Expert: Dr. Christina Chambreau - 8/31/2009

Question
I have a female cat who about two months ago started to urinate outside the litter box. I took her in and the vet couldn't get a urine sample, but stuck her on antibiotics and something to decrystalize her urine.  That seemed to work and she was better.  She's now starting to urinate outside the litter box again.  I've noticed it for the past two days.  I started thinking and realized that she's only had this problem since switching her cat food.  She was on Eukanuba but since money has been getting tight and I have 6 cats I thought I had found a cheaper but more wholistic cat food for them.  I have them on mounds perrfectly natural cat food.  Here's the break down:

Ingredients:

Duck, Chicken Meal, Pearled Barley, Rice, Salmon Meal, Tomato Pomace, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid), Chicken, Whole Egg, Chicken Liver, Potato, Salmon Oil (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Oat Fiber, Cheese, Flaxseed, Brewers Dried Yeast, DL Methionine, Alfalfa Meal, Lecithin, Chicken Cartilage, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Chicory Root Extract, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Taurine, Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Bifidobacterium Longum, Lactobacillus Plantarum, Enterococcous Faecium, Vitamin A, D3, E, B12 Suppliments, Choline Chloride, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Riboflavin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Biotin, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Carbonate, Manganous Oxide, Copper Oxide, Cobalt Carbonate, Calcium Iodate, Sorbic Acid, Iron Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Sodium Selenite.


Guaranteed Analysis

Crude Protein (Min.).........32.0%
Crude Fat (Min.).........18%
Crude Fiber (Max.).........3.5%
Moisture (Max.).........10%
Ash (Max.).........6.5%
Magnesium (Max.).........0.10%
Taurine (Min.).........0.12%
*Omega-6 Fatty Acids (Min.).........2.7%
*Omega-3 Fatty Acids (Min.).........0.40%
*Lactobacillus Acidophilus (Min.).........100 million CFU/lb
*Bifidobacterium Longum (Min.).........100 million CFU/lb
*Lactobacillus Plntarum (Min.).........100 million CFU/lb
*Enterococcus Faecium (Min.).........100 million CFU/lb

Could this be the problem causing her to get reoccurring UTI's?  The only symptoms she has is peeing outside the litter box.  I don't notice blood in the urine and it doesn't appear that she's straining to pee or that it's painful.  

Any thoughts on what I can do that's fairly inexpensive to correct this issue.

Thanks
Mel

Answer
When I only had my conventional veterinary training, I would often be very frustrated by problems like this that recurred. The holistic philosophy has taught me that there is an underlying vibrational imbalance that causes most problems and the healing goal is to resolve that imbalance. Now that the multitude of holistic modalities is available, I can tell you to never give up. Try one after the other, and record the changes with each.

Please go to my web site and sign up for the newsletter - www.ChristinaChambreau.com. On the products page, there are many great supplements which may help your animals be healthier.

If you were trained in different healing modalities (see below - YOU BE THE HEALER) you could help and save money by using Reiki(see below Reiki - for free), T-Touch, HTA, flower essences, supplements, homeopathy and more.

You are not alone in being short of money right now. There are many ways you can find money to treat your cherished animals. Some will take some time, others may help you in this crisis. Some veterinarians will be willing to barter with you. What skills do you have? Can you clean their parking lot, sidewalk, clinic? Are you a bookkeeper or accountant? Are you great with the internet and able to help them build a web site? Could you get new clients for them? Call the veterinarian of your choice, ask to speak with the veterinarian and tell them your financial situation and the animal's current problems. Then tell the veterinarian that you would like to build up credit for future problems. Even if your animals are not ill yet you do not have much money, do this for the future. Purchase pet insurance.  You can also save significant money by following the following holistic approaches - do not vaccinate and find local sources of free food ingredients. This will take some time and research, then will be easy and inexpensive.

The food you are feeding has ingredients (barley and rice) I am not thrilled with and some I would be uncertain about ("meals"). Lactobacillus is destroyed by the pH of 1 int he stomach, soit is useless. Read the nutrition section below for more on this.

Flower essences are 100% safe and can prevent urinary problems - try UR fine from spirit Essences. give it for the next 2 months and see what happens. Also very effective is an herbal combination, Tinkle Tonic - great name, right? - from Animal Essentials -- Animals Apawthecary.
This would be good to use if she starts with symptoms. Also very supportive is the nutritional supplement Bladder Strength from Vetri Science. All can be ordered at my web site - www.ChristinaChambreau.com/products.php.

