An Airborne Feline And A Feisty Canine
Transcript for:
An Airborne Feline And A Feisty Canine MR. SAM LITZINGER
12:17:33
Welcome back to "The Animal House." I'm Sam Litzinger with Dr. Gary Weitzman of the San Diego Humane Society. Dr. Weitzman will answer your animal-related questions at 1-877-610-3647. That number again is 877-610-3647. You can also email your questions to animalhouse@wamu.org. You can visit our "Animal House" Facebook page to see animal news, videos, our Animal of the Day. You can get schedules, you can get event information and updates following "The Animal House" on Twitter if you'd like to do that. Let's take a telephone from Rosalind. Rosalind, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
ROSALIND
12:18:12
Yeah, hi. My question concerns my grandcat.
DR. GARY WEITZMAN
12:18:16
Oh, your grandcat, okay.
ROSALIND
12:18:17
Yes. She's about five years old, and her name is Kitty.
WEITZMAN
12:18:21
All right.
ROSALIND
12:18:22
She was adopted about four year ago by my son and his wife. She was a stray, I think, actually, and they kind of took her in. Their family is moving, driving from Florida to Virginia where we live.
WEITZMAN
12:18:34
Okay.
ROSALIND
12:18:34
In a moment of, I think, insanity, I volunteered to fly to Florida the morning before they leave and fly back to Virginia with the cat. (laugh)
WEITZMAN
12:18:44
Oh, Sam you're laughing.
ROSALIND
12:18:46
Don't do it. Don't laugh at me.
LITZINGER
12:18:48
No. I was going to say, you may be slightly insane, but it's a great thing that you're doing, and you're an excellent cat grandmother, I must say.
ROSALIND
12:18:55
Oh, well, thank you.
WEITZMAN
12:18:55
Yeah. Good grandmother, yeah.
ROSALIND
12:18:57
She will travel in the passenger cabin with me in an airline-approved...
WEITZMAN
12:19:00
Oh, good. Okay.
ROSALIND
12:19:01
...pet carrier.
WEITZMAN
12:19:03
Okay. That's actually great.
ROSALIND
12:19:04
Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:19:04
And it's a non-stop flight, I assume?
ROSALIND
12:19:06
It is. It is.
WEITZMAN
12:19:07
Okay.
ROSALIND
12:19:08
My son and daughter-in-law don't want to give the cat any sedation, so my assumption is that I will have a furious, frightened, howling cat on my hands, along with the ire of every passenger on the plane.
WEITZMAN
12:19:20
Yeah. Well, the first question of course is what is Kitty like normally traveling? Does she ever get in the car, does she -- what's the experience with her anyway, and what's her personality like?
ROSALIND
12:19:31
Well, when she's not in the car, she's pretty even tempered and mild and friendly and sweet.
WEITZMAN
12:19:39
Okay.
ROSALIND
12:19:39
But I have been told that when they have tried to take her to the vet in the past she has gotten berserk.
WEITZMAN
12:19:44
So she's a normal cat, in other words.
ROSALIND
12:19:45
Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:19:46
Okay. You know, I really think it's great not to sedate an animal that you're traveling with, because the sedatives don't work in so many of the cases. So I think if you have a quote/unquote "normal cat," you're doing the right thing if she doesn't get too stressed in strange situations, then I think you're doing the right thing not to sedate, and for a short flight. So all that being said, you know, anything could happen with her behavior on board, but I think she's probably going to be okay.
WEITZMAN
12:20:18
But your son and daughter-in-law need to give you a little bit of a hand here since you're being a good grandmother, and that would be to get that carrier out and leave it on the floor, and put her treats in there, leave the door open, don't close it for quite a few, you know, weeks. Get that thing out so that she sees it, she's not scared of it, she's, you know, not avoiding it. She might be curious about it, just so she's sort of comfortable having it around. That's going to be 99 percent of this travel experience for you and her.
WEITZMAN
12:20:48
And thank heavens, you know, you're not going to Hong Kong, you know. You're a two hour, you know, two hours in the air. There are worse sounds than a cat, you know, meowing. We don't want her to be all that stressed, but that's why you just make sure it's as familiar an environment as possible for her. Her treats in there where you actually do board the plane, you know, obviously don't feed her that morning. It's not the best time if you have an early morning flight, you know, to get her all filled up so that she has to use, you know, go to the bathroom while she's on there, and then you're going to be off pretty quickly. But the real key is getting her familiar with the carrier.
