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Litter Box Blues

"My cat has been urinating outside of the litter box": A common complaint for some cat owners, a variety of medical and behavioral issues may be at the root of why your beloved feline has stopped using the litterbox.

"I'm Sick!" 

In addition to urinating inappropriately, you may notice other changes with your cat. These include increases or decreases in appetite, increased frequency to drink, changes in behavior, discolored urination, and straining, among others. A good history in combination with a urinalysis and blood testing form a good baseline by which your veterinarian can diagnose your cat's illness, especially when a variety of medical conditions can mimic each other. Sometimes, more advanced testing, such as x-ray, ultrasound, and urine culture are necessary. Your veterinarian will help you choose which tests are right for your pet.

"I'm Stressed!"

After medical reasons are ruled out to why your cat has been urinating inappropriately, behavior counseling may be necessary to help you and your furry friend. Questions to consider:

-How many litter boxes do you have?

-Is there a litterbox on every floor?

-Any new pets/new people/other changes in the household?

-Have you recently moved into a new house/apartment?

-Any stray cats in your backyard?

-Any changes to the litterbox: changes to type of litter, litter liner, type or size of litterbox, number of litter boxes, covered on the litterbox?

-How often do you scoop the litter and change it out?

-Does your cat have access to each litterbox at all times of the day?

-Does your cat have a "surface preference" to where he/she will urinate? Such as a rug, hardwood floor, tile floor.

-Is your cat also defecating outside the litterbox?

-How do you clean those areas?

-After answering these questions, here are some basic tips for at-home litter box management:

-The "1 Plus" Rule: Have atleast one litterbox for each cat PLUS ONE additional litterbox. Having a litterbox on each level of your house can help, especially for those older cats with sore legs. Make sure your litterbox is big enough! Your cat should be able to turn around in it! Is your litterbox in a safe and quiet area? Cats do not like to be disturbed (attacked by other cats) when they are using the litter box. Make sure that litterboxes are not being guarded by other cats! Try a litterbox that is closer to the ground - your older cat may be sore and can't jump into the box anymore! Be consistent with your litter choices! Some cats prefer particular types of litter. If things are working, do not change it! Choices include scented vs. unscented, clumping vs. non-clumping, pine, recycled newspaper, and even playsand.

If your cat has chosen to urinate in one particular spot, block access to it! You can either block access to the entire room, remove that particular rug that your cat is urinating on, or place tinfoil, a large object, or even a food or water dish over the area. As your cat may be stimulated by a stray cat in your backyard, do not encourage stray cats to come near your house! You can try a product called Feliway, a natural pheromone which can decrease stress levels in cat. Feliway is available as a room diffuser or as a spray. Using an appropriate enzymatic cleaner (such as O.U.T., Nature's Miracle, Simple Solution) when cleaning your cat�s urine. If your cat has urinated on carpeted areas, steam cleaning is necessary! It continues with you! Scoop your litter box daily, and change the entire litter once a week!

Many behavioral disorders can be treated using a combination of at-home management, and following your veterinarian's recommendations. In some cases, medicines are available to decrease your animals stress.

If you have any questions, please contact us at the Wheatland Animal Hospital. For additional informational on environmental enrichment, visit the Indoor Cat Initiative at http://www.vet.ohio-state.edu/indoorcat.

Making vet visits easy for cats

My cat hates the vet! How can I make her vet visits more bearable?

Many cats have a very difficult time coming to the vet, and get quite nervous.  We can't blame them!  Once that carrier comes out, they know exactly what you're up to, and then the cascade begins.  Too often, it results in a lot of stress for the kitty, and often more stress for you.  Sometimes it can get downright dangerous.  It doesn't have to be that way, and here's what we can do to make it the best experience possible.

The carrier- let's make it a better place.  Cats generally like small spaces--get a comfy carrier and put some catnip or a toy in it.  Leave it in a quiet space so she may choose to enter it on her own for a nap.  She's less likely to associate it with a trip to the vet if she is in there the other days of the year.  Get a carrier with an easily removable top or a zip top.

Arriving at the vet-let's take away the fear- many cats have never even seen a dog, so imagine how they feel when a 90# dog is barking! Know your kitty--bring her in a carrier so she stays safe, and ask the staff ahead of time or upon arrival if you can immediately go to a dog-free zone if necessary.

Entering the exam room- the first thing you should do is put the carrier on the floor and open it up.  Give her the option to come out on her own.  You may be surprised how many cats get curious enough to explore the room if given a couple minutes.  This is in their nature.

Don't dump her out of her carrier!- even if she doesn't come out on her own, a removable top is a much less stressful way to get her out than dumping her.

Let us pet her for a few minutes- before we even try to examine her, we need to give her the chance to trust us.  Even the most fearful cats can be won over with a couple minutes of love.

