Hairballs

Vomiting hairballs or fur balls is not normal - especially if they are coming up more than twice a month. New research reveals that chronic feline vomiters nearly always have an underlying gut problem.
Speaker at the Cat Medicine conference I attended in February, Texan cat vet Gary Norsworthy, finds changes in the intestine of chronically vomiting cats whenever he ultrasounds their stomachs and intestines.
He said that hairballs are a sign of a gut problem, not the problem itself. The vomiting is what we notice.
Most chronic vomiting is due to chronic inflammation, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). IBD must be controlled because it often morphs into lymphoma, a type of bowel cancer.
If the ultrasound shows that a chronic vomiter has changes in its intestine then a sample of the intestine is taken to see whether the change is due to IBD, lymphoma or other less common disease.
IBD is controlled with diet and anti-inflammatory drugs.

Feline Fashions

My niece put me onto this neat site. Love the costumes but my felines think their coats are fashion statements already!
CatAtelier

AMRRIC Trivia night blockbuster success

Thank you for all the wonderful people who supported the trivia night on Saturday night!

Our veterinary team  has covered the cost of March's expedition to the Aboriginal communities at Utopia in Central Australia and part of the cost of the planned trip in September.

We will provide health services to the animals of the communities and set up a desexing surgery on March's visit. 

The human health workers, who know the local people, help coordinate our service because they have seen a dramatic improvement in the health of the people, especially the children, after previous veterinary visits.

The national organisation AMRRIC (Animal Management in Rural and Remote Communities) trains veterinarians in cultural awareness, coordinates volunteers and provides resources on animal care to community schools.

Some of Saturday night's crowd

Quiz host Kate

More supporters

Tilly visits

We've had lots of kitten hugs in the last few months. Tilly, a British Shorthair, came in today for her flu and enteritis vaccination. The nurses all wanted a cuddle but Dr Lesa kept her close!

Holiday plans

If you are planning a big  holiday this year don't forget to think about pet care well ahead of time. Cats would prefer to stay in their own home and yard, of course. If you can arrange for a friend, relative or house-sitter to call in regularly or stay in the house they will be most grateful.

However many cats have to go on their own holiday to a boarding cattery. Outgoing cats spend happy holidays at boarding facilities and even look forward to their own break from home routines. Nervous kitties though need a little extra tender loving care. Ask the staff to spray some Feliway around the bed and room if they haven't already got a Feliway diffuser plugged in. 

Visit the cattery or kennels beforehand, inspect the accommodation and meet the staff. If you feel comfortable with their cat handling skills and can see they are cat lovers, then your cat will probably settle in after the first day or so.

All commercial boarding establishments are licensed by the local authority but standards vary. Seek out recommendations from friends, neighbours or your veterinary surgeon. Some people like to trial board their pets for a weekend or a few days to see how they settle if they are going away later for an extended period.

Check that your pets’ vaccination status is up-to-date well before the holiday. Cats must have enteritis (also known as parvovirus or panleukopenia), calicivirus and herpesvirus vaccinations within the previous 12 months.

Home ground

The cat next door

My cats have come to a truce with Tiddles, the cat next door. When we moved in Tiddles and my crew had a few close encounters of the hissy kind but they soon worked out some compromises. Most cats prefer to avoid fights if they possibly can and use one or more olfactory signals to mark their territories.
Tiddles and my three skirt around each other in shared zones - the front gardens of both houses, the paddock across the road - and avoid each others' inner territories.
My cats still regularly mark their territory by scratching the fence post between the houses and Tiddles marks one of the trees with urine occasionally. Cleo used to defecate on that side of our house as a signal to Tiddles, but thankfully has stopped that now.
We rarely hear any warning hisses from the cats now that they've worked out their territorial limits.

Bonding time

Caught my two old beauties together today. This type of grooming and spending time together reinforces the social bonds in a group of cats.
My third cat would not be caught dead in either of these roles! She disdains the other two and prefers to groom me. I guess I'm her substitute feline friend.
Amazingly cats spend about 8% of their awake time grooming themselves and ingest two thirds of the hair that they lose. That's an awful lot of hair if the amount they leave on my bedspread is any guide!

Cleo tidies Cinta up

Resting time

Sore eyes

Mus be the season for it - this morning I saw Zoe, a half grown girl with very sore eyes. She's had red and watery eyes on and off since she came home from the cat shelter at 8 weeks of age.
Mostly she's a happy little cat, but today she was very miserable. She  and sneezed a glob of snot right at her nurse! One eye was almost closed with swollen conjunctiva and the other was very mucusy.
Poor Zoe! With her history of intermittent sore eyes and snuffles we suspected feline herpesvirus, probably complicated by a chlamydial or mycoplasma infection.
Most cats are infected with herpesvirus as kittens but only a few have signs later on. Zoe's family moved house a week or so ago and the stress of the change, strange noises and people probably brought this bout on. Any type of stress brings the herpesvirus out of hiding and causes sore eyes and snuffles in cats like Zoe.
Treatment for chlamydia and mycoplasma is reasonably straight forward but herpesvirus is variably sensitive to the antivirals we have available. Hopefully Zoe will respond to the Famciclovir we have prescribed.
Her family will have to nurse her through the worst of it. They will gently clean her eyes and nose with salty water on cotton balls and take her into the bathroom with them when they shower to loosen up the nasal and sinus congestion. Strong smelling foods like canned fish will stimulate her appetite and help get her back on her food.

