Medicating Cats - Victorian Style - 2 of 2.

[CONGRATULATIONS TO JENNIFER  - who is the winner of the $20 Amazon voucher - LOVE GIVEAWAYS BLOG HOP.
Jennifer has been notified and her voucher sent and I'd like to say a BIG thank you to every who took the time to enter. Grace ]

Last week we looked at how, in Victorian times, a cat’s reluctance to take medicine might help keep her alive. This week, we consider some of the remedies commonly inflicted on these poor, unsuspecting animals. 

Vomiting.

Now as any cat owner knows, it’s perfectly normal for a cat to vomit from time to time. However if the vomiting became excessive, one Victorian remedy was to:

“Mix half a teaspoon of salt in two teaspoons of water then dose the cat with this emetic to clear the stomach of toxins.”

Please do NOT follow this advice; it is incredibly dangerous and akin to poisoning your pet. Felines are adapted to a carnivorous, and therefore, low salt diet. Their kidneys are not designed to process salt and giving a salt emetic in this way could lead to renal failure (I suppose one hope is that the cat vomits before any of the salt can be absorbed across the stomach wall.)

Malaise.

Now if the hapless Victorian cat was suffering from excessive malaise and lethargy, the answer was:

‘A small dose of brimstone, keep the cat warm and fed on light biscuit spread with butter.’

Oh dear. Brimstone is another name for sulfur; the element used in gunpowder, matches, insecticides and pesticides. Although skin ointments contained sulfur were effective against ringworm and skin afflictions, they worked mainly by cauterization…not the best idea then to make a cat swallow brimstone…

Fits and Delirium.

Charles Ross in his 1868 book ‘Chit Chat Book of the Cat’ defines a cat with delirium as having:

“An uneasy restlessness and wildness of eye. In a bad case the cat may rush around with staring eyes and throw himself at a window.”

[Reminds me of Gromit, my hunting cat when I tried to keep him indoors for his own safety during a firework display!]

The remedy?

“Slightly slit one ear with a sharp pair of scissors in the thin part of the ear.”

I suppose the one good thing about this advice is that it doesn’t involve poisoning the cat, but wait…oh no! Mr Ross goes on to say:

“Or a good alternative is a salt water emetic.”

Presumably this works because the cat is too weak from kidney failure to be delirious any more – or perhaps I’m being cynical!

NEXT WEEK: Where the superstition of a cat having nine lives came from.

Medicating Cats - Victorian Style. (1 of 2)

There is a saying in the veterinary world, ‘A cat is not a small dog.’

 This refers to the fact that feline physiology is very different to canine, and it’s definitely NOT appropriate, at best, and dangerous at worst, to give smaller doses of dog drugs to cats. Felines lack some of the enzymes necessary to break up common drugs, leading to liver damage and death. Up until the 20 or 30 years, cat medicine as a science was in its infancy and this meant that the commonest option when treating a sick cat was to give it a scaled down dog remedy.

Perhaps the one thing that saved many cats from being made considerably worse by their well intentioned but misplaced efforts of their owner was the cat’s reluctance as a species to swallow pills and potions.

This description of pilling a cat dates from the 1860’s and it seems little has changed.

“Have ready a large cloth and wrap the patient therein, wisping the cloth round and round her body, so that every part of her, except the head, is well enveloped. Any one may then hold it [the cat] between their knees, while you complete the operation [giving the pill] Put on a pair of stout gloves, and then with a firm hand open the animal’s mouth wide!”

Charles Ross 1868.

However Mr. Ross also writes of an easier way to medicate a cat, but this method requires planning and forethought.

“Seriously speaking a lady who is kind to her domestic pets will have no trouble in giving them medicine. When they are kittens, they should be taught to lie upon their backs, and in this attitude with the head rasied, the physic is easily enough administered.”

Yeah right!

“A sick cat, too, does not fly from those for whom it has an affection; on the contrary I have always known cats to come for sympathy to those who nurse and feed them.”

This makes me wonder if modern cats are the same species as their Victorian forebears! No cats of my acquaintance will co-operate just because its good for them.

And finally, some good advice.

 “Administer the physic with a teaspoon, if liquid and be most careful when the dose has been given to gently wash from the cat’s face or breast any drop of the stuff that has fallen there, so that she may not find the nasty taste lingering about her when she goes to clean herself, as otherwise she has the unpleasantness of the physic long after the doses have been discontinued.”

In next week’s post the ‘remedies’ used in Victorian times are discussed….and I shudder.

The Value of a Cat...according to Medieval Welsh law.

You may have twigged by now that I'm a bit of a cat fanatic. I love them for their independance, their honesty and sheer cute furryiness. But centuries ago, when times were tough a pet was expected to earn their keep, and as such had a value. In Medieval times cats were valued as catchers of mice and even had a price according to their skill, as laid down in the 10^th century Welsh ‘Law of Hywel Dda.’

This states:

‘The value of a kitten from the night it is born until it opens its eyes, one legal penny;

And from then until it kills mice, two legal pence;

And after it kills mice, four legal pence,

And at that it remains for ever.

Her properties are to see and hear and kill mice.’

Although Old English Law stated cats and dogs were:

‘Not property, being base by nature,’

the medieval Welsh Dimetian Code laid down that if a husband and wife separatede and their chattels needed to be divided;

‘The husband takes the cat if there were only one, it there were others then they are taken by the wife.’

No comment is made about what happens to the children of the marriage!

Fiction Books 5 / 5

I was thrilled, this evening, to find this lovely review of 'A Dead Man's Debt' by Yvonne from

'Fiction Books.' 