What we need to remember is that any inappropriate behavior (hissing, batting, any aggression) is simply due to fear.  No cat is bad or mean, they are just sometimes afraid and need to protect themselves.  If we do the simple steps above, you'll be amazed at how well the vet visit goes!

Is it safe to socialize my dog in public before his puppy vaccines are finished?

We commonly have clients asking this very question and here is why the answer is an astounding Yes!

We first need to understand the puppy vaccine schedules, and what happens before a puppy is vaccinated.  Puppies generally have maternal antibodies which are effective for the first 5 or 6 weeks of life.  This means the mother has given the puppy protection against many diseases before he ever receives vaccines.  It also means it is very important to begin the vaccination schedule at 6 weeks of age.  Specific vaccine schedules vary, but following an appropriate schedule keeps puppies protected during the first few months of life.  Although they need to be boostered every few weeks, they are actually very effective.  Thus, between maternal antibodies and vaccines, puppies are protected for these important early months.

We also need to look at behavior and learning development, specifically when this all happens.  The basic "socialization window" for a puppy is between 4and 14 weeks of age.  This is the period where puppies adapt well to new things, such as kids and cats, and objects like bikes and cars.  If they are exposed to all of this early, in a positive environment, and rewarded for good responses, they usually enjoy them later in life.  If we wait until the vaccination series is over (16 weeks of age) to expose them to all of these things, we have missed our socialization window.  The dogs are often fearful of these seemingly harmless things.  It's similar to how wild animals are fearful of us--because they were not socialized early in life with us.  But if you raised a duck or even a squirrel from birth, it will likely trust you.  On a tangent, this is why wildlife rehabbers can't make too much of a bond with young injured animals.  They can't survive in the wild if they trust everything.

To get back on track, puppy "kindergarten" classes should be for very young puppies.  These socialiation classes are very valuable if started between 8 and 12 weeks of age, but usually too late if done later on.

So our advice? Start puppy vaccines at 6 weeks, keep them updated according to your vet's recommendations, and bring them to as many places as you can.  If you plan to take him to puppy kindergarten, do it early.  He'll likely be a happy, well-adjusted dog if you do!

New baby plus Old dog equals...no problem!

So you're about to have a child and concerned about how the dog and the baby will interact? You should be, but let's tackle this issue immediately so things run smooth.  The most important thing to do is plan ahead.  Half the work needs to be done before your child even arrives!

Brush up on training-- your dog needs to respond to simple commands such as sit and stay so you can maintain control of situations.  Use a reward-based method.  Also make sure the dog is comfortable in a confined area such as a crate or pen.  This is imperative for safety.  Provide toys, treats, and fresh water to make it a comfortable place.

Set up the house early--allowing the dog to investigate the house with a nursery, crib, and other changes before a baby arrives will allow you to see how he handles these things.  It also allows you time to teach and reward him for staying out of the baby's room if this is your desire.

Acclimate the dog to sights and sounds he'll encounter with the child--hold a doll, play children's music, carry around baby blankets, even mock crying sounds.  Again, use a reward-based system where you reward him for appropriate behavior and identify stimuli that make him fearful or anxious.

Handle him as a baby would--touch his ears and paws daily.  Lightly pat his head.  Handle his tail.  The object is to get him used to the way a child may handle him.  Do not be rough with him though, because it later will be your responsibility to prevent all rough handling by the child.

So now that a lot of the work is done, what do we do when the kiddo comes home?

Start slowly.  Introduce hospital blankets and other items that may smell like the baby or that the baby may wear.

Pay attention to the dog--when the child is around, interact with the dog.  We want him to make good associations with the baby.  Give plenty of rewards.

Above all, practice safety!  If the dog is acting anxious or inappropriately, calmly remove him from the baby.  He should go in his pen or crate until he relaxes.  Never leave the baby and dog together unattended.  Most importantly, realize that the largest reason dogs are aggressive to children is due to fear (not domination).  You can't let the child bat, pull tails, or approach abruptly.  Don't let her wake a sleeping dog or corner the dog.  Continue rewarding the child for proper handling of the dog, but most children are many years old before they are truly trustworthy.

If we take the time to prepare for the arrival of the child, and remain calm and in control of our child's interactions with the dog, we will have a safe smooth transition to our new family addition.  The years of friendship are irreplaceable for our children!

-many ideas for this blog were taken from Debra Horwitz's "And Baby Makes Two" from the July 2011 NAVC Clinician's Brief-

Cat Scratch Fever!

So what the heck is cat scratch fever anyway?  It's not just a sweet Ted Nugent song, although I bet you'd never have heard of it if not for Ted.  It just may be more important than you think...

The boring details first...cat scratch fever is from a bacteria called Bartonella.  Many rodents and other animals, including cats and dogs, carry the bacteria in their bloodstream, many asymptomatically.  The disease was previously assumed to be self-limiting and thus no big deal in people, but the tide is turning on that viewpoint...

