PURRaffection

Archive for the ‘Cat Health’ Category

Are you worried that feline incontinence is a problem for your cat? You need to realize that incontinence in cats and inappropriate urination are two different things. An incontinent cat is not able to control her urine. She dribbles urine or leaves wet spots where she’s been sleeping. Often an incontinent pet is unaware that she has a problem.

Inappropriate urination, on the other hand, is when a cat is purposely urinating in places other than her litter box. This may be a behavior issue, but it can also be cause by feline lower urinary tract disease.

It’s important to know the difference between the two because incontinence in cats can be a sign of serious health issues for your feline friend.

Ten Reasons For Feline Incontinence

1. Usually the simplest reason is feline lower urinary tract disease. One of the symptoms of a feline bladder infection is needing to urinate often. It may be that your cat just isn’t able to make it to the litter box in time.
2. If your cat has had repeated feline urinary problems, her bladder may be scarred. This prevents her bladder from expanding to hold urine, which leads to very frequent urination.
3. Cat bladder stones can cause a partial blockage of your cat’s urethra, making it impossible for her to empty her bladder completely. As her bladder fills with urine, the pressure can force some urine around the blockage. If you suspect a blocked cat, get her to the vet as soon as possible, as this can be fatal within a day or two.
4. A weak urinary sphincter also causes an incontinent cat. This is more common in older spayed female dogs, but it does occasionally happen in spayed cats, too, especially if they’re heavy. This type of incontinence, called hormone-responsive incontinence, can develop years after she’s been spayed.
5. Feline diabetes can cause an incontinent cat. A diabetic cat is drinking lots more water than normal because the disease makes her very thirsty in an effort to flush the excess sugar out of her body. Of course, this makes her urinate more, also. She may have trouble making it to her litter box before she has an accident.
6. Cats with feline leukemia sometimes become incontinent, too. This can happen in both males and females.
7. As a cat ages, the urinary sphincter can weaken. Your cat may develop other problems as she gets older, such as diabetes, which cause her body to produce more urine than normal. Combine a very full bladder with a weak urinary sphincter, and it’s easy to see why urinary incontinence in cats is the result.
8. Your cat may have some kind of neurological problem with the nerves in her bladder that causes her to be unable to hold her urine.
9. Bladder tumors can be another factor.
10. An older cat may be getting forgetful, or in the early stages of senility, which can lead to litter box problems.

Natural Feline Urinary Support

If your furball is having cat urinary problems, it’s important to take her to the vet for a check-up to rule out anything serious. Most cases of inappropriate urination are due to feline lower urinary tract disease, which can be a frustrating condition to deal with.

The most important thing you can do is to feed your cat a high-quality canned food. Cats are meant to get most of their water from their food, so feeding a cat dry food all the time is an invitation to disaster in the form of cat urinary problems.

You may want to consider giving your cat one of the many natural remedies for pets that are available for feline urinary support. Herbs and homeopathic remedies have a long history of success in humans and they’re very effective for pets, too. Look for a remedy that’s produced by a long-standing company with a sterling reputation for producing high-quality herbal remedies for pets.

In conclusion, if your cat is showing signs of feline incontinence, you need to take steps now to help her.

The seven words “your pet has a feline bladder infection” are words that no cat or pet owner, for that matter, wants to hear, especially during the holidays season. Nevertheless, it is the season for giving and bacteria must really get into the holiday spirit when it comes to feline bladder infection because the holidays/winter months are when almost half of cats are diagnosed with this condition.

Why?

The holidays are a busy time for most of us with holiday trips being planned, kitchen baking being in full swing, holiday niceties being exchanged, and last minute gifts being purchased. There is little time for outdoor activities with our cats and even if there was many felines turn up their finicky noses at the idea of going out in the cold to chase down that bird, bug, or squirrel that always seems to be one step ahead. And for those cats who prefer getting their exercise frightening the lizard population, well hunting season doesn’t open until summer.

Additionally, in the hustle bustle of it all their litter boxes may not be cleaned as often giving bacteria a chance to celebrate, exchange pleasantries, and climb right up your felines urethra to set in motion the initial phase of a Grinch type holiday gift filled with pain, excessive water drinking, pungent urine odor and inappropriate urination possibly occurring right on top of those newly wrapped gifts for grandma.

Looking for signs of the feline bladder infection that caused your pet to lose their holiday spirit

Many of the signs of a feline bladder infection are listed above nevertheless lets go through them again and maybe throw in a few extra ones as my personal holiday gift for you and your favorite feline. They are urination outside the litter box area, fatigue, anti social behavior, soreness in the hind quarter area, blood in the urine, fowl smelling urine, pain while urinating and possibly vocalizing due to the pain while urinating.

What are the first signs to look for?

