DEAR READERS: The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association posted an announcement on Nov. 1 that the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) has revised its 2015 position on declawing cats. The AAFP now strongly opposes declawing (or onychectomy) as an elective procedure.

This common procedure in the U.S. is either prohibited or simply not done for ethical, humane reasons in most countries. For more information, veterinary practitioners can go to catvets.com/scratching, and cat caregivers can visit the AAFP consumer website, The Cat Community, at catfriendly.com/scratching.

SAVE THE BUGS

While we celebrate winter festivities, people in most states hear no crickets or other singing and buzzing insects, so vital for our pollinator-needing crops and for a healthy environment. The winter cold silences them. It is my New Year’s wish that people will realize the urgent need to stop the unnatural “silent spring” that follows. It was predicted by the late Rachel Carson, and we are now deeply immersed in it. For details, visit rachelcarsoncouncil.org.

I received the following letter from another nonprofit organization dedicated to this end, the Xerces Society (xerces.org):

DEAR MICHAEL: I want to THANK YOU for your contribution to our work. Our members, donors and partners in conservation are an integral part of the Xerces community. I am so appreciative for all that you do to make the world a better home for the butterflies, bees, dragonflies and other invertebrates, which we all love.

At a recent book signing, I had several members bring in well-thumbed copies of “Attracting Native Pollinators” for me to sign at the same time as they purchased our new book. It is heartwarming to know that Xerces materials are out there being used by people to guide the choices they make in their daily lives to create healthy communities. These communities provide the habitat where invertebrates are able to thrive. Seeing how far we have come is all the motivation we need to continue to expand our outreach and education to reach more and more individuals like you who can make a difference.

We are able to protect, restore, and manage habitat in a variety of landscapes because of the support and commitment of our community, and the only way we will achieve our shared vision is by continuing to work together, support each other and learn from each other.

Thank you for standing with us! -- Scott Black, director of the Xerces Society

DEAR S.B.: I would add that all who use anti-flea and -tick drugs and other anti-parasite medications on their dogs and cats should realize that they may be putting their animals at risk (safer, integrated pest-control methods are detailed on my website, drfoxvet.net). Additionally, many of these drugs are distributed in the animals’ feces. All fecal material should be picked up and disposed of in contained garbage. This is because, when fecal-consuming insects and their larvae in the soil are killed by these residual drugs, the cold- and warm-blooded vertebrates who rely on the insects and larvae as a food source are being put at risk. This is even more the case with manure from pesticide-treated livestock and poultry not raised under Organic Certification standards.

DEAR DR. FOX: I saw a recent article by you about problems with incontinence, and my dog has a similar problem. My dog is staying with friends who have two other dogs. Mine is a 16-year-old bichon/shih tzu, who is peeing everywhere, including her bed at their home. She will be staying with them for four months this winter. At the moment, I am taking her to a Banfield vet in a PetSmart store. She does not pee all over when she is with me.

I am taking her to the vet to see if she has a urinary infection. I have no one else to leave her with. Any ideas will be much appreciated. -- M.F., St. Louis

DEAR M.F.: This is an old dog, and I fear she may be put through stressful tests with the veterinarian, then put on medications for the incontinence that could make her even more anxious. But it is important to rule out cystitis and bladder stones. There may be some dementia in addition to the anxiety, which could account for her incontinence when in an unfamiliar place away from home.

I would suggest that the caregivers give her 1 mg of melatonin at night to help with sleep, and also try Traditional Medicinals’ organic Nighty Night tea. The tea is for humans, available in many grocery and health stores. Make the tea and let one bag seep in a cup of hot water. When cool, give it to your dog in the morning and again in the early evening. Season with a little milk or gravy to encourage consumption.

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 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.net.)

DEAR READERS: The recent article by R. Scott Nolen in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association concerning the multi-state legislation prohibiting people keeping certain kinds of dogs is a clarion call to end such discriminatory, “breedist” legislation.

Many good dogs, and their caregivers and families, have suffered the consequences of this biologically and ethologically absurd legislation. Admittedly, “pit bull-type” dogs -- especially from low-income, drug- and crime-ridden rural and urban communities where dog fighting and animal cruelty are endemic -- have stigmatized dogs of that kind and their look-alikes.

Some people back away from our family dog, whom they see as part pit bull, but she is actually a shy and gentle Australian red heeler with some boxer in her lineage. She was adopted from our local shelter in Minnesota, one of few states where no such breed-specific prohibitions exist. She was brought up from a shelter in Alabama, one of several states where any dog who looks pit-bullish is either euthanized or abandoned.

DNA testing of an individual dog’s ancestry is not yet as reliable as screening for genetic disorders. One owner of a dog who plays with ours at the local dog park was rejected by a landlord after he insisted her beagle-looking dog be DNA tested for breed ancestry. The test came back positive for chow, a breed the landlord considered dangerous. Other owners of purebreds have also had false chow ancestry attributed to their dogs after receiving DNA analysis from certain companies.

All animal shelters, dog adoption centers, animal control agencies, animal protection organizations and state veterinary associations need to support the alternative to breed-specific legislation as proposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association. This will do much to prevent the abuse and suffering of dogs of certain kinds who invoke unwarranted prejudice and fear, and also advance societal acceptance of veterinary bioethics with regard to the application of science and reason in dealing with this kind of public issue.

