CAT HEALTH & MEDICINE

Q My longhaired cat, Pretty Kitty, seems to groom her beautiful silver coat all the time. She is an indoor-only cat nearing her fifth birthday. At least once or twice a week, I can count on finding a hairball coughed up on the carpet. She never seems to pick floors that are easy to clean, like the tile in the kitchen. She gets regular checkups, and my veterinarian has not found any health problems. So…

Myth: My cat is just naturally lazy. It's the breed.

Truth: There is no question that there are "fast cats" and "slow cats," just as some people naturally prefer a sprint to a leisurely park stroll. In the animal world Olympics, cats are sprinters, not marathoners. There's a natural tendency to assume that just because your cat doesn't move much, he doesn't like to move at all.

If your cat is seriously overweight, he may have become less active to compensate for his extra pounds. He may even be unable to jump, and both his heart and his lungs are working overtime. He may not be lazy so much as suffering under the strain.

Q I have a cat that has a problem with a weeping eye (at the nose), a condition she has had for several years.

Now, the iris is gradually turning orange, starting at the nose, and the eye is starting to squint slightly. This seems to be getting worse. When the cat was adopted at about nine months old, she already had this condition (she was microchipped, but we received no response from her owner).

Our veterinarian has tried several different medications to no avail. Do you have any advice?
Sean Mahoney

In a clinical trial led by Dr. Boaz Arzi - a dental surgeon and researcher with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine - about 20 cats are receiving stem cell therapy that is showing promising results in the treatment of feline chronic gingivostomatitis (or FCGS).

This condition is a debilitating feline dental disease that is marked by severe and chronic inflammation of a cats gums and mucosa, the tissue that lines its oral cavity. Though the disease is relatively uncommon, it is very painful and frequently diagnosed among cats with certain viral diseases - especially feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV).

The history of veterinary radiology - the use of photograph-like images to diagnose an internal physical abnormality that is otherwise invisible to a practitioners eye - can be traced back to a specific day in 1895. While working in his laboratory, a German physicist named Wilhelm Roentgen wit-nessed a phenomenon that until then had never been observed by him or anyone else.

Among all of the viruses that pose a significant threat to feline health, none is more potentially devastating than the feline leukemia virus (FeLV), a submicroscopic organism associated with the illness and death of more cats worldwide than any other infectious agent. The most frequently diagnosed disease caused by this deadly virus is feline leukemia, a disorder marked chiefly by the excessive production of certain white blood cells (leukocytes) in a cats bone marrow.

Upper respiratory infections are very common in cats, especially in kittens. Most of these infections are caused by viruses. In fact, roughly 90 percent of all upper airway infections in cats are caused by two common viruses: feline herpesvirus and feline calicivirus. Some affected cats develop secondary bacterial infections, which can make treatment and recovery longer and more difficult.

[From Tufts January 2012 Issue]

Diarrhea is one of the most common health problems seen in cats and can present a diagnostic and treatment challenge because of its wide variety of possible causes. Infectious diseases, toxins, dietary changes and even emotional upset can result in diarrhea, and determining the cause is often a process of elimination.

The most likely causes of diarrhea in a given cat depend on his age and lifestyle, says Michael Stone, DVM, DACVIM, an internal medicine specialist and clinical assistant professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. Intestinal parasites such as roundworms typically cause diarrhea in kittens. …

A few years ago, my housemate (who was an internal medicine resident fascinated by vomit and diarrhea and such) asked me if I ever did blood work and x-rays to find out why Seamus was a chronic vomiter ("What are you talking about? Once a month is totally normal for a cat. Whatever!"). After my housemate made me feel guilty, I've pondered why we cat owners are so tolerant of cat vomit. I mean, if you vomited once a week for years, wouldn't you go to a medical doctor? If your dog vomited once a week all his life, chances are you'd take him to a veterinarian sooner or later. So why is it that we cat owners tolerate cat puke so much more? Maybe we're blaming frequent vomiting on hair balls, but if your cat is puking that often and there isn't any hair in the puke, think again. There may actually be a medical cause for all that vomit.

In general, if your cat is indoor only and doesn't have exposure to other cats, he or she should have gone through a full kitten series (one vaccine every three to four weeks from six weeks of age until sixteen weeks of age) and then an annual feline distemper and rabies vaccine for three to five more years. After that, your cat should have an annual exam, but vaccines could be reduced to every two…

Due to the backward-facing barbs on the cat's tongue, the hair he grooms must be swallowed. Some of this swallowed hair passes through the digestive system without a problem. If he swallows too much hair, the cat may vomit up a tubular-shaped glob of wet hair know to those of us who end uup stepping on them as hair balls. Not all hair balls get vomited up or passed with the stool, though. Some swallowed hair ends up trapped in the intestines, causing a blockage.

Your cat depends on you for his health and comfort. Cats don't really have nine lives, so it's up to you and your veterinarian to be responsible for his health and welfare.

Become familiar with your cat's normal routine. Notice how much water he usually drinks. This will be important information because an increase or decrease in water consumption can be a symptom of certain diseases. Are you familar with your cat's litter box habits? If so, you may be able to detect diarrhea, constipation, and potential urinary tract problems early. Become familar with his usual volume of urine or feces, as well as its color.