I am a Mighty Bug Hunter!
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My name is Cleo. I live in Grand Rapids, MI. I live inside the house with 3 other cats. My mom is a vet. She doesn’t let me outside because she says there are too many risks in our area between traffic and getting into fights with other cats in our neighborhood. I know I would win those fights but she doesn’t trust me! So, instead I like to hunt in our house for bugs. We have air conditioning, but we still get some mosquitoes, moths, and other flying toys in the house periodically. Sometimes the mosquitoes bite me, but I don’t care. I keep hoping we get a bat in the house so I can catch a big flying toy- my mom says she sees that several times a year in her patients.
My favorites though are the bugs that crawl on the ground. Spiders, sow bugs, the occasional cricket and other creepy crawlies give me hours of entertainment. After I catch them and play with them for a while, I like to eat them. (I even caught a mouse last year and left the best part (the head) for my mom. She wasn’t too thrilled. Sometimes I get no appreciation for all my efforts. Sigh.
Most of the time my mom never even sees what I am hunting as I find the basement and other out of the way spots are the best places to find my prey. When she sees me playing with what I catch, my mom usually takes them away from me before I eat them. She says I can get parasites and other infections from them. I am not sure what parasites are, but mom says they can make me sick. Those parasites are why she keeps me on a monthly parasite medication year around, and keeps my vaccines up to date even though I don’t go outside. She says I can even get some parasites from walking through dirt or digging in potting soil and then washing my feet afterward. This is what she says I can get from:
- Mosquitoes- heartworms
- Fleas- tapeworms, Bartonella infection (cat scratch fever)
- Mice and other rodents such as voles, rats: tapeworms, roundworms, lung flukes, and toxoplasmosis
- Earthworms- roundworms
- Cockroaches- roundworms
- Snails and slugs- lungworms
- Crayfish- lung flukes
- Ticks- Bob cat fever (Cytauxzoon felis), Ehrlichia, Lyme disease
- Dirt and potting soil- roundworms, hookworms
- Outdoor water- Giardia
- Bats- rabies
I figure I am not going to worry about those things because my mom does the worrying for me and keeps me protected with the monthly parasite preventative and my yearly vaccines. Bugs of the world be very afraid- Cleo the bug hunter is on the prowl!
End of Life and Quality of Life
I would like to thank everyone for their kind wishes and moral support for Cosmo. If you would like to read more about him please click here for part one and here for part two.
He just turned 12 years old last week and has started acting very needy. He has been screaming for attention at all hours of the day. This is a little different than his normal behavior. I petted him under the chin and noticed that he had small bumps that were not there a week ago. His lymph node on the right shoulder is now enlarged.
I am planning on taking samples to prove that it is the return of the cancer. I feel certain that is.
I am now at the crossroads of how do I proceed. This is obviously a very aggressive cancer since it returned only 3 months after treatment.
Do I take him back for more surgery and treatment? That option does not make sense since he has been through so much by this time and it will last less time than the previous.
Do I treat him as “hospice”? I give him pain medication waiting until he stops eating and his quality of life is terrible.
I do not want him to reach the point of terrible quality of life. I will need to make my decision of the correct time. I have always told people that they will know the time. I wish not to be selfish and keep him alive for my sake or for that of others. This is a family decision.
He has been such a good friend and want to be respectful and say good bye before he is suffering.
Many thanks for everyone’s support and kindness.
My Cat Has a Murmur?
What this abnormal cardiac sound means for your cat
Your kitty appears perfectly healthy. You take it in for a routine physical exam and the veterinarian informs you that your precious family member has a murmur. How can this be? What does this mean? He runs around the house, eats like a horse and is borderline heavy on his weight. This is a perfectly healthy cat!
A heart murmur is an abnormal sound that occurs as blood moves through the heart and the valves. Your veterinarian detects it with a stethoscope during examination. Murmurs can be caused by congenital defects, acquired diseases such as hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, anemia or primary heart muscle or valvular diseases.
Some murmurs occur due to stress or excitement and elevated heart rate. These murmurs are considered benign or innocent and do not cause problems with your kitty’s health.
Studies have shown that as many as 22% of “healthy” cats can have murmurs, unfortunately, the innocent murmurs cannot be differentiated from cats with actual heart disease. In addition, as many as 50% of cats with primary heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy) that present to the veterinarian in heart failure will not have a murmur prior to presentation.
