Date with nature

Kangaroos watching as we walk by.

Here at SAT we're having a short break this weekend to get back to nature, feel the crunching of grass beneath our feet, and road-test our new sleeping bag! We'll be back soon, recharged and ready to roll!

The shocking truth about cats and sex

Kittens are the best. But they're also victims of our ignorance.

The shocking truth about cats and sex is this: how little we (that is humans) know about cats and their dating and mating habits.

My friend Steve told me about a consult he had with some cat owners who presented their cat with a distended abdomen. This particular cat, an undesexed (entire) female, had indoor and outdoor access. When Steve suggested the cat was pregnant, one of the owners emphatically shook his head.

“Oh no,” he said. “She isn’t like that.”

After I picked myself up off the floor, I wondered what exactly “that” is. Were they referring to a particular episode of South Park? 

But seriously, moralising and being in denial about feline sexuality is dangerous.

A recent survey published in the Veterinary Record found that poor owner knowledge about the sex lives of cats contributes to a huge number of accidental litters. Previous studies have shown that unwanted or unplanned litters contribute to 4.2-14 per cent of feline relinquishments in the UK alone.

Aside from this disturbing trend, being born as part of an accidental litter is a health risk in itself. Prenatal preventative care such as worming, vaccination and proper nutrition of the queen is usually not undertaken; owners may not be on the lookout for signs of difficult labour in pregnant queens if they're not sure they're pregnant in the first place; and inbreeding increases the risks of congenital abnormalities.

A cat presides over the bar. Unlike people cats don't tend to meet in bars - they can find a mate just about anywhere, if they have the motivation. And if they're not desexed, they have the motivation.

The survey reported here found that 552 cats produced 128 litters, a shocking 80 per cent (4 out of 5!!!) were unplanned. It was a phone survey so only included people with a landline (an ever-shrinking population these days?), but they covered a range of households with varying income, ages and lifestyles, reflecting the general UK population.

So what were the misconceptions of UK cat owners about feline reproduction, and how common were they?

MISCONCEPTION #1

A female cat should have a litter before being desexed – 49 % of cat owning respondents believed this, or weren’t quite sure.

This old chestnut. No, no, no. There is NO EVIDENCE to support any health benefits to female cats. And owners who similarly argue “well, it’s better for the KIDS if she has one litter” should remember that it’s one thing to witness the miracle of birth, but if that is soon followed by the tragedy of surrendering cats to a shelter the joy is somewhat negated.

Cats can be safely desexed from 8 weeks of age, they recover beautifully from the surgery. Problem solved.

MISCONCEPTION #2

Queens are unable to conceive until 12 months of age – believed by 26.4% of people.

Incorrect. Though it is uncommon, cats can get pregnant as young as four months of age, which means that the following is

MISCONCEPTION #3

The youngest a cat can get pregnant is five months old – believed by 83.5% of respondents.

I should add that a young cat that gets pregnant is not a bad cat. But desexing that animal before it can get pregnant reduces the number of unwanted cats surrendered to shelters.

MISCONCEPTION #4

Related cats will not mate –38.8% of cat owning respondents believed this, or weren’t quite sure.

Yes they will. The incest taboo does not apply.

(Okay, so I admit when I was twelve I believed that related mice would not mate. I had adopted two “males” from the pet shop. Three weeks later, both had litters. The mothers, Boyd and Floyd, tended their litters happily. Needless to say, my parents whom I'd lobbied with an eleven page letter to let me have mice were not thrilled. I rehomed all but one of each litter. Boyd kept her son Douglas, Floyd kept Merv. Well, I learned a lot about biology that year – and the ability of pet shops to sex rodents accurately).

For me, the MOST worrying thing in the study was not the misconceptions – we all have some sort of misconceptions about something or other, and the antidote is education.

Its that knowledge didn't always lead to appropriate action. Okay, so one person might think their cat can’t get pregnant so young. Said cat has an unplanned litter. The school of hard knocks has taught us that in fact this cat is capable of full-scale reproduction.

And yet…40% of people whose cats had one unplanned or accidental litter reported MULTIPLE accidental litters! One respondent reported SEVEN accidental litters between two queens.

Something is seriously wrong here. One could argue that such litters are hardly accidental or unplanned.

As the authors so beautifully put it:

A pregnancy occurring by lack of positive action to prevent pregnancy by an owner, for example, by allowing an entire female of reproductive age free access to the outdoors and, therefore, to un-neutered males, may be interpreted by some cat owners as an accidental pregnancy, even though this is (invariably) an inevitable consequence of this inertia.

The good news is that doing something about it could make a HUGE DIFFERENCE.

By the calculations of the authors of the survey, 851,000 unplanned kitten births could be prevented just by educating people that cats don’t NEED to have a litter before they are neutered. If they ACT on that knowledge. So...if you haven't desexed your cat, and you aren't planning to breed, call your vet asap. And if you know someone who has an on-heat moggy terrorising the neighbourhood, a quiet word in their ear is a good start. She doesn't need to have a litter to make her life complete.

