February 5, 2025 • 48 mins
On this week's episode of In The Vet's Office, Dr. Josie is joined by one of her former vet school classmates, colleague, friend, and cat connoisseur- Dr. Andrew Bean. Dr. Josie and Dr. Bean start the episode by talking about an exciting new medication that used to be sold on the black market, but has now been FDA approved to treat a common, life threatening disease in cats. They then dig into all of your burning questions about cats like: Is wet food really best? Should I be worried about hairballs? Why is my cat peeing outside its litter box?And what does making biscuits really mean? The episode ends with Paw & Order, where Dr. Josie and Dr. Bean talk about three things they would never do with their own cats.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're listening to in the Vets Office with doctor Josie Horchak.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi everyone, and welcome back to in the Vets Office.
I am your host, Doctor Josie, and this is a
very exciting week because we are joined by one of
my very best friends in the entire world, Doctor Andrew Bean,
who I will be calling Bean for the entirety of
this episode. Bean and I went to veterinary school together
at the Ohio State University. We worked together in Chicago
(00:39):
at Boulevard Vet. Shout out Boulevard if you're in Chicago,
check them out. They are the best. Bean is actually
now a partner there. It's hands down the best VET
clinic in all of Chicago Land. And he is in
Nashville today to film this episode with me. So welcome Bean.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I oh, let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
You have to do it when you're together, we.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Have to go buck Eyes. The main reason I asked
doctor Bean to come today is because we've done so
many episodes centered on dogs, and a lot of listeners say, hey,
you're giving all the love to the dogs. What about
the cats? And Doctor Bean is the cat king, so
love them, he says, love them.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I only have one, but I would kill to have
more of them. I just cannot handle it, but I
would have as many as I could stand.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I don't think your cat Zelda would allow you to
have more than just her. I feel like she's an
only child.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
That is the problem. I think she is the queen
of her roost. She does not like when new faces
come in. So when she dies, which is going to
be still a long time, hopefully never forever, but when
she does pass, I might get two or three or four,
who knows.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Perfect You will see those like tiktoks or videos where
it's like this person's a Golden Retriever, and I always
joke that our friendship, I'm like the Golden Retriever with
like a little bit of Terrier, maybe a sprinkle of Chihuahua.
And you are a house cat. I tell you I
love you, and you say thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Thank you. That is very a cat. That is a
cat answer.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
It is a cat answer. And I'm very happy because
I wear my cat socks today. Can you see in
the camera I got my cat socks. So yeah, we're
ready to go. We're gonna talk all things cats. We
always start our episode with the case of the week.
And since you're here, doctor Bean, I'm gonna let you
take it away.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, So sticking with our theme, it is a cat
that I saw actually recently, a few weeks ago. It's
a four month old kitten that I saw. They presented
super lethargic, hadne eaten in days, just really not doing well.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And you had just seen it like a few weeks
before they did.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I saw it a week before for like its first
kitten visit. It was doing great, eating, drinking, bouncing off
the walls. So when I saw this in the exam room,
this is not the same kitten. You know, there's something
wrong with this kitten. And so looking at the cat,
just looking at it, the whole cat was yellow, ears, skin, gums, eyes,
everything was just yellow.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That's always shocking. As a vet. You walk in, You're like,
oh boy, this is not good.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Like immediate red flag. You're like something's up, like this
is this is something. So we do our physical We
also find its abdomen is huge, it's belly is super distended,
and just feeling it, there's fluid in this belly. So
this kind is in rough shape. So we run some tests,
butteric X rays. I end up draining like one hundred
(03:25):
and fifty millimeters of fluid, which is a lot of
fluid off this three pound cat, four pound cat.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's a lot. So we pulled the fluid off and
we essentially diagnosed it with a disease called FIP, or
feeling infectious paraniitis. Cats in general, I think are a
little bit more prone to infectious diseases than dogs, and
this is kind of a weird disease that is kind
of confusing in terms of transmission. Even diagnosing it can
(03:54):
be tricky and difficult, but with this case, this was
kind of a classic slammed case. But if your vet
is suspicious of FIP, you know, they very may want
to run some additional tests if it's not quite as
clear cut or not as obvious as this one. This
was kind of a slam dunk diagnosis, as we would say,
and kind of the interesting thing about treating FIP. Nowadays
(04:16):
we have this great anti viral drug. We ordered it
from our special pharmacy. It came the next day, the
owner started it and I got an update a couple
of days later. Kat was back to normal, doing great.
So I saw them Actually a couple of days ago.
Kat's again doing great, doing fantastic. I'm optimistic he's going
to make or she's going to make a full recovery.
The kind of interesting part about this case is if
(04:40):
this was just a few months ago, we would be
talking about a very different treatment.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, like three months ago, three months ago.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, So this treatment just became legal I think in June,
June or July, this anti viral compound, and before it
was legal, it was extensively tested. We know it was safe,
we know its effected, but it was illegal.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It was not FDA approved, IFT approved.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
We cannot use it off label. It's a big no no.
But again, we knew was safe, we knew was effective,
and so I'm not saying I did this. I have
a friend, a friend veterinarian who back in the day
before this drug was legal, you a friend of mine
would have to basically refer them to the black market
(05:26):
to get this drug. And so there was a Facebook page.
I don't know if it's still around. Can I say
the name of it. Yeah, It's called FIP Warriors, and
it basically what owners would have to do join this private,
secret Facebook page. They would connect you to someone in
the area that sells it on the black market. You
(05:46):
have to go to their house, usually an hour or
so away. You pay one thousand bucks in cash. They
give you a vial of hopefully the drug, hopefully the medication.
They teach you how to inject it in your cat
and on your way. And again we were not allowed
to talk about it. We are not allowed to recommend it.
My friend would never write anything in the record that
(06:09):
they are recommending it because I read an article a
few months ago there was a group of vets in
Texas that like got quote busted for using it and
saving cats lives and they lost their license over it.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
It's really crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So black market veterinary drugs exist.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
We are not saying to go hunting for them. But
if your vet recommends it, I mean, yeah, this is
a very special exception, I would say.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Very special exception. And luckily we don't have that anymore.
