Every now and again, I like to talk about the practical aspects of science and skepticism. Recently, I gained a new cat. You can learn a lot from cats. For example, you learn that there is nothing more annoying, except possibly, for a young child of a friend whom you can’t discipline.
We’d had our new cat for about two weeks when some (no, a lot!) of really disgusting gunk came pouring out of her ear. While I’ve done my fair share of biology labs and emergency first aid on animals and people, this was pretty gross. It wasn’t as bad as lancing an infected bite on another cat I had, but it wasn’t pleasant.
I need to be clear, this wasn’t a bit of brown gunk that comes out with a Q-tip or a Kleenex. This was a waterfall of brown goo with chunks that lasted for roughly two days.
Obviously, I took Phia, the cat, to the vet. Let me explain, I’ve had and/or taken care of over two dozen cats in my life. Phia has, in the few weeks she’s lived me, has become my favorite. She is sweet and vicious, playful and quiet. It’s hard to not love an animal that, from the first moment she saw you, has had complete trust in you.
Anyway, we traveled to the vet. It didn’t go well. There was both yeast and bacteria in both ears. Her left ear (which was the one that didn’t explode) had what appeared to be a swollen ear drum, possibly indicating a middle ear infection. The right ear was so swollen that the vet couldn’t see the ear drum. This called for drugs and a specialist.
First, we had steroid to reduce the swelling and a topical antibiotic. Now, Phia is a great cat, loving sweet, and calm. Even so, giving medicine to cats is a task that requires delicacy, great strength, and industrial gloves. She didn’t take it well, but I didn’t lose much blood.
Second, we made the appointment for the specialist. A few days later, we made another trek. This also didn’t go as well as I had hoped. The steroid hadn’t really helped yet. The ears had gunked up again.
There were two real choices. Surgery, basically poke a hole in the ear drum, analyze the middle ear, and determine a treatment plan or more drugs and hope it clears up enough to do a more thorough investigation of the ears before deciding on surgery.
Since Phia appeared to be in no discomfort, the doctor and I agreed on the second method and to continue the steroid and antibiotics. It meant purchasing Kevlar gloves, that’s a small price to pay.
A week later, we went back to the specialist and things had improved considerably. Still not perfect or cured, but much better. The doctor was not convinced that the problem was an infection… or least that the cause of all the problems was the infection. She began to suspect it was a allergy, a quite strong one, and that the infection and river of gunk was the symptom, not the cause.
So we began to ease her off the steroid. This particular steroid heavily altered how her glands behaved and a radical change could cause damage to those glands. We had to ease her off the steroids.
Now, I need to mention that one of the side effects of this steroid was a rather uncontrollable and insatiable hunger. In less than three weeks, Phia went from just over 8 pounds to just over 11 pounds. She had also gone from a playful kitty to a fat lump of a speed bump. This displeased me. It wasn’t upset at Phia, it wasn’t her fault. But I was sad and worried that I wouldn’t get my playful kitty back.
Then something happened. Phia got into the food of the other two cats. Her insatiable hunger drove her to eat the prescription diet of the boys. They both have urinary issues and have a special diet to keep them from getting crystals in their bladder.
Within minutes of eating a few bites of that food, she threw it up. An hour later, her ears were folded back and she kept scratching them. Two hours later and she was sneezing frequently. And then I remembered that she had been sneezing the day before the great earnami of 2014.
I suspected that we might have found the culprit. So we come to today. When we have removed that food source and will try see how she handles the next few days.
So, what does all this have to do with science?
First of all, observations are important and no details are insignificant. That I remembered that Phia had sneezed before the ear dump began was actually important. It became something that explained all of the issues and problems. Now, whether it is true or not remains to be seen, but it’s a start and it gives us a way to test.
