The cats are lovely pets. There are so many health issues in cats just like the human beings. The cancer problem is very common in cats. Let us discuss here about the treatment options available, the expected prognosis and the cat owners role etc.

The cancer treatments are in general time consuming and expensive. The cat owner must clear all his doubts before deciding about the treatment option. Of late the cancer treatment is very effective and there are very minimal side effects due to the advancement in the field of cancer treatment. The pain management and the nutritional support plays vital role in the out come of the cancer treatment.  Many cancer types can be cured completely if treated early. The lovely pet cats can live longer now days. The pet owner is also a part of health care team and hence the pet owner should under stand more about the cancer treatment options.

One should be aware that there is no single treatment for cancer. The cancer treatment plan varies from case to case and the treatment option needs to be customized. Cancer treatment is always a combination of treatment. This way the cancer can be treated quickly and the side effects can be minimized to a great extend.

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy requires special equipment and not every hospital will have this. Hence it is the duty of the owner to enquire about the hospital before selecting the place of treatment. There are side effects in radiation therapy also. The side effects are because of the burn of the tissues that are located in the vicinity of the affected part. If the tumour is located near very sensitive tissue, then the radiation treatment is bit complicated.  The sensitive tissues will be damaged badly due to radiation and the side effect will be more severe. In general the affected good tissue will regenerate in due course and the normal function can be restored.

In radiation therapy the tumour cells are targeted and the radiation renders the tumour cells unable to multiply and as the result the tumour shrinks in size. Over the period of time the tumour cells will be completely destroyed and the tumour will disappear completely. The tumours that can not be removed by way of operation are treated with radiation. The cats are given anaesthesia while treating them with radiation in order to restrict the movement of the animal for better focussing of the targeted tissue.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is nothing but treating the tumour with chemicals. The chemotherapy is very effective but the side effects are very intimidating. At present different chemicals are used at very low frequency and dosage along with anti cancer agents to improve the efficiency of the treatment as well as reducing the side effects. The treatment is carried out in such a way that there is sufficient time gap between each administration. This will help the cat to cope up with the side effects. The possible side effects are poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, low white cell count, irritation at the sight of the injection, lethargy, poor immune function etc.

The chemicals that are used in the cancer treatment destroy the cells that are dividing faster. The cancer cells multiply faster and hence are targeted by the injected chemicals.  The side effects are because the normal cells that divide also get affected by the chemical used to destroy the cancer cells. The cells in the gut and immune system divide faster and hence are affected more during the chemotherapy as they are caught in the cross fire.

Surgery

Surgical removal of the tumour is very common practice. The external tumours are removed using the surgery. There are so many surgical techniques such as laser surgery, cryosurgery, radiosurgery and traditional scalpel surgery. The most difficult aspect of the surgical treatment is removing the tumour cells completely leaving nothing in the body. In general the surgeon will remove not only the tumour but also the tissue surrounding the tumour in order to ensure the cancer cells are completely removed from the body. The removed tissue will be sent to pathology lab for histopathological study to confirm the diagnosis. As it is not possible to remove the cancer cells completely using surgical technique, this treatment option will be combined with chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Adjunctive care

The cancer patient should be given best nutrition. But extra nutrition needs to be avoided.  The food provided should be digested easily and ingredient provided should be of high quality. The cat should be hand fed to increase the appetite. At times the appetite stimulant also needs to be provided.

Many are not aware that the cats can see very clearly at night. This capacity is very useful for the cats for their nocturnal hunting habit. The cats will not be able to see thing clearly at complete darkness but these lovely creatures can see things clearly in very low light.

There are so many special anatomical features present in the eye of the cat which is responsible for the night vision in cats. The pupils of the cat are elliptical in shape and are oriented vertically. The elliptical pupils can open very wide than the round pupils which are present in human beings. As the elliptical pupils open wider, more light passes in, there by aiding the cat to see the things clearly even in low light.