There are more and more competent pharmacies that are carrying
this drug and it's legal now. So I'm just very
happy we have something legal to fix these cats because
it works.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, And it was crazy as a vet walking into
the room. I mean, when my friend walked into the
room wing wink and being like, hey, your cat has
this disease. They will die fatal.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
It is almost always fatal.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Correct, they will die if they don't get treatment. You
need to get a thousand dollars in cash. You're going
to drive to this random person's house. The medication sometimes
will be in their mailbox. It's like a drug deal
it really it is.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It is a black market drug.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Dealer or cat for your cat, but it saves her life.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Like, oh yeah, I've seen it work like it seems
like a miracle drug. Honestly it does, because yeah, that
cat is doing fantastic. But it's just so crazy that
we had this drug for a while. We knew it
was safe, we knew it was effective. We just could
not use it to fix these cats or help these cats.
So I've seen cases where dinners couldn't afford to do it,
or they honestly did not believe me. They were like,
(07:29):
you're lying to me, You're crazy. I'm getting another opinion,
And I'm like, I wish this was not how it
had to be.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, you're like, I know I sound insane, but I promise.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And I actually have another client who or my friend
had a client who they did it, and she was like, honestly,
anyone that doubts this process, like, they can call me
and I'll tell them it works. Do it a testimony exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Well.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I know we both have lost you know, especially coming
out of school almost eight years ago. Now, we lost
a lot of patience to FIP because we didn't even
have the black market drug available. So it's definitely been
a game changer for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, I'm very happy we have it, and yeah it's legal.
So if your cat has FIP, there is hope. Now
there's legal, good hope. So talk to your veterinarian if
you're ever worried about it.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Absolutely all right, we're gonna take a quick break and
when we get back we are going to do our
listener question and answers. Hey, doctor Josie, my cat will
randomly PM poop outside of our litter box and I
(08:36):
don't know why. Is there anything I can do? This
is a great question, I know, being I feel like
this is the number one one of the number one things,
one of the number one that doesn't really make sense.
One of the top things that we see with cat
owners when they come in is cats going to the bathroom,
not in their litter box. And what I would say
(08:57):
to that is they are the most sensitive of creatures
and more often than not, it's usually stress related or
something is different in the home and kind of like
throwing them for a loop and for whatever reason they
decide they are not going in their litter box.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
What do you think, Yeah, I mean, super super common,
especially being outside the litter box. I've struggled it with
it myself with my cat, And like you said, it
is a lot of times sometimes related to stress or
a behavior issue. Obviously, your that'll probably run some tests
to rule out any sort of like obvious medical cause,
like a UTI is what we hear a lot of
our you know, a parasite or something weird like that.
(09:32):
But in a lot of cases, it is this kind
of stress or behavior issue, and there's absolutely some things
we can do about it before you go.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
One thing that I always think of is people come
in and if they have a dog, you're like, oh,
these are UTI symptoms, Like of course, and it would
be so easy, like honestly would be easier for it
to be a UTI because you just give them an
antibiotic and they're better. But honestly, like eighty percent of
the time, ninety percent of the time it's not a
uti and it's something just as simple as like, oh,
you have your great aunt staying in the guest bedroom,
(10:02):
and that alone dressed the count enough for them to
want to be outside the litter box.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
It could be anything.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
And I had one case where the owner was convinced
that I was convinced by the end of it too,
that the cats started peeing outside the box when she
moved the cat's favorite chair just a little bit, and
then when she moved the chair back, everything went back
to normal. Yeah, so cats are very very sensitive to
really any changes. Something that seems minuscule or minute to
(10:28):
you can be a big deal for them.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
It's life altering to them, not the favorite chair.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
They need it.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And then another really interesting thing too is they can
be really some cats, not all of them, but some
of them can be so particular about the type of
litter they use.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yes, there is so many different types of litter out there.
And you know, in school they would tell you to
do a litters morgesborger a little buffet. I don't know
about you, but I do not want five litter boxes
with different litters in my house. So it's a good recommendation,
but a bit impractical.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, maybe not realistic.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
That the couple litters that I like, I think the
one that I always recommend if you're having trouble pooping
and ping outside litter box to the cat. It's called
called doctor Elsie's Cat attract Litter. I'm not paid by them.
They don't know me.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I wish, hey, how do you spell elsie e l
sy Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
But no they I have no affiliation with them. I
love them though. They're great. Shut me out if you
need me. Yeah. But now it's supposedly I think like
it's like pheromone infused litter that's supposed to really draw
the cats into the litter box, and I recommend it
to all my clients that have this issue. Again, I
use it personally with great success. So that's kind of
an easy thing that potentially could could improve this a bit.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
The other thing, too, is cats are really particular. In school,
they teach us for every cat you have, you should
have one additional litter box. So if you have two cats,
you want to have three litter boxes. Obviously, if you
have two cats and you have one or two litter
boxes and they're using them normally. Great, But if you're
having an issue, add another litter box in and keep
in mind that if they have a hard time getting around,
like it could be the litter box set up like
(12:05):
it could be if you have one of those robotic
litter boxes. I know they're cool and I'll be interested
to hear what you think about them, But sometimes they
can be hard to get in and out of, and
sometimes you need something just as simple as like a
tray with litter in it.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah. Some I mean older cats. Sometimes they are arthritic.
They have trouble getting into a litter box if it's
too high, so something low. Sometimes they're afraid of the
electronic mechanism that scoops their own litter. There are a
million reasons you'd be like, oh my god, these cats
are crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I maintenance they are.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
You think you're getting an easy cat, and a lot
of them are, but sometimes they are particular.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
What do you think about the robot litter boxes?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I want one personally, It's one less thing to think about.
I think if you've got an electronic litter box on
a mag feeder, that cat is good to go for
a long time. I think the downside is they're, you know,
on the more expensive side, and if you pail this
money and the cat is afraid of it and doesn't
use it, then you're.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Like a damn we stuck with an expensive litter box.
I guess you could sell it on Facebook marketplace. You
sure can get some money back. The nice thing about
the robotic litter box is cats are also very particular
in that if their litter box is dirty or it's
not frequently cleaned, they're like, nope, I'm not going here.
So at least with the robot, you don't have to
worry about that as much, and they clean it after
every time, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I think some do. I think I don't. Some maybe
have like timers or like daily But yeah, I'm sure
you can program it to do whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
We were talking about this episode and you said something
where when that cats, if you have the automatic feed
and the litter box, like you quite literally have to
do nothing. And there's so many owners out there that
think they want a dog, but they actually want a cat.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Oh all the time, I see so many clients get dogs,
get puppies, and they have a little bit buyers remorse
because they're like, you know, I really just wanted an
animal that was like a companion for me. That's kind
of a little maintenance that I don't really have to
like do a ton of work for. And I'm like, guys,
you wanted a cat. You did not want a dog.
