Cat care blog

Cats at night

2006-07-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here in the UK we are having a spell of very hot summer weather. All four of my foster-cats - Sylvester, Magic, Queenie and Janan - are enjoying spending all the time out of doors, only coming in for a food top-up every now and again!
The problem comes at bed-time! Cats love to be out of doors on these balmy summer nights. The temperature is just right, without the hot sun which they often find too hot. Not only that, but there are lots of little creatures they can hunt. They love leaping around after moths or chasing voles or fieldmice. Last night I was watching little Janan chasing a frog that was hopping around. She never caught it but she was having a great time trying, and there was no way she wanted to come inside. I usually find that at that hour, instead of running to greet me as they normally would, they deliberately elude me because they know I try to get them in at that time!
I often hear people say "Oh we always put our cat out at night". I really don't agree with them. Night-time is the most dangerous time when cats are most likely to be killed or injured on the roads. They could be caught by foxes or other wild animals. They could also wander off and get lost, if they are locked out for several hours.
My cats think I am really mean making then come in at night, but home is the safest place for them!

Cats get asthma too

2006-06-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

Last week one of my foster-cats, Magic (4 years old, shown above), was very under the weather. He has always been such a healthy cat but he was very lethargic and was getting very bad-tempered with the other cats, which is most unlike him. Every so often he would give a nasty cough which was also a bit like a sneeze and a bit like a retch, but without vomiting. In between times also he would do a sort of gulp.
The vets seemed to have difficulty in working out what was wrong with him. At first they said tonsillitis but when they managed to look at his throat, it did not really look inflamed. Eventually they identified fluid on his chest and gave him strong shots of anti-biotic. Now he is much better and a lot livelier.
The senior vet said he was pretty sure it was asthma caused by an allergic reaction to a specific type of pollen that is in the air at this time. Apparently the pollen count in Britain is exceptionally high this year. The condition may well be seasonal and recur at a similar time in future years.

Orphaned kittens

2006-06-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

Although we are a tiny organization, we can often find ourselves caring for literally dozens of kittens all at the same time. The other day one of my colleagues, Angie, was asked to take a litter of three new-born kittens whose mother had rejected them - poor thing, she was only a kitten herself (six months) and couldn't cope. This meant the kittens all had to be hand-fed. Angie is very good at this and loves doing it, but it is a huge amount of work. They need to be fed from something like an eye-dropper or a doll's feeding bottle - something small they will suck from. Cow's milk is NOT suitable - a special replacement formula must be obtained from the vet. In the first two weeks of life they need to be fed at least five times daily but Angie sometimes finds she is up most of the night! They often take a very long time to finish so by the time all three are done, it is time to start again!
After feeding it is necessary to clean the area under the kitten's tail with a piece of damp towelling, to stimulate it to urinate and defecate. This is what the mother would normally do, and it mimics the action of her tongue.
Sometimes despite her best endeavors, she will lose a kitten, but many of Angie's hand-rears grow up to be healthy cats!

Indoor versus outdoor

2006-06-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my next-door neighbor knocked on my door. Please could I unlock my back gate so she could come into my back yard to try to catch her cat Dixie who had come into my garden?
This happens about once a week. It can be very inconvenient as I am expected to interrupt whatever I am doing - eating, cooking, talking, watching TV, working on my computer - to go outside and unlock the gate and wait around until she (or her daughter) has caught the cat, or more usually failed to catch him.
The ridiculous thing is that Dixie is an indoor cat, i.e. he is not allowed out! All the same, he does get out regularly, but because he has not been trained to come home, they have to try to catch him. Usually he refuses to be caught. Yesterday he jumped on the garage roof and she threw a stone at him to try to drive him home.
To my mind this is a ludicrous situation. All the foster cats who come through my home have to stay indoors for at least three weeks, or until they have been fully vaccinated, whichever is the later. During that time I NEVER under any circumstances allow them to get out! At the end of the period I let them out, but for the first three or four days the outings are accompanied, and get gradually longer, until I am absolutely sure they know the way home. After this I can relax knowing they will come home and they are always in by bedtime at night.

