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6A Daily News – Saturday, July 14, 2012 healthPetsactivities & How long can we leave Fido? (MCT) — Q: How long is a safe time to leave your dog home alone? When our dog was a puppy, it seemed we could not leave her alone for five minutes, and we used to have a girl who would come in during the day to play with her. Now, she is 2 years old. We have to work longer hours for less pay, and we are gone 10 hours a day. We do not have the funds to pay the dog walker anymore. The dog seems fine with the situation and does not destroy anything in the house or have any toilet accidents, but we still feel guilty. A: There is no clear answer, as each situation is different. My dogs, like yours, are older now, and if we are gone for 10 or 11 hours, they are still sleeping when we get home and are calm and relaxed. However, I know of other dogs that would be climbing the walls if left alone for 10 hours. The breed of dog has a lot to do with it. Some larger breed adult dogs with big bladders can do fine left alone all day, as can a little toy dog that has access to a wee-wee pad. So it's up to the owner to tell if the dog is suffering any anx- iety or discomfort when left alone and to make arrange- ments to keep such as dog comfortable. Froto, a rabbit, has head tilt By Jeff Kahler McClatchy Newspapers About a month ago, Tina thought she noticed her French lop rabbit stumbling. He did it only occasionally, so she put it out of her mind. A week ago, the 3-year-old rabbit had his head tilted to the right. He seemed normal otherwise, and was eating and drinking and keeping the cats and dog in their places as always. A few days later, Froto began to stumble again and now appears quite weak in his rear limbs. Froto's symptoms involve a part of the nervous system that produces proper balance and position. It's called the vestibular system and is found to one degree or another in virtually all animals and humans. The head tilt signals a pos- sible neurological problem. Froto needs a physical examination and blood work to rule out possible metabolic involvement. A thorough evalu- ation of Froto's ears will help rule out an ear problem as a cause. I would take radiographs if I suspected muscu- loskeletal involvement based on physical examination. If my suspicion were correct, Froto's radiographs would be normal. His blood work may be normal or may show evi- dence of inflammation and a possible issue with his kid- neys. This scenario occurs in many rabbits infected with Encephalitozoon cuniculi. E. cuniculi is a protozoal parasite of rabbits and other animals and humans. It can infect rabbits and cause varying degrees of illness. Some infected rabbits can apparently appear healthy and exhibit no symptoms. These rabbits are called carriers and can pass the disease to other rabbits. One of the hallmark symptoms for this disease in rabbits is a head tilt, but not all rabbits with this parasite will exhibit head tilts. Other symptoms include weakness, circling when trying to walk and abnormal eye movements. The parasite can involve multiple organs in the body, including the kid- neys. Rabbits with affected kidneys will show increased water intake and increased urination and abnormalities in blood work. Definitive diagnosis of E. cuniculi can be difficult in a living patient as it involves demonstration of the offending organism is tissue from the patient. There is blood testing called serology that can test for exposure to the parasite but a positive result does not by itself prove the bunny has the disease. We can repeat the serology testing a few weeks apart and look for a rise in the immune system response to the organism. If that is found, the likelihood of infection with E. cuniculi is high. Treatment is available, and I have had the most success More hospitals allowing visits from pets BALTIMORE (MCT) — Ask patients in some area hospitals which care- givers they most look for- ward to seeing, and they'll say the ones with hairy faces and bad breath. For Sean Harris, they were his dogs Diesel and Wilson. For Michael Friedman, it was the fami- ly pooch, Larissa. Michael Friedman saw Larissa at least a half- dozen times while rehabil- itating for a few weeks recently at Levindale after a car accident. Harris was visited by his dogs while recovering from a car accident at Maryland Shock Trauma Center for five months ending in 2010. father had been (at Levin- dale Hebrew Geriatric Center & Hospital) before and we brought the dog to visit, so when my father got sick, we knew we could bring her," Brad Friedman said of Larissa, a friendly 5-year-old Aus- tralian shepherd. "She just cheers him up." "My mother and grand- The two Baltimore hos- pitals and a small number of other Maryland health- care facilities