Blacula And Flea Allergy Dermatitis

During college, I had the privilege of living at Wilshire Animal Hospital in California. It was the perfect place for a pre-veterinary student to live as it provided lots of animal hospital experience and free room, phone, laundry, and electricity, as well as a decent salary. I lived at Wilshire Animal Hospital for three years while I finished my undergraduate studies before going to Vet School. They were wonderful times, to say the least.

While living in the back apartment of the hospital, I adopted one of the blood donor cats as my pet. Her name was "Blacula" because she had a pure black fur coat and longer than normal fang teeth that stuck out all the time. She was more than happy to relinquish her life as a cage dwelling blood donor and at least have some family life with me.

Blacula had Flea Allergy Dermatitis though, that I had to manage by giving her a once a month injection of Depo-Medrol. That's the long acting corticosteroid medication that I have mentioned before that reduces inflammation in pets and people and works really well in cats, especially for flea allergy dermatitis.

Cats get a miliary dermatitis (small scabs that look like millet seeds on the skin) from the bites of fleas. Cats are actually allergic to the saliva of the fleas and it is this antigen/antibody reaction that produces the lesions of flea allergy dermatitis. In areas of great flea infestation, the problem sometimes never goes away.

Dr. Ian Coster, who I worked for at Wilshire Animal Hospital told me one time that seventy five percent of his hospital's business was flea related. He even had a friend, that was a very wealthy veterinarian, who drove a Rolls-Royce and had a flea painted right under the Rolls-Royce car logo. Fleas had made that man rich.

Blacula did well with her dermatitis treatments and she brought great joy to my life as a pre-veterinary student. Two things she did in particular still make me laugh today. The first was, every morning she would go out and take a poop in the flower box right outside our kitchen table window. I can still see Blacula's back arching and flexing as she defecated right in front of my roommate, Steve Smith (also now a veterinarian), every morning while he ate breakfast. For some reason, it didn't seem to bother him, and would make an America's Funniest Videos winner today.

The other thing Blacula did was sleep on my wife Kelly's neck at night. With absolute stealth, Blacula somehow would sneak up on the bed at night and curl herself around Kelly's neck so Kelly looked like she was wearing a black scarf by morning. Somehow Blacula got there and never woke Kelly during the night.

I will always remember Blacula for the dear sweet kitty she was. She gave blood that saved many other kitties' lives, and gave us love and entertainment that even the best money could never buy. Our love still goes out to you Blacula, even though now you are in cat heaven, and a part of eternity.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/

Feline Obesity

If you think you have a hard time losing weight, just think of your cat. Cats get fat easily and they lose weight with great difficulty. They are so sedentary, that with twenty hours of sleep a day, it is amazing that they use any energy at all. Dogs are different, because you can walk your dog many times each day to make it lose weight, if needed.

The cause of all obesity, in pets and people, is simply eating too much food. Metabolic problems, genes, "big bones" and all the other excuses are equally invalid in people as they are in overweight cats. Fat cats are getting too much food and they, like us, love to eat.
What should a cat weigh? Female cats should be in the six to nine pound range. Male cats should be in the nine to twelve pound range. Any cat over fifteen pounds is obese. Even the larger breeds don't get that heavy unless they are suffering from obesity and being overweight.

How do you get weight off a cat? There's only one way: Caloric restriction. See also my book on life extension and the benefits of caloric restriction with optimal nutrition: http://www.ikelerbooks.com/ and my blog on the same subject at http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/

You have to feed a kitty a limited amount of food each day. Typically one cup of food per cat per day. That is one leveled measuring cup of weight loss food, like Science Diet R/D, and you can divide it up into three or four meals to keep kitty satisfied with multiple meals throughout the day. With a person too, it helps to eat before you are hungry, and have four to five small meals each day that add up to twelve to fifteen hundred calories of dietary intake.

It will take weeks to months to get your cat back to ideal weight, but it can be done. The need to do it is the same as in people: Health Benefits. Cats get the same diseases we do from being overweight. Diabetes, arthritis, asthma, kidney disease, hepatic lipidosis, and cancer all have an origin in obesity. Cats don't appear to get cardiovascular disease as much as people do and that may be due to the fact that they don't live as long and have a slightly different physiology than we do and don't inflame their arteries and veins with alcohol and tobacco products.

