EMERGENCY CARE

Until a few months ago, your eight-year-old cat Dotty has always been a healthy girl with a robust appetite, good eating habits and an apparently healthy digestive system. Moreover, Dotty has never ventured beyond the confines of your home, so her exposure to any disease that might be carried by other cats in the neighborhood has been virtually nonexistent.

If you think about it, being a cat veterinarian is not very different from being a pediatrician. We cant ask our patients whats wrong - we just have to figure it out. Nowhere is the role of a cat owner more important than at the veterinarians office, where a good history can sometimes mean the difference between life and death. Veterinarians are faced with a variety of diagnostic challenges on a daily basis.

As you probably have already experienced first hand, cats can be tricky to medicate. Veterinarians know that it is difficult for many owners to medicate a cat consistently with a medication that is required twice daily, and almost impossible to administer a medication reliably and unfailingly three times daily. Therefore, most veterinarians aim for a balance between efficacy and ease of administration, prescribing the most effective drug that can be given with the least frequency. …

Virtually all feline surgical procedures - whether brief and relatively simple or lengthy and complicated - require that the patients pain perception be dulled, if not totally blocked, by an anesthetic drug of some sort. These days, sleep-inducing chemical substances are commonly used by veterinarians to reduce or eliminate pain in procedures ranging from such complex interventions as the excision of a brain tumor or the removal of a mass in the chest to such comparatively…

My nine-year-old cat Tommy has arthritis, but he is otherwise healthy. A few months ago, he developed a case of ringworm near the base of his tail. I treated it with a topical medication recommended by my veterinarian, and it went away.

As a feline-only practitioner, I look forward to kitten season every year. Nothing brightens my day more than examining a kitten and seeing all of the joy and amusement it brings to the family. I do not, however, look forward to peering inside a kittens ear - especially a kitten thats been aggressively scratching at her ears with a hind paw and shaking her head afterward. This behavior is usually the telltale sign of ear mites.

These days, many cat owners are giving considerable thought to investing in a pet health insurance policy. But is pet health insurance for your cat actually a good idea financially? To help you make that decision, lets examine what a few of the more popular pet health insurance companies have to offer.

Youre worried about your cat Henry. About a week ago, you noticed that a small, hairless, red sore had developed mysteriously on his upper lip, and it isnt going away. Perhaps you have nothing to worry about. Maybe this angry-looking eruption will simply disappear within a few days.

I have a five-year-old female longhaired cat who I adopted from the local humane society a couple of years ago. Recently, she has been having hairballs almost on a daily basis.

Among all threats to feline health, none is more fatal than rabies. The threat also applies to cat owners who are bitten or scratched by an infected animal. Rabies is caused by a bullet-shaped virus called a lyssavirus, and this microorganism affects many warm-blooded animals, most commonly in skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, bobcats and bats. However, notes Dr. Orla Wages, a specialist in internal medicine in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Tufts, the virus can affect all warm-blooded animals, including domestic dogs and cats that have not been vaccinated.

Spring and summer are on the way, and a lot of people are rejoicing. The weather may be extremely enjoyable for many of us - but it can be miserable for cats because warm and humid weather is paradise for fleas. The truth is that few creatures have had as much impact on world history as the common flea. From the black plague during the 14th century to the present, fleas have been the cause of much grief.

There is a variety of bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal diseases that can affect both cats and humans. These zoonotic diseases can be passed from an affected cat to her owner through touching, biting or scratching.