Bored Beyond Belief

The Washington Post just put out an article titled How to Keep Your Cat From Losing Its Mind, and I couldn't be happier!  The author Karin Brulliard touched on so many topics that I feel most cat owners ignore: that indoor cats are bored beyond belief.

If you're one of my clients you may have heard me say before that I believe that cats are not as domesticated as we make them out to be. They still have those desires to hunt, stalk, and pounce and instead of encouraging those behaviors in appropriate ways, we make them settle by giving them a cat condo and calling it quits. That's not good enough.

I'm not saying let your city slicker cat outside, or fill your homes with expensive carpet covered cat condos, but I do want your creative juices to start flowing. I certainly had to think outside the box when we adopted our cats, and I admit I have a difficult time coming up with new and exciting ideas. So I turn on an episode of My Cat From Hell and Jackson Galaxy inspires me! Creating fun spaces for them that encourage them to jump, climb, and watch 'prey' (they have visual access to my flock all day) keeps them happy and entertained and I don't have jerk cats that tip over cups or claw up things they aren't supposed to.

I bet you didn't know that urinary tract problems in cats can be caused by boring indoor living! Pandora Syndrome is the term for the litany of health and behavior problems that can be caused by a stuffy, boring, depressing environment for a cat.  Now that alone should get you pumped to start creating some exciting things for your Garfield. 

Before you get started, make sure to tailor anything to the wants of your cat. Not all cats like cat condos if they're bush dwellers that prefer to stay on the ground in dark cozy hiding spaces. Rethink how you feed them as well.  I feed all of our cats off the ground - it forces them to jump up to their food and water. You can even try using food puzzles for cats which can help them lose weight! Read this article in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, it's pretty awesome!

Here's a list of some things to think about to create a cat friendly home:

• Does your cat have visual access to wildlife? Think about a catio or use window bird feeders where your cat can watch them upclose from the indoors.
• How are you feeding your cat? Cats are not cows and get bored from 'grazing' their food that is out all day/night. Consider set mealtimes, food puzzles, or an automatic feeder on a timer.
• Do you encourage your cat to climb to high places? Think about installing some simple shelving or moving furniture around to facilitate natural climbing behaviors.
• Does your cat have a way to act out natural hunting skills? Think of a 'wack-a-mole' type toy, or any toy with erratic movements. 
• Is your cat bored with the toys you currently have? Odds are they are probably out 24/7 sitting in the same cat toy box on the floor. Consider rotating toys and putting unused toys away out of sight. Also move toys around from room to room.

If you look at my Amazon Store, you'll see I have a few food toys and puzzles and window feeders listed for cats.  I hope these help you get started in creating a healthier cat home! Below are some great options to get started!

Homemade Outdoor Cat Bed

 Kitty, our barn cat, has been with us for 2 and a half years! In April of 2014, we started finding cat scat on the property and then flashes of a spooked gray cat that would run away if she saw you. I started putting food and water out and after a few weeks of her doing recon on us, she popped her head out from under our work shed and gave me a 'meow'. She decided we didn't look all that bad and was curious of all the fun looking things we were doing on the property at that time (building a catio for Nova & Naveen as well as building a coop and run for our first chickens).

Kitty was a wild looking skinny cat that I kept feeding and watering. She very much needed to take her time warming up to us.  During monsoon, we put a cat door into our work shed where she could quickly escape the rain, and go hide under a table in there. When winter rolled around, Kitty spent a very difficult night on a heating blanket outside and I knew it was time we needed to come up with a long term plan.

The following night we brought her inside the house for the cold winter night. We closed her off in a room that we had been using for storage. She had food, water, a warm bed, and a litter box and a quiet place away from the dogs.  During these past few months, we realized Sarge isn't quiet used to cats.   He would react to seeing Kitty waiting at the door outside and try to pounce at her through the glass door. Pepe & Zoey are total pros with felines.  We've been slowly working with Sarge on his Kitty reactivity and we've definitely made a lot of improvement but not where I would like to be, and maybe never will get to that point.  

Fast forward to now, September 2016... Kitty still has 'her room' that we're currently in the process of remodeling.  At dusk every day, she waits at the backdoor or the front door, waiting to come in for the night.  In the mornings she goes back outside but she NEVER strays far.  If we're outside working, she is either right there with us, or watching us from somewhere safe if we're mowing or weed wacking.  She can scale a tree to get up on the roof at one end of the house, then do some kitty parkour and jump down on the opposite end.  Because of the amount of skill she has rapidly climbing trees and walls, I don't worry about her getting away from any daytime predators.  We don't have many that come through, the occasional lone coyote which always passes through so quick (They don't even want to stick around to check out our flock). 

We often bring Kitty inside for a mid-day nap but sometimes she likes to stay outside for her naps and we find her on a patio chair, in the shed, on a deck storage box, and recently ... in an old planter.