For my felines the four signs which signal that bacteria has made its way up the urethra and into the bladder have been a marked increase in water consumption, general fatigue, anti social behavior, and to a lesser degree inappropriate urination. It is my opinion that inappropriate urination occurs primarily when your feline is trying to tell you something is wrong or they have arthritic joints which make it difficult for them to get to the litter box on time.

What can be done?

Antibiotics are the first line of defense and normally knock the infection out in a matter of days. On the other hand once a feline bladder infection has occurred reoccurrence is a very real concern with it reappearing over 50 percent of the time.

In order to prevent feline bladder infection from occurring there are a number of steps you can take. These would include:

*Set aside 5 minutes of play time daily to keep your feline active

*Add an eye dropper of cranberry juice to their water daily

*Add wet food to their diet to add moisture. Additionally, age appropriate pet food can be helpful.

*Keep litter boxes exceptionally clean and maybe even consider adding an extra one to avoid overuse. Litter should be changed frequently.

*Make sure they have plenty of clean fresh water to drink.

*Consider investing in a homeopathic to encourage healthy urination and bolster the urinary tracts natural defenses.

*Keep your cats stress levels to a minimum especially when their private area is being invaded by your four year old niece who enjoys trying to make them look like a movie star or beauty pageant contestant.

How much to feed a cat can be a extremely crucial question these days as  cats can gain and lose fat just as humans do.

For cats this can happen in cycles that last for several months and it’s wise to keep an eye on the condition of your cat to guarantee that it truly is not getting overweight, which could result in diabetes or losing too much bodyweight due to some unforeseen illness.

It’s wise to weigh your cat on a regular basis and keep an account of its weight to make certain that there haven’t been any large changes.

If its belly begins to hang down when it walks, and in some cases sway from side to side, then it really is obviously becoming overweight. You ought to also be able to feel its rib cage by running your hands along the sides of its body.

If your cat appears to be gaining weight with no noticeable change in its diet then it is time to see the vet to figure out if there’s any illness that’s causing this excess weight gain.

You need to also look for other signs of ill wellness such as listlessness or the fact that it truly is putting on fat without eating additional foods.

If the weight gain is just from the consumption of more meals, then put a little less down each time to control its intake until the cats weight comes back to a normal level. Organic cat food is good in these circumstances.

While a cat may well continue to ask for additional food, you need to think of its ideal interests and that is to stop it from over eating and maintain very good health. You might even have to alter the food that you’re feeding your cat with one that has fewer calories.

Geriatric cats that don’t get as much exercise won’t need a great deal food otherwise they will tend to put on bodyweight. You can find particular foods which are offered for geriatric cats and these are specially formulated to assure they stay in fine well-being in their old age.

Routine check ups and finding out what the best food for cats are, these are the two important aspect on which the cat owner should focus .

There’s an old saying that you are what you eat. Obviously, this isn’t a literal truth but the importance of a good diet for cat health care as well as our own cannot be underestimated. Ensuring our cats get all the nutrients they need to keep themselves in good health might be a big responsibility but it doesn’t have to be complicated if we understand a few simple rules.

Hydration is really important for both us and cats. If a cat is denied fresh drinking water it can become seriously ill in a matter of hours. Dehydration can cause serious cat health care problems and even death.

The diet of a cat must be very specific. Felines cannot survive on a vegetarian diet because they are true carnivores. A cat which is denied a meat-based diet will develop cat health care problems including blindness and would eventually die.

Because of the very specific dietary requirements of our feline friends, owners must take care to try not to upset the delicate balance of their diets. However harmless they might seem, giving leftover human food can lead to cat health care problems. Human food is too fatty and calorific for cats and might even be toxic to them. For example, onions are highly poisonous to cats.

In the wild, cats would eat several small meals everyday and owners should try to accommodate this. Obviously, cat owners may have work commitments which mean they are unable to be at home feeding their cats frequently. One option to overcome this problem is to give the cat dried food which it will be able to return to at regular intervals through the day.

Finally, when considering diet we must consider obesity, which is one of the biggest cat health care problems of the moment. Obesity can lead to heart problems, breathing problems, diabetes, arthritis and eventually death, so it must be avoided. A short haired cat is generally considered a healthy weight when its ribs can be felt but not seen. Pay close attention to the instructions for serving sizes on cat food and always see a vet if you believe that your cat’s weight is a problem.

If you are like me, you love your pet and would do nearly anything to ensure its well being. But I’m sure you also know that looking after your pet could be costly, especially when it comes to veterinary bills and even much more so when these are unforeseen.

So, what choices do you have available to help you cope with this unanticipated expenditure?

