Spotted Cat Designs

We have all seen Cat Fancy, Kittens and Cats and others, in supermarkets, bookstores and pet stores. While browsing the Internet, I found some less well marketed publications.

Animal Wellness Magazine focus on natural foods, holistic treatments, homeopathy for cats and other pets. They have both paid print and digital subscriptions.

A fantastic newsletter called CatWatch is put out by the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. No ads so it is not cheap at $20.00US a year. The well written articles are authored by veterinarians. They cover every conceivable health and behavioral issue, dietary problems and solutions, feline anatomy and much more.

Yankee Magazine’s: Practical Pet Solutions for Dogs and Cats and Others is a well organized book comprised of both anecdotal and expert information about pets and pet care. The advice is from a selected group of veterinarians, pet trainers and breeders as well as their readers. I often find reading Yankee Magazine’s books both informative and fun.

The web site of the American Association of Feline Practitioners is primarily for veterinarians. If you use their “find a practitioner” it will only show you member veterinarians, not all veterinarians that care for cats.

If you go to their Practice Guidelines page, you will find a few really large .pdf files detailing their suggestions to all veterinarians on many subjects including feline pain management, zoonoses and assisting aging cats. This group and the European Society of Feline Medicine which is linked with the Feline Advisory Bureau(UK), publish the bimonthly Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. While a large part of the site focuses on technical matters, the Feline Advisory Bureau web site also has practical information about catteries, boarding facilities, and useful information for those who are owned by their cats.

Two nicely written articles.

News for cats and dogs – Rochester on Aging: Confessions of a Senior Cat

Senior Cats and Hearing Loss

Lisa Wade McCormick of ConsumerAffairs.com wrote an article about Walmart’s public rebuttal to the ExperTox Analytical Laboratory analysis of toxins they found in certain cat and dog toys carried by Walmart. In the article she writes:

“ConsumerAffairs.com hired ExperTox to test four Chinese-made pet toys — two for dogs and two for cats — for heavy metals and other toxins. Two of those toys — a latex one for dogs that looks like a green monster and a cloth catnip one — revealed what the lab’s toxicologist called high levels of the toxic metals lead, chromium, and cadmium.”

This lengthy article has detailed information from both ExperTox and Walmart, as well as other independent sources. Definitely worth reading — then you decide which path to follow.

I can cruise the net with the best of them Anecdotal stories are often interesting. However, when it comes to caring for our precious family members — that includes my sons as well as our cats I prefer to get my medical advice and information from those whose jobs involve staying at the forefront of medical knowledge.

Cornell University Veterinary School’s Feline Health Center has quite a few free online brochures related to various health and behavioral concerns. You can read them as an article or download as a .pdf file. Where appropriate they cross reference their own videos. From the link above, you can also access a glossary of feline medical terms, articles from their newsletter CatWatch.

At this writing there are 8 articles about general health issues ranging from what to do if your cat is “going outside the box” to dealing with aggression. There are four brochures about feline infectious diseases including zoonotic (transferable to humans) disease. And there are six about specific feline health diseases.

The American Veterinary Medical Association has lots of feline health brochures in English and Spanish; printable .pdf files and online readable files. Veterinary clinics can order mix and match packages of 50 brochures to give to clients. They also have a huge number of .pdf files concerned with disaster preparedness, mostly for veterinary practices and state organizations, however there are a few that are of use to pet owners such as Saving the Family (including pets!).

Go and see for yourself!

I had previously written about some videos that showed cats having asthma attacks. I have found some more useful videos that I thought important to share with you.

These How To Health Videos are from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine Feline Health Center web site. These videos are:

• Caring for your Diabetic Cat
• Giving Your Cat a Pill or Capsule
• Giving Your Cat Liquid Medication
• Trimming Your Cat’s Claws
• Taking Your Cat’s Temperature
• Brushing Your Cat’s Teeth

The US Food and Drug Administration has a section comprised of many web pages devoted to the Pet Food Recall that started in March 2007. From the main page, you can get an RSS feed for any new alerts, as well as get on their Recalls Email Mailing List.

I have seen misleading information on blogs and private email lists — check here before panicking.

Petsavers is a charity that funds vital veterinary studies into the diagnosis and treatment of sick pets. It is a division of The British Small Animal Veterinary Assoc.

“Petsavers is dedicated to improving the health of the nation’s pets. We do this by funding clinical studies and clinical training programmes. * Petsavers clinical studies give us a better understanding of pets’ illnesses. This leads to improved diagnosis and treatment so that pets can have longer and healthier lives. * Petsavers training programmes develop the skills of vets so that they can apply the results of the clinical studies and their expertise to pets as soon as possible. These vets are referred to as Petsavers Scholars. No experimental animals are used in Petsavers studies. In the last 30 years Petsavers has given over £1.7 million towards these goals. Over this time the need for this funding has become even greater as other sources have dried up. We rely on the support of veterinarians, nurses and pet owners.“

Please help research groups such as this. It may save your cat’s life one day. Thank you.

