Feline urinary obstruction (FUO) is a very common disease in male cats that are often overlooked or missed by owners until the cat is very sick. When a cat gets a urinary obstruction, it becomes a life-threatening emergency. If left untreated, your cat will die. The earlier a urinary obstruction is recognized and corrected the better the prognosis is for the cat. When a urinary obstruction occurs, it causes urine to back up into the bladder since the cat is not able to urinate.

Let's Talk About Stress

Have you ever felt stressed? Did you ever pig out on your favorite treat to help “cope” with the stress? What does your pet do when he or she is stressed? For a lot of pets, their coping mechanism for stress is acting out. For dogs, this may mean destructive behavior, and for cats, it often means inappropriate urination.

Dogs and cats can get diabetes just like humans. The most common type of diabetes in dogs and cats is diabetes mellitus, which is similar to Type II diabetes in humans. Although diabetes can happen to any pet, overweight and obese cats and dogs are most at risk along with certain dog breeds.
 

Cats are notoriously stubborn when it comes to taking medication. Trying to get a feisty feline to swallow a pill is no easy task, but with a little bit of practice and patience, you can get the job done without traumatizing your cat or risking injury to you or your cat. As veterinarians, we've seen the look of concern that often crosses cat owners' faces at the mention of administering medication. We understand your concerns and are here to make things a bit easier. In this blog post, we're sharing tips on how to pill a cat using the table method or the floor method.

Cats are glorious creatures—motion optimized, aesthetically pleasing, low maintenance, warm, fuzzy, furry, cute, and they purr. Could you ask for a more perfect pet? As feline-favoring veterinarians, cats have only one major design flaw—they were designed with a poorly functioning elimination system. Specifically, their kidneys are weak, they don't drink enough water, and the cat's urinary tract frequently suffers from disease. The kidney issue is a discussion for another day.

Part of being a responsible cat owner is knowing how to recognize when something isn’t right. While the thought of your beloved companion getting sick is a frightening one, no cat is immune to illness. Even if you are a perfect pet parent and do everything right when caring for your cat, they could suffer from a wide range of health problems.

While November is known by many as American Diabetes Month®, bringing awareness to the risk factors and management of diabetes in humans, it’s also Pet Diabetes Month. One in every 230 cats and one in every 300 dogs are affected by diabetes, making awareness of the signs and symptoms of this illness in dogs and cats critical for every pet owner to know.

As veterinarians, we’ve noticed that many people tend to think that rabies is a thing of the past, but, unfortunately, that’s not the reality. According to the CDC, approximately 5,000 animal rabies cases are reported annually, with more than 90 percent of those occurring in wildlife. So while dogs and cats are no longer getting rabies as much as they did in the mid-1900s, the principal hosts in the U.S. today are raccoons, skunks, bats, and foxes.