Latest / Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond / Short Paws: Stop for Cats Petition and Human Medicine for Pets

Transcript

Short Paws: Stop for Cats Petition and Human Medicine for Pets · Paws Between Us - Pet Stories, Welfare and Building A Bond

• 0:00
  Welcome to Paws Between Us, your regular dose of positive pet news.
• 0:04
  Every other week we bring you a short, uplifting episode
• 0:07
  packed with latest feel-good stories and research from the world of pets.
• 0:12
  So settle in for a short pause and let's spread some positivity together.
• 0:16
  Hi Nat.
• 0:17
  Hello Sam.
• 0:18
  Hello.
• 0:20
  Are you OK?
• 0:21
  Yeah, I'm good.
• 0:22
  We're in our rhythm now, aren't we, with our intros and our greetings.
• 0:26
  We are.
• 0:27
  Yeah, they're always good to...
• 0:29
  Yeah, always good to hear from you and see you.
• 0:33
  Yeah, seeing you way more than we used to.
• 0:35
  I know, I know.
• 0:37
  It's a good way to maintain a friendship, isn't it?
• 0:39
  Keep in touch.
• 0:40
  Yeah.
• 0:41
  Co-host of a podcast, there you go.
• 0:43
  Yeah, it's a way to keep in touch with your friends.
• 0:46
  The news this week, shall I talk you through what I have?
• 0:50
  Why not?
• 0:51
  So yeah, in terms of what has caught my eye this week in the news,
• 0:56
  something that's circulating on social media, which I thought was quite interesting,
• 1:01
  is there's a call for people to sign a petition to legislate drivers reporting collisions with cats.
• 1:09
  And yeah, they've had quite a lot of signatures.
• 1:12
  So it's something that people feel very passionate about.
• 1:16
  And maybe not everyone realises actually that in the UK, it is legal to hit a cat when driving
• 1:23
  and not need to stop or report collisions, leaving the cat scared, alone and in pain.
• 1:31
  And as we both know, and we don't need to tell our listeners this, that cats are important,
• 1:37
  loved, valued family members for many.
• 1:40
  And there's, you know, me and you support the belief that the law should reflect this.
• 1:45
  This is what it says on the petition.
• 1:46
  So yeah, the petition basically wants the government to legislate to require drivers to stop,
• 1:53
  check and report any road collisions with cats if they're injured on the road and holds drivers
• 1:58
  accountable if they fail to stop and report a collision involving a cat on the basis that
• 2:03
  they left a cat unnecessarily suffer.
• 2:05
  And the petition asks drivers to be made responsible for seeking help for an injured cat
• 2:11
  is a perfectly reasonable and simple ask, which I feel very strongly about.
• 2:17
  So as you know, I don't have a cat at the moment, but I did have,
• 2:21
  I've had several cats in my lifetime, but I did have a cat called Jagger,
• 2:27
  who I've posted about on our Instagram account.
• 2:30
  And Jagger, when he was alive, bless his little soul, he passed away due to old age.
• 2:36
  But when he was younger, he did get hit by a car on a busy road.
• 2:42
  And the driver very kindly did stop when he realised that he had hit Jagger.
• 2:48
  And he pulled over and he scooped up Jagger and took him to the vets.
• 2:54
  And it was that act of kindness that saved Jagger's life,
• 2:58
  because Jagger's tail had come off as a result of the incident.
• 3:03
  And yeah, it was very touch and go as to whether Jagger would survive.
• 3:08
  And in a sort of a stroke of luck that day,
• 3:11
  there was also a vet in who was known as someone called Magic, apparently,
• 3:15
  and he called, that was his nickname, he called him Magic,
• 3:18
  because he could perform miracles, I think, with animals.
• 3:20
  And he operated on Jagger.
• 3:23
  And yeah, really sort of saved his life.
• 3:26
  And actually, the person who brought Jagger into the vets did leave his details,
• 3:32
  his name and address.
• 3:33
  So we were able to contact him and really thank him for everything that he did.
• 3:37
  Because I think if Jagger was just left on the side of the road,
• 3:41
  he may have got hit again by another car,
• 3:44
  he would have just, yeah, been left to die, suffering alone.
• 3:49
  So I know that's like a really negative sort of thought,
• 3:51
  but it turned into a positive in terms of his life was saved
• 3:55
  because of this kind driver.
• 3:58
  Yeah.
• 3:59
  And I get if you're on, you know, you may be on a motorway or a really busy road.
• 4:04
  I don't know how many cats try and cross motorways.
• 4:07
  I mean, Jagger was originally found in Romania crossing a busy motorway
• 4:11
  and had been hit then as well.
• 4:13
  But I don't think as badly.
• 4:15
  And that was when he was very young before he came to the UK.
• 4:18
  So, you know, I know you can't always stop.
