The tiny lions living in our homes, and the secrets they hide
Though our pet cats are adorable, snuggly, and sweet creatures, they are still predators. This means that they are excellent at hiding disease! In the wild, any signs of illness are signs of weakness, so it is ingrained in them to hide disease!
This is great for wild animals, but terrible for house pets – if they hide their signs of disease, then it is often more advanced before we know, and harder to help them! This reason is why it is so important to perform regular examinations and bloodwork on our feline friends! I want to tell you about my friend, we will call him Twizzler. Twizzler came in for a regular examination and vaccines, and his owner did note that he had lost just a little bit of weight, but was otherwise doing well! We ended up running some bloodwork to make sure we weren’t missing something!
As it turns out, Twizzler was in the early stages of diabetes! We confirmed the diagnosis with a urine sample, and after some education and discussion, were able to start him on insulin injections. His owner has gotten very comfortable with managing his disease, and is even checking his blood sugar levels at home now. It has been over 3 years, and he has done awesome – no other signs of illness, and his weight loss has even resolved too!
Had his owners not brought him in for his exam, and had we not found the weight loss – that would not have prompted us to run some bloodwork and find his diabetes nice and early before he was sick! Diabetes is very treatable, and cats can live for years with it – but we have to find it first!
Be proactive with your cats – bring them in for regular examinations, and consider doing screening bloodwork as they get older. Keeping them happy and healthy for as long as possible is easier if we are able to help them before they are sick!!
At Pennridge Animal Hospital we do a spring and a fall ‘cat’-ch up sunday wellness clinic for cats ONLY – this is a way to allow people to bring in their pet cats, without needing a set appointment time, or having to deal with scary dogs – and so much more! Check it out here if you are interested: https://www.facebook.com/events/337048257036178/
Happy fall everyone!