Vet Stress in Cats

Many cats (and their humans) get stressed when it’s time for a visit to the vet, and there’s a very simple solution out there that helps most of the time: Rescue Remedy. You can buy this in health stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, and maybe even in pet shops. A few (4) drops on your cat’s lips half an hour or so before you’re ready to load your cat into it’s basket/carrier should do the trick. However, cats are very smart, and they know when it’s time to go to the vet, so you might want to catch yours a little earlier as the Rescue Remedy will last for several hours. You can have a few drops too if you get overly stressed when taking your cat to the vet (or yourself to the doctor). And you can give him or her a few drops later in the evening after the vet visit too if it was a particularly unpleasant visit, just to seal the deal.

Rescue Remedy is a homeopathic remedy that has been around for many many years. It is one of the many Bach remedies that have been tried and tested by humans (and their pets) for donkeys (pardon the pun) years. It keeps very well, so don’t be phased by using just 4 drops at a time and having to throw out the rest. That won’t happen. Give it a try, your cat (and vet) will thank you.

A Safe Christmas for Kitty

Christmas and all the decorations and trimmings that go with it are more than appealing to cats, especially kittens and young adults. So with all that fun and frolic come the accompanying hazards, but a little forethought can make all the difference to keeping it a safe time for your cat or kitten.

The tree itself is a magnet - something to climb and hide out in and under, maybe even chew on some of the needles (if it is a real tree) or synthetic lookalikes if it is an artificial tree. Either way, your cat cannot help itself but to be drawn to this fun addition to the home. Putting a tree out of reach of the cat is not really an option, but weighing the base down can help stop it from toppling over when your kitten finds itself at the top of the tree. Some people do, however, go to great lengths to suspend the tree from the ceiling or surround it by a barrier such as portable fencing, having a very non traditional tree.

If, from past experience, you know that your cat likes to sample the needles, it might be better to keep the cat out the room entirely, use an alternative “tree” until he or she has outgrown the habit or get really creative with an alternative solution.

Decorations are also very appealing to cats, so try putting the breakable ones a bit higher up so that even if your cat does bat them, they won’t shatter when they high the ground, and put unbreakables on the bottom section of the tree. Make sure that the cords of the lights are out of sight wherever possible. Gift wrappings and ribbons can be hazardous too - chewed up ribbon in your cat’s gut is not a good thing.

If you are going out, it might be a good idea to make sure that kitty does not have access to the tree in your absence. The rule of thumb at Christmas - make sure that your cat does not have unsupervised time with the tree, especially if it is a kitten or young adult. A bit of vigilance can save your cat’s life.

Changing Diet in an Older Cat

Anyone who has ever had a cat knows that they can be very set in their ways and resistant to change. My nearly eighteen-year old cat never showed any interest in raw food for the first seventeen years of her life. She pointedly turned her nose up at it and walked away. It did not matter what kind of raw food it was. If it did not come out of a can, a bag or an ice cream container, it was not worth eating.

Well the new seventeen year old decided that it was time for a change. I was preparing fish for myself and put a few offcuts in a dish for her and they were gobbled up with delight as she waited for more. I knew I must have imagined this, so I gave her a couple more pieces. What a hit.

The next time I was preparing fish, I did the same thing and again, it was a hit. Now, as soon as I start to prepare the fish, my 4-legged companion comes to investigate. She has only had it once as an entire meal, and I’m sure would again quite happily, but for now, it’s just a spoonful of chopped fish in a dish as a special treat.

The point of this post is that your elderly cat is not too old to try something new, and just as our tastes can change, so can those of your cat. I don’t cook with meat, so I haven’t had an opportunity to try her with raw chicken, but I would be most interested to see how she responded.

If you wanted to change your cat over to raw food, it is something that needs to be done gradually, as the cat’s digestive system will need to adjust to the different food, so adding a little bit more of raw each day and a little less of canned or bagged food would be recommended. Then maybe canned tuna becomes the special treat. Obviously, feeding your cat an all raw diet is more expensive (at least it certainly is where I live), but don’t feel that just because your cat wasn’t interested a few years ago that he or she would not be ready for a change.

