Kroger issues pet food recall due to aflatoxin risk - DVM

Kroger issues pet food recall due to aflatoxin risk - DVM

Press Release: NYT Ad Slams HSUS Prez for Saying Michael Vick Should Be Permitted to Have More Dogs | HumaneWatch

Press Release: NYT Ad Slams HSUS Prez for Saying Michael Vick Should Be Permitted to Have More Dogs | HumaneWatch

Simon's Cat in 'Santa Claws'

Stop suffering. Make our community No Kill with funding for vet care. | Pepsi Refresh Everything

Stop suffering. Make our community No Kill with funding for vet care. | Pepsi Refresh Everything

This is a great group that helps lots of local pets and owners alike, please take a few minutes and vote for them so they can win money to keep doing the good things that they do.

How to handle feline aortic thromboembolism - Veterinary Medicine

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is a heartbreaking disease for any cat owner. In the mid 90's I had two cats with this disease. I was disappointed that there were no viable treatments available that had any evidence of working, and after reading this article, I see very little progress has been made in addressing the treatment, but there are a few new things here that are worth a second glance.

My Squiggle died at age 3. He has a wonderful black and white male with many extra toes. He loved to play fetch. Tree died at age 6, he was a beautiful grey and white male who loved my son to the moon and back. They both threw clots and it was extremely painful for them and us. I hope someday there is a viable treatment that helps these cats live a lot longer.

How to handle feline aortic thromboembolism - Veterinary Medicine

Your Kids, PETA's Pawns

Your Kids, PETA's Pawns

Veterinary coalition to target drop in client visits - DVM

With that said, Payne acknowledges the U.S. economy is going through a major transition. And with it comes changes to the way small and large businesses need to operate. For years, the profession has pushed to raise fees, but Payne contends, it is contributing to this trend of fewer client visits. "If you graph it out, the number of visits is declining with an increase in pricing. That tells us that we are not convincing pet owners of the value proposition," Payne says.


This IS an issue, most of us are struggling to make ends meet, a recession IS NOT the time to raise fees and add fancy services.






Veterinary coalition to target drop in client visits - DVM

Feline stomatitis

Many of us who live with FIP exposed cats, know these cats frequently also suffer from stomatitis. I have 4 cats that suffer from it and I have tried antibiotic treatments in two week intervals every few months on all of them. While it does give some relief, they quickly revert back to terribly painful mouths.
One treatment suggstion has been the usage of zyrtec. I am currently pursuing this treatment and have no firm results yet to report, except that pilling a cat with the painful mouth condition is difficult and stressful and I think that somewhat will counter any benefit of treatment. (antibiotics go into their food)

Recently the opportunity presented itself for one of the cats to get all but her top canines removed while undergoing a spay. She'd already lost most of the teeth (by age 3) and the last few were removed with little effort. A month later, I can report that although her gums are still irritated, the irritation is at least 75% reduced. SO in her case, it was an excellent solution.

One vet, has a very invasive procedure that certainly if finances permit and suffering sufficient I think should be discussed, however I think the expense would be high and would require a dental challenge for the average vet and I would personally recommend a veterinary dental specialist.
The procedure is discussed Here

While none of us want our pets to suffer in any way, this condition is challenging on many levels and there are no easy answers to it.

a talk show idea

It's rare that I have a post that I want to share on two of blogs...but I think this guy has some excellent points that deserve reading by both those who follow my "current events" blog as well as my cat friends.

YouTube - Woman throws cat into wheelie bin

YouTube - Woman throws cat into wheelie bin


this is just a horrible event. This woman was arrested by police, but talk about cruel

I hate PETA and it's leader is a nutcase

now and then

Today on another blog I found the comparison between "now and then" somewhat alarming. I failed to achieve what I had hoped for and I find that I can bring some of that retrospective to today's blog here..

a week doesn't go by when I don't receive some request from one of the many cat groups I belong to for a donation towards FIP research...

so I have to ask myself...what have those researchers (and we all know who they are) really accomplished in the last 5 years?....

an accurate test for fip?....no....necropsy is pretty much still it..and well the cat has to be dead for that to work

a vaccine...well...sort of, but not one that has any real practical use since it doesn't work if a cat's already been exposed to a corona virus as say about 90% of all cats have...

a treatment....ANY treatment that actually works?....nope, nothing here really either....

so, aside from some revised papers....nothing really has been achieved....not really encouraging prospects from a whole lot of fund raising....

just something to think about....

fleas...revisited....

well since my dogs brought fleas in from outside, it's been a constant battle....first frontline, then revolution and we have yet to eliminate the problem. I really hate constantly using chemicals on my pets, but alas, I have no choice. I'd prefer to find something that worked however....but I have found less and less the flea products working very well. Last year we tried vectra and I wasn't impressed with it or the price....

recently did find this pamphlet that while it certainly doesn't have the solution (darn dogs), it does provide a little inside as to the products and their toxicity.

we might try program next month....and it's getting cold here at night and I am hoping that helps the outdoor issue. Last year we really didn't have any fleas, we just usually dose everyone once at the beginning of summer, but this year it must be bad all over, as I notice even the hartz (shutter) products are gone off the shelves.

new hope and false promises

Recently a friend sent me a link to some new "miracles" for treating FIP....these products just like the Feline interferon are being promoted by many of the FIP support groups.

I feel the need to caution those hoping against hope that THIS will be the cure....FIP is a corona virus and they mutate easily and regularly...chances are that cures are not feasable for some time to come, and the very best some of these items may bring is a little more quality time.

