by Jean Hofve, DVM Before last week, I had never heard of the College of Integrative Veterinary Therapies (CIVT). But I am tremendously excited about this organization, and I think a lot of our readers will be interested to learn about it. CIVT is an international educational organization that brings science to holistic animal care–a desperately needed perspective!...
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College of Integrative Veterinary Therapies
CatsWalk Newsletter – April 2013
CatsWalk Newsletter April 2013 by Jean Hofve, DVM Library of Congress ISSN #1550-0764 Please note: This newsletter is emailed only to current subscribers through Get Response, but please feel free to forward it to friends! If you got it from a friend and would like your own subscription, please use the link at the...
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PetMD claims soy is good for carnivores
On a PetMD.com blog, Dr. Jennifer Coates discusses how nutrition impacts the immune system. No argument here, of course what you, your cat, your dog, or your pet elephant eats has multiple effects on the immune system and every other body system as well! http://www.petmd.com/blogs/fullyvetted/2012/dec/nutrition-to-strengthen-immune-system-in-cats-dogs?utm_source=Blog&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=FullyVet,%20Optimal%20Nutrition%20Gives%20the%20Immune%20System%20a%20Boost,October%2023,%202012&utm_campaign=FV#.UNI9VpPjnnw Supplemental arginine (an amino acid) has been linked to...
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Choosing an Omega-3 Oil for Your Pet
You know how important Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation is for dogs and cats. The anti-inflammatory effects of Omega-3s EPA (eicosapentanoic acid) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid) have been thoroughly researched. Omega-3 supplementation has been abundantly proven to be beneficial for dogs and cats for a wide variety of conditions, including chronic kidney disease(1), arthritis(2), allergies(3),...
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Instinctive Choice Cat Food
Usually, I don’t like to name names when people ask, “What is the best pet food?” What works best for one pet will give another one tummy problems, and still another one won’t even touch it. As I emphasize frequently, variety is extremely important for our cats and dogs. Feeding the same food year...
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EFT in Practice: The Scary Hair Dryer
Many thanks to Maureen Cram of South Africa for allowing us to reprint this article. Here she explains in detail exactly how she helped her cat get over a serious hair dryer terror. It is a perfect example of how EFT can solve all kinds of issues, whether large or small. Please visit Maureen’s...
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Support Holistic Veterinary Medicine!
As a Little Big Cat reader, you know that we love to advocate and support holistic veterinary medicine; and you probably feel the same way. Here’s the best opportunity to support holistic medicine that you’ll have all year! For just one week (March 10-17, 2013) a matching drive will TRIPLE every $1.00 in donations! ...
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New Study Slams Raw Diets for Cats
A brand-new study in the Journal of Animal Sciences (J. Anim. Sci. 2013.91:225–237) claims that raw diets aren’t quite the cat’s meow. Researchers from the University of Illinois and an Omaha zoo fed raw diets to domestic cats as well as African wildcats, jaguars, and Malayan tigers. Let’s see what happened: Our objective was to evaluate...
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Are Dogs Really Supposed to Eat Corn?
by Jean Hofve, DVM Purina was the first to trumpet the results of an letter in the journal Nature reporting an in-depth study of the genetics of dogs vs. wolves. Their findings suggest that dogs have adapted their DNA to be able to digest and assimilate a high-starch diet. Purina is all about how wonderful...
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Funny Vet Stories
A couple of weeks ago, my pal Caroline Golon of Catster.com asked if I had any funny stories from my years as in clinical practice. Oh, yes indeed–and one in particular from the first practice I worked in after vet school. I’m honored to be among the vets included in Caroline’s new article, “7...
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2013 Pet Food and Supplement Issues & Recalls
Welcome to the 2013 log of pet food and treat recalls and problems (click here for the 2012 list). Check back here any time for updates, which sometimes occur daily but almost certainly every week. Click on links for specific product details. New items will be added to the TOP of the list. Note: Chicken...
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Happy New Year!
Ok, so I’m a day late…but I want to share two pieces of good news! First, the holiday sale on all e-books in our Bookstore and on Amazon.com has been extended until midnight on Friday, January 7, 2013! Lots of people have already taken advantage of this super sale, especially since you can get...
