Was Santa good to your 4-footed friends?

Well, the holidays have come and gone and the New Year is upon us. I hope all of you had a wonderful time filled with friends and family and your 4-legged family members had a most enjoyable holiday as well. Was Santa good to them? Was there something fun in their stocking or a gift for them to unwrap?

(Last Christmas, Zeus's ribbon playing was supervised as all ribbon playing should be in cats as to avoid accidental ingestion!)

Just in case you were wondering what the other "cats on the block" got for the holidays, here is an overview of some of the most popular gifts and toys for cats (with some of yours truly modeling.) And in case your own cat is sulking in the corner, perhaps you can sneak out and pick out a New Years Gift!

Sleepurrz hammock

What better to pamper puss than his or her very own hammock? These pet hammocks are built with the utmost care, solely for the purpose of pampering our feline family members and friends. The original Sleepurrz hammock is constructed entirely from solid pine, features furniture quality pocket-hole and dowel joinery, and has been field tested to nearly 20 lbs. Each sling is hand sewn and quilted for comfort which means it can be crafted in a fabric of your choice in most cases.

Electronic Portion Control Le Bistrol from Petmate

I'm not saying that kitty needs to go on a diet. Well, maybe, but that's a topic for another blog. This product is great for not only every day portion control but peace of mind that your cat is not being overfed by the petsitter when you go out of town. Great for cats and dogs, this fully automatic pet feeder features a tough plastic base that holds a food reservoir for food "on demand." The electronic pet feeder's simple, programmable electronics prompt the feeder to dispense portions from 1/4 to 3 cups at up to three selected times per day. The unit can be set to meet scheduled feeding times and amounts when caretakers are away, but it is not meant to replace human care--please be sure someone still visits your pet daily! The unit's hopper holds 5 pounds of food and accommodates a full range of dry food sizes, shapes, and types.

SmartyCat Chaise Cat Scratcher

This sturdy but graceful scratcher not only satisfies your cat's need to scratch but it's a lounger as well! SmartyKat has fashioned a honeycomb textured scratcher material that's irrestible to cats (I can attest to this!) and then they season it with organic catnip. A must have for all the cats in your life!

Organic Catnip Pillows

What could be better than treating your cat to jumbo sized catnip pillows handcrafted with 100% catnip, no fillers? How about purchasing them from the Siamesestore.com and then the proceeds will support the Siamese cat rescue center? My cats at home absolutely love these pillows and throw them up in the air and kick them with their back feet and nuzzle them...can't get enough of them. Reasonably priced, quick shipping and feel good shopping!

Laser Light Cat Toy

A trusty stand by, this is the ultimate interactive toy for you and your cat but allows you to be a bit of a couch potato while giving your cat loads of exercise and plenty of entertainment! You control the quick-moving laser dot and allow it to fly across the room, scale walls, or jump from one surface to another. A true favorite in our household, it takes the heaviest and most sedentary cat off her duff and gets her moving! Available widely at petstores and discount stores.

Happy spoiling... with love, hugs, kisses and attention and perhaps a new treat that has caught your fancy! Until next time....Happy New Year!

Post Disclaimer: Not all of the pictures in this post are mine, I could not find the appropriate people to credit for these pictures, if they are your lovely pictures please let me know so that I can give you proper credit.

Ouch!! Here's a mouthful....

Wow, I haven't posted since September! I have been busy playing with my new little dachshund, Oliver and getting him acclimated into the household with the kitties. Isn't he pretty darn cute?

I'm going to try for my New Year's Resolution to post on here more frequently! Let's hope that one sticks a little better than my resolutions of New Year's past....


Onto the topic of this post....Here's a story about a medical condition related to one of my own cats. It's called stomatitis, an oral inflammatory condition that can cause a great deal of pain and discomfort to cats, as it did to my Zoe. Here is a picture of what the inside of her mouth looked like.

Here is a close up of a normal cat mouth for comparison:

As you can see she had a great deal of inflammation, bleeding and redness around her toothline and in the back of her mouth. As with many cats that have stomatitis she had a history of bad breath, pawing at her face, drooling, pain when she ate, anorexia and weight loss (she lost about 3 pounds!) She liked soft food better than hard food, seemed to get the kibble "caught" in her mouth or gums or around her tongue, was less active at times and definitely didn't like having her face touched one bit!! Like Zoe, patients with stomatitis may exhibit an unkempt hair coat from a reluctance to groom.

