Savannah Health

Archive for October, 2011

Apart from the basics like good nutrition and safe environment, sound cat care demands that you keep your cat in good health, free of cat diseases and free of preventable cat illnesses. The first step in achieving this is inoculation or vaccination against common feline diseases.

Whilst your cat may develop immunity from disease by being exposed to the specific disease, this will result in them becoming sick, suffering permanent damage from the effects of the disease or worse yet, they could die.

A responsible and caring cat owner will ensure that their cat receives the relevant vaccines – apart from been the right thing to do, prevention is better than cure and a lot more economical too.

How do vaccines work?

Vaccines work by stimulating an immune response to an infectious agent, but without causing the disease against which they are being inoculated.

When should you vaccinate your cat or kitten and against what cat diseases?
If you have purchased your kitten from a reputable cat breeder, your kitten will be around 10 to 16 weeks, in which case your kitten would have received all the necessary initial inoculations. They will provide you with the documentation and vaccine and de-worming certificates and advise necessary next steps.

In any event, vaccines are given at around 8 weeks. Cat vaccination requirements may differ from country to country but generally speaking the most cat diseases or cat illnesses to vaccinated against are:

Feline Leukemia (Fe LV) – to be given at 8 weeks, repeated 5 weeks later and annual booster shots thereafter.

Feline Calici Virus (Cat Flu/Snuffles) – to be given at 8 weeks, repeated at 4 weeks, again at 13 weeks and 1 year and annually booster shots.

Feline panleucopaenia (Feline Distemper) – to be given at 8 weeks, repeated at 4 weeks, again at 13 weeks and 1 year and annual booster shots.

Feline Rhinotracheitis (Feline Herpes- Cat Flu/Snuffles) – to be given at 8 weeks, repeated at 4 weeks, again at 13 weeks and 1 year and annual booster shots.

Rabies – This is given at 12 weeks, repeated 4 weeks later and then at 9 months with annual booster shots.

General Cat Vaccination Information

Consult with your local veterinarian to establish which vaccines are essential and in some instances required by law. Whilst some people may find the cost of vaccination prohibitive, you need to seriously weigh up the cost of vaccination vs the cost of treating the disease. Prevention is cheaper than cure! Your cat is worth every cent you spend.

You also need to keep in mind, that no reputable boarding cattery will accept your kitten or cat for lodging unless they have an up-to-date vaccination certificate. Feline health is a prime concern for them.

Your un-vaccinated cat poses a danger to other cats – do you want to be responsible for spreading cat diseases?

We always recommend that a new kitten stays with its mother until at least 12 weeks. Apart from gaining important life skills from the mother cat – it receives its initial immunity through breast milk.

Finally, do remember, that an indoor cat lives longer as it is less likely to be exposed to the above diseases. To avoid cat health problems and to provide essential cat health care – cat vaccination is essential.

I will simply provide the list below and provide my own brief review for each point I make. If you take some time to read the article right to the end, you will gain more valuable insights in to this serious subject.

Most of them cannot afford to go to school or are forced drop out

A good education is important to improve the lives of African children. Children in Africa lack financial resources to be able to go to school. A large portion of the African population has people who live below the poverty line, and thus many families cannot afford to take their children to school because it is expensive. For example 69% of the people in Swaziland live with just about $3 per month. This has caused under privileged children not to have formal education.

Rape is another problem that children are faced with in the African continent

Sexual violence is one of the largest crimes against children, which threaten lives of so many of them. Violence, domestic abuse and discrimination are some of the painful things children have to go through everyday of their lives.

African countries have poor health care facilities, which have resulted in an increase in health problems for children

The lack of health care facilities has increased the number of deaths of children. Children suffer from water-borne infection from the lack of clean drinking water. Children also get health problem through mother to infant, where mothers abuse alcohol and drugs creating abnormalities and growth disorder to infants.

Another problem faced by children is starvation, which is caused by poverty where there is lack of financial resources to buy food

Starvation has resulted in malnutrition and underweight children. Most African countries rely on food donations in order to feed the hungry children; also there are orphanages where orphans are taken care of and given the necessary basic needs.

A large number of children in Africa are infected and or affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic

This has increased the number of orphans and vulnerable children and causing a large number of the young ones to be without parents or a guardian. The pandemic has resulted to a high number of child-headed households. Furthermore, because these kids are not adequately taught, they have a high chance of contracting the HIV virus while taking care of their sick parents or by being engaged in “sex games”.

If your cat is sneezing it may mean that the cat has a cold or a respiratory illness. If the cat has a illness it may be viral, bacterial, or fungal in nature. Each of these three causes will require a unique treatment which can be done by your vet. It is important that you don’t do any treatments on your cat without talking to a veterinarian first.

Cats can be sneezing as a response to several different things. Like humans they can be effected by strong chemicals or even tobacco smoke. Each cat shows different responses and sensitivities to different chemicals and allergens. Flat faced breeds of cat are usually far more sensitive to exposure of chemicals. If your cat has a sneezing problem your suspects should be perfume, household cleaners, insecticides and many other things.

If your cat has allergies, this may be the reason why it is sneezing. Like humans, cats can be allergic to many different things. Such as grasses, trees, and pollens. These will be seasonal allergies, so if the cat has allergies all year round you may need to suspect a different allergen may be causing their atopy allergy. If you are unable to figure out what is causing your cats allergies you can have a vet do allergy testing.

There are many other significantly more uncommon causes of a cat’s sneezing. These include nose polyps, cancer and ear infection. If you have any indication that any of these are the case then bring the animal to a veterinarian clinic for a diagnosis. The cat could also have just a mild cold. Dental problems may also be a cause of a cat’s sneezing. If a cat has a tooth abscess or an infection on its upper teeth, it can cause the cat to sneeze. Again, only a vet cat determine if this is the case.