Cats aren't cheap

2006-06-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

I spent the first half of today with a colleague doing a car boot sale in aid of Keighley Cat Care. If you live outside the UK, a car boot sale is something similar to a garage sale, except that you take all your stuff packed in your car boot (i.e. trunk) or van to a central point joining lots of other people. Everybody puts their stuff for sale out on the ground, or takes along folding tables to make a little stall. The sales are widely advertised so lots of people come, so you get more customers than you would at a sale in your own garage.
Keighley Cat Care is a tiny charity - there are only six of us! But last year (2005) our expenses for food and vet bills were over £27,300 (GBP)! (That is over US$51,350). Of this, more than £21,000 (over US$40,000) went on vet bills alone! Currently (June 4th, 2006) we have 29 cats in our care, waiting for their special home.

Relating to cat caring for cat

2006-06-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

Relating to cat caring for cat: "Can a cat be kept indoors?
Again, opinions differ about this. I am giving my personal view here which is that I hate to see a cat kept indoors unless there are very pressing reasons such as health problems. A cat has two sides to his nature - the side that loves to stretch out by the fire or curl up in the best chair, and the side that likes to explore and hunt and climb trees, and just pretend he is wild! He should be allowed to express both sides of his nature unless there are vital reasons for keeping him inside. If you live in a location where it would be dangerous to allow a cat to go out, perhaps you should consider whether you should have a cat in the first place!
Of course there are cats who simply don't want to go out and live quite happily as indoor cats. And I am sure lots of people will write to me angrily and say that they won't allow their cat out after a previous pet was tragically killed on the road, and the cat is quite happy. As I say, the above is my personal view. If your cat is kept indoors, do make sure he has lots of stimulation and opportunities for exercise and play."

Queenie

2006-05-31T06:03:00.000-07:00

Queenie is a tabby and white cat who has been with me for a couple of months now. (The picture shows her with Sylvester.) Her owners asked some neighbors to look after her for a week, but never came back! The neighbors called Keighley Cat Care as they could not keep her. When my colleagues got there they found a filthy flat and poor little Queenie stank of cigarette smoke!
Because we were full she moved from place to place and by the time she came to me she had been in five homes in a week. Not surprisingly, the poor little cat was stressed out and didn't know where she was. She hid away in a closet for several days and wouldn't eat. On the third day I took her to the vet for her first vaccination but the vet found she had a fever and infection, so could not do the vaccination - she was given a shot of anti-biotics instead. I suspected this was due to stress. Two days later I took her back and her temperature was normal, so she got her vaccination.
Although she was no longer feverish, it was day 6 before I could get her to eat anything at all, and then all she would eat was tuna (i.e. cans of tuna from the supermarket, not cat food). After a few days she graduated to tuna flake, an "own-brand" cat food from one of our local supermarkets. This is a "complementary" cat food, not a complete cat food, but it was better than nothing. After some days I started mixing in a complete cat food with her tuna flake and soon she was just eating the complete food. However she is quite a fussy eater and every so often she demands her tuna flake again!!
Queenie is a lovely little cat, friendly to everyone, playful and affectionate. She will make a great pet for someone when she finds her special home.

My cat family

2006-05-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

At the moment I am looking after four cats, including Sylvester. The one who has been here longest is Magic. (I don't choose the names!!) Magic was adopted as a kitten and was then rejected by his adopters when he was two. He must have been very badly treated because when he came to me he spent three days hiding under the sofa and then the next three weeks behind the hi-fi. He just came out at night to eat his food and use his litter tray. Gradually he started to come out more and more and started to rub against me wanting to be picked up. That was a lovely moment! He is a beautiful little cat, completely black with a glossy coat, but it is hard to get him adopted because he is still quite reserved with most humans, apart from me. Not surprising when you think what he went through. He is very playful and always tries to get the other cats who come here to play with him.

