Latest news with #Himalayans
The Star
09-07-2025
- Health
- The Star
Dogs and cats get allergies too – here's how you can help them
About five years ago, Gail Friedman noticed her Parson Russell Terrier was constantly licking his paws and seemed super uncomfortable. "The poor dog. I would put baby socks on his feet so that he wouldn't lick them or bite at them,' said Friedman, of Oak Brook, Illinois. "I was constantly changing the socks, washing his feet a lot. Nothing worked.' It turned out her canine companion, Mr Friedman, had allergies. It's a common and tricky problem in pets – caused by various things such as pollen, dust, mold, chemicals and food – but veterinarians say there are several ways to ease their suffering. Allergies happen when the immune system overreacts to a foreign substance. Cats and dogs react to many of the same things people do, as well as pests like fleas. There are no definitive recent statistics on how many pets have allergies, but research suggests the problem is growing. "I probably see allergic dogs and cats every single day, probably multiple times a day,' said Dr Karen Woodard, medical director at Thrive Pet Healthcare-Elmhurst in Illinois. About 90% of allergic pets react to environmental triggers, Woodard said, and the rest have food allergies only. Dog breeds that are especially vulnerable include various types of terriers, boxers and bulldogs; in cats, it's Persians, Siamese and Himalayans. Pets can even be allergic to other animals – cats to dogs, dogs to cats and either to another species. "It's possible for them to be allergic to us, just like we are to them,' said Thrive's Dr. Anthea Elliott Schick of Scottsdale, Arizona, immediate past president of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology. Friedman (right) holds her dog, Mr Friedman, while Dr Woodard checks his ear for signs of allergies. — Photos: LAURA BARGFELD/AP Scratch and lick Allergic cats and dogs aren't as likely as humans to sneeze and cough. More often, they scratch and lick themselves, shake their heads and develop ear infections. Woodard said her Yorkie mix, Teddy, had the classic signs – scratching around his shoulders and getting rashes and ear infections starting as a six-month-old lived in the South at the time, and he tested positive for allergies to various trees and grasses there. A common sign of allergies in her feline patients is "overdoing their grooming,' said Woodard, who's on the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association's board of directors."Cats shouldn't be pulling their hair out when they groom. So if you start seeing bald patches on your cat, even though the skin underneath it looks normal, that could be a sign of allergies.' Even food allergies, often to chicken, beef, lamb or other protein sources, frequently show up on the skin, although pets can have vomiting or diarrhoea, too. Rarely, pets can develop life-threatening anaphylactic reactions, perhaps after being stung by an insect. But most allergies are simply miserable for the animals. "It breaks my heart because it gets to a point that not only do I have socks on poor Mr Friedman – which is humiliating for him – he sometimes gets so bad he has to wear the cone of shame,' Gail Friedman said. "And that's not fair because he can't move around right, he can't sleep right. It's terrible.' Get help The first step is to get a diagnosis from the vet. This could involve allergy testing, or in the case of food allergies, an "elimination diet,' which involves feeding limited ingredients the pet hasn't previously eaten. If the allergy culprit is environmental, there are medications like anti-inflammatory drugs and newer oral and injectable medications for dogs to block chemical signals associated with allergies may be treated with special diets such as "hydrolysed' food, in which proteins are chemically broken down into tiny pieces. All this can get expensive. Friedman estimates she's spent about $10,000 (RM42,495) on testing, medication and care for Mr Friedman and another allergic dog. But vets say there are also ways to help pets at home by cleaning their bedding frequently, wiping their fur with a wet washcloth and giving them baths. Outdoors, "they're almost acting like little Swiffers, getting allergens on their skin, and it goes through their skin and actually becomes a problem,' Schick said."We say bathe your dog, at a minimum, once a week if they're allergic.' After she's tried nearly everything, Friedman's dogs are still vexed by allergies. But they're doing better. "I'm going to keep experimenting until we find what stops it completely,' she said. "All you can do is try.' – By LAURA UNGAR/AP
CBC
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Adam Duritz of Counting Crows wrote a song about wanting to be famous — and it came true
In 1993, Michael Jordan retired from basketball for the first time, Jurassic Park was making a killing at the box office, and Counting Crows released their debut single, Mr. Jones. That song became an inescapable radio hit that catapulted Counting Crows into the cultural zeitgeist. For lead singer Adam Duritz, the success of Mr. Jones came as a total surprise, but there was also something prophetic about the song, seeing as he wrote it about his desire to be famous. "We all wanna be big stars," he sings on the track. "But we don't know why and we don't know how." In a new interview with Q 's Tom Power, Duritz looks back on his breakout hit and shares why overnight fame maybe wasn't a dream come true for him after all. WATCH | Adam Duritz's full interview with Tom Power: It all started when Duritz spent a fun night out in San Francisco with his friend Marty Jones, whom he'd played with in his old band, The Himalayans. Jones's dad, a flamenco guitarist, was