have joined others around the nation that now allow pet visits as a means of improving patients' moods and possi- bly their health. Studies show that hav- ing a pet around can lower blood pressure, promote relaxation and alleviate loneliness, and people suf- fer when they are away from them for long peri- ods. In groundbreaking research published in 1980 in the journal Public Health Reports, a profes- sor in the University of Maryland's psychiatry department, James J. Lynch, and his colleagues showed that patients recently released from the coronary care unit lived longer when they had pets at home. MCT photo Sheila Friedman and her grandson, Ethan, 9, pet their family dog, Larissa, at a hosptial in Baltimore, Maryland,on June 5.The family brings the pet to help cheer up Sheila's husband, Michael Friedman, who is in sub-acute care. and a cat. She suggested they visit. Debbie Harris immedi- ately settled on Diesel, a 120-pound blue mastiff the family had rescued several years earlier, because her son was clos- est to him. She said the large gray animal, bathed and dressed in his own scrubs, was escorted through a back elevator to Sean's room. The dog didn't seem to mind the ventilator or other tubes he was hooked up to, or that Sean couldn't talk and wouldn't com- pletely remember the visit the next day. The staff put Diesel on a gurney and raised him to Sean's level. The dog placed his chin on Sean's arm, Harris' mother said. Sean prompted the dog by pursing his lips and Diesel began to "sing." "It was a big help," Sean said recently from his family home. His pets "still are. They keep me company." Visits by Diesel and using a family of drugs called the bendazoles. These are given orally for four to eight weeks and can effectively clear symptoms. The serology testing done after treatment will still show positive as the body contains antibodies against the organism. No one had to show the research to the Harris fam- ily. Sean, now 26, suffered a spinal injury when the car he was riding in crashed. He had been hos- pitalized for about 2 1/2 months before a nurse noticed the pictures by his bed of three family dogs It all started when Roy noticed a patient feeding a dog on the sidewalk in front of the medical cen- ter. It turned out to be her pet; the woman had been hospitalized so long that the dog had stopped eat- ing, and a friend started bringing it to the hospital. Roy began looking for examples of large hospi- tals that allowed pets, and found the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clin- ics and Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. with their pets because she has two dogs and a cat. The pet program was launched in 2008 after two years of research and poli- cy development. The policies generally called for a patient's doc- tor and infection control staff to sign off. The pets needed up-to-date vac- cines, a bath, scrubs and an escort. Wilson, a Maltese-Shih Tzu mix, were made pos- sible by the Rev. Susan Carole Roy, director of pastoral care services at the University of Mary- land Medical Center, which includes Shock Trauma, and founder of the pet visitation program. Roy knows about the con- nections people develop At Maryland, the patients receiving pet vis- its tend to be the sickest, Roy said. One woman who had fallen from a horse decided to terminate her life support, and the staff got her dog in within three hours. Recently, one dog was allowed to attend a meeting where doctors had to tell a patient's hus- band that she was going to die; the dog's presence helped calm him. "They know how to see us through everything _ marriage, kids being born, divorces, illnesses and death _ and they're a huge part of our emotional and spiritual well-being," Roy said. "When pets come here, it seems like they give have." Anyone who has a pet every ounce they She said hospitals and other health-care facilities have long had pet therapy programs, where animals are brought in to offer comfort to patients. A study last year by the American Hospital Asso- ciation shows that such programs are now the most common alternative medicine offerings avail- able to patients, ahead of massage and art and music therapy. Allowing people's own pets to visit is a logical extension, Fricke said. "It certainly makes sense, given what we know about the intense bond people and pets have, and the overall health benefits people experience when they have pets," she said. "Even if you're just a little under the weather, having that wet nose nuzzling under your arm makes you feel better." 570 South Main St., Red Bluff 527-6640 BRING IN THIS AD DURING THE 2 DAY EVENT TO ENTER A DRAWING FOR A CRAFTSMAN TRIMMER & BLOWER would expect that, said Inga Fricke, director of sheltering and pet care issues for the Humane Society of the United States.