Month: January 2009

Feline Urinary Problems — What Every Cat Owner Should Know

Posted by on January 31, 2009

Did you know that up to 1.5 percent of all cats in the US are plagued with feline urinary problems? That’s a lot of cats.

Your cat may suffer from an uncomfortable cat bladder infection, or his life may be threatened by a cat urinary blockage. An an informed cat owner, you should always be on the lookout for cat urinary problems.

What’s The Difference Between FLUTD And FUS?

Many cat owners are confused, and rightfully so, over the terms used to describe cat urinary problems. FLUTD is an acronym that stands for Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease. FLUTD used to be known as FUS, or Feline Urologic Syndrome. Feline Urologic Syndrome has been renamed as Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease to reflect that most of the urinary problems in cats happen in the lower urinary tract, which includes the bladder and urethra.

Overview Of Feline Urinary Disease

There are many different aspects to feline urinary problems. Here’s a quick overview of a few different conditions that can affect your cat’s urinary tract.

  • An inflammation of your cat’s bladder is called cystitis.
  • If your cat’s urethra is inflamed, he has urethritis.
  • Idiopathic cystitis means that the cause of the bladder inflammation is not known.
  • Bladder stones in cats often occur as a result of feline urinary crystals.
  • if your kitty has a tumor in his bladder, it can cause problems, too.

You can see that it’s important to pinpoint what’s causing your cat’s urinary tract problems in order to treat his condition successfully.

Symptoms of Cat Urinary Problems

No matter what’s causing the feline urinary tract problems, your cat will show these symptoms:

  • Bloody urine
  • Urinating in places other than his litter box
  • Urinating often, but passing only small amounts of urine
  • Straining to urinate, or not being able to pass urine at all
  • Crying out in pain in the litter box

Any of these symptoms should be enough for you to take your cat to the vet for a check-up.

What Your Vet Will Do

Your vet will examine your cat and feel his bladder to see how full it is. The vet will also want to do a urinalysis to check for infection or feline urinary crystals, and may want to do a cat urine culture to see if bacteria are present. If your kitty’s bladder is distended, that indicates a cat urinary blockage, and your vet may want to take x-rays or do an ultrasound to look for feline bladder stones.

What You Can Do At Home To Prevent Feline Urinary Disease?

There are many steps cat owners can take to prevent their cats from developing feline urinary tract problems. The most important thing you can do is to feed a high-quality canned food. Cats are supposed to get most of their water from their food.

A cat who eats only dry food is usually chronically dehydrated, which leads to his urine becoming concentrated. And concentrated urine can lead to cat bladder stones, and a whole host of problems that goes along with them.

Be sure your cat always has access to plenty of clean, fresh water, too.

You may want to consider giving your cat a natural remedy for pets that supports bladder health in felines. This remedy should contain herbal extracts of barberry and uva ursi, along with the homeopathic remedies Cantharis and Staphysagria. Not only are these natural treatments effective for bladder problems in people, but they have been proven to work just as well in cats.

Your goal now? To make sure your cat doesn’t become a statistic suffering from feline urinary problems.

Visit Natural Pet Urinary Health to learn how to prevent feline urinary problems, and find the best place to buy herbal pet remedies.

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Is Cat house worth expenditure

Posted by on January 31, 2009

Our affection for cats often leads us to spoil of loved pets. A fancy scratching post? No problem. The best quality food available in today’s market? It is all about money. Ten dollars for a mouse made from old scraps of material? Here is the source- the credit card.

But what about a special house for your cat? Is that worth the expense? If your cat were a dog, there would be no question. Dogs have inherited the willingness to sleep in dens from their ancestors like wolfs. An anxious or overtired puppy is often happiest tucked away in its carrier or crate.

Cats, however, have the blood of lions flowing through their . Lions don’t seek dens. They lie out on veldt sunning themselves and surveying their kingdoms. This is the primary reason your cat also intends to do well. He or she will, therefore, take a dim view on being shut away in a carrier or crate like a puppy.

