Your senior kitty and the holidays

Your silver kitty and the holiday season

            Holliday purrs to all you pet owners.  Winter brings some special challenges in caring for cats in general, and no cat needs more special care than “silver” cats out there.  When the warm sun beams into our home, you can be sure there will be a cat in every window, basking in the glow. But senior kitties can’t always regulate their body heat as well as younger cats.  So for Christmas, get your older kitty a safe heated pet bed it can curl up in and stay warm all day and night. 

            Here are some very important Holliday pet safety reminders:

1.      We all get joy from our Christmas decorations but please remember that cats love to play with ribbon, garland, and tinsel.  Every year the surgeons at the Scaredy Cat Hospital here in Arizona have to operate on cats that have swallowed tinsel or garland.  Remember that cats can’t spit things out!  If they play with string or tinsel, it will surely cause an intestinal blockage that requires surgery.

2.      Most floral bouquets have Lily flowers in them.  The smell is fragrant and pleasing, but these flowers are DEADLY to cats.  A nibble of any par t of most lily plants can cause acute irreversible kidney failure in cats.

3.      Even though we look forward to visitors over the holidays, cats may not be overjoyed to have their daily routine disturbed.  Provide your kitties with a quiet private space to retreat to with their food, water, and a litter box.

4.      As tempted as you (or your cats) might be to share in the holiday fixings, remember that cats do not always tolerate abrupt changes in diet and turkey, or table food can give them sever indigestion.  If you must share a few giblets (and who hasn’t) with your cats, make sure there are no onions mixed in.  Onions can cause a fatal anemia from destruction of the oxygen carrying red blood cells.

5.      Loud noises (raucous caroling) or fireworks can startle your kitties making them dart outdoors in a fit of terror.  See number 3 OR, have a microchip implanted so your cat can be identified if it escapes.

 

  This holiday season I am so thankful that my best feline friend, LUNA the 17 year old Siamese is still enthusiastic about life, although it is often painful for me to watch him limp around and  chew his Friskies a little more gingerly. He joins me for breakfast every morning and curls up next to me at bedtime.

   Here’s wishing you and your furry loved ones a happy, safe and enjoyable holiday

   season. 

Dr. Jonathan Grant  is medical director of the Scaredy Cat Hospital, a cats only full

Service veterinary hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona can be reached at 480-990-2287.