Blog News

Cats are carnivores and have quite complex dietary needs. Vets are now strongly advising that cats are fed a primarily wet diet. This means good quality canned or pouch foods coupled with meats like chicken, rabbit, roo, beef or lamb. I like to feed the meat as stir fry strips or chunks so that my cats chew on them and clean their teeth. To protect their kidney and bladder health cats must consume water in their food as well as drinking it. Cats on wet foods have a much higher intake of fluids than cats on dry foods. A good quality commercial food is high in protein and low in carbohydrates. In the wild cats consume very little carbohydrate ie wheat, maize and a lot of animal, not plant, protein. In our busy lives we are forced to feed our cats some dry food for convenience sake but wet foods should provide the bulk of their intake.

Kaiser has been out enjoying the warmer weather - and so have the fleas! Poor Kaiser has been grooming more than usual and has lost some of his beautiful coat especially over the rump. Normally cats are only mildly irritated by fleas but Kaiser is allergic to flea saliva. Just one flea bite causes intense and long lasting itchiness. To make Kaiser more comfortable we must try to eliminate all fleas from him and his environment. Capstar or Comfortis kill the fleas and paralyse flea mouthparts preventing deposition of saliva. Every month his owners will give him Advantage, Revolution, or Comfortis to keep flea numbers as low as possible. Because fleas spend most of their life cycle off the cat as larvae and pupae in bedding, carpet, dirt and leaves they will have to wash his bedding in hot water and dry it in the sun. They should also vacuum carpets and furniture often. they may decide to call a professional to fumigate the house. Kaiser has had an injection of cortisone to block the allergic reaction and give relief from the intense itching.