Well, well, well

[trophywench]

Tonight, we happened to watch 'Trust me, I'm a vet' on TV, one of the chaps who was in the prog all about vets in training some years ago was presenting it - still nice looking LOL Anyway, it was a quite interesting prog - but of course, all about animals.

Or so one would assume. WRONG !!!

The Royal Veterinary College - having noticed that shedloads more cats seem to be presenting with diabetes, thought it seemed odd. After all, the Vet at the RVC and the presenter were both told in training that in cats it's very very rare - so normally you might see one on your whole career so don't worry about it - so WTF is going on? It can't surely be too much food and not enough exercise, not for all of them! (Oh well, fine, recognise that for ruddy moggies but not for humans then chunter chunter LOL) So - he decides to do a series of blood tests and other investigations and discovers Something Very Interesting.

25% of these cats cease to be as responsive as anyone would expect, to insulin jabs because they actually have brain tumours and to be precise, pituitary gland tumours. This specifically leads to overproduction of a growth hormone that the pituitary produces and causes the pancreas not to be able to cope. So, why do they get these tumours?

Because they have dangerously high levels of a certain toxin in their blood, which causes the tumour. Why? Where does the toxin come from?

Anything stain resistant, or fire resistant - so in all sorts of products in our homes - carpets, curtains, soft furnishings, same chemical in TV and computer screens and all sorts of other things! Cat comes into contact with the article(s) and some time later washes it off - by licking itself. And repeats, well, repeatedly.

So now - the RVC are testing HUMAN blood for the toxin(s) - though that's been done in a human blood lab, LOL - but they have instigated it and I don't know what the rules are for whose blood is tested, etc. They didn't go into all that jazz much at all - after all - the prog was about animals LOL

We certainly live in Interesting Times, don't we?

 

[stephknits]

Ooh, must catch up on this one 🙂

 

[happydog]

I saw this programme. Food for thought. Thanks for highlighting it Jenny

 

[Ljc]

Very interesting. Thanks Jenny.

 

[Carolg]

Well that's the ba's on the slates for me then. I'm going to stop licking my paws and take a shower instead lol

Sounds interesting, and what Chanel was it on Jenny? Thanks for sharing

 

[grovesy]

Well that's the ba's on the slates for me then. I'm going to stop licking my paws and take a shower instead lol

Sounds interesting, and what Chanel was it on Jenny? Thanks for sharing

BBC2
I have it on my planner.

 

[trophywench]

It is true that we don't tend to lick our carpets curtain or cushions on a regular basis LOL but you know as well as me that if we drop a foodstuff on the settee - or a child/grandchild does, either they are we will scoop up the drip of ice cream on our finger and lick it off (unless it's something half masticated already ) as we run into the kitchen to get a damp cloth to sponge it with - secure in the knowledge that our settee/carpet is supposed to be stain resistant!

And we'll get the chemical residue on our hands merely by touching stuff. You'd have to be OCD, wouldn't you - Why are you washing your hands again? Oh - I just drew the bedroom curtains. Etc. You are never going to think, after doing something like plumping up the cushions on your settee, that when you next tested your blood, you shouldn't suck your finger !

 

[Bloden]

Aaah, we just got our old wreck of a sofa reupholstered - in stain-resistant fabric, eek!😱😱😱

 

[Ditto]

That is interesting. All the cats are fatter though. My brother's is HUGE and others around his way are big too. Fat balls of fur with pinheads. 😱

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Thanks for the summary of the programme, Jenny - I saw in the Radio Times that it was on and that they were looking at whether cause of diabetes in cats might also cause diabetes in humans, but I didn't see it so very useful to know the details.

I'd had MCS for some years before I developed diabetes, so have been avoiding chemically-treated fabrics etc for many years. No new carpets, no stain-resistant upholstery, none of those clothes or sheets which are labelled stain-resistant or wrinkle-resistant or fire-resistant or easy-care or any of those other phrases which means they've been treated with nasty chemicals. No perfumed products, no petro-chemical based toiletries or cleaning products, no dry-cleaning fluids! All our fabrics are machine-washable and get washed several times before I come into contact with them. We are very careful with plastics - some I can tolerate after a few weeks; some a few months or a couple of years; others not at all. We go for alternatives whenever possible - metal or untreated wood. When we need anything like a new computer or printer we research intensively to find the options which offgas the smallest amount of chemicals. Other new plastics or fabrics are cleaned and left to air for months before I use them. If I go near chemicals, reactions vary from sore throats, ear aches, and feverishness, to headaches or migraines, to air hunger (feeling like there's no oxygen and struggling to breathe). I can smell tiny amounts of chemicals for a long, long time - you know when you get a new car and it smells of new plastic for a couple of weeks? I couldn't travel in our new car at all for 18 months after we bought it; couldn't do anything other than very short trips in it for nearly 2 years; can still smell the chemicals in it now, 27 months after buying it.

