Short Takes

Livescience.com says the project D.C. Cat Count is being put together to better manage cats living in the Washington, D.C., area.

An article in the July 15, 2018, Journal of the American Veterinary Medicine Association looked at a French study on feline pleural effusion. Pleural effusion is a buildup of fluid in the pleural space, which is the space in your cats chest between the protective linings covering the lungs and the walls of the chest cavity itself. Normally, there is only a small amount of fluid in that area. Large amounts of fluid mean less room for the lungs to expand, which causes difficulty breathing and getting adequate oxygen to your cats body tissues.

KTVB in Boise, Idaho, reported in June that a cat tested positive for the plague. This occurred a month after a child tested positive for the plague, also in Idaho.

CNBC.com reports that nearly 70 percent of American households have a pet but most are unprepared financially for a veterinary emergency, which averages between $800 and $1,500, according to Petplan.

All cats and dogs born after July 1, 2018, are required to be neutered, or desexed, before they turn six months of age or within 28 days of the new owners possession, according to a South Australia government website.

The Cat Writers Associations mission is to promote professionalism among people who write about and photograph cats and improve the quality of cat information. To that end, they host an annual awards contest to honor outstanding writers. We are delighted to have earned two special awards, three Muse Medallion awards, and four certificates of excellence for our work in 2017.

Cats do an amazing job landing on their feet, but only when they have time to re-orient themselves. Cats in free fall immediately go about righting themselves in a race against the clock. In other words, if the fall is high enough, they may have time to get upright. Cats right themselves from front to back, righting the head and front feet then the back feet.

Maddies Fund is granting $2,580,741 to support the Million Cat Challenge as it expands its lifesaving work in shelters across North America. The Million Cat Challenge is a campaign to save the lives of one million shelter cats and it met its goal one year early. They are now focusing on communities where cats are still at risk to make lifesaving the norm across shelters.

Its cute, at first, when that tiny little kitten leaps at your ankles, swats you a few times, then runs off. But as he grows, this play biting/ scratching can injure you.

Luckily, cats do not experience the high frequency of seizures that can plague many dogs, but seizuring cats face the extra challenge of trying to find a safe, effective medication. A recent study looked at an extended-release version of the medication levetiracetam.

The TV show “America’s Got Talent” included a mind-boggling cat act, with some amazing tricks by very happy cats. You can seee it here at: https://youtu.be/8e0z3-iZ_TY.

Gary Whittaker, PhD, and Elizabeth Berliner, DVM, will assess the importance of feline coronavirus as a cause of upper-respiratory disease in shelter cats and the role it plays in the development of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP).