Holistic Cat Care: Seeing the Bigger Picture for Feline Wellness | The Feline Wellness Summit with Pam Roussell

 Welcome to the cat dad show. My name is Scott Colby. And today we're going to talk a little bit about holistic health for your cat. Now I admit I didn't really know much about this until my cat Mia, when she was. 19. She had developed arthritis and her mobility was getting a lot worse and to the point where she was dragging her back leg and got to a couple of days where she could barely, you know, really walk at all.

And so I did some research and found a In home holistic vet that came to the home and she did some laser treatment for Mia and some acupuncture to really help with her mobility and her kidney function and so Today I want to share with you a clip of my interview. I did with Pam Roussell. She specializes in holistic Health and wellness for felines and she was part of my feline wellness summit and in this clip I had asked her if she could explain what it really means to take the 40, 000 foot view when it comes to cats wellness and how does that change as we care for for them day to day and really how Holistic health can look for your for your cats and what that actually looks like So enjoy this clip with Pam if you would like to hear the entire interview as well as the interview with 20 other feline wellness experts.

You can grab a ticket for the feline wellness summit. Just go to feline wellness summit. com, but for now, enjoy this clip with Pam.

The whole concept of taking a 40, 000 foot view is stepping back, getting out of the weeds, getting out of the trees, and looking at things from a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. Um, to contrast this, when we take our cat to the vet because they're vomiting, they zero in on one thing. The cat's vomiting.

How do I stop it from vomiting? And that's their focus. It's a very myopic view, but that's how they're trained, right? So when we take a 40, 000 foot view, we step back and I tell people this all the time.

The Importance of Asking 'Why?' in Cat Health

And the most important question you can be asking is why is this happening? Because everything in the body works synergistically there.

Each organ is not an island to itself, right? The systems work, um, synergistically in the body with each other. So if one area is out of the balance, out of balance, it's going to affect the entire body from an emotional perspective, the spiritual perspective, the physical perspective. So we really miss the boat when we only try to find a, you know, a remedy for a symptom.

In my opinion. But that's what a holistic approach is. It's looking at the whole cat. How are they doing emotionally? Are they going through some, you know, some anxiety? Are there some new changes in the home? Um, have we changed their diet? What are they eating? How long has this been going on? And you start to peel back the layers and you look at.

All the, you look at their environment, you look at what they're eating, you look at their behavior and you start to get a picture. It's like, it's like putting together a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle, right? You have a little bitty, you know, snippet of a picture, but you can't see the whole thing. So you don't know what you're dealing with here, but when you, when you start to put all the pieces together, it makes a beautiful picture at the end of the day and you know what you're dealing with.

So I just feel like that. Is missed so much and I, I have a holistic cats Facebook group. It's like 20, 20, 000 people in there every single day. When I look at stuff that people are sharing or posting or asking, they're asking for what? They're, what do you use? What can I use for this symptom, this issue, this condition?

And I'm always going, guys, we have to start asking why, because until we know why things are happening, you are throwing spaghetti at the wall with this food and that supplement and this remedy and that medication. You don't even know why it's happening. So you're not going to fix the problem. Until you peel back enough layers to figure out what's going on.

Why is this happening to begin with? Does that make sense?

Yeah. So like your approach isn't like treating the symptom. It's more preventative because if we treat the symptom, right, it's. Likely to happen again if we don't figure out why

we need to find the root cause

Yeah,

because when you treat the root cause the symptoms go away and it's just like magic you know and then the cat returns to health and vitality and There's an element of wellness there.

That was you know, that was has been lost So that's the whole point of a holistic approach. We, we want to peel back enough layers and find the root cause of the issue. That could be emotional. Emotions are very, uh, integral part of health and emotional blocks contribute to stuck energy in the body and they contribute to illness and disease just like they do in people.

So, you know, that's just 1 aspect of looking at things from a holistic perspective, because if we just try to focus on why is my cat have fur balls every day? Or why is my cat throwing up every day? And the vet says, oh, it's normal. No, it's not. It's common, but it's not normal. So cats don't wake, you know, they're not kittens aren't born.

And every day they just throw up every day. No, that's not normal. So we need to figure out what, what through the whole body's, you know, balance out of balance. And when did it start and what was going on about that time? And you know, what, what have you been feeding? How have you been addressing it? Are, you know, again, all of those changes.

So I tell people, put your detective hat on and start taking notes and start being observant and go back in your calendar and look at what was going on when things started to go off trail, you know, or off course and really sit back and, and don't. emotionalize it and don't, um, don't start getting the blame game and, you know, fear, just look at it objectively and just observe and start to ask questions like,

Hmm,

well, that was about the time that so and so was, you know, we brought in that dog and the cat started hiding, you know, you start to.

be able to put the picture together when you, when you take a 40, 000 foot view. And it also helps you help your vet because they miss this. All the time, you know, so when you can start asking those kinds of why questions, it may bug your bed, but who cares? You're the advocate. Right? So just start asking why.

And if they can't tell you why, go home and start doing your own research because we, that is one of the, that is one of our responsibilities as a cat parent. To be empowered. We don't just take someone's word for it. You know, it's like if something doesn't sit right with you and your spirit or you know, in that intuitive center that we all have, if we get that feeling like, I don't feel good about this, but you feel like your arms are getting twisted.

I tell people, listen to that intuitive hit because it's trying to protect you. It's trying to help you make the right decision. So we don't have to be rushed. When we are faced with some icky kind of options that, you know, when we go to the vet's office or whatever. So if something doesn't feel right, just say, thank you so much for your, for your help and your information.

I'm going to go home and do some research and I will get back to you on what I decided like to do. There's no, there's no hard deadline that says you have to make a decision right then and there. You know what I mean? It's like, and I think so many pet parents get. Get arm twisted into into making decisions and taking meds, giving certain things that they just don't feel good about.

And then they feel terrible because, you know, the cat still has the problem and thousands of dollars later, they still have no

answers.

So it's very frustrating. So I say, take your time, go home, get online, do your research, talk to other people about who've gone through the same thing. type of similar situation and what options did they take?

You know, just there's not just always answers A and B. Sometimes there's C, D, E, F, G. We just don't know about them, but they do exist. So, yeah, I think taking that 40, 000 foot view and looking at things holistically is really the best way to provide your your cats the most optimal chance of. Health and vitality longterm, you know, and longevity.