There is no evidence to corroborate the claim.

Column Science Fiction Film Club Escape From New York: Snake Plissken Doesn’t Care Grab your favorite eyepatch and let’s talk about antiheroes, disillusionment, dystopia, and snake tattoos as we kick off John Carpenter Month! By Kali Wallace | Published on October 2, 2024 Credit: Embassy Pictures / StudioCanal Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Embassy Pictures / StudioCanal Escape From New York (1981) Directed by John Carpenter. Written by John Carpenter and Nick Castle. Starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, and Adrienne Barbeau. Here’s are some fun facts that are not remotely fun: Over the course of about 30 years, starting in the early 1960s, the crime rate in the United States did in fact quadruple, just like the it says in the voiceover at the start of Escape From New York (1981). The U.S. crime rate eventually peaked in 1991 and has been dropping steadily ever since. But it’s not really that simple, because the percentage of reported cases that police actually solve has also been dropping steadily and is currently at its lowest point since 1993; only about 36% of reported violent crimes and about 12% of reported property crimes are ever cleared. At the same time, the U.S. prison population began growing at shocking rates starting in the mid- to late-’70s, but especially accelerating in the mid-‘80s, and only began decreasing around about 2010. The reasons for these trends and the complicated public perceptions and misconceptions about them are many, varied, and well beyond the scope of this column, which is about a John Carpenter movie, not an Errol Morris documentary. I bring it up because it provides some necessary context to the film. Crime was on everybody’s mind in ’70s America. The post-World War II “Red Scare” era had evolved into a deeply distrustful dissatisfaction with the government, made even worse as the Vietnam War dragged on and on. President Nixon announced the War on Drugs as part of the broader trend of centering crime rates as a political issue—then just a few years later was exposed as a criminal himself; he was then pardoned by the next president. To make some sweeping generalizations: Americans’ trust in their government tanked, and along with it went whatever feelings of safety and stability had survived the ’60s. All of this was reflected in the movies. By the end of the 1960s, enforcement of the Hays Code had been significantly weakened, and in 1968 it was finally replaced by the MPAA ratings system. That meant, among other things, American filmmakers were finally able to tell stories featuring criminals, antiheros, and various flavors of “bad” characters without the requirement that they be punished by the narrative. So that’s what they did. Boy, did they ever. This was the decade of Dirty Harry (1971), Deliverance (1972), The Godfather (1972), Badlands (1973), Serpico (1973), Chinatown (1974), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Taxi Driver (1976)—the list goes on and on. Between the counterculture of the ’60s and the blockbuster era that began later in the ’70s, there was a proliferation of gritty, violent crime films that run the gamut from the crassest exploitation schlock to the most revered cinematic art. A lot of these films are built on the foundations laid by noir films and Westerns, with themes that set a lone character in opposition to wealth and power, but they didn’t have to be heroes anymore. They could be Inspector Harry Callahan or Travis Bickle or Michael Corleone. Into the middle of this Hollywood era of both intense darkness and wild creativity, a USC film school dropout by the name of John Carpenter was launching his career. Following the release of his first feature, 1974’s comedic sci fi Dark Star, Carpenter fully embraced the mood of the era with Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), in which a Los Angeles gang besieges a police station, and Halloween (1978), the film that has been blamed for and/or credited with launching the slasher horror genre. And while 1979’s The Fog, a supernatural horror film, might seem like an odd bridge between those two movies and Escape From New York, it is about ghosts taking revenge an entire town for covering up past crimes. Carpenter has cited two things as inspiring Escape From New York. The first is the Watergate scandal and the associated collapse of trust in the presidency. The second is the movie that the ’70s crime movie buffs in the audience are already furiously typing about in the comments because I left it off the list above: Michael Winner’s 1975 vigilante film Death Wish, in which a mild-mannered man (played by Charles Bronson) reacts to the murder of his wife and rape of his daughter by going on a vigilante killing spree. Death Wish is… what it is. Exploitative, icky, and more interesting as an artifact of a specific time period and cultural environment than anything else. It’s also beside the point, because Carpenter wasn’t moved by the film’s story or message or politics. What interested him were the possibilities in the setting: the city as a dangerous concrete jungle, an urban wilderness ruled by the laws of strength and brutality. Carpenter took that glimmer of underdeveloped worldbuilding and thought, hey, what if I make it a little bit sci fi and a little bit weird? That’s how Escape From New York was born. Carpenter wrote the initial screenplay in the mid-’70s, right after the whole Watergate shitshow went down. He shopped