Stem cell therapy has all kinds of uses in veterinary medicine these days, and now researchers believe they’ve found a new one. Early studies show it can help cats with stomatitis and other forms of chronic gum disease in cats. A second clinical trial, this one involving 200 cats, will get underway soon.
For humans, bottled water is hardly the next big thing. But it could be for cats. A Colorado-based company is bottling Catwater, which it says is mineral-free and pH optimized to help prevent UTIs in cats.
Does your cat love a drink from the faucet?
Just about the last thing the planet needs is more plastic bottles finding their way to recycling centers and the ocean. But more plastic might be the price you have to pay if you want to do one more thing to try to prevent UTIs in cats.
Enter Catwater, a new product from H&C Animal Health. Bottled in Canada, it’s ozonated and chlorine-free. H&C says its pH is “perfectly balanced” between 6.2-6.4 to minimize the minerals that can cause bladder stones and crystals in cats.
The issue, of course, is how to get your cat to drink it, even if it tastes great. Healthy cats are notoriously unenthusiastic drinkers. We can thank their desert wild cat ancestors for that almost nonexistent thirst drive.
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No, you can’t get COVID-19 from your cat. And she can’t get it from you. But there are some things to know about the coronavirus and cats that could help keep both of you healthy. And yes, as Mom said at least once a day when you were a kid, wash your hands. Often.
They’re innocent! Cats and dogs can’t transmit the new coronavirus to humans.
So you read about the dog in China who tested positive for the new coronavirus, and now you’re eyeing your cat with suspicion and just a little bit of fear. But infected humans are not the cats’ fault! Numerous world and national health agencies say COVID-19 can’t be transmitted from cats and dogs to humans. You might be able to give it to your cat though. Not that she’ll get sick.
Coronaviruses tend to be species-specific. So while the coronavirus and cats is probably not an issue for either of you, your cat has plenty of her own coronaviruses to worry about.
A new test uses artificial intelligence to predict kidney disease in cats two years before it occurs.
A new test can predict kidney disease in cats before it occurs.
You could think of it as a high-tech crystal ball. RenalTech, a test from Antech Diagnostics, uses artificial intelligence to predict the likelihood of kidney disease in cats two years before it occurs.
Vets can use the test results to develop a personalized care plan that could keep the cat from going into kidney failure.
Studies show that one in three cats will develop kidney disease in their lifetimes. What makes it so dangerous is that it can be difficult to diagnose before it’s done significant damage to the kidneys.
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“Arise from sleep, old cat, And with great yawns and stretchings… Amble out for love”
Now your cat can have music purrsonalized just for him with one of Spotify’s playlists for cats.
Now your cat can enjoy music purrsonalized just for him from one of Spotify’s playlists for cats.
If your cat could make his own Spotify playlist, chances are it wouldn’t include Lizzo, Billie Eilish or even Mozart. But Spotify’s playlists for cats could be in perfect tune with what your cats like to hear.
It turns out that what’s music to humans’ ears is just noise, and sometimes an annoyance, to cats. If it’s too loud, it can actually be painful.
It also turns out that Spotify likes to listen to the numbers. When it discovered that 71 percent of people who live with companion animals play music for them, it launched its playlists for cats, dogs, birds, hamsters and iguanas.
Not that Spotify’s ignoring people who live with birds, fish or snakes. Birds, of course, make their own music. And snakes and fish don’t hear music of any kind.
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“Cats choose us; we don’t own them.” -– Kristin Cast
Snapping a picture of your cat while he’s taking care of business in the litter box may not be high on your list of things you want to do. But Hachi Tama, a Japanese startup, thinks it should be. And its app for cats will take the picture for you. Among the other new apps for cats is one that lets you monitor your cat as she flies, all by herself in a CarePod, on Delta Airlines.
Is this cat checking his litter box usage with a new app for cats?
If there’s room for still more apps for cats on your phone, here’s one worth having. Toletta, a litter box that uses the Internet of Things and AI, monitors your cats’ contributions to the box and sends updates to your phone. That may not be what you want to see in the middle of your lunch hour, but at least you don’t have to wonder who just did what. The update includes a picture of the contributing cat’s face.
Although you’d probably rather not look at it too closely, your cats’ litter box can tell you a lot about their health. Clumps of litter that are smaller than normal could be a sign that a cat is having trouble passing urine. Larger than normal clumps could indicate hyperthyroidism, diabetes or kidney disease. Diarrhea … well, that could be just about anything, from nothing to worry about to irritable bowel disease or lymphoma.
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“Cats have it all – admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it.” – Rod McKuen
Perhaps Banfield Pet Hospitals and VCA saw the handwriting (claw marks) on the wall. The huge vet clinic chains, both owned by Mars Petcare, now prohibit declawing cats. This is great news for the cats in their practices because all paws come with claws for a reason, and there are many ways to keep cats with claws from shredding the furniture.
If your cat is scratching your furniture, there are many alternatives to declawing
Now in the It’s Long Overdue Category: Banfield Pet Hospitals and VCA have both stopped declawing cats. Banfield published its new policy statement on declawing, except for medical reasons in January. VCA stopped declawing early this month.
“Current evidence does not support the use of elective declawing surgery as an alternative to relinquishment, abandonment, or euthanasia,” Banfield says in its policy statement. But it’s possible the huge chains of vet clinics saw the claw marks on the wall, too. Banfield’s policy statement also points out that several of the jurisdictions where it has hospitals ban declawing cats.
Declawing is illegal in New York State. And California, New Hampshire, Maryland and New Jersey are working on statewide declaw bans. Some of the cities that ban declawing include Denver and West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Monica and Berkeley in California.
Countries that ban declawing include England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Israel, Australia and New Zealand.
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