Speaker 1: This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2: Welcome the attitude. I'm your show host Michelle Bourne. Today
we're going to talk about that thing. It fears me.
One of the top fears I have is what to
do when there is a disaster or emergency and you
have to get your cat ready? What do you do?
My guest today is amazing and I am so excited
to introduce you to her. So stay tuned, we'll be
right back.
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Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome doctor Debbiemandel. She
is a member of the Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council
and a veterinarian as well. Welcome doctor Debbie.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. Hello.
Speaker 2: Hi, Can you share your background with your with us
and also how you're involved with the Red Cross?
Speaker 5: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 5: I am an emergency and critical care specialist. I'm the
director of the Emergency Service at the Ryan Vedinar Hospital
of the University of Pennsylvania. I started working with the
Red Cross really after Hurricane Katrina, when I think that
was where everyone's eyes really opened up as far as
people are not going to leave their pets during disasters,
and so we started partnering. It started with books dog
and cat first aid books and including emergency and disaster planning,
and kind of opened up from there.
Speaker 2: Doctor Debbie. Most people think of the Red Cross and
association with helping people. How does the Red Cross get
involved with helping furbage? You mentioned a book.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so the Red Cross actually helps in lots of
different ways. When I started with them, we did revamp
a dog and cat first aid book, but you know,
then technology advanced a lot, and so the Red Cross
we actually developed a dog and cat online first aid
course and there is a pet first Aid app. The
Pet first Aid app is broken down into a cat
section and a dog section, and they teach you how
to know what's normal how to take your cat's vitals
help determine if your cat is experiencing a life threatening emergency.
They go through CPR, choking, bleeding, and many common emergencies
that cats can have and how you can respond. The
Pet First Aid app also has information on preventative care
and also emergency planning. It has a section specifically about
being prepared for disasters and emergencies for cats. More than that,
during disasters, the Red Cross also does everything they can
to accommodate service animals and domesticated pets comfortably in their shelters. Sometimes,
depending on the situation, pets may need to be housed
in a different location with support from their animal welfare
group partners. But they really do try to help. That's
been an amazing journey.
Speaker 2: So we're recording this in February twenty two. We've just
experienced I think everybody all over the world was glued
to Los Angeles with the fires. I've lived in Los
Angeles experienced the fires, but nothing like that because they
came catastrophic with the fierce winds, and I mean I
think what it took almost what ten days or so
for everything to be contained. It was just terrific. I
remember Katrina. I've lived in South Florida with hurricanes, so
experienced all that kind of craziness. You have time to
repare earthquakes where you don't have time to prepare. How
does the first Aid app help with those kind of situations,
Because sometimes you have time to prepare for an emergency
and sometimes you really don't.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So the biggest thing that the Red Cross is
always tells everyone, and the Pet First Aid app helps
people do this is you need to be prepared, and
so people should always include their cats in their disaster
or emergency plans. They are part of our family. We
know that people won't leave without them. So being prepared,
like you said, knowing what you're going to do in
a split second, along with if you have a lot
of time to prepare, is super important and so hopefully
you'll never need it, but you need to. You don't
want to figure out how you're going to grab your
cat and get out of the house if it's in
the middle of an emergency. So emergency and disaster preparedness
involves knowing what you're going to do if you need
to move super fast, knowing how your cat is going
to react, where they will hide, the easiest way to
get them in a carrier, and knowing what to do
if you need to leave home. And the Pet First
dat up has sections on those.
Speaker 2: You know, you just hit on a couple of things
that I find so challenging. Is one, getting them in
the carrier that you're a cat. I've had to cancel
that appointments because of that, and also getting them out
of hiding. Mine don't well, yeah, they do hide. I
was going to say, they don't really hide that much.
They just don't go in the carrier, but one of
them does hide. And I like also the idea of
being prepared, so you know how Yeah, but you're people
first aid kit or emergency kit with your whatever you
need to take with you your vitals. That should be the
same for your.
Speaker 5: Furbabe yep, yep, there's yep.
Speaker 2: And then what should that include.
Speaker 5: So for your pet, first aid kit and really supplies
that you should have on hand if you need to
evacuate or leave. If you want your medical records, including
recent vaccinations, any medical conditions, any prescribed medications, your veterinarians
name and number, out of area emergency contexts, a recent
photo of your pet or pets cat or cats, a
second collar with an ID and microchip information, and you
can have all of that in a closed plastic bag.
