Friday, 11 March 2011

Vitamin Supplement Senior Cat

Average cat to others. Eighteen year companion to me.
18 year old cat - she is losing weight

Because of a geriatric cat's reduced ability to absorb vitamins through the intestinal tract, the senior cat needs more vitamins and minerals.

Also, reduced kidney function leads to a loss of vitamin B in urine.

However a high quality cat food for the geriatric cat will accommodate this change in dietary requirement.

Accordingly, there is no need for a vitamin supplement for the senior cat unless the cat has an eating problem when vitamin supplements can be discussed with a veterinarian.

However, there might be a consensus amongst cat health experts that antioxidants benefit the elderly cat.

Antioxidants most commonly used are vitamins E and C (and co-enzyme Q). The Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook, Fully Revised and Updated (at page 509) says that, "you can safely supplement your cat's diet using an antioxidant product prescribed by your veterinarian."

Michael Avatar

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Thursday, 10 March 2011

Cat Licked Paint Off Paw

My cat licked paint of her paw. What should I do? We decorate. Our cat is inquisitive. Our cat walks into the paint or falls into the paint. This is what happened to my cat. I was painting the bathroom using solid paint. It is like a slab of butter in a tray. She climbed the bath and slipped. She fell on her side into the paint and ran off leaving a trail of paint paw prints on the carpet and fear in my heart for her health.

I found her, grabbed her and put her in a sink full of water! The paint was water based so it washed off. Some paint is water based and some oil based. The latter is washed off using turps or a specialist paint brush cleaner (but don't do this if it is on your cat). This paint might have lead in it. Lead makes the paint more durable and usually applies to outdoor paints. Lead though is poisonous. Lead is probably banned in many European countries and parts of America in paints at the time of writing this.

So, if your cat licked paint of his or her paw the first question is what kind of paint is it? It might be possible to catch your cat before she licks much off and the paint might be water based. Check the tin.

Lead is listed as a poison (and rightly so). Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook says that lead "previously served as a base for many commercial paints" (i.e. does no longer). Correct. Paints these days should be lead free. This applies to America and Europe I suspect as mentioned. Apparently the USA banned lead paint in 1977!

However, many countries are not at that stage where lead in paint is not used or banned. Cat toys manufactured abroad is one example.

I would check the paint. Is there lead in it. Read the can. In fact if we keep cats there is an argument that we should check the paint before buying it! The paint should be water based and lead free.



If your cat has walked in paint and is licking it off, the first thing to do is to stop him or her licking her paws - obviously. If the paint is water based it can be washed off with water. Water is a solvent and soaking the paws that are covered in paint will dissolve the paint. It can then be washed off.

If the paint is oil based it is more complicated. The same book says that residual [paint] should be saturated in vegetable oil and left for 24 hours. Then wash the area with soap and water. Apply nail polish remover and "follow with a good rinsing" if the "substance is on the feet".

Meanwhile the cat should be prevented from grooming off the paint. An "Elizabethan collar may be required" (one of those plastic collars that vets put around the neck).

Solvents such as turpentine (turps) and gasoline should not be used to remove the paint because they are toxic to the cat and harmful to the skin.

If in doubt see a veterinarian as an emergency. Take the paint can with you.

Diversion: Turbo scratcher cat toy: Furby's First Toy By Furby

Michael Avatar

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Cat Colony

This is about one aspect of the cat colony - the space that individual cats require and occupy when they have formed a colony. This topic comes direct from a colleague of mine; Valley Girl (VG). She lives in the USA and has recently been to Morocco where she photographed the feral and domestic cats. She likes cats and lives with Tootsie a polydactyl Maine Coon who is now quite famous.

VG asks the question as to whether cats in groups are more orderly than previously thought. She noticed how the cats of Morocco were orderly when looking for food from people and when resting. Here is a photo that illustrates that:

cat colony
Cat colony - photo copyright valleygirl_tka

I am going to attempt to answer the question as to why cats form orderly "queues" and rest and sleep in an orderly manner. This comes straight from my head and no reference works have been referred to. Comments therefore would be welcome and I don't mind if they are critical.

Cats are essentially solitary animals. Lions are an exception, living in prides. The domestic cat is a domesticated and evolved African and Eastern European wildcat. These wildcats are solitary animals.

Given a choice, therefore, feral cats will live pretty solitary lives. The choice comes from availability of food and space. If the habitat is right the feral domestic cat will roam widely and be solitary. Some feral cats in Australia are like this. The live off native wildlife and the Aussies don't like it. There is sufficient prey to support feral cats.