Another reason not to purchase a cat house for your cat is that the odds of your feline actually sleeping in it are astronomically low. When do cats ever sleep where you want them to? You are free to shell out a hundred dollar bill for a sheepskin cat bed, however in all probablity you will find you pet sleeping in the laundry basket in next half an hour.

Let’s face it. Your cat doesn’t need a special house. He or she already has the run of your house.

But, if you are determined to spoil your cat by buying it the best cat house in town, here are a few options to consider.

Wicker Cat Bed - PetSmart

The Wicker Cat Bed is available through PetSmart and will cost you around forty dollars. It has the potential to be a winner, because there’s a bed on top of the basket as well as a hole on the side for your cat to crawl into the basket. A cat might receive a kick out while scratching at the wicker. Considering the plethora of available options, even the most choosy pet cat will not be able to avoid noticing this living space.

Cat Hutch - Dura Craft

This hutch, which retails for around $35, is like a teepee for your cat. A hole in the side to crawl through and soft cushions inside will tempt any feline to give home dwelling a try. And if your cat finds other…er…uses for the hutch, both the cushions and the outer cover are machine washable.

Half Moon Multi Tier Tower - Green Duck

For $130, you can make your cat a condo dweller. This cat house is wonderful for scratching, climbing, and napping. It sould not be closed from all ends and allow the kitty to survey it’s dwelling place. If your cat must have a house, this is definitely the way to go.

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Cats an useful pet

Posted by on January 31, 2009

Cats often compete with Dogs for their position as the favorite pet animal to humans; they are regarded as useful, sweet creatures that delight their owners. Cats are small domesticated animals that have gained popularity for their intelligence and their ability to follow simple commands once trained, and their capacity to catch and destroy vermin, more specifically rats. You can find multiple cat varieties with contrasting color, fur type and of course size originating out of natural interbreeding or human intervened breeding.

The African Wild Cat is believed to be the closes pre-domesticated of cats and present day cats still carry innately wild characteristics like being carnivorous and instinctive in hunting, known to hunt over a thousand species for food. Association of human beings and cats is relatively older, documented reference comes in Egyptian, Chinese and Viking literature, these cultures often placed cats at a higher status over other domestic and wild animals.
Cat-Aloguing Cats
Cat are often called as Tom, while the female of the species is often called Queen, snow cats, pedigreed or purebred cats at times are referred as sirens for males and Dams for females. Purebred and pedigreed cats both have recorded ancestries; purebred, however, have a long-lineage of only one cat variety or breed, while pedigreed cats may have ancestors of different, mostly new breeds. Breeding different cat varieties are subject to strict rules of cat registries and associations that study, regulate and assess the compatibility of varieties to come up with better offspring, both in terms of health and appearance.
Domestic longhairs, shorthairs, random-bred and mongrels are some terms that refer to cats with mixed ancestry that vary from one country to the next. Most of the cat population the world over is comprised of random-bred felines, with purebreds only totaling to less than ten percent of the feline population. Domestic cats, in general, have been classified by Carolus Linnaeus as Felis catus back in the 17th century as the domestic sub-species of the wild cat family.
Cats commonly weigh anywhere between two to seven kilograms with some breeds such as the Maine Coon weighing over ten kilograms. As a result of overeating, some of the bigger cat varieties can weigh more than twenty kilograms but are considered by veterinarians as unhealthy and more susceptible to illnesses, ailments and diseases. Further, there are also adult smaller cats that weigh less than two kilograms but are not classified as miniature varieties but are only considered as smaller, underweight cats and are considered underweight or unhealthy.

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How To Make A Wild Cat Friendly

Posted by on January 31, 2009

Domesticated cats have been part of human’s life since ancient Egypt or at least that is how far the history books record their existence. Our own domestic cat holds the distinction to be the smallest mammal of the cat family that includes bigger carnivores like cheetah, panther, puma and tiger.

