Category Archives: Living with cats

Veterinarians and hairballs

This year, World Vet Day and Hairball Awareness Day (24th April) follow each other closely. Now, hairballs can lead at the veterinarian’s !

By licking us, we swallow our hairs ; they agglutinate in our digestive system but are not digested.

If we’re lucky, our hairs don’t go farther than our stomach, and we vomit them in a characteristic sausage shape. Provision of grass to be chewed helps to regurgitate the ingested hairs.

If we have less luck, the swallowed hairs pass in the bowel ; they can then cause a constipation, an intestinal obstruction requiring a surgical operation, or in the worst case an intestinal obstruction.

To avoid all these inconveniences, we must be regularly brushed to eliminate the dead hairs and avoid that we swallow it too much. The long-haired cat breeds must be brushed every day, and the old cats two-three times a week.

Having heard about this “magic” tool at least a million times, Claire finally bought us a FURminator. She took time to be convinced that it was not a gadget, but seeing the price of the object (40 CHF !), we can understand that she took time to get her opinion made.

She’s thrilled, and us too : we purr every time she uses it. It’s a purchase that is really worth of it : the ergonomic shape of the tool allows to have it well in hand, hairs are collected without any trouble, no need to press or to pull excessively, it’s very effective. A 10 minutes session a week is amply enough for us who have short hairs.

We shall not thus go to the Cabinet du Molage for that reason : moreover, we don’t like that the veterinarians make us injections and that they stick us a thermometer in the ***, that they inspect us ears and teeth, even if we know that it’s for our good. Claire nevertheless likes this office, because all the staff is very nice. The three veterinarians are competent and say clearly things : certain people don’t appreciate this frankness, but that suits our human very well. They have a big package of handkerchiefs for difficult times, and always have a small word kind to us. They watch our health, and Claire trusts them: finally, maybe although we like them… just a little !

PS: we were very sad and very angry to hear that a young veterinarian had made dirty and dishonored this beautiful profession by a useless, cruel, and stupid act of which she boasted on social networks. Shame on her. #JusticeforTiger on Twitter and on Facebook.

What to do if you witness abuse to an animal ?

In Switzerland, the animal protection law regulates the conditions of detention and the way of taking care of animals, the forbidden practices, the conditions of breeding, the conditions of transport, the coverage and the care to provide, the conditions of experiments on animals and conditions of killing and slaughter. It applies to all vertebrates, and to the other animals under certain conditions.

This law stipulates in the article 4 that
« 1- Every person who takes care of animals owes : a) to take into account at best their needs ; b) to watch their well-being as far as the purpose of their use allows it ;
2- Nobody should in a inequitable way cause pains to animals, troubles or damage, put them in a state of anxiety or strike a blow at their dignity in a different way. It is forbidden to mistreat animals, to neglect them or to overwork them pointlessly.
3- The federal Council forbids the other practices on animals which strike a blow at their dignity.”

So, what to do if you witness abuse to an animal ?

If possible, take photos or make a video.
Note carefully the place, the date, and the hour of your observation.
Indicate the case to the Animal Protection Society of your area or to the cantonal veterinarian in writing if possible. Mention your name, your address, and your phone number. Be factual and describe exactly the facts the witness of which you were without forgetting the following information : what species ? how many animals ? what place (house, pasture, stable, …)? who is the owner (if known) ? are there other witnesses ? If yes, names and addresses of these.

All which can look like an abuse or a carelessness doesn’t establish necessarily a breach of the animal protection legislation. According to cantons, the APS or the cantonal veterinarian will control to estimate the situation and verify that the noticed abuse is really a breach of the legislation.

Have you already witnessed abuse to an animal ? If yes, what did you do ?

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How do cats see ?

Zorro laughed well recently when he saw me looking for the ladybird which I had down on the nose ; he even dared to say that I needed glasses ! This ladybird was just outside my field of vision, that’s all…

The cats eyes are made to spot the slightest movement. Our vision field is bigger than that of human : human covers approximately 210^o (120^o binocular), and we cover approximately 285^o (130^o binocular).
Proportionally to the size of our head, we have big eyes.

Our pupillary reflex to the variation of luminous intensity is extremely fast : only big cats of the Felis genre can retract their pupil to the size of a slender vertical crack. We can dilate it also considerably to see better at night.

We are able to distinguish colors, but less well than humans : we are little sensitive to red, and we could say that our vision of tints is more pale. This is due to the structure of our eye cells : we have more rod cells (night-vision in black and white) than cones (diurnal and colored vision). We are diurnal and crepuscular predators, thus our eye is perfectly adapted to our nature.

Two erroneous assertions have nevertheless firm existence :

Cats see in total darkness.
WRONG. Cats need from five to six times less light than humans to see during the night, but they cannot see in total darkness.
The eyes of cats shine in the dark.
WRONG. Our pupil is dilated to receive the tiniest rays of light in the darkness. Cells situated behind the retina act as a mirror to amplify the light and allow us so to see better when it’s dark, what seems to make our eyes shine.