it around, but he was relatively new to the business, with only Dark Star under his belt, and studios felt the idea behind Escape From New York was “too violent, too scary, too weird.” Things changed significantly after the success of Halloween, which was also violent, scary, and weird, but most importantly made a tremendous amount of money on a very small budget. That put Carpenter on the radar as a guy who could do a lot with very little, which helped him and his Halloween co-writer and producing partner, Debra Hill, sign on to make two movies with AVCO Embassy Pictures. The first movie they made for AVCO was The Fog. The second was supposed to be The Philadelphia Experiment (1984, directed by Stewart Raffill), but Carpenter left that project because, apparently, he hated his own script. He dug out his unproduced script for Escape From New York and pitched that instead. (As for whether he actually said the much mythologized line, “I have this script in my trunk”… well, who knows? That’s how he has told the story in the past.) By his own account, Carpenter wasn’t happy with his original Escape From New York script either. So he called up his film school friend Nick Castle, whom you probably wouldn’t recognize in his street clothes but will certainly recognize in his famous work clothes, as he’s the man behind the mask in Halloween. (Castle has also directed several films, including 1984’s The Last Starfighter.) They rewrote the film together to make it funnier and weirder, shifting it away from a straightforward action film. AVCO approved a budget of $6 million, which was 20 times more than the $300,000 Carpenter had worked with to make Halloween, and they got to work. Of course, creating a dystopian future version of New York City is a very different production challenge from having your film school buddy stand menacingly behind bushes in a melted Captain Kirk mask. It helped that, in addition to the budget, the production had some pretty impressive talent on board from the start. That includes production designer Joe Alves, whose work we’ve seen previously in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977); he’s also the man who devised the mechanical sharks in Jaws (1975). Even before that, he was the Disney animator responsible for the scenes of the monster in Forbidden Planet (1956)—a resume item which, Alves says, “blew John’s mind,” as Carpenter has long named Forbidden Planet as one of the films that made him love both movies and sci fi. Alves was the one who nixed the idea of filming Escape From New York in New York. It would have been too expensive and too difficult because New York was not, in fact, a desolate urban wasteland at the time. Just for comparison, we’ve seen what New York did look like in the early ’80s in The Brother From Another Planet (1984), which was filmed on location in Harlem with essentially no embellishment. It looked run-down and struggling, sure, but also diverse, bustling, and very alive—not at all what the futuristic prison in the movie needed. Alves’ account of choosing the location is pretty interesting. They went looking for places that had experienced a building boom during the same architectural time period as New York, so the mimicry would be convincing. But they also needed an area that was suffering a period of disuse and abandonment, where it would be easier to close off city blocks and transform them for filming. That’s what they found in and around St. Louis and East St. Louis, which at the time had a lot of severely economically depressed areas with numerous unused buildings and vacant lots—and, notably, local officials happy to invite a Hollywood production in, even if that production wanted to make their city look like a dystopian hellhole. And it works! The New York City of the film does look and feel like a dystopian hellhole. It’s a wonderfully effective setting, one that has helped define the visual language of urban decay since the film came out. One detail that I love is our first look at the city: the familiar skyline from a distance, but it’s eerily, unnaturally dark, punctuated by only a few low-level lights. The entire movie is quite visually dark (it was filmed almost entirely at night), but it’s that view of the city across the water that firmly establishes that this New York is very different from the one we know and love. A fun fact that is actually fun this time: Those matte paintings of the lightless New York skyline were done by none other than James Cameron, who at that point was working on various movies in special effects and production. He was a year or two shy of the literal fever dream that would combine with his fondness for Halloween and admiration of Carpenter to give him the idea for The Terminator (1984). There’s more to sci fi worldbuilding in a film than the location and special effects, however, and Escape From New York takes the very efficient route of telling us the bare minimum and leaving the rest up to the imagination. There is the introduction at the beginning that states the time and place—1997, prison, fifty-foot wall, once you go in you don’t come out—but aside from that most of what we pick up comes through suggestion and implication. We don’t know what’s going on in what is presumably World War III, only that it involves the Soviet Union and China. We don’t know what happened in Leningrad. We don’t know how or why the U.S. government evolved into a fascist state willing and capable of turning New York City into a prison. (Completely unrelated