ROSALIND
12:21:23
Okay. Actually, we have done that. The carrier is at their house now, and ...
WEITZMAN
12:21:26
Good. Good. Good.
ROSALIND
12:21:28
...she's actually been curling up and sleeping in there of her own accord which is very good.
WEITZMAN
12:21:31
Oh, you're going to be fine.
ROSALIND
12:21:33
I did have one other question. I read on an airline website that I might have to remove the cat from the carrier at the security checkpoint. Do you know if that's so?
WEITZMAN
12:21:42
Ooh, I have never heard of that. That's a really bad idea. You may have to x-ray the cat, but I don't even think you'd do that. Here's the thing, check on that airline's website. There should be a lot of information about traveling with pets. But here's the other thing, and Sam's going to say it if I don't, make sure she gets microchipped. Please, please, please get her microchipped before you travel.
ROSALIND
12:22:04
Okay.
WEITZMAN
12:22:04
Just Heaven forbid, you know, just in case. And put a tag and a collar on her as well.
LITZINGER
12:22:09
And here are two quick tips from me, Rosalind, having just gone through this...
ROSALIND
12:22:13
Oh?
LITZINGER
12:22:15
...a few weeks ago, with a very long trip involving two cats, let the cabin crew know that you have the animal and they can kind of watch out for you and just maybe sometimes give you a break. You know, they -- for us they were very kind and said, okay, you can sort of move the animal around a little more, and we know you're there, and the captain knows. It just kind of makes things easier and everybody knows what's going on.
LITZINGER
12:22:36
And then the other thing that we found for our cats was they like the little kind of training pads that puppies use. We put those in the carriers with them to give them nice comfortable things to lie down on, and then we also put a couple of our shirts in their as well so that they kind of -- I don't know. It made us feel better.
ROSALIND
12:22:53
Okay.
LITZINGER
12:22:53
The scent was there, you know, and the animals I think maybe are a little calmed by that. So you might consider those two options as well.
WEITZMAN
12:22:59
We always think animals like our scent, but, you know, we've never asked.
LITZINGER
12:23:03
Right. (laugh) It may just be for us, Rosalind, that we're doing this, but at least it's -- it makes us feel like we're contributing to the overall effort.
ROSALIND
12:23:09
Do you have a shirt I can put in the cat's carrier?
LITZINGER
12:23:11
I'll mail one. I'll send you a shirt of mine, and we'll see if that does any good at all.
ROSALIND
12:23:16
Thanks so much.
LITZINGER
12:23:17
Thank you very much.
WEITZMAN
12:23:18
Good travels.
LITZINGER
12:23:18
Yeah. Happy travels. Let's take a telephone call from Linda. Linda, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
LINDA
12:23:24
Yes, I do. About four months ago, we adopted a rescue -- a yellow Lab. The Lab rescue told us was four years old, and it seems from...
WEITZMAN
12:23:33
Okay.
LINDA
12:23:34
…my vet and the trainer, the most she is is two and a half, and you add to that the fact that Labs are permanent puppies...
WEITZMAN
12:23:43
Yes.
LINDA
12:23:43
...I've got a 75-pound project on my hands.
WEITZMAN
12:23:47
Oh, no. Okay.
LINDA
12:23:48
And she really -- really has done well, you know. The trainer has certain techniques with using a foreign language and using a pinch collar, and what I'm left with...
WEITZMAN
12:24:00
Hmm, okay.
LINDA
12:24:01
...which -- yeah. I fought a little bit, but it seems to be doing the job.
WEITZMAN
12:24:04
Yeah. I'm not -- I'll tell you, Linda.
LINDA
12:24:05
Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:24:06
I'm not a fan of prong collar or pinch collars.
LINDA
12:24:08
Yeah.
WEITZMAN
12:24:08
I think there are many better ways to train a dog.
LINDA
12:24:11
I did too, but, you know, I'm living in a condo.
WEITZMAN
12:24:13
Okay.
LINDA
12:24:15
And she's the biggest dog in the neighborhood.
