Ivanhoe - Somali cat who died of FIP - Photo Finn Frode FIP stands for Feline Infectious Peritonitis. There are two forms, wet and dry FIP. Both are "invariably fatal" 1 . A Victim of FIP . I have already written about feline infectious peritonitis on this page: Feline FIP , where you can read about the disease generally including its cause, which is believed to be a mutation of the benign coronavirus. Click on the following link to read about how certain breeds of cats are more susceptible than others: Prevalence of feline infectious peritonitis in specific cat breeds . Dry FIP is also called, "disseminated form". Signs of the illness are not specific. They include: loss of weight and appetite listlessness depression cat obviously very ill This illness is difficult to diagnose.  The disease affects the eyes, brain, liver, kidney and pancreas. Sixty percent of cases involve the eye or brain or both. The diagnosis may require surgical exploration. D

As good cat caretakers we should be able to read cat body language . We usually do at a basic without realising it. There is one little bit of cat body language that happens a lot and which almost goes unnoticed; the nose lick. What does it mean and why is it useful to us? The domestic cat will lick his or her nose as a displacement activity . It is the same as us biting our nails or scratching our head. We do this when we are unsure about what to do next. Visualise yourself biting your nails or fiddling with something. We all have our little ways of easing the moment when we are unsure and thinking. Worry beads are the Arab equivalent. If we are interacting with our domestic cat and he licks his nose, we can read that as meaning our cat is unsure about what it happening. Our action has made him a little bit unsettled. We can ignore this and press on or proceed more gently and back off. We have the opportunity to react to this. We should react to this as it is our duty as goo

A visitor to the main site had a problem with her Siamese cat that may have been caused by acid reflux. The cat was vomiting routinely when waking up. The problem may not have been acid reflux but it looked that way. Acid reflux is technically called: gastroesophageal reflux. Click on this link to see the post . In this post I referred to the failure of the sphincter muscle at the top of the stomach as a possible cause of the gastroesophageal reflux. There are other causes. Some other causes are frequent vomiting (there will, of course, be an underlying cause for that), hiatal hernia, cancer of the esophagus, foreign body in the esophagus. I am going to refer to PetPlace.com for a cat acid reflex cure. The "cure" is to treat the underlying cause of the acid reflux. Other than that the treatment is to treat the symptoms, which includes: drugs to inhibit the production of stomach acid. This is the classic treatment for people with this condition. There can be side effect

From PoC Pics Here's a little montage or collage, call it what you like of a Burmilla cat. I think his or her name is Lilith.

The name of this cat breed is based on the fast sailing ships of the 19th Century.  The word "clipper" derives from the word "clip" meaning fast. It is believed that these ships arrived in New Zealand bringing on board ships cats that were polydactyl cats. I say, New Zealand because this cat breed is registered exclusively in a New Zealand cat registry or association. I am yet to find out which one. It is not the New Zealand Cat Fancy Inc. Polydactyl cats, as you might know, are cats with a greater number of toes than normal due to a genetic mutation. The mutation does not affect the health of the cat (some mutations do, incidentally). Polydactyl Paw - Wikipedia Commons file (modified). Author: Averette It is also believed that sailors chose polydactyl cats on the basis that the extra toes and broad paws made them better on deck! In other words the extra toes stabilised them when walking along decks looking for mice and rats. That, however was only part of

The lucky Chinese cat or Chinese Lucky cat is, I think it is fair to say, a misdescription of the The Maneki Neko (meaning "Beckoning Cat") and which is also known as the Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money cat, or Fortune Cat. Chinese Lucky Cat? No...the Japanese Beckoning Cat. Photo by Naked Eyes (Flickr) This is a Japanese model of a cat that essentially brings good luck. It is used primarily to create good luck for business and is therefore seen outside shops etc. (see photo above of the Beckoning Cat).  It is a representation of the Japanese Bobtail cat. A purebred cat that you could say is the national cat of Japan. I guess people get confused between Japan and China. They are very different countries and there is some friction between these countries. As it happens I have a nice article on Maneki Neko Cats and an article on the Japanese Bobtail cat . I won't, therefore, repeat the information here. From Lucky Chinese Cat to Home Page

People search for a cat flushing toilet. They mean a toilet that is made for a cat rather than a cat trained to use a human toilet. That is what I have assessed that it means and on that basis. Here is one! Uhmmm... it flushes cat litter and self cleans - a big ask but does it do it? It gets 3.5 stars from 163 customer reviews. This is a large number of reviews but an average score. This means that a good number of people have bought it or want to buy one (unsurprisingly) but that the machine does not work that well. This does not surprise me. Personally, I wouldn't buy one because this sort of convenience machinery that is designed to carry out quite a complex task and made of plastic or a material that at least looks like it, will never be as reliable and as convenient as it is made out to be. That assessment is born out of general experience. The CatGenie 120 is claimed to be the world's only self-flushing, self-washing cat box. It sounds awfully attractive. Am I b

The cat's sense of taste is far less refined than that of a person. Usually the cat's senses are more refined, however - see for example: Interesting Cat Facts (Senses) . Interestingly the cat only has 473 taste buds compared to our 9,000. Photo by Lalie (Flickr) The taste buds (mushroom shaped papillae - "nipple-like structures" 1 ) are located on the tip and sides of the tongue, while a set of "cup-shaped papillae" are situated at the back of the tongue. Cats pick up these tastes: sour bitter salty But cannot taste sweet flavours . This is a throwback to the wildcat that feeds on meat almost exclusively. Dry cat food by the way contains carbohydrates because the manufacturing process demands it! So a cat's sense of taste is relatively poor. This failing is made up by the presence of an acute sense of smell . My cats are definitely more motivated to eat cat food by its smell than taste. Cats check out food by smelling it. The signals fro

