Today in Pet Connection, we're going to be talking about environmental enclosures.
They're there for birds, for reptiles, for amphibians.
And you're going to learn a little bit about that and a whole lot more.
So stay right where you are.
Love, warmth, and happiness.
And everything you want to know about your pets.
Right here on Pet Connection.
With your host, Dr. Bernie Pouquet.
Hey, who's this little guy?
This is Casey.
Casey, hi Casey.
Well, we're going to see him in a few minutes,
so you want to just bring him to the treatment area?
Okay.
Okay, thanks, Patty.
Hi, I'm Dr. Bernie Pouquet and welcome to my clinic.
Now that was Casey, and Casey's a very nice, placid, non-aggressive cat.
Now compare that to this character.
This is Buffy, and Buffy's a bit of a boss, isn't he?
He's very aggressive, and that's causing a bit of a problem, isn't it?
Well, today on Pet Connection, we're going to be talking about bossy cats.
What makes a cat bossy?
What can you do about it?
How can you correct that problem?
Well, we're going to be talking about that and a whole lot more.
So stay right where you are.
It's going to be fun.
Today on Pet Connection, massage techniques and your pet.
Unique animal environments for your home.
Dealing with an aggressive cat.
And your pet and the dangers of obesity.
What's got into that cat's frisky?
Now frisky tastes better than ever, and it's filled with energy-producing nutrients
to bring out the frisky in your cat.
What's got into that cat's frisky?
You can follow your recipe through the letter,
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That is why I only use Crisco.
You can trust Crisco to get chicken crispy outside, juicy inside every time.
The taste is so light, never heavy, never oily.
You know Crisco is 100% pure vegetable oil.
To be sure your chicken is crispy, make sure your oil is Crisco.
My daughter, Katie, when she started kindergarten, she was having a real problem reading.
I heard a commercial about this program called Most Non-Pollic.
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Within a matter of weeks, really weeks, I would say within three weeks, you could see
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It worked wonderfully for us.
And her teacher was happy.
You know, we were happy.
Katie was happy.
Katie wanted to read.
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Bucky, you don't like it here.
You want to get away, don't you?
You're trying to get away.
Oh, Marion, it's good to see you again.
Nice to see you.
Yeah, and Bucky's back.
Bucky just doesn't want to listen.
They just, no, very, very, very aggressive.
And it really has a one track mind.
One track mind.
Oh, yeah.
Now what brings you here?
Oh, just because I'd like to know what I can do about it.
The aggressiveness.
But it's very aggressive?
Very aggressive.
So she can go through the house and pile up mats and knock over stuff you wouldn't believe.
Tantrum, if she doesn't get her own way.
Oh, really?
What would a tantrum look like?
Well, if she, say I was sitting at the table and she was coming up and she'd pat me on
the face and then on the chest.
If I didn't pay any attention after a few, well, push your back a few times because I
crochet a lot, well then that's it.
Look out.
She'll jump off the table and she'll...
The tantrum, you know?
Yeah.
Pounce on a stationary chair, knock it over.
You wouldn't believe it.
In two minutes she can make a disaster.
A real temper tantrum.
Yeah.
It seems to straighten up.
A real tantrum.
How about yourself?
Is there any aggressiveness towards you?
Well, only if she...
Yeah.
If I don't give her the attention she needs, eh?
But I love them.
Yeah.
I call it sheep because I'm not used to having a male cat.
Okay.
He's a male cat.
Now he's been neutered too.
Right.
Neutered Andy Claude at the front.
Right.
You must be glad about that.
Battle scars on my legs.
Yes.
And I know you showed me some little wounds there before.
Yeah, right.
So he can get quite bossy, eh?
Oh, right.
And like I said, he's got a one-track mind.
Let me shift this.
Now you're such a stubborn little guy.
Yeah.
And yet he's a lovable guy.
Lovable.
He is lovable.
He just wants a lot of attention.
Okay.
Now let me just take you step by step some of the ways you can correct it.
And if there's ways that you can, just interrupt me and say, I can't do that or I can't do that.
Yeah, right.
So let's talk about some ground rules.
What's happening here is that, you know, you love him to pieces.
Right.
And so one of the reasons he's becoming so dominant and so aggressive is because we're
overindulging him.
We're spoiling him.
Oh.
That's how it's...
From a kitten.
He did it from a kitten.
Yeah.
But he is spoiled.
So we have to correct that a little bit.
Okay?
And so what you want to do is, in your own mind, establish the ground rule.
