Golden Years Cats: Making Their Lives Long, Happy and Healthy!
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Time slips by more quickly for our pets than for us. One day we realize that our favorite cute kitty is now a senior citizen. What can we do to help them “live long and prosper”?
Just like for people, nutrition, exercise, medical care, social interactions and environmental modifications improve and optimize our senior cats lives.
Nutrition: many elderly cats have metabolic diseases such as kidney disease or diabetes and do best on a prescription diet targeted toward controlling these diseases. Arthritis is common in older cats and a food high in anti-inflammatory fatty acids such as Hill’s J/D reduces pain and improves mobility. Canned foods increase water consumption and can help prevent constipation and are often more palatable for finicky elderly cats tastes. Increasing the variety of canned foods and warming the food a little can also tempt the appetite of debilitated senior cats. When constipation is significant, adding ¼ tsp. of Miralax over the counter stool softener can help (consult your veterinarian first before starting the Miralax).
Exercise and environmental modifications: the less elderly cats move, the harder it can be for them to maintain their muscle mass and flexibility. Encourage your cat to play using laser pointers, fishing pole type toys, and other interactive toys. Put step stools or chairs out next to beds and windows to help them jump up and down to favorite places. Make sure litter boxes and food and water bowls are easily accessible. Litter boxes should be low enough that the kitty can get in and out of easily. Try to avoid covered litter boxes, as they can be awkward for arthritic kitties to use without bumping their heads. Heated cat beds can soothe aching joints, and make winter temperatures or an air-conditioned home more comfortable for senior cats.
Medical Care: since elderly cats develop many of the same aging health problems that we have, we can greatly improve both the quality and length of their lives with good medical care. It would be nice if our cats could talk to us and tell us how they feel. They can’t. Our senior cats need to be examined and have lab tests taken every 6 months. Given their rapid aging, this is equivalent to every 3-4 years for a human! Many health problems can be prevented, cured, or managed effectively with early intervention. Your cat cannot tell you it is painful, has kidney or dental disease, or arthritis. Your veterinarian can detect those problems and help.
Social interactions: your senior cat may not seek out attention as much as younger cags in the household. They may be marginalized by the other cats in the household and do not have the energy to fight for attention Try to spend 10 minutes twice a day giving extra attention to your senior cat. You will both enjoy it, and it will make the quality of both your lives better!
Tips on Medicating Cats (Part 2 of 2)
You can read part 1 here.
Some cats are more challenging, and none of the previous suggestions will work. Since our goal is getting the medicine into the cat, discuss with your veterinarian when things aren’t working so they can choose another option. “Compounded medications” may be more expensive, but can make life easier for you and your cat. Compounded medications may be available from your veterinarian or from a compounding pharmacy by prescription; your neighborhood pharmacy may not be able to do this. Some pharmacies will mail or ship medications to you.
Options include:
- Flavored Chew Tablets
We have found that beef-flavored metronidazole is working well for Katie! - Liquid Medications
Chicken and fish are two popular flavors. Some cats will take the flavored liquid food mixed into their canned food, making it easy to have pet-sitters medicate your cat when you are away. If not, the oral liquid to squirt in the cat’s mouth can work well. - Transdermal Cream
If your cat will not take anything mixed in food and won’t let you near their mouth, some medications can be formulated into a cream that you rub on the inner (pink) side of the cat’s ear. Methimazole for hyperthyroid cats can be formulated as a transdermal medication. The pharmacy will send syringes or “pens”, and you’ll squirt a measured amount onto a gloved finger (so you don’t medicate yourself!) to rub in your cat’s ear. - Injections
Some cats tolerate a small needle and injection better than anything given by mouth. Again, not all medications are available this way, but if you’re having trouble, ask your veterinarian for help.
We know that giving medicines to cats can be very difficult, and the last thing we want is “Every time my cat sees me, s/he runs away”. So, if things aren’t going well – please contact your veterinarian to let them know. We want the best for your cat – and for you.
