RPM Feline Fridays: Cool Cats

It was so close. He had, he had me on the first one but then lost it on the second. Oh, so close, Brendan.

Thomas.

Oh, hey, look, this is just gonna be evolving every week. We're gonna try and do this again.

Brilliant.

Oh, how are you guys doing? Amaya, oh, you must be roasting.

A little bit. The price for paradise.

Indeed, indeed.

Pay it gladly. There's me with a nice fleecy jacket here, just in case I get too cold. What on earth? Leave your best top on, lovey.

Jumpers and woolen jackets. Thank God for that jet stream. Brilliant. Brilliant. Oh, and welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining us from around the world. We've got some heat maps going on at the moment, haven't we? So I am so pleased to be joined by Julianne from Cats Natural. Naturally Cats. Sorry, I always do that. Why do I always do that? Naturally Cats. Yeah. In the middle of writing her second book. Okay. Nearly publishing the second. I just can't believe that. That's going to be great. Can't wait. We're going to ask you a bit more about that, Julianne. We're going to get some sneak previews, I think. And of course, Dr. Amaya, thank you for joining us from sunny Mallorca. I'm always envious. You know, we just need to come out and party there, I think. Just do a live. I think we'll have to do that roving reporter thing that Nick started to do now and just sort of like come out to your place and just chill by the beach. And we should do that.

To party.

Hey, there's no partying, just sunbathing and relaxing, thank you very much. You guys can party hard, I'll be chilling.

Brilliant, brilliant. So today, as per the preview, was about keeping our kitty cats cool. But tell us a little bit more before we start on that. Julianne, come on, what have you been getting up to in the last month? Something interesting that you've pulled?

So I have been working on the second book, like you said, and it's almost ready for the final edits. So it's a book on cat chakras, how to work with them, how to support your cat through them. So I've been very, very busy on that. Meanwhile, the boys have been very unsettled with the weather. So one minute we've got torrential rain, so they both come pounding across the, the patio and come in, and baby Max does the whole dog thing and shakes all over. I'm like, oh buddy, that's right against my legs, thank very much. Leo comes in and looks at me like, Mum, did you know it's raining out there? Like, I just got wet. Yeah, I know. And then when we've got sunshine, like, I don't see them for like the whole day. So it's, it's lovely to see that they're enjoying the nice weather. Yeah, it's good.

It's good.

Anamaya, come on. What have you been looking into? What's been going on in your world?

Well, my world has been mostly RBS. This past month. You know, we are launching the conference and many other things. We are having so many ideas. I mean, you put two Geminis together and that is a mess.

So twins squared, Geminis together.

So we're having good ideas for next year and the conference and And so I've been doing so many things, uh, music for one side, a bit, and I'm also rebranding Felivet. So, uh, you just have to wait for a little bit until everything explodes.

We're going to come together at the same time like this beautiful machine and everything will just come out again.

Yeah, exactly. It has— it still is not there yet, but it was okay.

That's okay.

Well, we're going to be talking about cool cats, and I think there's a few things out there that I'd want to bring to the party. Look, there's been some articles out there about feline coronavirus out in Cyprus, uh, and a huge issue going on with the death of cats, um, out there. More aggressive form of FIP, uh, everybody's really panicking. I've got loads of clients coming in, so I'd just like to reassure you, look, Feline coronavirus has been around for years. This is not emanating from COVID-19, but it is of the same virus family. It is not something that can be caught by humans. It is directly from your cats, however. Okay, and I think the main thing that I'd like to just bring to that is that, yes, depending on how the cat's immune system reacts to feline coronavirus can depend upon what the disease will look like. So we have many well, most of, 80% will cause a little bit of diarrhea as a young kitten, and that's why most of them have been exposed really young. And then there is an element of those that have an adverse reaction because of their immune system and the nature of the actual virus that they've caught may get one of two options. They may get an FIP, which is feline infectious peritonitis. Is seen as it is actually the coronavirus that causes that. That peritonitis, that wet FIP as we call it, can also affect in the chest. It forms loads of fluids, loads of antibody protein complexes that draws that fluid out. Horrible, very devastating disease when it seems you'll get a round-bellied cat very quickly. Often the fluid that's drawn out will clot. It's got that much protein in it. The other form is a dry form, and this is more insidious. It can cause infections in the brain or the eye, the uveitis. It can cause lesions in the liver, in the lung, but it's an inflammatory process. Again, similar, but it will cause an amyloid laydown as well in those areas, those tissues, and can cause organ failure. So all in all, coronavirus in cats can be a devastating disease. Just as with coronavirus in humans, there are lots of things that have been looked at as to how we can augment the immune system, not necessarily massively activate it because that could worsen some of these other symptoms, but just to augment the immune system. So vitamin D levels, what you're doing with just modulating the immune response, But let us know if you're experiencing some of these more devastating symptoms. It's literally into the hundreds of thousands of cats that they feel have passed away in Cyprus since the beginning of the year from the new variant. But that's certainly not something I've seen in practice in the UK, just to reassure you that, guys here. And I've certainly not heard of it in the States. But if anybody has any news, please do just drop a note on our page. We'll try keep you up to date. Don't panic, just make sure, you know, if you have got a coronavirus cat, cleaning your hands, you know, using PPE can be really useful, but cleaning your hands as you would have done for coronavirus with people and just making sure that you're not going to visit other people's houses with cats without wearing clean clothes, etc. Okay, so that's the only big outbreak thing since in the last month. I thought I'd just bring you up to speed. I know it's nothing to do with cool cats, but it is something that's on the tips of our tongues. So it's worth looking at. So that's the information thing over with. I just had to get it out there. Oh, cool cats. Come on, Amaya, you're in the hottest country of all three of us at the moment. Come on. What are you doing right now to chill your cats out?

