Asperger's/ADHD In Animals

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Ok I'm probably the only one that noticed this, but some animals have symptoms of Asperger's or ADHD. My own dog, Smoothie is probably Asperger's, but since most people don't think of animals as equal to humans, most of you probably think I'm just trolling. I'm not, I'm just curious if any studies show what I've noticed to be true. Smoothie is more aware about things than other dogs, but also has trouble communicating with other dogs, especially my dog Bella, but since she's a girl he has more of a reason. He's shy and usually excapes to a part of the house alone (what I do) and isn't as coordinated as other dogs. He has more trouble with noises and textures than other dogs too. (sensory problems) I know writing this all out sounds hilarious, but if you saw him you would be able to tell. He's NOT the only Aspie dog I know, another one is named Bob, and he's my grandma's dog. Both dogs act very similar but Bob is calmer. The ADHD dogs are Bella and Bernese, but since their breeds are SUPPOSED to be ADHD, they aren't nearly as noticable as Smoothie and Bob (both Bella and Smoothie are rat terriers, I forgot what kind of dog Bob is but he looks SIMILAR to a pit bull but he isn't, and Bernese is a long-haired dachshund) This is probably one of the most contreversal things I posted, NOT because of being bad, but because of how this is hard to take serious. Are there any studies that at least make me not sound crazy?

Note: The reason I think Smoothie may have dog-Asperger's is because he shares many symptoms with ME. He's also very similar to my dad, who also has Asperger's. It's not like I'm saying this without COMPARING him to anybody or thinking about it for a long time.

I don't think about it too seriously, but I have 'diagnosed' my rabbit with bunny aspergers! He doesn't communicate well with other rabbits, looks at you out of the corner of his eye, hates being touched, has to have everything in his hutch in a particular order, freaks out when I put any new food in his bowl and has little temper tantrums! I doubt he really does have bunny Aspergers though that's probably just my imagination going wild again!

On the other hand, it has been proven that animals can and do suffer from mental health problems, so I suppose it is not a completely ridiculous idea to think...

_________________
I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite )

Why would you call it Asperger's, though?

It's not like a dog would have any of the abilities that would make it Aspie rather than NT, in the human sense.

BUT, it has been shown that same animals have autistic and obsessive traits, Shetland Sheep dogs and Collies in particular.

Our dog might have ADHD, he is soo hyperactive. He always has to do something, incredible energy in a small dog. Sometimes he would run to and fro in circles when we play, run over everything, fly in the air, flop on the ground, seemingly there's nothing that could stop him...

My cat has got feline AS! She miaws much more than the average cat, and every guest who has ever come round has commented on how much she miaws. But she miaws more than she should, and sometimes annoys us. Then if we have a garden party in the summer inviting lots and lots of relatives and some friends, she scarpers inside the house and hides under a bed, and if you try to pick her up she would miaw and practically ''throw a tantrum'', because too many people terrifies her (even though she likes the company of people she knows of).

My cats are like this. I have a Maine Coon who was super shy when we first got her, she hid for like a week. I managed to make her come out, and she really likes me. She doesn't seem to relate to the other cats at all, like she's much too smart for them. She relates well to people, and I feel like she sees them almost as her equal, but she HATES being around other cats. When we first got her, she wouldn't seek out the other cats to attack, she'd just would attack any cat that got within like 5 feet of her. She eventually got it to within 2-3 feet, but yeah. The other thing, we got 3 other cats, they'd all hang out in my mother's room, and my Maine Coon would constantly just stay on the other side of the house, away from all the other cats. She's pretty good with most people, not very skittish with people, just she's not a fan of other cats.

Maine Coons are a bit different cats, though, imo. They come from the Siberian/Norwegian Forest cats, and both those cats were bred around humans historically. Since it's always cold out in both those places, those cats would stay inside with the humans, and the Norwegian cats would be on ships, too, so it's more in their DNA I guess.

I believe animals can have mental disorders, but not human mental disorders.

yeah they have animal mental disorders

like....ASD

as*hole sniffing disorder

or PDD 's

pets doing dumb stuff

A picture is worth a 1000 words, but I can't find a video on Youtube to express ADHD in an animal, so I'll try to describe it here: Imagine a wart hog chased by a big cat, and the wart hog stops quickly to eat something that happened to be in his path while on the run. The wart hog stops, and plants face in ground to root, and the cat easily pounces the no- working- memory -hog from its abrupt stop to eat.

The commentary about it was a "lack in intelligence" by such animals. This isn't a perfect analogy because all wart hogs have the same behavior, but I found it humorous.

Well I don't know that animals technically get those disorders, but I am actually kind of curious about mental illness in animals and if it exists. A lot of times animals that where abused will exibit PTSD symptoms, so I think animals can have mental problems. I feel like this might sound ridiculous to some people but I'm being serious.

