Health

Houseplants help add a natural look and feel to any home, but cat owners need to be very careful when selecting plants to spice up their dcor. Our feline friends are notorious for snacking on houseplants. According to ELise Christensen, DVM, animal behaviorist with NYC Veterinary Specialists in Manhattan, there may be several reasons for this: …

Some of the most peaceful moments of your day are spent sitting quietly with your cat, stroking her gently, peering into her gorgeous eyes. However, the serenity can well be interrupted if you happen to notice a crop of tiny, mean-looking little black spots on the otherwise lovely animals chin and lips. What youre apt to be observing are blackheads, the signs of feline acne, a dermatologic condition that affects male and female cats of all ages and breeds and could warrant a visit to your veterinarian.

Whether your cat is wide awake or sleeping soundly, its immune system remains on full alert, protecting the animal from assault by the viruses, bacteria and other foreign invaders - called antigens - in its environment. And in the vast majority of cats, the immune system will continue to function effectively - without letup - from the day an animal is born until the day it dies.

Your cats digestive system, a complex assemblage of several interdependent components, plays a crucial and multifaceted role in maintaining the animals good health. An essentially tubular arrangement leading from its mouth to its anus, the system - when functioning properly - breaks down the food that the animal has eaten into nutrient-rich particles and facilitates their absorption while also serving as a barrier against disease-producing organisms that the cat may have ingested.

It hardly seems possible. But time flies, and what was once a rare procedure - kidney transplants for cats with renal failure - is now performed often enough that researchers can look at a relatively unusual complication of a once-rare operation. And they can give it a name: PTDM, or post-transplantation diabetes mellitus, as veterinary scientists from the University of California-Davis and the University of Pennsylvania did in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (Vol. 230, No. 6).

Your cats blood serves the same essential function that yours does, carrying oxygen and nutrients to tissues throughout the body and transporting carbon dioxide and wastes away from those tissues. Blood also serves in such processes as cell development, tissue repair and the warding off of infection. Considering the vital roles performed by this life-sustaining fluid, it is unlikely that any [IMGCAP(1)]veterinarian would dispute the wisdom of having your cats blood evaluated at least annually…

The statistics are sobering: Each year, according to the National Cancer Institute, approximately six million companion cats in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer, and more than half of cats over the age of 10 will die of the dreaded disease. A cure for feline cancer may be just a collar away. Bright orange Pet4Pets charity collars - similar to the popular cancer-awareness wrist bands, la Lance Armstrong - were introduced last spring, with the funds going toward groundbreaking cancer research being funded by the Animal Cancer Foundation (ACF) in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Your cats kidneys, two relatively small organs located behind its rib cage - one on each side of its spine - play a central role in almost all of its bodily processes. They help to control the blood pressure and regulate the amount and chemical consistency of fluid in the bloodstream. They produce a variety of vitally needed hormones and enzymes, and they contribute to the production of red blood cells.

Fever, lethargy, loss of appetite and evidence of painful stiffness in the muscles and joints are clinical signs of many ailments that can afflict your cat at any time of year. Some feline disorders, however, are more prevalent during warm weather, when higher temperatures stimulate the activity of disease-causing organisms and the parasites that can transmit them to your cat.

The eye is an amazing, delicate organ. Cells within the eye normally produce a clear fluid (aqueous humor) that serves to nourish and maintain the shape of the eye. When the balance between the production and the drainage of fluid is upset, glaucoma can result. Decreased drainage of fluid causes increased pressure (and pain) within the eye, often resulting in damage to the optic nerve and, consequently, loss of vision.

Thanks to advances in veterinary medicine, many of the cancers to which cats are susceptible are now controllable, sometimes curable, and even (in the case of mammary cancer, for example) potentially preventable. This does not always hold true, however, for osteosarcoma, a highly destructive feline bone cancer for which there is no known cure unless it is detected early.

Toxoplasmosis is a fairly common zoonosis (a disease that can be shared between humans and animals); 30 to 40 percent of adult humans, and roughly the same percentage of cats, have antibodies that indicate prior exposure to the organism that causes the disease. Nevertheless, its particulars are still unfamiliar to many people. The disease poses a threat primarily to fetuses and to immunosuppressed patients, but an understanding of the organisms life cycle, how transmission occurs and can be avoided, and the signs of infection can greatly reduce the risk of serious disease.