Well, I have to say that I've tried so many things. And my cats actually don't like many of the things I've tried with them. They obviously hate the fun. And what I do normally is to keep, you know, you know that in the winter sometimes the food, I put it, I warm it up a little bit. Well, they don't want it warm now. Even they want it very, very cold. But I'm always cautious not putting it too cold because that, it depends on the cat, but it could affect them in their stomach. So I simply just keep it a little bit more cool. And the same goes with water. I don't freeze the water. I simply cool it if it needs to be cooled, but I don't go to the frozen side of things just because it is too hot. There are two reasons because of this. There is one thing that I know from Argentinians that we all drink mate during the whole year, and that's really hot water. But there is a process in the body that if you drink something that is too cold, the body needs to warm it up in a way, you know, to keep it— to bring it back to the normal temperature. So if you drink too many cold things, then you produce more heat to control that, and that's not good if you are trying to keep your cats cool. Right? And this is for humans as well. So it's better to have, you know, at least if you need to, just put a little bit more, you know, cool it a little bit just in case it is too hot, but not too much. And then the other thing that I do that my house looks now like I'm moving because I have boxes everywhere. You know, they really like to hide in boxes or inside the I'd say this is the closet in the room. And you know, they are looking for cooler places. There are not many in my house. It is a corner, so you get sun from one side and then I have to move my office elsewhere to keep working. So it depends on how the sun rotates. And then there are other things that I've tried, you know, like there are some cool mats that you have to be very careful on the material of them if you're going to use them. Yeah, because they're very— at least here, I don't know in the UK, but here you can buy very bad plastic cooling mats. So yeah, they're very, very bad. And then what I do is I simply get a plastic bottle with water. Freeze it, but I cover it up with towels and I put it nearby, not on the cat. I never put anything on the cat, not even, not even trying to put a towel, a wet towel over them. They really hate anything that you put on them. So that would be my kind of the things that I can do, that they allow me to do.

And I love that first part that you talked about. It's one of the ways that we explain homeopathic treatments to people is that, that sort of drinking of ice-cold water actually evokes in your body a physiological response, which is to overwhelm the absolute cold by heating that area up with blood flow, etc. So initially, yes, you might get a blanching and a reduction and a moving away of blood. But when it's internal, if anything, the body will go, oh, now I need to actually flood that area with warmth and overwhelm it. And in doing so, the whole body warms up. Okay. So that's why they talk about if you overdo the, in a normal animal, giving them cold in that sense, you will end up heating up their body. That's not to be mistaken for the hyperthermic patient who's already super hot, okay, and overheating. By cooling them down, admittedly, you should never do it too rapidly, but you're not going to get a physiological response to overwhelm that, to bring their temperature above what they're already at. If anything, you're just going to continue to cool them down. But going back to that Homeopathic. That's why drinking tea, very English thing to do, okay? You know, a nice cup of tea, lovely steaming hot, okay, on a summer's day is one of the most cooling things because the body overwhelms the hot stuff. And what you do is you cool down, you feel much cooler. So very homeopathic.

And there's another thing, the— I forgot the meat. I use lamb during the winter, but I noticed this is totally experimental. I noticed that my cats don't like lamb during the summer, and I was like, you really like lamb, what happens? You know, that's the question that I got. And suddenly I realized, yes, that's a warming meat. Okay. Yeah. I don't really know too much about this, but then I realized, I was like, okay.

All right, well, but there's some great stuff for all of you guys who are watching through Dr. Judy's page. You'll have been seeing over the past few months, uh, she's been doing some great stuff on the Chinese element stuff and the various foods. So just go back through the page, you'll have a little look, you'll see some of the various foods that, that whether it's, you know, the, the type of protein, um, all the way through to, you know, the more fatty stuff as to whether it's heating, cooling, whether it's, um, uh you know, metal, wood, you know, whatever, earth foods, all of those great on there. So lots of options to look through. And that will be not necessarily just seasonal. I think it's also about what the temperatures are out there because you're absolutely right. You know, for Spider, my cat, she's very much a Labrador in disguise because she was raised with Pippa, my Labrador. So, you know, I was looking back through some photos and I saw some lovely photos of her curled up as a kitten in amongst Pippa on her bed. So it's just great to see that. But so she goes out in the rain. She's not bothered by the rain at all. It's just, you know, it's one of those things. She'll go out, she'll come in and, as you say, shake off. But she will, she's quite happily eating lamb at the moment because we're in a much cooler environment than you are right now. Because the jet stream is being kind to us and cooling us down. Although we had a really warm spell back at the the beginning of June when we were talking about doing this, and we only thought it was going to get hotter. And it was literally, yeah, she would be very much off food in the middle of the day, certainly wouldn't be taking lamb. She was taking other, a little bit of, she's not a real fish or poultry cat, but she would take turkey and chicken options back then. So those are little elements that you might see, and you might assume that it's your cat going off their food, but they're just— they're being more selective about the foods they take.

Yeah, and I had another discovery this week about this. It's not totally related with coolness, but it's, uh, my cat has been choosing celery. And yeah, and, and but in a way that, you know, like it's valerian root, you right? So that was kind of— I just bought celery and they— and the cat was like, that's nice.