Merry Xmas from SAT

Phil models his new Christmas-themed red hand-knitted Starnovsky sweater in front of canine cushions (astute observers will note that Phil also recieved a bath mat for xmas - the perfect gift for those with short man syndrome).

Christmas is a time for family, and for us that means the non-human contingent as well as the odd Homo sapien. Its like the perfect day for dogs. So far we've enjoyed a road trip, wrestling in the mud, rolling on mum's new rug and opening gifts we should not have and burying them in the garden. 

Here are a few highlights of our day thus far:

Bosca unwraps one of many presents (in this case, a food bowl designed to slow his eating down a bit).

Bosca scored a few new squeaky balls.

Bosca and Skye play in the garden.

Skye, having jumped in the inflatable pool, wrestled in the rain and rolled in the dirt, sits on the rug.

We especially would like to thank the remarkable canine clothing designer Patricia Starnovsky for making the most amazing Christmas present ever for our dear friend Draga - a cableknit that matches Phil's outfit, detailed with the most beautiful and precious buttons. This is even more special as poor Pat has been flat chat cleaning up her place after the devastating fires in the Blue Mountains earlier this year. 

Fashion prediction: matching sweaters are in in 2014.

Whether you are with your family or locuming somewhere, SAT wishes you a happy festive season.

Can dogs protect kids against asthma?

Indoor/outdoor dogs, such as little Chester here, may protect kids against developing asthma.

We hear a lot about people being allergic to animals, but animals may play a role in protecting us against allergies. 

Previous studies have found that exposure to dogs in early childhood is associated with a reduced risk of development of allergic disease, but why? We know that dog owners are exposed to different microbes in house-dust than non-dog owners.

A recent study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looked at mice exposed to dust from households where dogs were allowed outdoors.

When those mice were challenged (with ovalbumin or cockroach allergen) they had significantly reduced allergen-mediated airway pathology than mice exposed to dust from a household with no pet, and those not exposed to house dust.

Cheddy runs through the mud.

They hypothesised that something in the dog-tainted dust (or as they call it, dog-associated dust) is protective. The thinking is that dog dust, when ingested, inoculates the gastrointestinal tract with a population of organisms ("the gastrointestinal microbiome"), the net effect of which is to protect against allergic responses. One such organism, the bacteria Lactobacillus johnsonii, was found to be particularly effective, but not as effective as a more diverse microbiome. (The argument is along the same lines as the hygiene hypothesis).

So kids whose folks refuse to adopt a dog because someone might develop an allergy now have some powerful data with which to lobby them. 

On another note, as someone who does not suffer from allergies to pets or dust, I've never paid too much attention to the literature, but I was fascinated to learn that the burden of chronic inflammatory disease such as asthma is increasing at a rate of knots in Western nations, and may be associated among other things with our indoor lifestyles. House dust and its contents have much to answer for here.

The authors cited one study which found that we spend around 92% of our time indoors (which is where we get most of our environmental microbial exposure). Its a timely reminder to go outside, and if you have an exclusively outdoor dog remember that they could be getting only a slice of that remaining 8% of your time - a sobering statistic!

Sleeping it off after a bath. Chester relishes his indoor time.

Reference:
Fujimara KE, Demoor T, Rauch M, Faruqi AA, Jang S, Johnson C, Boushey HA, Zoratti E, Ownby D, Lukacs NW & Lynch SV (2013) House dust exposure mediates gut microbiome Lactobacillus enrichment and airway immune defense against allergens and virus infection. PNAS

Pet-sitting professionally: how pets, owners and pet-sitters can all benefit

James and Jemma are full time house sitters, living rent-free in exchange for caring for some very loved pets.

When I went through vet school I used to relish pet-sitting gigs. I couldn't have my own pets, so it was a good chance to snuggle with someone else's, and staying in an actual house that actual grown-ups inhabited provided a blissful reprieve from squalid share-housing. One one memorable occasion I looked after four Abyssinians, a moggy and two Keeshounds. 

Pet-sitting is an arrangement that works for the animals too, as when their owners are away they can stay in their own environment, can stick to their routine, and have the benefit of a warm body on the couch to keep them company. 

So I was fascinated to learn that some people do this all the time. I spoke to James and Jemma, aka ‘the house sitting couple’ about their lifestyle, and they have provided excellent tips for would-be pet-sitters.

So what is it that you do?

We’re a couple who are spending a few years travelling and ‘house sitting’ as we do it. We’ve spent the last year and a half house sitting in France and Portugal and are currently working out where we’ll go and what we’ll do in 2014.

How did you become "professional" house-sitters?