So, what should you do? Follow your veterinarian’s advice. If your kitty seems anxious at the clinic and the heart rate is elevated, your veterinarian may ask to just recheck your kitty on a different day or ask you to leave your kitty for the day so he/she can become acclimated to the hospital.
Your veterinarian may ask to run tests to rule out diseases outside the heart that can cause murmurs, such as checking blood pressure, a thyroid test or a CBC to screen for anemia. In some cases, a blood test called an NT-pro-BNP may be performed as well. This test looks for stretching or damage to the heart muscle.
If your cat has evidence of elevated or abnormal respiratory sounds, or if the NT-pro-BNP test is abnormal, your veterinarian may request to check thoracic (chest) x-rays or perform a cardiac ultrasound.
If blood testing is abnormal, treatment of the underlying disease can often times eliminate the murmur. If your cat is diagnosed with cardiomyopathy it may be mild and just require monitoring. If disease is more severe medication may be prescribed.
In some cases, no disease will be identified, but most importantly, by following your veterinarian’s advice, you will be armed with information regarding your kitty’s health that allows you to have peace of mind and be pro-active in his/her care for life.
Finding a Veterinarian Worthy of your Cat
A wonderful client with whom I had enjoyed a great relationship for a number of years, tearfully told me last week that she was moving across country. Her career had taken a positive turn and a dream job awaited her in North Carolina. We both shared some tears and then started to talk about how we would make the transition as easy for her and her cats as we could.
She had a good plan for moving her cats that took into consideration the stress that this disruption would cause. The cats would stay in her home with all the objects and routine remaining as familiar as possible. Her son, whom the cats all loved, would stay with them while she made several trips back and forth to get the new house ready. She had Feliway plugged in. The carriers were in their spots as part of the furniture in the living room and her son would continue to put treats in the carriers and otherwise keep up the normal routine as much as possible.
Margaret, my client, had found a place to live and would get settled there before moving the cats in an attempt to mimic, again, as much of the normal routine as she could. Her commitment to her beloved Grace and Oscar was touching. We talked about a few more ideas for making travel uneventful as they drove across the country together in a month or so.
Then she asked me a really interesting question. “Can you help me find a veterinarian that will take as good care of Grace and Oscar as you and your staff have done?” We both got a little choked up again. I said I would do my best.
As it turned out, I could not find a veterinarian in that city with whom I was familiar. There was not a feline exclusive practice there. My go-to resource for reference is www.catvets.com, because I could look for a member of the American Association of Feline Practitioners or a veterinary establishment that is a Cat Friendly Practice. I struck out there, too.
The best I could do is a good plan for anyone looking for a new veterinarian:
- Search the internet for local practices and check websites. There will be a sense of what is important to that group and an emphasis that may guide you;
- Pick more than two to call and inquire about the practice. Ask questions about their approach to new cat patients. It almost doesn’t matter what you ask, just engage the person who answers the phone and get a sense of their enthusiasm for your conversation;
- Ask about coming to the practice for a tour. If the answer is an enthusiastic agreement, check that one on your list with a “yes”; and finally,
- Go by yourself, no cats, and meet some of the people in the practice. Have a tour and see how it feels to you. Have a nice conversation and see how welcome you feel.
Too often, people make an appointment, bring their cat and then don’t like the experience. But there is a sense of being trapped. You have an appointment, implying agreement to service. If it doesn’t feel right, it is hard to extract yourself from the situation without discomfort at best, perhaps embarrassment, even agreeing to some treatment for your beloved cat that doesn’t sit quite right. Better plan is to go alone and if it feels like a good fit, make an appointment before you leave.
Cast a Spell on Me – Is the Cat a God or the Devil? (Part 1 of 2)
Sinister, malevolent, mysterious, spooky—these are all adjectives used to describe the cat. That image of the self-sufficient, inscrutable feline has been the persistent stereotype, and has led to the tangled history we humans have with America’s favorite pet.
The relationship people have with their dogs is much more straightforward…but there is something about a cat that defies easy acceptance, and that ambivalence can be traced back to when cats and humans first began to interact.