• 4:21
  So if you're on the M25, I mean, I don't know how many cats go roaming around motorways.
• 4:25
  But, you know, if you do hit one in your neighbourhood,
• 4:29
  it would be good to think that there was more of a requirement, yeah, to stop.
• 4:34
  Yeah.
• 4:35
  It's interesting that because I think what for me is the message that,
• 4:40
  yes, you may, you know, because I have this thing about like roadkill,
• 4:46
  it really, really upsets me.
• 4:47
  And I get quite deeply affected by seeing any animal dead in the road,
• 4:52
  even if it's, you know, from a badger to a squirrel to anything,
• 4:55
  pigeon, everything really, really gets to me.
• 4:57
  I'm far too sensitive for all of this.
• 4:59
  And so the thought, I'm so lucky.
• 5:01
  I mean, again, touch wood.
• 5:02
  So lucky that I've never hit anything.
• 5:05
  Yeah.
• 5:06
  I'd be absolutely beside myself if I did.
• 5:08
  I'm really stressed.
• 5:09
  But, you know, the thought there that if you can get to the animal and get it to
• 5:14
  a veterinary clinic or whatever, that actually it can save its life and you can do good.
• 5:20
  So, and you were talking there about like this petition,
• 5:24
  and I have just looked up as to what the other sort of legalities are around other animals,
• 5:30
  because I didn't know much about this.
• 5:32
  And you must stop and report an accident to the police if you hit horses, dogs, cattle,
• 5:38
  for example, cows and pigs, goats and sheeps and donkeys or mules,
• 5:43
  but not cats and not any other kind of animals.
• 5:46
  So it's long overdue then.
• 5:48
  I don't know why cats have been excluded.
• 5:51
  Actually, it does say further down.
• 5:52
  So I'm on the government website.
• 5:54
  I'm just looking at this live now.
• 5:57
  It says you can report any dead animals you find on the road to the local council.
• 6:00
  And that does include, and it's lists here, badgers, foxes and domestic pets,
• 6:04
  such as cats and dogs.
• 6:06
  But that just says you can report.
• 6:08
  So obviously, the council can probably deal with the cleanup rather than anything more than that.
• 6:12
  But yeah, there's bigger animals like dogs are the sort of smallest from what I can see on this list.
• 6:17
  But you must stop and report an accident if you hit anything like a dog or a horse or...
• 6:23
  So yeah, adding cats to that would be welcome,
• 6:26
  from my opinion, because you can save a life.
• 6:30
  Yeah, it's long overdue.
• 6:31
  And cats are just as loved as dogs, as we know.
• 6:34
  And other furry friends that are part of our families.
• 6:38
  So yeah, let's hope that it gets somewhere.
• 6:43
  And in time to come, we'll be talking about the outcome in a positive way
• 6:48
  and that we will have seen some change there.
• 6:51
  But yeah, I definitely know that it saved Jagger's life.
• 6:54
  So we'll always be grateful for the man who...
• 6:58
  That one guy.
• 6:59
  Yeah, that one guy who that morning was, yeah, did a...
• 7:03
  A random act of kindness that made a difference,
• 7:06
  because obviously very worried about him,
• 7:08
  very devastated that he was in that state,
• 7:10
  but really sort of relieved that he pulled through and so, so grateful.
• 7:13
  So yeah.
• 7:15
  So what do you have in the news this week then?
• 7:17
  What's caught your eye?
• 7:20
  Yeah, just as I saw an article or a post,
• 7:22
  I think it was by a veterinary professional who said that they're seeing more and more,
• 7:28
  I think, of well-meaning pet owners trying to treat their sick pets at home themselves.
• 7:33
  So reaching for things like paracetamol
• 7:37
  and thinking it will kind of help and be a quick fix.
• 7:39
  And like you say, they are well-meaning.
• 7:40
  And I think perhaps the pressures of pet medicine,
• 7:44
  veterinary appointments and the expense and stuff
• 7:47
  is probably pushing people to be a bit more risk-taking.
• 7:50
  Just again, we said last week about some of the toxins
• 7:53
  that we need to avoid for cats, that paracetamol is deadly for a cat.
• 7:59
  So please don't give any human medicines to your animal
• 8:05
  without having a vet give you that clear advice.
• 8:09
  And it made me think, I was looking at this and thinking,
• 8:15
  I can understand the desperation of people.
• 8:17
  And what would an answer be?
• 8:19
  We have over-the-counter medicines for humans and for children.
• 8:24
  Is that somewhere we should be heading to?
• 8:26
  I know vets will probably absolutely freak out at that idea,
• 8:28
  but I wonder whether it's an answer down the line
• 8:31
  that there are safe medicines that can be administered to your pet
• 8:36
  if you think they're in pain or they need something.
• 8:38
  But I've looked into it a little bit more.
