Speaker 1: You're listening to in the Vets Office with doctor Josie Horchak.
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, and welcome back to in the Vets Office.
Speaker 2: I am your host, Doctor Josie, and this is a
Speaker 2: very exciting week because we are joined by one of
Speaker 2: my very best friends in the entire world, Doctor Andrew Bean,
Speaker 2: who I will be calling Bean for the entirety of
Speaker 2: this episode. Bean and I went to veterinary school together
Speaker 2: at the Ohio State University. We worked together in Chicago
Speaker 2: at Boulevard Vet. Shout out Boulevard if you're in Chicago,
Speaker 2: check them out. They are the best. Bean is actually
Speaker 2: now a partner there. It's hands down the best VET
Speaker 2: clinic in all of Chicago Land. And he is in
Speaker 2: Nashville today to film this episode with me. So welcome Bean.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I oh, let's go.
Speaker 1: You have to do it when you're together, we.
Speaker 2: Have to go buck Eyes. The main reason I asked
Speaker 2: doctor Bean to come today is because we've done so
Speaker 2: many episodes centered on dogs, and a lot of listeners say, hey,
Speaker 2: you're giving all the love to the dogs. What about
Speaker 2: the cats? And Doctor Bean is the cat king, so
Speaker 2: love them, he says, love them.
Speaker 1: I only have one, but I would kill to have
Speaker 1: more of them. I just cannot handle it, but I
Speaker 1: would have as many as I could stand.
Speaker 2: I don't think your cat Zelda would allow you to
Speaker 2: have more than just her. I feel like she's an
Speaker 2: only child.
Speaker 1: That is the problem. I think she is the queen
Speaker 1: of her roost. She does not like when new faces
Speaker 1: come in. So when she dies, which is going to
Speaker 1: be still a long time, hopefully never forever, but when
Speaker 1: she does pass, I might get two or three or four,
Speaker 1: who knows.
Speaker 2: Perfect You will see those like tiktoks or videos where
Speaker 2: it's like this person's a Golden Retriever, and I always
Speaker 2: joke that our friendship, I'm like the Golden Retriever with
Speaker 2: like a little bit of Terrier, maybe a sprinkle of Chihuahua.
Speaker 2: And you are a house cat. I tell you I
Speaker 2: love you, and you say thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. That is very a cat. That is a
Speaker 1: cat answer.
Speaker 2: It is a cat answer. And I'm very happy because
Speaker 2: I wear my cat socks today. Can you see in
Speaker 2: the camera I got my cat socks. So yeah, we're
Speaker 2: ready to go. We're gonna talk all things cats. We
Speaker 2: always start our episode with the case of the week.
Speaker 2: And since you're here, doctor Bean, I'm gonna let you
Speaker 2: take it away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So sticking with our theme, it is a cat
Speaker 1: that I saw actually recently, a few weeks ago. It's
Speaker 1: a four month old kitten that I saw. They presented
Speaker 1: super lethargic, hadne eaten in days, just really not doing well.
Speaker 2: And you had just seen it like a few weeks
Speaker 2: before they did.
Speaker 1: I saw it a week before for like its first
Speaker 1: kitten visit. It was doing great, eating, drinking, bouncing off
Speaker 1: the walls. So when I saw this in the exam room,
Speaker 1: this is not the same kitten. You know, there's something
Speaker 1: wrong with this kitten. And so looking at the cat,
Speaker 1: just looking at it, the whole cat was yellow, ears, skin, gums, eyes,
Speaker 1: everything was just yellow.
Speaker 2: That's always shocking. As a vet. You walk in, You're like,
Speaker 2: oh boy, this is not good.
Speaker 1: Like immediate red flag. You're like something's up, like this
Speaker 1: is this is something. So we do our physical We
Speaker 1: also find its abdomen is huge, it's belly is super distended,
Speaker 1: and just feeling it, there's fluid in this belly. So
Speaker 1: this kind is in rough shape. So we run some tests,
Speaker 1: butteric X rays. I end up draining like one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty millimeters of fluid, which is a lot of
Speaker 1: fluid off this three pound cat, four pound cat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 1: It's a lot. So we pulled the fluid off and
Speaker 1: we essentially diagnosed it with a disease called FIP, or
Speaker 1: feeling infectious paraniitis. Cats in general, I think are a
Speaker 1: little bit more prone to infectious diseases than dogs, and
Speaker 1: this is kind of a weird disease that is kind
Speaker 1: of confusing in terms of transmission. Even diagnosing it can
Speaker 1: be tricky and difficult, but with this case, this was
Speaker 1: kind of a classic slammed case. But if your vet
Speaker 1: is suspicious of FIP, you know, they very may want
Speaker 1: to run some additional tests if it's not quite as
Speaker 1: clear cut or not as obvious as this one. This
Speaker 1: was kind of a slam dunk diagnosis, as we would say,
Speaker 1: and kind of the interesting thing about treating FIP. Nowadays
Speaker 1: we have this great anti viral drug. We ordered it
Speaker 1: from our special pharmacy. It came the next day, the
Speaker 1: owner started it and I got an update a couple
Speaker 1: of days later. Kat was back to normal, doing great.
Speaker 1: So I saw them Actually a couple of days ago.
Speaker 1: Kat's again doing great, doing fantastic. I'm optimistic he's going
Speaker 1: to make or she's going to make a full recovery.
Speaker 1: The kind of interesting part about this case is if
Speaker 1: this was just a few months ago, we would be
Speaker 1: talking about a very different treatment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like three months ago, three months ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So this treatment just became legal I think in June,
Speaker 1: June or July, this anti viral compound, and before it
Speaker 1: was legal, it was extensively tested. We know it was safe,
Speaker 1: we know its effected, but it was illegal.
Speaker 2: It was not FDA approved, IFT approved.
Speaker 1: We cannot use it off label. It's a big no no.
Speaker 1: But again, we knew was safe, we knew was effective,
Speaker 1: and so I'm not saying I did this. I have
Speaker 1: a friend, a friend veterinarian who back in the day
Speaker 1: before this drug was legal, you a friend of mine
Speaker 1: would have to basically refer them to the black market
Speaker 1: to get this drug. And so there was a Facebook page.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's still around. Can I say
Speaker 1: the name of it. Yeah, It's called FIP Warriors, and
Speaker 1: it basically what owners would have to do join this private,
Speaker 1: secret Facebook page. They would connect you to someone in
Speaker 1: the area that sells it on the black market. You
Speaker 1: have to go to their house, usually an hour or
Speaker 1: so away. You pay one thousand bucks in cash. They
Speaker 1: give you a vial of hopefully the drug, hopefully the medication.
Speaker 1: They teach you how to inject it in your cat
Speaker 1: and on your way. And again we were not allowed
Speaker 1: to talk about it. We are not allowed to recommend it.
Speaker 1: My friend would never write anything in the record that
Speaker 1: they are recommending it because I read an article a
Speaker 1: few months ago there was a group of vets in
Speaker 1: Texas that like got quote busted for using it and
Speaker 1: saving cats lives and they lost their license over it.
Speaker 2: It's really crazy.
Speaker 1: So black market veterinary drugs exist.
Speaker 2: We are not saying to go hunting for them. But
Speaker 2: if your vet recommends it, I mean, yeah, this is
Speaker 2: a very special exception, I would say.
Speaker 1: Very special exception. And luckily we don't have that anymore.