The heaviest cat I have ever personally seen was exactly thirty pounds. He was huge! The world record is 46 lbs and that cat died of respiratory failure at age ten. No surprise, since all that fat would be pushing up on it's diaphragm and make it very difficult for the cat to breath. The oldest cat I have ever seen, just to throw in a point of interest, was twenty nine years old. He was one old stiff bugger, but he was hanging in there. The world record for oldest cat is thirty eight years old. Pretty amazing since the average cat lifespan is fifteen.

Obesity shortens lifespans dramatically in people and in animals. Take steps today if your cat is overweight. See your veterinarian for help with this process. See your physician or join Weight Watchers if you are overweight. I have seen many of my clients over the years lose tens of pounds of excess weight, and invariably, they said they did it through Weight Watchers. It is an honorable thing to do to respect your health and live at ideal weight. I applaud the people who take the steps to do it.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/

Cat Fur Balls, Hair Mats, And This Award Winning Web Site

The inspiration for this article is my new vacuum cleaner. I have used nothing but bag type vacuums my whole life, but this time, I bought a tornado type vacuum. I am endlessly fascinated by how this vacuum cleaner turns vertical air suction into a lateral swirl that uses the hair, dust, and lint to create a perfect hairball that attracts other hair, lint, and dust into it's mass to form a hairball within the canister. When you are done vacuuming, you just pour the hairball out and that's it. No more bags to buy, and you get to see this perfect hairball form every time you clean. I know the novelty will wear off, but for now, it's amazing.

Cat's get hair balls and mats too. The internal hairballs are already covered in another article on this web site, so go to the search function if that is more precisely the topic you are looking for. Cat fur is subject to getting twisted up on itself and forming a mat. Cat's groom themselves by licking their fur, but sometimes, this isn't enough. When a cat gets matted, it is going to need professional help.
In the worst cases, the hair mats are so bad, the cat gives up on grooming itself completely. Then the mats get worse. I have seen many a cat where the mats became one on top of the cat and then continued to grow to encompass more and more of the top and sides of the cat until it even interfered with their ability to walk. We did a lot of cat grooming and the Cat Hospitals of Denver over the years and most of our patients came in really matted.

Our standard procedure was to sedate the cat and shave it's whole body. Our most common clip was called a Lion Cut and it involved shaving the body, but leaving the head, legs, and tail still covered in fur, so the cat looked like a little lion. The clients were very satisfied with this grooming procedure and many came in early in the summer to get a lion cut for their cat just for the cool sleek look it gave them.

We had a few stray cats that we fed out the back door of CHD that got very matted too. One was named "Jaws" because his jowls were so big and thick from being un-neutered and from fighting with other tom cats so frequently. I saw Jaws groom himself one day as he sat and just ripped his mats off with his teeth. Nature has a way of solving it's own problems. The best way to avoid hair mats on your cat is with regular combing. A steel comb is best because it penetrates down through the fur to get to the deeper levels and clears away any hair tangles.

Congratulations go out today to Rebecca Anderson, a former CHD employee, who is expecting her second daughter in February of 2010. Also, Thanks go out to http://www.i-love-cats.com/ for designating us as one of their Award Winning Cat Web Sites. We appreciate the honor!

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/ http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/

Is My Cat Being Difficult?

One of the most common questions I was asked at The Cat Hospital of Denver during a patient exam was, "Is my cat being difficult Dr. Ikeler?" Most often times they weren't, as a cat will hiss and cower in a strange environment. Sometimes though, they were really difficult.

We were known at CHD, and had a reputation for, being able to handle the most difficult cases. My hope for that reputation was that people meant the most difficult "Medical" cases. We had that reputation too, but difficult extended to mean "hard to handle" cats as well.

Our advantage was we were actually very skilled at handling difficult and "fractious" cats. The staff also had standing orders to never tell a client that their cat had been mean, aggressive, scary, fractious, or difficult. We told every client we were able to take care of their cat without a problem, and quite frankly, that was very true.