• 8:40
  And there are some medicines that are used in humans
• 8:45
  that are used in cats like gabapentin,
• 8:47
  which is what weavers on, amoxicillin and some other bits and bobs.
• 8:51
  But there's lots of questions here
• 8:53
  because we don't know exactly what is wrong with the animal.
• 8:57
  They can't tell us that they're sick.
• 8:58
  They can't tell them that their stomach's off or that they're in pain.
• 9:02
  You can't identify the pain.
• 9:03
  So trying to kind of assume something as a lay pet owner is very difficult.
• 9:10
  So I don't think asking or providing medicines off a counter
• 9:14
  that we could use is probably the best idea.
• 9:17
  And also there's lots of things like metabolising tablets
• 9:22
  and the size of tablets and how much you can give
• 9:25
  and what's good and what's not.
• 9:27
  I mean, vets do prescribe human medicines, as we say,
• 9:30
  but that's with their expert knowledge
• 9:33
  and with their ability to be able to do assessments
• 9:37
  against other animals that they've treated
• 9:39
  and getting the right weight and the right dosage.
• 9:42
  But I suppose one of the questions that may come into it
• 9:45
  is whether maybe more human medicines can be available
• 9:49
  so actually the cost can come down
• 9:53
  and there is more availability
• 9:55
  so that not necessarily that people will buy them,
• 9:57
  that we should be able to buy them as lay owners
• 10:00
  or as the general public,
• 10:01
  but that there's more options, cheaper options
• 10:04
  that vets can provide in a safe way.
• 10:07
  So maybe that's kind of, it's all around licensing
• 10:10
  and kind of like the regulations and stuff,
• 10:12
  which human and animal are kind of one of the things
• 10:14
  I think they're kind of exploring.
• 10:16
  So maybe we can discuss this with them when they come in.
• 10:18
  But yeah, it's interesting.
• 10:19
  I don't know.
• 10:20
  It just feels like there needs to be something to help people
• 10:24
  who are struggling to pay.
• 10:26
  There's also the stress and the kind of worry
• 10:29
  and difficulties in getting some pets to the vets.
• 10:32
  You know, the stress of taking Maria Weaver
• 10:34
  is just events sometimes
• 10:36
  and if I could get something
• 10:38
  without having to take them in for a face-to-face appointment,
• 10:40
  that would save a lot of stress.
• 10:42
  But you know, it's all got to be done safely.
• 10:43
  It's all got to be done with the pets.
• 10:45
  Well-being in mind at the end of the day.
• 10:48
  Yeah, so it's just...
• 10:49
  Yeah, yeah.
• 10:51
  So Betty has had pain relief in the past for various things
• 10:56
  and if there is a little bit left over
• 10:59
  and I know she's taken it before and she's okay with it,
• 11:03
  I will kind of save it and use it again.
• 11:07
  Not if she has the same problem,
• 11:08
  but like this sort of like a generic pain relief.
• 11:12
  Say for example, she hurt her paw or she was limping a bit
• 11:16
  and you could see that she was in a bit of visible pain
• 11:18
  because pets are good at hiding pain apparently.
• 11:22
  You don't always know
• 11:23
  and yeah, I would probably give her a little bit
• 11:26
  of what she's had before just until I can get to the vets
• 11:30
  because I know that it is generic pain relief
• 11:32
  that is okay to give her and it's safe
• 11:35
  and whether it's the right thing to give her
• 11:37
  for that specific problem.
• 11:38
  But if I did think that she was in visible pain,
• 11:41
  I would do that until I could get to the vets.
• 11:43
  To the vets.
• 11:44
  Do have some left over.
• 11:46
  But yeah, I wish animals could talk
• 11:49
  because I hate the idea of being in pain
• 11:52
  and suffering unnecessarily and not being able to tell us.
• 11:56
  But yeah, there was sort of more of a generic medication
• 11:59
  that yeah, you could see that they were in a bit of pain
• 12:02
  that you could give them.
• 12:05
  But I know paracetamol is quite toxic to humans, isn't it?
• 12:08
  If you don't, if you're not careful,
• 12:10
  you know, there's a limit to how many tablets
• 12:12
  you can take in a day.
• 12:13
  And yeah, it's interesting you were saying
• 12:16
  about giving medicine to Betty that you had
• 12:18
  because actually the last vet I went to see
• 12:20
  and it was a real like lovely reassurance
• 12:24
  instead of it being very to the book
• 12:28
  and not really giving space for the reality of life.
• 12:31
  She said to me like, yes, here's some pain relief.
• 12:34
  Give it to him for the next five days.
• 12:36
  And she did say, this is something that can be used again
• 12:40
  if there's a need for it.
• 12:42
  It's safe enough.
• 12:43
  So if there's things like that,
• 12:45
  that can be given to people when they need them,
• 12:48
  I suppose everyone's going to be worried
• 12:50
  about people misdiagnosing and mis-
• 12:57
  Administering.