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Health – the Greatest Gift
My dear friend and world-renowned veterinary homeopath, Dr. Christina Chambreau, has a very specific idea about how to achieve optimal health for your cat or dog. She believes (and I agree!) that keeping a journal is the key to early diagnosis of problems as well as the best way to monitor any treatments or...
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Moxxor Omega-3s
You know how important Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation is for dogs and cats. The anti-inflammatory effects of Omega-3s EPA (eicosapentanoic acid) and DHA (docosahexanoic acid) have been thoroughly researched, and are abundantly proven to be beneficial for dogs and cats. (If you’d like more background info, please click here for general article on Omega-3s,...
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AVMA Resolution Against Homeopathy
UPDATE 1/10/13: http://atwork.avma.org/2013/01/10/homeopathy-resolution-now-what-happens/#comments I was sad to hear that many people who called or wrote to AVMA were rude or even hostile. That is never a good way to get your point across; it marks you as just another whacko. And what we don’t need is to give AVMA the impression that people who...
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Holiday Sale on ALL E-Books!
It was the elves that got to me…they’ve had me slaving day and night to update every single e-book in our collection! Then Santa came along with all the reindeer, and made me lower every single price! (Hey, I’m Norwegian–I can’t argue with reindeer!) But seriously, folks…I’ve gone out and gotten the absolute latest...
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Pets in Pain–Don’t let them Suffer
We are honored to have a wonderful guest blogger today, Dr. Shelley Brown of Harmony Veterinary Center, Arvada, CO. Dr. Brown practices integrative veterinary medicine, including acupuncture, cold laser, and homotoxicology. She is a member of the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management. I hear it all the time–“My pet’s limping, but she’s not in pain”...
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2012 Pet Food and Supplement Recalls
This list is being kept as up-to-date as possible. The most recent recalls are at the top. Check FDA’s or manufacturers’ websites for detailed information on affected products, lot numbers, and best-by dates. December 6, 2012 1. FDA has issued a warning not to feed Nature’s Deli Chicken Jerky Dog Treats (sold at Costco) due...
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Dr. Jean’s best-selling eBooks on sale now!
Sale ends at midnight on Friday, January 4, 2013! For the holidays, we’re having a crazy sale on all of Dr. Jean’s e-books, including the Amazon best-seller, What Cats Should Eat: How to Keep Your Cat Healthy with Good Food. Normally a bargain at $8.97, you can get it between now and January 4, 2013, either as a PDF ebook...
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These Animals Deserve Better
Some days, I’m ashamed to be a veterinarian. This is one of them. I just got the following action alert from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), urging me to support invasive research on Great Apes. I agree that action needs to be taken, but I will be doing the exact opposite of the AVMA,...
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PetEssiance Herbal Tonics and Essences
Ojibwa Tea of Life, a local Denver company, produces amazing herbal products that work wonderfully for our pets. Dr. Jean has known and worked with Master Herbalist and company owner Michelle Kalevik for more than a decade; together they created the PetEssiance™ line of herbal and essence products. All Ojibwa Tea of Life products are pure,...
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Filling Pet Prescriptions at Human Pharmacies
I just came across a very disturbing article in a veterinary publication about the errors being made by human pharmacists when filling prescriptions from a veterinarian. The Oregon Veterinary Medical Association (OVMA) conducted a survey to determine how often mistakes are occurring; and the results are horrifying! Examples of these errors include: • Changing Insulin. Pharmacists...
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BioSuperfood for Super Health
By Dr. Jean Hofve There are a zillion products out there that make marvelous claims about how they will improve your animal companion’s health. Many of these claims are exaggerated, and sometimes so fantastic that they seem too good to be true–and usually, they are! However, several years ago we discovered a product that...
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Can You Make Your Cat Sick?
This is a question many people would like to know more about! Animal disease transfer to people is called “zoonosis.” Humans transmitting diseases to their pets is called “reverse zoonosis.” How and why this happens is still poorly understood. But veterinarians wonder if pets could be getting sick from humans, and not the other...
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Pet Insurance
The idea of pet insurance has been slow to get off the ground, but is becoming much more common. At first, I thought it was a bad idea. And maybe you have the same worry–I was concerned that it would lead to the same disastrous mess that human medicine and medical insurance are in....
