More Than One Way to Fix a Cat

Integrative Therapy Allows Very Angry Young Cat to Return to his Playful Happy Self

Nine months ago, Boots underwent a sudden and major personality change.

​The two-year-old cat stopped playing with their other cat and started aggressively attacking his own tail – so intently that he did permanent tissue damage requiring amputation of the last 7 centimetres of his tail.
 
Even after he was healed from that surgical procedure, he was required to wear an Elizabethan collar (AKA, the cone of shame) or he would continue to further harm his tail.
 
His personality – once lovable to his humans and frisky with his feline sibling – turned hissy and aggressive.  
 
Boots’ human, Leon, who works with Applewood Auto Group, RAPS’ most awesome corporate community partner, was at his wit’s end.
 
“Seeing him every day in pain, there was no light at the end of the tunnel,” says Leon.

In addition to the E-collar to protect his tail from further injury, Boots was started on Prozac to help with what seemed to be a behavioral issue. Unfortunately, seven months later, there was still no change or improvement in his behaviour. It was thought that he might need the tail amputated further down.
 
 Dr. Laurie Pearlstein  is one of RAPS’ new vets and brings additional advanced care with physiotherapy and different integrative therapies to what RAPS hospital offers to treat patients.   
 
“Before scheduling him for part two of his tail amputation, the case was run by me for potential input,” she says. “It sounded like Boots might be experiencing intense nerve pain in the tail, and since from Boots’ perspective his tail kept ‘lighting on fire and trying to hurt him,’ he took warranted action trying to rip it off his body.”
 
“This kind of pain can be isolated to the area of attack, but since the previous amputation hadn’t altered the issue, I was suspicious of something originating from his lower back. Think of sciatica — that's what many humans can relate to — but instead of the pain going down your back to your bum and leg, in this case the pain/burning/itching went down his back to the tail.” 
 
In addition to conventional veterinary expertise, Dr. Pearlstein has additional training and certification in Physiotherapy and Acupuncture/TCVM (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine).
 
Dr. P evaluated Boots and found the suspected back/spinal pain. Boots was treated with a combination of manual joint and soft tissue adjustments, laser therapy (photobiomodulation) and acupuncture.
 
After Boots’ first treatment, Leon observed that Boots was more his old self. He wasn't as anxious, allowing his back half to be pet and initiating play with his cat roomie. 
 
“After treatment #2, we had continuation of the same results. This time he improved enough to being tried without the E-collar and we started weaning him off the Prozac,”  says the doctor. 
 
After four visits with to the hospital, Leon said he hadn’t seen Boots so happy and acting like a cat since January.
 
“He was suddenly full of energy, playing, eating, behaving like he had been before anything had happened,” says Leon. 
 
Boots’ happy ending is just one of countless stories for a vast range of conditions, in which integrative approaches have led to significant improvements.

​Physiotherapy is a well accepted and integral part of human medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture techniques and treatments are well known in human medicine and used to varying degrees amongst different Western medicine cultures – and for 6,000 years in China! 
 
For well over a decade, all of these have become commonplace in veterinary care as well. 
 
Dr. Pearlstein shared with us some of her vast knowledge on the subject – knowledge and skills she brings to the RAPS Animal Hospital, offering patients and their people entirely new options for ways to complement a current treatment plan for medical and surgical conditions or in many cases to treat those conditions outright.  
 
In the next issue of RAPS Animal Hospital Newsletter, we’ll go deeper into the breadth of modalities Dr. Laurie offers. 
 
In the meantime, to find out more and book an appointment, contact the RAPS Animal Hospital.