What do you want him to do and what you not want him to do?
Because once you have that in your own mind, you're going to apply these techniques.
You're going to say, okay, you can't do this, this and this.
So that's what we have to work on.
Okay?
Number two, I don't have to tell you this, you're a grandmother, right?
Great grandmother.
Well, you know bringing up kids.
You've got to be firm.
Yeah.
You've got to be consistent.
And so we've got to do the same thing here.
Now, what you do is, once you've established those ground rules, you say, okay, we're running
the right way, like you come to me, you want affection and you're being aggressive.
I don't want that.
So you say no.
Just like that.
Or if you can, no.
Oh, I've done that.
Yeah.
And sometimes they don't like that.
They'll get really aggravated.
So then you just turn around and walk away.
That's when he throws the tantrum.
Okay.
But you know, kids have, remember your kids?
They have a tantrum.
What do you do?
You don't draw attention.
You say, okay, you have your tantrum.
I'm closing the room.
Thank you very much.
When you're ready to behave, I'll talk to you then.
And so you're going to have to be consistent.
You're going to have to be consistent.
You open the rooms, you say okay, peace, you're a good kid.
You'll know you don't want a longatarstic trip.
You'll know you kind of like...
Okay.
You'll still have to be consistent with the right words.
All right.
You're going to know you did all that.
You're going to stop disgusting enough to be licking him.
That's the simple trick, right?
You're OSDB.
That's how you command people.
You know what I'm talking about, right?
And if they don't, they you'll never be a sport.
that and then you are organized to play time and you also finish it when you want to finish
it. So now keeping that in mind you get lots of toys, you establish the play time, you
teach this over a period of months and the cat learns okay we're going to have play times
and when it wants all this aggressiveness, it wants to get rid of all this, you have
like little toys around the house with string and a ball that they can whack around all over
the place and get a lot of this excess energy out right. It's a very quiet household you
know there's not much for this cat to do it's got all this energy to burn it off, burn it
off, burn it off but on your terms. You think you can do it? I'm going to try. Okay. Everything's
worth a try right. According to North American Indian legends all creatures on earth once
lived on the back of a giant turtle at the time the earth was forming. It was believed
that crabs then brought up sand from the bottom of the sea and piled it on the turtle shell
until it formed the earth. Hi Ron. Hey Dr. Bernie. How are you? Good to see you again.
How you keeping? Pleasure. This is good. You removed my finches. I did so they're in your
library just the way you instructed me. And they settled in okay? They love the books.
Good they love it. They love it. Now I've got two new ones here. Now what kind of birds
are those two? What's the official name for those two? Well these are actually Lady Goldian
finches. They're from Australia. They're quite a rare species. Really colorful aren't they?
Oh they're the most colorful finch in the world actually. Yeah. With me today is Ron
DeBur and Ron takes care of our environmental enclosures here and you were one of the creators
of this weren't you? You helped develop these and you manufactured these don't you? I wish
I could take all the credit Dr. Bernie but Mr. Paul Puckett from Atlanta Georgia is actually
the inventor of the aviary and I got involved in the early 80's and eventually this is what
came out of it. A small environmental enclosure that is designed to prolong the life span
of extinct species of birds and also create a very entertaining unique piece of furniture.
I know I love them. I have that one in the waiting room as well the terrarium and they
really thrive and people love to spend hours looking at that. It's a great unit. Do you
want to just describe to me what makes these environmental enclosures so unique Ron? Absolutely.
You know most people assume that this unit is climatically controlled and it really isn't
there's it doesn't matter if the power is really plugged in or not what you've got is
an indicator and that basically gives you an indication of what the temperature and
the humidity is like. We've got a small timer here that controls the daylight cycle of the
birds simulates sun rays in other words in an area where you have absolutely no sunlight
or windows. We have a small charcoal filter that is underneath this circulating fan that
exchanges the air inside the aviary and basically exhausts it back out through this charcoal
filter. Now the nice thing about this is it allows us to be in areas like hospitals and
restaurants and dentist offices and what not where hygiene is really important. So it's
not so much for the protection of the birds so much as the people who might have allergies
or things like that. Exactly. Okay. And it takes away odors any impurities whatsoever.
