Senior Cats

Today, our cats are living longer than ever before just like people are living longer than they did in the past. We can definitely thank for advanced veterinary medicine, pet nutrition, and preventive health care for extending their lifespan. The percentage of cats over 6 years of age has nearly doubled in over a decade. The average lifespan of an indoor cat is 15 years.

It’s estimated that FCD (feline cognitive dysfunction) affects more than 55% of felines aged 11 to 15 years and more than 80% of felines aged 16 to 20 years. The cognitive dysfunction means that memory, ability to learn, awareness, and sight and hearing perception can all deteriorate.

On top of FCD, senior cats may be plagued by more than one of diseases at the same time making diagnosis and management of these cats more challenging. Common disease in senior cats are listed below.

• Kidney Failure (RenAvast is highly recommended)
• Heart disease
• Diabetes mellitus
• Arthritis
• Hyperthyroidism
• Dental disease
• Cancer
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Liver Disease
• Bladder stones

Cat Café

It was originated from Taiwan in 1998 and became popular in Japan around 2004. Now you can find cat cafes in Middle East, other Asian countries, Europe,  and North America. That goes to show you that adding cats to coffee and cookies became a hugely successful global trend. The newest cat cafe opened was the first pop-up Cat Café in North America run by the pet food company Purina starting with Manhattan, New York. People waited in a line for a couple of hours to experience this fancy and furry cafe.

The cat cafe concept seems brilliant because although apartments are getting more pet-friendly lately, it is nice to have a place you can go to interact with feline friends on your spare time. Also having your own pet is a huge responsibility and long commitment. If you are too busy or not ready to commit, this is definitely a way for you to enjoy their company temporary. 

Rescue Is The New Breed

Once I was told that shelter cats were not desirable cats to adopt because there must have been reasons why they were taken to a shelter. The person who educated me with the incorrect info is gone from my life, but if I have a chance to reconnect with him, I would really like to educate him.

"Rescue animals are not broken, they have simply experienced more life than other animals. If they were human, we would call them wise. They would be the ones with tales to tall and stories to write, the ones dealt a bad hand who responded with courage. Do not pity them. Do something. Help to rescue. Donate. Volunteer. Foster. Adopt. And be proud to have their greatness by your side." - unknown

I am a proud mama of 3 rescue cats.

Grain Free Cat Food

For the last couple of years, grain free cat foods seemed to become very popular. A decade ago, if I remember correctly, there was only one brand making grain free cat kibbles. Since cats are obviously carnivores, it’s easy to assume that they must prefer to eat a high protein low carbohydrate diet. In the wild, cats eat the entire kill to get their necessary vitamins and minerals. That has been the long term theory of mine, and I have been raising my cats on raw chicken diet with supplements. Once a while, they get grain free kibbles. As far as I can tell, their coats are shiny and soft, they are alert, happy, normal body weight, and their stools are solid. That are signs of good diet. However, you need to know that some cats just do not do well on a grain-free diet. Like every person has her/his preference in food, cats have it too. You just need to watch them closely and adjust their diet accordingly.

Mercury Poisoning

Some cats love eating fish but some has no interest. My cats definitely prefer fish over meat. However, I stopped giving them fish regularly when I found out that cats could get mercury poisoning. Although they were getting canned fish cat food with necessary vitamins and minerals, they were ingesting far more mercury on a body-weight basis than a human did. Also I realized that most pet food companies use the lowest grades of fish because the higher grades are mainly for human consumption and expensive, the canned fish food I was giving them must have even more toxic waste. Looking back, my cats might have been lightly poisoned by mercury.

Here are sgins of mercury poisoning in cats.

• Over-excitement
• Irritability
• Incoordination
• Convulsions
• Bleeding gums
• Alveolar bone loss
• Loosening of teeth
• Excessive salivation
• Foul breath
• Stiff hind legs
• Tremors
• Blindness

Dear Kitten

It is too cute not to share this video. Unless your cats are pretty laid back and peaceful, there is always an adjusting period when you introduce a new kitten to an older family cat. Usually the little one gets hissed at and smacked for a couple of times or even more until the older cat say OK. My favorite part of this video is when the older cat teaches the little one about "vac-um" which can eat and yell at the same time. That is very valuable lesson as many of cats are afraid of "vac-um." Enjoy! 

Vegan Diet

Although some of my vegan friends are successful putting their cat on vegan diet, in some cases vegan cats ended up removing their penises due to severe urinary tract problems. Since urinary tract problems are fairly common in cats especially male cats, and vegetable protein are highly alkaline than meat which could cause to develop excessive urine crystals.

Also, unlike dogs and other omnivores, cats are carnivores because they need to have a higher protein requirement than many other mammals. In addition, plant-based cat foods can't naturally provide their key nutrients such as taurine, arachidonic acid, vitamin B12 and vitamin A unless synthetic form is supplied.

So the question is, is plant based cat food safe for cats? I have to say NO to this unless you exactly know what you are doing and take your cat to the vet regularly for check-up.

Declawing

 The truth is that declawing is the amputation of toes at the first joint. It is nowhere near just nail trimming nor the removal of portion of a claw. It is major surgery and not to be undertaken lightly. Declawing has no benefit for the cat. Instead, it takes away the way for them to defend themselves and enjoy exercising with their claws. Declawing is VERY CRUEL, and it is pretty much an American thing to do as other countries like Australia, Brazil, Israel, Austria, United Kingdom, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and more countries forbid the practice. It is banned in at least 22 countries. Although declawing is legal in most U.S., it was outlawed in West Hollywood, California, in 2003. The first such ban in the US, and Los Angeles, San Francisco, Burbank, Santa Monica, Berkeley, Beverly Hills and Culver City followed in 2009. Thanks to PawProject who put so much effort to raise the awareness and work on banning the cruel practice.