LISA'S KITTY KORNER :

by Lisa Reynolds, SACNYAACHS President For Administration And Research

Health Tips For Your Kitty

For everyone who has pets, NEVER GIVE THEM ASPIRIN!! Both aspirin and Tylenol are lethal to cats and dogs. They don't have the enzymes in their system to break it down, so it is fatally toxic to them.
Any human meds are not to be given to animals. Aspirin and Pepto Bismal are toxic and Tylenol kills instantly.

During the hot spells that we have been having, it is important to keep your kitty hydrated. By placing several bowls of water around your house, they will be more apt to drink from a bowl of water in a different part of the house than from the one by their regular food bowls. Also, try putting ice cubes in their water bowl. These not only make their water cooler, but the ice cubes intrigue them, making them stick their feet in the water and subsequently licking the water off their their water cooler, but the ice cubes intrigue them, making them stick their feet in the water and subsequently licking the water off their paws.

Summer shedding. Excessive shedding in the hot summer months as well as in the spring, can lead to fur balls or a loss of appetite because of excess hair in the stomach. An over the counter hairball remedy can help prevent these. By giving your cat about an inch and a half length of the sticky substance 30-45 minutes before a meal, it will stick to the hair that is in their digestive tract and create a mass that will eventually pass through their system. If the hairball remedy is given with a meal, the hairball remedy will stick to the food and not the hair, making it useless. Another way to keep hairballs under control is by grooming your cat every other day or so with a flea comb. These are fine-toothed combs ($2) can be purchased from your veterinarian or pet store. In addition to finding that little flea that has been driving your cat nuts, it also works as an excellent way of getting rid of lots of loose hair. Most to finding that little flea that has been driving your cat nuts, it also works as an excellent way of getting rid of lots of loose hair. Most cats will enjoy and look forward to this grooming/bonding time with you.

Regarding Urinary Tract Infections (UTI's) and Cystitis. :
Male cats are more prone to cystitis and UTI's that female cats are even though female cats can get UTIs. More often than not, a cat's dietary source is the cause of most urniary tract infections. A cat food that is low in magnesium and that promotes urinary tract health is the best choice for your cat. Remember that most fish and seafood are very high in magnesium especially salmon. For example, Purina makes a cat food called O.N.E. (Optimal Nutritional Effectiveness) that is low in magnesium and promotes good unrinary tract health. It is made from chicken, rice, and corn meal. Keep in mind, however, that this is a very rich food and only 1/4 cup given twice a day will be sufficient for your cat's ration per day. In relation to feeding, a cat's optimal body weight should be between 8 and 11 pounds. A cat's natural skeletal frame is designed to hold 8 to 11 pounds "healthily" . In the event your cat may need to be anesthetized or given medication the amount of each is given according to body weight. Thus, a cat that is overweight will have to be given enough medication or anesthesia to accommodate the "extra" body weight. Not only will this affect the cat's kidneys as they work harder to get rid of the excess drugs, but extra body weight can impinge certain organ functions by constricting internal organs. ___________________________________

This time of year when fleas make themselves known, may people will use a topical flea powder, spray and/or collar. With the increasing awareness of flea control and the internal themselves know, may people will use a topical flea powder, spray and/or collar. With the increasing awareness of flea control and the internal meds that are being advertised, people should know that these react very badly when used with topical flea treatments. Kind of like mixing bleach and ammonia and breathing it. Each one by itself is not the greatest to breathe, but it won't kill you. Mix the two and it will burn your airway passage. Fleas are parasites that survive by sucking the blood from their hosts. The internal meds work from the inside out, mainly traveling via blood stream. The chemical in the product "ProBan" works by killing the adult flea when it feeds on the host's blood, but if the fea has already laid eggs, you will have those to contend with when they hatch. The chemical in the product "Program" works by sterilizing the adult flea so that it will lay unfertle eggs. Using "Program", vacuuming every day and flea combing every day will eventually get rid of every flea. Either of these two products combined with topical flea remedies will poison your cat or dog. It should be an either or combination. Any flea medication or topical applications should be discussed with veterinarian before using them on your pet.

1. My life is likely to last 10 to 15 years. Any separation from you will be very painful.

2. Give me time to understand what you want from me.

3. Place your trust in me - it is crucial for my well-being.

4. Don't be angry with me for long, and don't lock me up as punishment. You have your work, your friends, your entertainment. I HAVE ONLY YOU!