Cats were domesticated more than 10,000 years ago, when wild cats in the Nile Delta and Mesopotamian marshlands began frequenting human encampments and villages, attracted to the easy supply of rodents that were seeking out the humans’ grain stores. These cats grew more and more habituated to people, and soon began to, as every cat lover knows, domesticate themselves. These friendlier cats eventually became part of normal village life. We know they were intimately associated with humans back then thanks to the discovery of a cat skeleton buried with a human in a 12,000-year-old archeological gravesite.
Because cats had a very distinct role in this relationship—consuming mice—and that trait also came naturally to cats, the typical exploitation of certain behaviors did not occur as it normally would during the domestication process. Most domesticated species go through different steps of fine-tuning a trait that humans found desirable. Cats, however, have come through the years basically unchanged.
They were looking for food, not friendship, although the friendlier and less fearful cats were able to capitalize on their increased comfort with humans by having greater access to food and shelter.
It’s basically a thousand-year-old variation on that timeless theme of humans doing the bidding of cats and not vice versa. First we provided an easy supply of mice, now we’re opening those cans of cat food. This ambivalence cats have about pleasing people has caused our wildly up and down feelings about our favorite species.
In ancient Egypt, cats might have hit their own personal high on the human interaction scale when they were worshipped as gods. Over time, the cat’s image evolved from the warlike deification of justice and execution into the more feminine deity representing protection, motherhood and fertility. The respect for cats was so extreme that many were mummified after death, just like their human supplicants. In fact, there was a discovery in Egypt of more than 300,000 cat mummies, all located in one cemetery devoted exclusively to cats. Cats were so revered that if a person was convicted of killing a cat, even accidentally, it often meant a death sentence.
When a cat died, Egyptian households would go into mourning just like when a human relative had died, and they’d mark their grief by the same tradition of shaving their eyebrows.
Those were certainly heady days for the cat! Ancient Romans also held the cat in great reverence. Cats in the Roman Empire were seen as symbols of liberty. The Roman army traveled with cats, which were originally imported from Egypt. In the Far East, cats were once again valued for their mousing skills, rather than being worshipped as gods, but here the value was less for the protection of grain stores but more from stopping rodents from burrowing into the pages of treasured manuscripts.
Fast forward now into the Middle Ages, when cats suffered a serious decline in status and became demonized throughout Europe. The belief was that cats were in an alliance with witches and the devil. Cats were enthusiastically hunted and killed in an attempt to ward off the evil that they were believed to embody.
Ironically, many scholars believe that eliminating cats helped to spread the plague, or the Black Death, since the fleas that transmitted the pathogen had many more hosts in the escalating rat population. This was one more instance where cat’s rodent hunting had a directly positive benefit on the health of humans, just like what happened when cats protected the human grain stores and manuscripts from marauding mice.
And let’s not forget witches and paganism and the pivotal role that black cats, the classical witch’s familiar, played. A familiar was an animal traditionally given to witches by the devil. Familiars were small demons that were sent out to do the witch’s bidding. Many cats—and other animals—were killed during the witch trials because of this association. Witches were said to be able to shape-change into a cat no more than nine times, and this is probably where the saying that a cat has nine lives came from.
Cats were believed to be clairvoyant, and their body parts, particularly their tails, were used in potions to give humans those powers. Cats were also thought to be able to forecast and affect the weather. A sneezing cat meant rain was on the way and a cat who sharpened its claws on furniture meant that the weather was going to change. Throwing a cat overboard from a boat was believed to cause storms. There are also quite a few nautical superstitions involving cats, and boating expressions that use “cat” are numerous and range from cat-o-nine tails, catboats and the catwalk.
Public opinion didn’t begin to shift back in favor of the cat until the 1600s, but Old Wives’ Tales about cats were commonplace and consistently anti-cat. We’ll look at a selection of those next month and see where the truth lies!
Furballs
How often does this happen to you? You are awakened from a sound sleep by the unmistakable sound of your cat about to cough up a furball on the comforter next to you. If you are lucky, you will be able to move kitty safely to the floor or be resigned to washing the comforter again! Many cat owners think that vomiting hairballs is normal behavior in a cat. But that is not always true. For example, one of my patients is Francis, a 14 year old handsome red and white tabby, who was diagnosed with diabetes several years ago. Up until last year Francis flourished, his weight went back to normal, his appetite was consistently good, and his litter box habits were regular. Then 6 months ago, Francis came in with a few days history of decreased appetite and vomiting. His physical exam was normal; his basic blood tests and urinalysis were normal. A few days later Francis vomited a furball. His owner was happy figuring this was the reason for the symptoms. Over time his weight began to decrease, and he intermittently repeated his pattern of exhibiting a poor appetite and then a few days later vomiting a furball. Additional blood tests and an abdominal ultrasound indicated the possibility of pancreatitis and/ or inflammatory bowel disease as the cause(s) of his symptoms. For now, we are keeping a close eye on Francis. If his condition changes, we will discuss confirming this diagnosis by biopsy and possibly diet changes and medication to treat those diseases.