Okay. Now I know what I would think here is I know we think of it as almost oh boy look
at all the glass I have to clean up here. Well I tell you the scariest part about maintenance
especially the ladies of the house is the fact that cleaning windows okay yes they're
dual purpose of that is you can give them an accident with some vinegar and water the
other pain stays behind so the birds don't get it. I'll tell you I have to do the cleaning
as well. Everybody chips into my family the kids and everybody and I know I like that
feature because I don't want them flying away and that's very important isn't it. Now how
about the birds flying into the glass is that fairly important. No they see their own reflections
and they have a little center system built in it usually takes about an hour to two hours
max to create their own flight span inside the environment. Any other features that you
like. Yes inside we have a crushed corn cob base and that of course takes care of pulling
out the newspaper and the droppings or what not and what it does it dehydrates the droppings
so once every six weeks you pull out this drawer okay. You cannot pull out or do anything
with that. Nothing particular the only thing you do is remove the water dome yeah and at
that point you can pull that out. Excellent. Okay we do that every six weeks and that's
your only maintenance you don't have any feathers on the floor you don't have to worry about
any odor. The corn cob gravel is very recyclable isn't it. Indeed it's totally biodegradable
it's a natural ingredient. Well this environmental enclosure is very environmentally sound isn't
it. It is. And they thrive on it I know my finches that I had before I mean they were
reproducing like crazy that's why I had to move them into the home. Well that's one of
the interesting items it's the only other environment aside from the wild where these
birds will do that. Yeah I know they love it these they look beautiful don't they. They're
male and female we try to pair them off the male is the one with the brighter colors and
the dollar colors are just female. Yeah well thank you very much I'll go back to my appointment.
Alrighty. Coming up touch techniques for healing your pet. Oh we dreamed about a vacation in
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all it's from Nordic track. Well Jennifer you know he's a very healthy dog except for
one of those good news bad news types of things. The bad news is he's overweight by about thirty
thirty five pounds. The good news is we can do something about it we can put him on a
diet and I know that's why you're here. Now I know it should be for early on that there
were some problems with regard to getting up and things like that. That's very very
very specific for overweight dogs. But twenty five percent of overweight dogs seem to have
kind of a low or low motor problem. They are right around and things like that. Now you
notice with the panting all that panting that's a problem. They they seem to have a high incidence
of respiratory problems as well. Breathing problems especially with exercise. Have you
noticed that? Yes. He doesn't like his exercise tolerance right. High blood pressure is a
problem for dog. Congestive heart failure is a problem. You know they have two times
as much congestive heart failure as the average dog does. They also have decreased liver
function. They have decreased heat tolerance. Do you notice ever you ever notice that when
when he's a very hot thing that he can't tolerate the heat as much as he should. Yeah. Panting
a lot. That's because he's so overweight right. Yeah. Okay. Resistance to disease. They can't
seem to resist disease as much as the the the proper way that dog overweight dogs have
a problem fighting infection. And there's also increased incidence of things. Let me
list some of these. They're horrible. You know increased skin problems. Forty percent
more skin problems. Fifty percent more cancer. Neoplasia. They're wrong with that. And when
I do surgery on them it's more worrisome because there's increased surgical risk. Increased
anesthetic risk. The wounds don't heal as properly. You have to worry about something
about that you know. And constipation problems. More constipation problems. More flatulence
problems. More problems with intestinal intestinal problems. Alteration things like that. Increased
bone disease risk. And also even more diabetes. You know. What do you want. What do you want.
Now as a veterinarian when I see an overweight dog too I realize I may have some diagnostic
problems as well. Taking blood samples palpating them. So for all those reasons that I mentioned
it sounds like it's a long lecture going on. But the point to be made is you know it's
never too late to put him on a diet. And that's what we're going to do. And you we're going
to start you on an exercise program. Okay. And less food. I know you're looking for food.
Hi my name is Edie Jane Eaton and this is Allison. We're at the Humane Society and I
suggested to Dr. Bernie that we meet here because what I have to show you is very appropriate
for animals that are difficult to adopt because it is a touch technique among other things
called TEAM which helps animals that have problems such as frightened thunderstorms
or with claws that are hard to clip or don't like to be touched in certain places. All
sorts of things like that. Now I realize that many of you may be sitting in your houses
right now with a cat on your lap or a dog at your feet and I suggest to you that this
is the perfect time for you to do more with them perhaps than just stroke them. The basic
touch is called the Tellington Touch. In fact TEAM is an acronym for Tellington Jones Equine
Awareness Method although we now call it Every Animal Method because it's applied to all
sorts of animals. The basis of our touch work although we work specifically around the mouth
and the ears and we'll be showing you that is a circular touch, a single circle clockwise
moving the skin and the muscle underlying the skin in a single circle and what that
does is actually brings awareness to the brain off the part of the body that we're touching
in that way. It's very different from just patting and the brilliant thing about the
brain and the nervous system is that if you let it know that some part of the body isn't
functioning properly it will change that and make it more healthy. One of the principal
places we work and it's very useful for animals with emotional problems, neurotic animals,
dogs that yapp a lot, animals that use their mouths inappropriately and that is we do
these little circles right around the mouth. Now this part of the body is associated very
closely with the part in the brain that directs the emotions, the limbic system and it's why
we talk about keeping a stiff upper lip because if we have a stiff upper lip we're in control
of our emotions. It's very interesting because it really does have a neurological basis.
