Sunday March 29, 2009

Purrfect Cat Behavior Mewsletter:

Hello Paul at long last we have finally got our Mewsletter ready for release.

We apologise profusely for the wait you have all had and for your patience at remaining on our mailing list. Please remember you are on the list after purchasing / downloading one of our products or you subscribed to the mailing list on the web site. Remember this mailing is totally free and you can un-subscribe at any time, using the link on the top of the page or at the end of this Mewsletter..

After 2 long years Sarah and I have finally just about completed setting up our new cat only vet practice at SimplyCats . Please pop along to the website if any of you are interested. We have a bit more time now we are working together and the practice is opening shortly (4th May) and so we have started to produce our Cat Behavior Mewsletter. This way we can reach and help so many more people to understand their cats. Eventually this will go out to our clients at SimplyCats

The idea is to select a number of articles each 2 weeks that we think our subscribers will be interested in and have a direct link to how your cat thinks and his / her wellbeing. We sincerely believe the most important aspect of living in harmony with your cat is understanding how he or she thinks. You have to get inside your cats mind. This was the real passion behind creating our Cat Behaviour Guide.

Being cat vets, feline behavior is an area of continuous interest to both of us and has a massive influence on the well being of cats and the humans owned by cats ;-). This is even more important when your beloved cat is ill or sick. Knowing about cat behavior has been the centre point of the design of our veterinary practice for example CAT ONLY and NO DOGS, all kept quiet and calm with places to hide in most of the hospitalisation cages. Also very careful use and selection of disinfectants etc. so as not to disturb the cats incredible sense of smell. Remember all these facts when you are trying to make your home cat friendly, though do remember cats can get on fine with dogs once carefully introduced.

Smell is your cats most powerful sense: DE-STRESS your cat with Pheromones

An increasingly important way to help stressed cats (especially if they are starting to show clinical signs such as spraying, hair plucking, wool eating etc) is by careful use of pheromones. We have created an article as a free download giving a simple explanation of the use of pheromones to enhance feline quality of life. Just click on our cat behavior use of pheromones article to get your free download and please let us know what you think.

Fat Cats Are NOT Happy Cats

We are starting to see an increase in the number of obese felines in our clinic and so we are going to be covering this topic in detail in future editions of the Mewsletter. However in this issue we have filmed a short video of our cats playing with a new toy we have just purchased for them to help increase their level of activity. Increasing the exercise levels of your average feline is rather challenging and anything to help you do this can be very useful. The Undercover Mouse is just such a toy and as you can see in the video our cats love it. However remember it took them @ 20 minutes to get used to it and it works best if you keep moving the yellow cover from time to time. However setting this up each evening when we get in from work has proven a pain free and fun way to get our cats starting to exercise more.

To learn more or purchase this Toy from Amazon.com eg in the USA click here Panic Mouse Undercover Mouse

if you are in the UK and use amazon.co.uk please click here Panic Mouse - Undercover Mouse - Interactive Cat/Kitten Toy

If you do purchase the toy please let us know what you think.

We have also produced a free Podcast for download to play on your ipod or iphone or normal vanilla mp3 player which is all about getting your cats to play and most importantly exercise more. We are as guilty as any feline related professionals on extolling the virtues of cat exercise but not having many good ideas on how you actually do this . Hopefully this podcast wil help redress this. To get the podcast click here and then right click and save the playing with your cat mp3 file to your computer. Or if you want to listen to the file immediately just left click the came file (playing with your cat mps)

Remember though you also have to reduce your cats calorie intake and this will be covered in more detail in the next edition with the introduction of a Cat Weightwatchers Plan!.

Is Your Cat A Healthy Cat? How to examine your cat

A very popular question we have been asked is how to conduct a simple examination of your cat that we recommend doing weekly just to keep an eye on his or her health. Sarah has produced very short video showing you how to do this, click here to see the video, Simple Cat Examination . We apologise about the quality and it is well seen we are vets and not Steven Spielberg wannabes! In the celebrity stakes Sarah's main claim to fame is that her grandmother had her kitchen ceiling painted by Liam Neeson (Star Wars fame) before he became famous when he was studying at college in the North East of England. To view the video please go here and we hope you find it useful.