Second, understanding is critical. If you can’t understand the problem, then looking for a solution is hopeless. While I know quite a bit about biology and a fair bit about feline anatomy, I never interrupted the doctor, while she was explaining the ear structure, the microbiology, or anything else. I could have, but I wanted to be sure that there wasn’t a gap in my knowledge that was missing and may have been important.
For example, if her ear drum had burst, that doesn’t mean that she would be deaf. Ear drums can heal, but if it had burst several times due to over pressure causes by an infection, then scar tissue on the ear drum would have significantly impacted her hearing. I didn’t know all that.
Third, planning is good. Whether this is an argument, a project, a medical procedure, or a trip to the market, having a plan just makes sense. Even if you don’t know how to deal with a problem, by breaking the problem into small pieces and dealing with each one, the entire issue becomes manageable.
Fourth, you can be a skeptic and a scientist and an atheist and still feel love. Yes, I know that love, other emotions, and the like are little more than chemical changes in the brain. And some (mainly Christians oddly enough) would say that skeptics, scientists, and/or atheists can have no feelings or are emotionless robots because we don’t believe in a soul or that kind of thing.
I can say that those people are wrong. I am an atheist, a scientist, a skeptic, and a very emotional, empathic being. I love that cat. Not because I have to, but because she’s special to me and I want to. If it took an $800 operation to make her better, I would have done it. I’m happy that we don’t have to, but cost is only part of that. It’s hard for a small animal to have surgery like that and, just like in people, bad things happen sometimes. And I don’t want to lose Phia.
That all being said, I think that skeptics have an advantage when it comes to highly emotionally charged moments.
Several years ago, I spent a year studying akido. I enjoyed the marital arts, but my vertigo prevented me from ever progressing. [Akido, unlike more commercialized martial arts only has four belts and you have to do quite a bit to move from one to the other.] Anyway, most martial arts have a kata. In general it’s a series of specific movements that you do, usually by yourself or in a group.
While it may seem pointless to someone not familiar with the specific art, the katas form the basis of the various movements, strikes, and defenses used in that art. Think of Mr. Miyagi and the wax on, wax off. The wax on and wax off practice that the kid was doing was practicing muscle memory. He could then block strikes without really thinking about it.
So, these steps that martial artists practice allow them to not worry about the movements during a fight. It allows their brain to be thinking about strategy and the conscious mind can be divorced from the actual movements. It speeds things up and makes for a more effective fighter.
Likewise, skeptics train in a specific skill set, mental instead of physical. We focus on things like logic, evidence, and critical thinking. When a super-charged emotional moment comes along, we can fall back on that practice of logic, evidence, and critical thinking. Instead of freaking out, we consider evidence, we think critically, not because we really plan on it, but because that’s what we do.
Now, when first vet told me that Phia might have to have ear surgery, I was concerned. I could have been quite upset and I’ve seen people have massive meltdowns over much less. But I waited for evidence. I thought about it and decided that, if that is what had to be done, then so be it. But I was able to think about it rationally instead of emotionally.
A final example from today. A troll at one of the G+ atheist groups started wanking about the 9/11 conspiracy theories and that there’s no evidence of a plane hitting the pentagon and a bunch of other stuff.
I could have reacted emotionally and spent effort pointing out the evidence, but it would have been pointless. What I settled on (and was much more fun) was a discussion of the posters fallacies and failure of logic. I never said one word about any event of 9/11 just pointed out the logical flaws in his statements and claims.
And maybe that’s a big lesson for us all. Instead of reacting emotionally, how much better off would we be reacting logically and waiting for evidence. Now, I fully admit that one should never underestimate the power of a good hissy-cow. But one should be careful and make maximum use of the hissy-cow. Something that most 5 year-olds haven’t figured out yet. No point in having a hissy-cow that will not change anything.
It’s always good to learn things. Even getting a refresher in some things that we’re well aware of is always good. It’s like a booster vaccine. You’re in good shape, but a little extra couldn’t hurt.
Finally, because this is the internet (and the internet loves cats), I’ll post a few pictures of Phia.