You wanted a cat. And I think cats have a
(13:59):
little bit of a negative connotation with them, especially with men.
I think it's kind of a man has a cat, You're.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Like, oh, like, are you a weird guy?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, And I think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It is ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So if you want a cat, if you do want
a low maintenance kind of companion that will still give
you love, a cat is You're a great bet for you.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
They're amazing. They really are underrated and they don't get
enough love. And it is like you hear crazy cat ladies,
or oh that's weird he has a cat. Like I
just think that is so silly.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It is very silly to me. And I'm here to
break the stigma. I'm here to advocate for the cats
and advocate for cat daddies and cat moms everywhere.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Shout out cat daddies. I love that you said something
about pheromone in the litter, pheromones in the litter. I
think a cool thing that a lot of people don't
know about is feel Away. And again this is not
an ad, it's just a product that we love. We
have them in the vet clinic and these are like
almost like a glade plugin that you would put into
your wall, and they release pheromones for cats. I think
(15:00):
maybe this is maybe I read this somewhere, but the
Mama scent gland where she like releases these pheromones to
her litters that kind of help bring down stress. They've
basically like created that into this like synthetic pheromone that
they're releasing into the house. So it's pretty awesome and
it comes and plug in sprays wipes. I highly recommend.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I love it. Any behavior she with a cat. Any
you have a new cat coming, you are introducing new cat,
feel get a plug in or two. I do believe
they actually work. I think there's some very similar products
that I will not name that I have questions about
whether they work or not. But I think the FeelA Way.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Absolutely works one hundred percent agree And we'll even sometimes
spray it on our scrubs before we go into an
exam room, and cats that are notoriously like trying to
beat the crap out of us during an exam will
be like so sweet and like rubbing up on you
and headbutting you and like it definitely absolutely works, I think,
and it.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Doesn't hurt at all. You know, it's much easier than
giving your cat a pill every day. I'm just having
a diffuser on if they're kind of an anxious or
stressed out cap totally.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That's called it Feel Away everyone. You can get it
on Amazon. It's awesome. Okay, I'm just going to hit
you with some like topics, big cat topics, and we're
just going to go through them because these are some
of the common questions I get as a veterinarian. And
you are at the cat king, So let's dive right
in number one, what do you think about bathing your cat?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So I get this question a lot. I will say
my cat is thirteen years old. I have never bathed
through once in my whole life. Cats usually do a
great job of doing it on their own. I think
some breeds, like you know, if you have a long
hair breed with just lots of lots of hair, or
you know, some sort of like skin disease or there's
not good on their own grooming, then sometimes you do
give them a bath, take them to a groomer. But
(16:43):
I would say, in general, if it's not broke, don't
fix it.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Totally agree. I totally agree. I'm saying like, I feel
like it's part of their like routine to groom themselves.
Like cats are so particular in that way that if
we're doing it for them, they're kind of like what
the heck, Like, please don't Susan, just stop?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Please stop? Yeah, I mean, I I've seen some battle
wounds from people trying to bait their cats. So if
you don't need to do it, don't do it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
And then the long haired cats too, they'll come into
the clinic and sometimes we have to give them like
a little Brazilian wax around the booty hole, lit sanitary,
some dingle berries back there.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, you know, things get caught in things.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Back there, and if they're like a little chunky, which
we're going to dive into that too, they can have
a hard time reaching around back there. So it's never
a bad idea to have some clippers. Obviously you don't
need to clip them short, but just like trimming up
a little bit, and if you're nervous about it. Groomers
are great. If you're at your VAT clinic for something else,
you can ask them to do that. We usually are
pretty amenable to it.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, lungs are good, easy.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
As long as they're nice. I'm not trying to kill us.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
No, we can. We can make it happen.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Usually, definitely. Okay, what do you think about hairballs?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Hairballs? I as a doctor, I hate them because I
went to a talk a little while ago and they
basically said, we do not have any sort of like
peer reviewed research to fix hairballs. And you're like, well, great,
this is a great talk that I just came to.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Thank you for nothing.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Thank you. But I think unfortunately it's kind of something
you have to live with with the cats. A couple
of things that they say can help is just frequent
brushing if they tolerate that. Sometimes adding fiber to their
diet with like flavorless spinner mucles always my kind of
go to, or the other like fiber supplements.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
What dost do you say for meta mucle just like
a pinch?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
No, I think it's like a quarter to a half
teaspoon per meal, and you can kind of like tight
right up, depending on how it's going.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I say a pinch for everyone out there.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
That's how that's It's like a small little.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Like half a teaspoon, quarter teaspoon. I guess it depends
on how big your hands are.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
True.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Okay, well everyone measured.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I guess that's the cat energy is. I want it measured.
I want a particular I want it the right way.
And you're like a dog like I'm just gonna throw something.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Throw it on there, honey, and just see how it goes.
It's fiber, I mean that, what can happen? Okay, keep going,
what's the next thing?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
And then this other product that we like, which again
not sponsored by them. We just like the hat.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We're plugging all our products. This is great.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's called laxotone. It's like a pace that you like
put on their paw and they're supposed to lick it off.
It's like a lubricant to just help kind of get
the hair to pass through so they're not throwing it
up quite as much.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah. I really like laxotone. It comes into maple and
I think like a tuna flavored and I've had a
lot of success. I know, it's not like we don't
have any major studies, but I feel like a lot
of my clients have told me they see a lot
of success with it, so definitely worth a shot. If
your a cat has a lot of hairballs, were the shot?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, I think the goal is always improvement. I tell
people the goals to minimize the hairballs. I don't think
we can ever stop them with anything that we have now.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, it's just part of part of them grooming themselves. Okay,
what do you say too? I have so many clients saying, Josie,
should I feed dry food? Should I feed wet food?
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Like?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
What is the answer as far as feeding your cats?
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I would say this is a controversial question because I
feel you probably will hear a lot of different opinions
for different beats. Personally, I like a mix of wet
and dry. I think there's pros and cons for each
of them, and I think, hey, a little bit of
each goes a long way. Some bets, I think, will
say wet only, and I don't think that's bad or wrong.
That's just not, you know, my preference. But again, unless
(20:20):
your cat is like a specific disease that they need
wet food, they need canned food. Then I personally like
the mix of both.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I like it to add a little crunchy in there
because I think it helps break down plack and harder,
like that act of chewing. Really it can be helpful.