comment: This is a good time to check your voter registration, Americans.) We never get into the details of the larger stakes surrounding the president, the meeting, the briefcase, the tape that contains something about nuclear fusion, any of that. (A lot of this is expanded and explained in Mike McQuay’s novelization of the movie, but that is not the same thing as the movie itself offering explanations—especially since a lot of things didn’t originally have backstory, and others Carpenter cut out on purpose.) The studio initially wanted a tough-guy actor in the lead role; the names most often given as their picks are Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson. But Carpenter lobbied for Kurt Russell, who at the time was mostly known for lighthearted Disney films for both cinema and television. Carpenter and Russell had first met when Carpenter directed Russell in the 1975 TV movie Elvis. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship—and a fruitful series of collaborations. Russell was eager to shed his Disney image and threw himself into the role of Snake Plissken with enthusiasm, determination, and an eyepatch. Several times over the years, Russell has told the story about how he was walking around the filming location one night in full costume and came upon some locals who were, presumably, up to no good. They took a look at his weapons and demeanor and quickly left without causing trouble—and Russell had to tell Carpenter that he was now convinced the character was going to work. He was right. The character of Snake Plissken works, and then some, in a memorable way that only a handful of iconic characters ever manage. But it’s not just because he’s got that very early ’80s cool thing going on, with that very John Carpenter synthesizer soundtrack to accompany him. A lot of what was cool in 1981 is not cool anymore. I’ll allow for the synths, but the snake tattoo isn’t cool anymore. (Sorry, it made me laugh.) But the character is still fantastic, because the film is doing some neat storytelling by characterizing the world and the character completely in relation to each other, such that you really can’t separate them. When Plissken first meets Police Commissioner Hauk (Lee Van Cleef), Hauk first tries to talk to him veteran-to-veteran, then slides back into cop-to-criminal when that fails. That scene has such a strong post-Vietnam tone all over it, establishing that it’s a mistake to assume the former Special Forces soldier would still be attached to any sense of national loyalty, honor, or heroism. When Hauk realizes that won’t work, he goes right back toward the systematic dehumanization of a cop toward a prisoner. It’s such a strong “either you’re with us or you’re not a person at all” message, one that effectively shows us basically everything we need to know about this version of America. We learn what Plissken is being imprisoned for (armed robbery) but, as far as I can recall, we never learn the same about any of the other prisoners. The guards talk about the prisoner gangs and the “Crazies,” but we never find out why any of them are in the prison. We can make a reasonable guess about Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), on account of his past with Plissken and the late, lamented Fresno Bob, but we don’t know even that much about the Duke (Isaac Hayes), Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), or Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau), nor the various henchmen and hangers-on, nor the subway-dwelling hordes, nor even those dudes who put heads on pikes. We only know who they are inside the prison, who their current situation has shaped them to be. And, of course, we know that they want out. But wouldn’t any of us want that? All throughout, the president (Donald Pleasence) is treated by the narrative as inconvenient baggage. He’s the plot football that needs to be brought into the end zone. Sure, the cops and politicians might say things about the fate of the world, but we don’t have any reason to believe them. (Seems to me a bad idea to ever trust cops, but especially when they inject explosives into people’s bodies.) Our engagement in the movie’s plot does not ever rely on caring about what happens to the president and his little cassette tape. That is very clearly framed as something they care about—the politicians, the cops, the prison guards—while the audience is invited to go along on the strange, action-packed ride of what Plissken cares about. Which is mostly survival, but it’s not only survival. Even though Plissken is wearing the attitude and the eyepatch and the regrettable happy trail tattoo of somebody who doesn’t give a fuck about anybody or anything, it’s not entirely convincing. Right at the end, after he’s gotten out of the prison, Plissken asks the president what he thinks about the fact that people died saving him. The president gives some halfhearted answer about sacrificing for the good of the country. Plissken is unimpressed. He turns down a job offer from Hauk and destroys the tape everybody was so eager to find. The president has failed a test—one that Plissken always expected him to fail. The president does not see the prisoners as people; to him they are disposable. But the film itself does not endorse this view, which is where it stands apart from a movie like Death Wish, which treats street-level criminals as animals to be exterminated. Carpenter may have been inspired by Death Wish’s urban setting, but he turned it around to—very wryly, with humor