So blended? So is this like a blend that you're just sort of blending down, or is it just the—

the blend? That's like it. And he was like rubbing his face into it. And yes, he suffers from hyperesthesia, so when the heat comes and he sweats or maybe, I don't know, I am assuming it's the heat, he gets more spasms, muscle spasms. So I realized that I didn't know this. My cats are always showing me things. And I noticed that he was choosing celery. And I then read Caroline's book and it says that it's good for muscle spasms. So I was kind of, yeah, I knew the diuretic, the anti-inflammatory, parasites, any other things that celery can help you with. With, but I didn't know this one. So, uh, now I'm, I'm buying celery all the time as a cooling or whatever he needs mechanism.

So many people will assume that celery is basically fiber and water and nothing else, and it's so interesting when you start to look into the nutritionals of some of these as to what's actually in there. You know, we'd often think of for muscular cramps. Some of the minerals that we would take artificially put into isotonic drinks and things like that, but actually there'll be loads of things in there. So if any of you guys are busy looking away at what the nutritionals are within celery, you can post them up on the comments links, okay? As to whether there's a bit more magnesium, whether a bit of copper in there as well, I guess there'll be things like that, things that are good for cramps. that we'll often see. So, yeah, just post it away and let's see what's going on. Julianne, who's with you? So I saw a cattail a moment ago. Who was that?

Baby Max. Baby Max is here, and, and, um, he's now half sat on the cooling mat that I brought in to share. And he was also snarling at some— I got a client's, uh, herb garden order, which I'm missing one herb, so the couple of herbs are on the side. And he started pawing at the valerian, so I've now had to empty some of the valerian, which stinks onto my desk. I can't actually move— I don't think I can move my— no. Um, so he's on my desk with half his bum on the cooling mat, half of his face in the valerian, which just— it's not pleasant for me. I don't like valerian.

So what's your experience? Yeah, tell us a bit about celery. You know, what do you think might be within that that's that cooling element? Bring your microphone back.

It's not something that I've used, I'll be honest. It's not a remedy that I'm familiar with. So I would do the same as Amaya. I would look at Caroline's book and see what it says in there. I've only got it— hang on a second.

That's what it says, that it's an anti-inflammatory, diuretic. Yes, it works for parasites as well, but, but in a different way. I mean, you have to use other things, not just the plant. And then And then it says muscle spasms, so it was interesting to find out because it is something that my cat actually suffers more in the summer than in the winter, the spasms. And I believe it's the heat because when it's, when it's cooler, then he's better.

Yeah, and I love the way that, you know, a remedy, you know, that's one single remedy, has not only like the nutritional properties if you were using, you know, the root or the powder, but also in terms of like an essential oil the, the healing's phenomenal, you know. It's never just like one thing, like one treatment or one condition. I think that's, that's the beauty of it, right? I'm catless now, I can focus. Um, so, um, what I was gonna say was, um, Amaya, you said about the cooling mats, you know, and we've got a couple in our house, right? So we've got two, and it's really interesting because when I first got them it said, you know, to not put a cover over them. So the first time I got them, I actually put them in a really thin pillowcase. So the fabric here is actually quite like a tight cut, kind of like a tough cotton. It's not actually that bad, but I put it in a pillowcase so that if it was treated with any kind of like anti-flammables or flame-resistant things, they wouldn't get it on their paws. So that I put it in a pillowcase for, I don't know, a good couple of weeks. And what I found is that, you know, It's something that with the ones that we've got, their pressure kind of activates, so you've got to put your hand on it. Like now I feel it for a couple of seconds, it's starting to get cooler. So Leo was never really interested. Baby Max loved it, but you've got to encourage your cat to, you know, to them. You've got to tell them what it is. You can't just put it down and think, oh, they'll know, right? So like we had to do a bit of behavior work with Baby Max, you know, where I would get the some of the freeze-dried treats and I would be, you know, putting it by his nose and then sort of slowly walking, pulling my arm back so that he would walk across it, you know, and then holding it so we would feel the temperature on his feet. And with baby Max, you know, he's quite cuddly anyway. So if you stroke him a couple of times, he'll almost do the sideways fall and, you know, give you his tummy. So again, I was doing it so that we were kind of having cuddles around the mat so that he would then feel it on his body. And then what we did is we put them— I put them in places where I've noticed that he likes to sit. Now they're not beds, don't, don't put them in cat beds because again it's about giving your cat choice, but Baby Max likes to be up high so he would sit on the bedside table and in the chest of drawers in the spare room. So I put them there and it's interesting because like now, like Brendan said, not right now but a week or so ago when we had the beautiful hot weather, I noticed Baby Max would go and lie out on them in those two places. So you know, if you do have cooling mats or you've got them and you think they don't work, you've got to encourage your cat to use them. You know, it's like with anything that you introduce to them, you've got to give them the benefits. They've got to understand how it benefits them so that they can choose to engage with it or not. You know, I mean, from my perspective, like when it comes to the hot weather, I've got to watch the boys and, and support them as best I can. Like you said about the cooling spaces in the home, that's really interesting because what we have is in our house we've got so much insulation in our roof that actually when you get halfway up our stairs, our top level of the house is phenomenally warm. Like, I've ended up sleeping downstairs a few times because it is just so hot. We've got two— we've got little flat roofs as well to our bedrooms, front and back. So of course they just attract the heat. So you said about the closet, I think that's a really good idea for people if you've got that space where it's just cool. And actually there's not a lot of energy in there if you think about it, you know, that it's your clothes. They hang, they're packed. There's not a lot of like human interaction, animal energy. It's a very cool space in terms of the air, the movement of energy as well. So if you've got capacity for them to go in those spaces, great. If unlike with me, upstairs is too hot, so we created that. We brought, like you said, with the boxes, we brought that downstairs. You know, what I actually did is moved the sofa out a little bit more from the wall so that behind they could go behind the sofa. And actually with that If you think about it, also there's airflow, right? So there's, you know, there's not necessarily a breeze, but there would be airflow through that space as well. So, you know, when our cats get hot, it's about like, it's about the food piece, and I'll come back to that, but also understanding that our contact with them may reduce. Because if you think about whenever you touch a cat, you know, we've got— I was going to say scent guns. Saliva glands on our hands, we've got scent glands on our hands. You know, we sweat, right, from all of our paws. And I don't mean like—