We stumbled across it really. We’d been looking for an affordable form of accommodation that would be suitable for working in as well (we both work from home). At the time travelling in a converted mini-van was looking like the best option, but then house sitting started getting written about in the travel section of a few news sites and we began investigating. I’m quite glad we found out about house sitting, as spending 8+ hours a day working and sleeping in the same space would probably have lost its magic very quickly.

As housesitters, what kind of tasks do you do? Do you get any unusual requests?

Aside from pet care (which usually involves feeding, cuddling and, for dogs, walking) the main other requests are collecting the mail, watering the plants, cleaning the pool and if we’re house sitting during a cold winter, keeping an eye on the pipes and making sure they don’t freeze over.

In terms of unusual requests the most unusual was probably to sell that person’s car while they were away. We do get plenty of emails from people who have pet sheep, goats, ferrets and even skunks as well.

What sort of animals have you cared for? 

We looked after a farm of 18 alpacas in the South of France last year which, as you can imagine, was a little different to our normal ‘pet sits’. Although the alpacas were pets (they all had names and we had to be able to tell them apart) they were kept for the value of their wool so understandably the owners wanted to give us quite a bit of training before leaving us to look after their business.

We learnt how to herd and how to separate the alpacas and we also worked alongside a vet on a few occasions. We say work, we mainly helped to hold it while he did all of the medical work!

The alpaca herd. James and Jemma had to learn to tell each of these apart.

Although alpacas are definitely the most unusual animal we’ve looked after, many people get a pet sitter because their pet has very special needs and they want it to have one-on-one attention. For example, we looked after a cat with a very weak heart that needed medication three times per day. The owner felt a cattery wouldn’t give the cat the level of attention he needed and so we were asked. We’ve also looked after animals with specialist diets, some of it which we’ve had to cook for them – again a level of attention that’s really one-on-one.

Where are the places that you have house sat?

We’ve spent a lot of time house sitting in France, simply because it was always somewhere we wanted to live and there are a lot of house sits there. We’ve also house sat in the UK and Portugal, but have received invitations to house sit all over the world such as Australia, the US, Canada and Singapore. We will have to take them up soon!

What are the skills and traits one needs to be a good house sitter?

You absolutely have to be an animal lover. For the people we pet sit for, these aren’t their pets, they’re their babies. That means they’ll be sleeping in the bed with you and waking you up first thing to play.

Pet-sitting provides the opportunity for you to cohabit with species you might not normally live with. Definitely a plus.

Why is housesitting a good way to travel?

House sitting is a very affordable way to travel, especially long-term. When we were house sitting in France we took on four house sits, the shortest being three weeks and the longest five months. In the end we managed nine months of living without any rental or hotel costs to worry about.  

We really like having animals to look after whilst travelling. Taking a dog for a walk in a new city is a great way to get to know a place and you feel like you’re experiencing it as a local, not as a tourist.

Any down sides? Have you ever been asked to look after an aggressive animal, had to stay home for very long hours, or had to find temporary accommodation in between sits?)

We’ve haven’t had any aggressive animals so far. The type of people that tend to get a sitter tend to treat their pet exceptionally well; like family really.

The downsides for us have generally been dealing with people, for example the homeowner might change the dates of their holiday and now you need to re-organise yours (this hasn’t happened often, just an example).

These days we get everything down in writing: the dates of the house sits, the dates of the handover, what responsibilities are required etc. It’s good for both parties actually as it means they (the homeowner) have to think through about what’s involved and then you can make a proper decision as to whether it’s something you want to take on or not.

You must meet some amazing animals and owners who are very committed to their care. What sort of insight has this given you into the human animal bond?

The cat we looked after that needed medication is a good example. The cat’s owner was a doctor that had given up her work to transition into study veterinary medicine so she could try and understand the cat’s condition better. [ed. WOW, that is committment!]

Pet-sitters have to be prepared to spend quality time with pets...even if that means lounging in the driveway!

Can you share any tips about establishing oneself as a housesitter for veterinary students?

Being a veterinary student will definitely be a huge advantage. Mention that in the first line of your email when applying for a house sit!

The first thing you should do is create a profile on a house sitter exchange website. The one we use the most is trusted housesitters, as it has the largest number of house sits and we’ve found we tend to get a good response from homeowners on there.

When creating a profile you have the option of requesting ‘references’. If you’ve never house sat before, these can be character, employment or landlord references. If you’re able to get a reference from someone that leads the veterinary course at your university, that would definitely help add points to your character reference. Also, if you’ve house sat for friends or family, these do count as pet sitting references, so be sure to include them as well.

Don’t be put off by the sitters that have a ton of references – for a home or pet owner thinking of taking you on, it’s quality not quantity.

Finally, begin applying for house sits. As a tip, we took on a few house sits locally before applying for those abroad. We found that when you’re new to house sitting homeowners are more willing to take you on if they can meet you first.

Thank you James and Jemma!