The actual cause of stomatitis is unknown. It is potentially due to a combination of factors. Some cats are especially sensitive to the bacterial plaque that deposits on their teeth which can then cause the immune system to overreact. Cats may almost seem to have an allergic reaction to the this plaque and this results in something called lymphocytic-plasmacytic gingivitis stomatitis which affects the entire mouth. Cats with suppressed immune systems, such as those with feline leukemia virus (felv) or feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) can predispose them to problems with stomatitis. Other viral or bacterial infections such as feline calicivirus or Bartonella henselae have also been implicated in stomatitis. In Zoe's case, she was Felv and FIV negative and had also tested negative for Bartonella. It is quite possible that she could have calicivirus as this is present in many of the cases but not determined to be the sole cause of the stomatitis. Zoe's likely problem was a hypersensitivity to the plaque on her teeth.

If the stomatitis is due to a plaque intolerance, then it becomes essential we remove all plaque and keep it off. This is accomplished through regular dental cleanings/scalings (sometimes on an every 6 month basis), extraction of those teeth that are showing severe periodontal disease or lesions, daily at home dental care including tooth brushing and application of chlorhexidine. Many times cyclical treatments of antibiotics and steroids may be used as well. Despite all of this therapy...which my cat Zoe went through (with some chagrin, I might add....), the disease often progresses and the only way to cure the disease and eliminate the very painful lesions is to extract all of the teeth in back of the large canine teeth. At times, a full mouth extraction is done if it is concluded that it would be beneficial to include these canine teeth as well. While this may sound a bit drastic, in most cases this will provide long term success and your cat, like mine, will be remarkably improved.

Zoe went through a full mouth extraction caudal (behind) her canine teeth. Here are all her teeth and what her dental x-rays looked like with all her teeth gone. You can see the empty sockets where the teeth used to be!

After Zoe's extractions, she was back to eating with comfort, grooming, spending time with the family and gaining weight. She was eating wet food the next day, crunchy treats on day 2, and back to preferring her hard food by the third day. As a pet owner myself who had delayed this procedure, I was very glad to see how well she did afterwards. The redness and inflammation is gone (along with her teeth!) and she is a much, much happier kitty!

I personally thank all the staff at Dr. Boyd's office in Houston for the wonderful job they did on my cat and if you are looking for a veterinary dentist in your area, please consult the American Veterinary Dental College website. If you think your cat may be exhibiting signs of stomatitis, please visit your veterinarian. A good physical exam and dental check is important every 6 months!

Have you seen your vet lately?

What do you think are the most common things that I see on a daily basis? What prompts you to bring your cat or dog to the vet?

Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) analyzed its medical claims received in 2007 to determine the top 10 most commonly claimed conditions for dogs and cats. For both cats and dogs, the top 10 conditions accounted for about 25% of all medical claims received last year in the US.

Canine

1. Ear infections

2. Skin allergies

3. Pyoderma/hot spots

4. Gastritis/vomiting

5. Enteritis/diarrhea

6. Urinary tract infections

7. Benign skin tumors

8. Eye inflammation

9. Osteoarthritis

10. Hypothyroidism

Feline

1. Urinary tract infections

2. Gastritis/vomiting

3. Chronic renal failure

4. Enteritis/diarrhea

5. Diabetes mellitus

6. Skin allergies

7. Colitis/constipation

8. Ear infections

9. Respiratory infections

10. Hyperthyroidism

Are you a bit surprised about some of the things that aren't on the list? Vice president and chief veterinary medical officer for VPI, Dr. Carol McConnell says, "Falling just short of the top 10 are the major injuries that often motivate pet owners to purchase pet insurance: broken bones, poisonings or trauma from car accidents or animal attacks."

The most dramatic change on either list was the rise of feline enteritis from No. 16 in 2006 to No. 4 in 2007. Nearly a third of all the common conditions listed above could be related to or exacerbated by diet, diet changes or dietary indiscretions.

The most effective way to reduce common dietary conditions is to talk to your veterinarian about quality pet food tailored to your dog or cats dietary needs and to feed that food consistently.

As the summer is drawing to a close in Texas, I can assure you that I have seen my share of allergies, ear infections and hot spots in dogs this summer with the hot weather. However as the snow never flies around here, we never see complete relief down here and I can expect to see more throughout the rest of the year. In my favorite feline friends, I can't necessarily say one ailment tops another on this list, I have seen all of these sprinkled through quite regularly on a daily basis. I must comment though that those kitties brought in for a supposed urinary tract infection quite often have something else going on. More on that in another blog!

Until next time, enjoy the cooler weather that is coming our way and keep your pets healthy!

