Tag: feline

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Mastering Cat Tricks Essential Tips for Training Success

Rusty

Mastering Cat Tricks Essential Tips for Training Success

Subheading: Understanding the Importance of Cat Tricks

Teaching your cat tricks goes beyond just entertainment—it’s an opportunity to bond with your feline friend and stimulate their mind. Cats are intelligent creatures, and training them can provide mental stimulation and enrichment, leading to a happier and healthier pet.

Subheading: Starting with Basic Commands

Before diving into advanced tricks, it’s essential to start with basic commands like sit, stay, and come. These commands lay the foundation for more complex tricks and help establish communication between you and your cat. Use positive reinforcement techniques such as treats and praise to encourage your cat to respond to commands.

Subheading: Patience is Key

Patience is crucial when training your cat. Remember that cats are independent animals and may take longer to learn tricks compared to dogs. Be patient and consistent with your training sessions, keeping them short and engaging to maintain your cat’s interest.

Subheading: Use Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is the most effective method for training cats. Reward your cat with treats, praise, or playtime whenever they successfully perform a trick. This positive association encourages them to repeat the behavior and makes training sessions enjoyable for both you and your cat.

Subheading: Keep Training Sessions Fun and Engaging

Make training sessions fun and engaging to keep your cat interested and motivated. Use toys, treats, and interactive games to make learning new tricks a positive experience. Break down complex tricks into smaller steps and celebrate each milestone along the way.

Subheading: Respect Your Cat’s Limits

Every cat is unique, and some may be more receptive to training than others. Respect your cat’s limits and don’t force them to perform tricks they’re not comfortable with. Pay attention to their body language and cues to ensure training sessions are enjoyable for both of you.

Subheading: Consistency is Key

Consistency is essential in cat training. Stick to a regular training schedule and use consistent cues and commands to avoid confusing your cat. Repetition is key to reinforcing desired behaviors and helping your cat master new tricks.

Subheading: Be Creative and Adapt

Be creative and adapt your training techniques to suit your cat’s personality and preferences. Some cats may respond better to food rewards, while others may prefer playtime or affection. Experiment with different training methods to find what works best for your cat.

Subheading: Don’t Overwhelm Your Cat

Avoid overwhelming your cat with too many tricks at once. Focus on one trick at a time and gradually introduce new commands as your cat becomes more confident. This approach prevents frustration and ensures successful learning experiences for your cat.

Subheading: Celebrate Progress

Celebrate your cat’s progress and achievements throughout the training process. Whether it’s mastering a new trick or simply showing improvement, acknowledge and reward your cat’s efforts to keep them motivated and engaged in future training sessions. Read more about cat tricks and tips

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Humane Society Near Me

Feline Hyperthyroid Treatment – 3 Important Facts of Surgery

Rusty

There are many ways to help your cat when she has feline hyperthyroidism, and whatever you choose, it’s better than just letting her life the miserable life. Many people make mistakes when they think they can’t do anything, and they give up on their cat. There are many things involved with feline hyperthyroid treatment and no matter which you choose, your cat will be with you for another ten years, at least.

1. Procedure – before this feline hyperthyroid treatment starts, it’s important to prepare the patient. That means that he must be on some medications for at least four weeks and adapt the body to the future changes, and reduce other health problems the patient might have. There are two possible procedures – when only one gland must be removed since the other one is not abnormal, and when both glands should be removed.

2. Advantages – this is usually a permanent procedure, meaning that the patient probably will not need any more surgeries in the future. This treatment is affordable, and you will not have to go to another area or town in order to find a good surgeon, so this feline hyperthyroid treatment may be a great solution.

3. Disadvantages – unfortunately, some things will not turn out right, and just like any surgery, this one have risks, as well. First, treating the patient with heart or kidney issues might be a real problem. The procedure must be done very carefully, because if the abnormal tissues or gland is left behind, all the symptoms may come back after a couple of months. Unlike radioactive iodine therapy, this one requires monitoring before and after the surgery, so it may take time, nerves, and money, as well. Other risks of surgery are that low-blood calcium during the surgery; the voice box might be changed accidentally, and there might be some changes in eyelids and pupil size.