And cats like their crunchies. I will say crunchies can
make them a little bit more fat.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
They're a little more calorie dense dry foods, and so
wet food is usually thought of as helping a little
bit more with weight loss. You know, they feel more full,
they don't want to eat quite as much some cats.
You know. I have clients all the time say the
cat will only eat right, will not eat wet, and
they get very stressed out of pan it, and it's like, yeah,
he's a cat. You can't force them to need something
(20:58):
they don't want to. If that's what it is, then
and that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, they're gonna do in true cat fashion. They're gonna
do what they want when they want. So it's definitely
not the end of the world. I agree. I have
clients that really really get stuck on this, and if
they don't like one or the other, it is certainly
not the end of the world. But I do think
a mixture of both is important, especially because cats really
don't love to drink water. I feel like we have
to encourage them. One thing we had talked about was
(21:23):
I like having the water fountain. Again, we're not really
sure how much how scientific it is, but I do
think that they tend to drink more out of those
running water fountains.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I think it's always been the wisdom. I think for
a long time we were recommending fountains. I have a
fountain just because I like a cute little water feature. Yeah,
they do my apartment. But I think studies are coming
out where they're kind of saying, we don't think it
really makes a huge difference. But again, it's not gonna
hurt if you like a little water feature. If it helps,
(21:53):
then it's a win win.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Definitely not. I like to watch the videos of the
cats drinking out of the faucets too. It's so cute.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I love it. Yeah, my cat, if you leave a
water glass of water anywhere in the house, she is
going to drink out of it. And so sometimes I
have to decide. If a glass of water has been
sitting up for a while, I say, do I risk it?
Do I drink this.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And I usually will your swapping spit with Alda.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
You know what, It's fine. I scoop her poop by
clean her all the time. It's it's okay, she's your daughter.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah. So the dry food is more calorie dense, which
kind of brings us to fat cats. I find that
especially in multi cat households, like if you have one
or you know, two cats, three cats, there's always a
chonker and then the other cat tends to be like
pretty skinny, which is very frustrating for owners. And just
getting a cat to lose weight in general is just
(22:42):
the bane of my existence.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
It's tough, it's a challenge, and I will tell people
with a multi cat household we getting weight loss. It's
not impossible, it's just harder. So it does take a
little bit of work and time and time because yeah,
you usually will have one cat that is stealing all
the food and you can tell which one, oh, you know,
And usually I recommend what I would call kind of
strict meal feeding. Basically, you have your food, you're measured out,
(23:08):
you put it down ten minutes his meal time. At
the end, you pick it up and that's it. Some
owners I know have these like fancy microchip feeders that
if your cat does have a microchip, it scans it
and it'll dispense food out depending on which microchip they're scanning.
A little pricey, but I know somewhere is that it's
worked really well for.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I agree. I have some owners that I've used
the microchip ones and it's so cool. It's like, Okay,
here is Fluffy, We're going to feed him x amount,
and here's fat Sassy, We're going to feed her way
less so fat Sassy, no I think. I think, yeah,
if you can afford them, great, If not, I really
do like the timed feedings, just like you said. And
if you don't know how much to feed your cat,
(23:50):
ask your vet because all the cat foods have very
different amount of calories in them and it can be
confusing and following I always say this, but following the
back of the bag or what the can recommends you
always going to end up, for the most part overfeeding
your cats and your dogs. So talk to your vet.
They'll give you an exact calorie coount. You can look
at what how many calories are in the foods you're
feeding and come up with a little weight Watchers game
(24:11):
plan because obesity and cats, especially in all of our pets,
but especially in our cats, really can lead to a
lot of long term issues. I feel like our fat
cats are so prone to getting diabetes and joint issues.
So it's definitely something we want to stay on top.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Of, definitely. And I mean cats are kind of silent sufferers.
You know, they will hide illness or hide disease. So
I mean, yeah, if you have kind of a fat,
old thread cat, they're hurting. You know they're hurting, and
getting weight loss off of them is tricky, but again
not impossible and should always be the goal.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I agree. Okay, what do you think about people? I
have a lot of clients that say, Okay, I can't
get my cat to stop jumping on my counters. What
do I do?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
So, I mean, my cat does not jump on the counter,
is hees perfect? So I think it's you know, it's
a training issue. I think you'll try to obviously discourage
it when they are jumping up the kind of a
couple of tricks that I'll recommend to people. Cats in
general are very tactile. They based a lot of their
decisions on how things feel, so putting like double sided
(25:11):
tape on the countertop or like aluminum foil. Sometimes serran
wrap also works. They hate how that feels, so they'll
usually jump on and immediately jump off. And so the
hope is that they just learned that they just don't
jump up there because it feels weird for them.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And it's like dogs, where you start. If you start
them young as a kitten, hopefully they don't develop that
bad habit.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
With all behaviors cats and dogs, start them young, trim
their nails young if you can. Yeah, get any sort
of behavior shoes kind of sorted as early as possible
is going to be your best way to get it sorted.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, I mean I do get it. I think you
know your cats are going into the litter boxes or
peeing and pooping, and then if they're like walking across
your kitchen counter, it's probably not the best thing in
the world. So that is fair. Zalda doesn't jump on
your kitchen counter at all.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
No, wow, at all.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You were a strict cat daddy.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I I mean I would say, I'm not. I am
not tempted by their their tricks. You know, cats and dogs.
I see them begging for food, I see them asking
tricks or things you have to be You have to
be stronger, you have to be stronger totally.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I think having some structure is a really good thing
sets you up for success. What do you think about
keeping cats on flea, tick and heartworm prevention all ye round?
Especially my clients will say, my cat doesn't go outside
their indoors only. Do I really need to do that?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
This is a tough one. I know. I'm going to
be very honest. I think you know, if you go
to your vet, your vet is probably going to recommend
this is my cat on flea and tick? She is not.
I kind of explain it to people, Hey, it's all
about how you manage risk and how comfortable you are
(26:52):
with risk. Can I say that it's impossible that your
cat will get fleas if they're indoor only, It's not impossible.
I've definitely seen cats get fleas when they're indoor only.
Is it likely not likely? So if you're a person
that wants no risk, you want to make sure you're covered,
then I would definitely stay on flee in tick. If
you're somebody that's like, you know, a little ambiguity is fine.
