Cat Care Tips, Medical & Health Care

Preventing Lower Urinary Tract Problems in Cats

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Lower urinary tract problems in cats can be life threatening, are extremely painful, and need immediate attention and treatment by a veterinarian. Preventing lower urinary tract problems in cats is critical for your cat’s health.

Urinary crystals can quickly turn into kidney stones, and kidney stones are deadly in a short period of time, so never wait or postpone seeing your veterinarian for diagnosis and treatment. Your vet will determine if there are underlying medical conditions causing the symptoms through conducting a urinalysis, culture and cystoscopy and a complete medical review. If your cat is visiting the litter box repeatedly in a short period of time, straining in the box and sitting in the box trying to urinate, or urinating outside the litter box, it’s time to visit your vet.

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Cat Behavior, Elderly Cat Care, Medical & Health Care

Ways to Reduce Stress and Anxiety in Your Cat

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Sometimes change is unavoidable for our cats, like moving into a new home, bringing home a new baby, having house guests, or adopting a new dog or cat. All of these can truly rock a cat’s world and trigger behavior changes. Sometimes even the slightest change can cause some cats to become uncomfortable, fearful, stressed, and anxious. Fortunately, there are many effective ways to reduce anxiety in your cat, and provide a more stress-free environment at home. 

Cats are very vulnerable to changes at home, new people, houseguests, home remodeling, and they will often show they are feeling anxious and uncomfortable by hiding more often, vocalizing more, obsessively licking, uncontrollably drooling or chewing, sleeping all day or more than normal, urine marking or even potting outside the litter box. Sometimes external changes in the cat’s home environment can even negatively impact your cat’s overall health and quality of life.

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Helping Cat Parents

Having A Cat Improves Your Life, Health, and Well Being

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Having A Cat Improves Your Life, Health, and Well Being
Photo by Benita on Pixabay

Everyone is in love with cats today. Afterall, what’s not to love? For thousands of years, people have enjoyed the company and companionship of cats. But did you know that having a cat or two can benefit your life, health, and longevity? Cats not only improve our health, but also increase our happiness and well-being, prevent heart disease, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and reduce feelings of loneliness. Multiple scientific studies show how cats boost our physical, emotional and mental health, enrich our lives, and help us live happier and longer lives.

Here are the many ways having a cat can help you:

1. Lower anxiety and stress

People who spend time with cats or kittens report feeling less stressed and calmer. Research conducted in the United Kingdom by the Mental Health Foundation and Cat Protection, found that 87 percent of people who owned a cat felt they had a positive impact on their well-being, and 76 percent said they could cope with everyday life much better thanks to the company of their cat. Over 50 percent of the cat owners felt that their cat’s presence and companionship was the most helpful, followed by 33 percent that described stroking and petting a cat was calming to them. Playing with or petting your cat can release all the good chemicals in your brain and relax your central nervous system. 

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Cat Care Tips, Elderly Cat Care, Medical & Health Care

How to Provide the Best Care for Your Senior Cat

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Getting older is a normal, natural part of life for all of us. Today domestic cats are living longer than they ever did in the past—thanks to improved nutrition and better food, improved medical care, and more people keeping their cats indoors. But advancing age does not necessarily mean automatic degeneration. And aging does not necessarily mean inevitable disease. Many cats do grow old remaining relatively healthy into their geriatric years, while other cats in their senior years develop chronic or degenerative diseases. And know that even cats that do develop chronic diseases can live well into their late geriatric years—or 20+ years old—given excellent care and attention.

Never assume that changes in your older cat are simply due to “old age,” then write it off as normal aging for them. Most likely there is an underlying medical condition that is causing the changes you are observing in your cat’s behavior or physical appearance. That should always be the first consideration. The main thing is to give your cat the healthiest and best quality of life possible—by watching them closely, noticing any changes that take place, then getting them to a veterinarian to get the medical help they need.

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Cat Care Tips, Medical & Health Care

How to Afford the Cost of Veterinary Care

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When you adopt a cat, you aren’t thinking about the day when your cat may become ill, or get injured, or need emergency care. But cats do get sick and sometimes do require expensive diagnostic tests and emergency care. You may be faced with veterinary expenses far beyond what you can afford, or need unexpected medical care that you didn’t anticipate and don’t know how you’re going to pay for it. Of course, you want to make the best decision for your cat, regardless of the cost, but how to pay for it? Here’s how to afford the cost of veterinary care.

I have been in this situation countless times with our many rescue cats. So often, I have needed to pony up and pay for complicated dental care, full-mouth extractions, multi-day emergency hospitalizations, or treating kidney failure to the tune of thousands of dollars—and I had no idea how we were going to pay for it.

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Cat Care Tips

10 Important Considerations in Preparing to Adopt a Cat

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Adopting a kitten or adult cat is a long-term responsibility and commitment. It’s a decision you want to give careful thought to and be prepared for, not one to take lightly or impulsively. Owning a cat is a large financial and emotional responsibility lasting anywhere from 14 to 22 years, typically. Your cat will depend on you for its health, happiness, safety and well-being, so here are 10 important considerations in preparing to adopt a cat.

Renting Your Home? Check with Your Landlord First

If you live in an apartment or rental property be sure to confirm with your landlord beforehand that cats are allowed and know whether a pet deposit is required. Avoid adopting a cat and bringing it home, only to find out the landlord does not accept pets.