5. Talk to me. Even if I don't understand your words, I understand your voice when it's speaking to me.

6. Be aware that however you treat me, I'LL NEVER FORGET IT.

7. Before you hit me, remember that I have teeth that could easily crush the bones in your hand, but I choose not to bite you.

8. Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be botheringing me. Perhaps I'm not getting the right food, I've been out in the sun too long, or my heart may be gettting old and weak.

9. Take care of me when I get old. You, too, will grow old one day.

10. Go with me on difficult journeys. Never say, "I can't bear to watch it", or "Let it happen in my absence." Everything is easier for ME if you are there. Remember, I love you.

GREAT HUMAN / ANIMAL COMPASSION STORY

Taken From "Country" Magazine
By Sigfried Sahn, Willits, California

MEMORIES OF 'HOT DOG AND A LITTLE MUSTARD"

In 1973, when I was courting my wife to be, Kathy, her life revolved around horses. She owned a pretty, though somewhat cranky, palomino mare named "Flair", who had a cute little filly named "Heather" by her side. since Kathy spent ever spare moment fussing over her horses, I figured it might be a smart move on my part to buy a horse of my own so I could go riding with her.
Only trouble was, being a young veterinarian fresh out of college, I couldn't afford to buy a horse, at least not one good enough to match the quality of Flair. So, with thos notion in mind, I kept my eye open for a suitable horse as I went on veterinary "horse calls". One of the farms on my rounds was an establishment specializing in riding lessons for youngsters, and the owner, Mae, was always looking for cheap, gentle, older horses for her students to use. One afternoon I was called out to examine a lesson horse she had just bought. When I arrived at the stable he was being ridden in the arena by a novice hunter-jumper student. The horse was a large chestnut gelding, which appeared to be three-fourths thoroughbred and one-fourth quarter horse.
He was steadily trotting his course and jumping over one and two foot jumps without missing a beat. Even when his young rider failed to give him the proper jumping cues, the big horse ignored the mistakes and gave a flawless ride.
Mae told me the horse was a perfect lesson horse becasue he knew much more than the young riders. However, one thing was wrong with the animal, something I could detect even from a distance. He had a large swollen mass at the bottom of his abdomen that swayed back and forth in time with his effortless gait.
When the horse finished the lesson and was brought over to me for examination, I felt the softball-sized swelling and concluded it was a tumor. I learned that Mae had bought the 12-year old horse for $250 and saved it from the meat packer in the hopes of having the mass surgically removed.
When she asked me how much it would cost for the surgery to remove the growth and follow up medical care, I gave her an estimate of $500 since the tumor was probably a cancer and there was no guarantee it would not grow back. Mae quickly concluded that it was not work the risk of losing money on the animal and told me she would use the horse until the mass go too big and then sell him back to the meat packer.
Several months passed and my assistant, Charlie, who was good friends with Mae, told me that the tumor on "Hot Dog", the name the kids had tagged on this horse was growing rapidly. The next time I stopped at the stable, Mae told me that even though Hot Dog was one of the best lesson horses she'd ever had, he was going to the auction the next week becasue the tumor was just too unsightly and was impeding the animal's gait.
On the spur of the moment, I offered her $300 cash for the horse if she'd transport him to Kathy's stable. Mae said, "Sold to the man with the stethoscope!", and I was the proud owner of a 1,200 pound horse with a 5 pound tumor. The following week, Charlie, Kathy and I anesthetized the big horse on the lawn in front of the stable, and I cut and cauterized furiously until the huge mass came away from its attachments. Then I stitched up the gaping wound and we waited for the horse to wake up.
After about 20 minutes, he got up unsteadily and started nickering for some hay, a good sign that the prolonged anesthesia hadn't caused any complications. With daily cleaning and antibiotics, the incision healed almost perfectly during the next few weeks. soon, I started to go riding with Kathy and Hot Dog's gate once again became free flowing and enthusiastic. He was back to his old self.
Kathy and I were married in the fall of 1973, and we bought a house near Woodland Hills, California with nearly an acre of land that was zoned for horses. We moved Flair, Hot Dog, and Heather to the new location. In the meantime, my veterinary horse practice was growing by leaps and bounds, and I found less and less time to spend with our horses. My phone would ring at all hours, from 6 in the morning until 10 at night. Even weekends were interrupted with emergency calls and the lack of sleep and time off often made me cranky and feeling sorry for myself.
On Christmas Eve of 1974, I had put in a full day's work and just arrived home at dusk when Kathy came out of the carport and said there was an emergency call on the telephone. Somewhat irritated, I went to answer the call. My irritation vanished when the frantic caller said, "Oh, doctor, this is Mrs. Rogers. Yesterday my little pony mare gave birth to a beautiful little mini-mule, and I just went out to the stall. He is so weak he can't get up and he seems to be having trouble breathing! He was perfectly fine yesterday. I just don't know what could have happened."