WEITZMAN
12:24:17
We'll what's happening with her? Are you just having trouble training her?
LINDA
12:24:19
Well, the two things I'm having trouble with, number one is counter surfing.
WEITZMAN
12:24:25
Okay.
LINDA
12:24:26
She, you know, seems to -- hasn't processed the fact that her dinner shows up in the metal dish on the floor, and mine is the stuff that sits on the counter.
WEITZMAN
12:24:33
Right. Right. Okay.
LINDA
12:24:36
And the other one, which is more serious, is she has the most awful sounding, ferocious sounding bark.
WEITZMAN
12:24:44
Ah, okay.
LINDA
12:24:44
And it's directed at other dogs whether she sees them, hears them, smells them, or thinks she saw them yesterday. Truly all bark and no bite.
WEITZMAN
12:24:55
Okay. If she's a trainable dog, you need to take her to a training class, but she is reacting to other dogs, so you have to do one of two things. Either stop her from doing that, by going to a class with other dogs that she can actually be trained at, and it has to be a reactive dog class. And on top of that, you need to minimize the confrontation potential. If there are a lot -- there's a lot of barking because she sees another dog outside, you're going to have to draw the blinds in your home so that she can -- that happens as little as possible.
WEITZMAN
12:25:26
You're not going to be able to ever get rid of it, because the world is full of sounds and dogs and noises and she can hear all that outside too. So I think that's part of it, but I do think you need to talk to your trainer about working on the dog reactivity, and maybe your trainer, you know, alone, can help you with that. We find that it's often helpful to be in a group class of other dogs like that, well restrained and safe, with a good positive trainer. If you're looking for a trainer, I'd make sure they are CPDT trainer, so they do positive techniques, and I do like that a lot better than, you know, thinking about prong collars and all of that.
LITZINGER
12:26:06
So Linda, you're looking...
WEITZMAN
12:26:07
But I think it's workable.
LITZINGER
12:26:08
Jump online and look for reactive dog class. Does the Washington Animal Rescue League have those, Gary?
WEITZMAN
12:26:13
Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. And many do. Many do. So I think it's a good place to start.
LITZINGER
12:26:18
Thank you, Linda. Our telephone number is 877-610-3647. Animalhouse@wamu.org is our email address. Let's take a telephone call from Ruth. Ruth, glad to have you with us in "The Animal House." Question for Dr. Gary?
RUTH
12:26:32
Yes, I do. Among all the cats in the house, I have a cat named Arbuckle. He's at least 11. He's probably 12 or 13. He was three years at the Richmond SPCA, and I...
WEITZMAN
12:26:43
Oh, that's a great shelter.
RUTH
12:26:46
Yeah, it is. It's a great shelter. He -- it's a no-kill shelter. He's a diabetic. I adopted him, it'll be eight years in January.
WEITZMAN
12:26:53
Okay.
RUTH
12:26:54
He has been very well-controlled for the entire time I've had him, and he's of course under regular vet, you know, supervision and everything, but...
WEITZMAN
12:27:00
Right.
RUTH
12:27:01
Okay. So August 2011, late August, he had some just fast-onset striking symptoms of losing his appetite, nausea, staggering around, leaning to the left, not being able to -- I mean, it was just pathetic. It was awful.
WEITZMAN
12:27:20
Oh.
RUTH
12:27:20
And he was at the vet then and they kept him, and they were -- they started treating him with anti-nausea meds and some kind of a medication for balance, and they had to give him some saline. He wasn't eating. This is a diabetic, of course that's problematic.
WEITZMAN
12:27:35
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
RUTH
12:27:36
We were one day away, or maybe less than that from counseling me to consider euthanasia for him because he was really suffering. He really depressed and just -- he couldn't stand up.
WEITZMAN
12:27:46
Mm-hmm.
RUTH
12:27:46
And that day he started eating and he started to perk up, and I picked him up and he continued to improve. He -- by the time I took him home, he was still leaning to the left a little, but he was looking better, and for the last, let me see, we're August, so the last 11 -- 10 -- at least 10, probably even 10-and-a-half months, the cat has been back to his normal self.
WEITZMAN
12:28:12
Okay.
RUTH
12:28:12
He's great. Ten days ago, the same thing happened.
WEITZMAN
12:28:16
Oh, really. All right.
