Cats

The study of parasites is called parasitology. It is an important discipline because internal parasites cause death and disease worth billions of dollars in animals each year. These parasites have highly evolved life cycles that make their elimination impossible. In addition, many internal parasites affect people with the potential for serious consequences. Cats (especially kittens) are routinely infected with internal parasites, sometimes without apparent evidence of the infestation until it is too late. This means that a pet can have internal parasites even though the fecal sample is negative. It is suspected that internal parasites predispose your pet to IBD

Introduction One of the most common surgical procedures we perform is a cat neuter, know medically as an orchectomy. It is performed for several reasons: It minimizes roaming It minimizes aggressive behavior It prevents male cats from impregnating females. It minimized urinating in the home (urine spraying). Male cats are territorial and prone to fighting, which leads to serious diseases, especially viral diseases like FeLV, FIP, and FIV. Neutering minimizes this fighting, helping also to cut down on these serious contagious diseases. At the Long Beach Animal Hospital we use the carbon dioxide laser for our cat neutering. There is almost no bleeding

Introduction Pets that roam outdoors are prone to numerous traumatic injuries. Fighting with other animals, and getting hit by a car, are some of the more common ones. This page shows a surgical procedure to correct an abdominal hernia in a cat named Sundance that was hit by a car. What is a Hernia? In this case the hernia was caused by a blow to the abdomen by the car, causing an abdominal hernia. The blow was strong enough to tear a large hole in the abdominal muscles that surround the abdomen. The small intestine went through this hole and

What is Feline Immunodeficiency Virus in Cats? The Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, also known as FIV, was discovered in California in 1986. It is transmitted from cat to cat primarily by bites, as the virus is shed in the saliva. Contact through grooming, sharing food etc., does not spread the virus. This disease is found worldwide. Prevalence varies from 2.5% up to 47%, and depends on the country. The prevalence of this disease has decreased significantly since it was first diagnosed. This is due to increased awareness and testing. Even though this virus acts similar to the AIDS virus in people,

Introduction Tumors are common in cats, especially as they get older. This page describes how we treated an intestinal tumor in an 11 year old cat named Ruby. The format in this page will be different than our other disease pages. In this one we will present it as a case study, and show the diagnostic process that allowed us to make this diagnosis. We will follow the parameters of the diagnostic process in this case, the same process we use in every diagnosis me make. If you are not familiar with this process click here  for a quick review, then