I'm not touching my cat.

We sweat from all four paws.

All four paws, people, all paws. So we, whenever we stroke them, whether we're hot or cold or whatever, you know, we put our scent onto them, which is one of the reasons why they will clean and lick themselves. So cats are capable of keeping themselves cool. We've got to allow them to do it, you know. So they may not like or tolerate as much physical touch, you know, because for them it's almost like extra effort to clean and then ingest that scent is, is more work. So just notice if your cat is a bit more distant, or if you go to approach them and they walk away, like, don't take it personally, people, right? They're just trying to, to maintain themselves in this heat. And also let's remember that a cat's body, like us, like Brendan said, like you have the hot drink and it cools you down because you've got those mechanisms in your body to do that, to regulate your own temperature. Cats have the same. So their fur, you know, they've not got just one layer of hair across their body. It may look like that in some cats, but actually, you know, one hair follicle has got almost like 3 elements to it. So when they are hot, you won't necessarily visually see it, but their coat will slightly elevate to get more breeze through their fur to keep their skin cooler. So they are, you know, they are quite good at managing themselves. We can do other things to offer them choices, but as you said about the water bottle and things, am I like with the froze, you know, the cool—

I've seen it, that's why I mentioned it.

Yeah, yeah, but it's like you give them a choice. You put it near them, you don't put it in their cat bed, you don't put it in their food, you don't give them just frozen water. You know, you guys hopefully know my ethos is all about giving them a choice. You know, you let your cat choose what they need And if you've got a cool pad, a frozen bottle, a frozen water bowl as well as a normal one, like, see what they want to do, you know, give, give them options, you know.

It's important to say that not shaving your cats, because I've seen that too.

And that's so important. Absolutely glad you're talking about that.

I have a, I have a Maine Coon. She went— yeah, I mean, she's— I have to have like the, the vacuum all 24/7 because she's, you know, releasing all she can.

Shedding.

So hot. And, you know, I heard— I sent her— sometimes she goes to grooming, you know, because she has really thin and hard hair, and she really, you know, she enjoys— she does better with her groomer than with me. So I'd rather with her. And the guy said, do you want to shave it? I was like, no, what are you talking about? And he says, no, sometimes people ask me to. And I said, well, it's your responsibility to say no to them. And he didn't know. So it's something very common that people don't really have to know.

So tell people, tell people, Amaya, why they shouldn't shave their cats. Like, why, why would you not recommend it?

Because hair, it's kind of like, well, I take the example of sheep, for example, that, you know, they— of sheep, sheep, you know, that the wool they have, it regulates itself. That what you said, they have mechanisms to regulate with their own hair.

Yes.

So wool can be good for winter as it could be good for summer because it is, it is a material that, that adapts to, you know, it works both ways. So it's the same thing for cats. They are usually, they are, how do you say, they're used to, I'm gonna look for another word for it, I don't have the right one. They're used to regulate the temperature with that, with their own hair. If you simply remove it, they lose the capacity so the body has to compensate that. And when you just they simply, you know, remove everything that is dead, the hair that is dead, or when they are shedding. It's what they are accustomed to do, you know. They simply do that and they regulate by themselves. And what you said, that they start grooming themselves as much as they need, no more or less.

And the grooming bit is really helpful as well. Like, when it's cooler in the evenings, if cat will give you the chance to, grooming is a great tool to support them to stay cool because as you said about your shedding, you know, the amount of hair they shed is aligned with the amount of hours of daylight, you know, so they don't— that's why they don't generally shed as much in the winter. But if your cat will let you, or if again you may need to do a bit of behavior work to support them with this, but if they'll let you do brushes, even a couple of strokes, you know, with a, with a good fine-tooth fine, fine with a brush.

Fine tooth comb.

It's gonna help to shed the dead fur. So like you said, you know, that they not only when they lick themselves are they cooling themselves, but they're also removing that fur. So you can support them by giving them a bit of extra brushing.

Yeah, I do the extra brushing, as you said, at night.

Yes, at night.

Now at night I have to do everything. Yes, even I, I have to feed them. I don't usually feed them in the winter after 8 Because usually when the body needs to work and stuff, you know, the organs have their times and stuff. But now in the summer, I really have to move it towards night, maybe 10, 11. So we do everything at night and early in the morning. And she likes to be comf— but the thing is that her hair is so difficult to maintain that she doesn't tolerate when it's too long, when you're taking too long to clean it. Clean her. So that's— she goes to the, to the groomer like twice a year, so it's not that bad because we maintain it with this, with this playful thing. And, um, but well, now it's, uh, you know, a Maine Coon in Mallorca is not the best idea.