Speaker 1: There are more and more competent pharmacies that are carrying
Speaker 1: this drug and it's legal now. So I'm just very
Speaker 1: happy we have something legal to fix these cats because
Speaker 1: it works.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it was crazy as a vet walking into
Speaker 2: the room. I mean, when my friend walked into the
Speaker 2: room wing wink and being like, hey, your cat has
Speaker 2: this disease. They will die fatal.
Speaker 1: It is almost always fatal.
Speaker 2: Correct, they will die if they don't get treatment. You
Speaker 2: need to get a thousand dollars in cash. You're going
Speaker 2: to drive to this random person's house. The medication sometimes
Speaker 2: will be in their mailbox. It's like a drug deal
Speaker 2: it really it is.
Speaker 1: It is a black market drug.
Speaker 2: Dealer or cat for your cat, but it saves her life.
Speaker 1: Like, oh yeah, I've seen it work like it seems
Speaker 1: like a miracle drug. Honestly it does, because yeah, that
Speaker 1: cat is doing fantastic. But it's just so crazy that
Speaker 1: we had this drug for a while. We knew it
Speaker 1: was safe, we knew it was effective. We just could
Speaker 1: not use it to fix these cats or help these cats.
Speaker 1: So I've seen cases where dinners couldn't afford to do it,
Speaker 1: or they honestly did not believe me. They were like,
Speaker 1: you're lying to me, You're crazy. I'm getting another opinion,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I wish this was not how it
Speaker 1: had to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're like, I know I sound insane, but I promise.
Speaker 1: And I actually have another client who or my friend
Speaker 1: had a client who they did it, and she was like, honestly,
Speaker 1: anyone that doubts this process, like, they can call me
Speaker 1: and I'll tell them it works. Do it a testimony exactly.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: I know we both have lost you know, especially coming
Speaker 2: out of school almost eight years ago. Now, we lost
Speaker 2: a lot of patience to FIP because we didn't even
Speaker 2: have the black market drug available. So it's definitely been
Speaker 2: a game changer for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm very happy we have it, and yeah it's legal.
Speaker 1: So if your cat has FIP, there is hope. Now
Speaker 1: there's legal, good hope. So talk to your veterinarian if
Speaker 1: you're ever worried about it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely all right, we're gonna take a quick break and
Speaker 2: when we get back we are going to do our
Speaker 2: listener question and answers. Hey, doctor Josie, my cat will
Speaker 2: randomly PM poop outside of our litter box and I
Speaker 2: don't know why. Is there anything I can do? This
Speaker 2: is a great question, I know, being I feel like
Speaker 2: this is the number one one of the number one things,
Speaker 2: one of the number one that doesn't really make sense.
Speaker 2: One of the top things that we see with cat
Speaker 2: owners when they come in is cats going to the bathroom,
Speaker 2: not in their litter box. And what I would say
Speaker 2: to that is they are the most sensitive of creatures
Speaker 2: and more often than not, it's usually stress related or
Speaker 2: something is different in the home and kind of like
Speaker 2: throwing them for a loop and for whatever reason they
Speaker 2: decide they are not going in their litter box.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Yeah, I mean, super super common,
Speaker 1: especially being outside the litter box. I've struggled it with
Speaker 1: it myself with my cat, And like you said, it
Speaker 1: is a lot of times sometimes related to stress or
Speaker 1: a behavior issue. Obviously, your that'll probably run some tests
Speaker 1: to rule out any sort of like obvious medical cause,
Speaker 1: like a UTI is what we hear a lot of
Speaker 1: our you know, a parasite or something weird like that.
Speaker 1: But in a lot of cases, it is this kind
Speaker 1: of stress or behavior issue, and there's absolutely some things
Speaker 1: we can do about it before you go.
Speaker 2: One thing that I always think of is people come
Speaker 2: in and if they have a dog, you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: these are UTI symptoms, Like of course, and it would
Speaker 2: be so easy, like honestly would be easier for it
Speaker 2: to be a UTI because you just give them an
Speaker 2: antibiotic and they're better. But honestly, like eighty percent of
Speaker 2: the time, ninety percent of the time it's not a
Speaker 2: uti and it's something just as simple as like, oh,
Speaker 2: you have your great aunt staying in the guest bedroom,
Speaker 2: and that alone dressed the count enough for them to
Speaker 2: want to be outside the litter box.
Speaker 1: It could be anything.
Speaker 2: It's crazy.
Speaker 1: And I had one case where the owner was convinced
Speaker 1: that I was convinced by the end of it too,
Speaker 1: that the cats started peeing outside the box when she
Speaker 1: moved the cat's favorite chair just a little bit, and
Speaker 1: then when she moved the chair back, everything went back
Speaker 1: to normal. Yeah, so cats are very very sensitive to
Speaker 1: really any changes. Something that seems minuscule or minute to
Speaker 1: you can be a big deal for them.
Speaker 2: It's life altering to them, not the favorite chair.
Speaker 1: They need it.
Speaker 2: And then another really interesting thing too is they can
Speaker 2: be really some cats, not all of them, but some
Speaker 2: of them can be so particular about the type of
Speaker 2: litter they use.
Speaker 1: Yes, there is so many different types of litter out there.
Speaker 1: And you know, in school they would tell you to
Speaker 1: do a litters morgesborger a little buffet. I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, but I do not want five litter boxes
Speaker 1: with different litters in my house. So it's a good recommendation,
Speaker 1: but a bit impractical.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe not realistic.
Speaker 1: That the couple litters that I like, I think the
Speaker 1: one that I always recommend if you're having trouble pooping
Speaker 1: and ping outside litter box to the cat. It's called
Speaker 1: called doctor Elsie's Cat attract Litter. I'm not paid by them.
Speaker 1: They don't know me.
Speaker 2: I wish, hey, how do you spell elsie e l
Speaker 2: sy Okay.
Speaker 1: But no they I have no affiliation with them. I
Speaker 1: love them though. They're great. Shut me out if you
Speaker 1: need me. Yeah. But now it's supposedly I think like
Speaker 1: it's like pheromone infused litter that's supposed to really draw
Speaker 1: the cats into the litter box, and I recommend it
Speaker 1: to all my clients that have this issue. Again, I
Speaker 1: use it personally with great success. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: an easy thing that potentially could could improve this a bit.
Speaker 2: The other thing, too, is cats are really particular. In school,
Speaker 2: they teach us for every cat you have, you should
Speaker 2: have one additional litter box. So if you have two cats,
Speaker 2: you want to have three litter boxes. Obviously, if you
Speaker 2: have two cats and you have one or two litter
Speaker 2: boxes and they're using them normally. Great, But if you're
Speaker 2: having an issue, add another litter box in and keep
Speaker 2: in mind that if they have a hard time getting around,
Speaker 2: like it could be the litter box set up like
Speaker 2: it could be if you have one of those robotic
Speaker 2: litter boxes. I know they're cool and I'll be interested
Speaker 2: to hear what you think about them, But sometimes they
Speaker 2: can be hard to get in and out of, and
Speaker 2: sometimes you need something just as simple as like a
Speaker 2: tray with litter in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Some I mean older cats. Sometimes they are arthritic.
Speaker 1: They have trouble getting into a litter box if it's
Speaker 1: too high, so something low. Sometimes they're afraid of the
Speaker 1: electronic mechanism that scoops their own litter. There are a
Speaker 1: million reasons you'd be like, oh my god, these cats
Speaker 1: are crazy.
