Health

When the topic of intestinal parasites comes up, people immediately think of worms, such as roundworms (ascarids) and tapeworms. However, other parasites may be more common and equally debilitating for your cat.

Incisions are delicate. Even if your veterinarian has opted to use stainless steel suture to prevent a pet from ripping the suture material, the skin itself can be torn. If your cat rips open her incision, she may be allowing things that should be inside her body to get out and allowing things from the outside world to get in.

From the ASPCA, the top five toxins of 2017

According to Fox 8 in Cleveland, Ohio, Squad 51 was started by Yalanda Medina after a life-and-death health scare with her dog. Her 24-hour emergency response and transport company provides emergency triage-like veterinary paramedics-and transportation to the nearest veterinary emergency clinic.

You go to cuddle with your indoor cat and notice what looks like salt and pepper on your white shirt. Since youre a scientist at heart and want to know exactly what those specks are, you shake them off onto a white paper towel and add a drop of water. Oh no! The black specks dissolve into pink. You found flea eggs and flea feces.

Choking is an emergency. Cats can choke on kibble or toys, but most commonly, they come to the emergency room choking on a foreign object due to chewing on thread or swallowing needles, says Dan Fletcher, DVM, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Emergency and Critical Care at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.

I need information on spraying. I have four neutered males that are housed exclusively indoors, and I am having problems. Can you provide any advice about how best to address this issue?

A diagnosis of hip dysplasia might take you by surprise. Usually, a cat comes into the veterinarian because the owner notices that the cat is lame or sore, or less active than normal. Some cats with hip dysplasia will be consistently off in their gait, while other cats only show stiffness after a wild chase through the house.

Many cats will wear down their nails with routine scratching (hopefully on an approved scratching post and not your furniture), but for others, were responsible for their pawdicures. You may need to keep your cats nails trimmed to lessen the damage from scratches or to make your cats affectionate kneading less painful. Cats who dont wear down their nails must be trimmed regularly to avoid the nails growing into the cats paw.

We may now start classifying seizures in cats based on the canine system of the International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force (IVETF).

Bony or osteo arthritis can be painful. While cats often hide pain well, with the use of pain medications owners often see a dramatic improvement in their cats mobility and quality of life. Many pain medications, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are not metabolized well by cats and can even be deadly.

A study from Queens University, Belfast, says cats exhibit clear paw preference, much as humans do. Researchers recruited 24 neutered male and 20 spayed female cats and asked the cat owners to collect data on which paw cats used when they stepped down the stairs or over objects, whether they slept on the left or right side of their body, and which paw the cat used to reach for food inside a three-tier food tower.