CAT HEALTH & MEDICINE

[From Tufts February 2012 Issue]

Are my cats contagious?
Itrapped two stray kittens last year and had them treated for ringworm. They were neutered and given two rounds of kitten vaccinations. They also had bad breath so my veterinarian cleaned their teeth and needed to extract some teeth. She informed me that one cats dental problems had migrated into the root.

At the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, a new research project has proven to be promising in treating feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a lethal feline disease that has been almost 100 percent fatal. Because of the deadliness of FIP, there have been many efforts to develop effective treatments - but none have been at all successful up until now.

Obviously, its very distressing to a cat owner if she witnesses the plight of an otherwise healthy animal having difficulty moving her bowels. The cat will crouch over her litter box and stare fixedly ahead - her abdomen contracting and her legs and hind quarters quivering as she strains to pass an impacted stool. If her efforts pay off at all, she may eventually pass a small, hard, dark-colored fecal mass into her litter box.…

First scenario: Your 14-year-old cat has a large but benign tumor in one of her toes that is causing her pain and interfering with her mobility. You decide to:(a) Schedule a surgery to excise the tumor.(b) Realize that the tumor is causing pain and limiting her freedom and will euthanize her when you have to because the risks of anesthesia that go along with the surgery are too great.(c) Wait and see.

When the outcome resulting from an expensive and difficult treatment is unclear, you will not be left entirely on your own when it comes...

The art of traditional acupuncture traces back several thousand years to ancient China, and is one branch of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The other three branches are herbal medicine, food therapy and Tui-Na (medical massage).

The feline urinary system relies on two structural components: an upper tract and a lower tract. The upper urinary tract consists of two kidneys, which handle the biochemical processes; and two slender tubes (ureters) - one leading from each kidney - that deliver waste-containing urine from those organs down to the lower tract.

The lower urinary tract - whose function is solely excretory - consists of the bladder, a muscular sac that receives the urine delivered to it through the ureters and stores it until it is expelled from the body via the other component of the lower tract, the urethra, a narrow tube leading from the bladder to the outside world.

A raw spot on my cats body
Q Recently, I noticed that my seven-year-old male cat, Bisco, was excessively grooming his hindquarters. When I investigated the site, I discovered a raw red spot where Bisco had licked the fur and skin off. The vet explained that Bisco had developed a hotspot and that these were fairly common in cats, particularly during the summer.

I am the director of a small-town animal shelter, and we recently took in a two-year-old Bengal who was living with his owner in a meth house. This poor cat was subjected to his owners drug use for most of his life, and he is now suffering the consequences. He suffers from hallucinations, obsessive grooming and blindness - all the while being an incredibly sweet and affectionate cat when not experiencing the after affects of this terrible drug.

My female, Lily, is barely seven pounds, and seems to be pretty healthy except that she has chronic loose bowels/ diarrhea. Texas, the male, is about 10.5 pounds, and has normal bowels (sometimes, even on the hard side). I mention him because the cats are both fed the same diet of primarily wet food.

Thanks to progress in veterinary health research, a vast array of medicines are readily available today for the treatment of many feline diseases and behavioral disorders. Many of these medications can be administered only by veterinarians or qualified technicians in animal clinics or hospitals, while others can be administered at home by a cats owner.

While taking good care of your cat should obviously be a year-round concern, your vigilance is perhaps most necessary in the late spring and summer months, when temperatures rise significantly in most areas of the U.S. During extremely hot and humid weather, cats can be increasingly vulnerable to heat exhaustion and dehydration. They are more susceptible to assault by fleas, ticks and other insidious parasites. They can be dangerously exposed to cancer-causing sun rays.