The following will help you keep all 6 of your cats healthy and minimize visits to a conventional veterinarian, help the wone with bladder problems and maybe have some live to over 20.  
7 KEYS TO HEALTHY ANIMALS
1. Know the current level of health. Most health problems are the result of an underlying energy imbalance.  As we cure animals of "disease", we find that other things we thought were normal go away, so we can use these clues to know that animals are not healthy yet.  Your goal is for your animal to have great energy, no doggy odor, no hairball vomiting, little shedding, a glowing coat and many more. Below is a complete list of these signs (Early Warning Signs of Illness). In young animals, these apparently "normal" problems may be the only indications to start exploring new options for lifestyle or treatment.  Buy the Healthy Animal's Journal (www.HealthyAnimalsJournal.com) so you can see how these early warning symptoms and obvious ill symptoms change over time.  It will be available by October in an e-book version and by Jan 2010 a version for horses will be available.

2. Feed the best. What are the best diets for people or animals -- the most processed or the freshest, most organic?  The best ingredients should be the most consciously raised - local, organic vegetables, free ranging protein sources. Dogs and cats have ripping and tearing teeth, bone crunching teeth, no digestive juices in the mouth, jaws that do not chew, a stomach full of acid where the food sits for 4-12 hours and a very short transit time in the intestines. Dogs and cats do not pull out a knife to de-bone their prey and do not pull out matches to light a fire to cook their meat and vegetables. Therefore the best diet for dogs and cats is raw meat including raw bones, pureed raw and cooked vegetables and a few supplements (Calcium if no bones are eaten is critical). Grains are not good for most animals, but if there are none of the early warning signs (see below) and no illnesses, you can feed some grains, preferably the higher protein ones. Start as young kittens and puppies or at whatever age you read this (Brighthaven.org, a cat sanctuary switches 16 years old and older cats to raw meat diet and some have lived to 27 and 30). Second best is same quality, but cooked.  Even grocery store quality meat and vegetables are much better than most processed foods. Processed foods are an effort for the food industry to use up its waste products except for a few companies with great motives (and even they sometimes get bad or inferior ingredients). Processed foods are also a problem for the environment - they are not sustainable. Every animal needs and wants a different combination at different times in their lives, just as we do. With any food, observe each of your animals for the effect that food has on them. NEVER feed DRY food to cats - even as treats. this is frequently implicated by conventional veterinarians as causing bladder problems, and by holistic ones as causing kidney problems as well. To save money, you can find chicken necks, backs from local free range farms that could be as low as $1.00 per pound. You can now buy many commercial raw  meat diets. You must research them as well. Ask where the ingredients are raised? Are chemicals used? Are the chickens, beef, pork, etc raised in humane ways, out in the sun to get the Vitamin D in the meat, etc?

My recipe for my 2 cats with costs:I vary the recipe in many ways and make in different quantities.
 Cut up a whole chicken - my cats prefer the legs into 1/3, the thighs into 1/2 and other bones/meat about the same size. Muscle, skin, bone and all. Healthy cats should be able and willing to eat whole legs/thighs if not too tiny.  Or cut up beef (chuck or other inexpensive cut), lamb, fish, venison, any meat & use egg shells for the critically needed calcium.
Chop chicken hearts, gizzards, kidneys into chunks (healthy cat should eat whole)
Puree vegetables, cooked &/or raw, whatever I have in the house. (10% of the volume)
Add 2 cloves garlic per chicken and puree again.
Add ORGANIC, FREE RANGE chicken liver (10% or less). Puree again.
Add ground beef heart and muscle mixture that I get locally from free range scraps.
Mix all together. Put in containers and freeze 3-4 day portions.
I am rather moderate in my approach. Some people are much stricter about what they serve and what they combine.
This costs me about $60 per 6 weeks for 2 cats, which is $5 per week per cat. Canned food would cost me more, especially if it were good quality, and great premade frozen raw food would be easier but cost $5 per 3 - 4 days per cat. My costs are a little higher because I also feed NuCat vitamins right now.

3. Vaccinate the least. In my opinion, vaccines have caused more harm to animals than anything else we have done. Do you get measles, mumps and polio every year of your life? Researchers in conventional veterinary medicine agree that we vaccinate too often, in too many combinations, and that this level of vaccination, while preventing epidemics, is harmful to the health of susceptible animals.  On-going studies show that antibodies are high 10 and 16 years later for distemper and Parvo so I recommend just a few baby shots and NO more. While Rabies is also a viral disease, you must follow the law and vaccinate every 3 years. The AVMA, veterinary colleges, AAHA, FPA and other leaders say 3 years is the best for all other vaccines, so certainly do not do yearly for anything (unless there is a Leptospirosis outbreak in your area, then email me for guidance). Please do not let the need to put your dog in a kennel force you to poison your dog with extra vaccines unless it is an emergency. The insert in vaccine packages says “Give only to healthy animals”, so if your animal is ill in any way, or undergoing treatment, they should not be vaccinated. Vaccinated animals often develop many chronic conditions including diabetes, cushings disease, addisons, allergies and even cancer. A wonderful list serve on vaccines, their harm and alternatives is at yahoo groups. To register, go to jstsayno2vaccs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