Speaker 2: I maintenance they are.
Speaker 1: You think you're getting an easy cat, and a lot
Speaker 1: of them are, but sometimes they are particular.
Speaker 2: What do you think about the robot litter boxes?
Speaker 1: I want one personally, It's one less thing to think about.
Speaker 1: I think if you've got an electronic litter box on
Speaker 1: a mag feeder, that cat is good to go for
Speaker 1: a long time. I think the downside is they're, you know,
Speaker 1: on the more expensive side, and if you pail this
Speaker 1: money and the cat is afraid of it and doesn't
Speaker 1: use it, then you're.
Speaker 2: Like a damn we stuck with an expensive litter box.
Speaker 2: I guess you could sell it on Facebook marketplace. You
Speaker 2: sure can get some money back. The nice thing about
Speaker 2: the robotic litter box is cats are also very particular
Speaker 2: in that if their litter box is dirty or it's
Speaker 2: not frequently cleaned, they're like, nope, I'm not going here.
Speaker 2: So at least with the robot, you don't have to
Speaker 2: worry about that as much, and they clean it after
Speaker 2: every time, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: I think some do. I think I don't. Some maybe
Speaker 1: have like timers or like daily But yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you can program it to do whatever.
Speaker 2: We were talking about this episode and you said something
Speaker 2: where when that cats, if you have the automatic feed
Speaker 2: and the litter box, like you quite literally have to
Speaker 2: do nothing. And there's so many owners out there that
Speaker 2: think they want a dog, but they actually want a cat.
Speaker 1: Oh all the time, I see so many clients get dogs,
Speaker 1: get puppies, and they have a little bit buyers remorse
Speaker 1: because they're like, you know, I really just wanted an
Speaker 1: animal that was like a companion for me. That's kind
Speaker 1: of a little maintenance that I don't really have to
Speaker 1: like do a ton of work for. And I'm like, guys,
Speaker 1: you wanted a cat. You did not want a dog.
Speaker 1: You wanted a cat. And I think cats have a
Speaker 1: little bit of a negative connotation with them, especially with men.
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of a man has a cat, You're.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, like, are you a weird guy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: It is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: So if you want a cat, if you do want
Speaker 1: a low maintenance kind of companion that will still give
Speaker 1: you love, a cat is You're a great bet for you.
Speaker 2: They're amazing. They really are underrated and they don't get
Speaker 2: enough love. And it is like you hear crazy cat ladies,
Speaker 2: or oh that's weird he has a cat. Like I
Speaker 2: just think that is so silly.
Speaker 1: It is very silly to me. And I'm here to
Speaker 1: break the stigma. I'm here to advocate for the cats
Speaker 1: and advocate for cat daddies and cat moms everywhere.
Speaker 2: Shout out cat daddies. I love that you said something
Speaker 2: about pheromone in the litter, pheromones in the litter. I
Speaker 2: think a cool thing that a lot of people don't
Speaker 2: know about is feel Away. And again this is not
Speaker 2: an ad, it's just a product that we love. We
Speaker 2: have them in the vet clinic and these are like
Speaker 2: almost like a glade plugin that you would put into
Speaker 2: your wall, and they release pheromones for cats. I think
Speaker 2: maybe this is maybe I read this somewhere, but the
Speaker 2: Mama scent gland where she like releases these pheromones to
Speaker 2: her litters that kind of help bring down stress. They've
Speaker 2: basically like created that into this like synthetic pheromone that
Speaker 2: they're releasing into the house. So it's pretty awesome and
Speaker 2: it comes and plug in sprays wipes. I highly recommend.
Speaker 1: I love it. Any behavior she with a cat. Any
Speaker 1: you have a new cat coming, you are introducing new cat,
Speaker 1: feel get a plug in or two. I do believe
Speaker 1: they actually work. I think there's some very similar products
Speaker 1: that I will not name that I have questions about
Speaker 1: whether they work or not. But I think the FeelA Way.
Speaker 2: Absolutely works one hundred percent agree And we'll even sometimes
Speaker 2: spray it on our scrubs before we go into an
Speaker 2: exam room, and cats that are notoriously like trying to
Speaker 2: beat the crap out of us during an exam will
Speaker 2: be like so sweet and like rubbing up on you
Speaker 2: and headbutting you and like it definitely absolutely works, I think,
Speaker 2: and it.
Speaker 1: Doesn't hurt at all. You know, it's much easier than
Speaker 1: giving your cat a pill every day. I'm just having
Speaker 1: a diffuser on if they're kind of an anxious or
Speaker 1: stressed out cap totally.
Speaker 2: That's called it Feel Away everyone. You can get it
Speaker 2: on Amazon. It's awesome. Okay, I'm just going to hit
Speaker 2: you with some like topics, big cat topics, and we're
Speaker 2: just going to go through them because these are some
Speaker 2: of the common questions I get as a veterinarian. And
Speaker 2: you are at the cat king, So let's dive right
Speaker 2: in number one, what do you think about bathing your cat?
Speaker 1: So I get this question a lot. I will say
Speaker 1: my cat is thirteen years old. I have never bathed
Speaker 1: through once in my whole life. Cats usually do a
Speaker 1: great job of doing it on their own. I think
Speaker 1: some breeds, like you know, if you have a long
Speaker 1: hair breed with just lots of lots of hair, or
Speaker 1: you know, some sort of like skin disease or there's
Speaker 1: not good on their own grooming, then sometimes you do
Speaker 1: give them a bath, take them to a groomer. But
Speaker 1: I would say, in general, if it's not broke, don't
Speaker 1: fix it.
Speaker 2: Totally agree. I totally agree. I'm saying like, I feel
Speaker 2: like it's part of their like routine to groom themselves.
Speaker 2: Like cats are so particular in that way that if
Speaker 2: we're doing it for them, they're kind of like what
Speaker 2: the heck, Like, please don't Susan, just stop?
Speaker 1: Please stop? Yeah, I mean, I I've seen some battle
Speaker 1: wounds from people trying to bait their cats. So if
Speaker 1: you don't need to do it, don't do it.
Speaker 2: And then the long haired cats too, they'll come into
Speaker 2: the clinic and sometimes we have to give them like
Speaker 2: a little Brazilian wax around the booty hole, lit sanitary,
Speaker 2: some dingle berries back there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, things get caught in things.
Speaker 2: Back there, and if they're like a little chunky, which
Speaker 2: we're going to dive into that too, they can have
Speaker 2: a hard time reaching around back there. So it's never
Speaker 2: a bad idea to have some clippers. Obviously you don't
Speaker 2: need to clip them short, but just like trimming up
Speaker 2: a little bit, and if you're nervous about it. Groomers
Speaker 2: are great. If you're at your VAT clinic for something else,
Speaker 2: you can ask them to do that. We usually are
Speaker 2: pretty amenable to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, lungs are good, easy.
Speaker 2: As long as they're nice. I'm not trying to kill us.
Speaker 1: No, we can. We can make it happen.
Speaker 2: Usually, definitely. Okay, what do you think about hairballs?
Speaker 1: Hairballs? I as a doctor, I hate them because I
Speaker 1: went to a talk a little while ago and they
Speaker 1: basically said, we do not have any sort of like
Speaker 1: peer reviewed research to fix hairballs. And you're like, well, great,
Speaker 1: this is a great talk that I just came to.
Speaker 2: Thank you for nothing.
