Monthly Archives: August 2017

Uncategorized

J.D. Rainbolt Appreciation Day–He foresaw Hurricane Harvey

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Then Major J.D. Rainbolt on the right. He foresaw disasters like Hurricane Harvey.

 

Today is August 30, 2017. This is a terrible time for the residents of Houston and the Texas coast. My thoughts and prayers are with them. This was the thing my father, J.D. Rainbolt, worried about all the time. Early warning was his life. He worried about possible enemy attacks and natural disasters it so everyday people wouldn’t have to. He knew someday Hurricane Harvey would hit Houston. Maybe he didn’t know the name Harvey, but he knew, nevertheless.

This day in 1955, Houston Mayor Roy Hofheinz declared J.D. Rainbolt Appreciation Day. This honor was directly tied to the current crisis current visiting Space City.

Long before Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was a thing, Dad pioneered early warning for the general public. He was the military activities engineer for Southwestern Bell Telephone, and worked on loan to the city of Houston for three years as the Communications and Warning Division Chief. In his tenure in this position, he installed (at no cost to Houston or Harris County) 22 early warning sirens. According to State Coordinator William L. McGill, “Your great contribution to civil defense in Texas and particularly Harris County will be long remembered by this office. Your efforts have placed your part of Texas among the top areas of the nation in the communications and warning field.”

Then Houston Mayor Roy Hofheinz declared August 30, 1955 J.D. Rainbolt Appreciation Day.

 

Until recently, I never understood Dad’s fascination with hurricanes and severe weather. Although I admit I have inherited his obsession. When I was a kid, every night during hurricane season, Dad would get out his charts and religiously plot the course of the hurricane de jour.  After reading his papers, I now know he was moving resources to a safe, but accessible place so they could arrive as soon as possible after the storm passed.

I remember in 1961, going outside and watch the churning clouds of Hurricane Carla’s outer arms approach San Antonio. I don’t know why this made such an impression on me, but I can still close my eyes and see it. Carla made landfall as a category four around Port O’Connor. It did an enormous amount of damage all along the Texas coast. Dad had to make sure communications to the area was immediately available. Without communications, more tangible resources couldn’t arrive. It was truly a matter of life and death for those people affected by the storm. He laid the groundwork for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

After Dad’s death three years ago, I was going through his papers trying to find facts for his eulogy, I found a yellowed crumbling newspaper article that detailed his pivotal role in establishing the air raid warning sirens  in Harris County, and one of the first in the U.S.

A telegram from State Coordinator William L. McGill on J.D. Rainbolt Appreciation Day

 

Since the end of the Cold War, the purpose of the sirens has changed. Although recent events in North Korea have renewed our concerns about nuclear attack, citizens of Texas have more immediate threats associated with natural disasters. Where I live in North Texas, these early warning alerts are used primarily for tornado warnings.  Inside my home, I can hear sirens blare at least a couple of times each tornado season.

Those Houston early warning signs looks like this.

We all know about the legend that when a bell rings an angel earns his wings. But Dad has his own twist. Whenever I hear those tornado sirens, I know that Dad is still looking out for me.

He’s also still looking out for the people of Houston and Harris County. On this August 30, 2017, J.D. Rainbolt Appreciation Day, I’m sure he’s looking down with a heavy heart wishing he could do more to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Don’t worry Dad, by your example, the people of Texas have this. Love ya.

Do you have a message for J.D. or for the people of Houston? How do you plan on helping? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Behavior, Litter Box, New Research, Uncategorized

Study Shows Declaw Surgery Results in Chronic Pain and Behavior Problems in Cats

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We never considered subjecting Sam to declaw surgery. He never destroyed furniture because he had plenty of scratching posts. Photo by Weems S. Hutto.

New Study Shows Declaw Surgery Contributes to Behavior Problems

In the past, shelters and rescue groups have insisted that a larger percentage of declawed cats were surrendered for aggression and inappropriate elimination issues than kitties with intact toes. The pro declaw forces always downplayed the assertion with, “Show the scientific proof.” Of course, that was impossible.  No scientific proof existed because the research hadn’t been done. Thanks to a new study, led by Nicole K. Martell-Moran, DVM, MPH, we now have that proof.

Martell-Moran’s just-released study now supports those claims that declawed cats are at greater risk of developing deal-breaker behavior problems than cats with natural paws. Extrapolating from there, cats with biting and elimination problems are much higher risk of being surrendered to shelters than well-behaved cats.

The study, “Pain and adverse behavior in declawed cats,”was published online in May in the online Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.  Until now, no studies that incorporated modern pain assessment of declawed cats could be found in a PubMed search.

