Can dogs "talk" to their owners?

Noel Carroll, formerly from West Cork, now living in County Wicklow, is the proud owner of Ebi, a ten year old female Collie/Labrador cross. As a young dog, Ebi gave a remarkable demonstration of the ability of dogs to warn humans of danger....
Everyone remembers the “Lassie” movies, and the way that the dog barked to warn humans about something happening. “What are you trying to tell us, Lassie?” is a phrase that we all know, and most people are highly sceptical about the concept in the movies. Maybe dogs do have good hearing and an excellent sense of smell, but they don’t really behave like Lassie, trying to pass on messages to humans in such an intelligent way. Or do they?
Eight years ago, Noel lived in West Cork, working on Mizen Castle Farm, close to Ireland’s most south-westerly point. He looked after horses and sheep in this remote, idyllic location, on the coast beside Mizen Head, bounded by high cliffs. The farm is the only inhabited place along that coastline. Noel lived alone, with two farm dogs – a Great Dane called Freya, and Ebi, a Labrador/Collie cross who he later came to own himself.
The “Lassie” incident happened shortly before 5.00 a.m. on November 23rd.. Noel was woken by the frenzied barking of Ebi outside his cottage. When he came outside to see what was happening, she ran madly to the gate of the farmyard. Noel followed her, and when he opened the gate, she led him across two fields to the very edge of the cliffs facing Dunlough Bay and Mizen Head. Though the cliffs had been fenced with sheep-wire, Noel feared that some sheep had managed to get through, so he set about searching for them.
The powerful torch that he was using revealed no evidence of anything amiss along the cliff edge. At this point, Noel noticed that Ebi was not looking in the area of the cliffs but rather staring straight out to sea in a particular direction. She was listening intently, and they she resuming the frenzied barking, all the while looking at the same place out at sea, then looking back at Noel, as if trying to tell him “there is trouble over there”. To Noel, it was exactly like a Lassie movie, and he even found himself saying “What are you trying to tell me, Ebi?”
It was obvious that she was listening to something that was beyond human hearing. Noel searched the surface of the water with his torch beam but he could neither see nor hear anything.
A short time later, Noel saw blue flashing lights and a convoy of vehicles coming along the road from the nearby village of Goleen. It was the Goleen Marine Rescue Service and they told him that a passing aircraft had just picked up an automatic distress signal from a fishing boat in the Mizen Head area. A search was ongoing to find the vessel in distress, but so far, it could not be located.
Noel told them about Ebi and indicated the spot where she was looking. However the bearings they had been given placed the vessel about a mile further south and they proceeded to that point to launch their boat.
At about 06.30am, debris was seen in the area of Mizen Head and all rescue efforts were then directed to that area. By this time, the stricken vessel had been identified as the Irish fishing boat, the St. Gervase.
The following morning, on November 24th, a life-raft was found floating on the surface still attached by a painter to the sunken vessel. It was at the exact location where Ebi had been looking the previous morning.
Whatever Ebi heard remains unknown. However, it is clear that she raised the alarm because she somehow sensed the danger. Four men lost their lives in the St Jervase tragedy. It was a clear night and there is no doubt that if some of those seamen were on the surface at that time, they would have seen Noel’s searchlight and heard Ebi barking.
Noel hopes that, though they did not survive, at least they may have known that they were not entirely alone. Even that hope would not have existed if Ebi had not led Noel to those cliffs that morning.
Noel moved up to County Wicklow a few years later. He brought Ebi with him, and they now live together in the Wicklow countryside. Noel was profoundly affected by the St Jervase episode, and he is still astonished at the way in which Ebi was indicated so clearly that something was wrong. The incident created a strong bond between human and dog, and Noel has a continuing deep, long lasting respect for his canine companion.
As Ebi has grown older, she has begun to suffer from some of the common ailments that affect elderly dogs. She is a fortunate dog, and she could not have a more dedicated owner than Noel. She developed diabetes, and Noel now needs to give her insulin injections twice daily. When it became clear that she was going blind because of cataracts, Noel didn’t hesitate to pay for the surgery that was needed to give Ebi her sight back. She is also on daily medication for arthritis, and this helps to keep her fit and active.
Ebi may never again encounter a situation where she needs to warn Noel of a crisis, but if she does, he will be listening very, very carefully.
Tips:
Dogs have abilities that humans often do not fully recognise
Many dogs are finely tuned in to their owners, and vice versa
If your dog does look as if it is trying to give you a message, pay attention!
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Duck with suspected lead poisoning

My own animals at home need veterinary help from time to time, and this week, it has been the turn of my Indian Runner drake, known as "Mister"......