There is yet another special anatomical feature present in the eye of the cat which is none other than a membrane called tapetum lucidum.  This special membrane is designed in such a way that the light that enters the eye is reflected back so that the retina gets more light.  The cat’s eye will flash at night, many could have witnessed this. The reason for the flash noticed is nothing but the work of the special membrane tapetum lucidum.

The cat’s retina is also specially designed with more rods and cones and as the result the cat can see very well even at low light. Rods are very effective in absorbing the lights than the cones. The cones are primarily responsible for absorbing the colour. The colour vision is very much limited in cats than human beings and the cones are present in less numbers in cats than human beings.

As discussed earlier the reflective tapetum and the wider pupil maximise the entry of light in to the eye. As the result the retina gets more light. Since the retina is provided with more rods that are very effective in absorbing the light, the cats are able to see well than human beings in low light.

Cat’s eye

The human beings and the cats see the world differently. The anatomical features are different from eye of the human beings and that of the cat. As the needs of the human eye and cat’s eye are different, the anatomical features are also slightly different. Human beings evolved as fruit eating developed animal. The cats evolved as meat eating and nocturnal animal. The human being need to distinguish the colours efficiently. The cats require seeing more clearly in low light for hunting at night. Lets us discuss in details about the features of the feline eye to understand the night vision better.

The pupil

The light enters the eye through pupil. The pupil in the eye gets wider or narrower in order to let the light in according to the availability of light. The cat’s eye gets more light than the human beings. The pupil of the cat’s eye appears as vertical slit when it contracts. In human beings, the pupil will appear round at contacted position. The eye with slit pupil can be noticed in animals that have the nocturnal hunting behaviour. The slit pupil will allow more light in to the eye than the round pupil which is the reason for the night vision in those animals. But there is a disadvantage in slit pupil. The animal will find it difficult during perfect focus at slit formation as there will be optical interference.   

The lens

The lens is responsible for collecting and focussing the light, once the light enters the eye.  The lens is the cat’s eye is much larger than the lens present in the human beings. As the result more light is collected and focussed. The smaller lens can change the shape to focus the light to a great range of distance. But the larger lens could not change the shape and hence there will difficulty in focussing the light to variable distances. As the result the cats will find it very difficult in focussing the objects that are very closely located. Just as the case of older people finding is difficulty to see the person very close without the help of the reading glasses.

The Retina

The retina is the other important structure of the eye. The light that enters falls on the retina.  The retina is made up of cells that react to the light. There are so many factors involved in the functioning of the retina. One should know how well the image is focussed on the retina.  If the lens is found to be too strong for the distance at which the lens and the retina are located, the image will be focussed before it gets to the retina and hence will be defocused before it reaches the retina.  Likewise if the lens is too weak, the image will be unfocussed even when it reaches the retina. As far as most of the cats are concerned, the lenses are appropriately positioned and as the result the cats are neither farsighted nor near sighted.

If the lens are located at the farther distance to the retina and the retina is larger then the image farmed will be larger. The cats do have large eyes and the retinas are also appropriately sized. If the sampling grain is smaller in the retina and the image details will be very clear. The retina will have cells that are rod shaped and cone shaped.  The rods are responsible for absorbing the light. The cones are for differentiating the colour. The rods are present more in cat’s retina than the human beings. The cones are present in more numbers in retina of the human beings than the cats.

Cones and colour vision

In general the cats will have poor image details than the human beings. The reason for this is that the cats have rod rich retina where as the human beings have cone rich retina. The cats are not colour blind. The cats will have red- green colour blind generally termed as deuteranopia. This type of colour blind is very common among the human beings. These people can see blue colour verses other colours. But they will get confused in differentiating colours that are red through brown through and green. The root cause lies in presence of number of cones in the retina of the eye.

Night vision in cat

As the result of the special anatomical features such as vertical pupil [slit pupil], special reflecting membrane and rod rich retina, the cat’s can see better than human beings even at low light ,which helps them immensely for nocturnal hunting.

