Cat illnesses

Most cat owners have no idea what a sick cat is, and one can only be glad of it. The nine lives of a cat belong, of course, to the world of fairy tales; but there is no disputing that a cat is remarkably tenacious of life and can come out of many a scrape unharmed. Take this principle to heart all the same: a sick cat needs a vet. Do not try to make your own amateur diagnosis. Have your cat vaccinated (see Vaccinations for cats). Try to prevent accidents (see Dangers).

A healthy cat

Well groomed. Washes herself thoroughly. Eats normally. Drinks as usual. Meows as usual. Uses the litter tray as usual, with normal results. Is sick from time to time, and looks well afterwards. Keeps a steady weight.

An unwell cat

Unkempt. Dirty. Untidy at the rear. Turns ravenous, or will not eat at all. Drinks far too much, or does not drink at all. Meows far too much, or is unusually quiet. Uses the litter tray far too often, with little to show for it or nothing at all. Strains while sitting in the tray. Has diarrhoea. Does not use the tray at all. Is sick often and repeatedly. There is blood in the vomit. Looks listless. Gains or loses more than 10% of her normal weight in a month or less.

Watch the ordinary workings of your cat closely. If an inner voice tells you something is wrong, trust it! Ring your vet and talk the changes over with him; he will be able to say whether the cat needs to be brought in and examined. There are several complaints common enough among cats for you, as an owner, to do well to know their symptoms.

Hairballs

Some cats end their lives because, in washing themselves, they swallow a great deal of hair. The hair tangles inside the cat and forms a large ball, which blocks the intestine partly or completely and leaves her feeling full. The symptoms are listlessness, vomiting and loss of appetite. The vomit is usually brown, and lumps of hair rolled up into little tubes can be made out in it. It is worth examining the vomit to make sure that swallowed hairballs really are what brought the sickness on. Careful daily grooming will deal with the problem, especially during the moult — and for long-haired cats all the year round. If you suspect something is wrong with your cat, go to the vet. He will be able to confirm the illness and recommend proper treatment. Among home remedies for clearing hairballs out of the stomach and intestine are paraffin and liquid paraffin. I would also recommend giving long-haired cats grass every day — leek, for instance — and sprouted wheat in winter.

Ear mites

These repulsive creatures live in a cat’s ears. They bite through the skin of the ear canal, which brings on inflammation and soreness of the whole surrounding area. Cats answer the discomfort by shaking their heads, rubbing their ears hard with a paw, and rubbing their heads against the floor and the furniture. Infestation with ear mites goes with a dark, waxy discharge from the ears. Dealing with it calls for treatment with medicines prescribed by the vet. Have him show you how to put drops in the ears or work ointment in properly, and how to clean the ears safely.

Diarrhoea

The causes of diarrhoea are various, and there may be a great many of them; often enough it comes of a fault in the diet. Food consisting of meat alone or milk alone, food that is heavy to digest, seasoned with spices or gone off, is likewise among the commonest causes. Which foods give a cat diarrhoea, mind, is a matter for each individual animal. Intestinal parasites — worms — bring it on too, though considerably more rarely. Diarrhoea can also come of travel sickness in a car or a train, of excitement or fright during a visit to the vet, or of new animals appearing in the house.

Diarrhoea of that kind usually passes quickly and needs no special treatment. Do not scold the cat at such times for failing to reach the tray in time.

The first condition in treating diarrhoea is to withhold food for 12–24 hours. A cat takes that perfectly well if she was fed not long before the diarrhoea began. Then for 3–5 days she should be on a light, easily digested diet — baby food, boiled chicken, boiled egg and the like. If need be, the vet can work out a diet for your cat individually. As a remedy to protect the lining of the intestine, kaopectate can be offered, 2 teaspoons per 400 grams of live weight every 6 hours. But find out the cause of the diarrhoea before you begin treating it.

If the diarrhoea goes on for more than 24–36 hours with no visible sign of improvement, if there is blood in it, if it comes with vomiting, a high temperature, weakness, loss of appetite or dehydration, you cannot manage without the vet. Note the colour, the make-up and the consistency of the stools, which matter a great deal for the diagnosis. A stool sample must be sent for analysis so that the cause can afterwards be established exactly, worms among the things tested for.

Constipation

A healthy cat is constipated very seldom. The causes may be simple ones — a fault in the feeding, say, or a great deal of hair swallowed while washing. Constipation that keeps coming back, though, can have serious consequences and calls for veterinary help of its own. In an adult cat, emptying the bowels once or twice a day is normal. If your cat has passed nothing for a single day, that is not yet cause for alarm. In mild cases the animal can be helped with a special diet. So-called roughage — fibre — in the ration works well, and food with plenty of water in it is worth giving too. A helping of fresh beef liver may also do the trick. As for the special preparations, they are worth giving only on a vet’s advice.