4. Use the fewest chemicals, remembering that there are chemicals in vaccines. Each animal is an individual and will respond differently to heartworm, flea and tick preventatives. Some are very sensitive to chemicals used in the yard or the house and in vaccines - they will become profoundly ill. Others will be triggered by these chemicals to just not have full health.  Chemicals in foods can cause allergic type reactions, so again feeding a fresh diet from local ingredients will be best. Healthy yards have lots of weeds. House cleaners can be made from foods and microfibril cloths clean like a charm. Healthy animals never get fleas and ticks

5. Understand how animals become ill and how they heal. First there is an energetic imbalance (they are just not right), then functional (the dog is itchy), then inflamed (skin is red, infected, swollen and hot) and finally tissue changes (thick, black skin). Results of any treatment can be no change, amelioration (current symptoms disappear with no other improvements, then return), suppression (current symptoms disappear and they become more ill) or a cure (everything about the animal to begins to improve, especially the overall energy level.)  
Keeping a journal is critical to determine what treatments are helping problems to become less frequent and less severe. You can stand firm with what you feel is working even if your professional disagrees and change approaches when needed.
Www.HealthyAnimalsJournal.com is a great one to use and e-version will soon be available.  

6. Learn different healing approaches. There are many different ways to stimulate your healing that you never need to give up trying. Flower essences, essential oils, homeopathy, acupuncture, massage, Reiki and chiropractic are a few. Classes are found through your health food store, by phone or on-line. I teach many classes around the country and my web site lists classes taught by others as well.

7. Select the best healers for each animal's health team. Most people want a veterinarian (preferably integrative) and an energy healer. You decide what needs to be tried next for your animal. When you realize the animal is not improving – seek different care. Use conventional veterinarians for diagnosis and emergency treatment, or if other methods are not working. Again, integrative veterinarians (see below) will be able to do both, and have the philosophical understanding of the vibrational causes of illness.


FIND A HEALER
I strongly recommend finding an integrative veterinarian with whom to work. This is a person trained in many different approaches, including using conventional drugs only when absolutely needed. Working with one can increase the chance that your cherished companion can live a long and healthy life after recovering from this current problem. There are good ones and great ones, and a few homeopathic veterinarians will consult by phone or email. Go to www.VetAdviceLine.com and read the article in the library about selecting and working with a holistic veterinarian. There are other great articles there, as well.
You can go to the web sites for each type of holistic practice and use their referral list to find one near to you:
1. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine: www.IVAS.org & www.TCVM.com
2. Homeopathic veterinarians (these can often help you by phone if no other holistic practitioners are nearby that you like): www.theAVH.org Their conferences are open to lay people, too, and we offer an introductory class before the conference.
3. Chiropractor - www.animalchiropractic.org
4. Wide range of other treatments: www.AHVMA.org, American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association

There are also lots of practitioners and approaches that are used by trained people that you can find by searching the Internet.

YOU BE THE HEALER  
I also strongly recommend getting some training in understanding the wide range of approaches to health so you can be in charge of what you choose for treatments for your animals. You can learn Reiki (which can take the "bad" out of vaccines and any needed drugs, or even make food healthier), massage, HTA, TTouch, acupressure, flower essence therapy, aromatherapy, all of which are 100% safe to use for any problems (see REIKI below). There are many more approaches you can do to help heal your animals with some training since they need to be used more carefully - homeopathy, herbal medicine, Chinese herbs. In addition to classes (see below), there are many very good list serves filled with people experienced with not vaccinating and feeding raw meat diets. Go to yahoogroups.com and look for “Just say no 2 vaccs” and “Raw Paws”. As with human health approaches, there are many different opinions, so you need to experiment and see what makes your animals more or less healthy. Keeping a journal can help you decide what is working and what is not working (www.HealthyAnimalsJournal.com).

www.ChristinaChambreau.com has a listing of courses taught by her and others that may help you. I am doing teleseminars and will expand to Webinars in the future. If you want to organize a webinar for me and get people in your area of the country to attend I would love to do that for you. You can do searches online for the many other classes and lectures available. Go to www.theAVH.org for classes every November as part of the annual conference.  People come from around the world for this.

