The Healing Touch for Cats: The Proven Massage Program

By Michael W. Fox

The landmark The Healing Touch: The Proven Massage Program, now updated and revised.

Distinguished veterinarian and animal psychologist Dr. Michael W. Fox shares his pioneering 6-step massage technique through detailed illustrations, photos, and easy-to-read instructions, and provides information on how to understand your cat's anatomy, develop a massage routine, use massage to diagnose illness, and integrate it as part of overall care for your cat.

This proven massage program for cats helps affirm the human-animal bond by providing instruction on why cats need massage, how to understand your cat's body language, how to give a diagnostic or therapeutic massage, and how to keep your cat healthy. 60 black & white drawings & photos, resources, index.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 18, 2009
• ISBN: 9781557048721

Book preview

1

THE HEALING TOUCH

My program of massage for cats is a unique synthesis of several different massage techniques or schools which have been extensively researched and applied to humans. Some, like acupressure, have been used for centuries; others, like Polarity therapy and Rolfing, are more recent developments. Polarity therapy (like acupressure and Shiatsu) is based upon the principle of energy fields or currents in the body. Rolfing is a deep massage that focuses upon groups of muscles, the connective tissue between them, and postural and skeletal misalignments that can result from a maldistribution of muscle tone.

It is ironic that massage has never been applied to animals on any systematic or consistent basis, considering that animals suffer many human diseases and are treated with the same antibiotics, steroids, hormones, etc. In fact, animals are used in research studies to find cures for human diseases, precisely because they have similar and sometimes identical disorders, such as diabetes and glaucoma. Is it not logical, then, that many of the human massage techniques developed over the centuries are applicable to animals? Why has no one thought of developing a system of massage suitable for our companion animals? Perhaps it is because the massage experience is so subjective.

How will we know if the massage is of benefit to an animal if it cannot respond vocally? The answer is clear to anyone who has had a pet for even a short period of time. Once an animal is a member of your household, you certainly can tell whether it is feeling contentment, pleasure, pain, rage, depression, guilt, jealousy, or whatever.

The cats in my life have always enjoyed extensive massage from me (and from my wife and children). One of my cats, Sam, became afflicted out of the blue with feline cystitis, which resulted in a blockage of his urinary tract, painful straining, and muscular spasms in the pelvic and lower back muscles. I combined massage with standard treatment for this disorder, and he quickly recovered.

When Sam subsequently had a bout of cystitis, he would solicit a massage from me, especially a massage of the muscles around the root of the tail. He’d crawl into my lap, look at me, meow, and then place himself in the usual position I put him in to massage his hind end. Coincidence? Perhaps, but why did he only do this when he was sick? And why would he come back for more if it didn’t make him feel better? Ten to fifteen minutes, twice a day, of gentle, deep kneading around this region eliminated the muscular spasms and frequent straining to pass urine which occurs in this condition even when the bladder is empty.

There are always some people who suffer from what I call mechanistic thinking. They believe that it is wrong to attribute humanlike emotions to animals. In fact, this kind of thinking is widespread among academics. I recently heard a college professor proclaim that all anthropomorphism is unscientific, meaning that it is wrong to attribute any emotion or feeling to animals that humans have, such as pain, pleasure, hunger, or fear. With this kind of mind-set, how could he possibly believe that animals might benefit from a gentle touch or from massage therapy?

And yet other scientists have shown through studies that deprivation of affection is as damaging to an animal (or a person) as being deprived of an essential dietary nutrient. Young cats and dogs (and other animals), like human infants, can waste away when separated from their mothers and when they are not given affectionate contact, even though their physical needs for warmth or food are provided.

The tender, loving touch is essential for well-being and for the normal growth and development of all socially dependent animals. It would seem that their nervous systems require such stimulation either from the gentle licks of their mothers’ tongues or the strokes of a caring human hand. As a seedling cannot thrive without the light of the sun, so, too, do our animal kin suffer without the energy of love. And it is through touch especially that this energy can be given and reciprocated.

Please note that I said reciprocated. There may be added hidden benefits to giving your pet a regular massage! Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that people who have suffered a coronary attack are less likely to have a relapse if they have an animal at home to pet. This is the result, they believe, of a relaxing, beneficial decrease in heart rate which occurs while a person is stroking the pet—a genuine health bonus!

I am one with Hamlet when he observed, There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dream’t of in your philosophy. In other words, I think that there is more to the healing process than Western mechanistic medicine has yet dreamed about, as witness Norman Cousins’ account of his own miraculous self-healing in his best-selling book Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration. The book demonstrates convincingly how a positive state of mind can help the ailing body back to health. Through massage and the laying on of hands, a healing power may be transmitted which many people have experienced and many healers have verified.

There are some people who doubt the values of massage. Usually, they are people who have not experienced massage for themselves. I, too, was a nonbeliever until I had various types of massage and body manipulations (such as Rolfing and Shiatsu) done on me. It stands to reason that as a veterinarian, trained in allopathic (standard Western) medicine, I was very skeptical about all of this touch business until I had begun training as a massage