Monthly Archives: January 2017

Cats

Cat Colonies: Fascinating Social Environment

Most of us are aware that our rambunctious doggies just love to interact, with other dogs, with us, with other animals, with puddles… and cats, on the other hand, are a bit more reserved with their social lives.

Well, behaviour scientists say that the solitary cat, at least as far as our domestic felines go, is not quite their natural state. Cats will organise in groups called colonies quite often as long as food conditions allow them to, in fact, the only way for cats to choose to live solitary lives is if their environment has food so dispersed it cannot sustain more than one cat in a given location.

So! Cats are awesome colony buddies and of course, we want to know how those are organised. Colonies are generally centred around female cats and their kittens because we have found that, turns out, cats prefer contact with relatives over non-relatives and do recognise non-colony cats. Of course, unrelated cats without colonies may integrate a new colony but this is a very gradual process because colony cats may react with aggression if non-members approach their resources.

All of this proves that cats, even among relatives, have other cats they prefer to interact with and cats they may have a harder time cooperating (A bit like a family holiday gathering). This means that social structure in colonies is a complex issue and savvy cat owners know that its sometimes a bit hard to introduce a new cat to a household with other cats.

To make sure everything purrs along smoothly, make sure that you don’t just abruptly shove everyone in together. Let them realise there are new colony mates through smell and sight before letting them contact each other. A top tip as well is adopting more than one related cat at time for owners who wish to have multi-cat households. This ensures a greater chance for positive behaviours and cohesiveness of the group.

Our purring partners are pretty fascinating creatures with very well developed social behaviours and organisation, much more than what we give them credit for!

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Dogs

Whiskers – Not just for cats!

While whiskers on kittens may be a few of our favourite things, did you know that dogs also have whiskers?

Whiskers are called vibrissae, special hairs with tactile capacities found on several places of the body. So, what’s the difference between these vibrissae and normal fur or human hair? Generally speaking, normal hair or fur is much thinner and isn’t connected to any special motility (the exception being the smooth muscle that makes hair stand on end) or sensory organs.

Vibrissae, on the other hand, have several muscles associated to them that allow for an interesting range of motion and also nerves connected to them so they can actually feel when they are touched or moved. Most mammals have these amazingly talented hairs though we seem to be one of the few exceptions and they can be found on the face and above the eyebrows in dogs.

Their function and their histological components are still under investigation but we think that they serve as an extra sensory component to the facial structures like eyes and skin. For instance, touching an eyebrow vibrissae on a dog will make them blink and they will move away their whiskers before they are touched. Another proposed function is navigation, though dogs have much smaller vibrissae than cats or rats it’s still possible they use tactile hairs to ‘poke around’ their environment and avoid obstacles.

Care should be given to not trim these! They are not normal hair, they serve important tactile and navigation purposes so keep these fancy whiskers away from the shears, especially in dogs that might have visual difficulties.

All in all, vibrissae are definitely not just the domain of our feline friends and there’s a whole fascinating way these animals interact with the world we can only try to guess at.

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Horses

Equine Metabolic Syndrome The How and the Why

Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) is a disorder of several systems which has several similarities with a human variant.

There are several things that may be happening in a horse with Equine Metabolic Syndrome but predominantly we know that obese animals, animals with genetic predisposition for it, animals that are in young pastures or under exercised animals. They will generally have several issues with their fat metabolism, insulin resistance and an actual increase in circulating insulin.

One of the big consequences of EMS is laminitis and is usually when you are going to notice something might actually be wrong with your equine partner. So, what’s the connection between a metabolic syndrome and hoof issues? There are several proposed mechanisms but we know that consuming a higher than usual load of water soluble carbohydrates causes insulin to surge in concentration and also the excess of carbohydrates being fermented will create an inflammatory response that causes laminitis.

This situation often happens when animals are given access to rapid growth pastures where there is a lot of rain and then an abundance of sunlight or also excessive amount of concentrates in their diet. These pastures are both large sources of water soluble carbohydrates and of overfeeding that might lead to obesity, one of the most important predisposing factors for EMS.

Good news though, it’s quite the manageable condition if it can be adequately recognised by owners.

While laminitis is the chief complaint of horse owners with EMS, there are several other signs that might indicate they are suffering from a metabolic imbalance that needs to be corrected.