and absurdity—draw a massive question mark over the idea that people can be neatly sorted into categories of “deserves to be killed” and “deserves to do the killing.” All of the characters in Escape From New York are politicians, cops, or criminals. Can anybody even be a hero in this world? We don’t know. Is there anything worth being loyal to? We don’t know. The politicians and cops are selfish assholes; we don’t want them deciding who lives or dies. The criminals are also selfish assholes; we don’t want them to have that power either. Maybe nobody should have that power. Snake Plissken is a character drawn from the school of revisionist Westerns and ’70s crime films, one who has been used as a template for many later characters in different genres. But the character is also inextricably linked to the science fictional world in which he exists. Snake Plissken is the inevitable result of a fascist carceral state, and that world is always going to produce Snake Plissken. The character defines the setting as much as the setting defines the character, and neither would look quite the same if they were separated—or if the character was written to crave his own power, or seek a place in the world’s systems of power, or subscribe to any ideals society fails to honor. Snake Plissken doesn’t do any of that. He’s presented to us as somebody who has been both the hero and the villain, and wants no part of either label. Escape From New York doesn’t predict the future. If it did—let’s be honest—it would have dealt with the for-profit American prison industrial complex to go along with the skyrocketing incarceration rates. But it is doing what the best dystopian futuristic sci fi always does, which is exaggerating and extrapolating a social and political possibility based in the time and place of its own origin. To us, now, that looks like alternate history (…more alternate for some people than for others), but that’s basically the same thing, from a different point of view. One of the most interesting things this movie does, I think, is extrapolate a world where we don’t fit. Us, the moviegoers, the audience. Are there “normal” people in the world of Escape From New York? Probably, but we never see them. Society outside the prison is completely invisible. The lack of details about any prisoners’ crimes means we don’t even have hypothetical victims to identify with. There is no safe place for us to imagine ourselves in this world. There are only the cops and the criminals, and that is a truly uncomfortable future to imagine. What do you think about Escape From New York? Or the sequel? Or where the movie fits with the so very cheerful and optimistic American cinema of the era? Next week: Speaking of cheerful and optimistic, let’s go to Antarctica with The Thing, starring Jed the dog, along with some other guys. Watch it on Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Spectrum.[end-mark] The post <i>Escape From New York</i>: Snake Plissken Doesn’t Care appeared first on Reactor.

California Makes it Illegal to Prevent Voter Fraud

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The Late Show host Stephen Colbert was not a fan of his CBS colleagues’ decision to refrain from fact-checking during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate. However, his concerns were one-sided because he implicitly approved of Tim Walz not being fact-checked about his claim that a Donald Trump victory means pregnant women will have to register with the federal government. Later, when MSNBC’s Chris Hayes joined the program, he claimed it was “delicious” when the moderators went back on their word and started to pick a fight with JD Vance on immigration. Colbert’s feelings were clear from a cold open that compared the lack of fact-checking to an NFL game where the players enforce the rules, “This weekend it's the NFL on CBS. All your favorite hard-hitting gridiron action, but with a new twist. The players call penalties no now. Why let the competitors play by the rules when they could be enforcing them? Heck, why have rules at all?... The NFL on CBS: we just hope both teams have fun.” Moderators, like referees, exist to enforce the rules, not help one team, which is an idea Colbert should get behind because later, he recalled, “the conversation turned to reproductive rights. Tim Walz brought up Project 2025, leading to this question for Vance.”     He then played a clip of co-moderator Norah O’Donnell, “Senator, do you want to respond to the governor's claim? Will you create a federal pregnancy monitoring agency?” Even the fact-checkers, including CBS, have labeled that Walz claim about Project 2025 false, but Colbert didn’t care as he launched into a Vance impersonation, “No, I'll just monitor 'em myself. Starting with you two ladies. Margaret, Norah, when was the first day of your last time of impurity? And did you go outside the village to the moon hut and only return to the village after offering a turtle dove to the elders?” Colbert then teed up a Vance clip, “JD Vance went on a whole rigamarole trying to justify the overturning of Roe v. Wade.” In the clip, Vance asked Walz, “Do you want to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions against their will? Because Kamala Harris has supported suing Catholic nuns to violate their freedom of conscience.” The supposedly Catholic Colbert apparently doesn’t know how employer-provided health insurance works, “What are you talking about? Nuns don't perform medical procedures. I know that! 