The Lowdown on the Top Five Diseases in Cats
Since cats are, in most cases, life-long friends to humans, you have to give time to taking proper care of your cats. This means not only feeding them well, playing with them and providing a safe home for them, but also taking proper health care into consideration. You wouldn’t do any less for your child—from dental care to skin care—so don’t be surprised that the same market and expectations also exist for cats.
One main health consideration for cats (and dogs, too) is that they are more often developing typically old-age diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Similarly to humans, as pet care increases in quality, cats are living longer and longer lives, which means that more and more often they will fall victims to such old-age-related diseases. Cancer in cats is sometimes treatable. Again, similarly to humans, cancer treatment depends upon the type, stage and the location of the cancer. Cat cancers are not so different from human ones after all. If your cat is diagnosed with a cancer, you will have to have a proper biopsy performed so that your vet can give you an accurate prognosis on treatment options. If the cancer is in its earliest stages and in a spot that is treatable, you may be inclined to treat the cancer through means offered by your vet. If the cancer is significantly advanced or if the tumor has spread out and has gone through the bloodstream to other parts of the body, comfort care may be the only real option. Either way, you will know what your options are and how to best care for an ailing cat.
Another very common disease in cats, although usually associated with dogs and not cats is heartworms. Heartworms is passed from one animal to another via mosquitoes, so animals living in a region with lots of mosquitoes should pay more attention to the risk of heartworms than pet owners living in an area with a very minimal mosquito population. Do take heartworms in cats seriously, regardless of the region in which you live because new research shows that cats often have a much more serious reaction to heartworms than dogs do, and sudden death is even possible.
Liver and kidney diseases in cats are a common result of untreated gum disease. Gum disease in and of itself might not seem like such a bad thing, but the bacteria in the gums can spread through the body via the bloodstream; when it reaches the cat’s vital organs it wrecks much more havoc than it does on the gums. Since not many cat owners perform regular dental care on their cats at home and bring their cats in for regular dental checkups, the risk of gum disease, and subsequent kidney or liver disease is quite high.
Another common disease in cats is chronic kidney failure, another result of cats living longer lives, although this is not the only cause. Kidney failure is a disease that means your cat’s body is basically being poisoned from within; this means that what your cat is ingesting is not necessarily toxic, but that because your cat’s kidneys can no longer properly filter out waste material, harmless materials are being made into poison inside the kidneys and poisoning your cat from the inside. In today’s world there are many ways to deal with chronic kidney failure. Taking your cat to the vet to get diagnosed is the essential first step in the process of learning how to take care of your cat if he has developed kidney failure.
Perhaps the most common, and certainly most common, diseases in cats are skin-related diseases such as mite and flea infestation. In both cases, the problem should be attacked head-on in order to ensure that your cat is as comfortable as possible, gets rid of the problem as quickly as possible, and doesn’t infest other animals in the house with the same problem. Since fleas and mites can live without an animal host for a fair amount of time (meaning that they are just living in your house) gives you a much more imminent concern for treating the problem well and as soon as possible. Your cat will thank you for your attentive care.