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October 31, 2008

Health Info We Can Learn From Our Pets

Learning about your animal's health can teach you a lot about your own. Last night our cat came down with a urinary tract obstruction. This condition in cats is similar to kidney stones in people, in that it occurs more often in males, the crystals are made of struvite (also other compounds in humans), and it is extremely painful.

I tried to help our cat as much as I could by doing a little bit of craniosacral therapy on him. And while he didn't protest in his usual fashion or try to get away, I realized that it wasn't helping him the way I had hoped. I realized that there was little I could do for him. We decided to take a wait and see attitude, never having dealt with anything like this before.

In cats, urinary tract obstruction is a medical emergency, which if left unattended can lead to renal failure, coma, and death. If we had decided to wait until morning to take our cat to the vet, he would have likely declined into a coma. However, once he began vomiting, we decided to call the emergency clinic and find out we should bring him in. They said yes! bring him in right away.

What was interesting about talking to the veterinarian was that she explained the procedures she needed to do and the tests she needed to run. She talked about a urinalysis in order to check BUN and creatinine levels. These tests were familiar to me because I learned about them and their importance in my pathology class at school.

So remember, even though our pets are a different species than we are, we share a lot of similarities about how our bodies work. We can learn a lot about our own health by keeping an eye on the health of our animals. The good news about our cat is that we got him medical attention early enough that he is doing fine and we should be able to bring him home tomorrow.

tags: massage massagetherapy wellness massage therapy bodywork health pets cats
animal health

Posted by linda at October 31, 2008 4:20 PM