Cats as self healers

[Margot Lane]

I was thinking today of how Zorro, when he had IBS and was an outdoor kitty, would often flop on a patch of soft, cool moss with very cool clay beneath it. I wonder now if it soothed him in some way, as he always sought it out. It got me to thinking how ferals must seek out their own “remedies” for survival. I wonder if they nibble certain herbs, or if other things we don’t even know about have healing powers for them. (Note: not advocating this as a remedy for anyone here, just wondering about it from a cat’s perspective).

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Maybe I don't know what you actually mean by self-healing. Zorro probably found ways to soothe himself, but that didn't work as a method to self-healing, obviously. No doubt, outdoor - and indoor only too - cats find ways to help with deficiencies they may have due to some health issue, hence the herbs and what not.

Humans do that too, even if they aren't aware of what they are doing. It can cause 'cravings' that the body somehow seems to know what to crave. I did this when I was anemic from a medical condition, and I craved ice and the smell of gasoline. Both of those cravings stopped when the anemic condition was resolved. I had no idea and only figured it out afterward.

But none of this is self-healing, as the condition causing it still exists. It is instinctually driven by the body to help compensate for what is wrong.

 

[Margot Lane]

Right. Perhaps my post should be retitled. GASOLINE? That is wild. Perhaps these kinds of behaviors help us to notice that there is something odd going on in the first place. After all, cats can’t always tell us what is wrong, but they can give us lots of clues through behaviors.

 

[iPappy]

Self healing or not, sometimes I think they know things we don't quite understand. One of my friends had a dog who, despite never have done so before, went outside and began frantically eating grass. The dog was brought inside, and the grass caused him to throw up a foreign object he had ingested who knows when.
I've seen dogs and horses graze along some grasses and weeds and carefully nibble on one specific type, avoiding the rest. I don't know what they're doing or getting out of it, but it seems way more deliberate than just casually munching whatever is in their path.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I am more inclined to think it just happens that a cat - or a person - finds something that helps them in some way. But, yes, there can be hints in anything they do differently, and it is up to us to see if we can find out what those hints mean.

I only found out about the drive to smell gasoline one day while pumping gas - I didn't seek it out, I just came across it and there was a drive to want to smell it again and again.

There is a bit of a mystery in anything like this, but I don't really think cats have some ability to figure it out any more than probably any other species.

 

[Margot Lane]

Self healing or not, sometimes I think they know things we don't quite understand. One of my friends had a dog who, despite never have done so before, went outside and began frantically eating grass. The dog was brought inside, and the grass caused him to throw up a foreign object he had ingested who knows when.
I've seen dogs and horses graze along some grasses and weeds and carefully nibble on one specific type, avoiding the rest. I don't know what they're doing or getting out of it, but it seems way more deliberate than just casually munching whatever is in their path.

Chimpanzees I am told seek certain herbs at times. Maybe it is more like a chemical urge than a conscious knowledge of what would help.

 

[iPappy]

When Tag was diagnosed with cancer, I was getting some herbs into him via mixing it in his food. For a long while he took them with no issues, but over time he began refusing certain herbs at certain times. I didn't force it. Did he develop a stomach upset from one of them and remember? Did the smell turn his stomach as his disease progressed? There is a brain/gut connection (just think of an instance of food poisoning you had, or think of a food that makes you gag and you'll probably feel a little nauseous just from the thought.) Sometimes I wonder if they have a heightened sense of this, too. Willie in his last weeks would eat some of whatever I offered him...once. After that, he'd refuse it. His cancer was metastatic lung, so we have no idea where it originated but based on this (and the fact appetite stimulants given transdermally did nothing, as well as some odd litter box moments) I always wondered if it was something GI related. If that were the case, it would make sense that he'd associate anything he ate with an increased feeling of nausea, and refuse it. (If you got sick on a cheeseburger and fries, you probably wouldn't want to even look at one for a long time.)