Mini mules are the offspring of ponies bread with small donkeys. A number of years ago these cute little animals were quite the rage in Southern California. I had seen several of them in the course of my practice, so I was familiar with them. Because of the inter species breeding, it is common for the mare's blood type to be incompatible with the foal's blood type, much like the Rh factor disease in humans. When this is the case, the mare may produce antibodies against her foal's blood during pregnancy, but these antibodies do not cause a problem because the foal's blood and the mare's blood do not mix.
However, the mare also secretes large amounts of these antibodies in her milk, and when the foal nurses for the first time, these antibodies are passed diresctly from the foal's digestive system to the bloodstream, where they attack the red blood cells and cause them to break. The case history is almost always the same, the foal is born normally, is strong and nurses well, and then after a few hours or a day or two, it becomes listless, weak, and jaundiced and breathes rapidly.
I immediately suspected this is what ailed Mrs. Rogers' little foal. But I really didn't feel like driving 30 miles through last minute Christmas Eve traffic. If my suspicions were correct, the foal would need a blood transfusion and extended observation. Since this was more easily handled at my home, I asked "is it possible for you to bring the foal over to my house?" Mrs. Rogers was rather dubious about separating the mare and foal, but after I told her what I suspected the problem was, she agreed to come over. About an hour later, a car drove up. As Mrs. Rogers got out of her car, I saw that she was cradling the tiny mini-mule in her arms.
I showed her into our garage, which oftend doubled as a clinic. I had never seen a mini-mule foal so small - he must have weighed no more than 20 pounds and with his woolly hair coat he looked like a little stuffed toy. Clinically, the foal was in very bad shape. He was gasping for air and could barely summon the energy to lift his head when I examined him. Withone look at his white little gums, I knew that my telephone diagnosis was correct. I drew a small blood sample and found that he had only 15% of the normal number of red blood cells. By this time it was dark outside and I asked Kathy to go out to the corrals and bring Hot Dog up to the garage so I could get a blood sample from him to see if he was compatible for a transfusion.
After a few minutes, Kathy let Hot Dog to the open garage door. When he spotted the foal lying on a bed of straw under a heat lamp, his ears came forward intently and he peered in curiously and nickered at the little animal. I had picked Hot Dog for the transfusion becasue he was the most level-headed of our horses. I was afraid that bringing any of the others up from the corrals at night to a comotion in the garage would spook them and make them difficult to handle.
Even so, in the previous year, during the time that Hot Dog was recovering from his surgery, he had come to detest injections. Most horses get "needle shy" dance around and carry on or even become dangerous. But when I approached him with a needle and syringe to get a blood sample, he surprised me by standing calmly and instead of getting upset, he started nickering to the little foal. The foal gave only a weak high-pitched whinny in answer.
As I was cross-matching the blood of the two animals, Mrs. Rogers went over to Hot Dog and began stroking his neck. She asked about his name, where I got him and so forth, and I explained his previous problems and how I had rescued him from the meat packer. She alternatly laughed and got teary-eyed as she listened to the story and continued to gently stroke the huge horse.
After 15 minutes or so, I determined that the blood for the two was compatible and I got a blood collection bottle, which has a very large bore needle, and approached Hot Dog. I asked Mrs. Rogers to step away from him just in case he acted up when the big needle punctured his jugular vein.
But I needn't have bothered, becasue Hot Dog didn't move a muscle. It took me 4 or 5 minutes to draw a pint of blood and the entire time he stood softly nickering to the little foal, which was now so weak he could no longer answer back. I shaved the foal's neck and placed a catheter into his jugular vein. I then began the infusion of Hot Dog's warm blood into the foal. As the rapid drip of the transfusion progressed, the little foal again started answering Hot Dog's encouraging murmurings. Soon he was lifting his head to look up at the horse.
Hot Dog continued to watch the proceedings intently. Mrs. Rogers alternatily looked at Hot Dog and the little foal, shaking her head in awe as we could literally see life flowing back into the foal's body. By the time the transfusion was comleted, the foal was trying to stand up. Mrs. Rogers exclaimed, "It's a miracle" and went over to Hot Dog and gave him a great big hug. "I'm going to name this beautiful little foal "Mustard" in your honor," she told him.
Hot Dog's tumor never grew back and we gave him a home until he died of old age on our farm here in Northern California. Over the years, he gave blood generously and saved many other horses' lives. But none was so touching or memorable as when the big norse saved a wisp of a little mini-mule named Mustard in his honor on Christmas Eve of 1974.
It was a Christmas Eve and a Christmas present I'll always remember.

