Cat Life Stages

Kitten                      Birth to 6 months
Junior                      7 months to 2 years
Prime/Adult            3 to 6 years
Mature                    7 to 10 years
Senior                     11 to 14 years
Geriatric                  15 plus years

Lucius Found After Jumping Out of Fourth Story Window

He now only has eight lives left.  He jumped out of a fourth story window of her Capitol Hill apartment while the owner was at work and was found 2 1/2 weeks later in the neighborhood.  He is reportedly doing good, wasn't hurt, and is happy to be home.

Interesting facts regarding cats falling multiple stories:

There was a study done regarding reports of cats falling from buildings and approximately 10% of the cats that fell from 2-6 stories died, only 5% of the cats that fell from 7 or more stories died. It is believed that the reason for this is that cats reach a terminal velocity (maximum speed) of 60 MPH after falling approximately 5 stories. Once terminal velocity is achieved and the body stops accelerating, it is believed that the cat relaxes into a somewhat spread-eagled position. This position creates increased air drag and allows the impact to be more evenly distributed.

Sophie's New Lion Cut

Enticing Your Cat to Use the Litter Box

Inappropriate urinating is a common problem in cats and can be very frustrating.  Here are some tips to entice your cat to the litter box:

• Provide 1 + 1 litter box per cat in the household.  If you have 2 cats, for example, you should provide 3 litter boxes.
• Placement of the letterboxes are also important.   Put them in different locations that are non-threatening to the cat.  
• Use fine grained litters.  Cats prefer fine grained litters.  Also, you may want to consider Cat Attract which we have heard a lot of good things about.  http://preciouscat.com/
• Litter-boxes should be 2.5 times the length of the cat.  That is quite large, and in fact litter boxes aren't made that large, so the best solution is to find a sweater box or Rubbermaid bin at Target or similar store and cut a door in the front of the box.  The door should be no more than 2 inches from the ground so that cats, even arthritic cats, can enter and exit the box easily.  The litter box above is a good example except it is not quite large enough and the door is a little on the small side.
• Do not cover the box with a hood.  Cats prefer non-covered boxes.
• Litter boxes should be cleaned daily.

Wellness Cat Food Recall

Certain lots of WellPet’s Wellness® canned cat food have voluntarily been recalled because they may contain less than adequate amounts of thiamine. Internal testing by the company found that most lots of the canned food contained sufficient amounts of the vitamin, but WellPet says it decided to recall certain lots “out of an abundance of caution.”
The affected lots are: Wellness Canned Cat Food (all flavors and sizes) with best by dates from 14APR 13 through 30SEP13; and Wellness Canned Cat Food Chicken & Herring (all sizes) with 10NOV13 or 17NOV13 best buy dates.
Cats fed the affected lots for several weeks could develop a thiamine deficiency, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Symptoms could include gastrointestinal or neurological problems.
Customers who bought the affected lots should stop feeding them to their cats and call the company at (877) 227-9587. There have been no reports of illness, FDA says.

Pet Food Settlement Appeal Decided

An appeals court that reviewed a $24-million class-action suit settlement over melamine-contaminated pet food has concluded that the deal is “fair, reasonable and adequate” except for one minor issue.

The issue relates to the limit of purchase claims to a maximum of $250,000. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District, in an opinion filed Thursday, sent the case back to U.S. District Court Judge Noel Hillman in New Jersey for more information to support the purchase-claim limit. It was Hillman who approved the settlement in November 2008. Appeals filed by two separate parties blocked disbursements from the settlement fund.

Lisa Rodriguez, liaison counsel for the multiple class-action suits covered by the settlement, described the appeals court’s single concern as minor. Purchases are just one category of expense under which claimants may seek reimbursement. Rodriguez said the decision generally is favorable to the claimants.

“I think it’s a very good opinion,” Rodriguez told the VIN News Service. “It wasn’t ... particularly critical. They just wanted additional findings.”

Rodriguez said lawyers on the case will try to get “a quick turnaround date” with the judge to settle the matter once and for all. “Early January is our hope,” she said.

The delayed resolution to the pet food settlement has salted the wounds of people whose pets were killed or sickened by melamine and cyanuric acid found in more than 150 brands of dog foods and treats in 2007. The contamination led to the largest pet food recall in North American history, involving more than 60 million containers of pet food.

According to information in the appellate court decision, 24,344 claims were submitted by the Nov. 24, 2008, deadline. Of those, 20,550 have been deemed payable. The average claim is about $1,283, for a total estimated payable amount of $26,365,575.41, which exceeds the settlement fund by more than $2 million.

In addition, plaintiffs’ lead counsel may apply for reimbursement of attorneys’ fees for a total of up to $7.45 million, plus reimbursement of expenses. The fund covers claims and legal costs in the United States and Canada.

The pet food scandal was caused by unscrupulous suppliers in China who spiked wheat gluten and rice protein with nitrogen-rich melamine in an attempt to boost the products’ apparent protein levels.

Melamine is an industrial chemical not approved for consumption. If ingested, it can combine with the chemical byproduct cyanuric acid to form crystals in the kidneys, causing potentially fatal renal blockage.

Tainted imported product was sold to Menu Foods, a Canadia manufacturer that produced private-label and name-brand wet pet foods for a variety of companies. The contamination affected pet food giants including Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Mars, Inc., Nestle Purina PetCare Co., The Iams Co. and Procter & Gamble, along with prominent retail chains such as Walmart, Target, Costco, Petsmart and Petco.

Owners of ChemNutra, the company that imported the adulterated wheat gluten and rice protein, pleaded guilty last year to charges stemming from the scandal. The company and its owners, Sally Qing Miller and Stephen S. Miller, were fined a total of $35,000. The Millers were spared prison sentences but each given three years of probation.

This article is from the VIN News Service.

Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Cats

Treatment for inflammatory bowel disease in cats:

1.  Foods:

Avoid the following ingredients in foods:
Lamb
Beef
Seafood
Wheat
Corn
Soy

Do feed:  Poultry and rabbit

Read the ingredients on foods carefully because they often contain mixtures of different meats.

Avoid dry foods.

2.  Probiotics:  Consider probiotics.  We recommend Fortiflora which can be found online as well as at vet clinics.

3.  Vitamin B12 injections:  Some cats have a cobalamine deficiency and respond to B12 injections that are given once weekly initially and then less frequently.

4.  Checking a stool sample is prudent, because cat can occasionally have intestinal parasites.

5.  Treating with a parasite medication that eliminates parasites not easily detectable is also advised.

6.  Antibiotics such as metronidazole can be helpful.