Cats Herd You

Laugh. Learn. Love cats.

  • Home
  • Safety
  • Wellness
  • Rescue
  • Reviews
  • Life With Cats
  • About
  • Media Friendly
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Archives for Health

Smoking Impacts Your Cat’s Health, Too

Our grandpeep was a lifelong smoker. The last year of her life, while she was in treatment for smoking-related cancer, she and her two cats (including Cousin Earl) moved in with Aunt O. It was months of their living in a smoke-free home before anyone could snuggle one of those cats and not have them smell like an ashtray.

Cousin Earl

Cousin Earl smelled like cigarettes for months after arriving in a nonsmoking environment

That odor on a smoker’s cat’s fur is just like what you smell when a smoker shares an elevator ride with you on their way back from a smoke break. It’s something that American Journal of Pediatrics was the first to call third-hand smoke, residual tobacco smoke contamination that remains after the cigarette is extinguished. This residue can be on clothing, hair, furniture, carpeting, or even  in your cat’s fur.  A cat living with a smoker has 14-15 cigarette’s worth of toxins in his fur, and of course, the cat never smoked a cigarette himself. It’s all third hand smoke.

Have you ever gotten home from a party and smelled cigarette smoke on yourself? You probably tossed your clothing in the laundry and washed your hair. Cats don’t have the luxury of doing that. Their fur is their clothing, so they clean themselves the way they always do, grooming with their tongue. This exposes the delicate skin of their mouth and tongue to all of the toxins they are trying to clean off, and of course they ingest it, too. This on top of the secondhand smoke they breathed while the cigarette was burning.

A 2007 Tufts Veterinary School study showed linked oral cancer in cats to living with smokers. Cats living with more than one smoker and cats exposed to environmental tobacco smoke for longer than five years had even higher rates of this cancer. Second hand smoke was also  linked to cancer in cats in a 2002 Tufts University study, with cats living with smokers twice as likely to develop malignant lymphoma as cats in nonsmoking households.

How can you Keep your Cat Safe from Toxins in Cigarette Smoke?

Black Cat CigarettesThe most obvious way to prevent this health impact to your cat is to quit smoking. It’s healthier for you and your cat. If you don’t think you can quit without help, many employers now offer free smoking cessation programs because it’s better for their insurance bottom line, so take advantage of them if you need them.

Not everyone is ready to quit. If you can’t, the ASPCA recommends that you “take it outside” to smoke so that a large share of the smoke particles remain outside and don’t impact your indoor cat.

Wash your hands after you smoke and before you touch your cat. If you only smoke once or twice a day, consider changing your clothes to prevent transferring toxic residue from your clothing to your cat when you snuggle.

Be mindful that your choices don’t just impact your own health, but your cat’s health, too, and both of you can have longer, happier lives together!


Reference

Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Risk of Malignant Lymphoma in Pet Cats, American Journal of Epidemiology.
Expression and Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure in Feline Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Veterinary Pathology
Beliefs About the Health Effects of “Thirdhand” Smoke and Home Smoking Banks, Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Black Cat Cigarettes photo courtesy Antony Stanley on Flickr

Share Email this to someone
email
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Share on Tumblr
Tumblr
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

July 10, 2014 Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Smoking, Wellness 22 Comments

Kicking the Kibble Habit

Ashton: Hi, My name is Ashton, and I’m a kibble addict.

Ashton

Pierre and Newton: Hi, Ashton!

Pierre and Newton on cat tree

Ashton: It has been eight months since I first started to give up The Kibble. It was really, really hard.

Newton: Why was it so hard?

Ashton: Kibble tastes good! And I love how it crunches, too. But I was a little… Rubenesque.

Ashton was Rubenesque in Nov 2013

Newton: *whispers* What does Rubenesque mean?

Pierre: *whispers* It means fat.

Ashton: DON’T CALL ME FAT!

Newton: But you aren’t fat, Ashton. You used to be fat, but you aren’t any more, I mean. Look what a difference eight months on canned food has made. If you weren’t my furbling, I would think you were a babe.

Ashton: Thank you, Newton. That’s very sweet of you.

Ashton Sits on End of Shelf

Pierre: You know, not only does our canned food diet help us to maintain better weight, it also helps with our hydration. You two are too young to remember all of the cats who came before who all suffered chronic kidney disease: Cyrano, Rhett, Louie, and Talia. One after another after another. Kibble is about 10% moisture, so it keeps us chronically dehydrated, while canned food is more like 78% moisture. Hopefully, we won’t all have to go through the same kidney problems that the cats who came before did, too.

Ashton: We don’t want to be sick like that. Occasional hairballs are bad enough.

Newton: No, not if it means going to the vet. I don’t like that at all, even when it’s just to get my armpits manscaped.

Ashton: Well if you weren’t such a barbarian and actually groomed yourself properly, that wouldn’t be an issue.

Newton: I’m not a barbarian!

Pierre: Settle down, you two. I had one more thing to tell you.

Pierre

Ashton: What’s that?

Pierre: I overheard the head peep saying that she eventually hopes to have us on a raw diet because it’s species-appropriate.

Newton: Does that mean she’s going to bring a bird into the house and turn it loose so we can hunt it like we were in the wild? That would be pawesome!

Ashton thinks about the huge bird outside the window

Ashton: I don’t know about that… I might stick with my cans after all. 

Share Email this to someone
email
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Share on Tumblr
Tumblr
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

June 19, 2014 Filed Under: Health Tagged With: Ashton, feeding, kibble, Newton, Pierre 26 Comments

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18

Read Ashton’s Story in Rescued, Volume 2

These pawtographed books support Candy's Cats, who work tirelessly to find homes for cats in Florida.

Rescued, Volume 2: The Healing Stories of 12 Cats, Through Their Eyes. Proceeds from authographed copies benefit Candy's Cats.


Outside the US, contact us for shipping to your location.

Read Us by Email

Don't miss a thing! Cats delivered to your email.

Privacy Policy












Archives

All Rights Reserved

Articles and images on this site may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent. Please contact me if you are interested in reprinting or in having me write something unique for you.

Disclaimer

There are no veterinarians here. All health-related posts are the result of research and observation, but educational information is not a substitute for visiting your veterinarian. Do not self-diagnose your cat. For more information, see our disclaimer.

Policies

Disclosure Statement
Privacy Policy
Commenting Policy

Copyright © 2019 · Sometimes Cats Herd You · All Rights Reserved