Most probably the most obvious one would be to put some cash away for a rainy day. You could set up a fund for your pet’s vet bills in much the exact same way that you save for any other kind of unexpected event. But if you’re anything like me, that level of discipline could be quite challenging because there always seems to be some thing much better that you can invest your money on – some other unplanned expenditure.

Another alternative would be to borrow the money to cover your pet’s vet bills in the event you don’t have the cash available when you need it. The downside is that this will mean you will be getting into debt and of course, you will still have to pay back the cash. This could take a year or two. What if your pet needs other treatment although you are still paying back the loan? Will you find yourself going into even more debt?

A truly great alternative would be to think about taking out pet insurance. With pet insurance you pay a relatively small monthly premium and the vet bills are automatically taken care of. Some companies permit an unlimited number of claims as long as it is for certain conditions. Some businesses will also arrange to pay your vet directly, so you don’t have to lay out money at all.

Like all insurance policies though, you truly ought to look at the small print to make certain you know what is covered and what is excluded. Inevitably, there will probably be some level of excess that you will have to bear, but still, this is likely to be a lot easier than having to find the cash for a big, unexpected vet bill.

All things considered, we wish to make sure our pets are well taken care of, but none of us want to get into financial difficulty because of it. This is the benefit of planning ahead and getting pet insurance.

Read more about fish tank aquariums and getting cheap cheap contents insurance…

Cats and people have been living together for years and years. Yet, it is only recently that we are actually in the position to enable them to get rid of parasites which have been bothering them for a lot longer than even we have known them. That’s right, fleas and ticks are the bane of cats everywhere. However, we can stop them a lot easier. Thanks to the proven fact that there are now medicines like Revolution for cats, you can go to war with these parasites and make sure that they are not able to cut short the lives of our feline friends. Since we have this power at our disposal, it’s much easier for all of us to be able to get the best possible results and really do what we can to make both their lives and our own much more bearable. When it comes time to treat them, you will see right away precisely how fast this medicine actively works to offer them serious relief. There is no way that people can get this sort of relief for them via any other method on the planet because this special formula does a really potent job of knocking those parasites out for the long haul, giving our cats a much better quality of life as a result.

When you stop to think, cats do not really ask us for a whole lot. They’re content to get fed, watered, played with and loved; along with having a kitty litter box if they live indoors. If you want an indoor or outdoor cat fully protected from all the pests that may make them go crazy, then you need Revolution for cats to help you make sure that they’re getting the best possible treatment. This is going to make it much simpler for you in order to trust that they’re not affected by those bugs which make their existence a real misery.This will feel great for you, however , if you can save cash it feels even better.

That’s right, now you can pay less for this kind of name brand medication when you know where to look. The net has great alternatives for you, as well as the most effective discounts available, most pet owners choose http://www.petmedoutlet.com because the discounts are so steep. This permits them to have the kind of medicine their dogs and cats deserve. They know they are doing whatever they can to give them the best possible lives on a financial budget they can be pleased with.

Even though most pets are a terrific addition to any family, they can sometimes seem like more trouble than they are worth because of the problems they present. One of the biggest problems you can find with your pets is fleas. Fleas are small insects that sometimes make their home on your pet’s body, laying eggs and even leaving the pet’s body to live in your house. If you have ever dealt with fleas before, you know what a nuisance they are! Here are three ways for you to keep your pets flea-free.

The easiest (and cheapest!) way to keep fleas off your pets is to simply keep them indoors. Of course, if the pet in question is a dog, this does not work very well. But if, for instance, you have a cat or a kitten who has never yet gotten used to going outdoors, they will be quite content to remain inside, and in this way you can keep them free from fleas. Another important thing to remember if you are keeping indoor pets is that outdoor pets can carry fleas, so you want to keep the two from coming in contact!

If it is either not viable or not practical to keep your pet in doors, there are a couple other ways to keep fleas off them. One way to keep fleas off your pet is to make it wear a flea collar around its neck. Although your pet might not care for this addition initially, it will not take them long to get used to it. One problem with flea collars, however, is that lots of people find that they do not actually work all that well.

Instead of flea collars, you can buy products that can be placed on your pet’s body to keep fleas from coming. These products are applied directly to the pet’s body, between the shoulder blades, which prevents the pet from licking it and getting sick. You can find these products for anywhere from a few dollars to $50 or $60. Even though it might seem unnecessary to pay as much as $60 to prevent fleas, it is better to avoid them than to try and get rid of them! Such high-end products as Frontline are well worth the price, as they work extremely well.

Start paying attention to fleas before you are stuck with a problem you need to fix. Keep fleas away, and do not wait for them to come!

The most crucial point you’ll be able to do as a cat owner would be to give your cat regular checkups. Although diabetes isn’t terribly common in felines, typically about 1 in 400 will probably be diagnosed with diabetes in their lifetime. Most may be treatable by serving a diabetic cat food, which has a lowered carbohydrate content (less than 9% of each day calorie intake).

