Jul 19 2008
Being Informed About Cat Health Issues
Being a cat owner can be a challenge when it comes to providing excellent cat health care. Because felines can be secretive or don’t want to be bothered, cat health issues might not be easy to determine. Cat health, when entering a prolonged state requiring long term medical care, treatment and medications is not only stressful to your cat, but can be a stress on you as well.
Cat Health Care Issues
Normal cat health issues can include minor problems including ear mites and tape worms to more moderate issues including flea infestation and felines that are allergic to flea bites. All of these cat health issues can be addressed by taking your cat to the veterinarian for yearly checkups, shots and purchasing a good flea preventative. More severe cat health issues affecting felines can range from bad teeth that have become infected and require extraction, urinary tract problems that can be a long term issue, colon problems requiring lifelong medication and feline leukemia which is an extremely critical cat health issue.
Helpful Preventative Measures
As a cat caretaker and provider, one of the first things you can do to promote good cat health is to have your cat spayed or neutered. Felines that are not altered and come into contact with other male felines run the risk of not only unwanted pregnancies for the females, but also being exposed to unhealthy cats that have not had their shots and may be suffering from little or no attention by a cat health care provider. Males who have not been altered are also at risk of becoming infected by unhealthy cats and also become injured while fighting with other unaltered males. These types of injuries can become infected.
Additional Preventive Measures
Other things you can do to help promote good cat health is to provide your feline with good quality food, both dry and canned, that is high in the types of vitamins a cat needs. Exercise is a must for felines as you do not want your cat to become overweight. As kittens, they have an abundance of energy but as they age, they tend to slow down so it’s vital to find ways to keep your feline active. Using a collar and leash and walking around the yard, buying a carpeted scratch post for clawing exercise, sprinkling catnip on a throw rug or towel that will keep them busy, finding safe cat toys that interest your feline and playing with them are all things you can do to help keep your cat active. Yearly visits to the veterinarian to have a record of the ongoing cat health care being provided for your pet will alert the doctor of any changes in the health of your cat.
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