Many studies are underway but evidence is beginning to suggest that healthy people may be at risk for some chronic serious complications such as fever, arthritis, bruising, bleeding disorders, and heart valve damage.  Although there are many ways to get cat scratch fever, the most risky for a human cat owner is...wait for it...a cat scratch!  Well, more specifically, a scratch from a flea infested cat.

Fleas bite animals and excrete their blood (we call it flea blood rather than flea excrement).  Cats with fleas get this blood in their nail bases, and a scratch to a human spreads the Bartonella.  The take home lesson is to prevent fleas in cats, thus preventing disease transmission.  Don't think indoor cats get fleas? Not true.  Many animals get fleas because we, their owners, track around.  Flea eggs are sticky, so eggs in the yard or our friends' house stick to our shoes and pants, we bring them into our home, and they hatch and infest our indoor cats.  This happens remarkably often.

This disease is very challenging to diagnose and treat, so we suggest flea prevention for indoor and outdoor cats.  It will not only keep the kitty safe, it just may do the same for you!

What do you do if your dog growls?

Why do dogs growl and what should we do about it? This is a common question and we can't pretend to answer the question for every individual dog here, but we can lend some insight and offer some helpful tips.

Our main concern here is dogs that growl out of fear.  We learn a lot about a growling dog by body postures.  Many fearful dogs have signs such as cowering, retreating into corners, pinning ears toward their rear end, loud barking, or showing their teeth.  Occasionally a scared dog will approach or even attack unprovoked, but this is actually rare (think about it for a bit--if he's scared, why would he come up to you?).

So what should we do?  Many people tell their dogs "No" or scold them in other ways.  We don't want that behavior, right?  Growling is a bad thing, right?  So intuition often tells us that if they are scolded, they will stop (believe me, a good slap on the butt when I misbehaved as a kid sure worked!). However there are two reasons we absolutely should not punish the dog...

First, think about WHY he growled once again.  He's scared.  The growl is simply his way of communicating his fear.  He's not trying to be a bad dog...in fact, quite the opposite.  He's telling you how he feels.

Second, and most importantly, the growl is a warning sign.  He is safely telling you to back off, or else he may bite.  If we scold him, and thus teach him not to growl, we will lose this warning.  Now we have a dog who will likely not even warn us he's about to bite, and this creates a very dangerous situation.

What we must do is accept and respect the fact that fears are real.  When a dog growls at us, we should simply back away, essentially withdrawing what makes the dog scared.  Specific treatments to help the dog overcome their fears is individual and beyond the scope of this blog, so please contact us or your veterinarian if you have a growling dog.  With patience and the proper help, he can become a more confident, safer dog.

Thunderstorm fears

Its spring time and that means spring thunderstorms.  These often can bring breathtaking views for some, but for our cats and dogs, it can often bring intense fear.  Here's some tips for helping your animals cope.

First we need to understand why dogs in particular are often fearful of storms.  The loud noises and bright lightning flashes are unfamiliar to many dogs, and this creates fear.  As they are exposed over and over, many dogs' fears escalate, and this is mainly because they can't comprehend that the storm won't hurt them.  In their mind, something fearful keeps happening and there's no way to escape.  Furthermore, many dogs begin to associate less aggressive weather patterns with the storms.  This can include cloudiness, snow, or possibly even low barometric pressure.  These seemingly harmless weather patterns can then create just as much fear and anxiety as the thunder or lightning.  Again, the dog is associating these things with the fear of the storms.  These commonly get only worse as the dog gets older, because the fearful event keeps happening.

Here's what you can do to help your little guy or girl out:

First, allow a place of refuge.  Oftentimes this is a basement where the sights and sounds of the storm are less evident.  Some dogs prefer the children's bedrooms.  Any place the dog feels safe is in essense a refuge from the scary stimulus.

Second, never punish them for their behaviors.  Even if they do inappropriate things like urinate in the house, punishment only increases their fears and anxieties, therefore it is counter-productive.  The answer to these behaviors is to find a solution which alleviates fears and anxieties with subsequent storms.  If the anxiety is gone, the inappropriate behavior will stop occuring.

Some sources promote things such as snug sweaters and there are even commercially made jackets to help dogs with storms.  It seems that these things may just distract the dog enough to get their minds off the storms.  They are worth trying, although by no means a guarantee to work.

If there is no way to physically escape the fearful event, which is oftentimes the case, many dogs benefit greatly from anxiety-reducing medicines.  Owners often note that they don't want to "drug up" the dog or alter their personality.  We believe that there are good medicines that reduce the fears and leave the dog in a normal state of awareness and behavior.  We feel that reducing or eliminating fear is tremendously beneficial to the dog.

Please contact us if we can be of any help, and please follow our regular blog for more educational tips!  Thanks!