in town, so they went to check out his gig before eventually heading to a bar called New Amsterdam. "We went to a lot of bars that night, trailing around after this flamenco troupe and getting hammered," Duritz recalls. "Just feeling like this is really cool: basking in someone else's spotlight and kind of wishing it was me in the spotlight." Duritz says a lot of the lyrical details in Mr. Jones are based on things that actually happened that night, like when his friend started flirting with an older woman named Maria — a beautiful "black-haired flamenco dancer" who "dances while his father plays guitar," as the song goes. WATCH | Official video for Mr. Jones: The Counting Crows frontman penned Mr. Jones when he got home later that night, but he didn't expect it to be a hit. By the time the band released the song in December of 1993, they had already been hustling as musicians for years. "I was 27 before anyone from any record company came to see any band I was in, and it wasn't Counting Crows," Duritz tells Power. "I was 28 when we got signed and I was 29 when that record came out. And we had been on the road for about three or four months as an opening band, opening for Midnight Oil, opening for Suede, opening for Cracker. And after two or three months, some TV shows started calling us — Letterman first and then SNL." When Counting Crows performed on Saturday Night Live, the band wasn't even in the top 200. After appearing on the show, Duritz says their debut album, August and Everything After, "jumped 40 spots a week for five or six weeks." Then, in April of 1994, there was a major turning point when Counting Crows returned back to the U.S. from a European tour. "We flew into New Orleans, and we'd been out of the country for a while, so whatever had happened back here, we weren't here to experience it," Duritz says. "The first morning after we got there, I went out to the [Tipitina's Jazz Festival], as I always did, and got mobbed. And that's when I realized, 'Oh, what the hell happened?'" With hundreds of thousands of people mobbing him at festivals, fans hounding him everywhere he went and his privacy being invaded by tabloids, Duritz learned the hard way that fame isn't all it's cracked up to be. These days, he rarely plays Mr. Jones.
Hindustan Times
04-06-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Dogs and cats can also suffer from allergies: Tips to help your furry friends
About five years ago, Gail Friedman noticed her Parson Russell Terrier was constantly licking his paws and seemed super uncomfortable. Also read | Seasonal change affecting your pets? Here's how you can take care of them 'The poor dog. I would put baby socks on his feet so that he wouldn't lick them or bite at them,' said Friedman, of Oak Brook, Illinois. 'I was constantly changing the socks, washing his feet a lot. Nothing worked.' It turned out her canine companion, Mr. Friedman, had allergies. It's a common and tricky problem in pets — caused by various things such as pollen, dust, mold, chemicals and food — but veterinarians say there are several ways to ease their suffering. Allergies happen when the immune system overreacts to a foreign substance. Cats and dogs react to many of the same things people do, as well as pests like fleas. There are no definitive recent statistics on how many pets have allergies, but research suggests the problem is growing. 'I probably see allergic dogs and cats every single day, probably multiple times a day,' said Dr. Karen Woodard, medical director at Thrive Pet Healthcare-Elmhurst in Illinois. About 90% of allergic pets react to environmental triggers, Woodard said, and the rest have food allergies only. Dog breeds that are especially vulnerable include various types of terriers, boxers and bulldogs; in cats, it's Persians, Siamese and Himalayans. Pets can even be allergic to other animals — cats to dogs, dogs to cats and either to another species. 'It's possible for them to be allergic to us, just like we are to them,' said Thrive's Dr. Anthea Elliott Schick of Scottsdale, Arizona, immediate past president of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology. Allergic cats and dogs aren't as likely as humans to sneeze and cough. More often, they scratch and lick themselves, shake their heads and develop ear infections. Woodard said her Yorkie mix, Teddy, had the classic signs — scratching around his shoulders and getting rashes and ear infections starting as a six-month-old puppy. She lived in the South at the time, and he tested positive for allergies to various trees and grasses there. A common sign of allergies in her feline patients is 'overdoing their grooming,' said Woodard, who's on the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association's board of directors. 'Cats shouldn't be pulling their hair out when they groom. So if you start seeing bald patches on your cat, even though the skin underneath it looks normal, that could be a sign of allergies.' Also read | Living with pet cats or dogs lead to fewer food allergies among young adults: Study Even food allergies, often to chicken, beef, lamb or other protein sources, frequently show up on the skin, although pets can have vomiting or diarrhea, too. Rarely, pets can develop life-threatening anaphylactic reactions, perhaps after being stung by an insect. But most allergies are simply miserable for the animals. 'It breaks my heart because it gets to a point that not only do I have socks on poor Mr. Friedman — which is humiliating for him — he sometimes gets so bad he has to wear the cone of shame,' Gail Friedman said. 