Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Journalist Kathryn Bowers: "Zoobiquity"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-06-13/dr-barbara-natterson-horowitz-and-journalist-kathryn-bowers-zoobiquity
Barbara Natterson-Horowitz is a cardiologist at UCLA and a psychiatrist. In 2005, she was called to treat an unusual patient: an emperor tamarin at the Los Angeles Zoo. While examining the monkey’s heart, she learned that animals can die of a form of cardiac arrest caused by emotional or physical stress -- a syndrome that also afflicts humans. She joined journalist Kathryn Bowers in researching the parallels between people and animals, and found striking similarities: golden retrievers can get breast cancer; gorillas experience clinical depression; and some wallabies abuse opium. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers talk about various health issues shared by humans and animals.
Guests
Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz
professor of cardiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA,
member, medical advisory board, L.A. Zoo
Kathryn Bowers
Journalist
Read An Excerpt
Excerpted from "Zoobiquity" by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D., and Kathryn Bowers. Copyright © 2012 by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Comments
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Please ask your guests(s) to speak on the new field of One Health
DB dvm
Do medical people and science researchers not have any pets at all? Any animal lover listening to this interview or reading "Zoobiquity" surely must be asking this question.
Your speakers mentioned that animals "tell" when something is wrong more quickly than humans. Have they found animals cover up, hide, or "lie" about their physical condition like humans do?
As a wildlife rehabilitator for many years, I found it interesting to work with several species (squirrels, opossums and bunnies that suffer from Downs Syndrome and dwarfism. It also might be of interest to your guest that most veterinarians are not trained in wildlife and the treatments and medications are very different.
Linda Ostrand
Hillsborough, NC
We all keep saying "humans and animals." We should be saying "humans and other animals." We are animals. As your guests point out so clearly, we are not all that different.
My father is a veterinary and I grew up being diagnosed and treated by him in many cases (we lived in south America). It has never been a question for me that we are basically the same. Mammal anatomy is basically the same. Growing up I always wondered why people were so opposed to the odes of my dad treating our mild childhood diseases... thfoiugh this show I now know that this isn't as common sense as it has always been to me.
I guess in medicine eye contact is considered comforting. Not so in my profession.
As a female lawyer eye contact is my most effective weapon. Capture cardiomyopathy gives me a new goal!
Thank you for a most wonderful program
Also Diane: here in St. Louis it is my understanding that when the Humane Society or Animal Control gets a call about an abused animal in a household with children, DFS is immediately notified so that they can evaluate the children for the same problem..
Having had and loved dogs all of my 65 years, it is no surprise that four-legged animals can suffer from the same diseases and conditions as two-legged animals. I only hope that, as the medical profession becomes more aware of the concept, it doesn't lead to more beautiful animals becoming reseach lab victims.
Veterinarians have long been aware of human medicine. Most of us started by spending our pre-veterinary years surrounded by pre-meds, and this pattern continues throughout our careers. Ask some veterinarians; I'm guessing there are few who haven't visited the human literature after exhausting the veterinary literature. Not so when a physician has exhausted the human literature, which is a shame.
I had to laugh at the cardiologist's surprise at being told not to maintain eye contact with the tamarin, because they are different from humans. I spend a lot of time explaining to my clients who are human healthcare providers that animals often differ from humans. It's no shock to me, because despite some similarities, I know cats are not dogs are not cows are not swine.
Re: wildlife rehab, which requires special licensing in most states - there are veterinarians who specialize in this field. When clients call me with these cases, I direct them to the local veterinary school's wildlife center because I respect the law. I will not supply drugs or advice to non-veterinarian wildlife rehabilators for this reason, either.
I'd be very interested to hear how Down Syndrome is diagnosed in any non-human species, since by definition Down Syndrome is human trisomy 21. There are, however, a number of autosomal trisomies that have been diagnosed in non-human species. Dwarfism is a recognized syndrome in multiple species, too, including dogs, cats and horses.
I doubt I'll purchase this book. None of the authors' points are news to most veterinarians, including myself.
A friend and I were just discussing this the other night. Our topic was how difficult it must be for vets to diagnose a problem since they are responsible for the entire organism and multiple species as opposed to physicians who are often responsible for a single system of only a single species.
Absolutely hamlinr!
For 40 years, when I first started rescuing dogs, I've known of breast cancer and arthritis in dogs. As I became close to so many animals I became increasingly aware of their emotional lives, as well. That's when I became a vegan. I couldn't eat a pig any more than I could eat a dog, nor a chicken any more than I could eat a parakeet.
Now perhaps Diane Rehm can do a show that asks the tough questions about the horrible abuse of animals in medical experimentation. She could have the wonderful Dr. Neil Bernard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Kathy Freston as guests. I cannot believe I didn't hear a thing about this issue during the program today.
I found it hard to listen to the continual surprise regarding similarities between "human" and "animal" disorders and medicine. "Humans" are but one of many "animals." The basic biological components are essentially the same, shared across many species: bone, muscle, nerves, blood, lungs, eyes, digestive-track, etc. etc.
Other than utter extreme self-arrogance, why would we presume that we are totally unique? Do we not share most of our DNA with Fruit-flies?
I have a story from the Chimpanzee Human Communication Institute (CHCI) at Central Washington University, in Ellensburg, WA. where researchers have communicated for years with the half-dozen chimpanzees using American Sign Language. One morning Washoe (the matriarch of the "family") signed to one researcher that another researcher wasn't well. "No, she's fine," he signed back. Two days later, "she" the other researcher was diagnosed with a kidney infection. Link: http://www.cwu.edu/~cwuchci/
We are not alone.
After helping birth my Paint Mare's TWIN FOALS, (yes, they both lived, which is about 1/1,000). They both got up to nurse after their legs proved balance! They both ran around upon their discovery of movement! The next day, one of the foals continued to sleep. It was lethargic, and I called the vet to come. In the meantime, I remained with the Mare and both filly twins, and managed to excrete milk from the mother's nipples (yes, she allowed me to pump milk from her supply). I took the milk and continued to give it to the foal who could not get up.
Finally, after several hours, the vet came. He examined the filly and said the foal was healthy, and not colicing, which I was dreading to hear.
The foal was suffering from an 'allergic' reaction to the mother's milk!
SOLUTION: Tagamet (for stomach ulcers). A shot was given to the foal, and within minutes, she would stand to nurse again. I was to give the foal Tagamet chopped and mixed with water through a syringe several times a day for two weeks.
This should be a 'heads-up' for babies who cry all of the time.
The vet explained that during the birthing process, the filly went through stress. (She was the second horse which came out after her twin.) All this time, I had no clue there was a second horse inside the mare. This was a totaly surprise! The stomach lining was raw from the stress, and the milk irritated the lining. Tagamet helped with the pain in the lining of the stomach so the foal could remain up for her feeding.
I wonder how many Pediatricians know about stomach ulcers in young babies to prescribe 'over the counter' Tagamet for their patients? This would eleviate so much crying of babies, if this was indeed, the reason for their stomachs being in pain.....stress during the birth, causing the lining to be raw...just saying......
No one should be surprised about pets getting similar diseases as humans. A few reasons are: 1) bad diet - cats and dogs do not eat grains by "design".
When did you last see a pack of dogs ravaging a corn or wheat field?
2) pharmacology - pets are drugged by vets even worse than people are drugged by their doctors
3) sedentary lives - speaks for itself
As for wild animals, controlled testing would be needed before any conclusions should be drawn. It would be hard to remove man's effects even from the wild.
Obesity is not "evolutionary". Give me a break! Was the book subsidized by some high fructose, fast food organization?
These are the same people that say everyone should be on statins.....