For more information about VPI Pet Insurance, visit http://www.petinsurance.com.

Post Disclaimer: Not all of the pictures in this post are mine (most of them are, including the one of my new cute little Dachshund Oliver! but not all) , I could not find the appropriate people to credit for these pictures, if they are your lovely pictures please let me know so that I can give you proper credit.

Yellow is not always sunshine-y

Thank you all for your wonderful words and kind thoughts after my loss of Zeus. I know it's been a while since I've posted.






I've chosen to use this blog to address something I've been treating this last week in the hospital: hepatic lipidosis or fatty liver disease. I'd like to let you all know a little more about the syndrome, what to look out for and what you can do to potentially avoid it. Hepatic lipidosis is an accumulation of fats (lipids) in the liver tissue. The disease classically occurs after a period of anorexia (loss of appetite) of at least 2 weeks duration. Approximately 50% of the cases are deemed primary idiopathic, or unknown causes, however when an additional disease state is found to be the cause of the anorexia, the hepatic lipidosis is defined as "secondary." Some common underlying disease states that may cause the hepatic lipidosis include diabetes mellitus, pancreatitis, cancer, and/or other liver diseases. Other times, things like diet changes, owners being away on vacation, or new pets being introduced into the household can trigger stress-related anorexia. The disease is more common in obese cats because they tend to metabolize fat more readily than thinner cats.





This so-called “fatty liver” represents one of the most common causes of liver failure in the cat and it stems from the cat's basic design. Before cats were inside cats, being free fed through out the day, cats evolved as predators eating small birds and rodents, and they would have these small meals multiple times throughout the day. Their physiology is geared towards a completely carnivorous diet and with the assumption that cats would always live lean and never have the opportunity to develop extensive fat stores (they were not designed to have the extensive fat stores that we see in many of our domestic puss's today!)






Of course this all changed when cats became domestic. Today's cat has every opportunity to become overweight, but should the cat get sick or stop eating for any of the reasons I listed above, a very big problem can erupt. When this happens, excessive amounts of fat are broken down from the cat's peripheral fat storage tissue while they are not eating and the fat stores mobilize. Normally, in starvation mode, fat is moved from the body’s storage deposits to the liver for processing, but the feline liver was never intended to handle huge amounts of mobilized fat. In cats that develop hepatic lipidosis this process is impaired and the rate of fat export from the liver is much slower than the rate of fat intake, resulting in liver fat accumulation.The liver becomes infiltrated with fat and damage to the liver is caused by swelling of liver cells filled with fatty deposits as well as additional processes and the liver fails.



Clinical signs of this disease that your cat may show commonly include anorexia, weight loss, lethargy, jaundice (yellow tinge to the skin visible around the base of the ears, the whites of the eyes, or the gums. On white haired cats it may be visible through the hair on the skin, if severe.) Occasionally neurologic signs such as excessive drooling or seizures may be seen.





The suspicion of hepatic lipidosis is confirmed by a good history and physical exam as well as labwork and imaging such as radiographs and ultrasound. The definitive diagnosis of hepatic lipidosis requires visualization of fat globules in liver cells obtained via liver biopsy or needle aspiration.





Treatment of hepatic lipidosis is aimed at reversing the process of fat accumulation in the liver, by aggressively feeding your cat his or her full caloric requirements. If this is done carefully, the recovery rate approaches 90%.


Force feeding is usually not very successful. Most cats resent force feeding, are not very cooperative, and rarely eat sufficient amounts of food for effective treatment. In almost all cases, a feeding tube needs to be placed into the cat's stomach, either directly through the side of his body or through his nose or esophagus down into the stomach. The placement of most feeding tubes requires general anesthesia but they are generally very well tolerated and comfortable, and ultimately life saving for your cat. The average time from diagnosis to recovery with intense treatment is four to six weeks. Your veterinarian will prescribe a special food mixture to be syringed through the feeding tube three to five times per day. As your cat begins to eat again on their own, the tube can then be removed.



















The feline liver has the remarkable ability to regenerate. Therefore, in cats with idiopathic hepatic lipidosis recurrence is rare, and the cats that recover go on to live normal lives.



(These pictures of a black cat have been of "Hal-o-ween", a cat that was afflicted with hepatic lipidosis and made a wonderful recovery.)


The disease is more common in obese cats because they tend to metabolize fat more readily than thinner cats. The best way to prevent your cat from developing hepatic lipidosis is to keep him or her in a healthy body condition. We can recommend an effective weight control plan for your cat to help keep them sleek and trim!!