'And that's not fair because he can't move around right, he can't sleep right. It's terrible.' The first step is to get a diagnosis from the vet. This could involve allergy testing, or in the case of food allergies, an 'elimination diet,' which involves feeding limited ingredients the pet hasn't previously eaten. If the allergy culprit is environmental, there are medications like anti-inflammatory drugs and newer oral and injectable medications for dogs to block chemical signals associated with itchiness. Food allergies may be treated with special diets such as 'hydrolyzed' food, in which proteins are chemically broken down into tiny pieces. All this can get expensive. Friedman estimates she's spent about $10,000 on testing, medication and care for Mr. Friedman and another allergic dog. But vets say there are also ways to help pets at home by cleaning their bedding frequently, wiping their fur with a wet washcloth and giving them baths. Outdoors, 'they're almost acting like little Swiffers, getting allergens on their skin, and it goes through their skin and actually becomes a problem,' Schick said. 'We say bathe your dog, at a minimum, once a week if they're allergic.' After she's tried nearly everything, Friedman's dogs are still vexed by allergies. But they're doing better. 'I'm going to keep experimenting until we find what stops it completely,' she said. 'All you can do is try.' Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
Arab Times
03-06-2025
- General
- Arab Times
Pets can suffer from allergies too, but help is available
NEW YORK, June 3: About five years ago, Gail Friedman noticed her Parson Russell Terrier was constantly licking his paws and seemed super uncomfortable. "The poor dog. I would put baby socks on his feet so that he wouldn't lick them or bite at them,' said Friedman, of Oak Brook, Illinois. "I was constantly changing the socks, washing his feet a lot. Nothing worked.' It turned out her canine companion, Mr. Friedman, had allergies. It's a common and tricky problem in pets - caused by various things such as pollen, dust, mold, chemicals and food - but veterinarians say there are several ways to ease their suffering. Allergies happen when the immune system overreacts to a foreign substance. Cats and dogs react to many of the same things people do, as well as pests like fleas. There are no definitive recent statistics on how many pets have allergies, but research suggests the problem is growing. "I probably see allergic dogs and cats every single day, probably multiple times a day,' said Dr. Karen Woodard, medical director at Thrive Pet Healthcare-Elmhurst in Illinois. About 90% of allergic pets react to environmental triggers, Woodard said, and the rest have food allergies only. Dog breeds that are especially vulnerable include various types of terriers, boxers, and bulldogs; in cats, it's Persians, Siamese, and Himalayans. Pets can even be allergic to other animals - cats to dogs, dogs to cats, and either to another species. "It's possible for them to be allergic to us, just like we are to them,' said Thrive's Dr. Anthea Elliott Schick of Scottsdale, Arizona, immediate past president of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology. Allergic cats and dogs aren't as likely as humans to sneeze and cough. More often, they scratch and lick themselves, shake their heads and develop ear infections. Woodard said her Yorkie mix, Teddy, had the classic signs - scratching around his shoulders and getting rashes and ear infections starting as a six-month-old puppy. She lived in the South at the time, and he tested positive for allergies to various trees and grasses there. A common sign of allergies in her feline patients is "overdoing their grooming,' said Woodard, who's on the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association's board of directors. "Cats shouldn't be pulling their hair out when they groom. So if you start seeing bald patches on your cat, even though the skin underneath it looks normal, that could be a sign of allergies.' Even food allergies, often to chicken, beef, lamb or other protein sources, frequently show up on the skin, although pets can have vomiting or diarrhea, too. Rarely, pets can develop life-threatening anaphylactic reactions, perhaps after being stung by an insect. But most allergies are simply miserable for the animals. "It breaks my heart because it gets to a point that not only do I have socks on poor Mr. Friedman - which is humiliating for him - he sometimes gets so bad he has to wear the cone of shame,' Gail Friedman said. "And that's not fair because he can't move around right, he can't sleep right. It's terrible.' The first step is to get a diagnosis from the vet. This could involve allergy testing, or in the case of food allergies, an "elimination diet,' which involves feeding limited ingredients the pet hasn't previously eaten. If the allergy culprit is environmental, there are medications like anti-inflammatory drugs and newer oral and injectable medications for dogs to block chemical signals associated with itchiness. Food allergies may be treated with special diets such as "hydrolyzed' food, in which proteins are chemically broken down into tiny pieces. All this can get expensive. Friedman estimates she's spent about $10,000 on testing, medication, and care for Mr. Friedman and another allergic dog. But vets say there are also ways to help pets at home by cleaning their bedding frequently, wiping their fur with a wet washcloth, and giving them baths. Outdoors, "they're almost acting like little Swiffers, getting allergens on their skin, and it goes through their skin and actually becomes a problem,' Schick said. "We say bathe your dog, at a minimum, once a week if they're allergic.' After she's tried nearly everything, Friedman's dogs are still vexed by allergies. But they're doing better. "I'm going to keep experimenting until we find what stops it completely,' she said. "All you can do is try.'
