This is a YouTube video titled "Ronroneo en gatos | ¿Tiene un origen mágico? 😼🎶🔮" created on October 10, 2018, featuring Carlos, a clinical veterinarian specializing in small animals, who discusses various scientific theories and hypotheses about why cats purr. The video explores the origins, purposes, and possible meanings of cat purring, including communication, self-calming, and healing theories, and ends with a viewer question about dog paw hygiene. The content is educational and aimed at pet owners and cat lovers.
If I do this, what do I want to tell you? Hello, I'm Carlos, a clinical veterinarian in small animals. Welcome to the Happy Pets and Families Channel. What I'm going to talk to you about today is something mysterious and intriguing that surrounds cats and that we really need to unravel. Today, I'm going to talk to you about why your cat purrs. In today's video, I really don't need to explain what purring is, because if you're a true cat lover, you know it and you probably enjoy it a lot with your cat. Although I love scientific rigor, scientific theories, so full of truth and absolute wisdom. Today, what I'm going to tell you are theories about feline behavior, and there is nothing assumed as an absolute truth. Science. Well, let's start at the beginning. Where does that sound, the purr, come from? When cats purr, they make a kind of movement with some muscles in their larynx and throat, and that's what gives it that deep, deep sound. Some other studies have previously suggested that it could be due to changes in the pressure in their veins and so on. Although it seems that in the end, what is being demonstrated is that the sound only comes from that movement in their throat. Come to me. Right? Come to me. Okay. It seems that scientists are reaching a bit of agreement on where the sound comes from. What they don't agree on is why they do it the day before. Cats, as I always say, are the great forgotten ones in veterinary medicine, and their behavior has not been very well studied. Cats have been with humans for 9,000 years. In all this time, no one has been able to figure out why cats purr. Well, no, I'm telling you that these are all theories. There is a widespread idea that cats purr when they are happy, and you probably think so too, but this is a bombshell. No, that is not always the case. Thinking that a cat only purrs when it is happy is like thinking that people only smile when they are happy. But I think that people smile when they are happy. Well, I don't think so. If you are in a commercial activity and you are serving a customer, you are smiling not because you are happy to be serving them, but simply because it is a friendly gesture and that kindness is reflected in your face. These are social gestures. One hypothesis is that a cat makes this characteristic sound to communicate with the other cats that live near it. This communicative hypothesis, in my opinion, has a main drawback, which is that the sound can be heard from only a few meters away. So it is not very effective communication when you hear a cat meow. It is true that this meow can be heard many meters away, and therefore it can try to communicate with other cats without having to be face to face. Therefore, this communication would be established between cats that get along, for example, to try to share resources or to show that they are accepted socially. Even mothers with their kittens when they are just born, to indicate to them the position where she is so that they can locate her with their eyes closed. But it is a type of positive, negative or neutral communication. Since it is a close communication and cats are territorial animals, it is normal for it to be a positive communication. Other people believe that these purrs would have an almost magical character. According to some studies, cats purring occurs at sound frequencies that are healing for them or for the people who are near them. There may be some truth to this, but because when you go to the doctor, for example, and your knee hurts, they can give you ultrasounds. That is to say, sound can have some effect on the tissues around your knee, on the bones, on the tendons, on the muscles. But it is true that it seems unlikely that cats would do this to heal themselves, and that in this way they would not suffer from any type of illness or even recover their muscles. To tell you the truth, this theory is the one I believe the least. This may be related to the idea of the seven lives of the cat or the nine lives of the cat in the United States. Yes. Well, it is like a potion in a computer game that gives you back lives. I don't know. The truth is that I find it unlikely that this is the case. Otherwise we would have super cats that would dominate us all because they would never die. That is on the way, right? Yes, that they dominate us all. I think they already do. The last theory is that they do it to calm themselves down and to relax themselves in times of great stress, for example. I can confirm this because I have seen it in the clinic many times. When they are a little nervous, they are purring, and not because they are happy to see the vet, which most of them are not, but because they are a little stressed, and that way they find a little bit of inner peace. You seem super comfortable. Very much so. It's like Mariah in her interviews. Oh, my goodness. I am the laughingstock of the park. This theory would also explain how when an animal is sick, it purrs to try to calm itself down. When we have a kitten in the office that is a little nervous, many times it will just Stand there and without being too scared, it will start purring to calm itself down. And to think that I'm not a crazy person who is going to experiment on them or do strange things to them. A mother when she is giving birth, which is a very uncomfortable situation, I understand for them purrs also to calm themselves down. They also do it a lot when they're very anxious, like if they're investigating your house or getting into a closet or something to calm their anxiety a little. I think that's also why they purr. The truth is that I quite believe this theory. It's what you have to do as a YouTuber. Really. Come on, I'll let you move. Thank goodness. Oh, how painful. Personally, what I think is that all the theories are partly right and that cats purr not only for one reason, but for many of them. Well, I really don't know about the self healing theory. It could be because they're very anxious, or it could be because they're asking you for food. Has your cat ever purred to you asking for food? That purring is practically irresistible to people. In fact, it's been compared to a baby crying. And I don't know if you know that no human can concentrate or do anything else if there's a baby crying next to them. Well, studies have been done and in families where cats live together, that purring for food is completely irresistible to their families. And in the end they end up putting food on their plate. So if your cat is a little overweight, it's not your fault, it's the fault of their purring. It hypnotizes you, right? Yes. Cats control us psychologically. And why am I telling you all this? It's true that cats make that sound in different circumstances. That's why it would be very important for science to study all these different characteristics to know and understand what they need at each moment and how you can help them. And your cat purrs a lot. Tell us in the comments in what situations they do it, because, hey, I don't know, maybe that way we can help science understand the contexts in which a cat purrs. Give me science, give me love. And that's it for today's video. If you liked it, give it a like and share it with everyone. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Or do I have to ask you to do it in a huff? Well, I'll do it. Eh? I'll do anything for subscribers. Leave it, because I think people are going to unsubscribe from the channel if you keep doing it. Oh, I only want Moro and hit the bell. So YouTube will notify you every time we upload new content. Thank you very much for following the Happy Pets and Families Channel, and I'll see you in the next video. And now let's move on to the question of the week. Well, actually, the comment of the week, because Regina is telling us what she does when her dog steps in another dog's poop when she's in the park and that sometimes that's why her dog licks his paws. She says that when she gets home, she washes his paws with water and a little bit of detergent dissolved in it. Man, Regina, I honestly think it's a bit excessive. When a dog steps and poop, there's no need to urgently disinfect your dog's paw, but if you want to wash his paws, a little soap and water may be enough. And if you rinse it thoroughly, soapy water can be a perfect way to eliminate bacteria that he may have picked up from the other dog's poop. Using mouthwash will end up being quite a bit more expensive. And mouthwashes can also contain compounds that are not very good for animals, such as xylitol, which gives it a slightly sweeter taste and can be toxic to dogs in particular. So there's no need to overdo it with hygiene. And I think that with just a little soap and water, he would be perfectly clean and without any risk to your dog. In any case, thank you very much for your comment and I hope your dog doesn't step in too much poop in the park. And if you want us to select you for this section, all you have to do is leave us a comment on our videos. We will select one and answer it here. See you next week. Buffington. I have a Buffington printer. I don't know why it sounds like printer to me, mister.