Speaker 1: Thank you. But I think unfortunately it's kind of something
Speaker 1: you have to live with with the cats. A couple
Speaker 1: of things that they say can help is just frequent
Speaker 1: brushing if they tolerate that. Sometimes adding fiber to their
Speaker 1: diet with like flavorless spinner mucles always my kind of
Speaker 1: go to, or the other like fiber supplements.
Speaker 2: What dost do you say for meta mucle just like
Speaker 2: a pinch?
Speaker 1: No, I think it's like a quarter to a half
Speaker 1: teaspoon per meal, and you can kind of like tight
Speaker 1: right up, depending on how it's going.
Speaker 2: I say a pinch for everyone out there.
Speaker 1: That's how that's It's like a small little.
Speaker 2: Like half a teaspoon, quarter teaspoon. I guess it depends
Speaker 2: on how big your hands are.
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 2: Okay, well everyone measured.
Speaker 1: I guess that's the cat energy is. I want it measured.
Speaker 1: I want a particular I want it the right way.
Speaker 1: And you're like a dog like I'm just gonna throw something.
Speaker 2: Throw it on there, honey, and just see how it goes.
Speaker 2: It's fiber, I mean that, what can happen? Okay, keep going,
Speaker 2: what's the next thing?
Speaker 1: And then this other product that we like, which again
Speaker 1: not sponsored by them. We just like the hat.
Speaker 2: We're plugging all our products. This is great.
Speaker 1: It's called laxotone. It's like a pace that you like
Speaker 1: put on their paw and they're supposed to lick it off.
Speaker 1: It's like a lubricant to just help kind of get
Speaker 1: the hair to pass through so they're not throwing it
Speaker 1: up quite as much.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I really like laxotone. It comes into maple and
Speaker 2: I think like a tuna flavored and I've had a
Speaker 2: lot of success. I know, it's not like we don't
Speaker 2: have any major studies, but I feel like a lot
Speaker 2: of my clients have told me they see a lot
Speaker 2: of success with it, so definitely worth a shot. If
Speaker 2: your a cat has a lot of hairballs, were the shot?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the goal is always improvement. I tell
Speaker 1: people the goals to minimize the hairballs. I don't think
Speaker 1: we can ever stop them with anything that we have now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just part of part of them grooming themselves. Okay,
Speaker 2: what do you say too? I have so many clients saying, Josie,
Speaker 2: should I feed dry food? Should I feed wet food?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What is the answer as far as feeding your cats?
Speaker 1: I would say this is a controversial question because I
Speaker 1: feel you probably will hear a lot of different opinions
Speaker 1: for different beats. Personally, I like a mix of wet
Speaker 1: and dry. I think there's pros and cons for each
Speaker 1: of them, and I think, hey, a little bit of
Speaker 1: each goes a long way. Some bets, I think, will
Speaker 1: say wet only, and I don't think that's bad or wrong.
Speaker 1: That's just not, you know, my preference. But again, unless
Speaker 1: your cat is like a specific disease that they need
Speaker 1: wet food, they need canned food. Then I personally like
Speaker 1: the mix of both.
Speaker 2: I like it to add a little crunchy in there
Speaker 2: because I think it helps break down plack and harder,
Speaker 2: like that act of chewing. Really it can be helpful.
Speaker 2: And cats like their crunchies. I will say crunchies can
Speaker 2: make them a little bit more fat.
Speaker 1: They're a little more calorie dense dry foods, and so
Speaker 1: wet food is usually thought of as helping a little
Speaker 1: bit more with weight loss. You know, they feel more full,
Speaker 1: they don't want to eat quite as much some cats.
Speaker 1: You know. I have clients all the time say the
Speaker 1: cat will only eat right, will not eat wet, and
Speaker 1: they get very stressed out of pan it, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a cat. You can't force them to need something
Speaker 1: they don't want to. If that's what it is, then
Speaker 1: and that's what it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're gonna do in true cat fashion. They're gonna
Speaker 2: do what they want when they want. So it's definitely
Speaker 2: not the end of the world. I agree. I have
Speaker 2: clients that really really get stuck on this, and if
Speaker 2: they don't like one or the other, it is certainly
Speaker 2: not the end of the world. But I do think
Speaker 2: a mixture of both is important, especially because cats really
Speaker 2: don't love to drink water. I feel like we have
Speaker 2: to encourage them. One thing we had talked about was
Speaker 2: I like having the water fountain. Again, we're not really
Speaker 2: sure how much how scientific it is, but I do
Speaker 2: think that they tend to drink more out of those
Speaker 2: running water fountains.
Speaker 1: I think it's always been the wisdom. I think for
Speaker 1: a long time we were recommending fountains. I have a
Speaker 1: fountain just because I like a cute little water feature. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they do my apartment. But I think studies are coming
Speaker 1: out where they're kind of saying, we don't think it
Speaker 1: really makes a huge difference. But again, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: hurt if you like a little water feature. If it helps,
Speaker 1: then it's a win win.
Speaker 2: Definitely not. I like to watch the videos of the
Speaker 2: cats drinking out of the faucets too. It's so cute.
Speaker 1: I love it. Yeah, my cat, if you leave a
Speaker 1: water glass of water anywhere in the house, she is
Speaker 1: going to drink out of it. And so sometimes I
Speaker 1: have to decide. If a glass of water has been
Speaker 1: sitting up for a while, I say, do I risk it?
Speaker 1: Do I drink this.
Speaker 2: And I usually will your swapping spit with Alda.
Speaker 1: You know what, It's fine. I scoop her poop by
Speaker 1: clean her all the time. It's it's okay, she's your daughter.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the dry food is more calorie dense, which
Speaker 2: kind of brings us to fat cats. I find that
Speaker 2: especially in multi cat households, like if you have one
Speaker 2: or you know, two cats, three cats, there's always a
Speaker 2: chonker and then the other cat tends to be like
Speaker 2: pretty skinny, which is very frustrating for owners. And just
Speaker 2: getting a cat to lose weight in general is just
Speaker 2: the bane of my existence.
Speaker 1: It's tough, it's a challenge, and I will tell people
Speaker 1: with a multi cat household we getting weight loss. It's
Speaker 1: not impossible, it's just harder. So it does take a
Speaker 1: little bit of work and time and time because yeah,
Speaker 1: you usually will have one cat that is stealing all
Speaker 1: the food and you can tell which one, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: And usually I recommend what I would call kind of
Speaker 1: strict meal feeding. Basically, you have your food, you're measured out,
Speaker 1: you put it down ten minutes his meal time. At
Speaker 1: the end, you pick it up and that's it. Some
Speaker 1: owners I know have these like fancy microchip feeders that
Speaker 1: if your cat does have a microchip, it scans it
Speaker 1: and it'll dispense food out depending on which microchip they're scanning.
Speaker 1: A little pricey, but I know somewhere is that it's
Speaker 1: worked really well for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. I have some owners that I've used
Speaker 2: the microchip ones and it's so cool. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: here is Fluffy, We're going to feed him x amount,
Speaker 2: and here's fat Sassy, We're going to feed her way
Speaker 2: less so fat Sassy, no I think. I think, yeah,
Speaker 2: if you can afford them, great, If not, I really
Speaker 2: do like the timed feedings, just like you said. And
Speaker 2: if you don't know how much to feed your cat,
Speaker 2: ask your vet because all the cat foods have very
Speaker 2: different amount of calories in them and it can be
Speaker 2: confusing and following I always say this, but following the
Speaker 2: back of the bag or what the can recommends you
Speaker 2: always going to end up, for the most part overfeeding
Speaker 2: your cats and your dogs. So talk to your vet.