I wanted to give her something more cozy, just for her, that wasn't full of dirt!  I had 2 large 22" plastic planters that I got on sale that I never got around to using.  I ended up using them as a quick table when I was cutting some plywood and cut through the lips of both planters. Whoops.  When I spotted Kitty napping in the planter, a brain light bulb turned on in my head!

I pulled the plastic planters out of the shed, took a few retaining wall blocks and the wheels in my kept turning.

 

I ran out to Home Depot to pick up some small 2'x2' plywood and cut a platform that would rest evenly on the blocks.  

 Now that I knew this was going to work, I painted and glazed the planters, bought a memory foam square (2" thick), some pretty material and a zipper.

 

I got a great deal at Hobby Lobby - I found this fabric hiding under a bunch of others and score, it was half off! I bought extra fabric since I liked it so much. I used their 40% off coupon on the memory foam which came out to only $6!

 

I cut the memory foam to the size of the wood platform, 18", and then proceeded to sew a cover (by hand!) A lot of people make cheap pet beds out of fleece but I hate the static properties of fleece and how dog and cat hair never fully comes off of it, so I decided on a different material and to sew a zipper on it so I could take it off and wash it.  I don't have a sewing machine, nor know how to use one, so this was all done by hand.

 And tada! It turned out great!

 

Now I just have to entice Kitty enough to start using it!

And after a week or so ... she loves it!
She really seems to appreciate that I sunk the cushion. She feels like she is 'hiding' inside the planter! :)

Review: PFAT Food Storage Bag

This review has been a long time coming!  Outward Hound makes some great affordable pet gear and about 2.5 years ago we were preparing to take 2/3 of our canine crew across country on a road trip.

We were still feeding kibble at that time and I didn't want to take up valuable space in the car by bringing a whole air tight food container which would be mostly empty by the time we drove back home.  (This was close to 2 weeks away from home and we took Pepe & Zoey back to IL and IA while we visited family and attended a wedding)

I stumbled across Outward Hound's PFAT (Pest Free Air Tight) bag and thought what a perfect solution.  I wanted something that could keep the kibble safe during our travels, easy to carry as we bounced around, didn't require using and throwing away food storage bags, and best of all - the size of the bag diminishes each day kibble was eaten allowing for valuable SUV room since we were bringing a lot of stuff back home with us.

The PFAT bag may not be optimal for everyday kibble use, but it's great for storage and traveling.  Our pups eat homemade raw 6 days a week and the 7th day is usually Honest Kitchen prep or kibble.  I want them to be able to handle kibble for when we go on vacation and someone else watches them, or in the case of another fire evacuation and needing something super easy and convenient. 

One of the best things about this bag is how it's designed. When you're ready to close it up, you can squeeze as much air out, then roll the sturdy top seams down and buckle the ends together.  This helps to keep the food fresh and essentially making the bag into a purse, you could throw on your shoulder or carry by the handle.  Again, super great for traveling, camping, any K9 adventure that awaits!

The PFAT bags come in 3 sizes and we purchased the medium which holds 20 lbs pounds of kibble- more than what we needed in the 2 week time we were on the road.  For now, I have the PFAT bag inside a reused kitty litter tub for extra protection since we only need to feed kibble 1 day a week at most. The bin is kept out of the way in the laundry room and pulled out as needed.

All in all, a great purchase and this bag could be used for so many other purposes besides kibble. Chicken feed, bird seed, or even long term food storage for you zombie apocalypse preppers!

Do Better

I want to start off with this note written by a snake keeper in Tucson, the message applies to anyone who has any kind of animal...

 

This is a message we all need to take to heart and come back to on a regular basis.  Having worked with animals professionally for the past 10 years, I've met a lot of boneheads who let their ego get in the way of bettering their animals health.  Guess what, I was one of those boneheads for a while! I thought my medium quality kibble was just perfect for Pepe and saw no reason to change my ways.  I'm glad I got over myself and decided to start learning about pet health in new avenues, for the sake of my animals.

 Most of you know I have been making my own dogfood for almost 2 years now.  When I saw 'make' I mean I buy all of my ingredients and formulate each dog's food based on their weight and individual needs.  Each dog has a laminated chart kept in the kitchen so I have a quick reference of who needs what in their food.  BUT this post isn't about their homemade food because I want to ease into this. (Their homemade food consists of them eating raw meat, raw bones, organs, chicken necks... because that's what a canid is supposed to eat!)  Instead, this is about our one day a week where they don't eat homemade raw.  The picture below isn't staged, I decided to snap a pic while making their breakfast this morning.  The clear bag of greeny stuff is Honest Kitchen's Preference Base.  This is not a complete meal but rather needs protein mixed in to be a complete meal.  Off to the left is a contained of dehydrated duck eggs.  These are eggs from our ducks, scrambled, then dehydrated.  Eggs are a perfect protein source and I even feed them raw about 3x a week. To the right of the eggs is a small container of dehydrated venison.  I belong to a raw co-op for southern Arizona, where we use buying power to order large amounts, like sometimes close to 4,000lbs of meat, and then get better prices for everyone.  My venison/elk blend is only $2/lb!! So I dehydrate a few pounds to use as another protein mix-in with this food.  