A creative, page-turning drama, a poignant story, characters totally engrossing in their complexity, with the distinctive essence of each easily discernible, sensual and evocative writing, from a great new author.

—

Worthy of:  5 out of 5 for a book in this genre.

http://www.fiction-books.biz/new-authors/my-thoughts-a-dead-mans-debt-by-grace-elliot/comment-page-1/#comment-636

The Lambeth Pedlar, his dog and a church window.

A 17th century Pedlar, his Dog and a Painted Glass Window.

A drawing of the Lambeth pedlar window.

         I came across the story of the Lambeth Pedlar and his dog whilst researching an article for the veterinary press. In the parish church of Saint Mary’s, Lambeth there is a painted glass window showing a man weighted down with a back pack, with a dog at his feet. This is not the original window, which dated back to 1608 (destroyed in a WWII bombing raid.) After the war Saint Mary’s parishioners, loyal the memory of the mysterious pedlar, commissioned the replacement window that exists today. But who was the pedlar, and why is there a picture of his dog on a church wndow?

A view over Lambeth Palace in 1685.

Local lore has it that this window depicts the Lambeth Pedlar and his faithful companion. The story goes that this eccentric salesman hoarded the money earnt by selling his wares door to door and the only comfort he allowed himself was his dog. When the dog died the pedlar was so bereft that he pledged to leave all his money to the parish if they agreed to either bury the dog in the churchyard, or commerate him in the church.  The churchwarden’s account for 1608 includes the following:

            “Two shillings paid to the glazier for a panel of glass for the window where the picture of the pedlar stands.”

Pedlars, illustrated above, were a common sight in the 1600's.

An alternative explanation of the Pedlar’s window has also been suggested. This involves one Henry Smith or “Dog Smith” a wealthy London Alderman who died in 1627. At the time he was a well known benefactor to the poor and it was rumored that Henry sometimes dressed in rags to travel in cognito, accompanied by a dog to test out the character of those he was thinking of helping. His would visit a village and beg a bone for the dog and bread for himself. If the villagers turned him away empty handed then he to, declined to give charity to the Parish.

           

            Whichever explanation is correct; a story of doggy devotion or eccentric benevolence, this glass window reminds us to this day, of the generosity of the human spirit. 

A Cats Meat Man - another type of street trader who peddled his wares door to door.

NEXT POST (Tuesday) "The value of a cat" - in Medieval Wales.

The Name of the Cat.

If you take the responsibility seriously, it is surprisingly difficult to choose the right name for cat. I was recently thrown into confusion when an RSPCA inspector asked me to name the litter of kittens she’d brought in for vaccination. Rescue names usually follow a theme eg. Animals abandoned at Christmas will be named Holly, Ivy, Mistletoe, Noel et.c. When suddenly landed with the responsibility of naming my mind went completely blank – each theme I thought of seemed too cliched or not nice enough, so despite my best efforts those kittens left nameless.

Going back to medieval times the most popular name for a cat was ‘Gibbe’ which is a shortened form of the name ‘Gilbert.’ Chaucer mentioned “Gibbe our cat” in ‘Romance of the Rose’.

 In Skelton’s 1509 elegiac ‘Phyllp Sparrow’ it is a cat called Gyb that is responsible for the death of Jane Scrope’s pet sparrow. The name was equally popular in France, where the equivalent name was Tibert or Thibert. The name remained popular, especially in Northern England, until the 1860’s but is now largely forgotten.

The most common cat names in 2010 were; Molly, Charlie, Tigger, Poppy, Oscar, Smudge, Millie, Daisy, Max and Jasper. A recent list of the worst cat names includes; Small Man in a Cat Suit, The Urinator, Hanibal Lickter, Ducttape, Fattie and Uranus.

           My personal favorite humorous name is Furkin. A good school friend called her cat this….think about it…calling out; ‘Has anyone seen the Furkin cat?’    

"What did you just call me?"

So how about you? What is your favourite name for a cat. Do leave a comment, I'd love to hear your stories.

Devilish Cats - how felines got a bad reputation.

In the Middle Ages, any self respecting witch kept a familiar, an animal acting as a link to the devil. The most commonly recognised familiar was a cat, preferably a black one. But have you ever stopped to wonder how such a perfectly adorable animal became linked to black magic and evil?

To answer that question we need to look at the reputation cats had in medieval times. Highly prized as a catcher of mice the 10^th century law of Hywel Dda has this to say.

“The value of a kitten from the night it is born until it opens its eyes, one legal penny:

And from then until it kills mice, two legal pence:

And after it kills mice, four legal pence,

And that it remains for ever.

Her properties are to see and hear and kill mice.”

But it was this reputation as a mouser that also got cats into trouble, as typified by this quote by Caxton from the ‘Royal Book’ of 1484.

“The devil playeth often with the synnar [sinner] lyke the catte [cat] doth with the mous. [mouse.]”

This symbolism, with the cat as the devil, toying with the human soul was widely popular in churches and depicted in the misericords. These small wooden ledges, designed to rest against during long periods of standing, were often ornately carved with scenes from cautionary tales. Misericords were seen, and the message understood by illiterate ordinary folk at church.

An example of a misericord - a simple wooden ledge for leaning on during lengthy church services.

With this in mind it’s not surprising that as early as 1211 Gervase of Tilbury writes about the cat as a shape shifting manifestation of a witch’s familiar.

“Women have been seen and wounded in the shapes of cat by persons secretly on the watch.”

These same wounds were later identified on the woman….Just a thought but surely having the cat and woman present in the same room at the same time would rapidly discount this argument?