Purrfect Cat Behavior, Question & Answer Session

Each week we get lots of questions to either Gizmo our online virtual cat or by the ask a burning question form on the main web site. We will try to answer one of the most popular questions in each edition of the mewsletter. We would like to answer them all but time is not on our side and remember the core answers to all these questions are contained within one of the Purrfect Cat Behavior Guides. It is also much easier to understand the reply if you have started to learn and understand some cat psychology, as you must always try to see things from the cats point of view. This is not always intuitive to us humans!!

A recent question which covers one of the most common feline problems we get asked to deal with is answered below,

“..I have two female cats (both fixed & front claws removed. One is 1 yr old the other 2 yr old. Get along great!!! (No problems) Male cat very loving thrown out was starving. Took home...Was aggressive, isolated him a few days from the girls (strange..now the girls are hissing at each other) Had male neutered and front claws removed....(while he was at vet's 1 1/2 days girls went back to normal activity-no problems)after about 8 hours after returning from vet, tried to introduce him once again...He immediately attached & chased the one yr old..broke them up and isolated him....How do I stop this....Is there any hope? Should I get ride of the male? Help!!!! I will not tolerate my girls from being attached or living in fear)...”

First of all we suggest if you have not already done so is purchase a copy of the Purrfect Cat Behavior Guide or the mini guide on Feline aggression and even more important read it especially the introduction, relevant problem chapter and the question and answer session in the appendix. It is important you try to understand what we are trying to achieve and why your cats(s) are actually behaving in this way.

In general cats will tolerate the presence of another cat (even ones they do not particularly like) if there are sufficient 'resources. It is possible that adding another cat to an established household has just tipped your 2 resident cats over the toleration threshold of feeling their resources are threatened. Your other two cats may have a higher threshold or better coping strategies. But the introduction of this new cat has brought out some problems present you were not aware of. Such as lack of resources etc, see further down.

You're certainly doing everything right as regarding taking things slowly and allowing your new male his own area; however has this limited the other cats territory? We feel you must give quite a bit more time to introducing this new cat over some weeks rather than days. Also remember it takes some time for the neutered cat to lose his natural masculine characteristics post surgery, as this may also have a role to play here.

Problems can become a lot more exacerbated with indoor cats as limited space means pressure on the territory resources.

So what do you do NOW:

1. One thing we would try would be increasing the amount of resources to accommodate each cat plus a spare (for example have 4 litter trays if space allows and one the mail is out at least 3 all separated so each is in a stress free location. 3 scratching posts, 3 feed stations, 3 lots of water (all separated) , 3 resting areas. However in some properties this is not possible, due to lack of space.

2. Install a feliway diffuser in all areas where conflict may occur ie corridors/passages, make use of 3 dimensional space so put some rest areas up a height ie on top of cupboards, distract your female cats as much as you can with positive experiences when the male is in the room (you will need to start with him in a cage so he cannot attack the females)- ie play with your resident cats, give treats etc so they learn that when the male is around nice things happen.

3. Gradually progress (and this may take some weeks) until the females tolerate the sight of him then start letting them out together in a large space where the girls could get away and hide if needed.

4. Let him have his own room in the house so he can relax and is not in the cage all the time, then from time to time let the females in to this room when he is caged to smell and get used to his presence.

5. You have already neutered the male (well done) which is often useful as mentioned earlier.

6. Rub the female’s facial pheromones along with your other cat's facial pheromones over the male so he smells as if he belongs to the house.

As you can see with all these incidences of problem feline behavior you have to look from the cat’s perspective and the situation is rarely straight forward. In the clinic we would spend 45 minutes on a case such as this and then monitor the response to various changes over the next month as all these take time and patience.

However the core values of adequate resources, make sure your cats feel secure and loved, have no medical problems, have places to hide and an enriched environment are always important.

Despite doing all this remember fundamentally some cats just take an absolute dislike to another cat be it because of their different smell, colour, body shape/size or way they move and act. Unfortunately this may be what’s happening between your cats and it may not resolve but it’s certainly worth persevering at present, as we feel these cats can live in harmony given time and patience and above all understanding your cats point of view ;-).

We hope this is helpful and at least gives you all some guidelines to follow in such cases. In the next edition we will cover spraying problems in this Question & Answer session.

Paul and Sarah MRCVS

www.purrfectcatbehavior.com

The end...

It is very difficult to know how much to put into a newsletter but for the next edition we will show you the first chapter of our new book on Cat First Aid, discuss more aspects of feline behavior, and new ideas on Idiopathic Feline Cystitis.

Be creative, live long, be happy and follow your own path.

...And the emperor said "Let the party begin!"

Paul and Sarah M's RCVS

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