DEAR DR. FOX: I just read your “Effective pain relief for old dogs” column, and wanted to share another thought with you.

Years ago, I had a Brittany spaniel who wouldn’t forgive me if I went out without her out to hunt, even though she was old and would spend several days in pain from the exertion. While hunting, I met a man and told him I felt a little bad about bringing her out, knowing how much pain it would cause her. He told me that he gave his old dog a child’s chewable vitamin C tablet whenever his dog was going to get a workout, and it relieved her pain. I tried it with my Brit, and it seemed to work wonders!

Thoughts? -- T.R.K., Fargo, North Dakota

DEAR T.R.K.: Anecdotal evidence, such as yours regarding vitamin C as a treatment for activity-related pain, calls for clinical evaluation.

Many holistic veterinarians have long recognized vitamin C as a beneficial antioxidant, helping reduce oxidative stress. I would caution readers to give this vitamin with a little food, since it could otherwise irritate the lining of the stomach. Give your dog 25 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. This could be done on a daily basis, or on occasion, with a larger dose a few hours before exercise.

I would like to hear other readers’ experiences along these lines, and reiterate that the widely prescribed analgesic for dogs, tramadol, has questionable benefits. And NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), widely used by humans, can be fatal for dogs.

While humans need an external food source of vitamin C, healthy dogs do not, since their livers normally produce this essential vitamin. But where there is liver disease, vitamin C supplementation is advisable. It is not advised for dogs with urinary calculi of the oxalate type, since it may aggravate the condition.

DEAR DR. FOX: I have a 17-year-old female Siamese cat who has been diagnosed with dementia.

She still eats and uses the litter box. The vet says he finds nothing else wrong, but she is howling at night to the point of keeping us awake. She sleeps on a heated pad on a dining room chair.

Do you have any suggestions on what we can do to help stop the howling at night? I do not want to drug her. -- J.N., Fort Myers, Florida

DEAR J.N.: This is a common problem in older cats. With already-vocal Siamese cats, it can be very disturbing.

There could be concurrent painful arthritis, and other conditions that the heating pad can help alleviate. To help further, try anti-inflammatory fish oil, a canned sardine or two a day and a prescription of tramadol or gabapentin (discuss with your veterinarian), along with glucosamine and chondroitin.

A session of full-body massage later in the evening (as per my book “The Healing Touch for Cats”) and 3 milligrams of melatonin a half-hour before you go to bed may also give your cat -- and your disturbed nights -- some comfort. (I take melatonin myself for a good night’s sleep, and it is also a purported super-antioxidant.)

Many cats like catnip, another gift from the plant kingdom we humans are rapidly wiping out around the world, along with the indigenous peoples and their herbal knowledge. It is related to valerian, from which we get diazepam (Valium). Try making a tea of catnip: Steep 1 heaped tablespoon in 1 cup of boiling water. Strain when cool, and encourage your cat to drink it, or mix it in her food (about 2 tablespoons a day). If acceptable, double the concentration to 2 tablespoons per cup of water. Be sure it is labeled “organically certified herb.”

Your cat may well just like a pinch or two of catnip at night to chew, roll on and go into a relaxed, trancelike state for a short while. But not all cats are attracted to this herb.

(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 recently read a letter sent to you by a reader who was extremely upset over learning of the treatment of dogs and cats in Asian countries. She didn’t mention the animal cruelty that also goes on in predominantly Muslim countries, but I’m very aware of that, as well.

The practice in Asian countries of eating dogs and cats is bad enough, in my opinion, but the way the animals are tortured prior to being eaten is barbaric to the extremes. No need to go into details; I implore people to research this for themselves, but warn that you’ll never be able to forget it. I also find the argument that always follows -- that people in the West eat animals, too -- to be ridiculous, in the sense that there’s no comparison to this practice I’m writing about. But for argument’s sake, I also find the way animals are treated in the West appalling, and would like to ask all the “smart” people why a better, humane method hasn’t been found yet in our own part of the world.

I’m not a vegan; I do eat meat. But over the years, it’s become less appealing to me due to my love of animals. I wish I could completely give meat up, and maybe one day I’ll be able to.

In the meantime, I encourage all your readers to investigate and see for themselves what goes on in other parts of the world in this modern day and age. -- M.W., Cumberland, Maryland

DEAR M.W.: Muslims do not eat dogs. And from what I have witnessed, I would not single out Muslim practices of slaughtering food animals as any worse than ritual Jewish slaughter -- or what I have seen in large industrial slaughtering facilities here in the U.S. In the latter, one must also have empathy for those working under such stressful conditions of animal terror.

If I may quote my 2013 article “Islam and Animals: A Veterinary Bioethical Perspective” (available in full at drfoxvet.net):

“The practice of Islam, as well as of the two other monotheistic traditions (Judaism and Christianity), has become severely corrupted over the centuries. ... If we take, for example, Jesus’ actual teachings, then what G.K. Chesterton once said about Christianity may hold a grain of truth for most other religious traditions: (paraphrasing) ‘There is nothing wrong with Christianity except that no one has ever tried it.’