(27:12):
I can manage it. If it comes along, then you
may not have to put them on flee in tick.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, I think that's a good, really good point also too,
like depending on where you live, Like being is in
downtown Chicago in a high rise. It gets very very
cold there in the winter. I feel like you don't
see as many fleas, like down here in the South
in Nashville, we see so many fleas. And I think
if you have like cats, and you have dogs in
the house or other pets, you know, if they're going
(27:39):
outside at all, then having them on prevention makes a
lot of sense. But yeah, if you're in like New
York City or Chicago and you're living on the twentieth floor,
the risk of them not being on prevention is pretty low.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Pros and cons with each side. I think if they
have like a skin disease, I'll always recommend being on
free preventional least for a month or two. Just in
case cats. A lot of times you will not see
fleas on a cat. They groom themselves so so well,
and so I've had cases where we work them up
for alogies or other causes for itching and scratching, and
you do special diets, you do medications, you spend it
(28:12):
to a specialist and it was just a flea all
that time, and it's like, just put them on flee
prevention initially to see if it works, because that's such
an easy fix for kind of what I would call
a stupid problem. Yeah, and can save people a lot
of time and money.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
It's funny how you say that, Like dogs will see
them come in with fleas and it's so obvious they're
crawling in fleas, and then a cat comes in and
they are so meticulous they've like plucked each tiny little
flea off, and so you don't always know.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Oh no, and usually you never know, usually don't see them.
That's why I think always, if we're having a skin problem,
sort of, flea prevention is always a smart idea.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah. It's like twenty bucks and maybe thirty bucks now
and covers your bases and can definitely save you a
lot of time and money if that's what it is. Okay,
what do you think about my favorite thing in the
entire world, which is when cats make biscuits?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
What is everyone's favorite.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Things when they're in they no, she.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Uh now, it's it warms your heart when a cat
decides for the first time that they want to make
biscuits on you. It's like they have decided they love you,
they care about you. And that's why I like cats
more than dogs. I feel like a dog. Most dogs,
you give a treat, they love you forever. A cat
you really have to work for them to love you,
and when they love you back, it is.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Like nothing else, like you won the lottery. Oh you've
been chosen.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, you have been chosen. And so when they make biscuits,
you know, I think there's a couple theories out there.
I think some one time I read that as kitts
they do it to like stimulate milk production in their
mom so they you know, maybe they feel like you're
a parental figure. They love you, they're comfortable, they want
to kind of get a nice comfortable spot going because
(29:51):
I feel like sometimes my cat can make biscuits for
like twenty thirty minutes, really not long, and I say,
we get enough biscuits. We have too many biscuits. Now
we made many.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Who's gonna eat all these biscuits?
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
That is crazy twenty thirty minutes. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Oh she'll she can go. I've seen cats can go
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Wow, just working away in the bakery just making biscus.
Oh there's nothing cute or oh I love it. I
need you to send me a picture of Zalda making biscuits.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I have videos I'll show you after this.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
On your chest making them, yeah, like on your chest.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
On your ab, demand on your back, like wherever they
want to do. Cat's jeless, do whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I wish I could have a cat. I don't. I
as everyone knows, I have three dogs and my husband
is like deathly allergic. I would have to literally get
rid of him in order to have a cat.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
I mean, I love him, I love your husband, But
I mean I like cats a lot too, So I don't.
I'd have to think about it.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
It depends on the day. Some days I'm like, get out,
give me the cats. I will say.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
There.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
One thing that we haven't talked about is there is
a diet out there that Purina makes clear, live clear,
something like that, and the cats eat it. And one
of like the main sources of allergens and cats comes
from their saliva and their dander, and it's supposed to
kind of like change that so that if you do
have allergies, you're less allergic to the cats. I've had
(31:09):
some owners say it works.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I've had some owners say it works. Yeah. I always
sell owners. You know, we don't have any studies. We
don't have any like research that proves this, I think,
but I've had owners try it and they think it
works and they're happy with it. So hey, if it.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Works, yeah, great, definitely worth a shot. I think the
big thing for me is like, if you know you're
highly allergic, you probably shouldn't get a cat because then
you're just gonna have to end up rehoming it. If
you already have the cat and you're experiencing allergies, great, like,
this is a great option to try live clear Purina.
Look at us, we're plugging again. Someone sponsor us.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Thanks my god, we love your stuff. Please sponsor us.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Pay us. We're poor. Okay. Next is what do you
think about outdoor cats?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
So again, it's kind of again how you manage risk
and everything. I think. I live in city of Chicago.
I would not let my cat outdoors, you know, as
long as you're doing it responsibly. Maybe if you're out
in like a more rural area or a suburban area,
you know, if they're vaccinated appropriately, if they have flee
intake prevention if you're doing regular fecal checks. So if
(32:09):
you're doing it and doing it responsibly, it's okay. But
I think you always need to know that there is
a real risk that's something absolutely devastating could happen. You know,
there's a very real risk it could get hit by
a car, get attacked by another animal. So I mean
that's how I will always phrase it. It just depends on
how you kind of are with risks.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I think if
you have an indoor cat that's like itching to go out,
but you don't want to like let it free roam.
You had said, getting it harness is a great idea.
The little cadios are so cute where you can stick
them in their backyard and then they can roam around
in it and see the sun and the birds and
feel the wind in their hairs, but don't necessarily run
the risk of escaping and you know, getting killed by
(32:50):
a coyote or a bobcat.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
And they have like backpacks that you can put them
in that have windows and holes, so you can do that.
They have strollers. I love a cat rolling down the
street in a stroll. I don't care what it looks like.
I don't care if it's embarrassing to the people, I support it.
So I support you getting a cat stroller and rolling
around in it.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
If I see you pushing your cat in a stroller,
just it's over. I'm going to come over and be
the happiest person alive. I have a patient that comes
in and it's a really big sphinx cat, so like
a naked cat, and she wiliers a big pearl necklace.
The cat does and she comes in her stroller with
her cheetah blanket, and I'm like, this is the best
day of my life. Amazing.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
They always come in with like the cutest like sweaters
because they're naked. Yeah, they don't have fur, they are naked.
You're funny though, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Misconception. People think, oh, I have allergies, I can get
a naked cat. But no, it's sadly the allergies are
in their saliva and I'm a little allergic to cats.
And I'll still like tear up and sneeze after cuddling
and stuffing my face on a naked cat. It's too bad. Okay.
Next on the docket, what would you say to someone
that already has a cat or a dog and they're
(33:58):
introing and bringing in new cat into the household.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, so there's a lot of things you can do.
