way of teaching that just makes sense to the scientific mind. So, I was converted.

I began cautiously, and with only a little faith. When I started changing my patients’ diets to natural and raw, my success rate jumped dramatically. Most notable among the early cures were the diabetic cats. I was curing about 50% of these cases. After adding the diet changes my cure rate for feline diabetes rose to above 95%, and has remained there ever since. Wow. Now I was a true believer. So, on I went happily nourishing my patients with species-appropriate diets, and getting better and better results. I’ve made changes to the recommendations over time as a result of feedback from my patients and their people. I’ve adapted the diet to fit a busy lifestyle, to fit a tight budget, to be sensitive to vegetarian/vegan pet owners, and to please a fussy, finicky eater, and still get the maximum benefit. I've made this basic raw pet diet information available free on my web site.

I’m delighted that now there are raw food diets available commercially! There is Nature’s Variety, Aunt Jeni’s Home Made, Stella and Chewy’s, Bravo, Oma’s Pride, and Steve’s, just to name a few. My clients that prefer convenience have used these wonderful products with great results. Other clients looking for the most inexpensive way to feed optimally will prepare the diet themselves from my design. It’s great to have the choice!

I love when a dear paradigm of mine gets crushed. And so it was with my views on conventional diets vs. natural/raw feeding of dogs and cats. My patients felt better and got healthier, and did it quicker, too. My clients were happier, and so was I.

How to feed cats.

My interview with Rick and Amanda of SuperFunScience.com about proper pet nutrition. In a nutshell: the closer your pet's meal is to actual prey, the happier and healthier he or she will be.

What I learned in school about pet nutrition

I have for many years advocated for raw food (especially raw meat) diets for dogs and cats. It wasn’t always that way. For the first few years of my homeopathic practice, I made the typical recommendations of most conventional veterinarians: “Get a high quality, good brand commercial canned or dry pet food.” I’m not sure how we evaluated what “good” or “high quality” was. I remember recommending Eukanuba® because it was only sold at pet supply stores (not at the grocery stores), and their published product information said they had higher-quality ingredients. It had the appearance of being different, and somehow that translated into better. Many veterinarians recommended it and sold it.

Here’s the amazing thing: we knew little more about pet nutrition than the average pet owner, as we were educated little more than the average pet owner. Though I went to a great veterinary school (University of Missouri) that produced exceptionally well-prepared graduates for clinical practice, the bulk of my nutritional education consisted of a few hours per day for one week. That’s right – a grand total of one week out of four years for a discipline that is now one of the three main pillars of my approach to optimal health for pets. And that’s not the oddest part. Believe it or not, it was taught by a Hill’s® Pet Food company representative. It seems many of the veterinary schools in the U.S. use Hill’s reps to teach nutrition! I would guess the schools save money by not having to have a full time nutritionist on staff, or they get deeper discounts on their Hill’s products.

Hill’s is the maker of the line of prescription diets called Prescription Diet (though there is nothing really “prescription” about it) and Science Diet. You may have heard of their much imitated string of acronym named diets – R/D, W/D, C/D, etc. To their credit most of the teaching was good, generic physiology, with only about 10-25% of the time spent on how their products fit the needs of various pathologies. It was good marketing for them and a good start of a nutritional education for us. But, it was not enough.

And that was all there was. Most pet owners do not realize this fact, but I have just checked with recently graduated vets and the story is still very much the same.

I intend to keep blogging on this particular topic so stay tuned.