I have not seen this movie, but no alluding to autism, may leave a gap in the understanding of this animal

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrrVDQEz5L0[/youtube]

Hi All,
I hope you don't mind me joining in on this conversation. I am very interested to read some of your comments and findings. I work for an animal supplement company and we have dedicated the past 17 years to helping animals overcome behavioural problems. We started our research in birds to help them overcome aggression, feather plucking and anxiety. During this time, we made some astounding links between animal and human behaviour and the links between disorders such as ADD and ADHD.

During our research, we found that by administering vital vitamins and minerals that control nerve and brain function, we were able to overcome these problems. These findings led us on to research bigger animals such as dogs and horses to see if we could also help with their symptoms which also included the above but more interestingly, poor concentration and judgement, separation anxiety and in some cases, depression.

We have now developed a product that can really help control these symptoms and are convinced that the science will also help in humans. We basically give the body and the brain what it needs to function as nature intended, ensuring that messages in the brain go to the right place. With poor modern diets, many of our animals and indeed us, do not get enough "good" stuff in our diets. Unfortunately, "complete" diets are very unlikely to be "complete", they simply meet the absolute minimum levels and tend to be a marketing pitch.

In my opinion, chelated magnesium and calcium are absolutely vital to nerve and brain function and without it, we see very common ADHD symptoms. I'm not saying that you have to buy our supplement but you should really look into the science because I am almost certain it can help!

Here's an article that might be of interest:


ADHD or simply a lack of calcium?
New treatment for attention deficit disorder - no drugs – just calcium

Malcolm Green, animal behavioural and nutritional expert from Calinnova Ltd has spent over 17 years analysing and understanding what make an animal’s brain and body function “normally” and how deficiencies in certain minerals can lead to behaviour and health problems. His unique approach to animal supplementation has allowed him to test scientific boundaries in the animal supplement industry and gained him global recognition amongst veterinary surgeons and fellow nutritionists.

Malcolm is particularly interested in analysing what makes the brain function normally and has stumbled across some very exciting and interesting finds. Through the analysis of certain vitamin and mineral deficiencies, he has discovered, if an animal is deficient in vital minerals, mainly calcium, brain function and performance rapidly deteriorate, causing a dramatic increase in irrational and bad behaviour including nervousness, anxiousness, spooking, restlessness, an inability to focus, poor judgment and even aggression.

Interestingly, the symptoms displayed were incredibly similar to the common symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD), in fact, almost identical. This discovery led Malcolm to believe that animals are also victims to this distressing disorder and it made him question whether calcium deficiencies in humans could be the major contributing factor to ADHD as well. Perhaps, highly absorbable calcium could be the answer to solving this behavioural epidemic.

Behavioural difficulties in horses are commonly dealt with the introduction of a “calmer” supplement, which are predominantly (like in human calmers) made up of magnesium. Mr Green believes that any nutritional deficiency that impairs brain function can cause nervous or difficult behaviour, so he set out to identify other nutrients that could help improve animals’ brain function more effectively than magnesium alone. What came out on top was chelated calcium. In fact, Calinnova Ltd found, in a recent study on horses, that chelated calcium seems to help more than three times as many difficult horses than magnesium does.

In 2008, Calinnova Ltd conducted a series of trials on over 800 horses and found astonishing results when a small, controlled amount of chelated calcium (more easily absorbed into the body) was added as a supplement to the animal’s diet. As approximately 99% of the body’s calcium is stored in the bone and the other 1% in the blood, further analysis suggested that in many cases, the natural calcium balance within the animal’s blood had depleted to an unnatural level resulting in calcium being taken from the bones in order to top up levels. This meant that when a calcium supplement was initially ingested, the mineral would go straight back into the bones to restore “normal” levels and the animals bad behaviour contained because blood levels were still low. This indicated that a “loading period” would be required to boost the whole body’s calcium levels to a natural level. Once this had been done it would simply be a matter of maintaining that healthy level with a lower maintenance dose. They found that between 90-100% of horses in the trial responded positively to calcium supplementation but only if the calcium was supplied as a highly bio-available chelated source. The studies highlighted that over 79% of all animals supplemented with highly absorbable calcium, behaviour was remarkably improved.

Malcolm Green believes that his studies on birds and horses indicate a clear connection between insufficient (not necessarily technically deficient) calcium and behavioural difficulties.

Malcolm explains:
“Magnesium has a number of roles in the brain but by far the most important one is the production of energy. The brain is the most energy hungry organ in the body and a lack of energy impairs brain function. However, in excess magnesium can actually sedate the animal and thus having a negative effect. This sedation is caused by the blocking of calcium receptors in the nerve cells and this effectively switches the cell off.