So, on the one hand - if this theory is right, why the heck have I got diabetes?! I don't come into regular contact with any of these chemicals! But on the other hand, I know how nasty these chemicals are from my own reactions to them, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were found to cause not only diabetes but all sorts of other illnesses as well.

 

[trophywench]

You've got the ordinary auto-immune sort if diabetes Juliet - same as most other T1s.

Cat and dog D is more like T2 in some ways - except there aren't any tablets that work with their innards to relieve the high BGs - hence all diabetic dogs and cats are on insulin immediately. When I was diagnosed a chap at work asked me what insulin I was on - it was the same brand as his dog !

She was a bitch and he said he had to follow her round the lawn every morning with a saucer, to catch some pee to test!!

 

[Northerner]

Title of your thread made me think of a saying my Mum had - 'Well, well well - three wells make a river and you in it will make it bigger!' 🙂

Just one of those things - now I return you to your normal thread! 🙂

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Cat and dog D is more like T2 in some ways - except there aren't any tablets that work with their innards to relieve the high BGs - hence all diabetic dogs and cats are on insulin immediately.

Oh, that's interesting, I didn't realise that. Weird, isn't it? - you wouldn't expect animals which don't eat carbs to get diabetes at all if it weren't the auto-immune sort, but I guess that's explains why the vets were so puzzled in the first place.

 

[silentsquirrel]

Oh, that's interesting, I didn't realise that. Weird, isn't it? - you wouldn't expect animals which don't eat carbs to get diabetes at all if it weren't the auto-immune sort, but I guess that's explains why the vets were so puzzled in the first place.

But they do eat carbs - possibly much more than they used to? I just looked at random (on Tesco website) at the ingredients for a "nutritionally complete and balanced" kibble, Whiskas Chicken Complete Cat Food, and the first item on the list is cereals.......

 

[Dollypolly]

Dogs and cats do eat carbs it's full of it in the dry foods they get.

Mine don't get any carbs at all as I raw feed. I also don't feed veg to mine as some do as it does have a little carbs in but I don't as mine won't eat them.

Need to go and watch this to see as it sounds very interesting.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

Sorry, I wasn't clear - I was thinking they don't naturally eat carbs, and I don't think cats have the wherewithall to digest anything other than protein - but yes, of course pet foods contain all sorts of unsuitable things.

 

[trophywench]

I was hitherto unaware that cats aren't designed to drink milk, either, until my granddaughter got a pair of kittens when she was little and expressing surprise at their house when I saw they had water to drink. No 1 stepdaughter then informed me that most cats are lactose intolerant!

Oooer. I hadn't a clue - and yet I have known some quite elderly cats that did absolutely fine being given milk all their lives. But - it is actually true!

 

[mikeyB]

Cats are carnivores, dogs are omnivorous, same as we are. So cats eating cereal is abnormal, and dogs only eating meat is abnormal. My dog loves carrot, banana and apple. I hope he doesn't develop diabetes, I wouldn't know where to put the Libre sensor.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

I was hitherto unaware that cats aren't designed to drink milk, either, until my granddaughter got a pair of kittens when she was little and expressing surprise at their house when I saw they had water to drink. No 1 stepdaughter then informed me that most cats are lactose intolerant!

Oooer. I hadn't a clue - and yet I have known some quite elderly cats that did absolutely fine being given milk all their lives. But - it is actually true!

I didn't know that either, but I did know that cats shouldn't be given milk to drink, as milk would be a foodstuff to them rather than a drink - all cats should be given water.

Hedgehogs are also lactose intolerant - people often put out bread and milk for them, which could not only harm them but actually kill them

One of my cousins used to give her cat crisps - I can't think of anything more unsuitable for a cat - the only surprising thing was that the cat used to eat them and appeared to enjoy them. I wonder what they did to the poor thing's insides.

 

[trophywench]

Mom's cat used to drink milk, hoover up dropped crisps, and also morsels of Kraft cheese spread triangles. Died (well got euthanized as he'd become incontinent) aged approx. 14. He was a kitten that a stray had had in the garage on the wharf where dad worked in the office (coal merchants) and the garage man had found homes for all the others and was just about to put him in the sack with the brick in it, ready to sling him in the cut. Although mom had (apparently, unknown to her daughters LOL) already refused point blank to entertain the idea of having a kitten - dad brought him home anyway. Of course - and he knew very well this would happen - as soon as we saw him, no way could she refuse! Dead grumpy about it, esp when he shot under the sideboard - terrified of course, and did his business. Poor little thing!

So mother's rules applied, strictly. She wanted another dog - so he had to learn to sit on the mat just inside the back door when he came in out of the rain, and have his paws wiped before he was allowed into any other room of the house. If someone other than mom wiped them (on the mat, same as people do) and did em in the wrong order, he'd growl at you! Only trouble was, he was a hunter of course, and would always want to show his 'mum' his prizes. I can assure you - his 'mum' hated this .....

However - no doubt whatsoever that he was HER flippin cat!