So a little bit of this will go a long way, make sure you don't push the whiskers the
wrong way and then you can finish up just by stroking. Another interesting thing is
that right here below the corner of the eye is a little point where you can help to tranquilize
your animals. Very useful if you're going through the veterinarian. Now the ear work
is critical because throughout the ear there are acupressure points that control all of
the body. Around the base of the ear in particular there's one that controls the gastrointestinal
activity, the stomach, breathing, heart rate. If you have an animal that's nervous and
it's heart's beating a mile a minute you want to slow it down. Then you can do this ear
work and you'll find it will help to slow the animal's heart down and calm them down.
It's also important for you to remember to breathe yourself while you're doing this.
Your breathing, particularly if you breathe audibly, will help your animal to breathe
also. A very useful thing to know is the tip of the ear has a point that helps an animal
from going into shock and will help to bring it out of shock if it is. What I do is I'm
just stroking the ear and then on the point just giving extra little squeeze and I'll
work just one ear at a time and support the head at the same time so that nothing is getting
really pulled. Much more of an ear stroke although you can see that the ear is moving
a little bit away from the head. That's a good girl. Now if I'm working on her, for
instance I want to trim her claws or work, perhaps she has a cut on her foot and she
doesn't want me to touch it, what I'll do is instead of using the palm of my hand to
touch, I'll use my knuckles and you can see I use them in a circle just the same as I
was with my fingertips. It's a lot less threatening to use the back of your hand and even if that
is difficult you can put your hand inside a stalk or have a piece of sheepskin or something
to touch with other than your hand. When I get down here, I'll do these little circles,
I'll take her paw and I'll wiggle my fingertips right in among each little claw, each little
digit there and I'll take her claws and I'll squeeze them as if I was going to clip them
and then release and this is very useful for dogs. I hope you've enjoyed this as much as
Allison and I have. If this work intrigues you, do get in touch with Pet Connection and
remember what a wonderful gift these animals are to us in our lives and thank them.
Dr. Bernie will be right back.
The spirit of innovation, Tuesdays at 9 Eastern, 8 Central on Invention. How can someone you
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Friday, beginning at 9 Eastern, 8 Central, on the Discovery Channel.
Well, it's letter time again. And this time the letter is from Leonard Luft of Niles,
Illinois. Leonard writes, our 10-year-old lab named Scotty is losing his toenails. They
fall out one or two nails at a time, but all paws are affected and the toes discharge.
He seems to be in some pain since he is lame at times and he constantly licks at his paws.
Why is this happening and what can be done? Will his toenails ever grow back again after
they've fallen out?
Well, to begin with, it sounds to me like what's called a nail bed infection. We have
a term for it called parinicchia. And the most common causes of parinicchia are a bacterial
or a fungal infection. And so the key here is to determine are we dealing with one or
the other and tests can be done for that. And finally, depending on the cause, we'll
either give antibiotics or antifungal medication. Will the nails grow back once they've fallen
out? Well, that depends on whether a part of the nail called the unguile crest is left
intact. If that's damaged, then there may be a problem with regrowth. It is a stubborn
problem. Contact your veterinarian. It will require a lot of patience on your part, your
pet's part, and your veterinarian.
Send your letters and pet photos to Dear Dr. Bernie, Care of Pet Connection, 49 Ontario
Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5A 2V1. Sorry, photos cannot be returned.
Well, guess what? Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for today. But I hope you
enjoyed yourself and I look forward to seeing you next time here on Pet Connection. I'm
Dr. Bernie Pouquet. Remember, hug your pet whenever you get the chance. They'll love
you for it. Bye-bye for now.
Coming up next on the Discovery Channel, a new generation of chefs bring fresh culinary
talent to America's finest restaurants on Great Chef. Then, travel the globe for an
international feast on world-class cuisine.
I'm Dr. Bernie Pouquet.