This feline hyperthyroid treatment is not very recommendable for every patent. The best solution a sick cat might have is a radioactive iodine treatment that does not take a lot of time, and even though it’s expensive, it is worth the money. Besides, in most of the cases, the procedure must not be done another time since all sick part can be removed easily. The best part is that the patient doesn’t need any kind of treatments after the operation and can get back to normal life easily.…

Humane Society

Ways to Prevent Feline Leukemia

Rusty

When a cat has Feline Leukemia, his immune system will be compromised. Apart from this, he also develops anemia and the growth of abnormal tumors. He develops other diseases such as cancer. He will most likely live around 3.5 more years, as a majority of FeLV-infected cats do.

If you are a cat care giver, it is essential for you to know how you can prevent the spread of the disease among cats in your foster cat home. Knowledge and understanding of the disease, as well as other contagious diseases, can certainly be a big factor in lengthening the lives of cats.

Licking is one of the common forms of transmission as FeLV can be acquired through licking. Moreover, placenta-transmission (i.e. mother to baby) is also another common form. Kittens are more vulnerable to the condition because their immune system are still weak until they reach 4 months old, thus resistance to the disease is also not that strong.

The sad truth is that it takes awhile for symptoms to become evident. In fact, it could take months, or even years, before the symptoms show. Unless you get your cat tested, it is unlikely that you will find out if he has FeLV during the first few months that he has it.

How can you keep your cats safe from this rather deadly disease? Below are some of the things that you can do. Actually, these are what you SHOULD do, if you want to keep your cats free from FeLV, and this is particularly important if you have a foster cat home.

If you are a foster cat caregiver, you are taking on a huge responsibility of ensuring that the cats are kept healthy. This is particularly important if you also have your own cats, on top of the foster cats. Always see to it that you have your cats tested for FeLV and other transmittable diseases.

You run the risk of spreading diseases if you have many cats in your home but if you have a good understanding on the dos and don’ts, then you should not have a problem keeping every cat safe and healthy. Additionally, you might also want to consider getting cat health insurance plan as the management of feline cancer or other diseases brought about by Feline Leukemia entails costs that may really hurt your budget.…

Animal Shelters Near Me

Feline Hyperthyroidism

Rusty

Hyperthyroidism is something that is common in humans but can also affect animals as well, including your pet cat. This condition is where an excessive amount of thyroid hormone is produced by the thyroid gland. If a cat gets this condition its metabolism can be profoundly affected as can some of its other bodily functions.

Cats who contract this condition may suffer from swelling in one or both of the lobes of the thyroid gland. This can result in too much of the thyroid hormone being produced, and eventually can lead to your cat losing a lot of weight. The thyroid is responsible for a number of things, such as:

Symptoms

You should make sure that you are familiar with the symptoms of this disease so that you can get your cat checked and arrange treatment if you suspect that it may have feline hyperthyroidism. You may find that your cat starts to eat a lot more food but does not put weight on. This is because the cat’s metabolic rate can shoot up with this condition. In order to keep its energy up the cat will need to eat far more.

However, your cat will eventually start to lose weight. This is because although it may be eating a lot more to keep its energy levels up it will get to a point where it can no longer physically eat as much as it needs to in order to get its energy up, and the result of this will be loss of weight.

Get your cat checked

If you suspect that your cat may have an overactive thyroid you should get him or her checked by the vet. Your vet will be able to give the cat a thorough check up and carry out any necessary tests such as blood tests to check and see whether there is a thyroid problem. If there is, a course of treatment can be decided upon to try and bring thyroid levels back to a normal.…

Pet Adoption

Feline Liver Disease And Feline Diarrhoea Treatment

Rusty

The Webinar Vet has had a great experience in our first feline series which we held in conjunction with Hills. This was a 200 series of veterinary webinars which thanks to the kind sponsorship of Hills was free to all delegates.

There were several hundred attendees at each webinar. Many different nations were represented on this free online veterinary CPD.

Our first veterinary webinar was with Professor Danielle Gunn-Moore and was concerning feline liver disease. This was a fantastic veterinary webinar which used case material to discuss her approach to the liver patient. Danielle??s enthusiasm is so infectious and we had so many positive comments from the attendees.

