Cats Are Not the Immortals They Pretend to Be!

Anyone who has known a cat, cared for a cat, coexisted with a cat, or been owned by a cat (what…you didn’t know the true owner-pet nature of your relationship?) understands their apparent innate attitude of superiority. They present themselves as the regal, aloof, disinterested gods and goddesses of all they survey. They allow us to house and feed them to give us a sense of purpose, but they REALLY don’t NEED humans. Just ask them and their expressions of strained tolerance for our insolence is quite evident.

For this next part, I suggest you coax them away from your screen with a favorite toy, a SMALL tasty treat, or an unoccupied sunbeam so they do not read the rest of this blog themselves and destroy your screen in a fit of feline rage.

They gone yet?

Good, here goes!

I am here today to expose their little secret: cats are NOT immortal. They are NOT super heroes. They are NOT indestructible.  Cats suffer fear, disease, pain, and illness just as their canine underlings do. Human myths or assumptions about these regal beasts can make health issues more severe much more rapidly than they do in the dog. Some of these perceptions are as follows:

·         MYTH = “Cats are can take care of themselves, they are basically self sufficient.” Give them enough food and water and a clean box and they appear basically labor-free for days. The fact that they can do a lot for themselves usually means the owners are not aware of changes in food and water intake or eliminations until they have been problematic for days.

·         MYTH = “Cats just naturally as a species have fewer diseases than dogs.” If they are seen less often and their symptoms are not noticed as soon or as often as they are in dogs, then less diagnostics are run so they SEEM to have fewer illnesses.

·         MYTH = “Only outdoor cats get diseases or have health problems. Cat problems come from the outdoors.” This assumes that all illnesses are environmental in origin. Indoor only cats still deteriorate internally, can still suffer significant trauma and falls inside the house, can still be exposed to parasites inside the house, and are actually at a higher risk of poisoning from human medications and cleaning supplies than are their outdoor counterparts.

·         MYTH = “Cats show signs of illness just like dogs do.” Cats are very stoic and aloof by nature, but that does not mean they do not experience pain and suffering the same as dogs do; they just show it differently. Cats are more likely to hide, move less, eat less, and be less interactive or less mobile when sick. The degree of their symptoms does not always correlate with the severity of their condition. They do not tend to whimper and whine like a dog might.

·         MYTH = “Cats get more stressed than dogs during visits to the doctor.” This keeps owners out of the hospital because they feel the stress of the visit is worse than whatever disease or condition may be going untreated. Often dogs when stressed become more reserved; whereas, many cats get more aggressive making it appear they are more stressed.

·         MYTH = “Cats are more difficult to handle during an exam.” Cats can be more difficult to hold if they really want to get away simply because they have the tools to do more damage in a shorter period of time and there is less to hold onto. Their teeth and claws can seem to be everywhere at once and they do not necessarily like to be “cuddled” and held like dogs do. With a slow and steady hand and a lot of patience the average cat does fine. With that being said, there are still those that may need special restraint or even sedation techniques to get the job done, but this is true for some dogs too.

Here are some interesting (to some) statistics about cat ownership. (I hear that data are the leading cause of statistics):

• There are 82 million pet cats in the U.S., but only 72 million pet dogs.
• Cats average 1.1 visits to the veterinarian a year vs. the dogs’ 2.3 visits per year.
• Of those cats who did visit, only 22% received vaccinations for any disease other than rabies.
• In the U.K., only about 10% of cats are strictly indoor, whereas according to a HSUS study about 75% of cats in the U.S. are strictly indoor or only go outdoors for short periods of supervised time.
• The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) and the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) both agree cats should have a general wellness exam (not including sick exams) AT LEAST once a year, and more frequently if they are senior, geriatric, or have chronic or significant medical problems. 

Most practitioners recommend at least twice a year WELLNESS examinations. Cats are so good at hiding illness until it is much progressed. This means that more frequent exams are crucial to finding these issues early on. Most clinics practicing a higher quality of medicine recommend wellness diagnostic screens at least yearly as well. Many problems and diseases can be detected in the blood or urine or similar diagnostic methods much sooner than they can be detected on physical exam alone. In medicine as in many things, forewarned is forearmed.

Cats who go outdoors or who are exposed to cats that go outdoors are at a greater risk of catching more infectious diseases from stray and feral cats. These two classes of cats definitely need routine vaccinations to help protect them.

Another thing to consider is that many cats who succumb to disease do so through liver or kidney failure. These two organs are so proficient at what they do that it is possible to destroy up to 50-70% of the function of these organs with NO OUTWARD SYMPTOMS if the damage is done slowly enough! This is a natural adaptive mechanism that allows the species to continue on even if some vital organs are significantly damaged. The rest of the organ just works overtime to make up for the loss from the damaged part. This means that often what appears to be an overnight problem has actually been brewing for months or years, there was just nothing visible to the owners outwardly until it is too late to effect change.

Cats can do a lot for themselves, but they cannot tell us what is wrong or when there is a problem. They cannot make the appointment themselves, get themselves to the doctor, or medicate themselves. They rely on us for all of that. They may act indestructible, but that is far from the truth (don’t tell them I said so…they have sensitive egos!)

I think the following sums it up for cats, and this has been posted so many times on so many sites that I wonder who the original author really is:

The dog looks at you and thinks to himself,
"You feed me, you shelter me, you love me. YOU must be GOD!"

The cat looks at you and thinks to himself,
"You feed me, you shelter me, you love me. *I* must be GOD!"

Oh and if your feline friend has come back from their much deserved nap and is reading the rest of this blog, let me close by saying:

“Thank you to all of the divine creatures that are cats who condescend to allow us lowly humans to coexist with them on their planet!

Thank you for offering us the opportunity to care for you!

What a magnanimous species you truly are!”