Flavored tablets, liquids and some can even be administered as a “transdermal cream”, to rub on the inside (pink part) of the cat’s ears. Some medications are available in injectable form, like giving insulin with a tiny syringe and needle. Since our goal is getting the medicine into the cat, discuss with your veterinarian when things aren’t working so they can choose another option. Compounded medications may be more expensive, but can make life easier for you and your cat.
Pleasant Pet Visits
How can I get my cat into the carrier and to the vet?
Fear is the primary cause of misbehavior. Knowing this can help prevent problematic veterinary visits.
GETTING YOUR CAT INTO THE CARRIER
- Keep the carrier out in the home. Put treats inside. Train cats to view the carrier as a safe haven and “home away from home.” A quick response is crucial in case of disaster or emergency.
- Carriers that have both a top and a front opening are best. Top-loading carriers allow for stress-free placement and removal of the cat. A removable carrier top enables cats to be examined while remaining in the bottom half of the carrier. Do not “dump” a cat out of the carrier.
ADJUSTING TO CAR RIDES
- Always put the cat in a carrier or other safe container.
- Take the cat for regular car rides, beginning with very short ones, to places other than the veterinary hospital.
- To prevent car sickness, do not feed before traveling.
- Reward verbally, with positive attention, and with treats.
VETERINARY VISITS
- Bring along the cat’s favorite treats, toys, and blanket.
- Perform regular home maintenance procedures, including grooming, nail trimming, teeth brushing.
- ”Play vet” procedures that mimic temperature taking, ear cleaning, and pilling can help cats better adjust to the veterinary hospital and to future home care when necessary.
- Regular trips to the veterinary hospital for “fun” visits involving no examinations or procedures provide owners and staff with the opportunity to reward the cat with praise and food treats.
What? Adopt a(nother) Cat?
It’s June already, the grill’s out and ready to go! OK, so you current cat avoids the barbie- and that’s a good thing because it’s dangerous! So while it’s fun to think that your cat might become the household cook (and if any pet could it would be the cat since dogs would just steal the food off the counter and eat it right then and there, wrapper and all), it’s much better to think about getting a(nother) cat for fun, affection and entertainment.
June is Adopt a Cat Month, celebrated by the American Humane Association, American Veterinary Medical Association, ASPCA, CATalyst Council and petfinder.com. Here are the Top 5 Joys of Owning a Cat and now that you’re convinced, check out the Top Ten Checklist for Adopting a Cat. Cats are social animals, so a feline friend can be a great addition to your family- just do a little research in advance. The best way to celebrate AND help your community is to visit your local shelter, look on their website, or check out petfinder.com or adoptapet.com to see what cat is in your area and which purrsonality is right for your household.
According to Jan McHugh-Smith, President of the Humane Society of Pikes Peak Region in Colorado Springs, adopting an older cat is especially rewarding. “Adult cats are just big kittens with developed personalities. They come in all shape, sizes and colors; you can adopt a cool cat, a lap cat, a fat cat. Just adopt.”
Your veterinarian can provide you information on how to proceed AND how to introduce a new cat (and check out the felinedocs blog post), and the veterinary team may even have some leads on some cats that need a loving home!
So start planning that summertime dinner party to celebrate Adopt a Cat Month! More chicken, please….
Tips on Medicating Cats (Part 1 of 2)
When your veterinarian recommends oral medication for your cat, most owner’s first reaction is “Are you going to come to my house? I can’t do this!”
Fortunately, there are a lot of options. Here are some tips for making the process easier for you and your cat.
- If your cat will allow you to give a pill, tip your cat’s nose to the sky so you have a straight shot to drop the pill into the back of the cat’s throat. Follow with a small amount of water in a syringe to help your cat swallow.
Pet Pillers have flexible rubber tips. This allows you to get the pill to the back of your cat’s mouth without putting your hand in your cat’s mouth.