We used the best restraint technologies to our advantage. The best restraining device was a fish net with a long handle. With this we could "catch" any cat in it's cage, in it's carrier, coming out of it's cage or carrier, or on the run inside the hospital. It may sound a little odd, but it was the best form, and least harmful method, of cat restraint.

With the cat in the fish net, and rolled up tightly, we could give it an intramuscular injection of ketamine to sedate it without ever having to risk harm to ourselves or the kitty. With the cat sedated then, all procedures were possible.

The things we didn't use for getting a hold of a difficult cat were: leather gloves, as I had been bitten through them many times before at other veterinary hospitals while I was a student, aquariums, because you had to get a cat in them first to gas them with anesthesia, and squeeze cages, also because they were harmful to the cats and the people using them.

So when a client asked me if their cat was being difficult, I would tell them about what really difficult cats acted like: They could defy gravity and run around the walls of the exam room or treatment room. They would clear off entire shelves as they ran through them to escape. And they could literally climb walls and end up near the ceiling before gravity assisted us in their recovery.

The worst case scenarios were when a cat got caught in behind the computer system. With a central computer that connected all five of my Cat Hospitals, a mass of wires and equipment sat beneath one of my desks in my office. When a fractious cat got in behind there, it was near impossible to get them out. The wires, modems, and main frame computer created an impenetrable maze through which we could not get a net or towel or any thing back there to catch them.

In their fear, the cats often defecated and urinated all over the computer equipment and wiring and left the area a mess, which took hours after to clean. So everyone knew, at all cost, don't let a cat get in behind the computer system. I was so good at catching fractious, angry, and difficult cats, that my staff members even called me "The Fastest Net In The West."

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.drdougikeler.com/ http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/

Cat Gook, Constipation, and MegaColon

As we always worked to create the most welcoming and friendly environments at The Cat Hospitals of Denver, some times we would try things that truly elevated our standards of appearance. This time it was my turn.

I have worn a jacket style white doctor's coat for almost all of my veterinary career. At the peak of our excellence, I thought I would change to the higher standard of full length white lab coat, white shirt, and tie. I realized though that this higher standard gave my clients the impression that I was no longer there to treat their kitties. The realization became the most clear when one of my best clients, Liz Sexton, told me I looked too fancy now to be dealing with cat gook! Liz was right, and I was happy to give up the long sleeved coat and shirt and tie, to get back to my more functional white jackets.

Some of the worst cat gook came with cats who got constipated. Cats are a desert animal and they extract most of the water out of their stools before they evacuate them. Some cats are a little too good at this water extraction and end up frequently constipated. The worst and most chronic cases get Megacolon, a disease condition where the large intestine stretches out so much that it can no longer contract.

The worst part for me was I was the guy who got to perform the "digital enemas" to relieve this obstipation condition. With the cat sedated, KY Jelly and a rubber-gloved hand, had to carefully dig out the impacted and obstructed stools from these poor kitties rears. No fun, but the treatment was simple and effective.

Fortunately for my patients too, I was one of very few veterinarians who knew how to perform a sub-total cholectomy surgery that removes most of the large intestine and cures the megacolon and obstipation (constipation to the point of obstruction) condition. These cases were wonderful referrals to me as the results were immediate, curative, and permanent! With the stretched out bowel segment removed, these cats never got constipation again, but had generally soft and mushy stools.

For the less severe cases, stool softeners and a high fiber diet can prevent and treat constipation in cats. The x-ray above shows a picture of a constipated cat with megacolon. For those of you looking to make yourself a career in veterinary medicine, be prepared to deal with a lot of cat gook.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.drdougikeler.com/

http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/

Scratch

As a Cat Specialist, many of my cases come to me as second opinions on difficult illnesses that may not have worked out well at another vet. One cat certainly made me a hero to his owner. His name was Scratch, and his owner was Cindy Kilgore.

Cindy brought Scratch in many years ago and he looked like the kitty in this photo. Nearly completely bald and even given the name "Scratch" because he was always scratching himself. Cindy was at her wits end and even considering euthanasia because she thought Scratch was suffering. I told her I could diagnose his skin condition and get him to back to normal.

