Good Health and Your Kitten

Choosing a veterinarian is really selecting a partner in your kitten's health care. Scheduled vaccinations and yearly examinations mean that you'll see your veterinarian on a regular basis, so choose wisely.. Use our list as a basis for picking the right veterinary clinic for your cat:

• Get recommendations from friends, colleagues and other cat owners to compile an initial list of clinics. Ask them what they like about each one.
  
  
• Visit each clinic, introduce yourself as a potential client and ask for a tour.
  
  
• Look for a clean, sterile hospital with up-to-date equipment.
  
  
• Ask about the emergency care, hours and any equipment or terms you don't understand.
  
  
• Ask what the fees are for basic vaccinations and examinations.

Owners should have their cats spayed or neutered unless they plan to show or breed them. Consider the following:

What is it?

• Neutering is the euphemism for feline surgical sterilisation.
  
  
• In females, it's called spaying or ovario-hysterectomy, which involves removal of the uterus and ovaries.
  
  
• In males, removal of the testicles is called neutering or castration.
  
  
• Veterinarians advise spaying or neutering by around 6 months of age.

Why spay or neuter?

Cats are put to sleep because the new cat population far exceeds the number of homes that can be found for them. Note the following advantages of spaying and neutering:

• Spaying eliminates behaviour associated with heat cycles, such as wailing to attract males or spraying urine.
  
  
• Spaying helps prevent potential health problems, including breast tumours and uterine disease, possibly adding years to your cat's life.
  
  
• Spaying or neutering helps prevent the occurrence of unwanted litters.
  
  
• Neutering reduces the effects of puberty and hormones. A neutered male is less likely to mark territory by spraying urine and less apt to roam and get lost, and he won't congregate or fight with other toms over a female in heat.

Use our guide to some of the most common medical ailments that can affect your kitten. The more you know, the better you'll be able to notice when your kitten isn't feeling well.

Fleas

Description and symptoms. These pinhead-size insects jump from your cat to furniture to you looking for blood.

• Fleas are most common in warm weather (spring and summer) but in centrally-heated houses are now an all-year-round problem.
  
  
• They can transmit parasitic or infectious diseases, including tapeworms.
  
  
• Flea infestation may in turn cause anaemia (low red blood cell count) and/or allergic dermatitis, a skin allergy characterised by itching and irritation.
  
  
• Though some cats become irritable and scratch, others have no visible signs of discomfort.

Prevention and treatment

• Flea sprays, spot-ons, collars, powders and liquid baths are available in pet stores or from your veterinarian. Ask your veterinarian to recommend the most effective preventative treatment.
  
  
• Check your cat weekly by looking closely at the back, belly and around the base of the tail for the small, dark insects as well as for flea "dirt"—small, dark, pepper-like specks. If the dirt turns red when rubbed onto wet cotton wool or tissue, you've got fleas.
  
  
• Consider choosing treatments that contain IGRs (insect growth regulators), which interrupt a flea's life cycle. Without IGRs, flea eggs hatch every 21 days, making repeated treatments necessary.
  
  
• Treat your house for eggs, larvae and pupae. Your veterinarian will recommend the best treatment.
  
  
• Plant marigolds and chrysanthemums in your garden, which contain natural insecticides that may repel fleas.

Hairballs

Description and symptoms. Hair balls are tube-shaped brown masses of hair fibres. When cats clean themselves, they ingest fur. Because hair isn't digestible, it either passes through the intestinal tract and ends up in the litter box or is expelled by vomiting.

• Cats who vomit hair balls more than once a week or who vomit foul-smelling hair balls may have a serious underlying health problem. See your veterinarian.

Prevention and treatment

• Keep your cat well-groomed with regular brushing.
  
  
• Brush all your cats, not just the ones with hair balls, because cats often groom each other.
  
  
• Try this easy home remedy. Apply 1 teaspoon of petroleum jelly to the top of each paw. Rub it in before your cat can flick it away. Your cat will lick it off her paws, and it will help ease the hair ball through the intestinal tract. Apply jelly for several days.
  
  
• Feed one of our hairball formulas which help reduce the likelihood of hairball formation. They contain a natural fibre system that gently passes ingested hair through the digestive tract.

Feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD)

Description and symptoms. Feline lower urinary tract disease is a potentially fatal, painful inflammation of the lower urinary tract, affected by a variety of things, including viruses, bacteria, stress, diet, water consumption and urine retention.

• Clinical signs include blood in the urine; difficult and frequent urination, often in small quantities; urination in inapproppropriate locations; lack of energy; and loss of appetite.

Maintenance of urinary tract health

• Maintain proper urinary acidity and magnesium levels through a properly balanced diet that helps promote urinary tract health.
  
  
• Contact your veterinarian immediately if you notice any abnormal signs.