Pill pockets are a chewable treat, so you can put the pill inside. Try a pill pocket without medication to see if this will work; if so, put the pill inside and pinch the chew treat so the pill is coated with the treat. This works best for medications that have minimal taste, such as methimazole.- The “hairball medicine” trick: if your cat likes Cat Lax, put the pill in about one inch of Cat Lax and use a tongue depressor (or the back end of a spoon) to smear the Cat Lax and pill on the roof of your cat’s mouth. When s/he swallows the Cat Lax, they will swallow the pill. Some cats will tolerate butter or cream cheese.
The “syringe and baby food” trick: ask your veterinarian for a 3-ml syringe with the needle cut off (Precut Oral Feeding Syringes are also available). Using strained meat baby food, put the pill in 2 ml of baby food, and squirt the baby food into your cat’s mouth.- Ask your veterinarian if the medication can be crushed and mixed with food – again, use this for pills that have little taste.
- If your cat eats canned food, crush the pill and mix with a small amount of food first, then let your cat have the rest of the meal.
- Does your cat like people food, i.e. strained meat (chicken) baby food? Or tuna fish? If so, you can crush the pill and mix with a small amount of these medications (always check with your veterinarian first, especially if your cat has food sensitivities). You may warm the food briefly in the microwave – test to be sure it doesn’t get too hot. Then mix in the pill.
- The “melted butter trick” – this is also helpful when you’re trying to give 1/8 or some other fraction of a tablet that is very difficult to divide accurately. Crush the pill, mix with melted butter. Make an aluminum foil boat, freeze, and cut the butter into 1/8’s etc.
If your cat seems to be scratching you with all 4 legs trying to get a way, wrapping your cat in a towel can help. Ask your veterinarian or the hospital staff to show you how to do this.
If your cat is still says “Nope, not going to happen”, read part 2 here.
Do we really know what it takes to keep a cat happy?
For the last few weeks, I’ve been preparing to be a participant on a panel that will explore the need for environmental enrichment for our pet cats. What the heck is environmental enrichment, you might say? Sounds too complicated for what is thought to be a low maintenance pet. What it means is that you make allowances for an animal’s needs that you know are important to the way they would live if they could make their own choices. And I’m finding that lots of the things that I intuitively feel about a cat’s needs have actually been documented by some swell researchers that prove the need to add another level of consideration to care we give our cats.
Here’s a little food for thought. If you were kept in the lap of luxury with fully nutritious cookies and crackers available 24/7, you’d like that, yes? But wait, there’s no books, no TV, no computer, no exercise room. But there’s plenty of cookies over in that one corner of the kitchen. You’re only allowed to be in this 15 room mansion and never given even a deck of cards to play solitaire. Maybe you’d have to live with 2 or 3 other people and one of them was a bully, not looking so good now, eh? Makes you really think about what it means to be truly happy as opposed to just taken care of. Zoos have known this for years. Think about the outrage you would have if a zoo didn’t take an animal’s behavioral needs into account when planning how to keep it.
Cats have a job. It’s to be a hunter. They’ve developed amazing skills to be really good at this over thousands of years. We’ve only asked them to come inside and live with us maybe for the last 50 or 60 years. Through years of breeding we altered dog behavior and as well as form, but we never asked the cat to change their habits. We wanted good hunters and they obliged us. But when we decided to have them live inside exclusively, we didn’t like the stalking and pouncing on our leg behaviors, or we didn’t like that they needed really clean places to go to the bathroom, or we didn’t like them doing things that made them feel more secure like scratching the furniture. So, at first, we said that all those behaviors were “wrong”. Now we know that all those behaviors are “right” and that cats that don’t do them have done a remarkable job of adapting to a highly restrictive set of circumstances. Good thing too because most cats that are seen as doing “wrong” behavior end up in a shelter.
Recognizing the need to improve a cat’s environment is the first step to helping your cat be happier living with you. Luckily, there are some really neat cheap and easy ways to do this. The most important thing is that you change your perspective and start seeing yourself as a good zookeeper as well as a loving owner.