“I have witnessed ritual slaughter in Canada, the U.S., Tanzania and India, often being executed with neither skill nor reverence, the absence or presence of which makes little or no fundamental difference to the helplessness and terror of the animal. Either way, the Golden Rule is broken. ...

“An indirect affirmation of the benefit of extending the Golden Rule to include other sentient beings is captured in the Qur’anic statement, ‘Whoever is kind to the creatures of God is kind to himself.’ The Holy Prophet Muhammad also said, ‘A good deed done to a beast is as good as doing good to a human being; while an act of cruelty to a beast is as bad as an act of cruelty to a human being.’”

Compassion in World Farming (in the U.K.) and the Humane Farming Association (here in the U.S.) are two of several organizations pressing for better treatment of farmed animals, especially in how they are raised, transported and slaughtered.

M.W. REPLIES: I’m in full agreement that ALL animal cruelty needs to be ended, and it amazes me in this day and age that there are still people who either practice this barbarism or turn a blind eye to it. I have to admit I’m not familiar with Jewish practices, so I’ll get informed. My reference to Muslim countries was in regard to the mass slaughter/torture of dogs -- I’ve had family members in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries who’ve witnessed this firsthand. Regardless, I hope many voices will help to end animal cruelty in all areas of the world, including here.

DEAR M.W.: In many faiths, there are religious traditions concerning sanitation and animals. These are well-founded, since dog bites and saliva can transmit rabies, while pig meat can transmit trichinosis and other parasites. But they can manifest as irrational prejudice, such as the shunning and gross neglect of dogs, which rabies vaccinations efforts may or may not quell.

Another religious tradition (as documented in my book “India’s Animals: Helping the Sacred and the Suffering”) is Hindus and Jains applying vegetarianism to dogs, cats, captive lions and other zoo and temple carnivores, including eagles and other raptors. In China, there is no specific religious association, and animal cruelty is widespread, from bear bile farms to skinning stunned cats alive.

STEM CELL THERAPIES BEING TESTED IN FELINE DISEASES

Therapies based on stem cells derived from bone marrow and adipose tissue are yielding promising results in feline chronic gingivostomatitis, enteropathies and asthma, according to a review in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. However, stem cell therapies have not worked as well in feline chronic kidney disease, the researchers reported. (ScienceDaily, March 13)

(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: Concerning animals seem to know when another is ill or going to die before we know: I had a similar experience with my two Boston terriers. The older one, Smedley, was always the alpha dog. When we walked, he always went first. But one day, the younger dog, Bud, took the lead during our walk. It was so unusual that my daughter and I both commented on it.

One week later, Smedley was diagnosed with terminal lymphoma. I think animals are a lot more in sync with the natural world than we give them credit for. -- L.D., St. Louis, Missouri

DEAR L.D.: Your younger dog seeming to know that his old canine companion was seriously ill, while neither you nor your daughter were aware of this health issue, does indeed underscore how perceptive dogs can be.

I do not regard this, unlike remote sensing, as some kind of psychic prescience. There are subtle physical cues that a sick animal may be unable to mask, as many species try to do to avoid detection of weakness and vulnerability by predators (especially deer and antelope). These include less stamina, less eye contact and social engagement, less playfulness and self-care (grooming, preening) and eventually less appetite and then death.

When I worked as a veterinary student in 1960 at England’s famed London Zoo, I spent a summer reviewing all case records of animal treatments, diagnoses and autopsies. During that work, I confirmed that many species are very adept at hiding/masking signs of disease that have been going on for weeks and months, undetected by observant keepers and curators who would find them suddenly dead in their enclosures!

But now with advanced monitoring technology, veterinarians and animal welfare and behavior specialists are beginning to improve animal well-being and husbandry practices, initiating veterinary attention that might otherwise have been delayed.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR BREAST CANCER STUDY

Humans have long leveraged dogs’ extraordinary scent-detection capabilities for tasks from hunting to the detection of explosives and narcotics. They have also proven themselves adept at sniffing out disease: Studies leveraging canines in detecting cancer have yielded accuracy rates of up to 99 percent. Research and development company BioScent DX is currently recruiting participants for a new study in this area, hoping to ultimately develop a noninvasive screening method for breast cancer and similar life-threatening diseases. Participants must either be in remission from breast cancer or belong to a high-risk group (having a family history of breast cancer or the presence of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation).

Women who volunteer to participate in the study will receive a sample collection kit. Participants simply donate samples of their breath and saliva, which are sent to the BioScent laboratory for processing. Samples will be presented to specially trained dogs for screening. Participants can submit samples as often as they like and may elect to receive their test results. Collection kits can be requested at a BioScent event or via bioscentdx.com.

(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.)