Cats Herd You

Adventures in Manscaping

Newton: I had to go get manscaped this weekend. The humans say that I don’t take good enough care of my armpits and that they were getting matted again.

The humans tried to tell me that I should be excited to be the first of us to take our new carriers out of the house. Can you see my excitement?

Riding in the car isn’t so bad when you can see. This photo was when I heard, “What’s the point of having a crash-tested carrier if you hang out of it?”

I had to wait in the waiting room a while, and a lot of dogs came and went. I’ll tell you, I could have taken on any of them. Well, maybe not that biggest one, but the rest of them. Well, maybe not all at once, but for sure one at a time. I would have shown them which cat was the boss around there. I stayed secure in my carrier instead, though. It’s more comfortable in there, anyhow.

I wasn’t quite as eager to get out of the carrier once I got to the exam room. I did try to walk around a bit before the vet came in, but the humans insisted that there were bad dog germs around and asked me to go back to my carrier. I agreed, but only because of the germs. Not because I’m afraid of dogs.

Then they grabbed me, kitties. The photos that come next aren’t for the weak at heart. That’s my beautiful mancat armpit hair Dr. K is shaving off!

You can tell the humans fear my wrath because of how many hands it took to manscape my armpits. That’s three humans to hold one little cat. And I wasn’t even putting up much of a fight!

In the end, it wasn’t so bad. I am mat-free and will be for a while, and I’ll be used to the breeze in my armpits in no time.

So how was your weekend?

Upside-Down is Right Side Up

Pierre: When there’s a sunbeam, the only way to feel its rays tickling my tummy is to be upside down.

I love to lounge in the sunbeams while the friendly sunbeams heat up the tiles around me.

Then I can roll around on the warm tile and feel the sunbeams soaking their heat all the way into me on both sides. There’s nothing better than that!

Newton is scheduled to go to the vet tomorrow. Don’t worry, it’s just for a little armpit manscaping to get rid of his mats. I’m planning on laying right here in the sun just like this while he’s gone… and maybe for the rest of the weekend, too!

Canine Influenza: A Concern for Cats

Families with dogs in Chicago and other parts of the midwest have been taking precautions against an outbreak of canine influenza that has sickened over 1000 dogs. Veterinarians were treating it on the assumption that the flu was caused by a subtype of the H3N8 virus, which first emerged in greyhounds in the US in 2004. Cornell University has announced that they had determined that the outbreak was actually caused by a virus closely related to Asian strains of influenza A H3N2 viruses, currently in wide circulation in southern Chinese and South Korean dog populations.

Should Cat Guardians Care About Canine Influenza?

By now, you’re probably checking to make sure you’re on the right blog. Why would you be reading about the dog flu where you normally read only about cats? The H3N2 virus isn’t exclusive to dogs; it can be transmitted between species to cats.

At the beginning of 2010, cats in an animal shelter in Seoul, South Korea caught the H3N2 canine influenza virus from dogs in the shelter who were also ill with the virus. In this first known outbreak of the disease in cats, 100% of the cats in the shelter became ill, and 40% did not survive.

A subsequent study published by the International Society for Influenza and other Respiratory Virus Diseases verified that cats can acquire the H3N2 virus both from dogs and from other cats. Importantly, the study also verified that transmission of the virus doesn’t require direct contact. Cats in the study acquires the virus by respiratory droplet (airborne) transmission, too. Once infected, cats shed the virus, making them contagious, for up to seven days.

Most reported clinical cases of H3N2 virus have been severe, but antibodies have been found in significant numbers of healthy dogs and cats, which suggests that some animals have milder illnesses. Symptoms in cats include elevated temperatures, lethargy, and respiratory signs including nasal discharge, conjunctivitis and abdominal breathing.

Precautions You Can Take

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recommends that sick dogs or those showing signs of respiratory illness be isolated from other dogs. Because dogs are most contagious in the two to four day incubation between exposure and before showing signs of illness, they also recommend isolating dogs known to have been exposed to dogs infected with the H3N2 virus from other dogs. Knowing that this can be transmitted to cats, you can take the same precautions and isolate your sick or exposed dogs from cats, as well.

You can help prevent spread of the virus by good hygiene such as hand washing and by through cleaning of shared items such as blankets and bedding. Influenza viruses do not usually survive in the environment beyond 48 hours and are inactivated or killed by commonly use disinfectants.

References and further reading:

Cornell University, Midwest Canine Influenza outbreak caused by new strain of virus
Journal of General Virology, Interspecies transmission of the canine influenza H3N2 virus to domestic cats in South Korea, 2010
International Society for Influenza and other Respiratory Virus Diseases, Inter- and intraspecies transmission of canine influenza virus (H3N2) in dogs, cats, and ferrets
Iowa State University Center for Food Security & Public Health, Canine Influenza
AVMA, Canine Influenza: Pet Owner’s Guide

Losing Her Chickens

Ashton: Did you hear that the amazing chicks that Sage sent to me were mysteriously returned to her…. in a box with Newton and Pierre’s paw prints all over it? I’ve been looking for evidence here, but so far, no luck. They’re sneaky boycats.

Ashton: So when my friend Cathy Keisha sent me some chicks still in their incubators, I was really excited. At last, chicks to start growing chickens for my chicken emporium!

Ashton: Only now they’ve gone missing, too. I don’t understand it. It’s like there was some chicken-eating monster in the house. I’m supposed to be the only chicken-eating monster around here.

Hey, Newt, have you seen my chicks?

Newton: Umm….