We feed them, protect them from injury and disease, and we shower our love on them with cuddles and coos. Most of us think that we are doing the best for our cats by making a physically safe environment. But now we know that we need to rethink the needs of this wonderful creature. It’s not enough to just keep them from the physical perils of their natural life style without working on their behavioral and emotional needs.
There’s a ton of reliable information available to learn about creating a happy cat home. Here are some great resources to check out to start the journey. In a few months we’ll be able to add information from the American Association of Feline Practitioners guidelines too! I’m really looking forward to continuing my journey as well.
http://indoorpet.osu.edu/
https://ckm.osu.edu/sitetool/sites/indoorpetpublic/documents/handouts/Cats_Indoors_flier.pdf
http://www.fabcats.org/behaviour/cat_friendly_home/info.html
http://www.fabcats.org/behaviour/cat_friendly_home/playtime.html
http://www.fabcats.org/behaviour/cat_friendly_home/Environmental_enrichment_JFMS%20article%20for%20website.pdf
http://catvets.com/healthtopics/
Achoo! Achoo!
We all know what a sneeze sounds like whether it is from a you or your cat. A sneeze results from irritation in the nose, which is called rhinitis. An important part of the respiratory tract’s defense system, a sneeze is a reflex action made up of two parts. The first is an irritation within the nasal passages that causes release of inflammatory chemicals, which sensitize the nerve endings, sending a message to the brain. That triggers a series of steps resulting in air being forcibly expelled through the nose.
The sneeze reflex is the same regardless of the cause. However, characteristics of the sneeze point to the cause. If your cat’s sneezes are short with no, or clear, spray discharge and is otherwise healthy, then most likely he is suffering from an allergy or minor irritation. Plug in air fresheners, kitty litter,household products and plants(, especially cut flowers) are common causes of allergies in cats. Even indoor cats can be affected by pollen which comes in through open windows or on clothing. There are many options for treating allergic rhinitis, but the first step is to identify and remove the culprit. If that is not possible, there are many anti-allergy products that can be used safely in cats as directed by your veterinarian.
Sometimes the sneeze is accompanied by a thick greenish-yellow discharge or runny eyes. This is usually indicative of an upper respiratory infection. If your cat also shows signs of not feeling well ( eating less, decreased energy, noisy stuffy breathing), then a visit to the doctor is the next step. Most infections are viral. Two viruses that cause the majority of upper respiratory infections are feline herpes virus and calici virus. Veterinarians recommend that ALL cats get vaccinated against these viruses because they are quite hardy. They can live outside the body for 7-14 days and you can bring them home( via clothing, hands, or objects.) Often viral infections can be treated the same way as the common cold in humans. Occassionally however, there are complications. In rare cases, calici virus can cause serious, if not life-threatening, disease. A thorough physical exam and consultation with your veterinarian will result in the best plan for a speedy recovery for your kitty.
Uncommonly a sneezing cat will have a discharge out of only one nostril. Sometimes the sneezing will be bloody. This type of sneeze can be indicative of a variety of problems. Your cat may have something stuck up its nose.( Grass seeds are a common nasal foreign body in outdoor cats.) , Sneezing may point to a dental problem; often an abscessed tooth. The roots of a cat’s upper teeth lie very close to the nasal passages. The sneezing can be the result of infection or inflammation surrounding the tooth affecting the nose. Unilateral nasal discharge and sneezing also can be indicative of chronic rhinitis – the result of having had an upper respiratory infection that damaged the nasal passages. In rare circumstances in older cats, one sided sneezing and discharge may point to a developing nasal tumor.The diverse reasons for sneezing often require a diagnostic work-up by your veterinarian. The prognosis and treatment plan will depend on the diagnostic results and interpretation.
Although it is a simple reflex action, the sneeze is an important sign.. Its character is a clue to the cause of your cat’s sneezing and to the best treatment . Your cat’s doctor is the best resource for a successful plan to eliminate your cat’s sneezing problem.