This study’s purpose was to determine if there was any association between declaw surgery and back pain, as well as unwanted new behaviors such as inappropriate elimination, biting, aggression, excessive grooming. Martell-Moran also wanted to determine if pain-causing bone fragments left behind after the surgery were associated with those behavior issues. The research shows that the surgery has the unintended consequence of causing potentially more serious behavior problems. The study evaluated 274 cats—half declawed and half intact, 33 of whom were four-paw declaw.

It concluded there was a clear association between declawing and long-lasting and painful side effects of the surgery. Also the “the prevalence of P3 fragments in declawed cats was excessive and surprising.”

Onychectomy, the technical term for declawing, is commonly performed in the United States and Canada to prevent cats from scratching and destroying furniture.

Four X-rays of forelimb and paw of four cats in the study. The arrows indicate fragments left behind after declaw surgery. The entire P3 has been removed in projection (a); <25% of the distal phalanx remains in (b); while >25% percent remains in (c); and only the tip of the distal phalanx has been removed (d) Photo courtesy of Nicole Martell-Moran.

 

Declaw surgeries are usually performed by using either guillotine cutters, dissection by scalpel or laser. Dr. Martell-Moran tried to determine the method used on each study cat, but that information was not always available. In those cases where she could determine the technique, there were some interesting revelations. She says all three techniques have the potential to leave behind painful bone fragments, but the guillotine most frequently left larger bone fragments that would regrow claw. This is not a painless process.  Laser surgery and scalpel dissection occasionally left smaller and fewer fragments, but there is no guarantee the kitty still won’t suffer painful side effects.

Pain and Behavior Problems May Take Years to Appear

Back pain, inappropriate elimination, biting, aggression, and/or excessive grooming occurred more often in cats who had bone fragments, but declawed cats without the bone fragments were still more likely to pee outside the box and bite than intact kitties.

Because of the floating bone shards, cats change the way they walk. “If you wear high heels, it’s going to change the way you walk and your back is eventually going to hurt,” Dr. Martell-Moran said. She added back pain causes litter box problems because of the position the cat must assume to eliminate. “In cats, defecating and urinating require different postures.” So the back pain may cause problems with peeing or pooping or both functions. Back and pain issue may appear years after the cat was declawed. (If you’re having litter box problems, please take a look at Cat Scene Investigator: Solve Your Cat’s Litter Box Mystery (Stupid Gravity Press.)

Another point not mentioned in her study, is the phantom pain factor. In human medicine, the 2002 study of human amputees, “Phantom Pain and Risk”  led by Pieter U Dijkstra, PhD,  found that phantom limb pain is “suffered by around seventy percent regardless the cause of amputation.”

Identifying and Managing Declaw Pain

Dr. Martell-Moran says not every single cat is going to have problems, but a vast majority of cats (likely 70 to 80 percent) suffer some pain.

“People just don’t know when they’re cats are in pain,” she said. “Look for changes in behavior such as suddenly not using the litter box or not wanting to be touched on the back. Sometime owners can tell by running their hand down the back. If cat turns around suddenly, he may be saying, “Hey, that hurts.”

Declaw surgery removes the distal bone of the toes. Photo courtesy of Nicole Martell-Moran.

 

If you suspect your declawed cat is painful, Dr. M-M suggests “getting X-rays of the feet to see if there are bone fragments.” If fragments are found, she said, “Go back and have the fragment removed.” She also suggested talking to a cat-friendly vet and investigating medical pain management.

Bottom line, Dr. Martell-Moran’s “study showed persistent pain and discomfort following declaw surgery is an important risk factor for behavioral changes” (i.e. housesoiling, aggression, biting.)

How do you feel about declawing cats? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below the bio.

About Dusty Rainbolt

Author Dusty Rainbolt is an award-winning veterinary journalist according to her answering machine. She is an associate certified cat behavior consultant and member of International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, as well as past president of the Cat Writers’ Association. Her books, columns, reviews and articles have been honored with more than 50 writing awards including three-time recipient of Friskies Writer of the Year. Her just-released award-winning cat behavior book, Cat Scene Investigator: Solve Your Cat’s Litter Box Mystery, is the consummate guide for dealing with a cat who sidesteps his/her appointed toilet. CSI, which provides science-based methods for determining the medical or behavioral causes of feline inappropriate elimination, teaches cat parents to view their cat’s litter box avoidance through the eyes of a detective to determine the cause and, ultimately, the remedy.

New Research, Uncategorized

Gooey Slug Slime Medical Adhesive Inspire Tomorrow’s Wound Care

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Take Two Slugs and Call Me Tomorrow

The adhesive is modelled on a defensive mucus that is secreted by the Dusky Arion slug

 

Medical sutures and staples may someday go the way of the dodo, thanks to man’s new best friend, the slug, the Dusky Arion slug to be precise (Arion subfuscus). Thanks to a new study, Tough adhesives for diverse wet surfaces, led by author Jianyu Li, an Assistant Professor at McGill University, future doctors may forego classes in stitching and knots and opt for arts and crafts where they can learn advanced gluing techniques. Tissue adhesives are used as an alternative to stitches or staples and can be less damaging to the healthy tissues,  but present options are inflexible and simply don’t adhere to wet, slimy surfaces inside the body. Slug slime will change all that.

