CAT HEALTH & MEDICINE

It is always something of a financial challenge having a diabetic pet, says Orla Mahony, DVM, a veterinarian at Tuftss Foster Hospital for Small Animals. Frequent monitoring of the cats blood sugar at the veterinarians office to be certain it remains in the correct range is in itself a significant but important expense for avoiding organ damage and other complications of diabetes.

If you bring your cat to the veterinarians office because hes vomiting, does the doctor simply perform a clinical exam followed by x-rays and blood work, or does she add in some questions that help her learn the story of the cats life? For instance, a vet might ask, Has anything changed lately? Have you moved, or has someone moved into or out of your household? Has there been a divorce or some other difficult event? That way, the doctor may find out that the cat is stressed, perhaps because he is sensing your own stress, and that is what is making him throw up.

You might think what bothers cat owners when the vet puts their pet on a weight-management plan is the slow rate of weight loss the doctor sometimes recommends. Indeed, cats who should be thinner for their health can lose weight at a very modest rate - from only 0.5 up to a more aggressive 2 percent of body weight per week. For a 20-pound cat who should lose 5 pounds, that means an eating regimen that could result in as little as one tenth of a pound a week.

Your cat doesnt seem herself, but youre not sure if its just a mood or passing illness or whether she needs to be taken to the veterinarian. One way to help you make a decision is to learn her vital signs, that is, her body temperature, pulse rate, and respiratory rate.

Has the litter box remained dry over the last day or so, with no clumps forming no matter how hard your male cat tries to go? Get him to the veterinarian - now.

Declawing, the surgical amputation of a cats toes to prevent the regrowth of nails that may scratch people and property, will become illegal in New York State if a bill making its way through the Assembly is passed. The procedure is already prohibited entirely in the U.K., Israel, and Switzerland. And here at home, 10 California cities and Denver have also made declawing against the law.

You might think what bothers cat owners when the vet puts their pet on a weight-management plan is the slow rate of weight loss the doctor sometimes recommends. Indeed, cats who should be thinner for their health can lose weight at a very modest rate - from only 0.5 up to a more aggressive 2 percent of body weight per week. For a 20-pound cat who should lose 5 pounds, that means an eating regimen that could result in as little as one tenth of a pound a week.

Last May my beloved 13-year-old cat was diagnosed with oral squamous cell carcinoma and passed in August. A few months later our shelters newsletter told the story of a family whose dog had been diagnosed with the very same thing and, with a prognosis of 8 months, she actually lived 7 more years with the help of Piroxicam.

Acupuncture treatment, by all accounts, has had significant effects on cats suffering from musculoskeletal pain and nausea as well as various side effects of chemotherapy. Tufts veterinary school graduate Karen Fine, DVM, who practices in Massachusetts, describes one cat who was over-grooming herself to the point that she had hair loss. But after a few acupuncture treatments, during which Dr. Fine inserted a number of thin needles in her skin and left them there for 20 minutes, she started licking less, and her hair started growing back.

A decades-long U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) project costing $22 million and the lives of almost 3,000 kittens has ended thanks to public outcry. For 37 years, the government agency has been feeding parasite-laced cat meat bought from Asian meat markets to healthy laboratory cats here in the U.S. in order to research the specific parasite that causes toxoplasmosis. They have then been euthanizing the lab cats when they were no longer needed. The nonprofit watchdog group White Coat Waste Project exposed the experiment, and the USDA has announced its end.

Have you noticed lines or small puddles of urine along your windowsills, or perhaps along a porch doors threshold? Does it happen more often as the weather warms? If so, your cat is probably marking his territory, letting other cats know the house is his, not theirs.

As cats age, many will develop arthritis. In one study, it was determined that 90 percent of cats over the age of 12 show some radiographic signs of arthritis. However, young cats can suffer from this condition, as well.