To his owner, Francis was just having furball trouble. To his doctor, Francis’ furball vomiting was an indication of an underlying problem. Why was I suspicious? A review of Francis’s history indicated that he was vomiting furballs much more frequently than he had in the past. Vomiting furballs more often, particularly in a middle aged or older cat – even as the only change in a cat’s behavior; can be an indication that something is amiss. Either Francis was ingesting more fur because of increased grooming activity – meaning itchy skin (see recent post), or there was a change in the way food was moving through his upper digestive system. There are multiple reasons why this might have happened. Chronic inflammatory disease is the most common explanation. Pain or hormonal changes can also result in alterations in intestinal movement. Just as with Francis, a visit to your veterinarian is a good place to start to rule out an underlying problem.
A few months ago Francis’ owner told me, “ You were right doctor”. What he meant was that he had been skeptical when I had expressed my initial concerns that Francis’ vomiting reflected more than just furballs. Francis’ owner is a loyal reader of this blog. When he was in the other day, he suggested that I write about furballs. He had overheard a comment between cat owners that furball vomiting was routine ( i.e. normal). He now knows that it isn’t necessarily so. He asked that I write about furballs to educate other cat owners about this situation. I am happy to oblige.
Boycott Mother’s Day!
This weekend is one of the most sacred holidays in the world – Mother’s Day. Everyone has a mother, and most of us celebrate all the things they’ve done to help us become the people we are. We shop for the card with just the right sentiment, order her favorite flowers, select the age and taste-appropriate candy of cocoa bean origin (milk chocolate is my own mother’s self-admitted favorite food!), or perhaps celebrate her memory with a visit to her resting place. It’s a great time for the free-enterprise economy, too. Florists are busier than accountants in April, and Hallmark heralds May as a month with highest single category sales (greeting cards) than any other month including Christmas (verification withheld to make my point).
So why would we even consider boycotting Mother’s Day? Well, if you’re a cat, since you don’t really care about cards or flowers (though both seem tasty to some cats with intestinal problems), it’s all about the numbers. And while owned pet cats outnumber dogs as pets in the US- 74 million to 70 million according to the American Veterinary Medical Association- there are many cats without homes that are brought to shelters across the country. And more keep coming. There are untold millions of community cats which may or may not be owned or cared for- including being spayed or neutered. Therein lies the problem- left to their own devices, like most other species, cats will reproduce again and again! That may sound shocking to some, and when environmental conditions are favorable, unspayed female cats can have three litters a year! Let’s say those “intact” females have an average of 4 kittens/ litter- that would be twelve more cats from just one in twelve months! If only financial institutions could have such feline fecundity with our funds…
While many shelters are able to find homes for all their healthy adoptable cats, nationwide the numbers don’t balance. Thankfully, many feral cat colonies are cared for by dedicated people who’ve had them spayed and neutered so the colony population stays stable (and healthier!) But in countless communities, because there’s an oversupply and not enough demand (some people have not yet experienced the fun of owning a cat), the all-too-often sad result is that many cats are euthanized.
If you’re a cat, would you rather go home to a family that feeds you, plays with you, cleans your bathrooms and takes you to the veterinarian at least once a year for a checkup, or live “on the streets” like a homeless person, foraging through trash cans and hoping that the soup kitchen is open? That’s why cats boycott Mother’s Day- there’s just no reason to honor having more feline families!
This Sunday I’ll be with my mother! I’ve already sent two Mother’s Day cards and her roses arrived yesterday. I’d still like to get her one more “sweet” gift, though, and I have the perfect one in mind. We’ll take a drive out to the county animal control and check out the cats up for adoption. There’s a good chance we’ll find a beautiful brown tabby with its signature cocoa-colored “M” on her forehead. Maybe I can persuade my mother to call her Lady Godiva…
Overgrooming – or, My Cat is Licking Itself Bald!
