The Roses and question about cat grass

[ina]

The Roses, yes they both are named Rose (in Turkish and Dutch) but they both only respond to 'poooooooooz'.

Is it important to give inside cats cat grass? All they do is swallow the blades whole and chuck it up after a few minutes. I would find little puddles of clear foam with still green grass in it. What's the use?

[ina]

[Roy Bham UK]

Cute little balls of fluff ;D if you could get them to sit at your feet, you wouldn't need any slippers ;D

I believe cats and dogs accumulate excess saliva in their gut and need to dispence with it and grass helps to transport it onto your carpet :P  as that is what Harvey does occasionally ::)

[NattyEm]

no idea about cat grass as my cat (soon to be cats) are all outdoorsy. But had to say what beautiful cats you have! 

[ina]

Thanks folks. Yes, they are lovely cats, they play hard and sleep hard. Two sisters, 10 years old this spring and live with us since 8 years now.

[Kerry]

ina, what lovely cats!
i grow 'cat grass' especially for my 2 girlcats. one does not touch it, but the other eats it every day. she nibbles it right down and i have just sown her some more.
the packet says that this grass is better for their digestive system and should make them less sick than ordinary.
i do see her eating the long bits of grass round the side of neighbour's house though.
i have to say since giving it to her i have less of the 'saliva with grass in' as you describe. i think you would see a real benefit if your cats were just 'house cats' ie. not allowed out, but i don't know what she takes it upon herself to nibble when i'm not looking!

[ina]

Yeah Kerry, also just one of my two cats eats grass (and throws it up), the same one that drinks milk which the other one doesn't either. Sisters but so different from each other.
I sow it myself too, grows very quickly in a pot on the window sill. I don't know if I'll keep doing it since it makes her throw up more often.

Meet the Roses while they're awake (barely hahaha).

[Wicker]

What beauties, Ina, should ahve guessed you would be a cat person!  How do you get them to stay in their beds?  Belle has two proper beds but never uses them - juset finds corners in cupboards, behind sofas, on top of wardrobes and uses each one for about a week then moves to another... think its maybe a throw back to wild cats who move around for hunting and food - neither of which she lacks!

[NattyEm]

Thats what my Mort does too!  about a week in each spot.

[Kerry]

my girls have their favourite spots, they give each other 'looks' if one is in the others' spot. they like the choice of where to sit. sunny spot, soft spot, hiding spot etc!!

[Palustris]

Cat 1 to Cat 2. " Hey up, here is the hired hand. Lets chew some grass and worry it."
Cat 2 to Cat1. " Right! You puke in his slipper and I'll puke in her sewing basket. That's always good for a laugh!"

[Kerry]

 :D ;Dcould only come from a member of a cat's 'staff'!

[ina]

Whoahaha Eric! You must have been a cat in a previous life.

Wicker, I once bought a lovely cat hammock to hang on the radiator, the Roses took turns in it for a week and never looked at it again. I figuered I'll try one, if they like it I'll get a second one but I just had to get rid of the first one.

How do I get them to stay in their bed? Aha, you can't see the chain around their hind legs can you........just kidding. When I made the foam rubber lining for the bigger basket, I used a lovely tartan design cotton material to cover it and they wouldn't use it, then I cut up an old fleece sweatshirt, layed it in the bottom and voila, they took to it right away. I guess the positioning is important too, next to the radiator with a view of the whole livingroom.

[Wicker]

Ina, forgot we also have one of those radiator hammocks - totally ignored as she prefers to sleep under it and the second photo is Belle making herself comfy on the building sitte which surrounds our building just now! Sorry her face isn't clear

[ina]

All black? Pretty, just as long as she doesn't cross the road in front of me hehehe.

[vetstudentRosie]

Hey Ina,

Your cats look lovely  :) (& Wicker's...)

In reference to cat grass...

Although cats are obligate carnivores, in the wild they would normally source partially digested roughage from the gut of their prey, thus topping up essential vitamins and trace elements found only in greenery.

It's only really necessary to offer grass to house cats, and it should not be left down the whole day if your cat is over-indulging to the extent of being sick...I have found cats can't keep the raspy grass down, as it irritates their throat on the way down. I've had best results from wheat/barley...

Incidently, whilst on the matter of feline digestion, cows milk should NEVER be given to cats, as after weaning, the lactose only causes harm...hopefully you were referring to those (low-lactose) cat milks on the market...?


I sow cat grass for my kitties, offering it about twice-a-week, when Sienna goes mad for it, and the others quite often just look at me in confusion, have a sniff and potter off!!

Hope that helps

Rosie

ps so, tell me what is Rose in Turkish?...and Dutch?

