Cats and Cat Health

Cat Scabs and Sores Can Be From Vaccination

2011-02-04T06:45:26Z

Do you have a cat with scabs and sores on its back and neck? I think that I have found the answer finally. At first I though he was allergic to beef as many cats are. beef not really being a natural food for a cat. But that wasn’t the case at all. In April I posted on the possibility that these cat sores and scabs might be caused by vaccination. Well, I am now convinced that this the real answer to these cat scabs and sores around the neck and back .

Just to recap in case you are reading this topic for the first time, these scabs appear round the neck area. The are flaky and red under the flakes. The scabs are unsightly and worrying although the cat doesn’t seem too bothered by them.

In April last I wrote that I thought they might be caused by vaccination because that is where the vaccine is injected. Vets now admit that vaccination sites are prone to develop tumors, ie cancer. Because of that I stopped having him vaccinated about 2 years ago and he hasn’t had a sore in all that time yet he was plagued with them before.

This does mean we can’t send him to the cattery kennels any more which, if only he knew, he would be happy about because he hated it there! He is a real scaredy cat and likes to be at home and if possible with out visitors! He is an indoor outdoor cat as they all are in my country (New Zealand). We have no predators or anything that could hurt him and he loves to run about outside.

It can’t be a coincidence that these nasty sores have stopped at the same time as the vaccination stopped. I only hope that he will not get a cancer from being vaccinated each year until he was about 7 years old.

I am not recommending that you do not vaccinate your cats. They do need to be protected but not every year. Vets say just 1 shot and 1 booster will keep them protected for life. The annual boosters aren’t necessary although maybe vets like the regular income!

Self Cleaning Litter Box Review

2011-02-04T09:21:29Z

If your cat is an indoor cat as most cats in the USA are then you probably find the worst part of owning a cat is keeping the litter box clean. This problem never occurred when cats were allowed out to roam freely. Unlike dogs cats always bury their waste when they have access to the outside. By keeping them indoors we have made an extra burden for ourselves. If you haven’t done so yet it is time to buy yourself and your furry friend a self cleaning litter box.

Self cleaning litter boxes come in a variety of types ranging from around $30 to $300 and it isn’t easy to decide whether the more expensive ones will be a better purchase in the long run or whether the cheaper models will work equally well. The one shown here on the left is from Litter Robot and is one of the more expensive models. How can you tell if a much less expensive model like the Scoop Free Automatic Litter Box Kit would be a better option?

So, even though this is a slightly unsavory topic I thought it might be useful if I reviewed the various kinds of cat litter box.

I started with the LitterMaid Elite Mega Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box LM900MB

This self cleaning litter box averages only 2.5 stars in the customer reviews although that does mean that some are very happy with it and give it 5 stars while others hated it and gave it only 1 star. Rather too many gave it one star and this would put me off buying it. Lots of people said it broke down only lasting a very short time.

LitterMaid Elite Mega Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box

The customer feedback has been rather poor on all LitterMaid models with many complaints that they constantly break and that the waste is not properly disposed of on them. The Littermaid brand of automatic litter boxes used to be very good with many cat owners recommending them. Unfortunately the standard of design and materials seems to have slipped llately to the great disappointment of customers who were liked earlier models.

This Elite model was supposed to fix the problem but it doesn’t seem to have done. There are still many complaints that the thing broke down after a short while and was a waste of money.

Apart from the poor standard of materials the other problem seems to be that it is very noisy. Some cats find it terrifying in fact but there are others that find the whole grating grinding noise a good excuse for a game of attack! So if your cat is a scaredy cat it probably won’t want to use the LitterMaid but a bold and fearless feline will be thrilled.

Given all the negative feedback on this I think it really can’t be recommended. But you may still want to check it out and read some of the customer feedback yourself.

LitterMaid Self Cleaning Litterbox

More coming…

Could Vaccination Cause Cat Scabs?

2010-04-30T09:56:40Z

This topic of cats with scabs is still going and even though I wrote the first post on cat scabs in 2008 I still have lots of visitors to that post and many comments. It seems that this is a problem that no-one has a good answer too. Vets don’t know any more than we do. Maybe it would be a good topic for a graduate student to do a thesis on.

I thought I had solved the problem when I learned cats could be allergic to beef but after two years without any scabs Alfie has developed another one. However I am not 100% sure that he has not eaten beef again so that could be the reason. So I will be a bit more careful about that.

These scabs do not seem to hurt or itch. They are scaly and slightly raised. I am beginning to wonder if these scabs could be caused by vaccinations because vaccinations are always given round the neck – just where the scabs come. Now I know for a fact that vets are aware that vaccination can cause a tumours at the site of injection. My vet said this was so and that they have stopped vaccinating in the same site each year for this reason. They now vary the injection site- but it is always around the neck.

This is just an idea- does this fit with scabs your cat has had?

The vet also told me they really don’t need these annual vaccinations and they only do them because cattery or kennels will not take them without. This alarmed me so much that I haven’t sent him to the cattery since then. We are getting a house sitter when we go overseas this year!

Two Cute Cat Videos

2011-02-02T10:57:30Z

Hope you like these. The first is a couple of cats having a bit of a chat. So cute. The owner says they normally fight.

This is a cat who loves water. Wonder what breed it is. There is no info to tell you how it came to like to play in water.

