Cats & Cat Health

Did you know that lilies and their pollen are toxic for cats? Even licking the pollen from their fur can kill a cat quite fast and very painfully.

Symptoms of Lillie Poisoning
The first symptoms likely to occur after ingesting lilies are depression, lack of appetite and sometimes vomiting. If left untreated the symptoms will worsen and include dehydration, diarrhoea, breathing difficulties and bad breath - it is likely that the cat will eventually suffer from acute renal failure. If medical treatment isn’t sought within hours the cat will probably die.

If you think your cat has eaten any part of a lily you should get it to a vet as quickly as possible. The cat may have to go on dialysis to improve its kidney function.

Beware also of diffenbachia (dumb cane or leopard lily), hemerocallis (day lily), cyclamen, poinsettia and amaryllis.

Why isn’t there any warning on these plants and flowers when we buy them? I have often had lilies in the house and never realized that they could hurt my cat. I often put them in a vase on the hearth in summertime, where Alfie could easily get the pollen on his fur and ingest it when he groomed himself. Apparently this is enough to cause a painful death within a few hours.

What a narrow escape! But thankfully now I know I will take the stamens off lilies so that the pollen is not able to be transferred. Lillie pollen is a devil to get off your your clothes too. Some florists take the stamens off for you, but if they don’t you should do it yourself.

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Check out the latest video I have posted. Its 130 cats all living together in a small Moscow apartment. This lady really loves her cats- but do the cats like living all cooped up like this I wonder?

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Have you thought about making you own homemade cat food? I have just begun doing this after reading a lot about how our little furry friends are being given the wrong type of food and that it shortens their lives.

It is a hard thing to do because instead of relying on the company from whom you bought the cat food to get it right suddenly it it up to you.

My husband brought me down to earth when he asked if I carefully considered the exact constituants of the meals I make for him!! It made me realise I was being a bit too fussy about it all. After all do we carefully measure each vitamin, mineral, protein, cabohydrate and fat we give our children? Of course we don’t. So let’s not get too anal about cat food.

I have been making my own cat food for about 3 weeks now and Alfie looks pretty healthy. I took him for his annual vet check this week and the vet said he had lost weight- which was good. He still needs to lose a little more, not much. He was just fine. So now I can relax about what I am feeding him.

Homemade Cat Food

This is based on the recipe given by Anne . She has been using it for 7 years which is long enough to feel confident of its merits.

I make a bulk amount of food up and put it into little freezer pots. It is a mixture of raw meats such as minced chicken, including finely ground bone, some minced raw venison, egg yolks, minced heart and minced liver. I buy the meat from the pet food butcher. All this is mixed up together and then I add a vitamin and omega fomula that I get from the pet shop. I divide the mixture into 6 ounce portions and freeze them. All you have to do then is remember to take a package out of the freezer each day. If you forget it soon thaws if you put the pot in warm water.

I have had no trouble changing him onto this new cat food recipe he seems to love it.

I would love to hear from anyone who has fed their cat on a natural all meat diet like this.

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Should You Vaccinate Your Cat Annually?

There is a lot of contoversy about the annual vaccination for cats. I have read enough about it to convince me that it is not necccessary. This is what Canadian vetinarian Dr. Andrew Jones wites about the annual vaccine for cats and dogs:

Pet Vaccination Recommendations

Puppies and kittens ONLY need a series of 2 vaccine boosters, one at 8 weeks then repeated at 12 weeks. I find the most critical time to prevent infectious disease is at this young age. In small kittens and puppies, I prefer to wait until 12 weeks. The traditional” 3rd booster in puppies is not necessary. If possible, delay giving the Rabies vaccine until 6 months.

Puppies should only be vaccinated for Parvovirus and Distemper. Give Bordetella if going to a kennel or puppy class. Give Rabies vaccine at 6 months.

Kittens should be vaccinated for the respiratory viruses and Panleukopenia (FVRCP). Feline Leukemia vaccine should only be given to “high risk” cats - those in multi-cat households or outdoor cats surrounded by a large cat population. Give Rabies vaccine at 6 months. ENSURE that the vaccines are given in the subcutaneous tissue on the lateral sides of the right and left legs.