RUTH
12:28:18
Rapid onset, yeah. And at the time that he, you know, and the same symptoms. Maybe not quite as severe, but still, it was really scary. So back to the vet again, and this time he has been kept at home most of the time because...
WEITZMAN
12:28:33
Okay.
RUTH
12:28:33
...they're sort of (unintelligible) same type of treatment, you know, anti-nausea, oh, also, ear drops. We had ear drops, you know, a year ago, and this time too, because what the vet is considering and thinks it might be or could have been, are for example, a stroke. Okay. I could see that.
WEITZMAN
12:28:51
Right.
RUTH
12:28:52
It could be just an ear infection, and the other...
WEITZMAN
12:28:56
Right. Inner ear, yeah. Right.
RUTH
12:28:58
Inner ear. And the other thing that was mentioned was vestibular disease.
WEITZMAN
12:29:02
You know, it's interesting. You know, Ruth, all the rule-outs. I'm not exactly sure where your question is here, but, I mean, you've outlined all of them except for one, and the one is I'm sure something your vets considered, in that this could be a hypoglycemic incident. We didn't give you a chance to ask what your question was, but I guess it's are you scratching your head what's going on with this guy?
RUTH
12:29:23
Well, kind of, yeah, and also just looking for information even -- and of course now I'm thinking if this cat continues to thrive and live for another year, what am I in for next August?
WEITZMAN
12:29:33
I know. And, you know what I always tell people, Ruth, is that if you think you can alter the course of a bad thing happening to your animal, go and get it diagnosed, so MRI, all those things. For this guy, I think it's really, you know, he's 11, he's got diabetes, you're controlling all those things that you can. I think just staying in touch with your vet who sounds like he or she is doing all the right things, I think that's probably about the best that you can do. If it does progress, I would try to find out exactly what it is, and that may be at the very least anesthetic x-rays to look at the bones of his inner ear, and maybe even an MRI to see what's happening in his little head. But the good news is, is that he keeps recovering.
LITZINGER
12:30:18
Thank you very much for being with us. Before I let you go, Gary, I have to ask, vestibular disease, what is that in a sentence or two?
WEITZMAN
12:30:24
Basically the ability to stay upright, and it controls balance and often has to do with either your brain stem or with your inner ear. And most of the time when it happens to dogs and cats, we don't know why. There's a problem, and it clears up, which is good.
LITZINGER
12:30:41
Maybe that's doing something like that in this case with Ruth and with Arbuckle. Dr. Gary Weitzman will return later to answer more questions.
MR. STEVE WILLIAMS
12:30:50
This is "The Animal House" Dateline. I'm Steve Williams.
SLASH
12:30:53
I'm a musician. You might know me from my music, but you probably don't know that I'm a huge fan of animals and wildlife in general.
WILLIAMS
12:31:01
That's the voice of rock guitarist Slash. The former Guns 'N Roses star helped to unveil an Australian wildlife conservation foundation which is named for noted conservationist Bob Irwin. Slash is a longtime animal lover and once famously owned a large collection of snakes and other reptiles, but let them go after becoming a father. By the way, Irwin is the father of the late crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin.
WILLIAMS
12:31:24
Operators of a Virginia dog sanctuary that was once the dog fighting compound of NFL star Michael Vick were shocked to learn that they faced changes of animal cruelty and inadequate care of animals. The founder of the Dogs Deserve Better Sanctuary said in a telephone interview that she read a newspaper report about the charges while honeymooning in St. Lucia, but had neither spoken to authorities, nor been served warrants. The Surry County Animal Control's chief officer declined to say specifically what led to the charges, which are misdemeanors.
MAYOR VINCENT GRAY
12:31:52
Good morning, everybody. I want to thank you all for coming to this particular location so that we can take yet another step in what we think is an exciting innovation for our city.
WILLIAMS
12:32:03
That's the voice of Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray who gave felines and their companions something to smile about recently, when he raised the possibility of opening cat parks in the nation's capital. Said Gray, I'm not a dog owner anymore, but I do have a cat, and we have no cat parks yet. For more information on these stories, visit wamuanimalhouse.org.
LITZINGER
12:32:25
Coming up, making a legitimate judicial case for non-human rights in "The Animal House."
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