Cruelty to Children??

2009-10-14T00:17:51Z

I am a bit shocked at the folk who have left comments- which I deleted- that they think the children who are cruel to the kittens should be strangled or some such nasty thing. Are you serious???

Cats are lovely and of course we want to protect them from crazy people but this does not extend to being cruel to kids!

So please think about this. Children who are cruel are suffering from some form of parental neglect and need help. We do not condone the death penalty- especially for small children who are all born innocent little babies. What happens to them after that is what causes their twisted behavior. Let’s try and find something helpful to do or say.

Cruelty to Kittens

2009-05-03T04:05:32Z

What do you make of the recent spate of cruelty to cats? In the paper today a horrible story of two kittens whose left hind feet were cut off by two children, both under 10 years old, with scissors. Almost too horrible to contemplate.

The children and their parents brought the kittens to the an animal foster home and giggled as they left it saying “their feet fell off”. They did not give their names so theh parents can’t be prosecuted.

The newspaper then gave a roundup of other recent cruelties by children – one had cut a kittens tail off- but you do n not want to hear about any more I am sure.

How can small children behave like this ? It seems so unnatural as most children love animals and especially baby animals. What on earth can be going wrong for them to be so incredibly lacking in empathy? I don’t know what the background of these children is of course. Perhaps they have been ill treated themselves. If these children behave like this now what kind of adults will they be? It is frightening to imagine how they will treat their own children one day.

I feel really drepressed about this case.

Cat Videos

2009-01-30T09:39:53Z

Dont forget to watch the cat videos. I post them all on one page here: Cat videos.

I like this one!

Some Cat Facts

2009-01-13T02:21:43Z

A domestic cat can sprint at about 31 miles per hour.

When a cat falls a short distance, it often twists itself around to right itself and land on its feet. However, falls from heights can cause severe injury or death.

The hearing of the average cat is at least five times keener than that of a human adult.

Humans and cats have a similar range of hearing when it comes to low-pitched sounds, but cats have a much greater ability to hear very high notes-better, even, than dogs.

If cats could read, they would need reading glasses. That’s because their close-up vision directly in front of them is fuzzy. Instead, they have super peripheral vision, and can detect the slightest movement in prey that’s yards away.

Cats can make more than 100 different vocal sounds. Dogs can make about 10.

Cats purr at about 26 cycles per second, which is the same frequency as an idling diesel engine.

Big cats can roar, but they cannot continuously purr. Small cats can purr, but they cannot roar.

One female cat and her offspring, left to breed at will, can produce 420,000 kittens in just seven years.

Understanding Cats

2009-01-11T08:17:16Z

Book Cat Whisperer

cat care

I was loaned a book recently called “The Cat Whisperer or The Secret of How to Talk to Your Cat” by Claire Bessant. If you haven’t read it you should, you can pick it up at Amazon.com for less than $10 .

Its full of stuff I didn’t know about my favorite animal, the cat. For example do you know how to approach a cat that doesn’t know you? She says cats should not be touched or spoken to at close quarters immediately. You should let the cat come to you rather than going to it, because the cat needs to know you are safe. If you stand away from it and speak to it it will come to you. If it doesn’t it is a shy cat and you should let it be. No wonder Alfie bolts when my friends arrive. They all bend down and try to make friends too fast!

She also tells you how to interpret cat body language and cat vocalization and how to understand the way your cat communicates via sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste. This makes it much easier to learn how to train your cat. Another new one on me was that cats can’t hear low pitched voices easily. That’s why when you call your cat you should use a higher pitch. I think it might also be why cats often ignore men. With their low voices cats can’t really hear men very well.

One idea you can put to immediate use is how to tell your cat what it must not do, such as scratching your furniture or carpet. I always shout at my cat, but according to Bessant I should hiss. Cats understand a hiss but are simply scared by a shout. This is also why, unlike horses, they hate you blowing in their faces, it feels like a hiss. I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. You can purchase this book here: The Cat Whisperer

Cat Finds Its Way Home

2009-01-13T02:15:21Z

A friend of my daughter has had to go overseas and before she left, two weeks ago, she found a new home for her beloved cat with another friend of theirs. The following day he was missing and his new owner couldn’t find him anywhere.

Then his old owner emailed her to say that her former neighbour had written to say that her cat was back in his old home garden. This seemed impossible since it was a 10 k journey through a city and the cat had not seen where he was going. He had been transported by car inside a cat carrier covered over with a towel!. But it was true.

He was found in the garden of his old home looking a bit thinner and rather scruffy! After eating about a lb of food he settled down for a good sleep. Hopefully he will stay put now.

I wondered how they find their way home and found this online info:

Cats can judge within three inches the location of a sound being made one yard away. This is an essential skill for a predator that needs to catch a mouse hiding in tall grass.

Cats rank high up on the intelligence scale, and one of their greatest assets is memory. Studies at the University of Michigan and the American Museum of Natural History show that cats can remember problem-solving strategies for as long as 16 hours.

The phenomenon of cats finding their owners in a place where they have never been before is scientifically known as Psi-trailing. Many well-documented stories tell of cats that have walked hundreds, even thousands of miles to find their owners.

Cats seem to have an instinctive ability to find their way home; tests have shown that they use the earth’s magnetic fields to navigate.