Spotted Cat Designs

Last year our beloved first cat, Panther developed diabetes. So we learned about injecting insulin and glucose curves. Last fall, he vomited violently 3 times, and we rushed him to the pet emergency clinic on a Saturday night. We learned about pancreatitus (again) and giving subcutaneous fluids.

Panther has had several more episodes of pancreatitus. So we keep an I/V unit with a pouch of Ringers Lactate ready in the closet. We already had one cat chew through the tubing, so the closed closet is safest. When his fur looks bad and I tent his scruff which doesn’t go down quickly — with Steven’s help I give him subQ fluids from 50 to 150ccs at a time. Sometimes once a week, sometimes twice a day.

When Panther meows and makes me follow him, then jumps on the “insulin perch” I know to give him his 1/4 unit of Lantus/Glargine. But only after he eats!

We learned that Panther has a “sensitive” pancreas. That’s the organ that produces insulin and various digestive enzymes. So he eats prescription Hills Science Diet I/D and canned Purina Proplan salmon/fish or turkey and giblets. The canned food is amongst those recommended for diabetic cats.

During this time Panther has willfully downgraded himself socially from top male cat to the bottom of the social scale. So no more energy expended in boxing matches with Charger.

Panther is wise enough to direct us in what he needs and when. And we have become wise enough to listen. That is why he is still alive and experiencing a decent quality of life.

At their annual checkup we found that both Charger and Agile are overweight. We take them in to our vet at the same time, as this saves us one office visit basic fee. When you have as many cats as we do, saving money in this way can be a Good Thing.

We are giving them high protein canned food to replace some of the kibble they eat (similar to what Panther is getting). Charger is a large male Bengal at 19 lb 12 oz. Agile is a broad chested formerly feral feline at 15 lbs. Our goal for the next two years is to get them down to about 18 lbs and 13 lbs respectively. So, much more exercise, combined with having to jump up to platforms for smaller quantities of food is in store for both cats.

There are numerous advantages to having an automatic feeder

• less anxious or annoyed cats (and dogs)
• regulated portioned feeding can help prevent or reverse obesity (versus free feeding out of a bowl)
• feeding times can be specified with some models
• your cat can be fed without you being there — good for short trips away from home or long days at work

A few disadvantages:

• you have to keep it very clean
• prevent ants or other insects from inhabiting the feeder
• set the times correctly
• with most models it dispenses only enough to be feeding one or two pets
• each model presents varying degrees of difficulty being programmed — some are less intuitive than others

Notable for techies in Korea and Japan: Korean mobile operator SK Telecom has created a way to feed your pet using their cell phone feature. I wonder when someone will bring capability to the US…

Then there is the futuristic looking coffee maker sized automated and programmable Perfect PetFeeder is available in the US — for about $499.00US

Or the gravity fed elevated wheeled food or watering stations by Critter Cooler. For about $95.00US.

Having said all that, here are a few less costly models I have seen that you might want to consider:

Petmate’s Bistro Electronic Portion Control automatic feeder

Synchronic’s Lentek PD06G 6 Day Automatic Feeder

Radio Systems’ Petsafe PF5-11 5-Meal Electronic Pet Feeder

Blitz’ 11899 25lb Automatic Feeder

Plus there are a large number of gravity fed kibble feeders by Petmate that you can find in almost any pet store.

For any of these feeders look at:

• the sturdiness of the construction
• warranty
• ease of cleaning
• ease of emptying and refilling
• food capacity
• will it hold and dispense the type of food your cat likes to eat
• anticipate a trial period for any new feeder
• be sure the construction does not allow an industrious cat from pawing out additional kibble, or breaking the mechanism!
• if you return the feeder, let the seller (and manufacturer!) know what went wrong — the pet food industry is a billion dollar market — the best way to bring about change is to provide consumer feedback!

With 8 cats to feed, plus the strays that other people discard in my area, I buy our high quality cat food in 20 lb. bags where possible to save money. Then we transfer it to special air tight food safe containers. I also check the expiration date before buying. Eight cats go through a 20 lb. sack in about one and a half months. Overall, buying high quality cat food such as Royal Canin, Eukanuba, Hills, Purina Pro Plan, Nutro, Blue Buffalo, Wysong, etc. can save you money — your cats will eat less and be healthier (thus saving on vet bills).

We are also supplementing with more canned food, especially for our diabetic cat Panther. The canned foods we chose are higher protein, fewer carbohydrates, thus straining his metabolism less.
When you are shopping be sure to check the expiration dates before you buy any pet food or treats.

To read the ingredients on some canned food bring your magnifying glasses (only half joking) — until someone pointed it out — I did not see that Wellness brand foods contains small amounts of garlic which damage the red blood cells of cats and dogs. The label print is tiny!

Be sure that taurine is in the cat food you buy, until it was intentionally added to cat foods, cats were having heart problems from a lack of taurine. The Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research’s article explains this better than I can.

The article “Cats Are Different“by T. J. Dunn, Jr. DVM subtitled “Find Out How A Cat’s Nutritional Needs Are Different From A Dog” is a terrific layman’s level explanation of our pet’s nutritional needs. Read and learn!

Lastly, I found this article and thought you might find it interesting, too: Pet Food Storage Tips, Part One: Dry Food

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.

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.

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 .