But you're right, you said about the evenings, you've got to pivot your time scale, your routine, you know, you, you've got to support them in the best way that you can. And if that's evenings, like you said, for food, for brushing, for kind of contact and interaction with you, playtime if they're indoor cats, you know, you, you, that's, that's what being a responsible cat guardian is, right? You, you have to adapt to what they need.

Totally.

And I don't sleep too much, so it's like, yeah, well, you're lucky there then. And thank you, Tracy, I couldn't get it out. I appreciate you putting the comment there about what I was trying to say.

So this brings in shade, this brings in shade. We've got to talk about shade because effectively what you guys have talked about there with the hair coat, really important. Beating sun. So if a cat's out, okay, and we're going to talk a little bit about protection in a moment, but if a cat's out, that insulation works two ways. In the hot beating sun, the outside of the coat may get really hot, but just imagine that each of those hairs is like a little umbrella and it's shading the skin from that hot sun. So that's the way to imagine that. So yeah, getting a breeze, lightening the coat can be really useful with the grooming. But as long as the tips are still away from the skin, they can piloerect, so bring the hairs up and then effectively keep their skin cool. But provision of shade for those of you who are used to having, lucky enough to have a backyard or a garden, you know, allowing there to be some shrub plants, some shaded areas so that they can literally get in touch with the ground. You'll find that there's lovely cool spots under in those shaded areas that they can get to. And that's so important, getting out and about. I do exactly what you were saying, Julianne, that you find the upstairs can get so hot. Remember, these are the times of years. Don't be shy about closing the curtains, okay? And literally keeping the sun reflected back out of the house and allowing some airflow where possible through those upper rooms. We're lucky enough to have a secure enough area we can leave the windows open, keep the curtains closed. That allows enough throughput. Prop any doors open just in case the wind catches them and slams. We don't want any injuries to our little four-legged friends from slamming doors, but allow that airflow through That can be really useful. So shade, what do you guys do for shade? Are you, you know, are they going out and about for you, Amaya, or are they staying indoors? Are they?

Yeah, no, they're always indoors, but yeah, the curtains are closed during the day. Now, for example, I'm in the office, which this is in the afternoon, this has to be closed and I have to go to the living room. So that's But now everything in the living room is dark and my bedroom, and as you say, I have the windows just open this bit because actually the air starts cooling at night, so I open them at night. And then I use a lot of boxes. Actually, they really like to be inside of the boxes all day or in the bathroom, which the floor is different, so it seems to be more, yeah, cool. So that's what they do. They don't do much more. They just suddenly wake up at night. It's like, oh yes, finally. And that's what you see then during the day. They are sleeping somewhere cool. And that's all that you can see from you. And I don't interact too much with them now because they don't want to. That's what she said. They didn't want to.

Great. So anything that you're finding as far as cooling herbs, Julianne, is this something that you come across that you're finding people, your cats and therefore owners, people are demanding more of certain herbs from you guys? What's, what's happening there?

Yeah, so there are two really that I found are used a lot when it's warm, and one is peppermint, which, you know, obviously we use that as humans for like our digestion to kind of cool things down. It's not really one that I find cats are very— that will select select it very often. You know, it's— if a cat's got an upset tummy, I would always recommend it. But generally speaking, they use chamomile for that more than peppermint, but it's always an option. But when it is warm, peppermint is one that is selected. And then as Baby Max beautifully demonstrated, valerian roots. So, you know, I mean, valerian for me is fascinating because it helps with anxiety, it helps with physical pain like we talked about before. The remedy, you know, one remedy can help with so many things. But I think particularly with like baby Max, you know, he is— it's a very joyful cat, you know, he loves to be outside, you know, he's a bit of a hunter, he's becoming more proficient recently, you know, he, he likes to be in nature, he's always into something. So I think for him, like, the valerian when it's warm gives him the chance to kind of cool himself, you know, to calm himself. Because if we think about any temperature, you know, the, the heat outside let's also be aware of like energy, you know, energy in our bodies. Everything in our bodies when it's hot is potentially working a little bit harder. Our digestion is, you know, gotta fight more because it's really warm. We're trying to cool our body, so our bodies are perhaps a bit more busy with trying to regulate us. And, you know, I believe that our cats are the same. So when I have— when we have hot weather, I put 3 herbs down. I have valerian, peppermint, and I put catnip down. Now Not everybody, not everybody, not all cats, I should say, not humans. Not all cats are affected by catnip. So, you know, and again, I do know some cats can get quite aggressive with catnip. So it depends on your individual cat as to how they react with the herbs. But again, with catnip, I do see Baby Max particularly eat more of it. So I find that fascinating that there is more support for his kind of digestion and his internal systems when it's warmer. Through those 3 herbs. So, you know, I also noticed that they're on the gardens like afternoon when it's— we're kind of like— Amaya said you start to cool in the evenings generally with where we are, um, here in the country. From about 5 o'clock onwards, the temperature may slowly start to go, um, but it's about that time that he will come in and be in that space. Other than during the day, he's at that— they're out you know, they're out enjoying the sun, the shade. We, as you— oh, you can't see from here, but we're back onto local woods. So I worry about the two of them being in the heat, being in the hot weather, but I see them and they come home and I always check their ears for kind of temperature and they're actually— they regulate very well. I mean, both my boys are black cats as well, so I do worry when I see Leo laid out on the slabs. I'm like, oh buddy, like they're really super hot, you know, and I stroke him within a few moments of being in the sun and he's really hot. Then he goes into the summer room where we've got quite a lot of shade, the doors are open so the breeze can come through. So, you know, it's about giving them the options and those tools for when they need it.