Cats As Pets

Cats make one of the best pets because they are easy to maintain, intelligent and extremely loving. Training a cat however may prove a bit difficult especially if they are already mature because wild cats have the animal instincts strongly built in as well as a good defensive system, which is activated every time they feel in danger.

Methods To Tame A Wild Cat

There are a few methods you can apply to tame a wild cat depending on his or her age: you first must gain the confidence of the cat by showing that you pose to harm and the best way to do that is to offer him or her food. Wild cats appreciate food especially in the cold weather when it is very hard to find it by themselves.

Don’t attempt to give the cat foodfrom your hand as they will definitely not approach you but place it on the floor in a clean dish or bowl. A wild cat generally takes considerable amount of time to get friendly, you can expedite the process by becoming it’s permanent food source, this will enable you to pet and tame it easily.

Once you get familiar to your wild cat, you complete the first step of taming it, here onwards you need to groom your loved pet in order to enjoy its life long company in your home.

Training A Wild Cat

Training a wild cat is probably the most difficult part as they have habits and instincts that they will not like to give up; most people who keep previous wild cats as pets let them roam freely as they please outdoors by making a dog trap in the main door because firstly they don’t like being confined to a closed place anymore and secondly some may find it impossible to get the cat to use the litter box.

Another great way to tame a wild cat and train it as well is to hire a professional trainer who will help you bring out the domestic side of the cat in only a few sessions, which can be done at home so you can continue them even after the sessions are over in case you need to.

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Secrets Of Keeping Cats Out Of Your Garden

Posted by on January 31, 2009

Your first line of defense when keeping cats out of your garden is to make sure that you have your boundaries secure.  If there are any gaps in your fence, you should make sure that you block them to prevent any low access.  Cats are very agile animals, and can jump very high.  Normally they can jump a fence, which is why you should also invest in string or taut wire across the top.

If a cat has made his way into your garden, it may be hard to get him out.  Most people choose to use dogs, simply because dogs are known to dislike cats. There are several dog breeds out there that completely dislike cats, such as pit bulls and Dobermans.  Cats are completely fearful of these breeds, and will flee if they see them around.

All cats are known to despise water as well.  If you spot a catin your garden, water almost always gets him out.  All it takes is a bucket of water or a well aimed squirt with a garden hose to make him run away.  After you have hit the cat with water several times, he should get the hint not to come back anymore.  If he comes back, simply squirt him or throw more water on him until he gets the idea.

Protecting your plants is a different story.Mothballs are among the most effective agents for this purpose, as cats do not favourable perceive it’s smell.You can employ mothballs near your plants, border of you garden, or as a matter of fact even along the fence.  There are other repellents that you can use as well, such as cayenne peppers, tobacco, lavender oil, citronella oil, mustard oil, and even lemon grass oil.

You can easily find a motion activated sprinklers through a visit to local local Lawn store or even at a Hardware store.  They work great in keeping cats out of your garden.  Once you install the sprinkler system and a cat comes into the area, the detector will pick up the cat’s presence and immediately shoot out a jet of water that will douse the cat.  In most cases, all it takes is a few times of exposure to the sprinkler before a cat learns to stay out of that area.

Sound devices that feature high frequencies are also a great way to scare off cats, although they aren’t annoying to humans.  You can find several different models, such as those that stay on all the time, and those that are motion detected.  To use this type of device, you’ll need to make sure that the model you have is strong enough to cover the entire area.  If you model you are using is strong enough to cover your entire garden, it should suffice in scaring off any unwanted animals.

You can also use commercial repellents as well.  Commercial repellents use scents to keep cats away, and shouldn’t be used near any food crops.  Due to their high chemical content, commercial repellents can pollute your crops.  You can find them at your local department store, with several varieties to choose from, many of which will fend off other animals from your garden as well.

If you have a garden, it can be very annoying if cats and other animals decide to make your garden their home.  If you stick to your guns and do your part, you can prevent them from bothering your garden or your crops.  Once you have secured your boundaries around the garden, you should try using water first.  If water doesn’t seem to work, you can look into another method, such as commercial repellents.

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