Mister lives with his "wife", called "Missus", and the two of them have been with us for the past three years. Every summer, they produce a batch of ducklings, and the lives of our "Indian Runner family" have become part of our annual calendar.
In recent months, Mister seemed to be gradually losing his vision, and when he started to hold his head backwards in an odd position, it was obvious that he needed help.

I took him into the practice, and we started off with x-rays and blood samples. Lead poisoning seemed the most likely cause, and in the x-ray, I could see small radiodense particles that could be caused by lead. Ducks often gabble around at pond bottoms and in soil, picking up tiny bits of lead from bygone days, and these accumulate in their stomach. When the blood level of lead reaches a certain point, they start to show signs of poisoning, including blindness and incoordination.
Bloods samples confirm the diagnosis, but they can take up to a week to come back, and Mister needed help at once.

I gave him a general anaesthetic, and pumped out his stomach.




It turned out that the tiny particles in this stomach were not bits of lead after all - they were just small pieces of gravel.





In due course, the blood results came back - and Mister's lead levels were normal. SO Mister is suffering from other strange neurological disease - most likely a viral infection, or possibly something sinister like a brain tumour. He is being nursed at home, kept in a box in front of the Aga in the kitchen, and being hand fed four times daily. He seems to be making some progress, but it looks like it will be a while till he is up and about properly again.




Missus is not very happy out in the duck pen without him - she even abandoned sitting on her eggs in his absence, so these have joined Mister in the kitchen, being incubated at the back of the Aga.

At the moment, we are not sure where this is going.......... we are hoping for the best, and he is making some progress, but it is early days. I will add a PS to this in due course to let you know what happens.

7th July 2008
Sorry folks, I do not have a happy ending to Mister's story. He had been living in a box beside the Aga in our kitchen for two weeks. He was bright, alert, and eating a little (but still being tube fed three times daily). He had made progress at first, but he had stopped getting better, and his condition had reached a stage of stability that was not good enough for him to enjoy life as an independent animal. He could not stand up and walk. It looked as if the disease had run its active course, and he had been left with central nervous damage that would never improve. So a couple of days ago, I made the difficult decision to euthanase him. An Indian Runner needs to have a good sense of balance, and good walking skills, because they are such upright, active birds. It had become clear to me that he was never going to make a recovery to the stage where he could live a normal life again. He died peacefully, and we buried him in our garden, beside the other pets who have come and gone from our lives in the past decade.
His "wife", Missus, is lonely without him, so we plan to find a new friend for her later in the summer.
Mister was a real character, we miss him, but we do know that we did the best that could be done for him, and we let him go only when we knew there was no hope.
Thanks for your support, those who sent me emails.