'Cause if they did, they'd be the stars of CBS's latest medical drama, OBGY-NUN.”     Later, Hayes admitted Walz did not look the best, but tried to spin that as a positive, “Walz was so clearly very nervous, which I always very endearing and human when you hear that constriction in the throat. Kamala Harris's first answer in the last debate was the same way, you could just hear it.” Colbert also asked him about the fact-checking rule, “What do you make of that rule? Do you think that's the right way to go? And what would you have wanted to fact-check.” Hayes’s desire for facts also went one way, “I would want to do that, but I'm not negotiating for the campaigns. I understand why the Trump-Vance people don't want there to be fact checks. They like to say false stuff. And in fact, it's not just incidental or accidental. They intentionally say false things. So, as to produce a sort of fear reaction in people they’re talking to. So, you know, that's the reason to do it. There’s a few things, I will say I think your colleagues at CBS did a very good job on the exchange about immigration, where, as a point of clarification, they were just like, these people have legal status called temporary protected status.”  He continued, “JD Vance was like, ‘You said you wouldn't fact-check me’ and then started trying to bulldoze them and then they cut his mic, that moment that you just played. Vance also tried to rebut the moderators, which shows why the earlier NFL referee analogy fails, but Colbert agreed with Hayes, “That was delicious.” Here is a transcript for the October 1 show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 10/1/2024 11:35 PM ET ALEXIS MCADAMS: This debate, here in New York City, is going to be a little bit different. The CBS News team says that both candidates are going to have to fact-check each other so if there's something they don't like that they think the other team is saying, it's their responsibility to do that, not the moderators. NARRATOR: This weekend it's the NFL on CBS. All your favorite hard-hitting gridiron action, but with a new twist. The players call penalties no now. Why let the competitors play by the rules when they could be enforcing them? Heck, why have rules at all? This is legal now. Maybe the players could do all the jobs. Screw it, they're their own cameraman, too. Look, we’ll still keep the referees out there because sometimes they get knocked over and it's pretty funny but they no longer have flags, whistles, or any ability to prevent absolute chaos. The NFL on CBS: we just hope both teams have fun. … 11:44 PM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: Then the conversation turned to reproductive rights. Tim Walz brought up Project 2025, leading to this question for Vance. NORAH O’DONNELL: Senator, do you want to respond to the governor's claim? Will you create a federal pregnancy monitoring agency? COLBERT: "No, I'll just monitor 'em myself. Starting with you two ladies. Margaret, Norah, when was the first day of your last time of impurity? And did you go outside the village to the moon hut and only return to the village after offering a turtle dove to the elders?"  JD Vance, read your Leviticus, JD Vance went on a whole rigamarole trying to justify the overturning of Roe v. Wade. JD VANCE: Do you want to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions against their will? Because Kamala Harris has supported suing Catholic nuns to violate their freedom of conscience. COLBERT: What are you talking about? Nuns don't perform medical procedures. I know that! 'Cause if they did, they'd be the stars of CBS's latest medical drama, OBGY-NUN  … 12:06 AM ET CHRIS HAYES: This was more in the middle. COLBERT: Okay. HAYES: There was a lot I thought was interesting. I mean, I think that, look, Vance is a smooth talker and very, sort of, you know, he kind of relaxed and daffed in that kind of environment. COLBERT: Sure. HAYES: Walz was so clearly very nervous, which I always very endearing and human— COLBERT: Sure. HAYES: -- when you hear that constriction in the throat. Kamala Harris's first answer in the last debate was the same way, you could just hear it. COLBERT: Sure. … COLBERT: Part of the rules were, wasn't, you know, CBS's idea, wasn't any of the journalists’ idea— HAYES: Right, right. COLBERT: -- but the rules where there could be no fact checks.  HAYES: Correct. COLBERT: Okay, what do you make of that rule? Do you think that's the right way to go? And what would you have wanted to fact-check. HAYES: Well, I would want to do that, but I'm not negotiating for the campaigns. I understand why the Trump-Vance people don't want there to be fact checks. They like to say false stuff.  COLBERT: Sure. HAYES: And in fact, it's not just incidental or accidental. They intentionally say false things. So, as to produce a sort of fear reaction in people they’re talking to. So, you know, that's the reason to do it. There’s a few things, I will say I think your colleagues at CBS did a very good job on the exchange about immigration, where, as a point of clarification, they were just like, these people have legal status called temporary protected status.  COLBERT: Right. HAYES: JD Vance was like, “you said you wouldn't fact-check me” and then started trying to bulldoze them and then they cut his mic, that moment that you just played. COLBERT: That was delicious. HAYES: That was pretty good. It's funny to hear the mic go out [unintelligible]. COLBERT: It's like the candidates are falling down a deep well. HAYES: Exactly.

