Poor diet causing major health problems for big cats in private UAE zoos | PoC

Poor diet causing major health problems for big cats in private UAE zoos | PoC

This is a cross-post. In the UAE - the Middle East if you want to generalise - animal abuse is not uncommon although we rarely hear about it in the West. Nearly all the stories about cat abuse come from America, not because Americans are animal abusers but because there is far more internet activity and reporting of animal abuse in America.

In Abu Dhabi,  it seems that everyone is rich and with riches comes arrogance and ignorance. Add that mentality to a desire to own a flash car and a flash cat and  you have neglected large wild cats because in Abu Dhabi flash cats means large exotic cats smuggled into the country.

A survey found that about 30 percent of the captive cheetahs and lions in Abu Dhabi within private zoos were malnourished because of  a poor diet of chicken flesh without any supplements - bones and stomach contents and added supplements.

Plain chicken meat would make any cat ill over time including domestic cats. This diet led to neurological disorders so severe that some cheetahs and lions had to be euthanised. Chronic neglect.

Not all Arabs in the Middle East are ignorant on the subject of feeding big cats. Far from it. But too many are and it has been happening for a long time without any action being taken by the authorities to curb it.

There is also the obvious matter of the unacceptability of private zoos where big cats are kept for the amusement of the rich - not good. The whole thing stinks. From the point of view of conservation is is a disaster. But they don't even think about that. It does not cross their minds.

Click on the link at the heading of the page for more detail, if you wish. The picture shows a young cheetah in Abu Dhabi smuggled their from Namibia probably. Horrible.

Revocation of Kristen Lindsey's Veterinarian's License

Complaint about vet who killed cat will take up to three years to process

This is a cross-post. The link above discusses the same topic. Don't hold your breath! I expect that you are familiar with the now infamous veterinarian Kristen Lindsey who proudly declared to the world in a Twitter feed, with a photo of her holding a cat with an arrow through his head, that she enjoyed killing him. If you haven't heard about her this link will fill you in.

A complaint was made to the Texas Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners (the Board) requesting (I presume) the revocation of her license. The response was standard and it indicated that the whole evaluation process of her right to practice veterinary medicine and what they intended to do would take up to three years.

This is a lengthy timetable. Perhaps that is convenient for the Board because the longer it takes the more likelihood there is of it being kicked into the long grass and forgotten.

People have short memories and nowadays short attention spans as well. Three years is more than adequate for this grizly episode to be buried. That would be a shame because Lindsey has declared that she takes pleasure in killing animals and in this instance she allegedly killed a neighbor's cat with an arrow who happened to wonder into her backyard. Her mum took the photo of her. At the time the photo was taken it is said that the cat was still alive with an arrow right through his head.

She is not fit to be a vet in my opinion. The selection of vet students arguably needs to be reviewed.

Here is a photo of the letter from the Board.

Some cats are allergic to plastic | PoC

Some cats are allergic to plastic | PoC

This is a cross post a to try and ensure that the information gets to a wider audience.  We know, or at least most of us know, that plastic food bowls for pets can cause the condition described as “feline acne".  This is not the acne with which humans are familiar but it is a skin condition.  It may be due to an allergic reaction to the chemicals in the plastic in the feeding bowl.

In addition, and just as serious, is that sometimes specific chemicals in the plastic can leach out into the food poisoning the cat.  This is a slow process as is an allergic reaction.  Sometimes a cat will not be allergic to plastic for a very long time and then suddenly it happens.  In addition, as I understand it, kittens and young adults do not form allergies until they are a little older and therefore a cat owner may be misled into believing that their cat is not allergic to plastic bowls when in fact they are.

I'd throw out plastic food and water bowls immediately. Ceramics are the best and they are still relatively cheap.

If you click on the link above I cover this subject in more detail.  This is simply a short post to direct people to the link above, in essence.

Veterinarians in America are underreporting to the FDA pet health problems due to defective petfood

Veterinarians in America are underreporting to the FDA pet health problems due to defective petfood | PoC

This is a cross-post. I think the subject matter is important. Through veterinarians reporting to the FDA about possible defective commercially produced petfood, the pet owner has a voice on behalf of their cat or dog against big business.  At the moment big business can do what they like, almost, with respect to what they put into and how they manufacturer pet food and we know that not all of it is good quality.

Sometimes pet food manufacturers fail to put in enough of a certain ingredient which is essential to a cat such as taurine.  If you think that your cat, and if your vet thinks that your cat, has suffered health problems because of defective cat food you should ask your veterinarian to submit a report to the FDA, in America. Without it they cannot act.

If you click on the link above, I go into this in more detail.

Do cat shelters deliberately underestimate cats’ ages?

Do cat shelters deliberately underestimate cats’ ages? | PoC

This is a cross-post because I think this is quite an interesting subject - please click on the above link. It is also quite an important subject. If a shelter cat is considerably older than as advertised by the shelter then the adopting person is liable to encounter more expense because of the increased likelihood of health problems associated with an older cat. Also older cats can contract chronic conditions, which are stressful to deal with for both owner and cat.

If some cat shelters do deliberately underestimate the age of their older cats, I don't really blame them because all they are doing is trying to rehome their cats as soon as possible as this saves lives. There has to be a reasonably speedy turnover otherwise available space dries up at the facility leading to more euthanasia.