Speaker 2: They'll give you an exact calorie coount. You can look
Speaker 2: at what how many calories are in the foods you're
Speaker 2: feeding and come up with a little weight Watchers game
Speaker 2: plan because obesity and cats, especially in all of our pets,
Speaker 2: but especially in our cats, really can lead to a
Speaker 2: lot of long term issues. I feel like our fat
Speaker 2: cats are so prone to getting diabetes and joint issues.
Speaker 2: So it's definitely something we want to stay on top.
Speaker 1: Of, definitely. And I mean cats are kind of silent sufferers.
Speaker 1: You know, they will hide illness or hide disease. So
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, if you have kind of a fat,
Speaker 1: old thread cat, they're hurting. You know they're hurting, and
Speaker 1: getting weight loss off of them is tricky, but again
Speaker 1: not impossible and should always be the goal.
Speaker 2: I agree. Okay, what do you think about people? I
Speaker 2: have a lot of clients that say, Okay, I can't
Speaker 2: get my cat to stop jumping on my counters. What
Speaker 2: do I do?
Speaker 1: So, I mean, my cat does not jump on the counter,
Speaker 1: is hees perfect? So I think it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: a training issue. I think you'll try to obviously discourage
Speaker 1: it when they are jumping up the kind of a
Speaker 1: couple of tricks that I'll recommend to people. Cats in
Speaker 1: general are very tactile. They based a lot of their
Speaker 1: decisions on how things feel, so putting like double sided
Speaker 1: tape on the countertop or like aluminum foil. Sometimes serran
Speaker 1: wrap also works. They hate how that feels, so they'll
Speaker 1: usually jump on and immediately jump off. And so the
Speaker 1: hope is that they just learned that they just don't
Speaker 1: jump up there because it feels weird for them.
Speaker 2: And it's like dogs, where you start. If you start
Speaker 2: them young as a kitten, hopefully they don't develop that
Speaker 2: bad habit.
Speaker 1: With all behaviors cats and dogs, start them young, trim
Speaker 1: their nails young if you can. Yeah, get any sort
Speaker 1: of behavior shoes kind of sorted as early as possible
Speaker 1: is going to be your best way to get it sorted.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I do get it. I think you
Speaker 2: know your cats are going into the litter boxes or
Speaker 2: peeing and pooping, and then if they're like walking across
Speaker 2: your kitchen counter, it's probably not the best thing in
Speaker 2: the world. So that is fair. Zalda doesn't jump on
Speaker 2: your kitchen counter at all.
Speaker 1: No, wow, at all.
Speaker 2: You were a strict cat daddy.
Speaker 1: I I mean I would say, I'm not. I am
Speaker 1: not tempted by their their tricks. You know, cats and dogs.
Speaker 1: I see them begging for food, I see them asking
Speaker 1: tricks or things you have to be You have to
Speaker 1: be stronger, you have to be stronger totally.
Speaker 2: I think having some structure is a really good thing
Speaker 2: sets you up for success. What do you think about
Speaker 2: keeping cats on flea, tick and heartworm prevention all ye round?
Speaker 2: Especially my clients will say, my cat doesn't go outside
Speaker 2: their indoors only. Do I really need to do that?
Speaker 1: This is a tough one. I know. I'm going to
Speaker 1: be very honest. I think you know, if you go
Speaker 1: to your vet, your vet is probably going to recommend
Speaker 1: this is my cat on flea and tick? She is not.
Speaker 1: I kind of explain it to people, Hey, it's all
Speaker 1: about how you manage risk and how comfortable you are
Speaker 1: with risk. Can I say that it's impossible that your
Speaker 1: cat will get fleas if they're indoor only, It's not impossible.
Speaker 1: I've definitely seen cats get fleas when they're indoor only.
Speaker 1: Is it likely not likely? So if you're a person
Speaker 1: that wants no risk, you want to make sure you're covered,
Speaker 1: then I would definitely stay on flee in tick. If
Speaker 1: you're somebody that's like, you know, a little ambiguity is fine.
Speaker 1: I can manage it. If it comes along, then you
Speaker 1: may not have to put them on flee in tick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's a good, really good point also too,
Speaker 2: like depending on where you live, Like being is in
Speaker 2: downtown Chicago in a high rise. It gets very very
Speaker 2: cold there in the winter. I feel like you don't
Speaker 2: see as many fleas, like down here in the South
Speaker 2: in Nashville, we see so many fleas. And I think
Speaker 2: if you have like cats, and you have dogs in
Speaker 2: the house or other pets, you know, if they're going
Speaker 2: outside at all, then having them on prevention makes a
Speaker 2: lot of sense. But yeah, if you're in like New
Speaker 2: York City or Chicago and you're living on the twentieth floor,
Speaker 2: the risk of them not being on prevention is pretty low.
Speaker 1: Pros and cons with each side. I think if they
Speaker 1: have like a skin disease, I'll always recommend being on
Speaker 1: free preventional least for a month or two. Just in
Speaker 1: case cats. A lot of times you will not see
Speaker 1: fleas on a cat. They groom themselves so so well,
Speaker 1: and so I've had cases where we work them up
Speaker 1: for alogies or other causes for itching and scratching, and
Speaker 1: you do special diets, you do medications, you spend it
Speaker 1: to a specialist and it was just a flea all
Speaker 1: that time, and it's like, just put them on flee
Speaker 1: prevention initially to see if it works, because that's such
Speaker 1: an easy fix for kind of what I would call
Speaker 1: a stupid problem. Yeah, and can save people a lot
Speaker 1: of time and money.
Speaker 2: It's funny how you say that, Like dogs will see
Speaker 2: them come in with fleas and it's so obvious they're
Speaker 2: crawling in fleas, and then a cat comes in and
Speaker 2: they are so meticulous they've like plucked each tiny little
Speaker 2: flea off, and so you don't always know.
Speaker 1: Oh no, and usually you never know, usually don't see them.
Speaker 1: That's why I think always, if we're having a skin problem,
Speaker 1: sort of, flea prevention is always a smart idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's like twenty bucks and maybe thirty bucks now
Speaker 2: and covers your bases and can definitely save you a
Speaker 2: lot of time and money if that's what it is. Okay,
Speaker 2: what do you think about my favorite thing in the
Speaker 2: entire world, which is when cats make biscuits?
Speaker 1: What is everyone's favorite.
Speaker 2: Things when they're in they no, she.
Speaker 1: Uh now, it's it warms your heart when a cat
Speaker 1: decides for the first time that they want to make
Speaker 1: biscuits on you. It's like they have decided they love you,
Speaker 1: they care about you. And that's why I like cats
Speaker 1: more than dogs. I feel like a dog. Most dogs,
Speaker 1: you give a treat, they love you forever. A cat
Speaker 1: you really have to work for them to love you,
Speaker 1: and when they love you back, it is.
Speaker 2: Like nothing else, like you won the lottery. Oh you've
Speaker 2: been chosen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have been chosen. And so when they make biscuits,
Speaker 1: you know, I think there's a couple theories out there.