What Do Kittens Need?
Kittens learn from each other and their Mom and need them to develop their normal behaviors. They need social and physical contact to gain confidence. As they grow older, they will need each other less but remain interested in social interaction. The presence of the Mom with the litter also increases confidence. Kittens feel safe clustered around their Mom and can show interest in novel people or situations. If the Mom is confident around people the kittens will quickly learn to be sociable with humans. If she is hostile, they will learn to be too.
The first important relationship with a kitten is with his Mom. They are entirely dependent upon her for their survival. Before two weeks of age, they don’t move around much, have not developed many abilities that they will later and have poor eye sight. She anticipates everything they need from nutrition to cleaning to toileting. By licking their abdomen, she stimulates the passing of urine and feces that she can then consume.
All social contact is limited to the litter and Mom. The family is matriarchal and independent. Related females in a colony will help with child rearing. They may help with nursing or moving the kittens. There is a lot of safety in numbers. Related Moms will guard kittens remaining behind if they have to be moved. Alone, a mother cat exposes the kittens left behind to dangers as she moves them one by one.
As kittens get older, they begin to move around more and begin to develop more independent behavior. In the early stages of these changes, they remain very dependent upon Mom for all their needs. As they begin to play with each other, they learn to communicate effectively with other cats and begin to develop the predatory skills they will need as adults.
Petting Induced Aggression
I recently received the following question:
Why do cats completely flip out when you scratch their backs right above the tail? Our cat acts like she loves/hates it and is about to have a seizure every time.
– E. Rich
This could be a very normal reaction for your cat. Some cats will develop “pet induced aggression” when they are petted for too long. It can be on any part of the body. It is usually the head, the belly, or the tail base. The best way to avoid this is to pet them only when you initiate the petting NOT when they come to be petted.
This could also be a sign of pain from arthritis or a neurological condition. You veterinarian could best determine this with a video of the action. Sometimes a radiograph of the area can be very helpful to determine if arthritis is involved. If this is the issue, mediations or a special diet may be extremely helpful.
In summary, it may be behavioral and minor modifications may be the solution. Videoing of the incident may be very helpful to your veterinarian. If it is a physical problem, other diagnostics and medications may be the answer. In either instant, visiting a veterinarian should help diagnosis and treatment.
To Feed or Not To Feed – Canned Food – That is the Question!
Part 1: A Hefty Debate
Last year, a study including 450,000 cats was released called “State of Pet Health 2011 Report”. In that study, obesity ranked in the top three diagnoses for cats. The study also found that the incidence of diabetes in cats over the last five years has increased by 16% – not surprisingly, the two are related. They are both related to diet, as are several other medical issues we see in cats. This makes a cat’s diet one of the most important parts of good preventive health.
Over the past few decades, with increasing vigor, veterinarians and animal nutritionists have been debating the merits of dry foods (kibble) versus canned foods. One downside to feeding dry foods is that even though all commercially available diets are formulated to meet certain nutritional standards, dry food is quite the opposite of what cats naturally need. (Click here for more on feline obesity and diet from Dr. Lund.) The best way to encourage weight loss in a cat is to minimize the dry food and feed most calories as canned foods. Two recent studies were released this year demonstrated that the addition of water to similar diets resulted in weight reduction and increased activity1, 2
The bottom line: Canned food is more like a cat’s natural diet in consistency, nutritional content and caloric density. Canned food will help your cat lose weight and keep it off. And most cats just plain like canned foods better!
Part 2: The Tooth of the Matter
In the past, many veterinarians made the recommendation to switch from feeding canned diets to feeding dry kibble for the sake of cats’ dental health; a canned-food-only diet was the prime suspect for the poor dental hygiene seen in the majority of cats. In 2011, in the “State of Pet Health 2011 Report”, the number of cats with dental disease surpassed the number of healthy cats seen after age 3 (over 50% of cats!), making it the most common feline disease.