Lifetime of Costs

Adopting a new cat is exciting, but the reality is there is a lifetime of expenses associated with caring for a cat. Be aware of and ready to commit to spending money for regular weekly expenses like buying quality cat food and litter, but also for annual routine veterinary care and unexpected veterinary emergencies.  Annual checkups are highly recommended to keep your cat healthy and address any medical problems as they arise. During an annual checkup, your veterinarian can determine if your cat has oral disease or needs dental surgery or cleaning, which is important for good oral and overall health. But if your cat gets sick, he will need to see a veterinarian for medical care. As cats age and get older health problems can arise, so it’s important to be prepared for when that time comes. Like people, cats get sick and sometimes develop chronic illnesses as they age, which is why annual checkups are so important and can address medical problems before they get worse.

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Cat Care Tips

8 Tips to Make Travel and Vet Visits Less Stressful For Your Cat

Do you dread taking your cat to the vet because it’s so stressful? Does your cat run at the first sight of their carrier, then valiantly and determinedly resist going inside by muscling their way out? You’re not alone. Cats fear change, and many associate their carrier with negative experiences—like going to the vet’s office, car travel, or a bad memory associated with the car. Some cats become so stressed seeing a carrier or being inside of one—they immediately urinate,  meow loudly, drool excessively, and some even vomit. It’s that traumatic for them. It’s enough to make a cat parent’s blood pressure skyrocket!

But what if you could transform your cat’s negative association into a positive experience? Here’s a step-by-step process for making your cat carrier a more inviting, welcoming and non-threatening place, and your cat’s trip to the vet a far more enjoyable, less stressful experience.

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Elderly Cat Care, Medical & Health Care

Treating My Cat’s Severe IBD and Gastrointestinal Inflammation

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In July 2017, my then 17-year-old cat Romeo started presenting with symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, mild weight loss, and lethargy. Up to this point, Romeo had been a very healthy male cat with no medical issues other than a low-grade heart murmur, one eye infection, periodic dental cleanings, and routine annual checkups to maintain his health. But things were about to change for Romeo and his cat parents.

Concerned that Romeo’s diarrhea and vomiting had become more than just an isolated event, we scheduled an appointment at Four Corners Veterinary Hospital in Concord, our trusted vet who has been highly supportive and a critical partner in managing all of our cat’s health over the years. Romeo’s doctor did a full physical exam—palpating his abdomen—finding some thickening of his intestines. He took Romeo’s blood and ran a blood chemistry profile and urinalysis. Then recommended diagnostic tests—specifically an ultrasound that would rule out things like a GI tract obstruction or abdominal mass, but would provide a detailed examination of Romeo’s internal organs from all different angles, the sizes of the organs, as well as their functioning. An ultrasound evaluates the cat’s liver, spleen, kidneys, gallbladder, lymph nodes, small and large bowels, bladder and pancreas and is able to determine the size, shape and texture of each—revealing any abnormalities, enlargements, masses, fluids, stones, thickening, dilation or if any lesions are present. So we ponied up the $450 dollars (at the time) to get to the bottom of what was going on with Romeo’s gut. 

TREATING MY CAT’S SEVERE IBD AND GASTROINTESTINAL INFLAMMATION
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Cat Care Tips, Medical & Health Care

Tips for Buying a Pet Health Insurance Plan

Planning ahead for your cat’s health care is no different than planning for our own health care. We never know if or when we’ll get sick and need insurance, but having it gives us peace of mind. Knowing your cat will need medical help at some point is inevitable, so it’s good to plan ahead and be able to provide the care your cat will need. Here are some tips for buying a pet health insurance plan that will meet your needs.

Pet health insurance is just one of the many options available to help pay for emergency or unexpected veterinary bills. If you’re worried about being able to pay for your cat’s chronic illness or life-saving care, an accident, or an emergency—it may be good to know there’s a safety net under you. As with any insurance, you may never need it, but if you worry about affording those one-time emergencies or unexpected expenses that you feel could cripple your finances—having pet insurance may be a good option.

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Cat Care Tips, Elderly Cat Care, Medical & Health Care

Treating Your Cat’s Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) – A Helpful Guide

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is relatively common in mature, senior and geriatric cats. This year, my 17-year-old cat Marcel was diagnosed with advanced, late-stage chronic kidney disease. In a short period of time, I scrambled to learn everything possible about the disease and how to treat it. Had I known before what I quickly learned, about providing the best possible treatment options and support for early and late-stage CKD, I could have possibly prolonged Marcel’s life and quality of life significantly. But the motto, too little too late, applied in my personal journey. The application of my new valuable knowledge came just too late to save him. But it’s not too late to help your cat and provide you with what I wish I had known months earlier. This guide is an effort to give owners of CKD cats the best, most valuable resources possible, in the shortest time possible. CKD is a very manageable disease in cats, but it’s critical to catch it early in order to manage it and prolong your cat’s life. Getting a diagnosis as soon as possible, as early in the disease, will give you more time to apply all the best treatments available to help your cat. Here is the most valuable and useful information and guidance I can provide you and your CKD cat, all in one page with links to some of the best resources and support available today. May your cat live a long, healthy, and comfortable life with CKD with much more quality time spent with you! 

Chronic kidney disease in cats is not a life sentence, but if it is properly treated, your cat can live a long and happy life. So let’s begin. 

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Stories and tips about providing the best possible cat care—from 20 years experience rescuing, fostering, and caring for my many rescue cats.

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