Speaker 1: I think some one time I read that as kitts
Speaker 1: they do it to like stimulate milk production in their
Speaker 1: mom so they you know, maybe they feel like you're
Speaker 1: a parental figure. They love you, they're comfortable, they want
Speaker 1: to kind of get a nice comfortable spot going because
Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes my cat can make biscuits for
Speaker 1: like twenty thirty minutes, really not long, and I say,
Speaker 1: we get enough biscuits. We have too many biscuits. Now
Speaker 1: we made many.
Speaker 2: Who's gonna eat all these biscuits?
Speaker 1: Exactly?
Speaker 2: That is crazy twenty thirty minutes. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Oh she'll she can go. I've seen cats can go
Speaker 1: for a long time.
Speaker 2: Wow, just working away in the bakery just making biscus.
Speaker 2: Oh there's nothing cute or oh I love it. I
Speaker 2: need you to send me a picture of Zalda making biscuits.
Speaker 1: I have videos I'll show you after this.
Speaker 2: On your chest making them, yeah, like on your chest.
Speaker 1: On your ab, demand on your back, like wherever they
Speaker 1: want to do. Cat's jeless, do whatever.
Speaker 2: I wish I could have a cat. I don't. I
Speaker 2: as everyone knows, I have three dogs and my husband
Speaker 2: is like deathly allergic. I would have to literally get
Speaker 2: rid of him in order to have a cat.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love him, I love your husband, But
Speaker 1: I mean I like cats a lot too, So I don't.
Speaker 1: I'd have to think about it.
Speaker 2: It depends on the day. Some days I'm like, get out,
Speaker 2: give me the cats. I will say.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 2: One thing that we haven't talked about is there is
Speaker 2: a diet out there that Purina makes clear, live clear,
Speaker 2: something like that, and the cats eat it. And one
Speaker 2: of like the main sources of allergens and cats comes
Speaker 2: from their saliva and their dander, and it's supposed to
Speaker 2: kind of like change that so that if you do
Speaker 2: have allergies, you're less allergic to the cats. I've had
Speaker 2: some owners say it works.
Speaker 1: I've had some owners say it works. Yeah. I always
Speaker 1: sell owners. You know, we don't have any studies. We
Speaker 1: don't have any like research that proves this, I think,
Speaker 1: but I've had owners try it and they think it
Speaker 1: works and they're happy with it. So hey, if it.
Speaker 2: Works, yeah, great, definitely worth a shot. I think the
Speaker 2: big thing for me is like, if you know you're
Speaker 2: highly allergic, you probably shouldn't get a cat because then
Speaker 2: you're just gonna have to end up rehoming it. If
Speaker 2: you already have the cat and you're experiencing allergies, great, like,
Speaker 2: this is a great option to try live clear Purina.
Speaker 2: Look at us, we're plugging again. Someone sponsor us.
Speaker 1: Thanks my god, we love your stuff. Please sponsor us.
Speaker 2: Pay us. We're poor. Okay. Next is what do you
Speaker 2: think about outdoor cats?
Speaker 1: So again, it's kind of again how you manage risk
Speaker 1: and everything. I think. I live in city of Chicago.
Speaker 1: I would not let my cat outdoors, you know, as
Speaker 1: long as you're doing it responsibly. Maybe if you're out
Speaker 1: in like a more rural area or a suburban area,
Speaker 1: you know, if they're vaccinated appropriately, if they have flee
Speaker 1: intake prevention if you're doing regular fecal checks. So if
Speaker 1: you're doing it and doing it responsibly, it's okay. But
Speaker 1: I think you always need to know that there is
Speaker 1: a real risk that's something absolutely devastating could happen. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a very real risk it could get hit by
Speaker 1: a car, get attacked by another animal. So I mean
Speaker 1: that's how I will always phrase it. It just depends on
Speaker 1: how you kind of are with risks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I think if
Speaker 2: you have an indoor cat that's like itching to go out,
Speaker 2: but you don't want to like let it free roam.
Speaker 2: You had said, getting it harness is a great idea.
Speaker 2: The little cadios are so cute where you can stick
Speaker 2: them in their backyard and then they can roam around
Speaker 2: in it and see the sun and the birds and
Speaker 2: feel the wind in their hairs, but don't necessarily run
Speaker 2: the risk of escaping and you know, getting killed by
Speaker 2: a coyote or a bobcat.
Speaker 1: And they have like backpacks that you can put them
Speaker 1: in that have windows and holes, so you can do that.
Speaker 1: They have strollers. I love a cat rolling down the
Speaker 1: street in a stroll. I don't care what it looks like.
Speaker 1: I don't care if it's embarrassing to the people, I support it.
Speaker 1: So I support you getting a cat stroller and rolling
Speaker 1: around in it.
Speaker 2: If I see you pushing your cat in a stroller,
Speaker 2: just it's over. I'm going to come over and be
Speaker 2: the happiest person alive. I have a patient that comes
Speaker 2: in and it's a really big sphinx cat, so like
Speaker 2: a naked cat, and she wiliers a big pearl necklace.
Speaker 2: The cat does and she comes in her stroller with
Speaker 2: her cheetah blanket, and I'm like, this is the best
Speaker 2: day of my life. Amazing.
Speaker 1: They always come in with like the cutest like sweaters
Speaker 1: because they're naked. Yeah, they don't have fur, they are naked.
Speaker 1: You're funny though, that's awesome.
Speaker 2: Misconception. People think, oh, I have allergies, I can get
Speaker 2: a naked cat. But no, it's sadly the allergies are
Speaker 2: in their saliva and I'm a little allergic to cats.
Speaker 2: And I'll still like tear up and sneeze after cuddling
Speaker 2: and stuffing my face on a naked cat. It's too bad. Okay.
Speaker 2: Next on the docket, what would you say to someone
Speaker 2: that already has a cat or a dog and they're
Speaker 2: introing and bringing in new cat into the household.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so there's a lot of things you can do.
Speaker 1: You know, I always will say it can be a
Speaker 1: little unpredictable. You could be doing everything right and the
Speaker 1: cats still aren't getting along the cat and the dog
Speaker 1: is still not getting wrong along. But generally you want
Speaker 1: to take it nice and easy. I usually say, first
Speaker 1: couple days, just keep them in separate rooms. Maybe the
Speaker 1: classic thingel here is to switch blankets between rooms so
Speaker 1: they smell each other, so they get their scent, and
Speaker 1: then you kind of gradually increase it to kind of
Speaker 1: supervise visits from afar. It's where they see each other,
Speaker 1: and then again getting to more closer actual contact and all.
Speaker 1: That's really over a week or so if they're real,
Speaker 1: real sensitive, maybe even longer. Yeah, but I feel away
Speaker 1: what we talked about before is a great thing to
Speaker 1: help the cats relax a little bit more when there
Speaker 1: is a new cat coming, to help decrease the temperature
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, so, and Steady wins the race. One thing
Speaker 2: that this makes me think of is if you're bringing
Speaker 2: in a new cat. Most people are getting their cats
Speaker 2: from a shelter, even if it is coming from a breeder,
Speaker 2: is doing the triple test for your new cat coming in,
Speaker 2: which tests them for FIV, which is like kitty aids essentially,
Speaker 2: and then FeLV which is feeling leukemia virus, which are contagious.