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The social life of dogs

Lynda and Mick O’Donnell are the owners of Roxy and Bobby, two German Shepherds who live together as the best of friends Laws recently passed in Switzerland now make it illegal for “social animals” to be kept on their own. This includes most of the creatures kept as pets, from dogs and cats, to guinea pigs, budgies and rabbits. The Irish government is currently reviewing our own animal welfare legislation, and while it is highly unlikely that they will follow the Swiss example, it would make sense for the legislators to at least pay some attention to the principle that animals need a social aspect to their life.
Unfortunately, many people are not aware of their animals’ social needs, and there are thousands of lonely pets across Ireland, living bored lives in isolation. In particular, there are dogs barking in back yards, rabbits going quietly mad in small hutches, and budgies twittering to themselves, alone in their cages. You only need to look to these animals’ wild cousins to see how wrong it is to keep them alone. Dogs in groups have busy and complicated communities. Rabbits have a complex social life which was well described in a humanized way in the “Watership Down” books. And budgies live in large flocks in Australia, flying noisily around as groups.
Of course, there are many instances where animals can still be kept as solo individuals. We humans provide social interaction with our pets, and if we are there to give plenty of attention to our animals, then the need for a companion of the same species is lessened. But we should still pay attention to our animals’ social and psychological needs in the same way as we look after their physical care.
Many people know this instinctively, and Lynda and Mick are a good example. They have always loved German Shepherd dogs. They used to have a fine strong dog called Marley, and they bought Bobby as a puppy to keep her company. Bobby became close to Marley, and three years later, when the older dog passed away, poor Bobby began to pine. She had a complete personality change, becoming quiet and withdrawn. It was obvious that she felt lost and alone without her friend.
The O’Donnells decided that something had to be done, and so they bought another puppy, Roxy. Bobby took to the new arrival at once, brightening up almost immediately, and reverting to her old, lively character. Since then, Bobby and Roxy have become the closest of companions. They spend most of their time together, and if they are not beside each other, they are very aware of where the other dog has gone.
In the beginning, they did have one “argument”. Lynda had put the dogs’ feeding bowls right beside each other, and Roxy, as a puppy, was not aware of the importance of keeping to one’s own dish. She reached over to take a tasty morsel out of Bobby’s bowl, and the older dog snapped angrily at her. From that point, Lynda has been careful to feed the dogs several yards apart, and since then, there has never been any sort of disagreement.
Lynda and Mick both spend time at work during the day, so the two dogs are left at home. They have learned to play games together, and the O’Donnells find it amusing to watch. Two games in particular illustrate the enjoyment that the dogs get from each other.
Bobby has a soft ball, which is nicknamed her “dodie”, like a child’s soother. She holds it in her mouth nearly all of the time, like a human toddler. In one game, Roxy sneaks up on the older dog, and grabs the ‘dodie’ out of her mouth. She rushes off to hide it, and Bobby runs after her, to try to get it back. Roxy’s favourite trick is to push it with her muzzle under a kitchen unit. Bobby cannot reach it in there, and so she goes up to the O’Donnells, nudging them to ask them to get the dodie out for her. Bobby enjoys this game so much that she sometimes deliberately urges Roxy to hide the ball, putting it down in front of her, while she looks the other way.
Bobby plays another game, with a larger football. She picks up the ball in the garden, and brings it up to the back door. When the door is opened, she hurls the ball into the kitchen by swinging her head, like a doggy discus thrower. This sends a clear message to the O’Donnells that she wants them to throw the ball down the garden. When they do this, the two dogs race each other to grab it and bring it back to be thrown again.
Bobby and Roxy do not play together all of the time – they also have “time out” from each other, resting or playing with a ball on their own. But they are continually aware of each other, and if there is any event, such as a visitor, the two of them immediately muster up each other for support in dealing with the situation.
Two dogs do not always get on well together. I have seen situations where dogs just do not like each other, and serious fights can take place, needing veterinary attention. The only answer has been to rehome one of the animals.
Everyone needs to make their own judgement when choosing the right answer for their own pet. But at the very least, do pay attention to your pets’ social lives. A good friendship can transform the life of a lonely dog.
Tips:
Most animals are social creatures
Owners need to ensure that their pets do not become bored or lonely
A second pet can often be a good answer
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My weekly television slot

Every week, I have a slot on Ireland's TV3 television channel, during the breakfast show -Ireland AM - video links can be found on the next page ......
I am known on Ireland AM as "Pete the Vet", and every week I bring in a different patient to discuss with the presenters. Sometimes the television cameras follow me around during the week, producing short videos that are shown as part of the vet spot.
In this blog, I am planning to put up occasional videos showing some of the vet spots from the recent past, and I am very grateful to TV3 for allowing me to do this.
For starters, here is a piece that was filmed during a visit to the mobility clinic at the University College Dublin veterinary faculty.

Click on this to go to a video wall, and then click three times on one of the small moving thumbnails to see the full size videos.