Healthy Animal Update is an emailed newsletter that is occasionally sent out – to sign up – go to www.ChristinaChambreau.com. While there check out classes and products.
Good Health and looking forward to seeing you/hearing you in some of my classes.
Dr. Chambreau


REIKI:
From the book, Healthy Animal's Journal - "Reiki: Personally, I think every person who lives with or works with animals must know at least Level I Reiki. The practitioner places her hands upon the animal (or it can be done from a distance as some animals are too sensitive for direct touch) with the intent for healing to occur. The energy flows through the healer into the animal. This is based on directly applying Chi (energy) to rebalance the energy field so it no longer needs to produce the physical symptoms. It is a very good adjunct to any healing modality, especially to relieve pain and inflammation. It also "takes the bad out of" things. By doing Reiki on smelly water in restaurants I have been able to drink sweet tasting and smelling water. Use Reiki anytime that you must give injections, vaccines, drugs, flea or heartworm drugs, or other substances with potential toxicity. Do you work in a grooming salon, or kennel, or veterinary clinic, or barn or anywhere animals are being seen? Use your Reiki on any treatments to be given and to calm the animals. People have reported getting animals to eat by doing Reiki on their food.  http://www.reiki.org  . Get a free treatment at www.interdimensionalhealing.com. Great information on Reiki - http://www.reikicourse.orgKathleen Prasad is a wonderful teacher and works with my favorite sanctuary and holistic education center, BrightHaven www.brighthaven.org . Kathleen leads a free monthly telechat for anyone trained in Reiki and using it with animals. http://www.animalreikisource.com/ If you cannot find a Reiki Class near you (same class for people and animals as it connects you through an "attunement" to the healing energy of the universe, making you a channel of healing), three groups offer long distance, free, attunements. http://theholisticcare.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13 http://www.freereikiattunement.com   Another group that offers Reiki attunements, classes and training on-line www.ReikiBlessings.com and animal classes, too www.animalhealers.homestead.com/  A Reiki Class will be part of the PGFFD summer health classes in June in Bowie, www.HomeopathicAnimalCare.org

EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF ILLNESS FOR DOGS AND CATS

1.   Is your companion really healthy?
2.   Can you tell if the treatment you selected is deeply curing?
3.   Can your companion be healthier than you realize?
YES - read on and evaluate your animal for true health.

Most health problems are the result of an underlying energy imbalance, made worse from poor diet and vaccination.  They are rarely acute diseases (except injuries). Therefore, you may find that the problem does not clear up as you expect or it recurs. If so, you are dealing with an underlying predisposition to illness, and these clues to underlying ill health will help you select a remedy and monitor the results.  As we cure animals of "disease", we find that certain other "NORMAL" things go away, too.  Do not be satisfied until most of the following symptoms are gone.  In young, apparently healthy animals, these apparently "normal" problems may be the only indications to start treatment. This is only the beginning of a list - as more animals are cured we will find new levels of health. Tracking these is easy when you use the Healthy Animal's Journal by Dr. Christina Chambreau (www.HealthyAnimalsJournal.com)

SKIN: doggy smell; attracts fleas a lot; dry, oily, lack-luster coat;
excessive shedding; not grooming,    ear problems - waxy, oily, itchy, recurrent mites; eye discharge, tearing, or matter in corner of eyes; raised third eyelid; spots appearing on iris; "freckles" appearing on face; whiskers falling out; fragile, thickened, distorted claws that are painful or sensitive to trim.
BEHAVIOR: Fears(of loud noises, thunder, wind, people, animals, life); too timid; too rough or aggressive (even at play); too hard to train; barks too much and too long; suspicious nature; biting    when petted too long; hysteria when restrained; clumsy; indolent; licking or sucking things or people too much; not using litter box or not covering stool.
DIGESTIVE: Bad breath; tarter accumulation; loss of teeth; poor appetite; craving weird things(rubber    bands, plastic, dirt, cat litter, paper, dogs eating dog or cat stools, rocks, sticks...); sensitivity to milk;    thirst - a super healthy cat on non dry food will drink at most once a week; red gum line; vomiting often, even hairballs more than a few times a year; mucous on stools; tendency to diarrhea with least    change of diet; obesity;  anal gland problems; recurrent parasites.
STIFFNESS when getting up, early hip dysplasia; tires easily in hot or cold weather; can no longer jump up on counters, or go up or down steps.
TEMPERATURE: Low grade fevers - Normal for healthy cats and dogs is
100-101.5.
AGE & REPRODUCTION: Should live a long life (Shepards 17 years, Danes 12, cats 24). should be able    conceive easily, deliver normally, and not pass on "genetic breed" problems.