Lifestyle

Thanks to advances in veterinary medicine, its not uncommon for a cat to live to the ripe old age of 20 - roughly the physiologic equivalent of age 93 in a human. Thats the good news. The bad news is that cats, like humans, become increasingly susceptible to age-related disease conditions as they grow old, and most of these disorders are bound to have an effect on an animals behavior. For example, arthritis is likely to cause an active cat to slow down dramatically as it transitions through its golden years; kidney and urinary tract disease may affect its litter box behavior; progressive periodontal disease and tooth loss may alter its eating habits; and progressive hearing problems may make a cat decreasingly responsive to its environment. In some cases, however, an elderly cats behavioral peculiarities will remain unattributable to any underlying disease condition. In such a case, the animal is apt to be diagnosed as "senile," a vague term used to describe an animal that exhibits physiologically inexplicable cognitive dysfunction, the outward signs of which resemble those associated with age-related dementia and Alzheimers disease in humans.

Vacations are wonderful, but theres nothing like home sweet home. You drive home from the airport, excited at the thought of sleeping in your own bed, and seeing your beloved cat. And she does seem happy to see you, greeting you with enthusiasm and sharing a few cuddles. Then you go off to unpack, and there she goes - right into your suitcase, urinating on top of your folded clothes. To you, it may feel like your cat is angry because you left her - and this is the way shes making her feelings known. But can a cat really hold a grudge? Experts look at it in another way. Cats and Vengeance. Ask many cat companions, and they will say "yes." They swear that cats can and will be vengeful at times. Besides suitcase antics, people point out the times their cats bite them minutes, or even hours, after they did something their cat disliked - such as grooming it. But animal behaviorists disagree.

The owner is the veterinarians eyes and hands away from the office," explains Fred Scott, DVM, PhD, interim director of Cornells Feline Health Center. For this reason, it is important to be familiar with the steps involved in doing an at-home mini-physical examination on your cat. This should supplement your cats twice yearly trips to the veterinarian. Performing an at-home physical examination is much easier than you might think; in fact, Dr. Scott points out, the examination should be a normal extension of the regular attention you give your cat.

To you ever wonder if any of the anxiety and tension you sometimes bring home can also affect your pets? These challenging economic times can indirectly be hard on our cats, too. Experts feel that cats will indeed react to changes in the emotional behavior of their owners. So, if we believe that cats can sense our stress - and we certainly are living in an era of increased worry and anxiety - it stands to reason that our cats are experiencing higher levels of stress, as well. At what point are our feline friends exposed to more stress then they can handle?

Outdoor hazards - such as dogs, coyotes, cars, and disease - face cats that are allowed to roam outdoors. Most veterinarians, including those at the Cornell Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine, strongly recommend that cats be kept indoors. But if your cat does travel beyond your front door, its likely to wander onto the property of your neighbors. While some people will welcome feline visitors, others wont. What can you do to honor your cats need to roam - and respect your neighbors rights, too? To choose the best method for dealing with a problem, observe your cats behavior carefully to clarify the issue. For example, one womans cat coexisted peacefully with a backyard bird feeder until it suddenly killed three birds in one week. Upon investigation, she discovered that melting snow had left a depression in the ground. The depression prevented the birds from seeing the cat when it crouched in the hole, making them vulnerable to attack. Once the hole was filled in, the birds were safe again.

Thanks for responding in your February 2009 column to my question about night-time yowling. To answer your question, Decker is just 11 months old. A recent physical exam showed that he is in top form with no health problems. It was interesting to read all of the reasons why older cats may meow at night. Now Ill know what to do if Decker starts yowling at an advanced age, but in the meantime, I am hoping that we can get him to sleep through the night! I would like to take you up on your offer to expand on ways to get younger cats onto a more appropriate daytime/nighttime schedule.

