All posts by Dr. Marty Becker

Tally's scratching posts

Kittens need to scratch. Here’s how to help them scratch the right things!

Veterinary Medicine,

We recently adopted a kitten, Talley, and it’s been a joy to see her whip our dogs into shape, herd Teresa and me, and turn our house into a feline wonderland.

Kittens are born with claws, and they need them for many reasons. They use them to stretch, to climb and clamber, to defend themselves, and for enrichment. Indoor cats may be safer than those who go outside, but their lives can be boring and unhealthy if their humans aren’t dedicated to providing them with opportunities for mental and physical challenge and good old-fashioned fun.

None of which means we want Talley to claw our couch. And we imagine you don’t want your kitten to grow to shred yours, either.

Tally was the lucky recipient of a big pile of “happy adoption” gifts from our friends at Petmate (I don’t work for them and this post isn’t sponsored), including several scratching posts. She loves them. They let her perch up high, play, stretch, and shed the extra layers from her claws. And because I’m blessed to have a daughter who is a brilliant trainer, we knew just what to do to encourage Tally to use her scratching posts instead of our furniture.

“Teach her to use scratching posts by luring her over with toys and catnip,” Mikkel told us. “And reward her with treats and play for scratching in the right areas. Have posts located in prime areas like living room spaces or the bedroom, or places the cat has already scratched.  If she scratches in an inappropriate spot, distract and redirect her to the proper area.”

“Don’t punish or you’ll heighten anxiety and make it harder to help her longterm,” she added.

Talley may have us wrapped around her little paw, but we know good advice when we hear it!

cat

What you need to know about your cat’s gallbladder

Pet Connection, Veterinary Medicine,

Just like people, cats can have gallbladder problems, including a life-threatening blockage. Here’s what I told a reader who contacted me about her cat’s diagnosis.

Q: My cat has an inflamed gallbladder and maybe a blocked bile duct. I didn’t know cats could have gallbladder problems! What can you tell me about them?

A: The gallbladder is basically a storage unit for bile. This bitter, greenish-brown fluid secreted by the liver has two purposes: It helps the body break down dietary fats for absorption by the body, and it helps the body remove certain types of toxins. The gallbladder releases bile in response to hormonal signals, the bile does its job, and then it exits the body through the feces.

When cats develop certain types of liver disease such as cholangiohepatitis or hepatic lipidosis (sometimes called fatty liver disease), the accompanying inflammation can cause a bile traffic jam in the liver and biliary ducts — the pathways that bile travels into and out of the gallbladder. Bile, being a digestive fluid, isn’t just bitter — it’s caustic. When it can’t flow freely, it can cause serious tissue damage in the areas where it’s stuck.

Cats with cholangiohepatitis, the most common acquired inflammatory liver disease in cats, typically don’t feel like eating, run a fever, vomit and develop jaundice, the latter indicated by a yellow tinge to the whites of the eyes. These cats may also have associated bacterial infections, inflammatory bowel disease or pancreatitis, to name just a few complications.

Fluids, antibiotics and pain medications are prescribed to help get bile flowing, give a one-two punch to infections, and just help the cat feel better so he’ll start eating again. (That’s important to help prevent hepatic lipidosis.)

Some cats have an immune-mediated form of disease that doesn’t respond to antibiotics. They are usually treated with steroids given daily or every other day. Antimicrobials, a special diet, fluids, and B vitamin and electrolyte supplements may also help.

Read more, including all about scary dogs you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley, in this week’s Pet Connection!

Tally

Talley Becker, world’s cutest kitten, joins the Almost Heaven Ranch family!

This and That

In the past, Teresa and I made a committment to adopting those cats who didn’t have a chance at the local shelter — the feral, the unfriendly, those who just didn’t like people — to be barn cats at our Almost Heaven Ranch. Caring for them wasn’t always easy, but we always took care of their medical needs and gave them the safest, happiest, most enriched lives possible.

