DEAR DR. FOX: My husband and I adopted a 10-week-old rescue domestic shorthair kitten, who was the runt of the litter. She has just turned 4 years old. We love her; she has very dear little ways about her.

Her problem is she doesn't like to have her nails clipped. The groomer who had it down pat is no longer employed at the place where we take her. Our cat needs her nails clipped every other month. She spits, growls and sometimes screams, and she has every groomer frightened. We don't want her nails surgically removed. When we bring her home, she rubs up against her carrier and us as if to say, "I got away with it again."

Can you give us any suggestions? We know those nails have to be clipped. She doesn't claw the furniture because she has a carpeted scratching post. -- L.W., Toms River, New Jersey

DEAR L.W.: Generally, cats do not need their claws trimmed if they regularly use a scratching post. However, when the nails do get long, they can get snagged on materials, and struggling to get free can damage the claw. One of my cats has this issue, and I regularly massage his paws so he gets used to having his nails squeezed and exposed. Then I can easily snip his nails with regular human clippers when needed.

Some of the guillotinelike clippers used -- especially on dogs -- actually squeeze the entire claw, which could be painful and make the animal afraid. Dogs and cats who are afraid of these devices often accept regular human nail clippers, and others will habituate to the sound of claw grinders, which put no pressure on the claw.

Sometimes it takes two people to manicure a cat. One holds the cat on a table or sofa, grasping the cat by the scruff of the neck. This has a partially paralyzing, immobilizing and possibly tranquillizing effect on the cat; is not painful; and inhibits struggling while the cat's nails (or teeth or ears) are being seen to. A light muzzle and firm scruff-hold can help keep dogs still for similar purposes, but they are less profoundly subdued than cats.

BOOK REVIEW

"The Soul of All Living Creatures: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human" by Dr. Vint Virga.

After reading some glowing reviews of this book, I requested a review copy from the publisher. I expected more accounting of treatments and resolutions of animals' distress and abnormal behaviors from a veterinary practitioner of behavioral medicine. Describing a few case histories with elaborate prose and interspersing them with folk tales relating to human values, actions and morality did not, for me, accomplish the promise in the subtitle of this book.

Anthropomorphizing and zoomorphizing aside, the current notion that animals can be our teachers needs to be tempered by the fact that our relationships with them reveal the best and the worst qualities of human nature. You can read more about that in Dr. Charles Danten's book, "Slaves of Our Affection: The Myth of the Happy Pet." With all respect to Dr. Virga, who undoubtedly has helped improve the lives of many animals in homes and zoos, his book falls short by seeking to apply some understanding of animals to the human self-help movement, essentially turning two separate books into one.

Minor quibbles: Virga attributes Chief Seattle's famous quote to someone else. He rescues a mouse by picking it up by its tail rather than scooping it; mice can "slip" or "deglove" their tail skin to break free when held by the tail. Regardless, he clearly documents that the emotional and behavior-impairing suffering of nonhuman animals is very similar to our own, which can help enhance empathy and acceptance that like us, animals are living souls. I hope that his next book will offer more from his wealth of knowledge, practical experience and deep heart, especially with regard to animals "who have somehow surrendered their spirits."

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: Should a booked vet offer referrals? Our son's 14-year-old chow suddenly had problems standing on her back legs. When I helped her up and released her, her back legs buckled.

I called our vet for an appointment on a Friday, but was told there were no appointments available until Tuesday. I asked for a recommendation. The person taking the call said that without seeing the dog, she had no idea what to recommend. I said that I meant a recommendation of another vet. I was told I'd have to "call around." We have had this vet since 2001 when we moved to this area. I Googled other vets in the area and found one who took her immediately.

Am I wrong to be so disappointed in my vet? Shouldn't I have, at least, been told about emergency animal hospitals in our area? There were two vets at our office, but the original one has recently retired. -- P.K.P., Scranton, Pennsylvania

DEAR P.K.P.: No veterinarian who has been seeing a client on a regular basis has any excuse for not advising, personally, over the phone or through an assistant, what to do when there is an emergency like yours, and where to take the animal if she is fully booked with appointments. You should let her know your concerns so that this will never happen again in that veterinary practice.

DEAR DR. FOX: I noticed in a recent column that the Florida couple with the frantically grooming cat had recently done a lot of home renovation. Their cat's sudden licking problem could be related to new materials introduced in their home renovation.

We had a wonderful, well-adjusted Burmese who suddenly started twitching and licking as though he had biting insects on his body. Our vet checked him for insects, did a skin biopsy, tried him on a rotation diet and gave him a short course of prednisone. He found no insects or skin condition, and neither the diet change nor the prednisone had any effect. We tried other vets without getting any relief for him. He struggled with the problem for several years before he passed away at 16.

A few years ago, I read an article about new carpets being a culprit in allergic reactions. This reminded me that after our new wall-to-wall carpet was installed throughout the second floor of our house, I could no longer walk on it barefoot or my feet would itch. I don't know why I didn't connect this with our cat's frantic licking, which started around the same time.

