Cats could be scary

Now, don’t get me wrong here, cats are some of the most adorable pets found anywhere. In the UK, for example, cats are statistically one of the most common household pets.{{more}}

There are more than 500 million cats in the world with 33 different breeds.

The oldest cat on record was Puss, from England, who died in 1939, just one day after her 36th birthday.

The weight of an adult domestic cat can vary between 1.5 lbs. and 46.8 lbs. (world record). There are cats that are very hairy, like the Persians, and those that possess very characteristic features, like the Siamese that have blue eyes that appear to be crossed. There are breeds of cats with Bob tails, like the Manx found on the Isle of Man, an island in the United Kingdom. Calico coloured cats are nearly always females because the determining gene in the calico colour is linked to the female sex chromosome.

Cats rub up against other cats and people, in an attempt to “mark” them with their scent glands. They most often use the scent glands between their eyes and ears (near to the temple area) or their scent glands near to the base of their tails.

Cats are considered to be very intelligent, and lots of cat enthusiasts will tell you that they are more intelligent than dogs.

One client of mine told me of his cat “Jerry” that slept with him in his bed and always woke him up gently, with a few pats with his paws at exactly 5:00 am every day to be let out do his business. And if you didn’t know, most cats like to boast. They would catch a rat or maybe a bird and make sure that you see what a good job they did, by leaving it dead or partially eaten where you are sure to see it.

Yes, most are adorable pets, except the wild or feral ones.

Those will make you realize that cats could be likened to a lethal weapon. They could bite, or scratch with any of the four paws at lightning speed.

That is how I consider a patient that is currently hospitalized at my clinic. It all started a few days ago when he was brought in. The caretaker was quite honest with me, explaining that the owners were out of the country and the cat is a semi feral cat that was being fed daily but never allowed anyone to touch him, except that now his leg was crushed, and irrespective of the pain associated with that, it was very difficult to eventually get him into a carrier.

“Ok, Doc, here is the patient, fix him up for me.” I put the carrier on the examination table and put my face a safe distance from the cage to visualize the cat’s condition. It is a black cat that is overweight, I would say, a bit over fed. I was greeted by a spitting sound and a paw squeezed through a tiny space in the carrier, narrowly missing my face.

Luckily, I am not the first person having to deal with these kinds of patients, so that special gloves and gear are available especially for patients like these. I eventually tranquilized our patient and I am sure that even a medieval knight would have envied my protective outfit. On examination of the patient, which included x rays, I determined that the only plausible thing was to amputate the leg.

This was done successfully, and in hindsight, this was the easy part. Imagine having to dress the wound daily and administer daily medication, hence the name of this article.

For further information, contact: Dr. Collin Boyle Unique Animal Care Co. Ltd. Tel: 456 4981

Website: www.uniqueanimalcare.com