The reality of feline dental disease is that genetics has a large part to play in your cat’s oral health, just as it does in humans. While canned food really does not help eliminate plaque and tartar, neither do many of the commercially available dry foods, either! Most of the commercially available dry diets have kibbles that are small enough that cats will gulp them down whole. More recent research has shown that in order for a dry food to help with dental care, a larger-sized kibble, typical in special diets designed specifically for oral health, is required3. Larger kibbles allow for more tooth penetration and “scraping” of the tooth. Some of these special diets also have anti-plaque additives that help. Some diets advertise anti-calculus agents, too, but these do not seem to help. Once the plaque has hardened, it seems a professional dental cleaning is the best way to get the teeth clean again.
If you try out a dental diet, you will notice that your cats are significantly noisier when they eat – suddenly, you will be able to hear the crispy crunching sound of food being chewed, when before, the only dinnertime sound was the tink-tink-tink of kibbles being pushed around in the bowl.
The bottom line: Canned food is not your cat’s oral enemy, and not just any dry food will help keep their teeth healthy. A combination of special dental-focused diets and annual oral exams by your veterinarian are the best team for cats’ teeth.
Part 3: Litter-ally a Matter of Concentration
If you consider the cat’s natural diet, a rodent is about 70-78% water. Dry food contains about 10% water. Cats are descended from desert animals, so their instinct is to take in water from their prey versus looking for water sources. While a cat will noticeably drink more water when feeding a dry food versus a canned food, they never drink enough to compensate for the lack of moisture in their food, and will exist in a perpetual state of mild dehydration. In fact, their water intake is about ½ that of a cat that eats canned food, even if you have a cat fountain, give your kitty a “princess cup”, put ice in the water bowl, or let your cat drink from the faucet.
Mild dehydration, while not life threatening on its own, does mean that cats produce less urine than if they are well-hydrated, and that urine is more concentrated. Overly concentrated urine has been linked to urinary issues such as bladder stones or urinary crystals. Urine concentration is a measurement of how much “stuff” is in the bladder. The more “stuff” there is floating around in there, the more likely it is to stick together. The more it sticks together, the bigger it gets, until it starts to irritate the lining of the bladder as it sloshes around. Blood may or may not be visible in the urine. This irritation makes urinating an unpleasant event and may cause your cat to choose to eliminate somewhere other than the litterbox. (More information about litterbox issues from Dr. Colleran.) If the “stuff” gets too big, it may even cause a blockage in the urethra, which can become an emergency very quickly.
The bottom line: More water is better for your cat’s urinary health, and the best place to get it is from a canned diet.
1. Cameron KM, Morris PJ, Hackett RM, Speakman JR. The effects of increasing water content to reduce the energy density of the diet on body mass changes following caloric restriction in domestic cats. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). Jun 2011;95(3):399-408.
2. Wei A, Fascetti AJ, Villaverde C, Wong RK, Ramsey JJ. Effect of water content in a canned food on voluntary food intake and body weight in cats. Am J Vet Res. Jul 2011;72(7):918-923.