Your pet first aid kit can usually has things for
emergencies like bleeding, a thermometer you want to and we
can certainly talk about ways to figure out how to
get your cat and where your cat hides, but all
of the supplies that you would need to get your
catser fast carriers, be it hard or collapsible carriers near
an exit with all the supplies are super important. And
then your disaster kit really would contain food and water bowls,
a can opener if you have canned food, litter bags,
things like that. Okay, and yeah, let's circle back to
the carrier and the hiding cats, because when we have
these natural disasters, even if you have time to prepare,
you're still a little freaking you know, you're freaking out,
You're absolutely you're worried about your fur babes, but yourself
as well, and then your family members and all that.
Speaker 2: And then on top of this, you have a nervous cat.
You have to get the carrier that does not want
to go in that carrier. So what are some things
we could do so at least we could minimize that
kind of anxiety for the humans and for.
Speaker 5: The cats super stressful. So one of the things we
say is the way you can figure out beforehand what
works for you and your cat are to simulate an
emergency and so having the smoke alarm go off so
there's that really loud loud noise, and then seeing where
your cat hides, and then once you see where they hide,
you know, figuring out the best way is it a
leash which you may have to use, a blanket to
throw over them and put them on a carrier. All
of the tricks that you need to figure out to
get them out, even if you truly only have a
split second, putting them in a pillowcase and running out
of the house you know, obviously not if you have
more time, but really any trick that you can think
of as you're practicing will make it easier and hopefully
obviously net you never ever have to do it, but
at least you know the tricks that are the best
to work for your cat or cats.
Speaker 2: That's a great idea about the pillow case. I'm sure
your cats freaked out once you do that, but it's
better than your cat. You know, remaining behind and who
knows what that's exactly option, So what do you do?
So I've also heard with the carriers that it's a
great idea to leave them out, you know, don't just
bring them out for the vet, but leave them out.
One of my cats just I just tell him go in.
He goes in and it's his chill at the vet.
They were shocked. We said, come on, go inside. He
just jumped in and they said, that's what he does
at Yeah, he's easy. That's amazing, I know. Right, he's
partnering coon. So he was my first cat, so now
he's much older, dude, but he still does that. And
I thought all cats were like that until I got more,
and they're not all like that, definitely not main Coons
are called the dog of cats. So my other two
one is fearful of everything, everything, even treats, and the
other one, the other one, is a diva like a
normal cat, you know. So I think the biggest thing
for pet parents to understand is you're doing this to
save your cat. It's an urgency. If your cat's a
little upset or you get some scratches or something, you're
just doing this to save your cat, the cat's pissed
off and hides after then that's what happens. But you
have to take care of business.
Speaker 5: And that's why throwing a blanket over them and kind
of scooping them up will protect you as well. And
if you have to use a leash to kind of
get them out again, it's it's just that you really
have no other choice. You need to get them out
and then scooping them in the blanket to protect yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good idea too. What about you mentioned
also on the disaster kit food, So what about in
cases of food, because the big thing now a lot
of people like raw food or frozen food, and a
lot of food trends on that kind of level. Well,
if you have a disaster, you have to go with
the kibble and the can.
Speaker 5: Correct correct you really, you know, again, these are extreme circumstances.
And if you have the ability once you're in a
safe area to get the food that they're used to,
that's great. But what if you can't get to that area.
What if you are, you know, in a shelter where
you need to provide the food. You want to make
sure that they have food and so whatever whatever they
like that's not what they're used to, and not that
that's the best, but it's better than having no food.
So absolutely, something that will stay, stay safe for and
you want to have one to two weeks worth ideally
that doesn't need to be refrigerated is going to be
the best. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: And what about water, same.
Speaker 5: One to two weeks of you know, most people would
have bottled water.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for themselves and their pets. Okay, we're going to
take a quick break and we'll be right back. Hey, guys,
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Speaker 1: Let's talk past. Let's done that.
Speaker 2: Autopt Life Radio, HETLFE.
Speaker 6: Radio, Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everyone. We're talking to doctor Debbie Mandel. She
is vet marian and also works with the Red Cross,
and we're talking about what to do with your furbabes,
especially your cats, of course, on catitude during an emergency.
So here's another question for you, doctor Debbie. How do
you know where to go with your pet? Because not
everybody has a friend's home or a place that they
can evacuate.