31-05-2025
- Health
Dogs and cats can also suffer from allergies, but there are ways to help our furry friends
About five years ago, Gail Friedman noticed her Parson Russell Terrier was constantly licking his paws and seemed super uncomfortable. 'The poor dog. I would put baby socks on his feet so that he wouldn't lick them or bite at them,' said Friedman, of Oak Brook, Illinois. 'I was constantly changing the socks, washing his feet a lot. Nothing worked.' It turned out her canine companion, Mr. Friedman, had allergies. It's a common and tricky problem in pets — caused by various things such as pollen, dust, mold, chemicals and food — but veterinarians say there are several ways to ease their suffering. Allergies happen when the immune system overreacts to a foreign substance. Cats and dogs react to many of the same things people do, as well as pests like fleas. There are no definitive recent statistics on how many pets have allergies, but research suggests the problem is growing. 'I probably see allergic dogs and cats every single day, probably multiple times a day,' said Dr. Karen Woodard, medical director at Thrive Pet Healthcare-Elmhurst in Illinois. About 90% of allergic pets react to environmental triggers, Woodard said, and the rest have food allergies only. Dog breeds that are especially vulnerable include various types of terriers, boxers and bulldogs; in cats, it's Persians, Siamese and Himalayans. Pets can even be allergic to other animals — cats to dogs, dogs to cats and either to another species. 'It's possible for them to be allergic to us, just like we are to them,' said Thrive's Dr. Anthea Elliott Schick of Scottsdale, Arizona, immediate past president of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology. Allergic cats and dogs aren't as likely as humans to sneeze and cough. More often, they scratch and lick themselves, shake their heads and develop ear infections. Woodard said her Yorkie mix, Teddy, had the classic signs — scratching around his shoulders and getting rashes and ear infections starting as a six-month-old puppy. She lived in the South at the time, and he tested positive for allergies to various trees and grasses there. A common sign of allergies in her feline patients is 'overdoing their grooming,' said Woodard, who's on the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association's board of directors. 'Cats shouldn't be pulling their hair out when they groom. So if you start seeing bald patches on your cat, even though the skin underneath it looks normal, that could be a sign of allergies.' Even food allergies, often to chicken, beef, lamb or other protein sources, frequently show up on the skin, although pets can have vomiting or diarrhea, too. Rarely, pets can develop life-threatening anaphylactic reactions, perhaps after being stung by an insect. But most allergies are simply miserable for the animals. 'It breaks my heart because it gets to a point that not only do I have socks on poor Mr. Friedman — which is humiliating for him — he sometimes gets so bad he has to wear the cone of shame,' Gail Friedman said. 'And that's not fair because he can't move around right, he can't sleep right. It's terrible.' The first step is to get a diagnosis from the vet. This could involve allergy testing, or in the case of food allergies, an 'elimination diet,' which involves feeding limited ingredients the pet hasn't previously eaten. If the allergy culprit is environmental, there are medications like anti-inflammatory drugs and newer oral and injectable medications for dogs to block chemical signals associated with itchiness. Food allergies may be treated with special diets such as 'hydrolyzed' food, in which proteins are chemically broken down into tiny pieces. All this can get expensive. Friedman estimates she's spent about $10,000 on testing, medication and care for Mr. Friedman and another allergic dog. But vets say there are also ways to help pets at home by cleaning their bedding frequently, wiping their fur with a wet washcloth and giving them baths. Outdoors, 'they're almost acting like little Swiffers, getting allergens on their skin, and it goes through their skin and actually becomes a problem,' Schick said. 'We say bathe your dog, at a minimum, once a week if they're allergic.' After she's tried nearly everything, Friedman's dogs are still vexed by allergies. But they're doing better. 'I'm going to keep experimenting until we find what stops it completely,' she said. 'All you can do is try.'