Ring worm is just the common name for the disease called dermatophytosis. This condition is nothing but a fungal infection frequently affecting the cats. At the beginning there will be ring shaped red spot which will be accompanied by infection. The organisms that were responsible for the dermatophytosis are microsporum gypseam and trichophyton mentagrophytes. These organisms have the capacity to live longer in the environment with the help of the spore formation. These spores are infective in nature and will look like seed like structures. These fungi feed on the keratin present in the nail, hair, and the skin layers. There are so many different strains available in the nature and each one varies in virulence and the ability to cause the disease.

How ringworm spreads?

The ring worm is transmitted by contact with hair, scale and skin lesion. The infective agent can be isolated from the soil and the surrounding environment. The fungus can also be isolated from the carriers. The so called carriers will not show any sign of infection but can very well pass on the infection to the surrounding animals. The infected cat will shed the hair continuously and the hair will have loads of infective spores. The young cats and the cats that are immunosuppressed are most likely to be infected very fast. The cats that are in the shelter are more prone for ringworm infection. The veterinarian should inspect the surrounding of the cat thoroughly in case of ring worm infestation.

How does ringworm look like?

The lesions of the ring worm in cat are very different in structure and shape. The lesions in the cat do not look like the lesion of the human beings. There will be bald spots in the body which are associated with crusty and scaly structure. There will be severe irritation at the lesion. The lesion will look similar to allergic reaction, bacterial infection and mite infection. But the vet will find out the type of infection by proper differential diagnosis.

Diagnosis of the ringworm

There are so many ways this ringworm infection can be diagnosed. The most common way of diagnosis is the fungal culture from the scale or crust or hair. The diagnosis can be made through skin biopsy and KOH-DMSO preparation test. Wood’s lamp fluorescence test is the other diagnostic test available for ring worm diagnosis. The infected hair will fluoresce if placed under the woods lamp. The ring worm can be diagnosed using Mackenzie tooth brush technique. The infected area is ribbed with sterile tooth brush here for sample for the culture. This technique is very useful for testing the carriers which are asymptomatic.

How ring worm is treated?

The ring worm infections are treated with ease with oral antifungal and topical antifungal medications. There are very serous side effects while using some of these medications. Hence these medications should be administered strictly under the supervision of veterinarian. To control the secondary bacterial infection antibiotics are used. Of course the flea preventive program is useful but their efficacy is yet to be established without any doubt. The treatment should never be discontinued till the skin cultures are negative. The environmental decontamination is a must in treating ring worm faster but environment decontamination is the most difficult thing. Environmental decontamination can be done by steam cleaning, vacuuming and bleach cleaning.

Is there any vaccine for ring worm?

There is a ring worm vaccine which can be used in cats. The efficacy of the vaccine is very much debatable as some inform that there will be disappearance of clinical lesion but the infection will continue to remain. Hence there will be more number of carrier cats if this ring worm vaccine is used in them.

Can the ring worm be transmitted from cat to human beings?

The ringworm is a zoonotic disease. The disease can be transmitted from human beings to cat and vice versa. As discussed earlier the immunosuppressed humans are highly susceptible to the ring worm infection. The people with chronic diseases, very young individuals, very old human beings, and the people infected with immunosuppressive virus, people with cancer, person who is undergoing post transplant therapy and the people who are undergoing chemotherapy are highly susceptible to ring worm infection. Hence one should consult the veterinarian if he suspects the cat for ring worm infection without wasting much time. One should not waste time is self medication and over the counter medication as this ring worm infection is very difficult to diagnosis and treat.

The upper respiratory tract conditions in cats are generally referred as kitty colds. These are running nose, sneezing, cough and fever. These symptoms are the result of upper respiratory tract infections and are generally termed as URI. Upper respiratory tract infections are caused by many bacteria and viruses. But there are two major viruses that are often involved are feline herpes virus-1 and feline calicivirus. Chlamydophilia is the yet another reason for the upper respiratory tract infection in cat. Chlamydophila was formerly known as Chlamydia.

Upper respiratory tract infection is a complex disease as so many microbes are the causative agents and the symptoms exhibited are one and the same. Selecting the right drug for the treatment is ambitious as it is very difficult to pin point the causative agent.