Speaker 5: To absolutely and that is a super important point and
part of your evacuation, your disaster preparedness is knowing where
you're going to go in multiple directions in case roads
are closed, and so figuring out which hotels are pet friendly, kennels,
are boarding facilities, vet hospitals, family members friends. The Pet
First Aid app has a vet locator if you're out
of town, and a hotel locator. Also, do you have
a neighbor that would be able to get your cat
or cats and supplies if you aren't home, Including them
and where you would meet them would be important during
an emergency if there are multiple family members in the house,
or multiple people in the house assigning each of them
a different job, so one person gets the supplies, one
person gets each cat or multiple cats. There are smoke
alarms that actually send an alert to your phone so
you can start contacting the necessary people. So really mapping
it out in each direction where you might have to
evacuate again beforehand is very important.
Speaker 2: Those are great tips. What about cameras in your home?
We have some, and I'd like to just be able
to see my cats and they're okay, there's no fire,
everything's good. Our camera's helpful or it's just a tool,
but it's not the main thing. No.
Speaker 5: Actually, a lot of people have cat cams or pet cams,
and it's actually been amazing the people who watch while
they aren't home and see that there's an issue that
arises being there, being sick or something like a true
emergency or disaster. So yeah, they've been great. If you
cannot be glued to it all day.
Speaker 2: That happens sometimes that happens, or away really hard when
you're away. Now we've talked about disasters that are you know,
natural disasters, but there's also certain things. I mean, there's
so many crazy things. There's shootings, there's you know, riots,
there's terror, you know, terrorist attacks, there's all kinds of crazy.
And I remember one that I was in in LA
and a friend wanted me to evacuate because of where
I lived. It was like an area not too far
from where some of the craziness is going on. I said,
I have this big dog, how can I evacuate? And
I was actually pretty okay. Wasn't a really immediate situation
that I had to leave, So I was okay, But
what about when those situations strike, because those are really
very anxiety provoking, maybe even more so than natural disasters.
Speaker 5: Yeah, those are those are super scary. I mean, it's
you know, it's it's always safe to evacuate, and it's
safer to evacuate with your pets if there's a question
then waiting it out and then not being able to evacuate,
I mean, thankfully, obviously it was great that you guys
were okay, and it is when it's not directly at you,
it's really hard to determine. But if there's any question,
it's always safe to to evacuate, if you are waiting
to hear if you should evacuate, getting your pets in
one room, having the cats in their carriers or at
least close to them, so you can leave at a
moment's notice. Because if you don't evacuate and then you
need to be rescued, it's going to be very difficult
to impossible for your pets to come with you. So
it may be that you end up not needing to evacuate,
but it's always safer so and those are really tricky situations,
you know. I would say getting as far away as
possible is always the safest.
Speaker 2: But it's hard. It is hard, and it's even hard
sometimes with a natural disaster. And we saw that a lot,
you know in Los Angeles televis where people didn't and
rightly so they weren't sure should they leave or should
they not, and the fire spread so fast that they
barely you know, had time to prepare. I had a
situation where I lived in LA for many years, moved
back to South Florida. Was calling hurricanes earthquakes for a while,
but this was, oh, I forget the name of this one.
This was way back almost twenty years ago. And the
place I had was not in the hurricane areas where,
especially in South Florida and most of Florida and other
coastal areas. You know, you have impact windows, shutters and
those kind of things in their necessity, and the house
that I had didn't have any of those things. So
I thought I'd better evacuate. So I have I did.
I had a dog then no cat, but you know,
I took out everything, loaded my car with whatever, just
because you do need to be more prepared. You have to,
just if you have the time to prepare, grab everything
and go. And went to a family member's home who
didn't live too far and he was my brother and
sister in law were fined for me to bring the dog.
They had a dog, so it was all good, and
I was really lucky, you know, I had time to prepare.
I was able to get all of my dog's things
and food and everything, because I think we had no
power for three days. But I could just imagine as
anxiety and stress that I provoked and distressed that I was,
and that gave me time to think about what to do.
Imagine not having the time all of a sudden, just
boom and just you don't know until you know, you know.
Speaker 5: And that's why having it all fit so you don't
have to you're going to be so stressed in a
thousand things that were going to be going through your mind.
You just want to be able to have every thing
all there. You know, know what you have to do
because any kind of emergency, be it choking, CPR disasters,
you know, the more you're prepared, the more you can
just do it in in a very unfortunate emergency situation.
