All the dogs were there of course. Luca was holding Seagull, paws upwards, in his arms and rocking him a little. Seagull’s bare pink and black spotted stomach heaved with heat and emotion, his eyes were closed with privilege and bliss, his lightly-fringed black lips parted to give a glimpse of fine white teeth. The other dogs, with the exception of Lawrence, watched with respect, humble envy and awe.
from The Sacred & Profane Love Machine,
Iris Murdoch, 1974
Recently, financial commentators have been doing much talking about the economic plight of pigs, but not, it seems, of the oinking type. PIGS in the contemporary political & economic parlance of their smug northern European neighbours, refers to Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain.
In fairer times these same countries were equally disparangingly referred to as ‘Club Med’, but right now, PIGS are deep in the economic Pooh, and not of the Winnie variety. The imminent financial collapse of Portugal and Greece is so serious that it is likely to have all sorts of repercussions as we struggle to extricate ourselves from the spectre of further recession.
Meanwhile, pigs of the other (porcine) persuasion appear to be on an ‘up’ as domestic pet pig numbers rise in the UK. I well remember the incredulity that greeted the arrival of the Vietnamese pot bellied pig as a potential domestic companion. And then the further surprise when their proud owners watched them go on to reach their final adult weight.
Now we also have to cope with the Kune Kune from New Zealand. If you happen to speak Farsi – and I realise that since our Iranian and Afghani readership is likely to be fairly limited, this point has minimal interest to you – the idea of a pet pig whose official name is Kune Kune would cause you some hilarity, even matching that caused by the arrival in Iran of a Greek ambassador named Kyriakos. Suffice it to say that both have a decidedly perineal tone.
But I digress. Pet pigs appear to be causing something of a headache for pet vets who are asked to treat them, since cats and dogs they clearly are not.
So what do you need to watch out for if you are a pet pig owner?
Sunburn and insect bites, overgrown toenails, dry skin and mange top the list.
All of which seem to take us back perilously close to the possible consequences of a careless young person’s holiday as might take place in the aforementioned Club Med/PIGS countries, perhaps.
On a slightly less frivolous note, you can’t just take your pet pig for a walk (you need a licence) and you can’t feed them any food that contains meat products (used to be called pigswill, but now forbidden in an attempt to try to prevent another outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth disease). You also need to vaccinate them against erysipelas & leptospirosis and treat them for worms.
Just think, if those same restrictions also applied to young people going on Mediterranean holidays, there’d be a few people rethinking their summer plans…
OK it’s survey time again.
This time the question was ‘How many cats and dogs are there in the UK?’
Shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out, I hear you say.
1. Ask the vets. But plenty of pets never get to see a vet, so they don’t know.
2. Ask the pet food manufacturers. They know how much pet food gets bought so they should know, but it turns out they aren’t sure how much of it is actually eaten by pets (and presumably, therefore, how much gets eaten by….?). And anyway they’re not sure what proportion of pets eat commercial pet food, so they can’t figure it out either, although recent figures they published (2008) suggested 7.2 million cats and 7.3 million dogs.
Option #3: get sponsorship and ring some people up to ask them. All you have to do is randomly select numbers from the Electoral Roll, 13,795 of them to be precise, then do something to the stats so that you can get it published in a reputable journal (the Veterinary Record, no less). I can then ask stuff like:
“But what is the power of this study?”
And the lunatic who has just finished calling up 13,795 people and crunched the numbers will be able to reply:
“Well, son, the study had 80 per cent power to detect odds ratios (ORs) of 1.5 or greater, based on a 0.05 probability of a type 1 error (95 per cent confidence) and assuming that 10 per cent of controls were exposed to risk factors (Epi-Info 6; CDC).”
I kid you not. And someone, somewhere will one day be grateful that I have the patience or lack of any meaningful life whatsoever to read it for you.
Anyway, the answer to the question is:
10,332,955 cats and 10,522,186 dogs.
Approximately, that is. Curiously, they also found that people with university degrees are more likely to own a cat than a dog.
No explanation there, but you always read it first at Vetscriptions….
Way back in 5000 BC, the Scythian horsemen of central Asia used a simple form of bitless bridle to control their horses. Crude possibly, but nonetheless without a bit.
A mere 7000 years later, the head of equine surgery at the prestigious Tufts University veterinary school in Massachusetts has been looking into some of the many vices and negative behaviours afflicting horses, including bolting, bucking and rearing. His conclusion is that many of these are just a normal reaction of the horse to it’s feelings of fear and pain due to the presence of a bit in their mouth.
Additionally, his research suggests that a bitted bridle can have serious ill effects on a horse’s ability to breathe properly, particularly during the high demands of competition.
This relative lack of oxygen could be a significant factor in some of the catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries that can be so dangerous for both horse and rider, and he is now convinced that the bit might be a significant cause of up to 40 separate conditions such as exercise induced pulmonary haemorrhage, epiglottal entrapment and displacement of the soft palate.
He has been looking into and developing an unconventional bitless bridle that uses a crossover beneath the horse’s chin to apply pressure to the side of the head rather than the delicate structures of the mouth (see www.bitlessbridle.com).
Recent trials suggested that horses ridden with this bridle not only adapt quickly but show very significant increases in performance. But Professor Cook has had trouble getting anyone to listen.
“I am 78 and may be getting on a little, but I haven’t finished yet.”
Just when I had finally given up hope of ever finding anything interesting or relevant ever again in our august professional journal, no less than 3 items caught my eye in just one edition.
At the risk of boring you…
Fish oils for arthritis, from the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association:
In a study of 127 dogs with confirmed arthritis over a 6 month period, half were supplemented with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids (fish oils) in their food and the other half just had the food. After six weeks, the owners – who didn’t know which groups their dogs were in – confirmed that the omega-3 treated dogs showed an improved ability to rise from a resting position and play, and by 12 and 24 weeks had an improved ability to walk, compared with the untreated dogs.
Many of the products marketed for skin problems (for example Gomega, Boracutin, Vet Solutions Aller G-3, Invigorate) contain high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids. So now it’s official – you can use these to help manage your dog’s arthritis.
Flea treatments for cats
Please do NOT try to treat your cats with over-the-counter small dog/puppy flea treatments containing permethrin. The products may look similar and you may think that since a cat may be much the same size as a small dog it might be OK, but it ISN’T. Cats are not small dogs. Permethrin can be extremely toxic to cats, so be careful. READ THE LABEL. Or better still, buy a completely safe product like Frontline.
Pergolide for donkeys
A correction on the dose regime for the human medicine Pergolide in the treatment of hyperadrenocorticism or Cushings disease in donkeys. And by chance, pergolide is available from…..vetscriptions
And finally (because that’s enough flagrant product endorsement)
One last item from the Veterinary Journal on the evaluation of udder shape. It is apparently important to be able to make distinctions between the shapes normal, large pendulous, overall small, small but pendulous and large between the hindquarters. There was me thinking that my farm vet colleagues spent their time crawling around in the mud worrying about minerals and lame sheep, when in fact it turns out that we all think about the same stuff…