Speaker 2: You can transmit them through bites and sharing food bowls
Speaker 2: and water bowls. So anytime you're entering a new cat,
Speaker 2: you definitely want to make sure they're negative for those
Speaker 2: two things. And your vet will know exactly what to
Speaker 2: test for. So check the papers that you're given, whether
Speaker 2: it's from the shelter or your breeder, see if they've
Speaker 2: done the test. If they haven't, I would definitely get
Speaker 2: that checked prior to introducing them to other cats in
Speaker 2: the house.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, ibsltly recommend that test. I think you know,
Speaker 1: it's just one test usually right when you get them,
Speaker 1: make sure they're negative for that, and then you really
Speaker 1: don't have to worry about it ever again, because I
Speaker 1: have seen one case I can think of they did
Speaker 1: not want to do with the leukemia as fiv's tests
Speaker 1: and they had other cats at home the cat ended
Speaker 1: up being positive. We found out later and then the
Speaker 1: other cats got it, and it's just a really sad
Speaker 1: situation that is very avoidable.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, Okay, this is sort of a random one,
Speaker 2: but I have some clients come in and they say,
Speaker 2: my cat looks like it's having like a spasm on
Speaker 2: its back sometimes where it does like all this sort
Speaker 2: of like twitching. What what do you say that that is,
Speaker 2: doctor Meade.
Speaker 1: So I'd say that very commonly is something that we
Speaker 1: would just call feeling hyperesthesia syndrome. And it's basically where
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of poorly understood. It's basically maybe
Speaker 1: where the nerves are a little bit over excited and
Speaker 1: they have these twitching spells. Some people think it's like
Speaker 1: allergy related, if it's like a skin issue. Some people
Speaker 1: think it's like, again, a primary neurologic issue. Sometimes I've
Speaker 1: seen anxiety as a potential cause. And so again it's
Speaker 1: definitely something that you can talk about with your vets.
Speaker 1: But the kind of trouble is treating this is a
Speaker 1: bit of trial and error. Sometimes you try anti seizure meds,
Speaker 1: sometimes you try anxiety medication, sometimes you try allergy medications.
Speaker 1: And so it's tough to again, but the goal oftentimes
Speaker 1: is to not maybe stop it altogether, but just try
Speaker 1: to minimize it to where it's at an acceptable level.
Speaker 2: I agree with that, and I feel like it can
Speaker 2: be something as benign as they're just kind of overstimulated
Speaker 2: and their little back does these twitchies, but it definitely
Speaker 2: can represent something a little bit more sinister. So taking
Speaker 2: them into the vet and getting a good exam is
Speaker 2: definitely the place to start.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I have one client who's kat has a
Speaker 1: very severe case of it, and she's done on an
Speaker 1: incredible job but just even doing her own research and
Speaker 1: working with me and trying to figure out what cocktail
Speaker 1: and what a couple of medications will work for him,
Speaker 1: and he's doing great.
Speaker 2: Love that.
Speaker 1: If you're listening, you know who you are.
Speaker 2: Shout out to the good owners. Love you guys. All right,
Speaker 2: we are going to take a quick break and when
Speaker 2: we come back, we're going to do our paw and order.
Speaker 2: All right, we are back and we're going to dive
Speaker 2: right into our paw and order. Number one on the
Speaker 2: dock at this week is I would not scoop my
Speaker 2: cat's litter, or I'd be very mindful at least if
Speaker 2: I was pregnant, what do you say to that, doctor Bean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'd say be mindful. I think the big
Speaker 1: reason why pregnant women should just be cautious when scooping
Speaker 1: letter other cats is there's a parasite called toxic plasmosis
Speaker 1: that cats can have that I believe has been known
Speaker 1: to cause like abortions and miscarriages in women. And again,
Speaker 1: if you want to be extra extra safe, yes, you
Speaker 1: have your partner do it, have somebody else do it.
Speaker 1: But in school, we were taught if you're just regularly
Speaker 1: cleaning the box daily or every other day, your risk
Speaker 1: of contracting this is very, very low. I believe our
Speaker 1: parasitology professor would tell us that it can take a
Speaker 1: few days for the kind of parasite to become infectious.
Speaker 1: After that they've been pooped out essentially, So here's being
Speaker 1: diligent cleaning your litter box. Your risk is gonna be
Speaker 1: pretty low. I would still use gloves, I still wash
Speaker 1: your hands afterwards. But something to definitely be aware of.
Speaker 1: Should not panic about it, shouldn't be afraid of it,
Speaker 1: but just be aware, be educated, and make a plan.
Speaker 2: You don't need to be in a hals mat suit.
Speaker 2: Just stay on top of it, wear some gloves. Make
Speaker 2: your husband do it, and make your husband do it. Yes,
Speaker 2: get those cat daddy's working. Yes, Okay, number two, I
Speaker 2: would not declaw my cats. I know I have said
Speaker 2: this before on this show. I'm pretty sure I've done
Speaker 2: a whole pond order on it. But We're gonna die
Speaker 2: on this hill because I feel very, very very strongly
Speaker 2: about this.
Speaker 1: Yes, this is declined cats. I think ten years ago
Speaker 1: was a common practice. And I've done a few the
Speaker 1: surgeries previously, and they are just real tough surgeries. You know,
Speaker 1: it is a It is a brutal surgery where you're
Speaker 1: pretty much just removing the kind of you last knuckle
Speaker 1: or last digit of their of their finger. And these
Speaker 1: cats are painful. It can cause chronic pain. And and
Speaker 1: you know, I've had clients say, well, my last cat
Speaker 1: was declouded and I've not seen any sort of issues.
Speaker 1: They seem fine. And cats are fighters, cats are survivors.
Speaker 1: They're going to hide the pain. They're going to keep
Speaker 1: moving on. You're not going to see a sign of pain.
Speaker 1: But I can tell you these cats are really uncomfortable
Speaker 1: long term.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I mean you hear. We hear from our
Speaker 2: amputees as humans that anytime you have a joint or
Speaker 2: anything that's been amputated like that, you can have phantom
Speaker 2: pains and you're more prone to arthritis. And so imagine
Speaker 2: in this case, it's disarticulating ten joints in there, well,
Speaker 2: probably eight, I guess, depending on how many tobines they have, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, I love tobines, but des articulating at
Speaker 2: least eight of their wait, no, four, ten?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, those are your front four? Me on
Speaker 1: the back, YEAHI on the front.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Way, I can't do the math.
Speaker 1: That's twenty if you do all of them.
Speaker 2: If you do all of them, oh my god, twenty
Speaker 2: little joints having phantom pain.
Speaker 1: And especially if your cat is an afdoor cat, decline
Speaker 1: them is dangerous. You know. They need their claws to
Speaker 1: defend themselves in case anything does happen while they're outside.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they just they do have a lot of
Speaker 2: chronic They can have a lot of chronic issues with
Speaker 2: chronic arthritis. Like doctor Bean said, it's actually illegal now
Speaker 2: in Australia. I think it's illegal in like certain states
Speaker 2: here in.
Speaker 1: The US, New York is illegal.
Speaker 2: Now we're moving away from it, which I'm happy to see.
Speaker 1: I think the one caveat I will say the only
Speaker 1: reason that some people will allow declaw is if someone
Speaker 1: in the house doesn't mean a compromised so like cat
Speaker 1: scratch fever, or you're getting some sort of infectious disease
Speaker 1: from the cat scratch could be you know, debilitating for
Speaker 1: these people, you know, if they're undergoing cancer or they
Speaker 1: have some other kind of disease. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: the only exception where we can declaw the cats. But
Speaker 1: I've never run into any of that yet. I've not
Speaker 1: had one that's asked to do it.
