Cat Hazards

[Rae'ya]

Re: Cat Hazards

So pretty much everything that Ophidia and Corbin have said is correct.... I just want to expand on a few ideas.

Which reminds me...so, my big concern, I guess, is that I mostly clean with baking soda and vinegar...which I'm fairly sure is a-ok. But, I also use a spray and floor wash in the bathroom and kitchen with lavender, rosemary, and bergamont essential oils (about 10 drops of each in a quart-sized spray bottle to clean counters)...when we say "essential oils are a problem", I'm assuming that we mean "essential oils are a problem when used on a on a cat or where where it can get absorbed by skin, etc or ingested, or inhaled in a sufficient enough quantity to cause an adverse reaction" and that I'm probably okay to keep using the same cleaning methods?

I agree with Ophidia on this one. I think this is a 'better safe than sorry' situation, because when you spray it on your benches or floor, you'll have residue that will potentially come in direct contact with kitty. Yes, you can reduce risks of aromatherapy by locking kitty out and ventilating the room, but you can't ventilate away residue on your bench. So it depends on what level of risk you are willing to take.

Also, what about cat diets? I know cats are often lactose intolerent--the fact that Sharkbait thought he was being a good kitty friend and gave the kitty a tea cup (which it did not finish) of skim milk before I found it isn't going to kill it...but anything else I should know regarding evaluating a high quality cat food (or if you are in the US, what brands do you like)?

There are a number of good quality brands out there. I like to avoid adding too much to the commercial food, as it dilutes out the nutrient content and encourages fussiness. Wet food accelerates dental disease, and not many people can brush their cat's teeth to compensate for that. My preferred diet for an indoor cat is Royal Canin Young Male or Young Female or RC Dental S/O, but my understanding is that the RC brand is different in the US than it is here in Aus. The reason I like this food is it kills three birds with one stone... it's lower calorie to cater for desexed indoor cats, it has an enzyme that binds the calcium in the saliva to slow down dental disease and it encourages drinking water without added salt as well as maintaining the pH value of urine to prevent the bladder issues Corbin was talking about. RC in Australia also don't use artificial preservatives, use beet pulp for dietary fibre instead of wheat products and have a number of natural additives like tumeric and borage oil as the sources for many of the nutrients.

Either way, kitty needs a diet formulated for kittens until he/she is desexed. Growing kittens have different nutritional needs than adult cats, so can't just be on adult cat food. Don't be fooled by diets that say they are balanced for all lifestages... all this means is that they meet the minimum nutrient profile for each lifestage, which means that they are usually oversupplemented in many nutrients. Remember, oversupplementation can be just as bad as undersupplementation. Unfortunately, it's not illegal for petfood companies to do this. It's also not illegal for petfood companies to make the 'feed as part of a balanced diet' statement tiny and hard to find.

Also, cats can't survive long on dog food. They have specific amino acid requirements and dog food doesn't have enough of the right ones. They also don't do well on homeprepared diets for the same reason... they need more than one protein source if on homeprepared diets, and not too much red meat. Cats are much trickier to home-prepare for than dogs, especially indoor cats who can't supplement their own diet with caught prey.

My best friend reminded me that I need to get more consciencous about putting up my crochet--contrary to popular myth (like the milk thing), yarn is bad (so is using sticks to play fetch with dogs). Anyother randomly common sense stuff like this, that isn't necessairly stuff people remember or think about?

Yes, yes and yes. One day I may post up the case study I have published about the dog with a stick through it's chest. Rubber bands, hair ties, string, yarn, needles and thread, pin cushions, sponges, foil balls, plastic bags, meat tray absorbant pads... the list is pretty endless. We don't see as many foreign bodies in cats as in dogs, but they are just as prone to getting obstruction if they are allowed to eat things. Luckily, most clients I've had who's cat ate string or yarn were able to pull it out before they ate a lot, which is the benefit of synthetic yarn balls... they can't chew through it so it all comes out in one piece. I've pulled a few needles with thread attached out of pets though... often with the needle caught in the mouth rather than ingested. Yes, cats get bloat, but it's rare.