The first thing I did was run a comprehensive feline blood panel on him to test for Feline Leukemia, Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, Feline Infectious Peritonitis, and his thyroid levels. The blood panel also tested his internal organ functions and gave differential white blood counts that could indicate allergies or other problems. I also started Scratch on a twenty milligram injection of Depo-Medrol given subcutaneously because his skin condition looked empirically like an allergic skin condition called Miliary Dermatitis.

The comprehensive blood panel came back all normal and my diagnosis was correct. Cindy brought Scratch back in a month for a recheck and an additional Depo-Medrol injection. To Cindy's great joy, Scratch already looked like a new kitty with ninety percent hair regrowth and almost no scratching.

Skin diseases are some of the easiest diseases to diagnose, because the skin is right there in front of you, but I have noticed that some practitioners just don't see the skin disease. The other defect some veterinary practitioners have is they have this idea that steroid use is harmful to animals. In fact, steroids are miracle drugs and have many applications that are life enhancing and life saving. Steroids only have a bad reputation because they are overused and abused by athletes who do give them a bad name.

Scratch lived happily for years to come and lived the usual cat lifespan of about fifteen years until nature called him home. Cindy became a good friend and devoted client and I enjoyed watching her get married and have a family of her own.

Remember all people are different and the veterinary profession has moved forward in it's offering of specialization. Get a second, third, or fourth opinion if you are not satisfied with your pet's diagnosis and treatment. It can make all the difference in the world.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/

Cat Abscesses

Cat abscesses are a common presentation in any veterinary clinic and even more common in a cat specialty practice. Usually a painful swelling is noticed by the cat's owner and often times the cat feels hot and acts lethargic due to fever. Questioning the owner about whether or not the cat had been outside recently invariably prompts an answer of yes.

Cats, like us, have a great variety of different bacteria in their mouths. Pasteurella bacteria are the ones that create the deep wound infections, though other bacterias like staphylococcus and streptococcus do too. When cats bite each other a few bacteria are left in the deeper tissues and they set up an infection. The area swells with inflammation and the accumulation of dead cells and white blood cells create the pus filled pocket we call an abscess.

The abscess makes the cat very sick mostly due to fever that can rise to 105 or 106 degrees. I often times was prompted to look further when a cat had such a high fever with no noticeable bite wound swellings yet seen. With fever comes inappetance and dehydration. The dehydration alone becomes lethal in a pyrexic (feverish) cat.

The other reason to get abscesses treated promptly is that they can get far worse. Some clients would ask on the phone if they could let the abscess rupture on it's own and drain out without having to bring them in to the office. The answer to the client was that was not a good idea. The abscess can continue to enlarge and make the cat sicker. It can also become gangrenous and cause the loss of body parts or death. I've had to amputate legs and tails due to gangrenous abscesses and I've also had to do major reconstructive surgery to graft new skin onto areas where the skin sloughed off due to necrosis where the abscess was underneath it.

With an abscess presentation, your cat should also be tested for Feline Leukemia, FIV, FIP and have it's vaccines checked to make sure they are current. A full blood panel to test blood chemistries and internal organ funtions is in order too. Indoor cats can bite each other and get abscesses, but it is more common when a cat goes outside. The tail, rear end, and face are where most abscesses occur, but they cat be anywhere on a cat's body.

Treatment usually involves sedating the cat, lancing and flushing the wound, fluid therapy for re-hydration, and an injection of antibiotics to hit the infection and reduce the fever. Take home pill or liquid antibiotics are part of the standard treatments too. The abscess wounds heal remarkably quickly and a week's worth of antibiotics does the trick. If the wound does not heal quickly, another underlying health problem that is delaying the healing is usually present. I had one cat we eventually found had kidney failure because it's abscess would not heal.

Prevention is the key. Realize that cats are perfectly happy living an indoor only life. They get into big trouble outside. Attack from other cats, dogs, coyotes, and automobiles make the outside world a hazardous place for our sweet kitties.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.drdougikeler.com/

http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/

The Human-Animal Bond, Especially For Cats

Much is touted in veterinary literature about the human-animal bond. In simpler terms, it means some of us just love animals. And who couldn't? They are a source of never-ending unconditional love. How much unconditional love do you get from people? My own experience in life is all love from people is conditional. Animals are also adorable and incredibly cute. Every child melts when they see a puppy or a kitten, and they just have to have one!