You know, I always will say it can be a
little unpredictable. You could be doing everything right and the
cats still aren't getting along the cat and the dog
is still not getting wrong along. But generally you want
to take it nice and easy. I usually say, first
couple days, just keep them in separate rooms. Maybe the
classic thingel here is to switch blankets between rooms so
(34:22):
they smell each other, so they get their scent, and
then you kind of gradually increase it to kind of
supervise visits from afar. It's where they see each other,
and then again getting to more closer actual contact and all.
That's really over a week or so if they're real,
real sensitive, maybe even longer. Yeah, but I feel away
(34:43):
what we talked about before is a great thing to
help the cats relax a little bit more when there
is a new cat coming, to help decrease the temperature
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Yeah, definitely, so, and Steady wins the race. One thing
that this makes me think of is if you're bringing
in a new cat. Most people are getting their cats
from a shelter, even if it is coming from a breeder,
is doing the triple test for your new cat coming in,
which tests them for FIV, which is like kitty aids essentially,
and then FeLV which is feeling leukemia virus, which are contagious.
(35:13):
You can transmit them through bites and sharing food bowls
and water bowls. So anytime you're entering a new cat,
you definitely want to make sure they're negative for those
two things. And your vet will know exactly what to
test for. So check the papers that you're given, whether
it's from the shelter or your breeder, see if they've
done the test. If they haven't, I would definitely get
that checked prior to introducing them to other cats in
the house.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Oh yeah, ibsltly recommend that test. I think you know,
it's just one test usually right when you get them,
make sure they're negative for that, and then you really
don't have to worry about it ever again, because I
have seen one case I can think of they did
not want to do with the leukemia as fiv's tests
and they had other cats at home the cat ended
up being positive. We found out later and then the
(35:53):
other cats got it, and it's just a really sad
situation that is very avoidable.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah. Absolutely, Okay, this is sort of a random one,
but I have some clients come in and they say,
my cat looks like it's having like a spasm on
its back sometimes where it does like all this sort
of like twitching. What what do you say that that is,
doctor Meade.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
So I'd say that very commonly is something that we
would just call feeling hyperesthesia syndrome. And it's basically where
I think it's kind of poorly understood. It's basically maybe
where the nerves are a little bit over excited and
they have these twitching spells. Some people think it's like
allergy related, if it's like a skin issue. Some people
(36:36):
think it's like, again, a primary neurologic issue. Sometimes I've
seen anxiety as a potential cause. And so again it's
definitely something that you can talk about with your vets.
But the kind of trouble is treating this is a
bit of trial and error. Sometimes you try anti seizure meds,
sometimes you try anxiety medication, sometimes you try allergy medications.
(36:56):
And so it's tough to again, but the goal oftentimes
is to not maybe stop it altogether, but just try
to minimize it to where it's at an acceptable level.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I agree with that, and I feel like it can
be something as benign as they're just kind of overstimulated
and their little back does these twitchies, but it definitely
can represent something a little bit more sinister. So taking
them into the vet and getting a good exam is
definitely the place to start.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Oh yeah, I have one client who's kat has a
very severe case of it, and she's done on an
incredible job but just even doing her own research and
working with me and trying to figure out what cocktail
and what a couple of medications will work for him,
and he's doing great.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Love that.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
If you're listening, you know who you are.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Shout out to the good owners. Love you guys. All right,
we are going to take a quick break and when
we come back, we're going to do our paw and order.
(37:56):
All right, we are back and we're going to dive
right into our paw and order. Number one on the
dock at this week is I would not scoop my
cat's litter, or I'd be very mindful at least if
I was pregnant, what do you say to that, doctor Bean?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, so I'd say be mindful. I think the big
reason why pregnant women should just be cautious when scooping
letter other cats is there's a parasite called toxic plasmosis
that cats can have that I believe has been known
to cause like abortions and miscarriages in women. And again,
if you want to be extra extra safe, yes, you
(38:34):
have your partner do it, have somebody else do it.
But in school, we were taught if you're just regularly
cleaning the box daily or every other day, your risk
of contracting this is very, very low. I believe our
parasitology professor would tell us that it can take a
few days for the kind of parasite to become infectious.
After that they've been pooped out essentially, So here's being
(38:56):
diligent cleaning your litter box. Your risk is gonna be
pretty low. I would still use gloves, I still wash
your hands afterwards. But something to definitely be aware of.
Should not panic about it, shouldn't be afraid of it,
but just be aware, be educated, and make a plan.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
You don't need to be in a hals mat suit.
Just stay on top of it, wear some gloves. Make
your husband do it, and make your husband do it. Yes,
get those cat daddy's working. Yes, Okay, number two, I
would not declaw my cats. I know I have said
this before on this show. I'm pretty sure I've done
a whole pond order on it. But We're gonna die
on this hill because I feel very, very very strongly
(39:34):
about this.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yes, this is declined cats. I think ten years ago
was a common practice. And I've done a few the
surgeries previously, and they are just real tough surgeries. You know,
it is a It is a brutal surgery where you're
pretty much just removing the kind of you last knuckle
or last digit of their of their finger. And these
(39:55):
cats are painful. It can cause chronic pain. And and
you know, I've had clients say, well, my last cat
was declouded and I've not seen any sort of issues.
They seem fine. And cats are fighters, cats are survivors.
They're going to hide the pain. They're going to keep
moving on. You're not going to see a sign of pain.
But I can tell you these cats are really uncomfortable
long term.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean you hear. We hear from our
amputees as humans that anytime you have a joint or
anything that's been amputated like that, you can have phantom
pains and you're more prone to arthritis. And so imagine
in this case, it's disarticulating ten joints in there, well,
probably eight, I guess, depending on how many tobines they have, which,
(40:35):
by the way, I love tobines, but des articulating at
least eight of their wait, no, four, ten?
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Oh my gosh, those are your front four? Me on
the back, YEAHI on the front.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Yeah. Way, I can't do the math.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
That's twenty if you do all of them.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
If you do all of them, oh my god, twenty
little joints having phantom pain.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
And especially if your cat is an afdoor cat, decline
them is dangerous. You know. They need their claws to
defend themselves in case anything does happen while they're outside.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, and they just they do have a lot of
chronic They can have a lot of chronic issues with
chronic arthritis. Like doctor Bean said, it's actually illegal now
in Australia. I think it's illegal in like certain states
here in.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
The US, New York is illegal.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Now we're moving away from it, which I'm happy to see.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
I think the one caveat I will say the only
reason that some people will allow declaw is if someone
in the house doesn't mean a compromised so like cat
scratch fever, or you're getting some sort of infectious disease
from the cat scratch could be you know, debilitating for
these people, you know, if they're undergoing cancer or they
have some other kind of disease. So that's kind of
(41:39):
the only exception where we can declaw the cats. But
I've never run into any of that yet. I've not
had one that's asked to do it.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
And otherwise, if your cat, if you are just a
regular cat owner that doesn't have you're not that exception.