Almost every day I examine a cat that has areas of hair loss. Sometimes people think that their cat’s hair is falling out. Sometimes people see the cat licking itself or find clumps of hair on the floor. What causes hair loss in cats?
The most common cause is allergies. Cat allergies usually cause itchy skin. Allergic cats can also sneeze or wheeze or have ear infections or diarrhea as well. Cats lick at their itchy skin and because of their raspy tongues are able to break off their fur. This leaves a little stubble on the skin, and often the skin itself is a little pinker than normal. Some cats are “closet lickers” and only overgroom when no one is around.
What can cats be allergic to? The same types of things that bother us – pollens, dust mites, and foods. In particular, cats react to flea bites. When fleas bite, they inject their saliva to keep the blood from clotting. The cat becomes allergic to the saliva and just one bite can make the cat itch to the point of licking or plucking their fur. Many times we can’t even find the fleas because the cat licks so much it swallows the flea (which can transmit tapeworms, another topic).
What do we do to treat allergies in cats? Ideally we allergy test and use desensitizing injections or oral drops. Sometimes we use antihistamines, fatty acid supplements, or hypoallergenic foods. We will almost always use a broad spectrum flea and mite product as well. In severe cases, we will need to use injectable or oral steroids. We now have another medication called cyclosporine, which can also help control itching and overgrooming with fewer potential side effects. There are some anti-anxiety medications that reduce itching as well. In years past we used to think that stress caused overgrooming, but now we know that most of the time the stress is aggravating the allergic disease and making the overgrooming worse.
Other things that can cause hair loss in cats are Demodex mites, fungal infections, and occasionally hormonal problems or cancers. So if your cat’s coat has lost its normal luster or has patches of hair loss it is time for your cat to see your veterinarian!
How to Properly Restrain a Cat
I was describing “respectful” feline handling to a group of people. The most common question was, “What?! You are not suppose to scruff cats? That’s how their mother’s disciplined them when they were kittens”
Great place to start. Mother cats do carry their kitten by the scruff. They do not discipline them in this manner.
With some cats, this restraining manner can have the opposite desired effect. There are other more respectful methods and scruffing should be a last resort. Having your body weight dangled does not make good common sense.
Most of us do not need to restrain their cats at home. Occasionally it is necessary for medical care or nail trimming. Towels are an excellent method of restraining. When we use this at the clinic we call it a “purrito.”
There were also questions about how to “punish” a cat for “bad” behavior. Cats on a whole respond better to leaning with positive reinforcement. Yelling and punishment teach your cat nothing and may be counter productive.
Most of the “bad” cat behaviors that occur at home are normal for cats. Unfortunately the cat’s human companions are not always appreciative of these behaviors.
One of the most important aspects of working with your cat is for you to go outside your human box and think like a cat. Not easy, but not impossible. You will be amazed at how more enriched your life and relationship with your cat will become.
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What About Grain – Free Foods for Cats?
Cats are carnivores and require meat protein. You don’t see cats grazing in the fields as you do with herbivores (non-meat eaters) such as cattle or horses. In the wild, cats that hunt would eat the entire kill, to get their necessary vitamins and minerals. Cats eating 100% muscle meat only are subject to dietary deficiencies such as Rickets (Vitamin D/Calcium deficiency).
But what about grain free – is this necessary? Pet food companies want to make sure that their foods are nutritionally complete and balanced. Ideally, feeding trials have been performed to ensure that the food is complete and balanced. Adding certain grains can boost proteins, add fiber and necessary vitamins and minerals. In addition, grain- free foods are not carbohydrate-free.
- “Jack” was on a grain-free food, but it turned out he had a dietary sensitivity to blueberries and sweet potatoes, components of his grain-free food. Once switched off of the grain-free food, his skin and intestinal issues resolved.
- “Eddie” had urinary problems. Again, grain-free doesn’t mean carbohydrate-free, and it turned out that the carbohydrates in the food he was eating contributed to his urinary blockage problems. Changing his diet has resolved his urinary issues.
So, is grain-free always bad? No. If the food your cat is eating leads to a shiny, soft coat, an alert, comfortable cat of normal body weight, with no abnormal stool, skin or other problems, then the food is fine for your cat. As always, ask your veterinarian about your cat’s diet if you have any questions or concerns.
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- 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