It's interesting what you mentioned about, you know, when he's in the sun and then he goes to cool itself. That's something that my cat does. I first, before closing all the curtains, I usually leave one spot with a a little bit of sun to see if he wants to be there, because sometimes he wants to be really burning out. I don't know, he really likes to be there and then hide and to go to cool himself.

Think about, you know, humans, it's important for us to have exposure to the sun, you know, vitamin D, do you know what I mean? Like there are mechanical processes in our body that need daylight. So, you know, with indoor cats, that is a really good point to leave almost like a sliver of sunshine that if they want to go and lie in it, to feel the warmth, to have that vitamin exposure, that's, that's great. That's a really great thing to do, give them that choice.

Everything I've learned through observation. This is not something that, you know, if you— because you don't really know, you usually go to what you feel like. I'm here, I'm hot, I'm just gonna close everything and just try to put everything for you. But then when you start looking around, and especially with my black cat, he he's very— he's always going to tell you everything he needs. You know, he's hungry, he's going to do something different to make you notice, right? So it is very important that you observe and let them choose a little bit, right? Not make assumptions just because. No, no.

And so I just want to bring you back to the nepeta family, which is a catnip Obviously there is also cat mint. Have you brought that in as an alternate? Have you seen any differences with that? Okay.

No, I haven't brought that in because I haven't been able to find a good organic supplier for that. So I don't, I don't have that here because I only want to offer organic to my boys and my customers and things. That's what's in the shop. So I've only stuck with catnip or peppermint. I haven't gone for cat mint, but you're absolutely right. That is another one. And spearmint as well, if you can get it, is a is a softer version of peppermint, so there's always that option too.

So still attractive to cats, I find, still of the same family as catnip, but it is same genus, sorry, but it's just slightly more subtle. Still can be really useful, and it's easy to grow yourself. Okay, there's loads of garden centers that have it, so, you know, if you want to grow your own, there's some people in the world that seem to have the touch of death plants, but that's, that's why, that's why I deal with dried only.

Dried, dried only. Like someone said to me once, do you ever think about growing your own to sell them? I was like, are you—

and beep.

Yeah, it's just like, no, no, no, no, no. I can keep my two cats alive brilliantly. Plants, you gotta be joking.

This is it. So this is what I'm getting you for Christmas. I'm gonna get We're going to do some planting sessions in the Christmas show, and we'll, we'll review them in the spring to see how the plants are getting on.

You just set me up to fail there, Brendan. The lights go off on me again.

Your lights have gone off. She says, that's it, I'm out of here.

I'm out.

Yeah, that tree cat's done. I don't know, it'll figure itself out in a minute, I'm sure. Oh, hi, Julianne! If you can't go mint, there's definitely an issue. Nicholas says, I can kill a cactus plant. Yes, I'm with you, girl.

Oh, there you go.

So Rachel says, what about Sphinx cats as far as cooling goes? So Brendan, what would you say for that, for thinks, Kat? Because obviously they're not actually hairless. That's a bit of a misconception, isn't it?

You know, they're not, but, um, neither are they really in a good position to be out in full sun. Now, you know, the vitamin D conversions could be great, but you know, this is, you know, something that we have created because we like the feel of skin for some people. Um, and I would definitely say, look, there are— just as with us there are ways to cool because they will not have a flush of sweat glands across the whole of the skin either. So you have to mimic that by creating something that evaporates. So if you are finding your cat really is suffering with the heat, getting something that's moist that will actually evaporate off with their heat will cool them. So there are actually the bandanas and things like that that you can get, you can dip in water. Squeeze out so it's just moist, okay? And then just apply that onto your cat's skin and allow that to evaporate. That will cool for them. There are some materials, these cooling ones, that you can actually— are more likely to allow water to evaporate from. So they even do special materials which they'll say are cooling, cooling towels, cooling things that are usually synthetic. That's the only downside. But again, You wet them off, wring them out, swirl them around a little bit so the evaporation starts, and then you just lay them over your pet. But that's particularly in cooling. I would give them the options as we've talked about. You know, if they've got an option to go and lie on a cool tiled floor, they'll go do it if they want to. If they want to just find somewhere that's actually the right temperature for them, You know, that's in the shade. They'll go off and do that. Don't impose your feeling on them.

You know, yeah, they do that a lot with heat and cool. It's like, oh, he's always cold. So I have to, you know, I read that Sphinx are cold. I read that. Yeah. Things have, you know.

No, let them choose. Let them choose always. So glad you brought that one up because yes, I did see that comment go through. But protection. Yeah, this brings us in protection. You know, we talked about vitamin D levels and we've talked about, you know, certainly cats. You know, I've had many, many cats that just love to go out and sunbathe even in the massive heat. And we're sort of like, we've got to talk about sun protection to some degree at this point. Yeah.

So I think, Brendan, you should cover that. Do you know what? This is not something that I've ever— I've only ever seen a white cat that, bless his little heart, had its ears removed because they'd got sunburnt. Pickle was gray, she never really liked going out much. My two boys are black, you know, they don't have issues because they will take themselves away. So I have to be honest, this isn't something that I can talk to. I have heard about it, but is there a— I will pass this over to you guys because it's not something I've got experience of.