Now since everything is dehydrated, it needs to be reconstituted with water.  Water is after all, extremely important and yet kibble is cooked and cooked and cooked until it is essentially devoid of nutrients including water.  BUT I don't use regular ol' water in this mix.  I have started making my own kefir water the past few months. Say whhhhhat?  Most of us know about that yummy smooth milk kefir sold in stores but kefir can also be made in water, which saves a LOT of calories and great for anyone with dairy intolerances. Cow's milk isn't good for dogs or cats anyways, goat milk is much easier for them to digest.  Where can you make your own water kefir? You can start with some cultures from Cultures for Health.  This is what I got and I love it! They also have cultures for milk kefir too! The cultures to make your own kefir can be re-used over and over so I tend to have excess since I always have a batch of kefir fermenting on the counter. I like to call my jug of kefir my 'moonshine jug' and blow across the top of it trying to jug out some tunes :) Sidebar: I bought it for about $6 at the local home brewery shop!

So all mixed up, the food looks pretty great doesn't it? Doesn't that look a lot healthier than kibble? It smells pretty amazing too!

My point in all this is that along with everything else in the world, veterinary medicine and nutrition continues to change for the better.  We need to set aside our own mindsets of 'Well Fido has eaten the same bag of kibble for 5 years and he's fine."  Well I'm sure I could survive solely on McDonald's too but that doesn't mean that I should or that it's good for me.

I will eventually make a post showing what my dog's do eat 6 days a week.  The freezer space needed in order to stock up when prices are good, the process of weighing out each dog's food along with their food charts, and nutrition books by veterinarians that can lead you into better understanding of how you're feeding your animals.

To Shave or Not to Shave?

It's that time of year in southern Arizona where we start getting reminded that we live in a pretty toasty state! In just a month or so it will start becoming uncomfortable outside, I will have pushed my dog walks earlier in the mornings, and even carrying water to give pooches a water break while we walk.

Because we live in a hotter climate, many people believe that shaving dogs and cats will help keep them cooler.  The problem is, the sun is so intense here that our UV index recommends staying out of direct sunlight the majority of spring and summer!  Below is a short but great video by Karen Becker, DVM that discusses shaving cats and dogs.

Our 3 dogs are shorter haired coats i.e. our 2 terriers have a typical single-layer coat and our beagle mix has a double coat, albeit naturally on the short side.  I prefer to have shorter hair dogs since I can maintain their grooming needs myself and can save money by not needing to go to the groomer.  Although, one of my cats, Naveen, is possibly a maine-coon mix and has a beautiful long coat on him, which requires a lot of grooming.  His mother, Nova, grooms him more than he does!  Because of the added duty of grooming herself and her son, she throws a lot of hairballs.  So much that I have occasionally considered giving Naveen a lion cut for the summers.  With his long coat he would look adorable with a distinguished mane and little fluffy feet!  But I have to remind myself that looks alone are not a reason to shave him.  It would be selfish of me. To help Nova with hairballs, I give her a fish oil supplement which keeps her system 'lubed up'.

click picture to enlarge

One topic that most groomers and pet owners are unaware of is a condition called Alopecia X.  This is a hair cycle abnormality often belonging to nordic breeds and toy/mini poodles.  Shaving doesn't cause this condition, but for a dog who may be prone to Alopecia X, shaving can mean any hair re-growth can be delayed.  This is called post-clipping alopecia and I've seen it a few times!  First, in a husky I worked with in Illinois, who had surgery on his leg.  It took over a year for the hair to come back in!  Second, on my own dog Zoey!  When Zoey was found wandering the streets of Tucson and her family didn't want her back, she became a ward of my animal hospital for a few weeks before I decided to adopt her.  Our Dr spayed Zoey in a non-traditional way, he chose to 'flank-spay' her like some vet's spay cats.  For a visual of where the incision on Zoey was, click here (don't worry, it's not graphic.) Zoey had a small shaved area on her side which took several months for the hair to regrow.

Some other medical conditions can cause hair to not regrow normally after being shaved.  Pet's with hormone disorders like thyroid issues and cushing's disease are likely to have difficulty regrowing hair normally as well.  It could take over a year for your pet to grow their hair back in, and it will often be shorter or coarser than it should be.

Click picture to enlarge

Ultimately most professionals agree it is best not to shave a double-coated dog unless it is medically necessary in which case your veterinarian would be the one recommending it, not a groomer.  If you do choose to shave your dog, your groomer should be honest with you about the potential issues of sunburn and the chance that hair may never re-grow normally.  Some groomers even make you sign a waiver, protecting them from whatever may happen to your pet after being shaved. That should certainly make you think twice!  The best thing to do is to keep your pet's groomed properly so their fur is free of tangles and mats.  Their fur is the safest way to protect them from all of the elements, hot or cold.