Saturday, May 26, 2012
Keep Fluffy Away From That Medical Cannabis
Here's an excellent article from Boulder, CO (of course) about the hazards of marijuana in dogs and cats. This had sort of dropped off my radar, since I just do cats and they aren't often poisoned because of their discriminating taste buds, but young cats especially might be tempted to ingest the edible form.
I've only seen one patient in my career that got into trouble with cannabis - a young dog, probably over 25 years ago, was presented for lethargy and stumbling around. The owner was reluctant to talk about what had happened but eventually confessed to having left something tasty out where the dog found it. I assured him I wasn't going to call the police, and the dog didn't require hospital care.
These days, with so many people using medical cannabis the risk to pets is going to be higher. Be safe with your meds and keep them out of the reach of pets at all times, just like you would for children.
Memorial Day Weekend Hours
We will be open on Saturday May 26 until noon only. We will be closed Sunday like always, and Monday in observation of Memorial Day. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday.
Have a pleasant holiday weekend!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
VERY big news day in the area of feline kidney disease!
Scientists in China have found a feline morbillivirus (that's the family of viruses that includes canine distemper and human measles) that appears to be connected to a significant percentage of kidney failure cases in cats. Because vaccines can be made easily for morbilliviruses, and they work REALLY well, this could be a huge breakthrough in the actual PREVENTION of this common cat disease.
For so many years we have had to shrug and admit we just don't know when people ask what causes so much kidney failure in cats. Some cases are due to a congenital genetic disorder, but most were always just a mystery.
I am really excited by this news and hope it turns out to be reproducible research, and most importantly that a vaccine is swiftly developed. I have lost too many patients and cats of my own to kidney failure.
For so many years we have had to shrug and admit we just don't know when people ask what causes so much kidney failure in cats. Some cases are due to a congenital genetic disorder, but most were always just a mystery.
I am really excited by this news and hope it turns out to be reproducible research, and most importantly that a vaccine is swiftly developed. I have lost too many patients and cats of my own to kidney failure.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Our phone appears to be out today.
No wonder it's not ringing. I am contacting Time Warner about it - my internet is fine. Hmmmm.
1:45 PM update: tech guy on the phone hasn't gotten back to me YET about the service tech's ETA. They can't fix it remotely. Sigh.
3:15 PM update: We have phones again. Phone modem died of old age (it was 18 months old). TWC needs to work on their hardware quality control.
Mar 12 update: Voicemail is out today, no way to leave us a message.
Mar 13 update: Voicemail restored. Time Warned Business Class unilaterally and without prior notice decided that I didn't HAVE voicemail. It took some very loud, angry discussion on my part to get them to accept that I had, in fact, had it for a year (since my account began). And that I am paying for it.
1:45 PM update: tech guy on the phone hasn't gotten back to me YET about the service tech's ETA. They can't fix it remotely. Sigh.
3:15 PM update: We have phones again. Phone modem died of old age (it was 18 months old). TWC needs to work on their hardware quality control.
Mar 12 update: Voicemail is out today, no way to leave us a message.
Mar 13 update: Voicemail restored. Time Warned Business Class unilaterally and without prior notice decided that I didn't HAVE voicemail. It took some very loud, angry discussion on my part to get them to accept that I had, in fact, had it for a year (since my account began). And that I am paying for it.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Kidney Disease in Cats
A couple of clients recently requested that I post about kidney disease in cats. It's been a while since I have done so.
I previously wrote THIS about renal disease management but it was really just a few words about somebody else's handout that I linked to.
There were two specific questions I wanted to answer for starters.
#1 - Why are the kidneys so trouble-prone in cats? We don't know. Cats, being desert animals, have a huge reserve of kidney function built in, which is important because, unlike the liver which can regrow functional tissue, when kidney tissue dies it is not replaced. In nature, kidneys only need to last long enough to ensure propagation of the species, which as you know can be accomplished several times by cats before they are two years old. So when we see kidney disease in older cats it may just be that it's a part wearing out, like tires on a car.
But we also know certain things can contribute to premature loss of kidney tissue and a decline in function. Untreated bacterial infections (most commonly dental disease) can cause bacteria to enter the bloodstream where they are filtered out by the kidneys and set up housekeeping. Some cats have a genetic kidney defect known as polycystic kidney disease (PKD) that leads to renal failure in middle age - Persians and Himalayans are especially prone to this. Some cats develop renal lymphoma, a type of cancer formerly associated with feline leukemia virus infection but now most commonly seen in cats whose owners smoke. There is also a theory that certain vaccines which use a cell line derived from feline kidneys might be leading to an immune system attack on kidney tissue (we do not use those particular brands of vaccine).
