 Some of the most common chronic illnesses found in cats and should be checked out by your veterinarian: Lumps and bumps: If detected early enough, many tumours can be successfully removed. A lack-lustre coat could mean your cat has or is heading for a variety of problems and any change is worth reporting. Loss of appetite is normal with elderly cats, but a true reluctance to eat is a different matter. Drinking more than normal could mean the onset of diabetes or one of a variety of chronic disorders . Fat cats are not necessarily happy cats. Middle Age Spread could spell problems, a sudden weight loss is equally concerning. Lethargic behaviour is worth taking seriously. Have your cat checked out. Teaching a cat to use a scratching post. An important part of scratching is the cat's desire to mark a territory, so a scratching post should be in an area that's used by the family, not hidden in a back corner. After a time you can move the post away to the periphery of the room, but you'll need to do this gradually. Initially, put the post where your cat goes to scratch. This may be by a sofa, a chair or wherever Kitty has chosen as her territiory, and you may need more than one post to cover her favorite spots. Security is a major factor in making the post appealing to your cat. If it topples or shakes, she won't use it. It should either be secured to the floor or have a base wide enough and heavy enough to keep it stable. Don't try to force your cat to use the scratching post. Instead, encourage her to use her post with clever enticements. Feed her and play with her by the post. Rub dried catnip leaves or powder into it. Make all the asssociations with the post pleasurable. Reward her with a favorite treat when she uses it. Have her chase a string or a toy around the post or attach toys to it, which will result in her digging her claws into it. Eventually she will learn to love it and regard it as her own. It's also a good idea to put a post where Kitty sleeps. Cats like to scratch when they awaken, especially in the morning and the middle of the night. If space permits, a scratching post in every room of the house is a cat's delight. The most important place is the area of the house in which you and Kitty spend the most time. If at first Kitty is reluctant to give up her old scratching areas, there are means you can use to discourage her. Covering the area with aluminum foil or double-sided tape is a great deterrent. These surfaces don't have a texture that feels good to scratch. Remember too that Kitty has marked her favorite spots with her scent as well as her claws. You may need to remove her scent from the areas you want to distract her away from. You will find pet odor removers in pet stores and many supermarkets as well. Cats also have an aversion to citrus odors. Use lemon-scented sprays or a potpourri of lemon and orange peels to make her former scratching sites less agreeable to her. If Kitty still persists in scratching the furniture, try squirting her with a water gun or a spray bottle . Another option is a loud whistle or other noise-maker. You must employ these deterrents while she is scratching for them to be effective. The point is to establish an aversion to the spot you don't want her to scratch. Interesting information about cats: Cat Bowls: Cats whiskers are very sensitive, so much so that they can detect an object in the dark by the air turbulence against their whiskers. Because their whiskers are so important to their survival, they don't like to have their them soiled or smashed against the side of the bowl. Cats need a dish that is shallow and wide -- at least five inches across. For food, the bowl should be no more than 1 1/2 inches deep; for water the bowl should be between 2 and 3 inches deep and kept full whenever possible. That the bowl is shallow is more important than the width of the opening. Choosing a bowl that is the right size honors the nature of the cat and their needs. Cats eyes have a full inner-eyelid, or nictitating membrane. This inner-eyelid serves to help protect the eyes from dryness and damage. When the cat is ill, the inner-eyelid will frequently close partially, making it visible to the observer. A cat cannot see directly under its nose. This is why the cat cannot seem to find tidbits on the floor. You can tell a cat's mood by looking into its eyes. A frightened or excited cat will have large, round pupils. An angry cat will have narrow pupils. The pupil size is related as much to the cat's emotions as to the degree of light. Recent studies have shown that cats can see blue, green and red. A large majority of white cats with blue eyes are deaf. White cats with only one blue eye are deaf only in the ear closest to the blue eye. White cats with orange eyes do not have this disability. Cats with white fur and skin on their ears are very prone to sunburn. Frequent sunburns can lead to skin cancer. Many white cats need surgery to remove all or part of a cancerous ear. Preventive measures include sunscreen, or better, keeping the cat indoors. A cat can jump even seven times as high as it is tall. The cat's footpads absorb the shocks of the landing when the cat jumps. Because cats lack a true collarbone they can generally squeeze their bodies through any space they can get their heads through. You may have seen a cat testing the size of an opening by careful measurement with the head. A female cat may have three to seven kittens every four months. A cat is pregnant for about 58-65 days. Mother cats teach their kittens to use the litter box. The way you treat kittens in the early stages of it's life will render it's personality traits later in life. A pet cat will respond and answer to speech , and seems to enjoy human companionship. When well treated, a cat can live twenty or more years but the average life span of a domestic cat is 14 years. Neutering a cat extends