For home treatment, paraffin oil can be recommended — a teaspoon per four kilograms of live weight — or liquid paraffin, one teaspoon. These oils are given by mouth. In severe constipation a glycerine suppository, a child’s, is put into the back passage; it works by softening the stools and so making them easier to pass.

Two days of this, once or twice a day, is usually enough to clear the constipation. But there is another side to it. Paraffin oil gets in the way of the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins in the intestine, so that taking it for long can lead to vitamin deficiency. The oil should be given to the animal together with food. Do not try to force the medicine on a cat: if it gets into the airways it can lead to pneumonia.

If your cat’s large intestine is blocked with hard faeces, the vet’s help is simply necessary. If you have no way of getting hold of a vet, try to act on your own. For this you need a rubber enema bulb, with which barely warm boiled water is introduced into the rectum.

It should be said that in some cats constipation alternates with diarrhoea.

Vomiting

Vomiting may mean you are faced with a serious problem, and it may mean no more than that your cat eats too much and too fast. A cat overeats now and then, and then changes her mind. Cats can be sick the moment they wish to be, so it is nothing like the difficult business for them that it is for us. A healthy cat being sick from time to time is normal and nothing to worry about. Here is a good general rule: if your cat is sick occasionally but looks healthy in every other way, do not be greatly troubled by it. But if the vomiting becomes frequent, if it happens over and over within a few hours, if there is blood in the vomit, or if your cat shows discomfort in some other way and looks ill — ring the vet. If anything worries you, ring the vet! But a cat being sick now and then on your computer screen is usually entirely normal.

Feline urological syndrome

If your cat strains when passing water, meows more often than usual, urinates in unsuitable places, if there is blood in the urine, or if she cannot pass water at all — go straight to the vet. These are all symptoms of a serious and possibly life-threatening illness. Do not delay!

A cat that scoots along the floor

If you have ever seen it, you will know what I mean. The cat sits down, presses her hindquarters to the floor and sets off in that position. This fairly disagreeable performance, which a cat unfailingly puts on over your most expensive rug, may be a sign that her anal glands are irritated. Every cat has glands at the anus. They serve to mark territory by scent, and also as something in the nature of “fright buttons”: a frightened cat may squeeze the contents out. The glands contract hard, and that leaves them swollen and sore. Then the cat starts scooting along the floor and licking herself. Take the poor creature to the vet. You certainly do not want the contents of squeezed and infected anal glands about your house. Scooting and licking can also be a sign of worms. Either way, go to the vet and have the cat looked at.

Epilepsy in cats

Epilepsy is a functional disorder of the brain, marked by convulsions that are usually short. Fits can be brought on by anything that has disturbed the normal working of the brain. Epilepsy is a fairly common complaint in small animals. Fits in cats fall into two broad categories: true epilepsy, which is idiopathic, and false epilepsy, which is symptomatic. In true epilepsy the cause of the fits is hard to establish and often stays unknown. False epilepsy is an acquired syndrome, in which the fits may be a symptom of some other illness; find that illness and cure it, and the fits should stop. A fit is preceded by a period of odd behaviour: a fixed stare into space, loss of orientation and other signs. Sometimes owners do not even notice them; in other cases this phase of the illness lasts from five to ten minutes. The aura phase lets the owner prepare for the fit and make sure the cat is somewhere safe, on the floor for instance. During the fit itself the animal falls and loses consciousness, the legs stretch out and go stiff, and breathing stops. This phase is very short, 10–30 seconds, and gives way to convulsive movements of the legs, as though running or swimming. After the fit the animal may be back to normal in seconds or minutes, or may stay motionless, in a lethargic stupor, bewildered, disoriented or blind, for anything from a few minutes to a few hours. Recent experience suggests that any animal is a potential epileptic. If a young cat has fits no more often than once a year, there is no need to treat: the illness is not life-threatening, and watching the animal is enough. If the fits come more often than once a month, treatment is called for. Anticonvulsants have to be used with care: if the patient goes a day or two without the medicine she is used to, the fits will return and may even be worse. Successful treatment depends in large part on proper nursing at home. Good nursing can make the fits less frequent, make them shorter, and make them milder, with the fewest side effects.

Here you can look at a summary table of the illnesses cats meet with most often.