#2 - How much urine do healthy cats normally produce and how can an owner quantify their own cat's urine output in the real world? Normal urine output in the cat is under 50 ml/kg/day. That's about (ok doing math in my head now) 8 oz for an 11 lb cat, more-or-less. Of course with cat's using a litter box it can be hard to tell how much a cat is urinating (volume) and how often, which is one major reason I strongly suggest using scoopable litter.
Urine balls can be easily quantified, and over time you can get a sense of how many times a day your cat urinates and how big the balls tend to be. What's important is that you make not of changes and bring them to your veterinarian's attention. My own cats normally urinate 2-3 times a day, and the bigger cat has bigger urine balls than the smaller one so I can often tell whose is whose.
If you notice that your cat is producing larger urine balls, and more of them, the two things that come to mind that we have to rule out are kidney disease and diabetes. If the urine balls are smaller and more numerous we need to rule out Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, which sometimes means an infection is present (but not always).
Here at Cat's Meow Veterinary Clinic we do not measure urine output directly - cats don't tend to go along with such plans. We measure urine specific gravity (concentration) - cats that produce dilute urine are automatically going to produce a higher volume of urine, but the number we track is USG. The exception is in terminal end-stage renal failure where only scant amounts of very dilute urine are produced, right before none at all is produced - cats are typically euthanized before things reach this point.
I hope this sheds some light on the subject. Kidney disease is one of the most common things I manage in my older patients.
I previously wrote THIS about renal disease management but it was really just a few words about somebody else's handout that I linked to.
There were two specific questions I wanted to answer for starters.
#1 - Why are the kidneys so trouble-prone in cats? We don't know. Cats, being desert animals, have a huge reserve of kidney function built in, which is important because, unlike the liver which can regrow functional tissue, when kidney tissue dies it is not replaced. In nature, kidneys only need to last long enough to ensure propagation of the species, which as you know can be accomplished several times by cats before they are two years old. So when we see kidney disease in older cats it may just be that it's a part wearing out, like tires on a car.
But we also know certain things can contribute to premature loss of kidney tissue and a decline in function. Untreated bacterial infections (most commonly dental disease) can cause bacteria to enter the bloodstream where they are filtered out by the kidneys and set up housekeeping. Some cats have a genetic kidney defect known as polycystic kidney disease (PKD) that leads to renal failure in middle age - Persians and Himalayans are especially prone to this. Some cats develop renal lymphoma, a type of cancer formerly associated with feline leukemia virus infection but now most commonly seen in cats whose owners smoke. There is also a theory that certain vaccines which use a cell line derived from feline kidneys might be leading to an immune system attack on kidney tissue (we do not use those particular brands of vaccine).
#2 - How much urine do healthy cats normally produce and how can an owner quantify their own cat's urine output in the real world? Normal urine output in the cat is under 50 ml/kg/day. That's about (ok doing math in my head now) 8 oz for an 11 lb cat, more-or-less. Of course with cat's using a litter box it can be hard to tell how much a cat is urinating (volume) and how often, which is one major reason I strongly suggest using scoopable litter.
Urine balls can be easily quantified, and over time you can get a sense of how many times a day your cat urinates and how big the balls tend to be. What's important is that you make not of changes and bring them to your veterinarian's attention. My own cats normally urinate 2-3 times a day, and the bigger cat has bigger urine balls than the smaller one so I can often tell whose is whose.
If you notice that your cat is producing larger urine balls, and more of them, the two things that come to mind that we have to rule out are kidney disease and diabetes. If the urine balls are smaller and more numerous we need to rule out Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, which sometimes means an infection is present (but not always).
Here at Cat's Meow Veterinary Clinic we do not measure urine output directly - cats don't tend to go along with such plans. We measure urine specific gravity (concentration) - cats that produce dilute urine are automatically going to produce a higher volume of urine, but the number we track is USG. The exception is in terminal end-stage renal failure where only scant amounts of very dilute urine are produced, right before none at all is produced - cats are typically euthanized before things reach this point.
I hope this sheds some light on the subject. Kidney disease is one of the most common things I manage in my older patients.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
This Hinky Blog Format
Try as I might, I simply CAN NOT get this format to do what I want. So in order to see ALL my lists and gadgets you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and look on the right side for the Donate to Cat's Meow Charitable Fund button, my Favorite Links list, Recommended Reading list, and the gadget to subscribe to my blog.
I'm sorry. Complain to Blogspot. They are just weird.
I'm sorry. Complain to Blogspot. They are just weird.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Upper Respiratory Infections - Human and Feline
As I sit at home this holiday weekend, trying with marginal success to fight off this nasty cold/bronchitis/laryngitis, I thought I would address some of the issues my clients express concern about with human and feline "colds".
