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Any disease that can jump from pets to people is famous, and toxoplasmosis is no exception. But that doesn’t mean everyone understands how it works.
Like how many cats get it and how they pass it on. Or how to stay safe, especially if you’re pregnant. And the disease in cats and dogs themselves. We’ll cover all these here.
Continue reading “Toxoplasmosis In Cats, Dogs & Humans”
Listen to this rubbish.
If your cat only eats dry food, she is likely to be getting less nutrition than a cat eating wet food. Many low-quality dry foods contain a lot of fillers.
https://www.catster.com/cat-food/wet-cat-food-vs-dry-cat-food 13/6/2020
Throwaway lines like these are typical of the overly simplistic advice you find online about feline nutrition. The truth takes a deeper look. To know whether wet, dry or both are best for your cat, we need to talk about:
Let’s dive in!
Continue reading “Is It OK To Give A Cat Only Dry Food?”
We all know that cats like to ‘sharpen their claws’, but it’s amazing how little we actually know about it. Yet scratching in cats is extremely important.
It’s:
What you see here is typical of veterinary science. Pick a rare disease like arterial thromboembolism and you’ll find lots of good science. Pick a common, everyday, practical problem and it just doesn’t get the same attention.
Finally, I have something to tell you. For the first time, two recent studies have looked at scratcher preferences in kittens and adult cats. They offered cats choices and measured which ones they chose to use more often.
Continue reading “Which Cat Scratcher Do Cats Use Most?”
Essential facts (details below):
There are four likely causes for an enlarged abdomen in a young cat:
However, only one of these is common in cats brought to the vet. FIP is estimated to cause the death of between 0.3 and 1.3% of cats worldwide.
Continue reading “Help! My Cat Has A Bloated Stomach”
A few years ago I started getting questions about a new cat viral outbreak called cat plague. Cat plague? I may have been seeing cats for 25 years, but this was news to me too.
A quick google and it all became clear: this is a new name for an old disease. It goes by all these names:
Continue reading “It’s True, Cats Get Parvo Too”
I have no idea how most cat owners end up choosing a cat litter. If my experiences are anything to go by, it’s trial and error. I doubt they try more than a few before settling on a favourite.
This is a vet review of the common and popular types of cat litter in stores. I’ll help you understand:
Isn’t it always the way. You’ve been recommending something for 25 years with complete confidence. Then along comes a piece of very inconvenient evidence.
This time it’s about cats preferring moving water. It turns out that despite a whole industry devoted to promoting cat fountains, until now no one has bothered to see if they actually work.
Continue reading “Do Cats Need A Water Fountain?”
Feline infectious peritonitis or FIP is probably the number one fatal viral disease of young cats around the world. Up to now FIP has had no effective treatments and no vaccine.
Now there is real hope of a successful treatment. I’ll explain it below after dismissing a few false hopes.
Continue reading “New Treatments For FIP In Cats”
When I was young, like all kids, I wanted to know why everything happened. Having vets as parents, I can distinctly remember asking why male cats needed to be desexed.
“It’s because otherwise they fight so much that they get run down and die early.”
With the benefit of hindsight, this is pure folk wisdom. People could see that fighting was associated with sickness, but not yet why. Then, in 1986, hot on the heels of the discovery of the human AIDS virus, researchers in the USA put two and two together and found a feline AIDS virus in cats like these. We call it FIV.
Continue reading “Feline Immunodeficiency Virus & Your Cat”
Let me tell you a story that shows what we’re up against.
I met a very perplexed feral cat researcher recently. In his study area the cats generally hunt and eat one common mammal. However, suddenly the population of that species crashed.
There were lots of other tasty critters still hopping around, some of which look nearly the same. Despite this, the cats began to starve.
Continue reading “Getting Cats To Eat Raw Chicken Necks”