Features

Tears on your cats face can be concerning. Cats do not have emotional tears like people do, and some causes reflect serious situations; others are minor.

A study from the University of Journal of Feline Medicine, showed that a key protein can build in nerve cells of a cats brain and cause mental deterioration. Its actually a form of Alzheimers disease, say the researchers, and its the same protein that causes tangles in nerve cells in human Alzheimers patients.

The first indication of a heart problem in a kitten or cat might be a murmur picked up by your veterinarian on a routine physical examination. Luckily, not all heart murmurs mean heart disease in cats, says Dr. Bruce Kornreich DVM PhD, board-certified veterinary cardiologist and Associate Director of the Cornell Feline Health Center. Many ostensibly healthy cats have murmurs, but depending upon the situation, follow-up diagnostics may be warranted when a murmur is detected in a cat.

By and large, says the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), cats are geriatric at age 7. Although theres no simple way to compare a pets aging to human aging, the AVMA did come up with a guide.

A recent study conducted in South Australia and New Zealand looked at cat personalities as rated by their owners. Much of what we know about cat behavior has been based on studies that were in shelters and with feral-cat colonies, but this study looked at pet cats living in homes as members of the family.

Since about 30 percent of elderly cats will develop some degree of kidney disease, its important to look at therapies that help cats stay healthy for longer periods of time, and a recent study focused on phosphate binders may be helpful in this regard.

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Some of us leave our pets at home when we travel, but if your cat is coming along on a trip, you need to prepare for her as well. You must have:

Cat carriers are the safest way to transport your cat, be it to a veterinary appointment or to visit family for the holidays. They keep your cat secure, so that she cant get into trouble in an unfamiliar environment or be harmed in any way. In the case of a car crash, being in a carrier could save your cats life. But there is one challenge to this wonderful tool: getting your cat inside it.

Cats, just like humans, get overweight via two paths. They either eat more calories than they should or they dont exercise very much. Many cats have both factors as contributors to their weight problem. Also, just as in humans, feline obesity is associated with health problems, including diabetes, arthritis, and cardiovascular disease. Some diabetic cats can actually go into remission and lose their need for insulin administration with diet control and careful weight loss. Arthritis pain may decrease with appropriate weight loss, as there is less of a burden on the cats joints. Cardiovascular status may also improve as a cats heart does not have to pump so hard to provide oxygen and nutrients to an increased body mass.

In an effort to see what difference diet might make to an obese cats blood glucose control, researchers fed three diets-one high in carbohydrates, one high in fats, and one high in protein-to healthy-weight and obese cats and measured plasma levels of glucose, insulin, free fatty acids, and triglycerides. The study, published by BMC Veterinary Research, was done at the University of Zurich.