| My dogs are extremely suggestible when it comes to my worrying about them -- the more I worry and fuss over them, the more they become sure that something is wrong with them and they start believing they are sick. One time my girl was limping and I started fussing over her, and the next thing i knew she was limping worse, so I got really worried, and then all of a sudden she flopped on her side and couldn't walk, so I called the vets and practically had to carry her to the car, where she laid on her side panting heavily -- I was crying by then and sure she was dying. When we got her to the vets, they checked her over and she was fine -- not a thing wrong with her except maybe a slightly sprained ankle. In the waiting room there was another woman with her dog -- she told me that she was sure her dog was terribly ill, but the vets could find nothing wrong. I looked at her dog, and he looked at me, and his eyes were WIDE with fright! That's when I started realizing what we do to our pets. Now my husband stops me when he sees me start to worry about them -- he'll say "look at his/her face! Can't you see they understand everything? So stop that!" And when I stop worrying over them, they go back to being fine again! |
"Is There a Placebo Effect for Animals?"
Posted - 10/22/2012 : 00:20:50