Click to Skip Ahead What to Do Potential Causes Vet Treatment Whether you’ve been woken up by the constant jingle of your dog’s ID tags rattling together or your pup ignores your call for dinner because they’re too busy nibbling their hind leg, your pet’s constant itching and scratching can be annoying—for you. For your dog, it can become more of a way of life. While most owners’ first assumption is that the scratching is due to fleas, that’s not always the case. Itchy skin in canines can actually be a rather complex issue. We’re here to help you figure out what’s causing your dog’s constant biting and scratching so both of you can rest. Here’s What to Do Severe itchiness is typically an issue that should be brought to your veterinarian, but you can do a bit of investigating before making your way to the clinic. 1. Check for Fleas Again Maybe you’ve already checked your pup for creepy crawlies, or perhaps they’re on a monthly flea preventative. Either way, if the itchiness continues, it might be worth a second look. Severe flea infestations will often be quite visible, with adult fleas popping up when you brush your dog’s hair backward. However, less severe infestations can be trickier to detect. You may be lucky enough to locate a few adults by running a flea comb through your pup’s coat. Pay particular attention to the base of the tail, as this is a favorite hangout for fleas. If a flea comb doesn’t expose a problem, try dampening a paper towel, and then rubbing it down your dog’s back to the base of their tail a few times. Check the paper towel for brown spots that turn reddish and spread when they get wet. This could be flea dirt, which means your initial flea assumption is correct. See your vet for proper treatment. Image Credit: Vera Larina, Shutterstock 2. Get to Know Their Skin If your extensive flea checking came up negative, look more closely at your dog’s skin. Are you seeing dandruff, redness, scabs, or thinning hair? These things can indicate allergies, infections, parasites, and other issues. If your dog’s skin is irritated in any way, it’s time to involve your veterinarian. 3. Recall Your Dog’s History If your dog is having skin issues, try to recall when the itching started. Had they just had a bath? Did the seasons change? Did you switch foods or treats? Is anything else in their environment different, such as a new family member, a house move, or a schedule change? The answers to these questions may help you uncover the source of your dog’s scratching woes. For example, a change in diet can lead to food allergies, which can lead to intense itching, red and scabby skin, and chronic ear infections. These are also questions that a vet is going to ask, so try to think about them beforehand. Image Credit: WiP-Studio, Shutterstock 4. Try a Soothing Bath If your skin examination comes up clear, a soothing bath may be just what your pup needs. Sometimes, dry skin or other irritants can lead to constant biting and scratching and can often be helped with a bit of pampering. Try an oatmeal shampoo followed by a conditioner to give your pet’s skin the moisture that it needs to decrease itching and increase softness. Just remember that baths themselves can be a cause of dry skin, so avoid bathing your dog too frequently and with shampoos that are overly harsh or not meant for pets. If you are looking for the perfect, pet-friendly shampoo and conditioner combo, we highly recommend the products by Hepper. 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See Your Vet This should be your first step if you notice any abnormalities, but if your dog’s skin looks normal and they’re still scratching, it’s time to take professional action. Your vet can check your dog for the common causes of itchy skin and pick up on the things that you didn’t see. Sometimes, constant biting and scratching can be the manifestation of stress and anxiety. Some dogs may develop a compulsive behavior of licking or scratching when things in their environment are particularly difficult. It can also be a sign of boredom. Dogs need exercise and engagement to fill their days, and if they don’t get these, they may resort to biting and scratching. Also, certain health issues aren’t directly related to the skin but can affect the whole body. Hormonal imbalances due to things like Cushing’s disease or hypothyroidism may also lead to hair loss and sometimes, itchiness. Image Credit: KongNoi, Shutterstock Potential Causes of Constant Biting and Scratching in Dogs Keep in mind that many of these causes need a veterinary diagnosis and treatment, so it’s always best to seek professional help