Amaya's waiting to get in there.

Yeah, I can see, like, let me go because he said something about black cats and I've seen carcinoma in black cats with white skin underneath.

Fascinating.

So be careful with the black cat. Oh, I have a black cat.

In that case, I'm like, I'm listening now.

No, no, it's very important because I've seen, I've seen that you have to look into the skin, what the color of their skin, not the fur. And well, about protection, here we have a sunscreen that it's natural for for pets. I do have a— it is from the lab from Stammgest, and they create all-natural products. And I use it for my cat, for my white cat, because she has everything pink and easily, easily affected. And it's really good, actually. Well, she doesn't get too much exposure, but still. That's one of the things I worry. She's kind of a breed cat.

Yeah, so, um, let's talk about that for a minute. I mean, the one that I've tended to use has been, uh, I don't know whether you can see that, because again, it's from a natural— doesn't have natural tone. Okay, um, just because it doesn't have, um, any of the sort of artificial chemicals and stuff put in, all the benzene products and things like that that often go into these So, and it's not an alcohol base, and it's safe therefore if they, you know, lick it off or anything along those lines. But I'm sure there are other products out there. There's going to be a number of people that will look at that and say it's not strictly speaking just sunburn that we're worried about here. It's actually the change into precancerous cells that you'll sometimes see as this sort of crusting around the nose, the bridge of the nose, and on the ear tips. If you're getting little black flecks which sort of recur, and if you flick them off, they bleed, okay, they're not necessarily already a cancer. It's literally by having a little bit of actinic keratosis, so precancerous cells, but they need to be watched. And at that point, you should absolutely be covering them, you know, in future if they are determined to go out in the sun. But it's when those change to maybe constantly bleeding, sort of bubbling up, maybe, you know, 1 to 2 millimeters and growing, they can be quite aggressive. And it's really important to get to see your vet to get those assessed, to get them assessed under under a microscope. Don't just assume that you can freeze those and that's the end of it. Okay. You really need to have a look at those under the microscope because, yeah, if they are squamous cell carcinoma, there's a totally different approach. There's all sorts of things you need to do to help with your cat's dealing with cancer, and it can be a really serious thing. So protection, protection, protection all the time is is the best, by all means. But if you start to get any of those lesions, please go and visit your vet. Don't just leave them. The longer you leave them, the harder it is to prevent there being a problem. Okay, so that's that. I see Penny's gone. Dr. Zoo from Australia is probably a very good clean, safe pet screen. Thanks, Penny, for letting us know. Just to have a look at that out there. So particularly, you know, pale skin is going to be more prone to those changes that we've talked about. But again, if that's pale skin underneath dark fur, that's something to be aware of. What I would like to then talk about is therefore aloe. Anybody used aloe for post, you know, if they've had sunburn burn on their cat's ears or nose? Aloe vera? Yeah, and there's this proposal here. Tell us, Amaya, what's your experience with aloe in cats? Because some people will say it's super toxic.

I use it only in self-selection and as a, usually as a vehicle of something else, but not, I mean, I haven't got to have like a really good experience with it. And usually if I, um, if I— I've never used it on the skin or topically, but I know it could be because I, I'm not— I've never had a toxic reaction to it. So as long as it's clean and it's a good thing, I mean, you have to be very careful which one you choose, the product that you choose, that whether it's juice or or a gel. But my experience, not. Okay.

Okay. Anything from you, Julie? Julianne? I got the look. I got the look. Give me a chance to get my words out, Julianne.

I did. I don't use it, I have to say. So I use green clay instead. So with green clay, you know, you can use it as a powder if you've got a wet wound, and you can use it as a paste if you've got a sore, you know. So you mix a tiny bit of water with it, a little goes a long way. I use it on myself. I am so clumsy, like I would have, you know, oven burns, you know, and things, and I'd have green clay on my hand. I use it on me. I've used it on the boys. So Leo came home once and he had an open wound, quite, quite small. Not— he probably caught it on something, but I was like, oh God, you know, I didn't want to go to the vets because it, I, it was just an open wound, you know. So we dusted the green clay on it a couple of days, um, kept it clean and things. So I would always use green clay over aloe. Like Amaya said, there is a real risk with it that, you know, aloe can be quite heavily adulterated, even if it says organic and pure and natural. You are unlikely to buy a tube of aloe vera gel, right? Unless you get it from somewhere like, for example, like Caroline Ingram, where they sell products that are that, and you're going to get a little for a good cost because it is just pure gel. So, you know, you do need to be really careful about what you use. So if I— like I said, touch wood, you know, I don't want to manifest it, but I've not dealt with sunburn with my boys, but any wounds that we've had I go to green clay, and we're using at the moment as well as a parasite repellent. So the boys have had a lot of ticks, and recently we found out they've got— they had harvest mites in their feet. So I've been mixed— I've mixed in neem oil with the green clay base. We've got it in a pot now, and every night when they come home, I take their collars off because they've got clip-release collars with a pendant on with my details, and I dust the inside of their collar and put it back on in the morning. And because it's not just pure neem, you know, it's mixed with the green clay, it's not as strong. So yeah, I'm a— as Penny said, I'm a huge lover of green clay over aloe because I think with aloe there is just, for me, there is an unnecessary risk about ingestion, you know, where you just don't know what else is mixed with. So I would, I would go green clay.