its life span by two or three years. Cats can't taste sweets. Cats must have fat in their diet because they can't produce it on their own. Tylenol and chocolate are both poisionous to cats. Baking chocolate is the most dangerous chocolate to your cat. Many cats cannot properly digest cow's milk. Milk and milk products give them diarrhea. Mice: The average cat food meal is the equivalent to about five mice. Cats can get tapeworms from eating mice. If your cat catches a mouse it is best to take the prize away from it. Though rare, cats can contract canine heart worms. Cats can also get tapeworms from eating fleas. These worms live inside the cat forever, or until they are removed with medication. They reproduce by shedding a link from the end of their long bodies. This link crawls out the cat's nus, and sheds hundreds of eggs. These eggs are injested by flea larvae, and the cycles continues. Humans may get these tapeworms too, but only if they eat infected fleas. Cats with tapeworms should be dewormed by a veterinarian. The gene in cats that causes the orange coat color is sexed linked, and is on the X sex chromosome. This gene may display orange or black. Thus, as female cat with two X chromosomes may have orange and black colors in its coat. A male, with only one X chromosome, can have only orange or black, not both. If a male cat is both orange and black it is ( besides being extremely rare ) sterile. To have both the orange and the black coat colors, the male cat must have all or part of both female X chromosomes. This unusual sex chromosome combination will render the male cat sterile. Cats have AB blood groups just like people. A form of AIDS exists in cats. Your vet can test and treat this or if not present, vaccinate for it. The color of the points in Siamese cats is heat related. Cool areas are darker. Siamese kittens are born white because of the heat inside the mother's uterus before birth. This heat keeps the kittens' hair from darkening on the points. People who are allergic to cats are actually allergic to cat saliva or to cat dander. If the resident cat is bathed regularly the allergic people tolerate it better. Studies now show that the allergen in cats is related to their scent glands. Cats have scent glands on their faces and at the base of their tails. Entire male cats generate the most scent. If this secretion from the scent glands is the allergen, allergic people should tolerate spayed female cats the best. Cats do not think that they are little people. They think that WE are big cats. This influences their behavior in many ways. Cats are subject to gum disease and to dental caries. They should have their teeth cleaned by the vet or the cat dentist once a year. Many people fear catching a protozoan disease, Toxoplasmosis, from cats. This disease can cause illness in the human, but more seriously, can cause birth defects in the unborn. Toxoplasmosis is a common disease, sometimes spread through the feces of cats. It is caused most often from eating raw or rare beef. Pregnant women and people with a depressed immune system should not touch the cat litter box. Other than that, there is no reason that these people have to avoid cats. Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day. When cats are asleep, they are still alert to incoming stimuli. If you poke the tail of a sleeping cat, it will respond accordingly. Besides smelling with their nose, cats can smell with an additional organ called the Jacobson's organ, located in the upper surface of the mouth. The chlorine in fresh tap water irritates sensitive parts of the cat's nose. Let tap water sit for 24 hours before giving it to a cat. Purring does not always mean happiness. Purring could mean a cat is in terrible pain such as during childbirth. Kittens will purr to their mother to let her know they are getting enough milk while nursing. Purring is a process of inhaling and exhaling, usually performed while the mouth is closed. But don't worry, if your cat is purring while your gently petting her and holding her close to you - that is a happy cat! The catnip plant contains an oil called hepetalactone which does for cats what marijuana does to some people. Not all cats react to it those that do appear to enter a trancelike state. A positive reaction takes the form of the cat sniffing the catnip, then licking, biting, chewing it, rub & rolling on it repeatedly, purring, meowing & even leaping in the air. Not every cat gets "high" from catnip. Whether or not a cat responds to it depends upon a recessive gene: no gene, no joy. Cat families usually play best in even numbers. Cats and kittens should be aquired in pairs whenever possible. You check your cats pulse on the inside of the back thigh, where the leg joins to the body. Normal for cats: 110-170 beats per minute. A cat's whiskers are thought to be a kind of radar, which helps a cat gauge the space it intends to walk through. Both humans and cats have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion. A cat's brain is more similar to a man's brain than that of a dog. Normal body temperature for a cat is 102 degrees F. This and That about your cats: Cats respond most readily to names that end in an "ee" sound. A cat will tremble or shiver when it is extreme pain. Declawing a cat is the same as cutting a human's fingers off at the knuckle. There are several alternatives to a complete declawing, including trimming or a less radical (though more involved) surgery to remove the claws. Preferably, try to train your cat to use a scratching post. Cats with long, lean bodies are more likely to be outgoing, and more protective and vocal than those with a stocky build. A steady diet of dog food may cause blindness in your cat - it lacks taurine. It has been scientifically proven that stroking a cat can lower one's blood pressure. If your cat snores, or rolls over on his back to