Symptoms

It can be at times hard to tell when diabetes grips your cat, but most pet health care indicators are similar to humans. A cat who seems to spend lots of their time around their water dish along with other water sources around the house should be cause to investigate. Extreme weight gain or loss is an additional common symptom to watch out for. Bitter-smelling breath that smells like nail polish remover and wobbly legs (especially the rear legs) are all indicators that you simply must take your cat in for an exam and perhaps place them on insulin and/or a high quality diabetic cat food at once.

Treatments

Your veterinarian may well recommend insulin treatment via pill or insulin treatment. Diabetic cat food, with a “proper” feeding schedule will also be required. Lots of individuals let their animals feed as desired; having a full dish of food and water available at all times. It may seem inhumane to put them on a schedule and limit the availability of foods. However, it truly is the best for pet health and how animals feed in nature.

A wild animal gets foods from hunting and may possibly go days without food. So while you may want to spoil your cat — it isn’t great for their digestive system and often is the reason diabetes starts in the first place. Humans obtain diabetes primarily from over-eating. A small percentage of us get it from genetic predispositions and cats are no different. Normal trips to your veterinarian will help early diagnosis, to avoid increased risk to your cat’s health.

Cats Hairballs

When we lived in North Pole, Alaska, my wife and I had a log home with wood floors. With three cats, we would periodically find a hair ball. Having wood floors, it was relatively easy to clean up a hair ball. But when we moved to Reno, Nevada, our new home had carpets, which made cleaning up of hairballs more of a problem. For example, they would stain the rugs and my wife would have to clean it up.

Hairballs are relatively a modern day creation when man started breeding dissimilar kinds of cats. Cats can process the hair they take in. But as modern man starting breeding cat with longer hair, it became gruelling for cats to process the hair naturally. It then started collecting in their stomachs and they had to emit it as a hairball .

There are several things you can do to minimize your cat from getting hairballs. You can feed you cat a high fiber diet which can be found on the market. However, one of my cats needs a special diet, so feeding them a high fiber diet is out of the question.

Some people even resort to shaving their cats to prevent cats hairballs. That will help, but I did not want to trim my cats, in particular the Maine Coone. So what I did was to find a real good brush. I tired several different kinds, but most did not work very well.

I at long last found a metal brush with metal tines that removes the most hair than any other brush I had used. Another good thing, our Maine Coone comes running to be combed when she sees my wife going for the brush.

Feline acne is a common problem seen in cats. It is found on the cat’s chin & lips. It is generally accepted that this is caused by plastic bowls and for many cats the solution is simply substituting the plastic bowl for a stainless steel bowl or a glass bowl. The problem may be caused by the inability of the cat to clean his chin properly after drinking the milk resulting in a nutrient rich habitat for bacteria.

Causes of Feline Acne

The exact cause of feline acne is not known, but several factors appear to be associated with its development including stress, a suppressed immune system, poor grooming habits, the presence of other diseases, contact or atopic dermatitis, and skin conditions in which abnormal amounts of oils are produced and the hair follicles do not function properly.

Dirt – Cats generally have trouble grooming the chin area and because of this, dirt and oil tend to accumulate in this particular area of the face. The accumulation of bacteria causes hair follicles to be infected and eventually, acne breaks out.

Food Allergies – In spite of what you see in cartoons, cats do not possess the same diet that humans have. So don’t feed your cat human food. It’s important that you give your pet the food he truly needs.

Signs of Feline Acne:

Various signs of feline acne can be seen on the chin of the cat and they are:

· Hair loss, draining tracts and swelling develops on the chin in case of severe feline acne.

· Multiple comedones develop on the lips and chin of the cats which looks like dirt. These comedones appear as small abscesses which remain open and form the crusts.

· It can be itchy.

· Secondary bacterial infections can develop.

Feline Acne Treatment:

Sometimes, supplementation with fatty acids is beneficial in this type of treatment. Retin-A can be used but it can be applied very sparingly as it can leads to irritation. Oral retinoid therapy and teratogenic can be given to treat the feline acne in cats. Any underlying conditions such as ringworm, a Demodex infestation, or a yeast infection should be treated appropriately.

Investigating the cause of the acne is also recommended. Acne can arise because of an allergic reaction to plastic food bowls, developing because of bacteria and dirt that can build up within scratches on the surface of the dish. Switching to ceramic, glass or stainless steel dishes may clear up acne for some cats. Washing the cat’s dishes every day can keep them clean and safe to use. Persians and other cats with flat faces seem to be more prone to feline acne and cleaning their chins after they eat may help prevent skin problems.