Health

Theres more finger-pointing toward pets as "reservoirs" of MRSA, the hard-to stop bacterium methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This time the New England Journal of Medicine (Vol. 358, No. 11) reports on a German woman who suffered deep abscesses and necrotizing pneumonia. The womans cat seemed healthy enough - until tests found the pet infected with a form of MRSA that is extremely rare in humans, spa-type t131 MRSA. Doctors at the Bavarian Food and Health Safety Authority said: "The abscesses in our patient healed only after antibiotic treatment of the cat. It remains unclear whether the cat was the source of the patients infection or vice versa . . . We conclude that pets could be considered as possible household reservoirs of MRSA that can cause infection or reinfection in humans."

Among all agents of feline illness and mortality, few if any are more pernicious - especially to kittens - than feline panleukopenia virus (FPV). Disease resulting from infection with this virus is called panleukopenia - from the Greek words for all types (pan) of white blood cells (leuko) that are greatly reduced in number (penia). The disease is also known in some circles as "distemper," a misnomer, notes Fred Scott, DVM, PhD, a professor emeritus of virology in Cornell Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine and founding director of the Cornell Feline Health Center. "Distemper" refers to a respiratory disease, he explains, and there is no respiratory component to feline panleukopenia. Cats become infected with FPV - which is classified as a parvovirus - by living in an environment that is contaminated with it or by coming in contact with the urine, feces, saliva or nasal secretions of a cat that is already infected. "Panleukopenia is highly contagious," says Dr. Scott. "It takes only a small amount of the virus to cause infection, and the amount of virus shed by an infected cat is tremendous - probably anywhere from one billion to 10 billion viral particles per gram of fecal matter, urine or other secretions."

You have to get up at 6:00 a.m. during the week. But you dont even have to set your alarm, because your cat comes in and licks your fingers or jumps up and purrs on your chest just before the wake-up hour. Thats a pretty nice way to wake up, actually - unless it happens to be Saturday morning and you were planning on sleeping in. But weekday or weekend, your old-faithful feline is there just the same, licking your fingers and purring on your chest just before 6:00 a.m. How do cats do it? Do they really sense what hour it is, or is it something else? Alas, this is one of the many enduring mysteries about cats, says Larry Myers, DVM, PhD, of the Auburn University School of Veterinary Medicine in Alabama. "Some of what appears to be cats telling time is entrainment. Its routine reinforced. Cats very quickly become aware of when human family members wake up, eat, go out and come home," says Dr. Myers, whose 18-year-old female cat wakes him at 6:00 a.m. daily for breakfast (hers, not his).

Veterinarians generally recommend that all cats undergo a thorough physical examination at least once a year until they have reached seven or eight years of age, and twice annually thereafter as they progress into their senior years. The exam should include a complete blood count (CBC), a procedure that can reveal or at least suggest the presence of many feline health disorders. The importance of the CBC should not be underestimated. Among other things, a CBC will determine the concentration of red blood cells (erythrocytes) in a drop or two of blood. The procedure will also reveal the density of hemoglobin, an important constituent of each erythrocyte.

My kitten, Snapper, recently spent a week in intensive care. Hes fine now, but he was so very sick that we feared he wouldnt make it. The cause of all his troubles turned out to be a penny. Yes, a penny! Apparently he had eaten one. As we later learned, pennies minted after 1982 are made from zinc, with just a coating of copper. If an animal swallows one, stomach acids eat away the copper…

If you think its just a matter of introducing two cats, letting nature take its course and then playing with their cute kittens, cat breeding isnt for you. So says Alice Ferris, a 15-year veteran breeder of Persian and Himalayan cats and owner of Lilac Farms Custom Cattery in Hartford, Connecticut. "Being a responsible breeder has many facets," says Ferris. "It takes a lot of dedication, research, time and money to raise healthy kittens. A breeder must desire to learn the medical side of felines, because 80 percent of breeding cats involves feline health care."

You likely consider your beloved cat to be a truly unique creature, and in many respects she may indeed be one of a kind. When it comes to her dietary requirements, however, shes just like any other cat in the neighborhood - or in the world, for that matter. That is, all cats need a nutritionally sound and palatable daily diet, without which they couldnt possibly exist for very long, let alone develop their distinctively individual personalities. The lack of nutritionally complete and balanced food intake can result in a wide variety of disorders that can have lethal consequences if ignored. Daily consumption of a nutritionally adequate diet will not, of course, protect a cat from injury or from the onset of many systemic illnesses. But it is likely to supply the resources that an injured or sick animal needs in order to respond well to medical or surgical treatment.

Nothing gives you more pleasure on a warm and sunny afternoon than to sit peacefully beside your garden and thrill at the sight of the blossoming lilies, chrysanthemums and foxglove. You especially like the graceful yew shrubs bordering this little patch of earth - a touch you added only recently. And the philodendron thats finally coming into its own, way back there near the fence, is beautiful beyond words. Your cat sits quietly in your lap, apparently enjoying the view as much as you are. But heaven forbid that she would decide to investigate the garden at close range and show her horticultural appreciation by nibbling at one of the plants. Tulips, lilies, foxglove, yew shrubs and philodendron are among hundreds of plants that are known to be poisonous to cats. Ingesting just a small leaf of some common ornamental plants could make your little companion quite ill. And without appropriate first aid and prompt veterinary treatment, swallowing a sizable amount could be fatal to her.

Despite protests by the Cat Fanciers Association (and the American Kennel Club), Los Angeles has enacted one of the strictest pet-sterilization laws in the country. Unless youre a registered breeder, failure to spay or neuter a cat after four months of age in L.A. can bring a $500 fine or 40 hours of community service. Advocates of the tough new law say they had no choice. Los Angeles animal shelters had to euthanize 8,960 unwanted cats last year.

Among all acquired feline ear disorders, the most common by far is otitis externa, an infection of the outer ear canal that, if untreated, can progress to the inner ear, damage the ear drum and seriously compromise an animals hearing as well as its sense of balance. The most common cause of this unpleasant condition and its potentially deafening consequences is an assault on the ear by an outside invader, the ear mite. In some cases, however, the culprit is an organism that normally resides harmlessly within a cats ear - a one-celled fungus, or yeast, known as Malessezia.

Your cat bounds up the stairs as usual. But when she gets to the top, she sits and pants - certainly not the usual. Should you worry, wait and see if she does it again or call your veterinarian immediately? In general, cats dont pant as dogs do. Dogs pant to cool themselves off, and its normal. While some cats pant from stress, pain or excitement, panting isnt usually normal for a cat, and you should probably consider taking action if it happens. What exactly is panting? Panting differs from regular breathing. Normal inhalation is an easy movement of the chest outward, with exhalation pulling the chest gently inward. Exhalation usually lasts three times longer than inhalation. The result is that entering air goes deep inside the lungs, where there is an exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide via the blood vessels.

You merely open your eyes in the morning - and your cat sprints to the kitchen. You head for the refrigerator and trip over the cat, who is winding around your legs, begging for food. Is the food gone as soon as it hits the bowl? Worse yet, does your cat wake you up in the middle of the night to be fed? Theres always a reason for excessive hunger in cats. Sometimes it signals underlying illness; sometimes its a matter of conditioning or boredom. Heres what you need to know about your ravenous cat. It seems obvious to say that a cat that is overweight is eating too much. "But it all depends on the cat," says Kathryn E. Michel, DVM, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania. "Some cats can choice-feed. If you leave out food, theyll eat what they want and maintain a good weight. Other cats will eat everything you put out for them and then look for more."