Anyone who rescues strays knows there is no shortage of cats. Wanting to provide a home can become a natural outgrowth of feeding them, and most people who adopt them have the best intentions. "They are caring, compassionate people who want to help them," says Pamela Perry, DVM, a lecturer in farm animal behavior at Cornell Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine. But there is a fine line between adequately caring for multiple cats and obsessively accumulating them. Before deciding to bring in just one more, some important factors need to be considered. Health Status. Free-roaming cats are subject to parasites and transmissible diseases with which an indoor-only cat might never come in contact. "When you take in an animal that you dont know, you usually know little about its background, including any diseases it may be carrying," says Dr. Perry. Before integrating the new cat into the household, the newcomer needs to have a thorough veterinary examination, including testing for infection with feline leukemia virus or feline immunodeficiency virus. "If you already have a cat, you dont want to bring another one into the house until it has tested negative for certain diseases," says Dr. Perry. The newcomer also needs to be vaccinated, given flea treatments if necessary and checked for intestinal parasites and ear mites.

Your cats safety and good health should be a year-round priority. And unless you keep your cat indoors all of the time, the challenge is likely to be most demanding during the summer months, when temperatures soar, and cats are more likely to wander from the secure confines of their homes. During extremely hot, humid weather, cats are increasingly vulnerable to heat exhaustion and dehydration. They are more prone to assault by fleas, ticks, and other parasites. They can be dangerously exposed to cancer-causing sun rays. And they are more likely to come in contact with such noxious substances as lawn chemicals and rotting garbage. Among the most severe of summertime risks facing the outdoor cat is the threat of being hit by a motor vehicle, says Christine Bellezza, DVM, a consultant at the Feline Health Center of Cornell Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine. "As the weather warms up," she points out, "cats tend to be outside more often. So theyre more likely to roam around, cross streets, and wander into the path of a car."

The dark brown color of normal cat stool largely results from substances in the bile, a liquid produced in the liver that then empties into the first part of the small intestine. Bile aids in the digestion of fats and contains a number of substances, among which are breakdown products of aged red blood cells. These breakdown products impart the yellow color that is characteristic of bile. As these yellow pigments pass in stool on the way out of the body, bacteria residing in the large intestine break them down further, so their original yellow color is changed to a dark brown.

I adopted a munchkin Persian cat from a rescue group a few months ago. Buttercup is cute as a bug, but she has a real problem with her nose- she doesnt have much of one! When I look at Buttercups face I see very small slits where my other cats have nice big nose holes. When Buttercup breaths she makes more noise than any of my other cats; she actually sounds like shes snoring most of the time, even when shes awake! I dont mind the noisy breathing, but Im troubled by what happens when Buttercups activity increases. When she plays - which she doesnt do very often - it looks like she really has to struggle to get air through that tiny nose. After a few minutes of playing chase the feather she stops, sits down, and just heaves. I feel so sorry for her. I put a vaporizer where she sleeps but cant tell that its made any difference. Would antibiotics help? Will she grow out of it? Is there anything I can do for her?

Canaries and cats have another thing in common - besides an aversion or appetite, respectively, for one another. Like the legendary canaries in the coalmines, cats can be "Sentinels for Public Health," the title of an article in Veterinary Clinics of North America (Vol. 39, Issue 2). The journal says "companion animals have an especially valuable role as sentinels because of their unique place in peoples lives, with exposure to similar household and recreational risk factors as those for the people who own them." For example, cats suffering plumbism (lead poisoning) "have led to the discovery and successful treatment of lead toxicity in children living in the same household," according to the journal. When chemicals leaked from a Georgia plant in 2006, public-health workers went door to door, asking if cats and dogs were suffering respiratory effects. And of course, cats and dogs were the first to be affected in 2007 by melamine-contaminated wheat gluten from China. The subsequent investigation stopped chicken and pork that had been fed contaminated gluten from reaching the human food supply.

The most effective way to determine whether your friendly, back porch tenant is a neighbors cat is to ask if anyone knows whose cat he might be. Take a photo and make flyers which you can pass out to neighbors and post around the neighborhood. Post signs at local shops, veterinary hospitals, and post offices. Drop off a flyer at your local animal shelter and let them know that you have Lucky. The animal shelter folks will let you know what the laws are regarding found animals. Check the lost and found section of your paper to see if anyone is looking for Lucky and post your own notice there. Make a collar for Lucky from a wide piece of elastic - write a message to his owner "Owner, please call (insert your phone number)" on the elastic and see if you get any responses. Ask a veterinarian or animal shelter to scan him for a microchip, which could identify an owner.