Then one day, Teresa was at the local shelter dropping something off and heard about a kitten who had suffered a broken leg after his mother, a feral outdoor cat, was shot and killed by a so-called human.

She swept him up and took him to the vet (I was out of town), where they treated his injury and then added him to the litter of another hard-luck cat mom. This girl had been found with her kittens locked in the closet of an abandoned home, with a sofa pushed up against the closet door. I despair of the human race when I hear stories like this.

Once the babies were weaned, all but three had been adopted. We brought those three back to our home, where our son, Lex, adopted two of them and we decided to make the third, Tally, our first housecat.

Tally wasn’t originally going to be part of our family. We had planned on adopting the first little orange cat with the broken leg. But it was obvious that this sweet gray tabby was meant to be part of our family — and she’s now got not only Teresa and me, but our dogs QT Pi and Quixote, wrapped around her tiny paw, too! (We haven’t introduced her to our big dogs, and probably won’t. Gracie has disabilities that make it difficult for her to get around, and Quill’N had lived her life on a chain before we adopted her, and we honestly don’t trust her around a cat.)

In this video, she’s playing with a Jackson Galaxy toy we bought her, along with 2,397,121 other toys, beds, scratching posts, and other cat accessories she’ll hever have to live without!

Love you, Tally!

This Halloween, worry about real pet risks, not fake dangers

Veterinary Medicine

Can we stop worrying about fake Halloween pet dangers and focus on the ones that are real?

Fake: That people adopt black cats from shelters to perform satanic rituals.

Real: Hundreds of thousands of cats die in shelters each year because they’re not adopted.

Fake: That even the tiniest amount of chocolate will kill your dog. (Not totally untrue, just vastly over-hyped.)

Real: Xylitol, a low-glycemic natural sweetener found in sugar-free gum, candy, ice cream, baked goods, and even foods like peanut butter can and can kill your dog even in a minuscule amount.

My advice as an animal lover: Adopt a pet at any time of year that works for you and your family, and encourage your friends to do that same. Find pets near you by searching at The Shelter Pet Project.

My advice as a veterinarian: If you have dogs, read labels and keep anything containing xylitol out of the house. And yes, chocolate in large quantities, or smaller quantities for a small dog, can make your dog sick. But it’s nothing compared to the danger posted by xylitol!

Happy Halloween!

How to remove tree sap from your pet’s fur

Pet Connection, Veterinary Medicine

A Facebook follower asked me about this particularly sticky pet problem. Here’s my advice!

Q: Help! My border collie got pine tree sap in her fur. How do I get it out?

A: When it comes to sticky things in fur, there are a lot of different recommended remedies for removal. For instance, creamy peanut butter helps to soften chewing gum. It seems counterintuitive to use sticky stuff to remove sticky stuff, but it’s the oil in the peanut butter that does the trick. Olive oil, butter and mayonnaise can work, too. Whichever you choose, rub it into the area with the sticky substance, let it sit for a few minutes, and then carefully comb it out or work it out with your fingers.

Tree sap can be a stickier wicket, though. The peanut butter or oil trick may work, but sometimes tree sap is a job for alcohol — the drinking kind. Vodka, to be exact. The alcohol dissolves the tree sap. While you shouldn’t allow your dog to lick the treated area, the vodka is less risky for him to ingest than isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. If you don’t have vodka on hand, I’ve heard anecdotally that bourbon works equally well.

The sap may have hardened by the time you discover it. If that’s the case, use a blow-dryer on a low setting to soften it before you begin removal. Make sure you don’t hold it too close to the skin or you could burn your dog.

Once all the sap is out, give your dog a bath to remove any traces of peanut butter, vodka or anything else you used. Depending on how much tree sap is in your dog’s coat, the quickest and easiest solution, if the most expensive, may be to take him to a groomer for a bath with a degreasing shampoo.

Read more, including about cats who love to go adventuring, in this week’s Pet Connection!