first. The causes of biting and scratching can include: Parasites (fleas, ticks, mites) Allergies (environmental, food) Dry skin (over-bathing, chemicals, poor diet) Infections Boredom Stress/anxiety Pain Health issues (Cushing’s disease, hypothyroidism) A wide range of issues may make a dog bite or scratch to the point that it takes up most of their free time. Some of these issues are easily remedied, while others require a more in-depth approach. How Vets Treat Constant Biting and Scratching in Canines An exam for itchy skin can be rather complicated because your vet will have to look in to many types of causes. They will often start with questions about when the itching started and any changes that may be happening in your dog’s life. They may also ask if your pet is showing any other abnormal behaviors that could indicate that they are stressed or anxious. They will then thoroughly examine your pup to check for any skin abnormalities, such as redness, scabs, oozing, hair loss, and parasites. This may include taking a skin scraping or other samples to get a better idea of what they’re dealing with. If allergies are suspected, allergy testing may come next. Once a diagnosis is made, treatment can begin. This may include medications, diet changes, schedule or environmental alterations, or topical treatments. Keep in mind that some of these treatments may be lifelong, depending on the cause. Image Credit: SeventyFour, Shutterstock Conclusion Constant biting or scratching by your canine companion may be bothersome for you, but it can be an absolute energy drain on them. If your pup is having this issue, try following these steps to see if you can get to the root of the problem. Be sure to consult your veterinarian for further diagnosis and treatment. Sources https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/signs-your-dog-is-stressed-and-how-to-relieve-it Featured Image Credit: Julija Kumpinovica, Shutterstock The post My Dog Is Constantly Biting and Scratching But Has No Fleas: Our Vet Explains What to Do appeared first on PangoVet.

Click to Skip Ahead Options to Feed a Dog With Diarrhea Causes of Mild Diarrhea When to See a Vet Diarrhea is something that every dog owner will have to deal with at least once in the lifetime of their pet. It’s a common issue that can have various causes, some more serious than others. Severe diarrhea or diarrhea accompanied by other signs, such as vomiting, inappetence, or lethargy, should be checked by a veterinarian. However, if your dog has a minor case of diarrhea or intermittent issues without any other signs, you may be able to simply change what they’re eating for a few days to provide relief. The 8 Options to Feed a Dog With Diarrhea Here are various vet-approved options that you can feed your dog with mild diarrhea. 1. Only Water If your dog is an otherwise healthy adult, withholding food for 24 hours may work wonders. This gives the digestive tract a chance to clear out and heal. Don’t withhold water, however, and don’t withhold food for puppies, seniors, or dogs with other health conditions, as they may not be able to handle a long stretch without sustenance. Speak to your vet before withholding food as a diarrhea treatment to make sure it’s a good idea for your pup. 2. Bone Broth If your pup is fasting or even if their appetite is simply lacking a bit, bone broth can be a great addition to their meals. It has enough water to help keep your dog hydrated and provides tasty nutrition. Best of all, bone broth is the epitome of digestible foods, so it can relieve your dog’s digestive tract of extra duties while it tries to sort things out. You can serve bone broth as a flavor enhancer in your dog’s water, as a topper to their food, or by itself. Image Credit: Alp Aksoy, Shutterstock 3. Fiber Fiber is a great regulator of digestion. It works to promote intestinal movement, draw water into the feces, and bulk up a bowel movement. For mild cases of diarrhea, extra fiber may be just what your dog’s digestion system needs to firm up the stools. Fiber can safely be added to your dog’s meals via canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling), flaxseed, green beans, or broccoli (do not add salt, butter, oil, seasonings, etc.). Talk to your vet about what’s best and how much to serve. Canines with long-term issues with diarrhea may do better on a high-fiber dog food. 4. Rice Plain white rice is not only easily digestible, but it’s also packed with carbohydrates to provide your dog with the energy that they need. Rice is often used as part of a bland diet to transition dogs back to solid foods after a fast