The microbes that cause upper respiratory tract infection in cat are highly contagious and as the result the disease spreads very fast from one animal to the other. The cats that prefer to stay indoors are less likely to get infected as the contact with the other animal is very less. The cats that move about and out side the house are exposed to the infected cat and thus get the infection.

The cat that is handled by the person, who is either infected or handled the cat which is infected, will get the infection. The cat that shares the litter box or the food bowl with the other cat is likely to get infected if the other cat is suffering from upper respiratory tract infection.The cat that shares toy with the infected cat also will pick up the infection.

The young and the old cats are more prone for the infections as the immunity level will be low. The cats that are unvaccinated, the cats living in catteries and the cats living in the shelter are at great risk of getting the upper respiratory tract infection.

The FHV is very fragile virus and is susceptible to most of the common disinfectants. This virus can survive only 18-24 hours outside the host. But FCV is strong virus and resistant to many disinfectants. This virus can survive longer time outside the body of the host. In order to protect the cat from the infection, the contaminated cages, water dishes, food and human hands should be washed with diluted bleach or the chemicals designed to destroy the virus.

The other important thing that needs to be noted is that this virus can spread up to 4 feet in air when the cat sneezes or coughs. The cats that are infected with upper respiratory tract will recover faster if appropriate treatment is provided. But nearly eighty percent of the recovered cats will remain as a carrier for few months to few years. These carrier cats will remain normal and will not exhibit any sign of infection but continue to spread the infection to the other animals and will be the source of infection for major outbreak. These carriers may show up the symptoms some times in life especially when they are under stress or not feeling well.

These upper respiratory tract infections are not at all life threatening but are big nuisance. At the same time one should not ignore this infection as it can become serious illness if not attended at the earliest. FHV can lead to ulcer in the cornea of the cat.

The other virus calcivirus has the ability to get entry in to the cell of the lung and can potentially trouble the respiration of the cat. The calcivirus can cause damage to the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract and tongue. Calcivirus can also result in ulcers in the nose but such cases are very rare.

Chlamydophila is mostly associated with the eye infection and at times this infection can spread to the other parts of the body which is serious. The cat should be admitted to the hospital if the cats are not fit enough for drinking the water and eating the food. The cat should be kept under supportive therapy in order to boost the infection.

If you notice the signs like ulcers in the mouth or the eye, dehydration, very high nasal discharge and fever, then the kitten is suffering very badly. The kitten should be taken to the near by vet clinic within no time.

The signs of FHV infection keep coming back. Stress is the reason for the flare up of infection. Introduction to a new cat, journey, surgery etc are the some of the stress conditions that are worth mentioning here.

The kittens that are 5-7 years old are more susceptible for the upper respiratory tract infection. The reason is nothing but low immunity level. The immunity passed from the mother cat will be at very low at that time. At this point of time the organs that are responsible for the immunity of the kittens will not be at its prime. This is the reason why the kittens that are purchased at the pet store or shelter will look at healthy but the moment it reaches the house of the owner, they get sick.

The cats that are admitted in the hospital are administered fluids either through subcutaneous or intra venous method. The cats will also be treated with antibiotics to prevent the secondary bacterial infection.

As most of the upper respiratory tract infections of the cat are of viral origin, self limiting is the only remedy. But the cats should be under other supportive therapy. The cat may be given eye medications in order to prevent conjunctivitis and corneal ulcer.

Anti viral eye medications are must if there are ulcers in the eye of the cat caused by herpes virus. Of late, oral anti viral and immune boosters are available in the market for use and these medications are found to be very effective. L-lysine is one such drug and is very popular. Appropriate vaccinations will help to protect your feline friend. The owner should get the details regarding this vaccine from the vet and should administer the same at appropriate time as advised the vet.

Upper respiratory trract infection in cat is a dreadful condition that needs utmost care to get cured as soon as possible. Otherwise, upper respiratory tract infection would lead to death of your beloved pet. Try to follow the tips given in this article to get cured this condition at no time.