3. Clarke, DE, et al. Effect of Kibble Size, Shape and Additives on Plaque in Cats. J. Vet. Dent. Summer 2010; 27(2): 84-89
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- kibble
- kidney
- kidney disease
- kitten
- kittens
- kneading
- land
- laryngeal muscles
- leading to scratching
- lethargic
- lethargy
- lick
- licking
- lifestyle
- lilies
- Lilium family
- lily
- lions
- liquid medication
- liquid potpourri
- litter
- litter box
- litter training
- litterbox
- littermates
- liver disease
- liver fluid
- lost cat
- lung damage
- lung disease
- lung flukes
- lungworms
- lyme disease
- lymphoma
- mayo clinic
- meals
- measuring food
- medical costs
- medicare
- medicating
- medication
- medications
- menthol
- Meows
- metabolism
- Methylprednisolone
- methylzanthine
- mice
- microchip
- microchipping
- microchips
- microscopic
- microscopic evaluation
- minerals
- mint
- mistletoe
- moderation
- mosquitoes
- mother'sday
- motion sickness
- mousers
- mouth
- mouth odor
- mouth pain
- muffin pans
- murmur
- nail trimming
- narcotic
- nasal
- National Take Your Cat to the Veterinarian week
- natural disaster
- nausea
- needle
- needy
- neoplasia
- neurological
- neuter
- neutering
- new cat
- new veterinarian
- nicotine
- nih
- nose
- nutrients
- nutrition
- obesity
- odontoclastic resorptive lesions
- odor
- old
- old wives tales
- older
- oncologist
- or biting themselves
- oral cancer
- oral hygiene
- oral mass
- oral surgery
- oral tumor
- oregano
- ornaments
- osteoporosis
- outdoor water
- over heating
- overgrooming
- overweight
- pain
- pain medication
- pancreas disease
- Pancreas failure
- pancreatitis
- Panleukopenia
- panthers
- parasite
- parasites
- party
- pathologist
- pathology
- pee
- perches
- peridontal disease
- pet pillers
- petting
- petting induced agression
- phermonic receptor
- pheromone
- Phoradendum
- physical health
- pill pockets
- Pine needles
- pinna
- plants
- plastic bag chewers
- play
- poison
- poisonous plants
- pollens
- poop
- potting soil
- predator
- prednisolone
- primary heart muscle
- protein
- pseudocapsicum
- psychology
- purebred
- puritan
- purring
- purrito
- purrs
- rabid
- rabies
- radiation
- radiation therapy
- radiographs
- rats
- relations
- relaxation
- repositol
- rescue
- respiratory disease
- respiratory sounds
- restrain
- resulting in hair loss
- retrovirus
- reward
- ribbons
- Rickets
- rivalry
- rodents
- rolling around
- rough
- roundworms
- rub
- rubbing
- safety
- saliva
- satanism
- Savannah Cat
- scared
- scents
- scratching
- scream
- screaming at night
- scruffing
- sea
- sedation
- senile
- senior
- shedding
- shelter cats
- shiny coat
- shy
- siblings
- skin
- skin disease
- sleep
- sleeping
- slugs
- smell
- smoking
- snails
- sneeze
- sneezing
- social groups
- social interactions
- socialization
- socializing
- Solanum
- sound waves
- spay
- spaying
- spiders
- sprint
- steps
- steroids
- stiff
- stomach disease
- stomach upset
- stool
- stray
- stress
- string and ribbon eaters
- Styrofoam peanut chompers
- Subcutaneous Fluids
- sudden death
- sugar
- super nose
- superstitions
- surgery
- surroundings
- sweets
- swelling face
- swollen legs
- syringe
- tapeworms
- taste
- taste buds
- teeth
- teeth removal
- temperature
- Theobromine
- third eye lid
- thyroid
- ticks
- tigers
- timid
- tinsel
- tissue
- tobacco
- toilet paper
- tongue
- tooth resorption
- toxic
- toxic plants
- toxins
- toxo eggs
- toxoplasma
- Toxoplasma gondii
- toxoplasmosis
- toys
- transdermal cream
- transducer
- transportation
- traumatized
- travel
- treats
- tree
- triamcinolone
- trouble breathing
- tumors
- ulcerated
- ultrasound
- uncomfortable
- unravel
- urinalysis
- urinary
- urinary disorders
- urinary tract
- urinating
- urination
- urine
- vaccinations
- vaccines
- valvular diseases
- vestibular apparatus
- veterinary
- veterinary behaviorist
- virus
- Viscum
- Vitamin D
- vitamins
- vocalizing
- voles
- vomeronasal
- vomeronasal organ
- vomit
- vomiting
- water
- water fountain
- weight
- weight control
- weight loss
- well being
- wet food
- what cat's like
- wheezing
- wipes
- witches
- worms
- wrapping
- x-rays
- xray
- yells
- younger