Common sense should to keep your companion safe by avoiding exposure to public areas such as parks and pet stores. Keep them close to home and only expose them to animals you know are healthy.

I do not recommend vaccinations for Corona virus, Leptospirosis or Lyme vaccines for dogs. The currently licensed leptospira bacterins do not contain the serovars causing the majority of clinical leptospirosis today, so it is generally not a useful vaccine.

I do not advise vaccinations for FIP, Feline Bordetella, FIV and limited use of Feline Leukemia vaccine in Cats.

My current advice is to give Booster vaccines at 1 year, then EVERY 3 years until the age of 10. As new research progresses, this may even become more infrequent. We are now just learning about the duration of immunity for some vaccines, and they may well be longer than 3 years. The most IMPORTANT time for vaccines are the 2 boosters for puppies and kittens and the 1 year booster.
Your pet should still see your veterinarian yearly for their annual wellness exam.

Never vaccinate a sick or weakened animal. If your puppy or kitten is showing signs of allergies or skin problems, WAIT. Vaccinating an already compromised immune system is almost sure to compound the problem!

Learn as much as possible about vaccines and diseases in your area. Your veterinarian cannot make this decision for you, nor should they. It is your responsibility to make this decision for your pet. The best road to good health is feeding a diet rich in fresh foods, raw meats for the carnivores, fatty acid supplements, adequate exercise, lots of positive human interaction and avoiding disease.

Dr. Jones has written an ebook about pet health: Dr. Andrew Jones Vet Secrets Revealed

Last week I took my cat to have his annual vaccination. Why did I do this when I know he doesn’t really need it? I had to. We were going on vacation and he had to go into a cattery. The catteries will not take unvaccinated cats. So against my better judgement I had to have it done.

While there I asked my vet if he thought this annual vaccination was really needed and if it could be harmful. He said it wasn’t necessary and that there were some issues. He has started to put the vaccine in a different place, rather than in the scruff of the neck, for this reason.

I have decided to try and get a house sitter when I go away again. Alfie just hates the cattery anyway and I hate leaving him there.

We need to work on the cattery policies!

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This last few weeks we have a blackbird who is staking out his territory right outside our downstairs bathroom. He has been having a fine old time attacking his reflection in the window! I am surprised the glass is till intact since he flies at it over and over again. The first morning it woke me and I thought one of our neighbors must be using a staple gun.

We tried to get rid of the reflection for this crazy bird by hanging a huge fern leaf on the outside. That works but it keeps falling off. Not sure what to do next!

Anyway while we were away for the weekend our cat- Alfie must have heard this racket and went to see what was going on. He pushed his way through the bathroom door but he couldn’t open it again and had to stay in the bathroom until we returned. Poor little puss! He must have been in there at least 24 hours because our next door neighbor had left his food for Sunday in his dish but it hadn’t been touched.

He didn’t even make a mess on the floor which is amazing- though with no food I suppose that is understandable. He was very pleased to see us back again. So next time we will make sure all doors are either firmly shut or firmly open.

In case you think that we shouldn’t leave him on his own we have tried putting him in a cattery and he hated it and told us off good and proper when we picked him up. He is an outdoor/indoor cat with his own cat flap and our neighbor feeds him every day. He is much less traumatized by this than by being sent to prison at the cattery.

For longer trips we get a house sitter, so puss is very well cared for and cared about.

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In the news this week is Oscar a cat who it appears can tell when someone is going to die. Oscar lives at a hospice and it seems that when someone is dying he will be found sitting by them. They say he just about always get this right and has been at the bedside of more than 25 residents shortly before they died. Dr. David Dosa of Brown University in Providence has written this up in the New England Journal of Medicine.

What can we make of this? Is OscarPsychic ? Well I doubt it. It could be, as others have suggested, that the smell that a person emits during the dying process is attractive to cats or to Oscar in particuar. Maybe he was treated kindly in the past by a dying person and has grown to associate the smell with comfort.

They say this cat isn’t friendly and will snap if people approach him. Maybe he has had to protect himself, since he has always lived in a dementia unit. So another possibility is that a dying person will leave him alone.

What do you think?

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