PLANTS & YOUR CAT

Plants add the needed finishing touches to any decor. But, if you have a feline, that beautiful plant could become a deadly enemy.
Listed are some plants that are poisonous to cats that should be avoided if there are cats in your home. While in some cases, just parts of the plant (bark, leaves, seeds, berries, roots, tubers, sprouts, green shells) might be poisonous, this list rules out the whole plant. If you must have any of them, keep them safety out of reach.
Should your feline friend eat part of a poisonous plant, rush the cat to your veterinarian as soon as possible. If you can, take the plant with you for ease of identification.

Poisonous Plants To Cats

Alfalfa

Almond (pits of)

Alocasia

Amaryllis

Apple seeds

Apricot (pits of)

Arrowgrass

Avacado

Azalea

Baneberry

Bayonet

Beargrass

Beech

Belladonna

Bird of Paradise

Bittersweet

Black-eyed Susan

Black Locust

Bleeding Heart

Bloodroot

Blue Bonnet

Box

Boxwood

Buckeyes

Burning Bush

Buttercup

Cactus, Candelabra

Caladium

Caster Bean

Cherry (pits of)

Cherry, most wild varieties

Cherry, ground

Cherry, Laurel

Chinaberry

Christmas Rose

Chrysanthemum

Clemantis

Corrarra

Cornflower

Corydalis

Crocus, Autum

Crown of Thorns

Cyclamen

Daffodil Daphne

Daphne

Datura

Deadly Nightshade

Death Camas

Delphinium

Decentrea

Dieffenbachia

Dumb Cane

Eggplant

Elderberry

Elephant Ear

English Ivy

Euonymus

Evergreen

Ferns

Flax

Four O-Clock

Foxglove

Golden Chain

Golden Glow

Gopher Purge

Hellebore

Hemlock, Poison

Hemlock, Water

Henbane

Holly

Honeysuckle

Horsebeans

Horsebrush

Horse Chestnuts

Hyacinth

Hydrangea

Indian Tobacco

Iris

Iris Ivy

Jack In the Pulpit

Java Beans

Jessamine

Jerusalem Cherry

Jimson Weed

Jonquil

Jungle Trumpets

Lantana

Larkspur

Laurel

Lily

Lily Spider

Lily of the Valley

Locoweed

Lupine

Marigold

Marijuana

Mescal Bean

Mistletoe

Mock Orange

Monkshood

Moonseed

Morning Glory

Mountain Laurel

Mushrooms

Narcissus

Nighshade

Oleander

Peach (pits of)

Peony

Periwinkle

Philodendron

Pimpernel

Poiinciana

Poinsettia

Poison Hemlock

Poison Ivy

Poison Oak

Pokeweed

Poppy

Potato

Precatory Bean

Privet, Common

Rhododendron

Rhubarb

Rosemary Pea

Rubber Plant

Scotch Broom

Skunk Cabbage

Snowdrops

Snow On the Mountain

Staggerweed

Star Of Bethlehem

Sweetpea

Tansy Mustard

Tobacco

Tomato

Tulip

Tung Tree

Virginia Creeper

Water Hemlock

Weeping Fig

Wild Call

Wisteria

Yews-

i.e. Japanese Yew

English Yew

Western Yew

American Yew

List compiled by: Jeffrey D. Rakes

Reprinted from PET Magazine's Cat Care Guide, Summer 1987

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