or an illness. Just be sure to not add any seasonings or cook it in butter or oils. Rice should only be fed for a few days, as it doesn’t have complete nutrition, and feeding for the long term could leave your dog lacking in certain important nutrients. Image Credit: mikuratv, Pixabay 5. Lean Protein Dogs can’t exist on carbohydrates alone, so boiled chicken or lean hamburger is often added to white rice to increase the protein content of a bland diet recipe. It can also help keep your dog feeling full for longer so they’re not constantly begging for a bigger meal while their body tries to recover. Protein is tasty enough to encourage dogs to eat when they may not want to. Just be sure to remove excess fat and cook the meat thoroughly without any additional seasonings. 6. Mashed Potatoes Potatoes are high-carbohydrate foods that can provide your dog with necessary energy when they’re not feeling up to par. They are also high in fiber and easily digestible, but you must use caution and only serve plain mashed potatoes. Leave out all the tasty add-ins that we enjoy, such as milk, butter, and seasonings; only give your dog plain boiled and mashed pieces. Mashed potatoes can also be mixed with a lean protein like boiled chicken or hamburger as part of a bland meal. Image Credit: Sergii Gnatiuk, Shutterstock 7. Baby Food Baby food is specifically made to be easily digestible and nutritious for human babies, and the same goes for our furry friends. Serving baby food does come with a caveat, though: You must only use baby foods without any additional seasonings. Opt for the stage II varieties, as these tend to mix a protein with a carbohydrate and veggies for added vitamins. Just be sure it leaves out things like salt, garlic, and onion. 8. Special Digestive Dog Diets You don’t need to run out and purchase a new bag of dog food for your pet’s occasional diarrhea issue. Instead, special digestive diets are usually reserved for dogs that experience diarrhea on a more regular or long-term basis. These work in a few different ways. Some contain limited ingredients, so they’re less likely to trigger food allergies, others contain increased amounts of fiber, and still others include probiotics and prebiotics to help support a healthy gut. Image Credit: mattycoulton, Pixabay Causes of Mild Diarrhea in Dogs Diarrhea can be the result of something directly affecting the digestive tract or even the body as a whole. It can be mild to severe and may occur in conjunction with signs like vomiting, inappetence, and lethargy. Dogs tend to explore the world with their mouths and may eat things that their stomach wishes that they hadn’t. Diarrhea from eating spoiled food, a sudden change in diet, or too-rich human food will often go away within a day or two and may or may not show up with other signs. Other causes of diarrhea can be an infection or illness. There are many microbes out there that love to feast in a dog’s digestive system, potentially leading to diarrhea, vomiting, and inappetence. Of course, if these signs are severe or last longer than a couple of days, see your veterinarian. Otherwise, trying these listed food options may work. Diarrhea can sometimes be the result of stress or anxiety, food allergies, parasites, and other illnesses, so it’s best to have your dog seen by a vet if their diarrhea doesn’t get better within a few days or if things start to get worse. When to See a Vet for Diarrhea in Dogs Mild cases of diarrhea may resolve themselves within a few days, especially if your pup is otherwise feeling fine. But there are cases of diarrhea that won’t go down without a fight. This means the stools don’t firm up within 48 hours, and your dog also has vomiting, stomach pain, inappetence, and lethargy. See a vet to help with this issue, as a small dietary change may not take care of it. If your dog can’t seem to stop having severe diarrhea and/or they are becoming dehydrated, they should see a vet as soon as possible. Conclusion Diarrhea is a common issue in our canine companions. Severe cases should be seen by a vet sooner rather than later, but mild cases may respond to withholding food, serving a bland diet, or increasing fiber. Long-term diarrhea may need a more long-term solution, which often includes a dietary change to a digestive formula dog food. Speak to your vet about your dog’s diarrhea so they can recommend the best course of action. Sources https://www.petmd.com/dog/nutrition/what-to-feed-a-dog-with-diarrhea   Featured Image Credit: marialevkina, Shutterstock The post What to Feed a Dog With Diarrhea: 8 Vet-Approved Options appeared first on PangoVet.