(Please note - you need to be using Internet Explorer for this to work well at the moment)
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Racing pigeons

Birds are in Harry’s blood – his father bred canaries, and Harry has been racing his own pigeons for twenty eight years. I met Harry and his racing team when I visited his home last week, to give his bird their vaccinations against Paramyxovirus, a pre-race requirement for all pigeons. Harry is a member of the Bray Invitation Racing Pigeon club, and he has over fifty birds at the moment. He generally buys his birds from other club members, spending from €40 to €100 on each one, but racing pigeon enthusiasts can spend a lot more on top rated individual birds. There are stories of people spending €20000 or more for one pigeon. The birds can race for up to six years, and after that, Harry keeps his ex-racers in comfortable retirement in his loft. His oldest bird at the moment is a ten year old female.
Pigeon racing is a popular hobby in Ireland, but the logistics of the sport are not well known to those outside racing pigeon circles. It is a well organised, tightly regulated activity, based on the remarkable ability of pigeons to navigate back to their own loft when released many miles from home.
Most of the race release locations, or “race points”, are in Ireland, in places such as Mallow, Roscarbury or Tramore. There are some international races, with the UK being the most popular overseas location. There is one big race each year known as the Kings Cup, when birds are released from continental Europe. This year, the birds will be released from Lamballe, in northern France. The long distance races present a huge challenge to the birds’ homing instincts, and a proportion of the birds go missing during these races. The ring identification system means that it is possible to track the final location of missing birds, even if they never manage to return home. One of Harry’s birds once ended up in Morocco.
Harry’s local pigeon club is involved with around twenty eight races every year. There is a set routine for the races that starts with the birds being taken down to the local club on the evening before a race, typically on a Friday. Special rubber rings are applied to the pigeons’ legs, under the watchful eye of club officials. The numbers on the rings are unique to each race, and form the basis of generating an individual race time for each bird..
The labelled pigeons are then taken as a group into Dublin, in wooden crates called “panniers”. The Bray Club is part of the Irish South Road Pigeon Federation, one of a number of clubs involved in organising pigeon racing programmes in Ireland. Pigeons are brought in panniers from a number of local clubs around Ireland, and are then all transferred into a forty foot trailer designed specifically for transporting pigeons. There could be two or three thousand birds in a typical race.
The birds are then driven to the racepoint. They are kept in their panniers, but fed and watered as needed. The pigeon enthusiasts are charged a fee for each crate of racing birds, which is generally no more than a few euro per bird. Harry sends around ten birds to each race, but some of his club mates may send sixty pigeons or more.
The birds are released on the following day, usually a Saturday, although if the weather is bad, this may be delayed until the Sunday, or even the Monday. There is no point in releasing racing birds into rain and high winds. The pigeon owners are given a telephone number to ring – the so-called “Lib-Line”, which has an answer machine giving them information as to precisely when the birds were released. The information is also available online.
Harry knows how fast his birds can fly, and when he knows what time they were released, he can easily guess their expected time of arrival into his back garden. He generally sits having a cup of tea, looking out at his garden, and waiting for the flutter of wings that heralds the return of a racing bird.
When the pigeon arrives, he removes the rubber ring from its leg, and puts it into the special racing clock that he keeps in his own home. This records the time of arrival, and he then takes it up to the local club to be officially read.
The speed of the birds varies considerably, mostly depending on prevailing weather conditions. Typically, a bird might fly at thirty miles per hour, but the wind is favourable, a bird could travel at up to 60mph. The speed – or velocity – of the bird is the statistic that is used to calculate the winners in a race. This allows for the fact that each pigeon loft is a different distance away from the race point
There is a financial prize for the fastest bird in each race, but the amount is generally only a few hundred euro. In the bigger, open races, the prize money can be as high as several thousand euro. For local pigeon fanciers, interest in the results is boosted by an in-house pools system. Everyone puts a few euro into the pot, and the total is divvied out according to whose birds do best within the local club.
Harry’s young birds, born in 2007, had their first race last weekend. Their results were not startling, but Harry was happy enough. As in many hobbies, it is the sport that counts.
Tips: Pigeon racing is a popular hobby Birds can be released from as far away as France Most birds fly home faster than humans can travel over the same distance
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Working together for animals in Ireland

This audio segment, courtesy of East Coast FM, discusses a conference that took place, organised by www.anvilireland.ie, where different animal welfare groups came together to discuss how to move things forwards for animals in Ireland