Through my use of herbals, I was able to achieve in some of my cats a little more quality time. Not in all of them, and in a few of them I observed the act of stimulating the immune system cause the cat to decline quickly. Now who can really say what is going to work and what is not, I just want to caution pining hopes on another thing offered up the pipeline.

I advise doing your research and do diligence, and at the very least read the current literature on pubmed.

PETA.....need I say more?

FLEAS...

I have never had a problem with fleas...at least not in the last decade since frontline and top spot and all the others hit the market.

This year, I have a flea problem, and all the favorite go to products are not working very well...

it's concerning from many aspects. First off, frontline is a pesticide not a drug and comes under a different class of products then vectra or something like revolution...second off the bugs are getting immune to these products at an alarming rate, while other good insects are getting killed by them...

so tell me, what are you using for fleas this year?

some new topics

I don't hear from most of my readers anymore since I don't have a lot to discuss anymore on the topic of FIP.

It's not that there are not FIP topics to discuss, but the problem is, there just isn't much more we can do but rehash what we know...and in many cases, it is whole lot more then most vets.

So I was thinking about writing about more more cat issues...common or uncommon, chances are we've seen most of them...what do you think?

Feline Pine in the litterboxes

I know that Dr. Addy did a study on cat litters that killed/reduced/had no effect on the FIP virus in the litterbox. A big area where the thought is most of the transmission cat to cat occurs.

Over the years I have tried a variety of litters. Including those on the list that I could get here in the USA. Dr. Addy's results here

I have to say that time and time again, I come back to the feline pine. While she did not include feline pine in her study, she did post some results on wood pellet litter.

I found that the everclean was hard to get, I could only get it with the charcoal added, and it was not the exact type listed. I also tried the sophisticat, and the cat country.
while I do not dispute the findings, because I do not have the equipment to run a similar test, I find my cats are all together healthier with the pine litter. The clay litters...I really don't find them very sanitary litters, and the cats get more stuck on their pads.
The pine litter tracks....and it's best to dump as soon as it disintegrates because it can make a big mess, but the cats never are cleaning it off their feet, and perhaps that is where they are healthier.

So I continue with the use of the pine litter, and the cats continue to be as healthy as I think they are going to get.
Lily is still separated, as she still shows neurological signs periodically, wobbly, and while she is thin, she gained some weight a while ago and has kept it on. She's about 3.5 years old now.

Minga has lost a bunch of bottom teeth, and is thin, but has a nice coat and is otherwise healthy. She's been stable healthwise for over a year now and I think we will spay her finally. She is 3 years old.

Fo has severe mouth problems and has lost weight in the last year, but his weight has stablized. His weight loss is related to his eating issues and he is otherwise healthy. He has been neutered for 2 years. He is on the zyrtec and we hope that improves his mouth.

Dude and Hoggle both have severe mouth issues as well and are on the zyrtec trials. And it is a TRIAL to get a pill into Hoggle....

will keep updates.

a possible treatment for the severe gingivitis

There have been a few studies now that indicate that zyrtec helps the cats with the severe gingivitis that I have seen in the cats with FIP.

There are other diseases that cause mouth issues as well...the studies are not on specifically FIP cats.

I am going to try zyrtec on two of my cats that suffer from severe mouth issues. I will keep you updated.

Feline infectious peritonitis thoughts

I have been busy with taking care of my son. He has recurrent lymphoma and is having salvage chemotherapy prior to a bone marrow (stem cell) transplant. (read his story here...brian vs lymphoma)

and I was thinking about something that I was observing in him as a side effect, and I thought that Dr.s really rarely get to see everything about a disease and/or treatment.

so what does that mean...that means that as owners of our cats (or caregivers to others) we are so dedicated, so loving, that I believe we observe in many cases small, but significant things that veterinarians or researchers most likely never do. After all, we live with our pets. We watch them eat, groom, drink, pee, poop, play, sleep etc...

I have seen too many cats with FIP now. I know I have seen probably more then my vet has seen in his whole career...I also know there are many things that I have observed that correlate closely with those who have both died of FIP and those that I consider the off shoot group. Those who live with the side effects but have not died of the disease.

It is an interesting thought and one that deserves more credit from the average pet caregiver then it is given.

a few thoughts and updates

It's been a long while since I wrote here, and truthfully I don't have much to add. But I know I do get emails still from some of you who went through the worst of the outbreak with me, and I thought maybe we'd just do a quick update now.

I was very worried about the stress of the move on the suspect FIP cats. And all the others. I am happy to report that 10 months after the move, the one of the two FIP cats has passed as expected (from dry FIP) The other cat is still isolated by herself in a bedroom and while she does have some bad days, she is still a good weight and enjoying her life.

None of the others at this time show real obvious signs.

I still continue my own homeopathic treatments as well as pulses of clindamycin for the gingivitis that many of them suffer from chronically.

I had hoped to have things set up to do my own labs by now, but my son's cancer has returned and my focus for now is on him.

I still see chronic obvious things with the cats/kittens that either were in the original rescue group, or were related to those who died from the FIP. These are the "indicators" in my personal observances.

I think that like all retroviruses within my own cat population, we've now seen a mutation from the very virulent strain to one that I have little doubt will in time still take some of my cat's lives, but does it in a slower more insidious way.

I also believe that there are still answers to be had out there, but I just don't see any of the current research ever producing either a vaccine or an effective treatment. I hope that changes in time.

My heart broke when Zilla died and I will when time permits continue to work on this on my own in the future. In her memory. In the memory of so many of you who have also lost precious furbabies to this abomination of a disease.

Will post again in a few months with another update. Blessed to all the furkins and their families.