Ensuring the health and happiness of your feline friend involves much more than just providing them with food and shelter. It's about understanding their needs and fulfilling them in a way that promotes their well-being. This guide, underpinned by the expertise from Purina, ASPCA, and International Cat Care, delves into the essentials of cat care, highlighting the importance of mental enrichment, regular grooming, and preventive health measures.
As cats age and come in to that middle age period from around 7 – 8 years of age, it is important for owners to keep an eye out for symptoms that could indicate the beginnings of a disease or syndrome. Middle aged to older cats are very prone to developing diabetes, kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, arthritis and sometimes sadly, even cancer.
Getting your cat properly vaccinated is essential to its health. In fact, before vaccinations became more commonly place, many cats died on a regular basis from a condition called panleukopenia, which is more commonly known as feline distemper. They were also more likely to die from upper respiratory infections such as herpesvirus and calcivirus.
When you think of all the illnesses that you need to protect your cat against, one of the last ones that comes to mind is dental problems. Believe it or not dental problems can make life unbearable for your cat. A cat with sore cavity ridden teeth will find it to painful to eat; the change in their diet due to their dental problems can wreak havoc on their other systems. Along with the painful eating, dental problems left uncared for can lead to heart, liver and kidney disease.
Even if we don't own a cat, their sickness can effect us. Actually, when we examine the problem from a new point of view we can learn many things. Cats can have regular and more simple diets than we have, which can make it easier to determine which habits and foods cause the most problems.
As a cat owner, cat health problems are at the top of my list of concerns. The various illnesses your cat may face are many and varied, and your cat can't tell you how she's feeling, at least not in words. Feline illness symptoms, like that in humans, often overlap.