Our cat spent most of his days sleeping in the sun on this carpet, often upside down. He always seemed to improve when we traveled with him, but we couldn't figure out why. You may want to advise your readers that there are other common sources of allergens besides food, and new carpets are among them. Thanks again for your column and for all your wise counseling. -- C.P., Neptune, New Jersey

DEAR C.P.: Yes, new carpets emitting formaldehyde, flame-retardant bromide chemicals and other potential endocrine disruptors and allergens, not to mention inhaled small fibers, volatile chemicals and chemical residues in dust can be a household health hazard problem for cats and people alike. I have often mentioned this in my column, and more than one cat owner like you has had problems like yours. Use throw rugs and nonsynthetic rug materials (cotton, jute, hemp and wool) since synthetics build up a static charge, which can cause discomfort.

POISONOUS WATER WORRIES

In early August 2014, 400,000 people in Toledo, Ohio, could not drink, bathe or cook with municipal water because of a blue-green algae bloom in their water source, a shallow part of Lake Erie. Waters polluted by phosphate and nitrogen run-off from farms and sewage treatment plants trigger such blooms. Blue-green algae (also known as cyanobacteria) produce various toxins, called cyanotoxins, which rapidly destroy the liver, causing acute illness, coma, seizures and death. Recovered animals can become sunlight sensitive, losing skin on their ears and backs, especially after exposure to sunlight.

This human-exacerbated water quality problem is likely to get worse with climate change and agricultural expansion with ever more agrichemicals being put on the land, many of which end up in surface waters without adequate buffer zones to limit runoff.

While ruminant animals (cattle and sheep) and birds are more sensitive to these toxins than monogastric animals like pigs and dogs, dogs frequently pick up cyanotoxins when allowed to drink from standing water and suffer the consequences. For more details about pure water and hazards in our drinking water, check my website, DrFoxVet.com.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: Our shih tzu acts like he's getting goosed regularly. He suddenly jumps and runs away.

What should we check for? He eats Wellness Weight Control and Merrick's canned dog food as a topper on his dry food. -- J.P., Winston-Salem, North Carolina

DEAR J.P.: I am glad that you did not simply laugh off your dog's behavior. It could be a blocked, infected or even cancerous anal gland. Another possibility that's not uncommon in dogs with docked tails -- a routine mutilation of many breeds, which I abhor, but is rarely done on shih tzus -- is pain in the stump of the tail. This is often diagnosed as "phantom tail," or an amputation neuroma. I advise a veterinary checkup. His tail could also have been trapped accidentally in a door or trodden on, resulting in chronic pain from bone and ligament injury.

In rare instances, dogs develop a conditioned response when they start to drink or eat, quickly spinning around and biting at their tails. This bizarre behavior may have a physical cause, or it may be purely psychotic, as though another dog was slinking up to steal the food.

DEAR DR. FOX: I keep hearing that it's not safe for a person to give his dog ice cubes. My family has had animals for more than 40 years, and most of them at one time or another has had an ice cube. -- A.S., St. Louis

DEAR A.S.: Ice cubes are great for dogs, but all in moderation. Gulping one down could cause accidental choking. Eating too many could possibly harm the stomach lining or cause problems for a dog with a damaged stomach or esophagus from acid reflux or esophageal abnormality.

I would offer a little crushed ice on occasion, especially in hot weather, and a bag of ice cubes on the back and tummy can help cool down an overheated dog.

DEAR DR.FOX: I am desperate for information. My cat has just been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease.

In May 2013, she started vomiting after eating. I have 13 cats, and it took some time to figure out who was vomiting. She weighed 14 pounds in 2013. She now weighs 9.5 pounds. My vet performed an endoscopy and colonoscopy last week and also took biopsies. The biopsy histopathology report indicated IBD. They now want to put her on prednisolone for 14 days. Approximately one month ago, I transitioned her onto PetGuard organic food from Wellness (per my local holistic vet). She is still vomiting, but not as much.

I am desperate for any information you can give me. I prefer to treat her with holistic or natural methods; however, she is wasting away, and my vet says she needs the prednisolone to stop the inflammation and calm down her immune system in order to stop the weight loss. I would appreciate any help you can give me. -- B.D., Springfield, Massachusetts

DEAR B.D.: This is an all-too-common condition in cats today, and I would bet that in her old food, there was corn, soy and carrageenan (a thickening agent widely used in canned cat and dog foods), which most likely contributed to this disorder. For details, check my website for information about this additive.

Inflammatory bowel disease is costly to owners (though highly profitable for veterinarians) and stressful on cats to accurately diagnose and differentiate from other similar conditions. There may be an autoimmune element. With inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel and leaky gut syndrome (an allergic or hypersensitivity to certain dietary ingredients) may develop. This is why a short course of prednisone therapy is advisable.

Supplements such as anti-inflammatory fish oils, probiotics and prebiotics may be helpful. Transition your cat onto a GMO-free organically certified grain- and soy-free diet, and consider fecal implants from healthy cats. For more details, check my website, DrFoxVet.com.

LIKE IT OR NOT, YOU SUPPORT THE PET FOOD INDUSTRY

Susan Thixton (truthaboutpetfood.com) reports: The Pet Food Institute (PFI), the trade association that represents the largest manufacturers of pet food in the U.S., received $1,361,288 in 2014 from a United States Department of Agriculture foreign agricultural service program. Your tax dollars are supporting PFI.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox's website at DrFoxVet.com.)