Post Disclaimer: Not all of the pictures in this post are mine, I could not find the appropriate people to credit for these pictures, if they are your lovely pictures please let me know so that I can give you proper credit.

Memorial to my friend Zeus.

Well, folks, as some as you realize I haven't posted for quite awhile. And if you read carefully, you might have noticed that the dedication in my blog to my cat Zeus living with renal failure has sadly changed that he has passed on. I'd like to take this chance to post a memorial to my friend Zeus and to remember him for what a wonderful companion he was.





Zeus came into my life 14 years ago as a 5 year old adult cat cast aside by a couple that was divorcing and didn't want to keep him. Their decision bestowed upon me one of the finest creatures I've ever had the privilege of knowing. Zeus was one of the sweetest, gentlest, most affectionate, people oriented cats I have ever known. He wasn't comfortable unless he was on my lap, if something was interfering with him being on my lap then he would place a paw gently on me as if to reassure that he would always be by my side. He was never more than a few inches away, sitting calmly, always interested in what I was doing or ready with a quick purr or inquisitive meow.

Zeus made many life changes with me, moving to many towns in Michigan, to the warm coastal waters of Clearwater, Florida for undergrad school, back up to Michigan for vet school and finally to Houston, Texas. He saw many happy moments in my life, shared his plush coat of fur for me to bury my head in to wipe away my tears through the difficult times, and through it all remained a loyal companion, a steadfast friend, a true warm soul only a purr away. I think only those of us that have had such a wonderful bond with our animals knows what it's like to share such a relationship with a pet and will know what I'm talking about. Others may think, "it's just a cat." Everyone is entitled to think what they may, I'm so glad that I got to spend 14 years with a wonderful friend.

6 months ago Zeus was diagnosed with renal disease. This came as a horrible shock to me because I couldn't bear the idea of losing my absolute favorite cat...the idea of not having him around was unthinkable. After a week in the specialty hospital he rebounded and we were able to bring him home. We weren't sure how much time he was going to have but he gave me 6 wonderful months to enjoy with him. Enjoying my lap, sleeping every night with me, being my shadow, eating and drinking well, basking in slivers of sunshine, strolling outside with me, rolling around on the sunny concrete, nibbling new grass... After he was diagnosed, I only asked for a little bit of time to enjoy the things that I knew I would miss if he would be taken away abruptly and I was given the luxury of 6 months to completely enjoy those things knowing that I would have to say Goodbye.




His passing was peaceful, his last night was spent sleeping with me, right on my chest, he enjoyed some outside morning air and some sips of milk, however when I came home that evening from work, I knew it was time to give him his wings. My friend deserved some dignity and grace and this he now always shall have.




A month of days has now passed and day by day I am healing now, the acute pain and ache of his loss is being replaced by a warmth of his memories. However I often look to see him in his favorite spots and wish fervently that I could pick him up and hear his purr in my ear as I drift off to sleep at night just one more time. You were a wonderful friend Zeus.

Rest sweetly my handsome man....

If you have recently lost a pet or know of someone that has, I would like to personally recommend a website petloss.com that has helped me immensely through some of my hardest days with warmth, kindness and support.

Leave the lilies....

Easter is quickly approaching and something as cat owners that we should all be aware of is the dangers of lilies to our cat friends. Easter lilies are a beautiful plant that many of us are receiving, buying or giving around this time of year. However, if you own cats or are giving this plant to a cat owner, you may want to to think twice about bringing this plant inside your home... or else place it high up in a place that puss can't reach. You may not be aware but all parts of the lily can be toxic, and eating just one leaf can result in severe poisoning leading to irreversible kidney damage if not caught.





This is bad:

After eating a portion of an Easter lily, a cat will generally vomit and become depressed within 2 hours. Your cat may become unwilling to eat, lethargic or disoriented. A veterinarian should be contacted immediately if you think he or she has ingested any part of an Easter Lily. A cat must be treated within 18 hours of ingesting the plant, or the damage to the kidneys can be irreversible. Depending on when your cat ate the Easter Lily your vet may force your cat to vomit and then hospitalize your cat on intravenous fluids monitoring his/her kidney function. Doesn't sound like a lot of fun does it? But something definitely for all of you to be aware of, for many of us have "nibblers" at home, and many plants just cause the occasional tummy upset but nothing too alarming, however this is certainly a plant that should be recognized as a danger.

Have a fabulous, chocolate-y Happy Easter everyone....








Post Disclaimer: The pictures in this post are not mine, I could not find the appropriate people to credit for these pictures, if they are your lovely pictures please let me know so that I can give you proper credit.