The cats that VG photographed were urban, domestic, semi-domestic and feral cats. These cats mainly rely on food that originates with people. It might be waste human food or cat food provided by people or raw food such as fish etc.

cat colony
Cat Queue - Photo copyright: valleygirl_tka

A typical scenario would be cats congregating at a fishing port. There is a ready and steady supply of food at one place.

The primary objective of the feral cat is survival and a food source takes precedence over everything including the natural urge to be solitary. Therefore the cat adapts its behavior and forms groups.

Where there are groups a hierarchy is set up, which creates some order. The natural urge for individual space competes with the need to be at the source of food. These competing forces results in a certain distance being maintained. The queues for food are probably based on the hierarchy that has been established. Multicat households are based on the same principles.

Survival beats all preferences, though. When I holidayed in Italy about 25 years ago I remember that the feral cats outside our hotel room stacked up like double decker buses at night when the temperature dropped. One cat would lie on top of another. This kept both warm. There was no space between them, obviously.

The cat will fill space to an area the size of about 9 square kilometres if the food source and circumstances allow. Cats also adapt very well when they have to and can live permanently indoors in an apartment, a fraction of an acre. The expansion and contraction of overall space dictates the amount of space around the individual cat.

My old lady cat likes a bit of space around her. She keeps a decent distance from my three legged boy cat. She keeps a distance from me when resting that is the same as that in VG's photo above. This might be the "minimum default individual space allowance" of the typical domestic cat when living in a group or cat colony. Cats that are a little outside the main group are probably outsiders, at the bottom of the hierarchy, wanting to get in.

A visitor's page: Feral Cat Colony.

Michael Avatar

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Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Cat Deworming

Cat deworming agents or drugs are poisonous to the worm and less poisonous to the cat but they are still poisons. Care needs to be exercised.

The reference material comes from the book shown adjacent left to these words. You can buy it on Amazon. It is the best book on cat health care anywhere.

Kittens

It appears that the general advice here is to have a good veterinarian check your kitten or kittens stool for worms as "a very large proportion of kittens are infested with ascarids"...but it cannot be assumed that the infestation is limited to ascarids. Certain deworming drugs are ineffective against certain worms so a proper diagnosis needs to be made at the outset. Ascarids are roundworms.

Kittens should be healthy and unstressed before administering deworming drugs - i.e. no diarrhea or signs of illness.

Kittens infested with roundworms should be treated at 2 - 3 weeks of age and at 5 - 6 weeks of age and beyond if still present. Treatments should be vet supervised in my opinion as kittens are too vulnerable.

Sid - he had worms and died of an unspecified illness - photo by rore

Adult Cats

The general modus operandi is to deworm when when worms are present and not as a precaution. Diagnosis is through inspection of the cat's stool through a microscope.

Any underlying illness or undiagnosed illness is best treated and resolved before deworming.

Outdoor cats should be checked yearly or automatically treated as a precaution. Tapeworms need more frequent treatment.

Breeding mothers should be dewormed before breeding.

Medications

Please see a vet first. Where a worm is not listed the drug is not effective for that worm.

Epsiprantel - effective for tapeworms.

Fenbendazole - Effective for ascarids, hookworm and tapeworm.

Invermectin - prevents heartworm, good for hookworm.

Milbemycin oxime - effective for roundworm and hookworm, prevents heartworm.

Piperazine - effective for roundworm.

Praziquantal - for tapeworm.

Praziquantel with pyrantel - for roundworm, hookworm and tapeworm.

Pyrantel pamoate - for roundworm and hookworm.

Selamectin - as for Pyrantel pamoate.

See cat parasites and cat cough and cat heartworm and "Cat has a bug that looks like rice coming out of butt"and kitten health.

Michael Avatar

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Tuesday, 8 March 2011

Cat Cookie Jar

I think of two things when I read "cat cookie jar". A jar that is in the shape and image of a cat and a cat getting into a cookie jar! Well if it is not a cookie jar it is something as small as a cookie jar (for the cat) and it makes a good video.

Some cats (very, very few) like to shimmy and wriggle, acrobatically into a very small jar. Perhaps they find it comforting. Perhaps they are getting back into mother's womb! It certainly looks like it and I don't blame them. It can be pretty hostile out there.

Well first up is the classic cat cookie jar....

And next we have that little cat inside a jar. I am told the cat is a Himalayan (a purebred pointed Persian cat) that lives in Russia but can't confirm that:
Cat in a jar! Still taken from a video.
Here is the well known video. I don't actually like this but that is just me: Michael Avatar From Cat Cookie Jar to Home Page

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