Well, there is nothing provocative about this post! I had never given a thought to the cat toilet brush holder. In fact, I wasn't quite sure what it was. It must be a toilet brush holder but is the holder meant to be in the shape of a cat or is their meant to be a picture of a cat on the holder or either or both..phew. To play safe I'm presenting a range (no, not quite) of cat toilet brush holders. I have to say that I like them. As I am moving soon (and need one), I'll definitely consider a toilet brush holder with a cat on it. I think the one on the top left here is the best. It is desribed on Amazon as "Detailed resin toilet brush holder (with brush) featuring gaggle of relaxed cats.." Nice. And you can combine and coordinate this with other bathroom items. Here are the two usually chosen: Here is a selection. In fact the entire range on Amazon for the north American market at the date of the post - things change: <A HREF="http://ws.amazon

Ragdoll cat jewelry is quite popular, which is unsurprising as the cat itself is one of the most popular purebred cats in the world. This is because it is a large, long haired cat with real presence and a great personality. You can't really ask for much more. The Ragdoll cat jewelry that I will present first is from Amazon.com for the North American marketplace. <A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fpictofcats-20%2F8010%2Fded5a1f9-1413-44f6-8cc5-d9ef50fd2ad0&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</A> I have thrown in two items that are not jewelry! Sorry but this widget requires a minmum number of items and Amazon.com has four items that relate to Ragdoll jewelry. Precious Pets has some nice gold jewelry featuring this cat breed. You can see it here: Ragdoll gold jewelry . This Ebay store ha

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This can be kept short because a cat vomiting blood is caused by a specific condition. Fresh blood in vomit is a sign of a damage to the intestinal lining between the mouth and upper small bowel usually caused by a foreign body. Tumors and cancer can also be a cause. "PJ" - he vomited blood - photo Bellah (Flickr) The cat in the picture was thought to have feline pancreatitis . He was placed on a special diet and given Pepcid. Pepcid is an "acid controller", meaning stomach acid so I presume he had a stomach ulcer. This might have been exacerbated by the pancreatitis but I have not looked that up. Blood that has be partly digested and which resembles, "coffee grounds", indicates that the actual internal bleeding has taken place in the stomach or the outlets from the stomach. The above serious conditions that require an immediate trip to the veterinarian should be distinguished from a cat swallowing blood and vomiting it. Reference: I highly

This is a website about cats so "kitten games" should be relevant and may be interesting. But what, in fact, are they? Well they have almost nothing to do with real kittens or cats. The sites that are listed when a search is made do present very basic online games but there are almost no kittens in sight! So, any visitor looking to play these games is going to be disappointed when bumping into this page. Sorry. Kitten Games - basic stuff I am afraid These sites are highly commercial in that advertising is in your face. They list a lot of colourful but, to be honest, feeble games for what must be young teenage girls. These are games where, for example, you dress up a woman and her child or decorate a room. You do this by selecting say a pair of shoes and the selected shoes are instantly placed on the person. All the images are drawings, cartoon style. Some of the games are in Japanese, so you will need to understand that language to get the most out of the game. A

What is the benchmark for cat caretaking? The absolute ideal against which we can measure our performance. The ideal will not or need not be realistic as it is a near perfect goal and reality and practicalities dictate that we will not meet that. However, a model example of cat caretaking should assist us as it should guide us. Also, the advantage of working out an ideal scenario for the domestic cat is that we are forced to think about the domestic cat's needs. If we meet those needs perfectly we have got the ideal, it seems to me. Walled Garden - Ideal cat environment - Photo Kevin Smith (Flikr) Let's begin then. But please note that this is a bit of free thinking. It is not conventional pet website regurgitated stuff! We need to go back to the moments when the wild cat became a domestic cat and the early days of the domestic cat. The domestic cat ( Felis catus ) is still largely a wild cat ( Felis silvestris ). There was a moment when it was a wildcat - the first day

Cat cafes are needed in the United States! I know, that might make some people wince but it will make many others smile and some of those smiling will be cats. There are about 100 cat cafés in Japan with about 70 in the Tokyo area, apparently. They are a Japanese invention. They create a homely, warm atmosphere. Some people visit them just to be with, look at and photograph the cats. Apparently there is an hourly charge to be in the café - ¥1,000 an hour, or about $12. Neka Jalala cat café - photo: Nuno Cardosa (Flickr) These cafés are obviously designed to be exceptionally homey in character. There are magazines and sofas and...well you get the idea. The humble domestic cat adds a vital live element to this cosy atmosphere - catmosphere. So why do I proclaim that this new phenomenon should be imported into the United States? I guess, when you think about, the answer is obvious. To save the lives of cats that would otherwise be killed at so called shelters. There are hundre

I had never heard of donor cats never mind donor cat adoptions until reading a book on cat behavior I recently acquired. Donor cats are cats that have served as a blood donor at a veterinary hospital. "Leo" a blood donor cat - Photo by dr.r.lam (Flickr) Because they are selected to give blood (shame that the cat has no say in the matter) they are healthy cats with an even temperament. They need to have a nice sociable character to make the job of giving blood easier, more manageable. They are then damn good cats that have usually spent their early years as strays or they have been relinquished for whatever reason. They range in age from one to ten years and have a weight that is over 10 pounds. This seems to be a requirement in the selection process. When I say that they are healthy, I mean that they have been carefully screened and they have had echocardiograms to ensure that they have healthy hearts. They would seem to be ideal candidates for adoption. They have