Jazz up your indoor cat’s life

It’s NOT normal for a cat to eat, sleep, and hide most of the day – and get FAT. Enriching cats’ environments helps them burn calories, alleviate boredom, prevent behaviour problems and bladder troubles, and slow down the aging process. 

Here are five tips to make your home cat friendly:

1. Cats need elevated spots to hang out in. Buy cat shelves to hang at different heights or simply clear a window ledge. They also love scratching posts and plenty of cosy hiding places like boxes and tunnels.

2. Stop ignoring your cat. One of the reasons cats have become so popular is because people think you don’t need to do anything with them. Of course, this is far from true and is one of the reasons there are so many overweight cats. Play with your cats once or twice a day for at least five minutes—during TV commercials is ideal!

3. Activate the cat’s hunting drive. See if your cat likes feeding from enrichment toys hidden around the house.  The kibble will only fall out of the toys a few pieces at a time stimulating the hunting instinct and preventing the cat from eating too quickly. You can buy these food-dispensing toys or make your own from a toilet paper roll, with both ends sealed off. Fill the tube with kibble and poke holes in it.

4. Redefine and rotate toys.  Move cat toys around the house. The feather toy in the living room is a whole new toy in the bedroom. Cut holes in an empty box and move it around the house. Exercise your cat’s hunting instinct with mouse-sized toys jerked around the floor.

5. Take your cat new places. Fenced-in outdoor pet patios or cat runs break up the indoor cat’s day and provide live entertainment.

The more time you spend enriching your cats’ environment, the smarter and healthier they will be. A cat’s mind is a terrible thing to waste!

Weight loss worry

Minette has lost weight - despite a raging appetite. She has also been a lot more talkative than usual. Her owners are (and Dr Kate) are suspicious that she might have hyperthyroidism. Minette very kindly let us take a sample of blood - you can see the hair under her collar was clipped so we could see her vein.
Minette is about 20 years old and very fit for her age. She is on medication for high blood pressure and has kept her kidney disease at bay with a special diet for over a year. Her owners' vigilance and care should keep her going for a few birthdays yet!

Cool cat!

Rainbow Ginger was in for her annual check up this morning. She passed with flying colours and chilled out on top of the Chiller while we examined her brother, Burchil.
Burchil had his ears cropped last year because he had developed skin cancers on them. Rainbow's pale nose could develop sun cancers too if she doesn't keep out of the sun.
Their owner is keeping them inside for most of the day, especially the afternoon when the Australian sun is at it's most dangerous.
Not a bad idea for the humans to avoid the sun then too!

Tabby all patched up

Remember Tabitha? She was diagnosed with kidney disease earlier this year. After a bit of persuasion she took  to her special diet for failing kidneys with relish, although she misses her weekly fresh rabbit.
This week she had her progress tests. Her potassium levels were fine - diseased kidneys lose potassium - and her phosphorus levels were normal too. If phosphorous gets too high or potassium too low then cats lose their appetite and feel ill.
We were concerned to find that her creatinine levels were creeping up but as they are not affecting her appetite or quality of life we will just monitor her again in 3 months time.
Overall the special low protein, low phosphorous, high potassium kidney diet is keeping her healthy and happy so that she can properly supervise the next patchwork project - and at 16 years of age that's pretty important!