DEAR DR. FOX: Greyhound racing has a drug problem. Gentle hounds are testing positive for drugs, even cocaine, at racetracks across the country. There have been 847 “drug positives” nationally over the past decade, including 71 greyhound cocaine positives. Read our new report “No Confidence: Drugs in the American Greyhound Racing Industry,” and then please sign our national petition. Your signature will generate an email to the governors of each racing state, asking them to stamp out the cruelty and corruption of dog racing for good. Visit GREY2KUSA.org for details. -- Christine A. Dorchak, Esq., president of GREY2K USA

BOOK PROMOTION HELPING SHELTER DOGS

“Rover: Wagmore Edition” by Andrew Grant. This is a stunning book of dog portraits -- all dogs being either homeless, in a shelter or rescued -- but it is the story behind the book that makes it so remarkable.

As a commercial photographer, Grant started photographing dogs when he discovered the astounding stats on animals in America: Approximately 4 million U.S. pets are euthanized each year. That’s one animal every eight seconds.

Grant photographs dogs in shelters, or generous donors’ rescue dogs, and he has independently produced four limited-edition books of dog portraits, each called “Rover.” For a donation, he will come and photograph your dog for the next edition of this book, and for a larger donation, he’ll put your dog’s portrait on the outside cover of a special edition. Over the past six years, Grant has been able to raise close to $2 million for shelters through this photographic project. For more info, visit Roverworks.org.

ATLANTA SUBURB RESTRICTS PET STORE ANIMAL SALES

The suburban Atlanta city of Sandy Springs, Georgia, has banned pet store sales of dogs and cats from large-scale commercial breeders, but stores may offer pets from shelters and animal rescue organizations. Pet stores must document the source of all the dogs and cats they offer for sale and post the name of the source in a visible location. (The Atlanta Journal, Nov. 27)

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 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.net.)

DEAR DR. FOX: I have had lots of friends whose cats lived to be well into their 20s, but mine all die in their teens. And two of them barely made it that long.

For years, I used flea collars on my cats, then graduated to flea meds on the back of their necks. In 1999, my beloved 13-year-old Sureshot began showing symptoms from what turned out to be a tumor in her chest. She died shortly after diagnosis. Three years later, her brother Christopher, a most amazing, soulful, beloved cat, developed a tumor in his jaw. He died after about two months.

The really tragic thing was they were totally indoor cats who didn’t even need flea meds, but they were recommended by the vet. After Christopher died, my beautiful silver tabby Nikki liked to go in and out, so everyone got the back-of-the-neck treatment. Nikki died from multiple-organ failure. Baby (whom I still grieve deeply) died of a brain tumor. When I would go to put the flea treatment on Baby, he would act as if I were trying to kill him, which apparently I did.

After each death I questioned the use of these “medications,” but was assured they were safe. I should have stopped earlier and perhaps saved some precious lives in my family, because there is no doubt in my mind that treating these animals with substances designed to kill fleas also kills them.

Since Baby died, none of my cats have been treated. I use a flea comb on them regularly, and there seems to be no problem. -- L.S., West Palm Beach, Florida

DEAR L.S.: Thanks for sharing your concerns and sad experiences. Because there are so many potential carcinogens in our food, water and home environments, it is with rare exception that one can link a specific product or substance to a particular cancer.

So common sense calls for adoption of the precautionary principle: That means if you can avoid using any product that kills other living beings, be they fleas or weeds, and find safe alternatives, then do so.

Cynics might say, “What’s the difference, now that we have poisoned the entire planet?” But it is never too late for us to clean up our act, even though it may be against prevailing business interests, which continue to successfully lobby to keep hazardous pesticides on the open market.

The flea comb is the first, safest and most effective (but labor-intensive) method of flea control, and there are others, as I review in my article on preventing fleas and ticks on my website (drfoxvet.net). Many readers have written to me, detailing adverse reactions to various anti-flea chemicals; I will summarize them in a future column.

DEAR DR. FOX: Should vets and big box pet stores inform their customers of potential health hazards from the food they sell?

Recently, we lost our male cat, who was more like a dog than a cat. He was only 9 years old. He was not his usual self when we came home one day, so we took him to the vet. He said he had a urinary blockage, and found out he had 13 little stones in his bladder and needed an operation to remove them. He died three days later. The vet informed us that the Hill’s Science Diet hard food caused these stones to form in his bladder and that it was common in male cats. He said that Hill’s has a hard food for this problem, called Urinary Care. This information came a little late for us.

Shouldn’t this information be offered by vets and stores? The vet didn’t even say he was sorry. This is a long and painful story cut short. -- J.S., Lake Worth, Florida

DEAR J.S.: Your letter hits an ironic fact, which the pet food industry has continued to ignore for decades -- along with some veterinarians, because it is so profitable. The industry makes some animals ill on manufactured cat and dog foods, and then sells special prescription diets to correct the “nutrigenic” diseases caused by these basic diets in the first place.

For detailed documentation and sound science, see the book “Not Fit for a Dog: The Truth About Manufactured Cat & Dog Food,” which I co-authored with two other veterinarians.

This has been a repeated issue in my column over the past several years. I offer home-prepared diets for dogs and cats on my site, and steer people to Susan Thixton’s website (truthaboutpetfood.com) to support her efforts at monitoring the industry. She provides a list of pet food manufacturers that we consider acceptable, for which there is a charge to support her independent and painstaking work.

DOG OWNERSHIP MAY BOOST LONGEVITY, CUT RISK OF HEART FAILURE

An analysis of more than 3.4 million individual health records in Sweden showed that adults who had a dog were less likely than their dogless peers to die during the 12-year study. And among people who lived alone, those who had a dog were less likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease.

Researcher Tove Fall said that dog owners tend to be physically active, and that having a dog might increase well-being and social contacts, or introduce beneficial organisms to the owner’s microbiome. (Nature/Scientific Reports, November 2017)

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 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.net.)