Cat Health Care
You can maintain your
cat's
overall health
in two important ways. Firstly schedule an annual preventative
visit (including shots and an examination) with your vet as
well as other visits as needed and secondly perform home
cat
care examinations yourself. Read more about
cat health care
advice.
Do a nose to tail checkup weekly. It can be done at the
same time as petting your
cat on the
couch. Start with the head. Are your
cat's ears
clean and pink? Do they give off an unpleasant odor? Have
mites appeared as a black, waxy mess inside the ears? Are the
eyes bright, clear, focused, and free of discharge (see
cat eye health)? Are the
gums pink and the teeth clean? Has tartar appeared along the
gum line? Is your cat's breath offensive? Don't check a
cat's nose
to see if it's cold and damp, this is not a sign of
health.
Continue with a neck to tail inspection. Feel your cat's body
for lumps, bumps, puffiness, sores, and any irregularities.
Also look for flea dirt (which resembles black pepper and
turns red when wet), scratches, and parasites. Be sure to
check between the toes, and down the entire length of the
tail. If you find anything to cause concern to you or
discomfort to your
cat then pay a visit to you vet. If your
pet has
mites or fleas you may want to read more about
Frontline for Cats.
Next, treat your feline friend to a good brushing. Rubber
curry brushes are excellent at removing dead skin cells and
loose hair. Fine-toothed metal combs are specifically designed
to lift fleas out of the coat. It's important to brush your
cat daily
to remove as much loose hair as possible. When
cats groom
themselves, they ingest a great deal of hair, which is often
vomited out as hairballs. This is normal and regular brushing
will stop it becoming excessive. You can find great
cat health care
products here.
Keeping your
cat's claws clipped is an important part of
grooming and cat
health. If not kept at the proper length, a
cat's claws
can actually grow into the paw pads, so attend to the claws
monthly. If you have never trimmed a
cat's
claws, have your veterinarian show you how. Briefly, you
should snip off just the sharp tip of each claw. Do not clip
into the pink section of the nail, where a blood vessel and
nerve endings reside as this will be painful.
Cats that
wander outside or have a scratching post do not suffer so much
with this.
All cat
owners should have at least one book on
cat care,
ask your vet for a recommendation, that includes a section on
emergency first aid. Home
cat health care
alone is not appropriate in most cases of serious illness or
injury, there are also some emergency procedures that could
keep your pet
relatively comfortable on the way to the vet. Familiarize
yourself with emergency procedures before an emergency
happens. Never give your
cat any
medications, including aspirin, without the advice of your
vet. Many common human drugs (like acetaminophen [Tylenol])
are poisonous to
cats.
A little effort to look after your
cat's health care
will pay dividends to its
health and
happiness of your
animal as well as yours!
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Notes:
Included these keywords from a Google ~
search on "cat health care":
cat
health
care
cats
cat's
pet
animal
Incorporated links to the top of each
sub-theme
(in this directory) within the body
of this article.
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