Sylvester

2006-05-29T07:35:00.000-07:00

Mad about moggies About us

2006-05-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

Mad about moggies About us: "I am nobody special, just an ordinary cat-lover. I have had cats all my life and can't imagine life without them!
I haven't had any formal training - all I have learned, I have learned from experience and from other like-minded people. And I am still learning. I can't imagine saying 'I know it all'! That would be blown out of the window the next time I met a new cat. Every cat is an individual and every single cat has something new to teach us.
Right now I don't have any cats of my own. The cats in my house are all 'foster cats'. That is, they have come into our care because they are homeless, abandoned or ill-treated and they are waiting for a permanent home. I foster for a small organization called Keighley Cat Care. Keighley is a small town in West Yorkshire, England, close to where I live.
My oldest resident is Sylvester. We don't know how old Sylvester is, but he is obviously well into his teens.
It is known that he survived on the streets for at least 4 years. One day he just turned up of his own accord at one of the Keighley Cat Care homes - obviously he was tired of street life! He had a very bad mouth and needed a lot of vet attention to enable him to eat. Without this he would have starved to death - so he knew what he was doing. He is very placid and affectionate - undoubtedly he was someone's pet before ending up on the streets. How this came about we shall never know. Now he is safe and happy - but he may be with me for a long time as not many people want to adopt an older cat, even though older cats have SO much to offer!
We hope to rescue many more in the future - young and old!"

Neutering your cat

2006-05-28T04:05:00.000-07:00

I love kittens - I don't want to have my cat spayed
Of course we all love kittens. But the fact is that there are just too many kittens in existence. Every time you allow your cat to have another litter, you are adding to the number of kittens in the world, and the fact is that there are more kittens than there are available homes for them.
You may say "I know people who will take my kittens". Fine - let them take kittens that are there already. DON'T add to the number. And if you want more kittens in your household, adopt them from somewhere else!
You still hear the belief expressed that a female cat should be allowed to have one litter before she is spayed. This is nonsense and is simply not true. It makes no difference to the cat whether she is spayed before or after her first litter. You will no longer have the problems of your cat coming on heat, attracting toms and trying to get out and she will make a lovely pet.
While spaying doesn't alter the personality of the female cat, neutering dramatically alters the personality of the tom cat. "Entire" toms will wander and fight, will mate with every unspayed female they meet, and will spray their territory which smells very unpleasant. The neutered male will make a delightful pet.

Nervous cat

2006-05-27T03:45:00.000-07:00

If I adopt a new cat who is very nervous and timid, how can I help him to relax?
This partly depends on the reasons for the cat's nervousness. I fostered a little two-year-old cat who had been ill-treated. For the first three weeks he hid under the sofa or behind a piece of furniture. I kept his litter-tray and his food and water in the room and he would come out at night to use the tray and eat his food. I didn't hassle him but kept talking to him. Gradually he came out more and more and one day, after several weeks, he suddenly came up to me of his own accord and rubbed against my leg. After this he was fine and never went behind the furniture again.
I had another little cat who had been allowed to run wild. After the owner, an old lady, died, we received reports from the neighbors that the cats were running wild and we had to go and catch him and the other cats with traps. Again he was terrified and wouldn't let me near him, but he too would come out at night to eat his food and use his tray. He just wasn't used to humans. When I finally managed to get hold of him, I put him in an indoor pen in the living room. He had the life of the household going on round him so he was able to get used to it while feeling secure. Gradually he calmed down.
Some genuinely feral cats may never calm down. In these cases in my view it is sometimes kinder to neuter and vaccinate them and then let them go.
Please let me know what YOU think.

Cat health cat welfare

2006-05-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

Cat health cat welfare: "My cat grooms himself - is it necessary for me to groom him?
Kittens are normally taught by their mothers to groom themselves, but their mother grooms them too, and this is why cats often love you to groom them with the grooming brush - it reminds them of the feel of their mother's rough tongue. Certainly long-haired cats require regular grooming otherwise their coats will become matted and knotted. Short-haired cats also enjoy grooming, though it doesn't have to be so frequent as with long-haired cats. Both long-haired and short-haired cats moult, and grooming gets rid of the loose hairs so the cat will swallow less of them. Swallowing loose or dead hairs can result in hairballs which the cat sometimes vomits up. This sometimes seems distressing but is not necessarily a major problem for the cat. Grooming also helps distribute the natural oils in the coat so your cat's coat will look glossy. There is a fantastic selection of products here to help you with all aspects of your cat's grooming: Cat Hair Care Products at PetCareCentral.com! "