Don’t forget to check your horse for not only lameness but also: obesity, large fat deposits on the neck or chest, preputial or mammary gland swelling due to fat deposits and oedema and ill formed hooves with divergent rings that indicate past episodes of laminitis.

If you have a horse that keeps on weight well and doesn’t seem to require all that much feed, they might at be at risk of developing obesity and insulin disorders so it’s important to keep a close eye on these horses.

Is your horse looking like they might have EMS? Give a call to your vet and find out the best way to figure out for sure.

Remember the sooner the diagnosis the better this condition can be managed!

Would you like to know more about horses? Check our Equine Courses:

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Cats

Practical Tips to Enrich Your Indoors Cat’s Life

Environmental enrichment has a very important role in the lives of indoor cats.

These cats are often under stress for many different reasons and this is not always obvious to their owners. Many cats are unable to express their normal behaviour: playing, hunting, scratching, climbing to high spots and even simply hiding when they don’t want to be bothered. Some cats struggle to deal with their social environment by not getting along with other cats or humans in the household. The reasons are many and over time, all this causes damage.

Through the cooperation of vets, cat behaviourists and scientists it has been proven that indoor cats living in underenriched environments can suffer from chronic stress and anxiety, obesity, and feline idiopathic cystitis among other potentially serious medical conditions. It can also trigger behavioural changes such as urine marking, house soiling and even some types of aggression.

In order to improve your cat’s quality of life be sure to provide different types of resting areas and hiding spots to avoid unwanted interaction. Cats cope with unpleasant situations by retreating and hiding. You can use cat trees, shelves (so they have access to high places) and cardboard boxes in their favourite rooms of the house.

There should be at least one litterbox per cat but the ideal formula is to have one more litterbox than the number of cats in the household. Resting areas, feeding and drinking spots should increase in number depending on how many cats live in the same household.

Scratching vertical or horizontal surfaces (depending on your cat’s preference) are also recommended, and a wide variety of toys such as toys with the owner’s scent, toys on wands, egg cartons with treats hidden inside, and balled up pieces of paper.  It is also a good idea to rotate them so they always have “new” toys.

Cats enjoy the different stages of hunting so they will have a lot of fun if you divide your cat’s daily ration and put it on multiple places in your home, under furniture, rugs or even using food toys. This means cats can search for food/snacks around the house and get them from the toys which simulates hunting behaviour.

Environmental enrichment for cats is about finding and implementing ways to make their environment more interesting, complex, and engaging in a way that allows and even promotes their normal, natural behaviour.

These changes have a low cost, are easy to implement and will improve dramatically your cat’s health and welfare, reducing and even preventing the previously mentioned health disorders.

Would you like to know more about cats? Check our Feline Courses:

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Dogs

Cataracts

Let’s gaze into the eye today and look at one of the most common causes of blindness in our dogs.

Cataracts are defined as the opacification of the lens, which is to say that the part of the eye that acts as the focal point for light no longer lets light pass through it. The crystalline lens, as it is called in anatomical terminology, acts exactly like the lens on cameras, telescopes or glasses. It sits right behind the iris and is going to bounce light to the retina on the far back of the eye.

As it stands, it’s one of the pivotal structures involved in eyesight. Its transparency is given by fibres that are continuously produced which means that anything that might affect the fibres themselves or their replenishing and growth process will, most likely, lead to cataracts.

So, how can lens fibres be damaged in such a way that leads to visual impairment? Osmotic imbalances created in complications from Diabetes Mellitus due to high glucose in the blood stream, inflammation in the anterior chamber of the eye that causes deficient nutrition to the lens and hereditary factors that compromise lens fibre renewal are the leading causes of cataracts.

Many other issues may cause this condition like trauma, nutritional deficiencies, electric shocks, radiation therapy and even just old age.

What to look out for? If you look into your pets’ eyes you might notice they appear to be cloudy, this is quite indicative of cataracts but beyond it, your dog might have difficulties walking around the house, might be bumping into things more often, might be more easily startled by a sudden approach, might feel disoriented in unfamiliar environments which are all signs of progressive blindness.

This is a progressive condition, so it usually just gets worse. How much worse will depend on the underlying issue and the individual animal but don’t delay in consulting with your vet!

There are several treatment options and your vet will be more than glad to help you with any questions you might have about managing cataracts and what they can do to help. Remember, the sooner the better!

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