expose his belly, it means he trusts you. Cats respond better to women than to men, probably due to the fact that women's voices have a higher pitch. When your cats rubs up against you, she is actually marking you as "hers" with her scent. If your cat pushes his face against your head, it is a sign of acceptance and affection. Cats can predict earthquakes. We humans are not 100% sure how they do it. There are several different theories. A queen (female cat) can begin mating when she is between 5 and 9 months old. A tomcat (male cat) can begin mating when he is between 7 and 10 months old. Tomcats can mate at anytime, while quenns can only mate during a period of time called heat or estrus. Heat occurs several times a year and can last anywhere from 3 to 15 days. At 4 weeks, it is important to play with kittens so that they do not develope a fear of people. Kittens remain with their mother till the age of 9 weeks. It is estimated that cats can make over 60 different sounds. A cat that bites you for rubbing his stomach is often biting from pleasure, not anger. The more cats are spoken to, the more they will speak back. You will learn a lot from your cat's wide vocabulary of chirps and meows. Cats often over react to unexpected stimuli because of their extremely sensitive nervous system. Kittens who are taken along on short, trouble-free car trips to town tend to make good passengers when they get older. They get used to the sounds and motions of traveling and make less connection between the car and the visits to the vet. Cats, just like people, are subject to asthma. Dust, smoke, and other forms of air pullution in your cat's environment can be troublesome sources of irritation. Cats that live together sometimes rub each others heads to show that they have no intention of fighting. Young cats do this more often, especially when they are excited. By the time they are seven months old, a cat has lost it's baby teeth and it's adult teeth are fully developed. This is one of the ways a vet (or you) can tell the age of a kitten. Here's some more tips . 1.What about giving cats a bath? Well I'd definitely say it is better to start bathing them when they are kittens. Spaz was a little older when we started bathing him and doesn't like it at all. We ended up with a lot of scratches. Now my Mom's cat, Shadow, started getting baths when he was a baby. He whines a lot but doesn't fight her. Cats (especially house cats) are generally pretty clean and a bath once a month will probably be enough. Most over-the-counter pet shampoo will work. Avoid using human shampoos and other human products because they're much too harsh. If your pet has a skin condition, then you need to see your veterinarian because a special shampoo may be needed. 2. Is it okay to feed my cat milk? A cat's digestive system doesn't digest milk well so it can cause diarrhea. Therefore most veternarians don't recommend it. 3. What about Tuna Fish? Once in a while probably wouldn't hurt but the human variety of tuna fish contains an enzyme that destroys vitamin B1 (thiamine). Cats who regularly eat tuna can develop a vitamin B1 deficiency, which results in neurological symptoms like dilated eyes, loss of equilibrium, seizures and death if this vitamin is not replaced. If your cat likes the taste of tuna then it is better to choose tuna cat food. 4. When your cat starts urinating in places other than its litterbox. Whenever cats are having unusual toilet habits, it's important to check for physical problems that may be causing it. Infections, diabetes, and other diseases can change the behavior of a normally litterbox trained cat. Once my mother's cat jumped in the bathroom sink and urinated. She was shocked but quickly discovered there was blood in the urine. A trip to the vet proved Shadow had a blatter infection. Cat's have their own way of letting us know something is wrong so before you scold them watch carefully to see if they are trying to tell you something. 5. Can you tell if your cat is sick by whether it's nose is cold or not? Sometimes a cold, wet nose is one sign of good health but not necessarily. Even a healthy cat can have a warm, dry nose on occasion. Therefore, don't rely on this method. If your cat isn't eating, or otherwise is acting unusual, it is best to check with your veterinarian to be sure. 6. What about vomiting? The two most common culprits that cause cats to vomit are eating too much or too fast, and hairballs. If your cat seems to be vomiting bits of food try giving it small portions at a time. Tubes of hairball lubricants can be found just about everywhere. Personally I've found most work the same the difference is sometimes the taste so you'll have to find out which one your cat likes. Then just squirt a little out in his food dish about once a week or so depending on how thick your cat's hair is. Be sure to give your cat the hairball lubricant on an empty stomach (not with his food). Another thing is to regularly brush your cat so he won't end up swallowing so much of it. 7. Teaching a cat to walk with a leash. I'm definitely not a professional but I know people who have done this. I've noticed that the cats I've been around all seem to have different personalities, just like people, and as we know different things work for different people, same for cats. My mother recently taught her cat, and he is 13 years old. Mom has one of the Safkat Jackets she sells. First she put the jacket on every day for a few minutes until Shadow got used to it. Then she put the leash on every day for short periods of time. The first time she didn't hold onto the leash, just let Shadow walk around the house dragging it. Next she held it but let Shadow do all the leading. Gradually over time Shadow would go where Mom wanted. Then and only then did she take him outside with the leash on. Now he loves it because he knows he gets to go outside. | 