The next two veterinary webinars were given by Martha Cannon, a feline specialist based in Oxford. Martha always gives very practical veterinary CPD and these two talks were excellent. In the veterinary webinar on renal disease she discussed the value of diet as well as other treatments. Cats on specialist renal diets will often live twice as long as those fed ordinary diets after diagnosis of chronic renal disease.

In the second veterinary webinar, Martha discussed feline diarrhoea using clinical cases to discuss possible approaches and then in the third veterinary webinar discussed the thorny issue of kidney disease, such a scourge in the cat. The Hills diet k/d is a very important part of treatment in cats suffering from kidney disease as it protects the cat??s kidney and slows progress of the disease. Indeed cats fed on specialist kidney diets will live twice as long as those who are fed ordinary commercial diets.

Norman Johnstone is one of the most famous veterinary dentists in the world. We were honoured to have him on the fourth veterinary webinar in our five veterinary webinar series, free online vet CPD kindly provided by Hills Pet Nutrition. He talked about feline stomatitis and gave some fascinating insights into the treatment of this nasty condition. Interferon seems to be the drug of choice

Finally Duncan Lascelles from North Carolina State University gave an excellent veterinary webinar on feline osteoarthritis. In one study 95%of cats showed radiological signs of osteoarthritis in one or more joints. Cats suffering from osteoarthritis often had a stiff gait and had difficulty jumping. Duncan discussed the various treatments that are available in cats. Often this disease is missed by owners and vats and hence no treatment is prescribed.

This whole series of veterinary webinars, including a bonus talk on feline diabetes is available at and will contribute 6 hours of veterinary CPD to the 35 hours yearly target that all MRCVSs must accomplish to satisfy The Royal College.

This brilliant series of veterinary webinars was brought to you by Hills and The Webinar Vet, a fantastic online resource for vet CPD.…

Animal Control

Feline Fine: Cat Care For Cat Lovers

Rusty

Dogs, as it is often said, are a man’s best friend. But whilst they may indeed be a very loving and loyal companion to have around, the large proportion of cat owners in the UK would probably argue that their moggy is every bit as faithful a friend, and also a fully integrated member of the family unit.

Indeed, most people are fairly clear on whether they are a ‘cat person’ or a ‘dog person’ and normally have quite specific reasons for their opinions. But regardless of what camp a person sits in, most people would probably agree that cats require a lot less maintenance than their canine counterparts.

For instance, cats quite often tend to take care of their own hygiene, which can be of great help for those pet owners who perhaps have their time occupied with more important day to day tasks. But, and as many cat owners will have experienced, they also have a tendency to wander off, particularly if they are living in the countryside. It’s fair to say, however, that cats are reasonably independent creatures that are more than capable of taking care of themselves.

The down side to this independence is that when cats do stray away from home it can often be for long periods of time, but regardless of how many lives cats are supposed to have, this can still cause a great deal of worry for any feline-loving family.

Of course, when a cat does disappear for days on end, it is merely doing what comes naturally. It may be hunting, looking for a mate, or it may simply have wandered into a neighbouring garden where it has become acquainted with another, perhaps overly-generous, cat lover. Either way, it can be difficult to determine a cat’s reasoning for straying and more than often you begin to consider the worst has happened.

As a result, it’s not too uncommon to see posters placed around a neighbourhood, offering a description of the missing moggy in question, and perhaps even a small reward for its safe return. However, the cat may even wander home eventually of its own accord, and at times possibly a little bedraggled and worse for wear.

Moreover, even the littlest of scrapes or cuts can become infected after days of roughing it, which can lead to a great deal of expense if a vet’s help is needed. But as is the case with anything in life that we hold dear to us, it is possible to provide a little protection should the need arise, and many people choose to take out pet insurance for such occasions.

Having pet insurance in place will ensure that a mischievous moggy isn’t cause for a financial catastrophe, as protection is usually offered not only against the cost of veterinary care, but also for reward and recovery costs too. And as a fully integrated member of the family unit, that’s probably the very least a cat deserves!…