03 anvil ireland.mp3

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Taming a wild cat

A year ago, Justine’s parents were walking through Rathfarnham when they noticed a colony of feral cats at the back of a garage. Most of the cats scattered as they drew close to them, but there was one black and white individual who appeared sickly.....As the Whittakers approached, the cat stood his ground, looking at them and miaowing, despite the fact that the rest of the cats had bolted. They tried to get close enough to the cat to pet him, but he was too shy to let them do this, and he moved away. But he continued to miaow at them, as if he was trying to talk to them.
When the Whittakers went home that evening, they could not put the miaowing cat out of their thoughts. The cat looked as if he needed help, and without an owner, who was going to help him?
Colonies of feral, unowned cats are common all over Ireland. They develop directly because owners of pet cats refuse to have their own pets neutered or spayed. Unwanted kittens become 'wild' animals (so-called “feral cats”) because they have to fend for themselves, without close human contact. Cat colonies usually live close to humans, because they need a regular food source, but they do not allow themselves to be handled, and are very wary when approached. They are never aggressive to passers-by, but they are highly defensive of their own freedom, and will bite and scratch in an effort to get away if efforts are made to restrain them.
There are positive aspects to feral cat colonies. They are highly effective at controlling local populations of rats and mice, and contrary to the common belief, they very rarely carry any disease which is likely to put human health at risk. Many people grow fond of the 'regular' feral cats in their neighbourhood, giving them names and feeding them regularly.
There is one serious problem with feral cat colonies: the number of cats in the colony tends to increase year by year, because they are not neutered. In one study, the birth rate in a feral cat colony was around six kittens per female cat per year and the kitten mortality rate was around 75% before reproductive age. This means that a typical feral cat colony will double in size every couple of years.
As the cat colonies get bigger, problems develop. There is not enough food to go around, so the cats become starved and underweight. They begin to make a nuisance of themselves in their search for food, raiding bins and sometimes harassing pet cats. The feral cats suffer from starvation, and from other illnesses which affect them more severely because of their run-down condition.
The cat that the Whittakers had found was one of these “excess” feral cats, and without help, he was unlikely to survive.
Jusstine’s father could not sleep that night, because he kept thinking about the unfortunate cat, miaowing for help. The following day, he went back, equipped to catch the cat. He threw a large blanket over the cat, and bundled it into a cage. He brought him straight to our practice, where we gave him a thorough check-over.
Apart from being half-starved, and having fleas and worms, the cat (now christened “Freddie”), was surprisingly healthy. We carried out blood tests for AIDS and Leukaemia, common viruses in cat colonies, and he was virus-free. It seemed that he was just a smaller-than-average cat who was having difficulty coping in the tough world of a feral cat colony. We fed him up with high energy diets for a few days, then we sent him back to his new home with the Whittakers.
Freddie was completely wild for the first few weeks, but Justine and her family persisted in their efforts to tame him. They kept him in a large cage in their living room, and he gradually became accustomed to the presence of humans nearby. After a while, he began to allow humans to pet him, and soon they were able to let him out of his cage for short spells. When he had become calmer, they moved his cage to their back yard. Soon, he was leaving his cage, and voluntarily returning to it. He is still a nervous cat, but he is now as tame as many cats who have lived with humans since kittenhood.
There are two other pet cats in the Whittaker household – Puss and Boots. Freddie has gradually fitted in well with them too. He seems to bully Boots, but he is friendly with Puss, and they spend time close to each other. Freddie must have had a traumatic time when he was the runt of the feral cat colony, and he still gets easily frightened.
Freddie has bonded particularly well with Justine. Soon after he had been tamed, he began to sleep on the end of her bed, and nowadays, he even talks to her. He miaows, she replies, and he miaows again. Freddie is a cat who seems to have been born with a inbuilt knowledge that it is possible to communicate with humans by miaowing. Miaowing saved his life when he communicated with Justine’s parents, and right up until now, he continues to enjoy his daily chats with Justine. He may be nervous, but he is a talker!
Tips:
Feral cats are pet cats that have “gone wild”
They are terrified of human contact at first
With time and patience, feral cats can sometimes be tamed
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