Disease

But the bacterium, Yersinia pestis, widely held to be the cause of the Black Death of antiquity is alive and well, causing roughly 1,000 to 2,000 human cases of plague every year, primarily in rural areas of developing countries. Requisites for the diseases persistence are the availability of rodent (or sometimes rabbit) "reservoirs" with the ability to reproduce to high numbers, the year-round feeding of appropriate flea "vectors" and the proper environmental conditions. In the United States, the majority of cases in reservoir rodents - usually rock squirrels, ground squirrels and prairie dogs - occurs in the Southwest, but infected animals may be seen anywhere west of the Rockies. During heavy outbreaks in these animals, cases have been detected as far east as Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas. Most human cases of plague in the U.S. arise from two areas: one in the region encompassing southern Colorado and northern New Mexico and Arizona, and the other encompassing western Nevada, California and southern Oregon.

As springtime arrives throughout the U.S., the steamy days and nights of summer cannot be far behind. This means, of course, a proliferation of mosquitoes. For you, this is an annoyance. For your cat, these bothersome little creatures can pose a major health problem. Among all of the various disorders that can endanger a cats physical well-being and perhaps threaten its life, few are more insidious than feline heartworm disease, a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs when a parasitic worm called Dirofilaria immitis gets into an animals system.

Feline dermatophytosis, commonly referred to as ringworm, is a fungal infection that is frequently observed in cats. The condition occurs worldwide, most commonly in warm, humid climates that are hospitable to the peculiar type of fungus that causes it. In the U.S., the disorder is especially problematic year-round in the deep South, says William Miller, VMD, a professor of dermatology at Cornell Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine, and its prevalence can rise markedly in cooler areas of the nation with the arrival of hot and muggy summer weather.

Your seven-year-old cat is a generally healthy animal. Except for a fleeting bout of gastrointestinal upset a few years ago, shes never had a really serious sick-day in her life. But your neighbors cat always seems to be ill. Indeed, every three or four months she shows up on your doorstep wheezing, sneezing and coughing. Her eyes are red and watery, and she acts lethargic. These disturbing signs persist for a week or 10 days, but then she seems to be all right again - for a while.

Perhaps the only thing sadder than the sight of a tiny kitten suffering from a bout of gut-wrenching diarrhea is the sight of three or four of them, piled on top of each other in a cramped cage, all in the throes of debilitating, possibly life-threatening intestinal damage. That, unfortunately, is what may occur in an unkempt animal shelter contaminated with a bacterium called Campylobacter jejuni.

Cats come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and the range of their behavioral characteristics is similarly broad. The same can be said about the array of tumors (neoplasms) that can develop within the feline body. Some are small, others are large; some naturally tend to pass the time quietly ensconced in one spot, while others are destined to roam; some are benign by nature, while others behave very badly indeed, causing no end of damage.

You should be pleased to see your cat, at the age of seven, looking terrifically fit and behaving with the same mischievous vitality that she did when she was a kitten. Bear in mind, however, that the feline age of seven is equivalent to the age of 41 or so in a human, and your cat as trim and spirited as she is at present is bound to start showing the normal signs of aging before you know it.

If anyone ever told you that you had "cat breath," you might have a real reason to be insulted. Thats because cat breath can be rather unpleasant, which is something you already know if youve ever smelled bad breath on your own cat.

If you often try to move around your home very, very quietly to avoid waking a slumbering child, for example you may be in the habit of walking on your tiptoes. Normally, however, you will employ whats termed a "plantigrade" stance. That is to say, youll stand and walk with the entire sole of your foot touching the floor.

Few things in the life of a cat owner are sweeter than the sight of a newborn kitten, weighing just a few ounces, its eyes tightly shut, nursing contentedly at its mother’s nipple. A healthy kitten will nurse every 20 minutes or so, typically for about eight weeks, during which time its mother’s milk will fulfill all of the little animal’s nutritional needs

The feline pancreas is a slender, pale pink, V-shaped strip of tissue that is tucked snugly within the right-hand side of a cats abdomen, at a junction between its kidney and its duodenum (the beginning portion of the intestine as it leaves the stomach).

The feline lymphatic system - an exquisitely structured arrangement of internal organs and tissues - directly or indirectly influences every aspect of a cats physical existence. For this reason, owners should be equipped to recognize the signs that suggest the presence of feline lymphoma, a potentially deadly cancer of the lymphatic system that can assault many areas of a cats body, including its liver, gastrointestinal system, spleen and skin.