I think, and green clay is great, you know, if there's nothing more natural as a, a skin protectant from the sun fun. It's clay, you know. And actually, using a green clay— there's some great edible clays out there, okay? They're not expensive. You just mix them with a bit of water, make them into a paste. You can quite happily— I mean, I know it looks a bit weird having green splodges on your cat, but, you know, from a point of view, if they then wipe that off, there's going to be no danger to them whatsoever. And not just as a healing balm for injury, etc., but as a preventative, you know, the minerals within that clay are what's going to give that block, that sunblock for your cat. So perfectly safe to be using in those circumstances.

So yeah, absolutely.

Next question. Do you have experience with aloe?

With aloe? So I've used aloe for many gut issues, both homeopathic topically and herbally, literally you're looking at between half a mil per kilo and a max of a mil per kilo if they're going to take it for as a gut soother, very much like the, the mints and ginger and things like that that we'll use to help as a gut balm. You know, aloe can be really useful for those at those low levels, but absolutely you've got to watch the source, you've got to make sure how it's extracted juice. You don't want stuff that's adulterated with loads of other sugars and sweeteners and, you know, all sorts of things in there. That can be the real problem, you know, especially with— yeah, it is. But, you know, when you're only using really small amounts, you know, as a treatment, it's not really that expensive compared to some of the other veterinary treatments that are out there and what people are using for chronic gut issues.

Yes, there's a way to look at— sometimes, as Julianne said, it says organic, or it says many other things, that, that doesn't guarantee. You have to look into the label and read exactly where it comes from. I mean, that's something, because now organic is everything, you know.

And also be aware of, you know, what size have you got, you know, how much have you got. Because if you had it from last year, I wouldn't be using stuff like that, you know, topically, right? You know, like, you want to make sure that the quality the product that you've got. Like, if you've got even green clay, if you've got a sealable jar, you know, when you open it up, is it a little bit clunky, a little bit clumpy? You know, how old is it and stuff? Do you know what I mean? So I mean, that kind of goes without saying for any sort of product that we look into to support our cat's health and well-being. You know, if you've had it, you've been in the cupboard for, you know, more than sort of 6, 8 months, for me it goes and I buy fresh. You know, I buy it, buy again.

I don't for clay. I'm sorry, once it's clay, it's clay. For me. I'll take a rolling pin and smash it up and grind it back into powder if I need to. I'm a Yorkshireman, for God's sake.

But then you think about like when they kind of go out.

I'd even batter bricks back into dust and make them into clay patties if I could. Anyway. Oh, right, time's nearly up, so we need to be— yeah, I know, it's shot through, hasn't it? It's great. I love these chats. Okay. And if you want to see these guys in person, I've been assured that they're going to join us at the Christmas get-together. Shindig. Well, I want to keep on saying party and I keep getting told off. It's not a party. There's loads of educational stuff. Keep an eye out for ticket sales. We've got some. I hope you're— if you're members of Eventbrite, if you don't know what Eventbrite is, go and search on the internet so that you're ready for ticket sales. It's first come, first served next week. So keep an eye out for that. Is there anything that you would like to add in the last— you've got a minute, okay, of time each— to about cool cats.

So I would say keep them cool. To keep them cool, offer shady spaces, try to curtail your need to stroke them, and just be mindful that your routine with them may change and be open to that. Don't freak out like some of us do, you know, just take a breath, take a chill pill— there is a pun intended— and take each day as it comes, let your cat guide you for what they need to keep cool. Amaya?

I would say that almost the same thing. I'm just gonna— just going to add the nutritional thing, that it's, uh, if your cat stops eating and, you know, try to switch the routine a little bit and make sure that if he doesn't want to have the lunch that usually has, maybe it's because it's too warm. So try to try other things, different meats, different proteins. And even if you don't know, because you know, for me was kind of an experience. Maybe you don't know, try something else and see what happens, right?

And that's the thing. I would love to add to this. Look, if you see your cat laid out in the sun sunbathing, okay, don't go sort of rushing up and scooping them up inside or anything like that. Even if they feel hot to touch on the very outside, if they're showing no signs of distress if they're not panting, not, you know, collapsed and unmovable, then just leave them, you know, be as long as, you know, the ears and nose are protected. So watch out for any sun damage. Absolutely. But otherwise, no, they've got little shades up on all of their hair follicles. Okay, so just remember that. Provide them with shade, give them some choice. I think absolutely. Is the right thing. What can you do for inside while keeping the home, you know, a reasonable temperature? Look, the optimum temperatures for our pets to be really, really comfortable are between 18 degrees and 21 degrees. You start to move outside of that, they need to adapt. And, you know, we see this with people that move around the world to do various jobs. If they move from a very cold area to a very hot area very quickly, like we do when we go on holiday, we're far more likely to succumb to that temperature change than if we slowly adapt through the seasons. Which is why there are so many animals that are in the middle of the States that will cope with really high temperatures in the summertime. As their temperature builds, of course, they can deal much better than our pets in the UK, where we're used to a cool 16 degrees with rain, but just about all year round. And then when it suddenly shoots up to above 30 degrees, we're all suffering. That's because we haven't usually had time to adapt. Okay, so it's adaptation. Allowing time to adapt is really, really important.

Awesome.

Wow, thank you guys. Thank you for your attention. For everybody who's been watching, you can catch up at any point. We've got next month is all about water, where we can find various water sources for our cats, how we can make sure that that's super pure for them. And we look forward to seeing you then. That's on August the 18th.

I knew you wouldn't, that's why I got it ready.

August the 18th. We look forward to seeing you guys all then. Take care.