The Dusky Slug (Arion subfuscus) is native to Europe and is considered an invasive pest in North America.

 

Li wanted to improve medical adhesives. And of course, when people think adhesive, they automatically think slug, right? But it’s not so far a stretch. When threatened, the slug secretes mucus that glues it in place, making it difficult for a predator to pry it off a surface.

The snail slime contains proteins as well as positively charged calcium ions.   The positive charges are attracted to the surface of biological tissues like a chemical version of Velcro®.

Since the bonding isn’t immediate, the hydrogel slug glue will be much easier for doctors to work with than existing tissue adhesives, which is basically Superglue that sticks instantly to many surfaces. The Superglue not only hardens unforgivingly fast, it doesn’t adhere to wet surfaces, like the inside of a body.  Ever tried to put a Band-Aid on a sweaty arm?  Same principle.

Slug Slime Creates a Sticky Situation

The slug-inspired medical adhesive stuck easily to wet tissue, like this pig heart.

 

The slug hydrogel forms a stretchy web of molecules, which are made up of 90 percent water.  That’s perfect for plugging a hole in a beating heart or even a growing heart.

In tests on both dry and wet pig skin, cartilage, heart, arteries, and liver, the adhesive was significantly greater than other medical adhesives, requiring more than three times the energy to disrupt the bond.  The slug slime adhesive can be cut to desired sizes and applied to tissue surfaces as a patch or injected for deeper injuries.

Adhesion occurs within minutes, whether or not the tissue is wet (translate: bloody) and it’s flexible enough to withstand a motion within a functioning body.  This family of adhesives may be useful as tissue adhesives, wound dressings, and tissue repair, not to mention adhering children into chairs until they finish eating their okra.

Hopefully in the near future we’ll see slug technology saving lives and limbs in human emergency rooms and veterinary clinic around the world.

Would you let your doctor or veterinarian use snail slime analogue on you or your cat? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

In the future say goodbye to Band-Aids, sutures and staples.

 

Sharks

#Sharknado & Sharks on a Train, for Real

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Sharknadoes are a real thing.

Sharknado Revival

Tomorrow is the long-awaited return of the Sharknado franchise. I have been waiting with baited breath for Sharknado 5: Global Swarming to be aired on the Syfy channel. The original movie, Sharknado, about a tornado that dropped voracious sharks down on the citizens of Los Angeles, was released during Shark Week of 2013. In Sharknado 2: The Second One shark-filled tornadoes took on New York. In Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! Washington DC and the east coast were decimated. In Sharknado 4: The Fourth Awakens the entire United States was in jeopardy. Tomorrow, it’s the world!

It appears that the writers of Sharknado may have based the movie on an actual event. In October 2012 a two-pound leopard shark fell to earth, landing alive and still wiggling on the 12th tee of San Juan Hills Golf Club in San Juan Capistrano, CA.

There were no witnesses to the sharknado drop and weather was clear. However the rescuing golf course marshall believes that the small shark was dropped by a bird because it had a pair of puncture wounds. The course marshall put the shark in a bucket of water and released it back into the ocean.

Maybe a Sharknado didn’t hit New York, but there was a real case of Sharks on a Train

The golf-loving leopard shark isn’t the only isn’t the only charcharinid known to use public facilities. As with the Sharknado movies, we move from California to New York City where a lemon shark didn’t so much inspire a B movie, but reenacted one. Many of us have seen the less than classic bad movie, Snakes on a Plane. But how many of us have seen Sharks on a Train? That wasn’t a rhetorical question. According to the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City, at least a few.

Subway Sharks

While weird goings on New York subways aren’t a new development, this might be the one of the most bizarre. Last August, during the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, riders aboard a Queens-bound train reported that unpleasant odor in one particular car. The unpleasant aroma wasn’t an unwashed human, but a three-foot-long dead shark left under a subway seat.

This little shark went out in style.

Several cell phone death photos (similar to the ones of dearly departed family members in the 19th century—ewww) were taken of the piscine. Some prankster sent the deceased shark off to his great reward with mementos that any New Yorker would have appreciate, a MTA card (not sure if there was any credit left), a can of Red Bull and a cigarette.

The Mustelus canis, more commonly known as a dusky smooth-hound or smooth dogfish, measured about three feet long. When the train reached the Astoria/Ditmars Boulevard station, a supervisor pronounced it DOA, put it in a trash bag and threw it away. Not much of a sendoff. A spokesman at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said they don’t know how the shark ended up on the train.

Sharks on a Train. Coming to a track near you.

What’s your favorite shark movie or story? Tell me in the comments below.