Cat care feeding cat

2006-05-25T04:36:00.000-07:00

Cat care feeding cat: "If my cat is finicky about food, should I give in to him?
You need to give your cat a variety of food - first, to prevent him getting bored, and, second, to make sure he doesn't get addicted to a particular food, e.g. liver, and thus risk not getting a balanced diet. However, he will soon make it very clear what he likes and what he doesn't. Every single cat has his individual likes and dislikes. As long as he is getting a proper balanced diet, I see no problem at all with giving him what he likes. In fact, I see no point in trying to force a cat to eat something he doesn't like - he can hold out longer than you. It is simply not true to say 'If he's really hungry he will eat it' - he won't. Eventually you will have to take it away as it will start to smell, and he certainly won't eat it then. It is essential to remove stale food completely and wash the dish before putting more food in it - if it still smells of the rancid food, it will put him off. Your cat likes clean dishes and a clean eating area, just as you do.
"

Cat communication - rolling over

2006-05-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

A cat rolling over has two possible meanings. It can be a defense mechanism if the cat is being attacked. First of all the cat crouches down so that his body is parallel to the floor - his ears are laid back and his hair is on end. If the cat is cornered he might roll over so that the teeth and all sets of claws are available for counter- attack.
However, a relaxed cat will roll over too. When you approach him he will often roll over to show he is pleased to see you, and stretch out his front paws, or one paw, as a greeting ritual. This position is ambivalent and is still part of his defense mechanism. You can see this if you stroke his belly. At first he will purr and show his pleasure but often he will then swat you to show he has had enough.

Relating to cat caring for cat

2006-05-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

Relating to cat caring for cat: "Does my cat really love me or is he just after food?
Opinions do differ on this, but personally I have no doubt that cats can feel affection for their humans. When my cats come running to meet me when I get home, purring and rubbing against me, they are not after food as I left them food when I went out. And they are not lonely as they have each other. They are really pleased to see ME.
On the other hand you can't take a cat's affection for granted in the way that you often can a dog's. The cat is very much his own person and he decides on whom he will bestow his affection and trust. Of course food is part of it - your cat won't love you if you don't feed him as that is an important way you show you care. You can help yourself to gain his affection by showing him that YOU love HIM - he really will respond to this. Talk to him, never shout at him or hit him, always be consistent so he know he can trust you.
For one of the best books I have found on how to bond with your cat, Click Here!"

Care of the older cat

2006-05-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

Care of the older cat: "Will my cat need different care as he gets older?
Your cat is likely to prove an extremely rewarding companion as he gets older. Cats often become increasingly affectionate and companionable, and like to be with you more and more. Your cat may become less playful, but not necessarily - healthy cats often still like playing at 15 or 16. So don't stop playing with him - he will enjoy it and he really needs the exercise and stimulation. Click here: Slow Mouse Cat Toy for an ideal toy he will love.
The older cat may be stiffer and have arthritic joints so he may not be able to jump up so high. If one of his favourite snoozing places is higher up, you may want to provide steps or stages he can climb on to help him get up there. Also he may not be able to get to all parts of his body to groom himself, so do groom him regularly. If part of his coat becomes matted, cut it off or get the vet to do it. You can find some really helpful products here: Cat Hair Care Products at PetCareCentral.com!
Sometimes also when he becomes less active his claws will grow long and will need clipping regularly. He is likely to object strongly to this so again you may need to seek the help of your partner, a friend or the vet. If this is not done, his claws will curl round and pierce the pad, which will cause infection and be very painful.
Older cats have different dietary needs - for example they need less protein and phosphorus - so do make sure that you give them food that is designated for senior cats. Your cat may object at first as food for younger cats has more fat and is more tasty, but do not give in as the extra protein and phosphorus is bad for him and can cause kidney damage. You will need to be specially careful if there is a young cat in the house who is on junior food, as the older one will go for this if he can"

Cat care feeding cat

2006-05-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Cat care feeding cat: "Feeding is one of the major ways to bond with your cat. Don't feel that his gratitude to you for food is just cupboard love. It is one of the main ways he knows you care for him.
Because of this, some people feel that it shows more devotion to their cat to prepare his food themselves, rather than use bought products. First and foremost, the MOST important thing is to feed a balanced diet so that he gets his full nutritional requirements - the number 1 being protein. He also needs the correct proportions of animal fats, and particular vitamins and minerals. In my opinion it is quite difficult to get this right if you prepare his food yourself and you will need to use supplements to ensure he gets his full nutritional requirements. Examples of excellent products:

Feline Basic Nutrients by Thorne Research
'A multi-vitamin-mineral supplement that contains calcium, magnesium and potassium combined with a full complex of essential vitamins and trace minerals.'

"

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2006-05-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

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