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Another cat lost at JFK
It wasn’t that long ago that a cat named Jack got lost at JFK airport; he was not found for weeks, and when he was, he was too far gone to survive. Another cat went missing at JFK on Thursday. A tabby named Xiaohwa was removed from her carrier so TSA could inspect it....
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What Your Vet Must Tell You about Vaccines (but probably won’t)
Many thanks to our good friend Jan Rasmusen for the following video and information. Click here to browse her vast resources on vaccines and more. Please be sure to sign this petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/veterinarians-fully-inform-us-before-vaccinating-our-dogs-and-cats The Darker Side of Pet Vaccination: A Video to Save Lives My sweet Maltese Jiggy died in August. His last moments are...
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Help pass anti-declawing legislation in California!
The California bill prohibiting landlords from requiring declawing cats and debarking dogs has overwhelmingly passed both sides of the state legislature and is on Gov. Brown’s desk for signature. As you may remember, former Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed it the last time it passed, at the urging of the California Veterinary Medical Association. We are...
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Rice Bran – No Good for Cats!
You would think that cat food manufacturers would make sure that the ingredients they use are safe for cats. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Rice bran is what makes brown rice brown. It is the fibrous outer portion of the rice grain. Many cat foods incorporate brown rice and/or rice bran; these...
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AAFCO August 2012 Report
Thanks to an amazing and heartwarming outpouring of support from so many wonderful people, last weekend I was able to attend the 103rd Annual Convention of AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials), the organization that makes the rules about how pet food is made. These rules are embodied in a book called the...
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Recall: All Catswell Chicken Treats
Many thanks to Susan of www.truthaboutpetfood.com and Mollie at poisonedpets.com for this notice to pet retailers, which has not been released to the public (but it does appear on the FDA recall list): From a Catswell statement issued 7/27/12: “In a communication that you will be receiving shortly, Catswell will be announcing that we are...
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AVMA vs Raw Food
The AVMA recently adopted a policy position against raw meat diets for pets. Their reasoning is wrong and their science is unfounded. Here is my reasoning on why AVMA (as well as the AAHA which adopted the same policy almost as soon as AVMA voted on theirs) is wrong. 1. AVMA has a financial Conflict...
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Tell FDA: Label Genetically Modified Foods!
Did you know that 85% of corn and more than 90% of soy in the US is genetically modified? GM foods may cause serious damage to your body, but the FDA does not want to give you a choice whether to eat them or not. According to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, animal...
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Declawing: A Physical Therapist Assistant’s Perspective
Thanks so much to by Ruth Y. for letting us post her great article about the long-term physical effects of declawing! (Originally posted at Pictures-of-Cats.org). There are many good reasons to be against declawing, but the most persuasive are perhaps those which deal with the changes in a cat’s functional mobility and the potential for arthritis...
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Support Bill to Stop California Landlords from Requiring Declawing
Reprinted with permission (and great thanks!) from Jo Singer’s Petside blog (Original post June 4, 2012). California is one step closer to stopping landlords from demanding declawing and devocalization of pets. Good news may be soon be announced by the Great state of California, where eight forward-thinking cities have already banned the practice of cat...
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Relief for Declawed Cats
So, your cat is declawed: maybe it was done prior to adoption; or a landlord or family member may have insisted on declawing, your veterinarian may have talked you into it, or you just didn’t know at the time how physically and psychologically damaging declawing is. But at this point the damage is done,...
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Chronic Pain of Declawing
Declawing is an extremely painful procedure. According to the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP), “Physically, regardless of the method used, onychectomy causes a higher level of pain than spays and neuters. Patients may experience both adaptive and maladaptive pain; in addition to inflammatory pain, there is the potential to develop long-term neuropathic or...
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No Milk Today
It’s true that cats love milk. Most cats will drink it if you let them. And who hasn’t shared a little milk with their feline friend now and then? So, what’s the problem? Cow’s milk is not a natural food for any cat. Even kittens, who naturally drink nothing but milk for the first...
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Pet Insurance
Great thanks to Lisa L. Richman for allowing us to reprint her excellent analysis of pet insurance, not to mention her impeccable journalism and courage in taking on the Wall Street Journal! Monday Medical Issues: Pet insurance – worth it? Just a few weeks ago, on May 7, Wall Street’s MarketWatch published an article published by contributing...
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