In contrast calcium is the molecule responsible for switching the nerve cells on. It controls the absorption of neurotransmitters (the chemical messengers that stimulate the nerve cell); it then initiates the nerve impulse which transmits the message along the nerve cell. And finally it initiates the release of neurotransmitters enabling the nerve cell to pass its message on to its target cells and organs, helping the brain function normally. While magnesium in excess can block this process, calcium itself only has positive effects on nerve and brain function. Put simply calcium controls many of the important functions in the cells that make up the brain so without the controlling hand of calcium, the brain stops functioning properly.

But that’s not all, insufficient calcium in the brain leads to the spontaneous initiation of nerve impulses and short circuits between cells, which mean that messages are created for no reason and other important messages go to the wrong destinations. If these affects are not going to confuse the horse I can’t imagine what will!”

A study by Thiel, Ph.D. (ANMA Monitor 1997:1(9): 5 to 8) of children and adults suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) showed that 52% of those tested were calcium deficient and the remaining were deficient in other vitamins and minerals such B6 and magnesium.

In America alone, approximately six million children suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or hyperactivity. Unfortunately, this disorder is commonly treated by doctors through the prescription of Ritalin, a Class II drug that belongs to the same pharmacological family as cocaine and other amphetamines. This is not a nice drug and has some disturbing side effects. Despite this, it is commonly used as a quick fix for hyperactive and inattentive symptoms in children; in fact, the majority of children diagnosed with ADHD take Ritalin or similar ADHD medications but Malcolm questions whether there was something better and natural that could improve behaviour.

Doctors explain the necessity for medication by pointing out that children with ADHD have a biochemical imbalance in their brain – meaning there is a deficiency in neurotransmitters, the chemicals responsible for relaying messages between brain cells. Ritalin stimulates the production of neurotransmitters and temporarily restores the proper balance. But what if there was a natural substance that can have the same effect, with no side effects, only benefits and extremely low cost?
According to Dr. D. Pauli, an expert at the World Health Organisation, many contributing factors to ADD or ADHD is as a result of poor nutrition.

He explains:
“One of the most frequent triggers of ADHD has to do with the child's nutritional status. When children suffer from deficiencies in important vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and enzymes, their brain's biochemistry is thrown out of balance and they develop symptoms that are then labelled as ADHD. Calcium, chromium, and selenium deficiencies are among the common mineral deficiencies detected in children with ADHD”.

This thought is shared by Malcolm as he also recognises the importance of other minerals and a balance diet. It is also Malcolm’s belief that nutrition plays a big role in brain and body function. According to adhdchildparenting(.)com, world experts on ADHD, the emphasise that there must be a critical balance in nutrition when looking at treating ADHD in children. Our body needs complete nutrition in order to be healthy, both physically and mentally. Many schools no longer provide milk for the children and we are told to avoid dairy products because they are fattening, thus reducing our intake of naturally available calcium. Some may argue that there is plenty of calcium available in vegetables but is that really the case? With increasing mineral deficient soils due to over farming and the introduction of pesticides, calcium and other vital minerals are found in smaller and smaller quantities or absorption is blocked within the body by other minerals such as phosphorous (that are found within pesticides). Even horses grazing calcium rich soils frequently show bad behaviour that corrects when given a chelated calcium supplement. This is explained by the fact that calcium rich soils are alkaline and this actually locks the calcium away, which makes it very difficult for plants to access.

A new study reported in The Lancet, found that with a restricted diet alone, many children experienced a significant reduction in symptoms. The study's lead author, Dr. Lidy Pelsser of the ADHD Research Centre in the Netherlands, said in a recent interview, "Food is the main cause of ADHD," she said adding, "After the diet, they were just normal children with normal behaviour. They were no longer more easily distracted, they were no more forgetful, there were no more temper-tantrums."

If behavioural problems, ADD & ADHD could be controlled simply by providing a good, healthy, balanced diet and the supplementation of commonly deficient minerals, perhaps the answer is not to turn to a “quick fix” drug such as Ritalin. Increasingly, studies are indicating that the natural approach makes sense, is just as effective and by far a healthier option. Calinnova Ltd.’s success in developing a calcium calmer may quickly replace magnesium based calmers and supplements. They may well encourage the drug companies to reassess their current practises, thus promoting a more natural, low cost and highly effective alternative.

As a result of extensive studies, Calinnova Ltd and Malcolm Green believe that nutrients are a number one priority for “normal” brain function. With depleted natural supply, it is important not to overlook obvious symptoms of deficiency such as behavioural problems. Diet can be the main cause of deficiencies but can be easily controlled with a little education and supplementation when needed. Chelated calcium is almost certainly the most common deficiency and simply treating this problem will dramatically change behaviour for the better.

Hope it helps!