Speaker 2: And otherwise, if your cat, if you are just a
Speaker 2: regular cat owner that doesn't have you're not that exception.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of great alternatives out there. Again. Feel
Speaker 2: Away can be really helpful with annoying scratching behaviors, getting
Speaker 2: a scratching post. And then my favorite is the soft Pause.
Speaker 2: They're so cute. They're like little stick on gel nails
Speaker 2: and they're pretty easy, I mean, depending on your cat,
Speaker 2: they're fairly easy to apply and they're just like these
Speaker 2: little gel caps and you get them on all different colors,
Speaker 2: so they can look very very cute in chic and
Speaker 2: and that keeps their nails covered so that way they're
Speaker 2: not destroying your furniture.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think the easiest thing is just cut
Speaker 1: their nails regularly. Start when they're young, start with they're kittens,
Speaker 1: so that they're used to it, so that you can
Speaker 1: do it regularly at home, because that's going to be
Speaker 1: the easiest, simplest, simplest thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it will desensitize them, for sure. It is frustrating.
Speaker 2: My girlfriend just got a new couch and it's already
Speaker 2: like frayed from her cat scratching it. And I just
Speaker 2: I understand why people get frustrated. It probably is Oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my car. I got her when I was in undergrad,
Speaker 1: so I did not know all this at the time.
Speaker 1: And I mean, my couch is torn up to shreds.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. And everyone always yells at me, get a
Speaker 1: new couch, get a new couch. If I get a
Speaker 1: new couch, she's gonna do it again. So again I
Speaker 1: have to wait till she dies to get a new couch.
Speaker 1: But then again, she's gonna live forever, so who knows
Speaker 1: what's going to happen.
Speaker 2: We'll just have a stress.
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to live with the shudded couch.
Speaker 2: There was one time I was very happy that a
Speaker 2: patient was declaude. It was actually at Boulevard I was
Speaker 2: working at in the River North location in downtown Chicago,
Speaker 2: and a cat came in named Chili Palmer. I will
Speaker 2: never forget him and shout out to Chili Palmer if
Speaker 2: your parents are listening. I was sitting on the opposite
Speaker 2: side of the room. The parents were on the other side.
Speaker 2: The exam table was in the middle. This cat was
Speaker 2: like completely on the other side of the room in
Speaker 2: a corner. This cat launches up onto the table, takes
Speaker 2: his paw and goes and just smacks me across the face,
Speaker 2: like just like part of my friend. She bitch slapped
Speaker 2: me and he was declawed. Thank god, otherwise I would
Speaker 2: have like thrash remarks across my face.
Speaker 1: It's hard to recover from that when a cat just
Speaker 1: bitch slaps you and you're like, I don't know what
Speaker 1: to do now. It's like like bye, I'll see you.
Speaker 2: It'll buy right red. I just was like I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna go away for a minute. You can't recover now,
Speaker 2: like I would need to take a minute.
Speaker 1: You have to take a excuse myself. I'll be back
Speaker 1: or maybe not.
Speaker 2: He was definitely I don't know what I did to
Speaker 2: offend him, but my apologies, Chili Palmer. Okay. Number three
Speaker 2: on paw and order, I would not minimize or ignore
Speaker 2: if my cat seems a little bit off. They are very,
Speaker 2: very tough. If a dog stubs his toe, he's screaming
Speaker 2: like he's dying. If a cat is in full throttle
Speaker 2: like kidney failure, you usually have no idea. They are
Speaker 2: so tough.
Speaker 1: They are tough. Again, I think people don't really realize it,
Speaker 1: but cats are. They're predators. You know. They don't like
Speaker 1: to show weakness. Dogs definitely a bit more dramatic or
Speaker 1: have a flair for the dramatics who us. But I
Speaker 1: think it's always really really important to just do regular
Speaker 1: preventive care visits with your cat once a year. I
Speaker 1: think I saw a study, I think from the main
Speaker 1: society that said majority of cats do not go in
Speaker 1: for yearly checkups because you know, it could be a
Speaker 1: hassle for people to bring them in yearly if they
Speaker 1: seem to be doing well. But I think you will
Speaker 1: look at the teeth, we'll listen to the hearts, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about obesity, if they have weight issues. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of things that go into that yearly checkup that
Speaker 1: even if they're fine, they may not be and especially
Speaker 1: when you start noticing little small things, if they're not eating,
Speaker 1: if they're losing weights, you if they're drinking more. These
Speaker 1: are all signs that something's happening by your cat. This
Speaker 1: definitely does not want you to kind of pick up
Speaker 1: on that.
Speaker 2: Mm hm. I feel like so often we talk about
Speaker 2: you said, teeth and dental disease with dogs especially, we
Speaker 2: see like chihuahuas with gross mouths or docs in with
Speaker 2: all this plaque and tartar on there. But cats are
Speaker 2: very sneaky and that they may not have tons of
Speaker 2: plaqu and tartar, but they can have really significant dental disease,
Speaker 2: specifically something called resort devisions where to the untrained eye
Speaker 2: you would never ever notice it, and that's something that
Speaker 2: we diagnose all the time, and we know that it's
Speaker 2: really painful for them. So again, just another reason like
Speaker 2: getting them in once a year so that we can
Speaker 2: get a really good look in their mouth and make
Speaker 2: sure they're not living in pain and not showing us
Speaker 2: any signs of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the reserved a lesions are the bane of my
Speaker 1: existence sometimes that I call them just like cat cavities. Essentially,
Speaker 1: that's what they are. And basically it's where the tooth
Speaker 1: is kind of disintegrating and resorbing essentially back into the jot.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty painful process when it happens, as you
Speaker 1: could imagine. The only real treatment is to remove the tooth,
Speaker 1: and once they get one, they're prone to getting more,
Speaker 1: so they may get more in time. My fun fact
Speaker 1: that I tell clients about them, it's just kind of
Speaker 1: a cat thing that happens with their genetics. I went
Speaker 1: to one CE and the dentist said that even on
Speaker 1: saber tooth tiger like fossils, they were seeing these resorved
Speaker 1: a lesions. Really, so, the specialist said, so, I think
Speaker 1: that's a fun nugget that I tell people. It's just
Speaker 1: kind of a cat thing that happens.
Speaker 2: Maybe those cats that get resorped ilesions are like the
Speaker 2: great great great great grandchildren of the saber tooth tiger.
Speaker 1: I mean they're descended yet they are.
Speaker 2: That's so cool.
Speaker 1: You're you have a vicious predator in your house the
Speaker 1: size of making biscuits exactly. And that's that's why. That's
Speaker 1: the duality of cats. You know, they can be making
Speaker 1: biscuits in Cuddley and they can be vicious predators. So
Speaker 1: I like that they're complex like that, just like.
Speaker 2: You, my favorite housecat. Amazing. Well, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for coming in, Bean, I absolutely adore you, and we
Speaker 2: covered a lot of ground here today. I would say,
Speaker 2: if you guys still have any cat questions for us,
Speaker 2: let us know. You can always DM me on Instagram
Speaker 2: at doctor Josie Vett. You can also find doctor Bean
Speaker 2: on Instagram. His Instagram handle is at since You Bean Gone,
Speaker 2: like the Kelly Clarkson song, and as always, click the
Speaker 2: link in my bio you can record a voicemail for
Speaker 2: us to play. And then, last but not least, please
Speaker 2: be sure to rate, review, subscribe, give us five stars,
Speaker 2: or a new podcast, so every single review counts and
Speaker 2: we'll see you guys next week