Firstly, I did NOT catch this bug from any of my patients. Humans cannot catch feline upper respiratory viruses - most of those are due to FELINE herpesvirus, and most of the rest are due to FELINE calicivirus. I almost certainly caught my illness from the sick toddler I sat next to on the flight from LAX to Minneapolis, or perhaps in one of the three airports I was in that day, or even at the very busy shopping mall the next day.
Secondly, I am always a little concerned about spreading this sort of thing to my patients or my own cats because it IS possible for a few of the hundreds of human cold viruses to be spread to cats. This is known as a reverse zoonosis or an (and I like this word better, it's so scientific-sounding) anthroponosis. Fortunately, if a cat should be unlucky enough to catch it from me, it would tend to be fairly mild and self-limiting, and would not be able to spread on to other cats or back into humans - it would come to a dead end in that particular cat.
Thirdly, if this had been influenza instead of a cold (it's far too mild to be flu), I would have some serious concerns about spread to cats, but only if I had failed to get immunized against H1N1 influenza. That is the strain that was in the news so much a couple of years ago - I was vaccinated against it then, and I noted that it is also a component of this years routine annual flu shot. H1N1 has in the past spread to an unfortunate few cats and had a mortality rate of about 50%, so I consider it imperative that I protect myself as a way of protecting my patients and my own pets, along with humans.
Lastly, let's go back to that nasty feline herpesvirus. This is the bug that causes the majority of feline upper respiratory disease AND nontraumatic eye disease. It is probably the most common pathogen in cats, and one we have vaccinated cats against for decades. Being a herpesvirus, cats can only catch it once - then they have it, for life. So one would think that vaccinations at that point would have no value. But it turns out that cats with strong immunity to the virus from annual vaccinations do a better job of fighting the darned thing when they have those seemingly inevitable "recrudescences". Back before the recession, when most of my patients were current on their annual FVRCP-C vaccination, I rarely saw cats with upper respiratory or herpes-related eye problems that warranted any treatment whatsoever. But now that so many cats are overdue on vaccinations and their immunity is waning, medical intervention and good home nursing care are much more necessary.
So I guess the gist of this post is (big surprise here): get your annual flu shot, and get your cat vaccinated annually, too. The alternative is much bigger vet bills, and often a much sicker cat.
Here is my current likely nemesis - a picornavirus (actually, a whole cluster of the little devils - if you look close you can even see their horns and cloven feet):
Firstly, I did NOT catch this bug from any of my patients. Humans cannot catch feline upper respiratory viruses - most of those are due to FELINE herpesvirus, and most of the rest are due to FELINE calicivirus. I almost certainly caught my illness from the sick toddler I sat next to on the flight from LAX to Minneapolis, or perhaps in one of the three airports I was in that day, or even at the very busy shopping mall the next day.
Secondly, I am always a little concerned about spreading this sort of thing to my patients or my own cats because it IS possible for a few of the hundreds of human cold viruses to be spread to cats. This is known as a reverse zoonosis or an (and I like this word better, it's so scientific-sounding) anthroponosis. Fortunately, if a cat should be unlucky enough to catch it from me, it would tend to be fairly mild and self-limiting, and would not be able to spread on to other cats or back into humans - it would come to a dead end in that particular cat.
Thirdly, if this had been influenza instead of a cold (it's far too mild to be flu), I would have some serious concerns about spread to cats, but only if I had failed to get immunized against H1N1 influenza. That is the strain that was in the news so much a couple of years ago - I was vaccinated against it then, and I noted that it is also a component of this years routine annual flu shot. H1N1 has in the past spread to an unfortunate few cats and had a mortality rate of about 50%, so I consider it imperative that I protect myself as a way of protecting my patients and my own pets, along with humans.
Lastly, let's go back to that nasty feline herpesvirus. This is the bug that causes the majority of feline upper respiratory disease AND nontraumatic eye disease. It is probably the most common pathogen in cats, and one we have vaccinated cats against for decades. Being a herpesvirus, cats can only catch it once - then they have it, for life. So one would think that vaccinations at that point would have no value. But it turns out that cats with strong immunity to the virus from annual vaccinations do a better job of fighting the darned thing when they have those seemingly inevitable "recrudescences". Back before the recession, when most of my patients were current on their annual FVRCP-C vaccination, I rarely saw cats with upper respiratory or herpes-related eye problems that warranted any treatment whatsoever. But now that so many cats are overdue on vaccinations and their immunity is waning, medical intervention and good home nursing care are much more necessary.
So I guess the gist of this post is (big surprise here): get your annual flu shot, and get your cat vaccinated annually, too. The alternative is much bigger vet bills, and often a much sicker cat.
Here is my current likely nemesis - a picornavirus (actually, a whole cluster of the little devils - if you look close you can even see their horns and cloven feet):
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