Speaker 2: So practice, have it all set and just go okay, Now,
what do you think about the stickers that you can
put in front of your home that let's you know,
first responders know that there's pets in the home. Should
you not be there to take care of your pets
or Yeah, it would be a situation where you're not
there to take care of your pets.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and you should have them on the front window
and the back window. Most of them say how many dogs,
how many cats? How many other and you just want
to make sure that it's up to date, you know,
if you get new pets, you want to make sure.
I use a dry erase marker to make sure the
number of animals and types of animals are up to date.
Speaker 2: But absolutely, yeah, I'm one of those. They're very handy.
What should we not do during a emergency? Besides you know,
be nervous.
Speaker 5: I think the biggest thing is not listening to what
people are saying. You know, if people are saying evacuate,
or people are saying get ready because you may need
to evacuate, and thinking, you know, we saw lots of
people like you said, try to write it out and
many might be okay, but there are many that then
become stranded or worse need to be rescued, and so
really not listening is the worst thing that may happen.
Speaker 2: So now this is just an opinion, but in your
professional opinion, do you think they sometimes sensationalize some of
this stuff on the news or not. I know with
hurricanes they sometimes do living in hurricane land, but we
also have time for this. But you also can never
tell because things change. I use an app called Wunderground,
and the last one I was on that, I was
updating it every you know, like twenty minutes it was
it was flued. But with other things, you you know, fires,
you don't have that chance. Earthquake just happens. You don't
even I mean, you have no notice pretty much. So
do you think it's sensationalized when there's notice on the news,
or it's just you know, I forget about that. Just
if you hear about it, just listen and be prepared.
Speaker 5: I really don't, you know, I think that once they
hear that something might be really bad, it's it's their
job to alert us. And so whether it's you just
get everything ready and then you wait for the next update.
I really don't think that it would that they sensilize everything.
I think that they really are just trying to have
us be as prepared as possible. So if we're not home,
we can go home, so we can get everything ready
in that room you know, where you can leave quickly.
And you're right, you know, there are so many that
you have no warning. And then there are others where
well it depends on which way the storm is going,
but if it takes that path and goes towards your house,
you want to be.
Speaker 2: Ready, Yes you do. And actually mister Zeus is in.
He was my doggie. He's in Doggy Heaven, has been
for almost five years. But I actually got him the
eve of a hurricane in two thousand and five.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there are lots of pets that need homes after
hurricanes and disasters.
Speaker 2: Well he kept me company. Actually for this one. My
home was prepared and it was we were safe. But
you know, sometimes it's nice if you can write it
out to have in a situation and it's not where
you have to evacuate to have a fur babe. So
it's a good incentive for people that are thinking of
adopting to adopt, not to just be safe or in
a hurricane, but just overall. Always agreed, I mean, it's
always good to you know, hit reach out to the shelters.
What would you say if you had one tip to
tell our cat audience of what to do for an
upcoming emergency disaster, you know, whatever it might be, what
would you tell them?
Speaker 5: Really, just know where where your cat hides and how
they react. Some cats will, like you said, scratch and
bite and that's their defense mechanism. You're freaking out there,
freaking out best way to get them so that everybody
is safe.
Speaker 2: That's fantastic. Where can people find out more about how
to be prepared for themselves and their furbabes? You mentioned
the first Aid app? What is it called? Then? Where
can people find it? So?
Speaker 5: The Red Cross has a Red Cross Emergency app and
that takes people through what to do before, during, and
after a variety of severe weather and disaster situations. You
can also set that app up to receive warnings in
your neighborhood or where your loved ones live. The Red
Cross Pet First Aid app has sectioned specifically for emergency
and disaster preparedness to help burry family members and their owners.
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful to hear all of this. This is
such great information. Thank you so much for coming on Caatitude.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2: I hope you all enjoyed this show. You know it's
something we never want to think about, emergencies and disasters
and natural disasters, but it's important to be prepared. Please
be sure to check out the information at Redcross dot org.
I want to thank doctor Debbiemandel for coming on Catitude.
Thanks to everyone that listens to Tatitude. I very much
appreciate my listening audience so much. Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks to my cat crew Dennis, Charlotte and Mollie. Thanks
to my producer who makes the magic happen and makes
this show sound amazing for you. Thank you, Mark Winter,
and hey remember lose Attitude, have Catitude.
Speaker 4: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on patlive
radio dot com.
Speaker 1: Can you the