Cat Not Talking To You?

Anyone who knows cats knows that this is very real, but for someone who is new to cats or doesn’t know them at all, this may come as a surprise. You know you’ve told someone that you went home and your cat wasn’t speaking to you and they thought you were nuts, but this is real, and if you are new to cats or have just got a new feline in the household, it is in your best interests to figure out what you did wrong and fix it sooner rather than later.

You go and sit on the sofa and your cat walks right up to you, turns around and settles a few feet away from you with it’s back very deliberately turned to you. What did you do wrong? When you got home did you immediately go and speak to your cat, praise him or her for being such a good kitty and thank them for looking after things in your absence? Well you better go and beg for forgiveness immediately, apologise profusely and praise kitty for being the best that there is.

Have you not paid much attention to kitty today? Well you know what to do, get in there and shower kitty with love and attention. Brush kitty, play with kitty, let him or her know that they are a very important part of the household, and always remember to apologise and beg forgiveness for your faux pas.

Kitty will usually come around quite quickly once you have made amends, but don’t make it a habit or it could get out of hand. Kitty has feelings too!

Sudden Behavioural Changes

Sudden behavioural changes in your cat are, more than likely, the result of a medical problem. A bladder infection can have your cat peeing all over the house. Erratic behaviour can be the result of something going on in the brain. If your cat is becoming very lethargic and just wants to sleep, this can be a symptom of a thyroid problem. So if you notice any sudden behavioural changes in your cat, your first course of action is a visit to the vet. Depending on the problem, a course of medication and your cat could be back to normal in a matter of days.

Unfortunately, if your cat has a brain tumor, the outlook is not quite so positive, and erratic behaviour will get worse until you decide it is time for euthanasia. This is the situation we had with one of our cats, now deceased. When his quality of life disappeared, we made that very difficult decision.

Sudden behavioural changes can also occur if there is a change in the household - someone moves in or out, there is a death in the household (human or animal), a traumatic event in the household. Cats are very sensitive to the energy of others and can respond negatively to a change in the household. Depending on the situation, the remedy can take some time.

The onus is on you the human, to be aware of changes in your cat’s behaviour and take the necessary steps to nip the problem in the bud so that life can get back to that happy balanced household.

Two Weeks After Trauma

It has taken about twelve days for my cat to feel semi-comfortable upstairs, so much so that she has started lying on my desk again. It took the cat longer to move on than it took me after a burglar came into our home.  The point here is that cats (any animal) can be upset when something unexpected happens in the household, good or bad, and that it takes them time to get over it too.

Animals live in the present whereas we humans think about things that have happened throughout our entire lives and even picture the future, we live in the past, present and future. We can rationalise things to help us move on after something has happened. Our animals can’t do that. It helps them tremendously if we explain why something happened, or how it came about, what it means, what difference it may make to the animal and in the household generally. This is what really helps our animal companions get over that unexpected event. Help them understand too by talking to them, often.

One Week After Trauma

Last week I mentioned about my cat being traumatized because of a burglary in our home last Saturday night. I thought it would be useful to provide an update on her status one week after the event to emphasise that just one event can upset a cat in a big way.

She used to love going upstairs to lie on my desk at the window or on the landing at the top of the stairs where she could get the cross-breeze coming from both sides of the house. Now she is very hesitant to go upstairs at all, particularly at night, and if she does, she is back down very quickly.

She will sit near the bottom of the stairs just looking up as if she’s maybe not sure if to go up or if there might be someone up there who doesn’t belong. Yesterday I went upstairs while she was napping and she woke up and heard me upstairs so she hid round the corner and was just peeping around a piece of furniture to see who was coming down the stairs.

And yes, she did pee outside the litterbox - a very typical indication of something not right in a cat’s world. Thankfully, that only happened once. I have now had several chats with her, explaining what happened and trying to reassure her that there is no one else in the house, and that we are all safe. I think that has helped a lot. There are still, of course, different smells in the house as, not only was there a burglar, but also four police officers who came to investigate afterwards.

It has been an interesting week, that’s for sure but I do think she is settling down - slowly.