On May 17, 4:04 pm, "MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER
wrote:
"Lis" wrote in message

oups.com...





On May 17, 10:24 am, "MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER
wrote:
wrote in message

groups.com...

It's raining and I thought i would post this for everyone.. as a heads
up!
I honestly didn't know how deadly a single mosquito bite could be, or
the horrible death it could lead to in a kitten or a cat
I thought it ONLY was a threat to my dog. Someone asked, Do you think
we love our dogs more than our cats? I said, No, i love my pets
equally! I think It's just that dogs and cats are different is all.

snip

Thanks for posting this. I posted a reminder about heartworms and the
importance of heartworm medication to this group last spring and again
this
year. I live in an area where we need to give heartworm medication all
year, but people in northern states have a protocol for specific
months --
which is why I started posting in the spring. Your message (and the link
you provided) adds some specific content that shows how quickly death can
occur in a cat.

To answer your question: No, I don't think people love their dogs more
than
their cats (certainly, not on this newsgroup). The people is that people
are generally unaware that this is a problem for cats as well as for
dogs.
In fact, it is *worse* if a cat is infected because there is little that
can
be done at that point. I think veterinarians and the media should be
doing
far more to educate the public about the problem and about preventative
steps. (I use Heartgard once a month for my twosome.)

MaryL

A few years ago, my regular vet was a woman who also did pathology at
a tertiary care veterinary hospital. She talked about how they were
finding more and more cases of heartworm-infected cats, and the pros
and cons of heartworm protection for cats. Her opinion was, not for
indoor cats, because the medication itself was a bigger risk than the
likelihood of infection. And even for indoor/outdoor cats, she was
ambivalent, because the heartworm-infected cats she was seeing had all
died from something else, but it was something she felt she had to
discuss with cat owners who did have indoor/outdoor cats.

But the thing is, she WAS doing pathology at a tertiary care
veterinary hospital, and seeing things that the average vet rarely if
ever sees. I suspect the average vet now is where she was on the
subject 5-10 years ago.

Lis

Thanks for the information. The question of preventative medication (and
innoculations) is one that is very important. I no longer have my cats
vaccinated for rabies or leukemia because they are indoor cats, and there
have been a number of reports of sarcomas at injection sites.

That was another thing she was seeing lots of--injection site
sarcomas. Because of it, she was in favor of minimizing the number of
injections (no FeLV vaccine for indoor cats that had no contact with
indoor/outdoor cats, combining vaccines wherever possible [something
that's controversial itself]) and varying the site of injection as
much as possible, so that the same spot didn't get it all the time.

My vet recommends heartworm prevention even for indoor-only cats (which mine
are), and I have been following that advice for a number of years. When we
first discussed it, he said that indoor cats are far less likely to have
heartworms (for obvious reasons), but they have a greater death rate if they
are infected. And, of course, mosquitoes can easily get indoors -- but
fortunately not in the great numbers that we see outdoors. He also said
that heartworms are far more common in dogs, but we are finding more and
more cases in cats (at least in this area -- East Texas).

Rabies vaccination is mandatory here (Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
and I think all of the northeast). Carmen did say that her advice on
heartworm prevention for cats might be different, if she were
practicing in a different part of the country. Here, we worry about
Lyme and lepto.

Lis