• 12:58
  Administering, like giving the wrong dosage,
• 13:00
  I suppose is what I'm trying to say.
• 13:01
  Yeah, which could end up being fatal,
• 13:03
  but I don't know.
• 13:05
  Yeah, it's back to just that sort of education, isn't it?
• 13:08
  Around animal health, medication.
• 13:12
  Yeah, it's, you know, I've never thought about,
• 13:16
  until we started this podcast,
• 13:17
  I've not actually thought about these things before
• 13:19
  in that much detail because you, I don't know,
• 13:23
  sort of, there's a bit of like mystique
• 13:24
  around animal medicine
• 13:27
  that it probably is no different to human medicine.
• 13:30
  But we sort of, I don't know,
• 13:32
  I treat it more as something
• 13:35
  that you have to just be careful with.
• 13:37
  I mean, you have to be careful with all human medicines,
• 13:39
  but you know what I mean?
• 13:39
  It's like, yeah.
• 13:41
  But like, if you're going to be treating a baby
• 13:44
  or a very young child
• 13:45
  that can't tell you what they're feeling,
• 13:48
  surely that's the same for an animal.
• 13:51
  If you're the guardian of a baby
• 13:52
  and you're even the physician of a baby,
• 13:54
  doctor of a baby,
• 13:56
  that judgment on what you give it
• 13:58
  is going to be the same of how you do an animal.
• 14:00
  So, you know, we give medicines to kids
• 14:05
  that can't tell you what they're thinking or feeling.
• 14:07
  So we should be, you know,
• 14:09
  we should be getting to a point
• 14:10
  where maybe that can happen for animals.
• 14:13
  I mean, I don't know how personally comfortable
• 14:15
  I would feel in judging what was going on,
• 14:17
  to be honest,
• 14:18
  until I'd had, like I say, a lot of education
• 14:21
  or I was already under treatment for something
• 14:23
  and I knew, ah, this is the same thing.
• 14:24
  I do this in this occasion.
• 14:26
  I wouldn't want to just buy,
• 14:28
  oh, I think my cat's got something wrong with it.
• 14:30
  I'll go and buy it off the shelf.
• 14:31
  I don't think that's what I'm thinking of.
• 14:32
  But an easier access potentially could be,
• 14:38
  needs to be looked at, I think.
• 14:40
  Yeah, we need like a Calpol equivalent for pets, don't we?
• 14:45
  Yeah, it's tricky, but it's an interesting thought,
• 14:48
  isn't it, around what you can and can't give our pets.
• 14:52
  So I think because of things becoming more expensive
• 14:57
  and people, there's more and more information
• 15:00
  seems to be coming out that people aren't going to the vets
• 15:02
  and people aren't able to pay for prescriptions.
• 15:05
  There's something needs to happen.
• 15:07
  Something needs to change a little bit to make it easier
• 15:11
  for everyone, including veterinary clinics,
• 15:14
  I think are on their knees at the moment and struggling.
• 15:17
  That has to come into it as well.
• 15:18
  But anyway, yeah, interesting.
• 15:20
  Anyway, interesting.
• 15:21
  Yeah, and did you have something else you said
• 15:23
  or was that, that was your main news for this week?
• 15:26
  The only other thing I was going to talk about,
• 15:28
  but I think that's probably for another time,
• 15:29
  was we've touched on it a few times
• 15:31
  about anthropomorphizing our pets.
• 15:34
  About basically kind of like thinking of them
• 15:36
  as like we do humans.
• 15:38
  But that's another conversation.
• 15:39
  I think it's quite a big one for us to discuss
• 15:41
  maybe another day.
• 15:41
  That is a huge topic.
• 15:43
  And I could talk all day about that.
• 15:45
  I think I'm a failure of doing it.
• 15:48
  Let's save it.
• 15:49
  And in the meantime, I will practice
• 15:51
  how to say the word because it's on the tip of my tongue
• 15:54
  and I cannot get it out.
• 15:55
  It's too long for me.
• 15:57
  It's a bit of a tongue twister, that one, isn't it?
• 15:59
  It is.
• 15:59
  I'm not even going to attempt to say it.
• 16:01
  Anthropomorphic spies.
• 16:03
  It's the th and th.
• 16:04
  Yes.
• 16:05
  All right.
• 16:05
  Well, yeah, we'll bring you some other relevant news
• 16:08
  and research next time on our short pause.
• 16:11
  But until then, you should hear from some
• 16:14
  of our special guests in between time.
• 16:16
  So check us out and tune in next time.
• 16:19
  Thanks for listening.
• 16:20
  Great.
• 16:21
  Thank you for listening.
• 16:22
  And yeah, until next time.
• 16:24
  Take care.
• 16:25
  See you soon.