OK, we feed our cats Nutro Natural Indoors cat food. There was an notice on an email rescue group I subscribe to that more Nutro foods had been recalled, so I did some research. First I went to the FDA Website on Pet Food Recalls. Then I checked my email in which I receive alerts from Google about pet food. No information on any such a new recall. I even checked the FDA Import Refusal section. Then I went to the Nutro Products web site. Here is their press release:

City of Industry, CA (August 22, 2007) — It has been brought to our attention that confusion has been caused by the Food and Drug Administration’s (“FDA”) Import Refusal report. We wish to assure our customers that this report is in no way a cause for concern about the quality and safety of Nutro pet foods currently on store shelves. This report lists recalled product that has been returned to Nutro from overseas. This product is not intended for sale.

Immediately upon being notified of the Menu Foods recalls in March and April 2007, Nutro ordered the discontinuation of all sales of the involved products, removal of these products from retail stores, and the isolation of product in warehouses and distribution centers. Nutro also ordered recalled product to be shipped back to the U.S. from overseas for proper handling. Some of this product is the subject of the FDA report.

Pet owners can feel confident in our products and contact us directly with questions. For more information about Nutro’s pet foods or for answers to any questions you may have, please contact Nutro’s Customer Service representatives at 1-800-833-5330, or visit our Web site at www.nutroproducts.com .

I found this alert on another web site:

News for cats and dogs – Smokehouse Brand Dog Treats Pulled From PetSmart Shelves

I have seen these foods and some of these packages are marked “IRRADIATED FOR YOUR HEALTH, WASH HANDS THOROUGHLY AFTER HANDLING” All are labeled as “Made in China”

Here is the press release sent out by the American Veterinary Medical Association:

LAKEWOOD, Colo. – The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has recently been made aware of several complaints from pet owners and veterinarians that multiple brands of jerky treats manufactured in China have been making pets sick. On Thursday, September 13th they posted a Media Alert to their website at www.AVMA.org. Symptoms of illness have included vomiting, diarrhea, and lethargy. To their knowledge, no deaths have been reported.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently testing these treats to see if a contaminant can be found. So far they have ruled out melamine, one of the chemicals that led to the massive pet food recall this spring, but have yet to identify anything that might be making pets sick.

While a list of brand/product names of affected treats is not yet available, the AVMA has learned that all complaints have involved jerky treats from China. They recommend that pet owners use their best judgment in this matter and continue to consult www.AVMA.org for updates. Diplomates in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM), who work in the field of veterinary nephrology and urology, had become aware of an unusual number of dogs with very similar presenting complaints and clinico-pathologic testing results associated with the ingestion of jerky treats from a variety of brands. No cats have been reported to date. (Italics mine)

They report that these are typically small dogs that present with a history of vomiting, lethargy and anorexia. They have all consumed jerky treats (mostly chicken jerky) within a few weeks prior to becoming anorexic. Physical examination has been relatively unremarkable. Blood chemistry in many of the cases has revealed hypokalemia and mildly increased liver enzymes. Blood gas analysis indicated acidosis. Urinalysis has consistently shown glucosuria and granular casts. These findings suggested an acquired Fanconi syndrome.

Fanconi screens on urine, when submitted, have been positive. The Metabolic Genetic Disease Testing Laboratory at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania can run urine screens for generalized amino aciduria and lactic aciduria tests of Fanconi Syndrome and other causes of PRTA. Their website can be found at http://w3.vet.upenn.edu/research/centers/penngen/services/metaboliclab/fanconi.html

The most common severe abnormalities appear to be acidosis and hypokalemia. Liberal potassium supplementation appears to be warranted during hospitalization and often needs to be continued orally after discharge. Most of the dogs did not require long term bicarbonate supplementation, although this should be considered based on repeated blood gas analyses. Azotemia does not appear to be a consistent finding and therefore cases will likely be missed in the absence of a urinalysis.

The vast majority of dogs have recovered from their acute disease. All clinical signs of disease including glycosuria have resolved in many of the patients within a few weeks of initial presentation.

The cause of this renal tubular/GI toxicity remains under investigation. Veterinarians should seek a thorough dietary history including treats when presented with a dog presenting with acute GI signs or PU/PD. Diagnostics should include a general blood screen and urinalysis. Treatment consisting of supportive care, electrolyte and blood gas monitoring should be instituted if this acquired Fanconi syndrome is identified.

For further recommendations and assistance on a case by case basis, veterinarians may wish to consult a small animal internist in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in their community. Please see www.ACVIM.org to locate a Diplomate.