There's a lot of great alternatives out there. Again. Feel
Away can be really helpful with annoying scratching behaviors, getting
a scratching post. And then my favorite is the soft Pause.
They're so cute. They're like little stick on gel nails
(42:08):
and they're pretty easy, I mean, depending on your cat,
they're fairly easy to apply and they're just like these
little gel caps and you get them on all different colors,
so they can look very very cute in chic and
and that keeps their nails covered so that way they're
not destroying your furniture.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Yeah, and I think the easiest thing is just cut
their nails regularly. Start when they're young, start with they're kittens,
so that they're used to it, so that you can
do it regularly at home, because that's going to be
the easiest, simplest, simplest thing.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Yeah, it will desensitize them, for sure. It is frustrating.
My girlfriend just got a new couch and it's already
like frayed from her cat scratching it. And I just
I understand why people get frustrated. It probably is Oh.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, my car. I got her when I was in undergrad,
so I did not know all this at the time.
And I mean, my couch is torn up to shreds.
Oh yeah. And everyone always yells at me, get a
new couch, get a new couch. If I get a
new couch, she's gonna do it again. So again I
have to wait till she dies to get a new couch.
But then again, she's gonna live forever, so who knows
(43:09):
what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
We'll just have a stress.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Well, we're going to live with the shudded couch.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
There was one time I was very happy that a
patient was declaude. It was actually at Boulevard I was
working at in the River North location in downtown Chicago,
and a cat came in named Chili Palmer. I will
never forget him and shout out to Chili Palmer if
your parents are listening. I was sitting on the opposite
side of the room. The parents were on the other side.
The exam table was in the middle. This cat was
(43:34):
like completely on the other side of the room in
a corner. This cat launches up onto the table, takes
his paw and goes and just smacks me across the face,
like just like part of my friend. She bitch slapped
me and he was declawed. Thank god, otherwise I would
have like thrash remarks across my face.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
It's hard to recover from that when a cat just
bitch slaps you and you're like, I don't know what
to do now. It's like like bye, I'll see you.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
It'll buy right red. I just was like I'm just
gonna go away for a minute. You can't recover now,
like I would need to take a minute.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
You have to take a excuse myself. I'll be back
or maybe not.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
He was definitely I don't know what I did to
offend him, but my apologies, Chili Palmer. Okay. Number three
on paw and order, I would not minimize or ignore
if my cat seems a little bit off. They are very,
very tough. If a dog stubs his toe, he's screaming
like he's dying. If a cat is in full throttle
(44:32):
like kidney failure, you usually have no idea. They are
so tough.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
They are tough. Again, I think people don't really realize it,
but cats are. They're predators. You know. They don't like
to show weakness. Dogs definitely a bit more dramatic or
have a flair for the dramatics who us. But I
think it's always really really important to just do regular
preventive care visits with your cat once a year. I
(44:58):
think I saw a study, I think from the main
society that said majority of cats do not go in
for yearly checkups because you know, it could be a
hassle for people to bring them in yearly if they
seem to be doing well. But I think you will
look at the teeth, we'll listen to the hearts, we'll
talk about obesity, if they have weight issues. There's a
lot of things that go into that yearly checkup that
even if they're fine, they may not be and especially
(45:23):
when you start noticing little small things, if they're not eating,
if they're losing weights, you if they're drinking more. These
are all signs that something's happening by your cat. This
definitely does not want you to kind of pick up
on that.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Mm hm. I feel like so often we talk about
you said, teeth and dental disease with dogs especially, we
see like chihuahuas with gross mouths or docs in with
all this plaque and tartar on there. But cats are
very sneaky and that they may not have tons of
plaqu and tartar, but they can have really significant dental disease,
specifically something called resort devisions where to the untrained eye
(45:56):
you would never ever notice it, and that's something that
we diagnose all the time, and we know that it's
really painful for them. So again, just another reason like
getting them in once a year so that we can
get a really good look in their mouth and make
sure they're not living in pain and not showing us
any signs of it.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah, the reserved a lesions are the bane of my
existence sometimes that I call them just like cat cavities. Essentially,
that's what they are. And basically it's where the tooth
is kind of disintegrating and resorbing essentially back into the jot.
It's a pretty painful process when it happens, as you
could imagine. The only real treatment is to remove the tooth,
and once they get one, they're prone to getting more,
(46:33):
so they may get more in time. My fun fact
that I tell clients about them, it's just kind of
a cat thing that happens with their genetics. I went
to one CE and the dentist said that even on
saber tooth tiger like fossils, they were seeing these resorved
a lesions. Really, so, the specialist said, so, I think
that's a fun nugget that I tell people. It's just
kind of a cat thing that happens.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Maybe those cats that get resorped ilesions are like the
great great great great grandchildren of the saber tooth tiger.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
I mean they're descended yet they are.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
You're you have a vicious predator in your house the
size of making biscuits exactly. And that's that's why. That's
the duality of cats. You know, they can be making
biscuits in Cuddley and they can be vicious predators. So
I like that they're complex like that, just like.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
You, my favorite housecat. Amazing. Well, thank you so much
for coming in, Bean, I absolutely adore you, and we
covered a lot of ground here today. I would say,
if you guys still have any cat questions for us,
let us know. You can always DM me on Instagram
at doctor Josie Vett. You can also find doctor Bean
(47:38):
on Instagram. His Instagram handle is at since You Bean Gone,
like the Kelly Clarkson song, and as always, click the
link in my bio you can record a voicemail for
us to play. And then, last but not least, please
be sure to rate, review, subscribe, give us five stars,
or a new podcast, so every single review counts and
(48:02):
we'll see you guys next week
You're listening to in the Vets Office with doctor Josie Horchak.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi everyone, and welcome back to in the Vets Office.