[ina]

Thank you Rosie. I have never heard that cats should not drink cow's milk. What kind of harm will it do? She gets about 2 or 3 table spoons of cow's milk a day, I guess I should stop that then, she drinks water most of the time anyway.

Dutch is Roos and Turkish is Gül, we only use these names to refer to a certain cat, like 'where's Roos?'.
I have this fear of locking them in a closet since we almost lost Gül one time that way. So I always want to see both of them before we leave the house. Just shaking the cat candy (yeast snacks) container makes them run to me, only then will I leave the house for longer periods.
It happened when we left the house for the whole day when the weather was very hot. We couldn't find her when we got home. When we were checking the closets for her, we found a coat that had fallen down and wanted to hang it back up. She had somehow pulled the coat down from a hanger, got lost inbetween the lining and was stuck there all day, even tore holes in the lining but never managed to get out. The poor thing was all limp and pitiful, her nose was dry and she was so hot. I'll never forget that but I think she has, still tries to get into the closets when the door is open.

[NattyEm]

we once shut Mort in our bedroom when it was really hot, we were sat downstairs wondering why we hadn't seen him all day when we saw someting fall past the window - it was Mort he'd jumped out our bedroom window upstairs  :-\

He was absolutly fine though.

He's in a mood with me now, because I've shut his catflap as he needs his booster jab today.  Rosie if you see this, how long outside a year can the booster be given before it has to be the full vaccine again?

[vetstudentRosie]

Follwing weaning, dogs and cats do not have the proper enzymes to properly break down the sugar in milk, lactose equivalent to lactose-intolerant

Without the proper enzymes are not present, the lactose remains undigested and tends to ferment in the intestine and cause diarrhoea....if your cats go out, perhaps you are missing what comes out the other end...?

Some pets can tolerate a little milk, others, none at all. Your cat appears to tolerate milk, but I'd suggest you dilute it with water, and slowly break the habit (cats are fine on water alone). If Rose just loves it too much, try and find some 'cat milk' on the market that will have had the lactose removed.


On the subject of vaccination...tricky one this...there is no hard and fast rule with overdue boosters

It is a myth that being a day or two late is putting your pet at enormous risk...infat the current hype in the vet world is that immunity is held far longer than a year for some diseases, making boosters only necessary every 1-3 years.

The truth is, drug companies make vaccines, which have to be licensed. This license is granted to the manufacturing company in return for the company providing a mound of experimental information about the vaccine. However most trials only 'look' to comfirm immunity in the first year, which leaves us thinking protection wanes after that....(recent studies now suggest otherwise)

Since the manufacturer can only prove the effectiveness of the vaccine for the period over which it was tested, it is only allowed a licence if the data sheet for the vaccine says it has to be repeated every year or two. They would need to test it's efficacy for much longer to say it protected for longer than this - a costly exercise, and one that would, if it proved correct, reduce sales of vaccines. Controversial topic for drug companies and most vets!

Blood tests can detect the level of antibodies in pets that have been vaccinated. Studies show many dogs vaccinated against hepatitis have life long immunity and antibodies in most are shown to be present in the blood for many years. Distemper and parvovirus antibodies, similarly, can be present for anywhere between three and five years or may be even longer.

The ideal answer, therefore, is, to blood-test pets annually to check their immunity, vaccinating them only when their antibodies fall below accepted effective levels...but we are still somewhat old-school unless you turn to a homoeopathic vet, who have been doing this for some time.

Since this technique is somewhat more expensive than annual vaccination vets argue that we might as well vaccinate anyway. However, many vets practising complementary medicine believe that this is not a sensible argument. They believe that over-vaccination actually damages our pet's health, often producing long-term immune disorders such as skin problems and bowel disease.


So it conclusion to all my waffle, a few days/weeks delay to Mort's booster should have no ill effects (no experimantal proof...yet), infact there may be a an eminent shake-up to vaccination programmes in this country on the horizon.

It is always best to ask your vet...who has access to medical history etc (and is qualified...I'm no graduate!)

Most are only comfortable keeping within the published timescales, and will recommend a restart after about -4 weeks, however I hope to have given you food for thought on vaccinations ...and background info to now quiz the vet on their stance...

Kind regards

Rosie

ps just as an aside, my house cats aren't vaccinated at all, and their immune system seems second to none! Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons... :) :)

[vetstudentRosie]

sorry all, my keyboard is playing up and keeps throwing in the wrong letter as I type or missing them out all together...so annoying!!

Hope you can still make head-nor-tail of my above post...

Rosie

[ina]

Very nice of you to share your animal knowledge with us, thanks again.