The first rule of having a pet is to take care of it. Although some people might think that it is easy to care for cats, there are numerous things that the owners have to look out for to make sure that their cat is healthy. There are numerous diseases that a cat might have. Some of them could be prevented, while others are hereditary.
One of the most common problems with cats is the presence of hairballs. It is known that the cats groom themselves and during this they swallow the loose hair. This might create a ball in the stomach of the animal that needs to be taken care of.
Another common problem regarding the health of cats is represented by the worms. The most common worms to infect cats are the roundworms, hookworms and tapeworms. In some cases the cats might also get infected with heart worms. The symptoms of worm infection include weight loss, poor coat appearance, pot bellied appearance, and also vomiting.
It is easy to take care of this problem through medication. Nonetheless in case the infection is untreated, it might cause serious problems for the animal.
Vomiting might also occur quite often. There are numerous reasons for which the cat vomits. These vary from having some serious health problems to eating something disagreeable. Still you should know that it is considered to be normal for cats to vomit from time to time.
The owners should also look out for the signs of diarrhea. Diarrhea itself isn’t really an illness, but rather a symptom of a disease that might become a serious issue.
Urinary tract infections might also often be encountered at cats. Bladder diseases might appear both in the case of female and male cats. Still you should know that in the case of male cats the risk of life threatening urethra blockage is a lot higher than in the case of female cats.
Fleas represent one of the most traditional problems that animals might have. These little animals feed on the blood of the cat, and in case the infection gets worse, the cat might become anemic and really unwell. There have been some cases when the flea infection has killed kittens. It happens rarely, but there are some animals that are allergic to flea saliva, and this irritates them. Another danger represented by fleas is that they carry worm infections from one animal to the other.
You might have not known this, but one of the most common causes of death in the case of older cats is Chronic Kidney Failure. In case the cat gets only dry food for a long period of time, this might lead to Chronic Renal Failure. An obvious symptom of kidney disease in case of cats is that they drink a lot more water than they used to.
Other health related issues might include conjunctivitis, cat flu, ear mites, feline stress, feline infectious peritonitis, feline immunodeficiency virus and also feline leukemia virus, some of these being life threatening for the cats.