My mother loved cats, and that is most likely why I became a Cat Specialist Veterinarian. My mother, Mildred Patricia Jackson Ikeler, more commonly known as "Milly," was orphaned at birth. Her own mother died in childbirth, in 1936, and mom was named after her mother, Mildred. Mom never liked the name Mildred, because of the "dred" part at the end of that name, she was happy with Milly though. Her middle name was Patricia because she was born on Saint Patrick's Day, in 1936. From there she was plagued with a lifetime of green Birthday cakes that people thought were somehow unique, but that repeated the pattern every year. Her father was named Millard Jackson, and they traced their family lineage back to Stonewall Jackson, of the Civil War.

With no brothers or sisters, except for a half sister named Audrey that was growing up in California, and her father away as a major in the army, mom grew up an orphan, and was raised by her aunt and uncle from her mothers side, Robert and Agnes Brackett. Mom grew up in the same house that I grew up in, in Alstead, New Hampshire. I still own that house today and it has been in our family for over one hundred and fifty years.

Mom's closest friends were her cats. "Smokey" was a noted favorite, and most of mom's pictures from her childhood show her accompanied by a cat. We had a double-digit cat population the whole time I was growing up, with twenty five being the top number of cats we ever had at one time. In the countryside though, certain hazards abound and we lost one or two cats every year. Mom was kind though and whatever stray cat came to our door was welcomed in to a new home.

We took good care of all our cats and vet visits were very common. That's probably why our local veterinarian, Dr. Issac Tucker Burr, was more than happy to give me a job working with him as soon as I was old enough. I learned about the common cat diseases early in life as abscesses, fractures, and hit-by-car injuries were frequent.

There are times even today, when I feel like that part of my mother that is in me is still gathering joy and happiness from the patting and hugging of our kitties. The photo here is of a red persian cat, who looks just like one of my mother's favorite cats ever, "The Royal Reggie." My mother's legacy lives on and she has helped tens of thousands of cats, by having me, and raising me to love them as much as she did.

Many thanks to http://www.i-love-cats.com/ for the free cat photos.

See also my web site on life extension at http://www.lifeextensionbooksbydrdougikeler.blogspot.com/

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

Time For Kitty To See The Dentist?

Cats need regular dental check ups too! Luckily, we veterinarians are doctors, surgeons, dentists, pharmacists, radiologists, public health officials, meat inspectors, dietitians, business managers and great people, all in one! So a dental checkup can be part of your cat's yearly visit.

Some vets are recommending twice yearly visits, but that is your choice to make. Once a year may be enough.

Cats have fewer teeth than we do, only twenty eight, versus our thirty two, and many fewer teeth than the forty two a dog has. With modern soft and mushy diets though, cats accumulate tarter quickly on their teeth and need to have it scaled off. Ultrasonic dental scalers do a very thorough job of cleaning a cat's teeth, but sometimes a cat may only need the larger tarter chunks popped off with a hand scaler. I used to keep a hand scaler in each exam room for just that purpose.

If you let your cat's teeth go without cleaning, the teeth get caries (cavities) just like our teeth do. Cats teeth are so small that they are hard to drill out and put fillings in, even though I have done that for many of my patients. The new glass inomer kits, and drill and scaler choices, make more advanced dentistry choices available to the modern kitty.

Teeth cleaning diets are also helpful in that the ones like Science Diet T/D are large and gooey, with chunks that surround the teeth and pull off the tarter build up as the cat is eating. A good dry food diet is great for daily cleaning of the teeth as the dry food is hard and strengthens and cleans the teeth as cats chew it.

Modern dental techniques allow veterinarians many options beyond the old "Elevate and Extract" days that described the extent of dental care available for animals when I was a boy. We can now offer fillings, crowns, root canals, orthodontia (braces) and even tooth implants for people interested in restoring a pet's teeth.

I personally don't recommend brushing a cat's teeth because cats hate it and then the relationship with their owner is lost. Dry food diets and tarter control diets work better and are easier and keep you in good relations with your cat. And that's what it's all about, a warm and loving relationship between you and your kitty!

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.drdougikeler.com/