Page 8 - Autumn 14

Danten – reptiles by Don Hamilton, USA
I was riding the underground (U-bahn) today and I ran into Judith, an acquaintance who cares for abandoned and rescued exotic reptiles and spiders at a facility here in Vienna. She was just returning from the veterinary clinic, where she had consulted veterinarian Helene Widmann about a rescued tortoise. A man had noticed the tortoise in a public pond, attempting to swim, but at a sharp angle, with one side much higher than the other. The tortoise, a non-native species, had pneumonia in one lung, therefore that side was heavier in the water. Judith said that someone no doubt abandoned the tortoise at the pond having tired of its care. “It is common; unfortunately I see this all the time. People get them when they fit in the palm of the hand, but then they grow up, they smell badly, they take up more room and are no longer cute, so then the people just dump them somewhere, usually by water,
iguana and a lizard, together in one tank. They have different requirements, but people don’t know that. Even the veterinarian who had inspected the animals said there were ‘two lguanas,’ not knowing the difference between an iguana and a lizard.” The iguana, in this case, had a humpback, probably from inadequate nutrition and the wrong lighting in the tank. There were also two cats in the flat, she said. None of the animals had food or water.
Coincidentally, I had just finished an interesting if somewhat sobering book by Dr. Charles Danten, a French-Canadian veterinarian, entitled Slaves of our Affection: The Myth of the Happy Pet. I strongly recommend this book, despite his rather harsh criticisms of pet- keeping and even our (and his) profession. The book, also available in French and Spanish, is well researched with many excellent
slavery, and he debunks many assumed “truths” about our relationship to “pets,” whom he also calls our “children” to emphasize how, on the one hand, we believe we feel about them, in contrast to how we actually treat them. (One American study found that 83% of respondents from the US and Canada consider themselves to be the mother or father of their cat or dog). Danten even quotes studies, which dispute the accepted premise that animals help with human healing, depression, and so on (Zootherapy).
Danten rather graphically and grimly laces the human-animal bond with a network of question marks and concrete facts. While I do not agree one hundred percent with everything, I think he is at least 90 percent correct in his assertions and conclusions. For me, this book underscores some of my own concerns, which I have
thinking they can just live on their own. But they are not native species and they cannot survive well here.” Thus the pneumonia.
“Last week,” she said, “I had a call from a landlord who had found, in a vacated flat, an
dose. (He is his own self but has some neediness towards his owner...)
Follow up
The feet got worse for 2 weeks and then they improved. Everybody was happy about the progress.
Seven months later
His ears had started to weep, the leg that was operated on became painful in the wet weather and he lacked in energy (pain?) to go for walks. The feet still tended to break out every so often but were still much better than they used to be. There had been no more need for antibiotic prescriptions. They looked better, there was much less thickening of the skin.
references. Dr. Danten covers topics ranging from vaccination and pet food to why we keep “pets” and the impact upon animals of this human-animal bond, emphasizing the “bond” aspect in the sense of captivity. He even poignantly equates animal captivity with
It all got worse quite suddenly since a new pressure washer arrived in the garage right next to the dog parlour: it made and explosive sound every time when they switched it on. He started to hide in the grooming parlour, did not really wants to be there and only occasionally mounted a dog.
‘He was with a cocker spaniel when he was young: he loved it. He pined when it went back to live with its owner. Every time he sees a cocker spaniel he gets excited. He hides under the bed when strangers come in the house, outside he is happy to meet people: they can stroke him but he takes no notice. People coming in the house: it is an ‘invasion of his space: this is where I am’. When he hides at home he does not want to come out and will eventually fall asleep there.’
expressed in the added chapter (Chapter Fourteen) of the 2010 edition of my book. If Dr. Danten’s book does not induce a queasy unsettledness when you read it, I will be surprised, as I think most of us know this information, at least at a subliminal level.
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Solution The ‘ethiology’ of the explosive noise and the statement that he does not want his space invaded by strangers (in the house, and falls asleep under the bed) point to borax. Borax 200 for 3 days.
There is a big improvement following this: the noise phobias disappear, the pain in the leg goes, and the feet improve further and are almost normal 6 months later. He stopped riding the dogs in the grooming parlour.
He will take a few more doses of Borax, once for a hot spot and twice for mild relapses of lameness and mild pododermatitis symptoms.
The feedback is three years
For a discussion of the remedy Borax, I refer to the write up on the IAVH website the MMHV. Please all make your own additions to this database. T
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