Disease

If your normally playful, energetic cat mysteriously starts moping around the house, acting sullen, reclusive, nervous and depressed, chances are that it is trying to cope with some sort of physical discomfort or nagging pain.

any cats, at some point in their lives, will contract an upper respiratory disease characterized by persistent sneezing, nasal discharge, conjunctivitis (inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the inner surface of the eyelid), and in some cases keratitis (inflammation of the transparent outer covering of the front of the eyeball).

When a cats food intake drops off, for whatever reason, the resulting decrease in protein intake can trigger feline hepatic lipidosis (FHL), the most common form of liver disease in cats.

FIP: Almost always fatal. Owners can reduce the risk of this serious feline disease by practicing good litter-box hygiene. Here's why.

All elderly cats are at elevated risk for age-related mental deterioration. Here are the signs to look for, and some help.

A wide range of disorders — some of them life-threatening — can be responsible. Here's what you should know.

A very clean litter box can be useful in prevention. But once diagnosed, your cat will likely need a specific dietary regimen.

Early diagnosis and treatment may help. But neither Cushing's nor Addison's disease can be prevented or truly cured.

Your cats kidneys play a central role in almost all of its bodily processes. They help to control the blood pressure and regulate the amount and chemical consistency of fluid in the bloodstream. They produce a variety of vitally needed hormones and enzymes, and they contribute to the production of red blood cells. They also remove metabolic waste, such as urea, mineral salts and poisonous substances, from its blood. This is accomplished by kidney (renal) tissue containing hundreds of thousands of tiny filtration units called nephrons. When waste-laden blood enters the kidneys through the renal artery, it moves through progressively smaller vessels until it reaches these nephrons, where it is filtered through microscopically minute structures called glomeruli. The cleansed blood - about 95 percent of the total fluid volume that originally entered the kidneys - then circulates back to the heart for yet another voyage through the body. Meanwhile, the remaining fluid, containing the waste products, is passed along as urine from the kidneys to the bladder and eventually excreted.

Making the decision to humanely end the life of your terminally ill or disabled cat can be very difficult. Here's some help.

When vomiting lasts more than a week, it's considered chronic, and the culprit needs to be discovered. Here's why.

A wide variety of hepatic diseases can put your cats life in danger.