Sometimes we find out again that a cat has liver problems when the owner claims that the cat was actually acting quite fine at home. Cats have a tremendous ability to actually hide some illnesses from their owners and so sometimes veterinarians will run routine blood tests just to make sure a cat is healthy if it has other subtle signs of illness.

A great way to find any potential kitten dangers is crawling around on your hands and knees in the room that your new kitten will first investigate, mimicking their view and picking up on things that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Water should be available in multiple places around the house and changed daily to keep it clean and fresh.

Play is a vital part of their development, encouraging flexibility, developing strength, and allowing for an outlet for their youthful energy. Balls and fishing rod toys are also great fun, and try not to use your hands too much though, as that can lead to your excitable kitten thinking fingers are toys too.

Most veterinarians would probably recommend a mix of dry and wet food. There are benefits to each. I think the dry food does a good job at scraping the teeth a bit, prevents a bit of dental disease that can happen in that pet later in life. The wet food has a lot of moisture in it, and that’s really important for cats because cats later in life are prone to kidney disease and more water down the pipe is healthy for their kidneys.

The other thing you have to consider with dry food is that it’s going to be much more compressed and calorie dense, so it’s going to cause your pet to become overweight more so than feeding a wet food.

Cats in the wild are prey and predator animals, which all that means is that they tend to hide their symptoms if they get sick. Now we’ve brought cats into our homes and so they don’t have the same kind of threats that they did in the wild, but instinctually they still act the same way. So if a cat is sick, it is very likely that it’s going to be something subtle.

It’s also very, very important that cats eat on a regular basis. If a cat does not eat enough calories over enough period of time and we’re saying about three to five days, that cat will develop something called hepatic lipidosis, fatty liver disease, and this is a life-threatening condition in cats.

Cats are natural athletes. They love vertical space and when a cat stops jumping, that’s a signal that there’s something going on. Cats stop jumping, the most common reason is because they have arthritis. They don’t limp, they don’t tend to limp, they don’t tend to cry like dogs will do, they’ll just stop jumping.

We’ve all seen the videos all over the internet, it’s usually somebody eating ice cream or something cold and then they offer it to their cats and the cat takes one lick and then does something like this. The problem with that is it’s a definite sign that something in that cat’s mouth hurts really, really bad. My friends, that is a sign of severe pain and you gotta get that cat to the vet.

Cats do not pee on your laundry or your bed or your towel or your toilet or wherever they’re doing it because they’re mad at you. That is anthropomorphizing. They’re not doing that. When a cat does that, a cat is sending you a signal that they need help, that there is something going on either up here or someplace in the body that is not right.