AMRRIC Trivia Night

Have a heap of fun and raise money to send a team of Canberra veterinarians including Dr Kate and Nurse Geraldine to the Indigenous communities of Utopia in Central Australia to desex and care for their dogs. Make up a table of 8 or just come along and we'll match you up with a like-minded team. Tickets $20 from Hall Vet Surgery or phone 6230 2223 to reserve a table

When? Saturday, February 25, 2012 6.30pm

Where? Southern Cross Club Jamison, Cnr Catchpole & Bowman Streets Macquarie

Living with cat allergies AND cats

Do you suffer wheezing, sneezing, watery eyes and itchy eyes and arms around your cat? For me, these allergy symptoms are a small price to pay for the company of my cats – although some mornings when I wake with a heavy head and red eyes I wonder!

Cat allergies are not caused by cat hair as most of us assume. They are caused by a protein found in cat saliva, urine and skin cells, or dander. The immune systems of people with allergies mistake this harmless protein for a dangerous invader like a virus or bacteria and mount a full scale attack on it.

Here are some tips for minimising our allergy symptoms without giving up our cats.

• Made your bedroom a cat free zone
•  Reduce the load of cat allergens in your bedroom by washing or replacing bedding, curtains and pillows. Then cover pillows and mattress with allergen-proof covers.
• Open windows wide at least once a day to air the house and dilute the allergen load
•  Send your cat outside, preferably into an outdoor run, to disperse some of the dander
•  Eliminate allergen traps such as carpet, rugs and upholstered furniture as you can. Carpet accumulates up to 100 times more allergens than vinyl or wood flooring. If you can’t take it up steam clean it regularly and vacuum with a high efficiency particulate arresting (HEPA) filter or us and allergen-proof vacuum cleaner bag.
• Brush your cat outside and/or in an outside enclosure to minimise contamination of your home with dander
• Wipe the dander away with a moist cloth or wipe to remove saliva and dander.
• Spray the house with anti-allergen sprays
• Use a low dust cat litter and ask non-allergic family members to clean the litter box frequently
• Take the antihistamines, decongestants, eye drops and aerosol inhalers your doctor recommends. Antioxidants such as Vitamins C and E also have anti-allergen effects.

 Don't let allergies come between you and your feline friend.

Snotty cats

Snotty-nosed and snuffly cats are difficult to live with. Their owners put up with sneezes and snot all over the house, as well as snuffles and grumbles all day and half the night.

The causes of sinusitis and rhinosinusitis are also difficult for vets to diagnose accurately and even more difficult to treat effectively.

Inflammation and infection spread rapidly from cats’ throats to adjacent structures, such as the middle ear, frontal sinuses, nose and tympanic bullae. These cavities are difficult to reach with medical or surgical treatments.

Feline mucus is also thicker than human mucus and medication has a hard time penetrating the mucus to get to the offending microbes.

Feline Herpesvirus is the most common initiating cause of chronic rhinitis and rhinosinusitis. It causes chronic airway inflammation and swelling, destroys the normal lining of the nasal cavity and upsets the normal mucus layers. The nasal cavity cannot remove foreign particles or the abnormal mucus and the sinuses become blocked. Bacteria leap in and set up infections making the situation even worse.

Drugs to reduce the mucus and the swelling in the sinuses help a bit. We treat the bacterial infection with antibiotics but are still left with Herpesvirus and all the damage it does. Herpesvirus sinusitis soon flares up into full blown bacterial sinusitis again. Some cats respond well to antiviral drugs but others keep getting intermittent sinusitis.

Nastier causes of similar signs are Cryptococcosis, a fungal disease, and cancer, commonly lymphoma, adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. These are difficult to distinguish on X-ray but CT or MRI are very helpful, if they are available. A biopsy clears up any doubts. A blood test is available for Cryptococcosis.

Bad teeth and infected tooth roots sometimes make cats snuffly. A dental inspection and X-ray under general anaesthetic allow targeted and successful treatment.

Occasionally a cat breathes in a grass seed or other foreign body. Usually nasal discharge is from one side only and there is some bleeding.   

Is an older cat for you?

Just came across this great article on the advantages of adopting an older cat. Sometimes kittens aren't all they're cracked up to be...
Cute or wise?

Paracetomol poison to cats

Don't be tempted to medicate your off-colour cat with paracetamol this holiday season. Paracetamol at any dose is deadly to cats.
Soon after ingesting it cats' red blood cells lose the ability to carry oxygen. The cats' gums turn brown, they drool and they become weak and wobbly.
If they survive the first 12-24 hours the liver starts to close down, too. They go off their food, their face, lips and paws swell, their gums and eyes go yellow and their belly swells.
Most cats who ingest paracetamol die unless treated within the first couple of hours.
Aspirin is equally dangerous but more subtle in its effects. Aspirin damages cats' kidneys and irritates their stomachs.
Very few pain medications are safe for cats. Only give medications prescribed by your vet for your particular puss.

Tick paralysis

Already this spring we have treated a cat back from the beach with tick paralysis.

Reports from the coast say that the ticks are the worst seen in many years.

Treat your cat for ticks before you leave for the coast.

Frontline spray is the only safe tickicide for cats. Apply 2 days before leaving for the coast and then fortnightly while down there.
Advantix and Permethrin are extremely toxic to cats. A cat brushing up against or grooming a treated dog can die of permethrin poisoning.
Supplement the tickicide application with close daily inspection of your cat. Feel inside the ears, under the arms, around the tail and in all the crevices and skin folds. Ticks love to hide in long hair. Remove any ticks you find immediately.
If your cat is weak in the legs or drooling contact a vet immediately.