I am your host, Doctor Josie, and this is a
very exciting week because we are joined by one of
my very best friends in the entire world, Doctor Andrew Bean,
who I will be calling Bean for the entirety of
this episode. Bean and I went to veterinary school together
at the Ohio State University. We worked together in Chicago
(00:39):
at Boulevard Vet. Shout out Boulevard if you're in Chicago,
check them out. They are the best. Bean is actually
now a partner there. It's hands down the best VET
clinic in all of Chicago Land. And he is in
Nashville today to film this episode with me. So welcome Bean.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I oh, let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
You have to do it when you're together, we.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Have to go buck Eyes. The main reason I asked
doctor Bean to come today is because we've done so
many episodes centered on dogs, and a lot of listeners say, hey,
you're giving all the love to the dogs. What about
the cats? And Doctor Bean is the cat king, so
love them, he says, love them.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I only have one, but I would kill to have
more of them. I just cannot handle it, but I
would have as many as I could stand.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
I don't think your cat Zelda would allow you to
have more than just her. I feel like she's an
only child.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
That is the problem. I think she is the queen
of her roost. She does not like when new faces
come in. So when she dies, which is going to
be still a long time, hopefully never forever, but when
she does pass, I might get two or three or four,
who knows.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Perfect You will see those like tiktoks or videos where
it's like this person's a Golden Retriever, and I always
joke that our friendship, I'm like the Golden Retriever with
like a little bit of Terrier, maybe a sprinkle of Chihuahua.
And you are a house cat. I tell you I
love you, and you say thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Thank you. That is very a cat. That is a
cat answer.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
It is a cat answer. And I'm very happy because
I wear my cat socks today. Can you see in
the camera I got my cat socks. So yeah, we're
ready to go. We're gonna talk all things cats. We
always start our episode with the case of the week.
And since you're here, doctor Bean, I'm gonna let you
take it away.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, So sticking with our theme, it is a cat
that I saw actually recently, a few weeks ago. It's
a four month old kitten that I saw. They presented
super lethargic, hadne eaten in days, just really not doing well.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And you had just seen it like a few weeks
before they did.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
I saw it a week before for like its first
kitten visit. It was doing great, eating, drinking, bouncing off
the walls. So when I saw this in the exam room,
this is not the same kitten. You know, there's something
wrong with this kitten. And so looking at the cat,
just looking at it, the whole cat was yellow, ears, skin, gums, eyes,
everything was just yellow.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
That's always shocking. As a vet. You walk in, You're like,
oh boy, this is not good.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Like immediate red flag. You're like something's up, like this
is this is something. So we do our physical We
also find its abdomen is huge, it's belly is super distended,
and just feeling it, there's fluid in this belly. So
this kind is in rough shape. So we run some tests,
butteric X rays. I end up draining like one hundred
(03:25):
and fifty millimeters of fluid, which is a lot of
fluid off this three pound cat, four pound cat.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
It's a lot. So we pulled the fluid off and
we essentially diagnosed it with a disease called FIP, or
feeling infectious paraniitis. Cats in general, I think are a
little bit more prone to infectious diseases than dogs, and
this is kind of a weird disease that is kind
of confusing in terms of transmission. Even diagnosing it can
(03:54):
be tricky and difficult, but with this case, this was
kind of a classic slammed case. But if your vet
is suspicious of FIP, you know, they very may want
to run some additional tests if it's not quite as
clear cut or not as obvious as this one. This
was kind of a slam dunk diagnosis, as we would say,
and kind of the interesting thing about treating FIP. Nowadays
(04:16):
we have this great anti viral drug. We ordered it
from our special pharmacy. It came the next day, the
owner started it and I got an update a couple
of days later. Kat was back to normal, doing great.
So I saw them Actually a couple of days ago.
Kat's again doing great, doing fantastic. I'm optimistic he's going
to make or she's going to make a full recovery.
The kind of interesting part about this case is if
(04:40):
this was just a few months ago, we would be
talking about a very different treatment.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, like three months ago, three months ago.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, So this treatment just became legal I think in June,
June or July, this anti viral compound, and before it
was legal, it was extensively tested. We know it was safe,
we know its effected, but it was illegal.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It was not FDA approved, IFT approved.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
We cannot use it off label. It's a big no no.
But again, we knew was safe, we knew was effective,
and so I'm not saying I did this. I have
a friend, a friend veterinarian who back in the day
before this drug was legal, you a friend of mine
would have to basically refer them to the black market
(05:26):
to get this drug. And so there was a Facebook page.
I don't know if it's still around. Can I say
the name of it. Yeah, It's called FIP Warriors, and
it basically what owners would have to do join this private,
secret Facebook page. They would connect you to someone in
the area that sells it on the black market. You
(05:46):
have to go to their house, usually an hour or
so away. You pay one thousand bucks in cash. They
give you a vial of hopefully the drug, hopefully the medication.
They teach you how to inject it in your cat
and on your way. And again we were not allowed
to talk about it. We are not allowed to recommend it.
My friend would never write anything in the record that
(06:09):
they are recommending it because I read an article a
few months ago there was a group of vets in
Texas that like got quote busted for using it and
saving cats lives and they lost their license over it.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
It's really crazy.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So black market veterinary drugs exist.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
We are not saying to go hunting for them. But
if your vet recommends it, I mean, yeah, this is
a very special exception, I would say.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Very special exception. And luckily we don't have that anymore.
There are more and more competent pharmacies that are carrying
this drug and it's legal now. So I'm just very
happy we have something legal to fix these cats because
it works.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, And it was crazy as a vet walking into
the room. I mean, when my friend walked into the
room wing wink and being like, hey, your cat has
this disease. They will die fatal.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
It is almost always fatal.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Correct, they will die if they don't get treatment. You
need to get a thousand dollars in cash. You're going
to drive to this random person's house. The medication sometimes
will be in their mailbox. It's like a drug deal
it really it is.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It is a black market drug.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Dealer or cat for your cat, but it saves her life.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Like, oh yeah, I've seen it work like it seems
like a miracle drug. Honestly it does, because yeah, that
cat is doing fantastic. But it's just so crazy that
we had this drug for a while. We knew it
was safe, we knew it was effective. We just could
not use it to fix these cats or help these cats.
So I've seen cases where dinners couldn't afford to do it,
or they honestly did not believe me. They were like,
(07:29):
you're lying to me, You're crazy. I'm getting another opinion,
And I'm like, I wish this was not how it
had to be.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, you're like, I know I sound insane, but I promise.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
And I actually have another client who or my friend
had a client who they did it, and she was like, honestly,
anyone that doubts this process, like, they can call me
and I'll tell them it works. Do it a testimony exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Well.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I know we both have lost you know, especially coming
out of school almost eight years ago. Now, we lost
a lot of patience to FIP because we didn't even
have the black market drug available. So it's definitely been
a game changer for sure.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, I'm very happy we have it, and yeah it's legal.
So if your cat has FIP, there is hope. Now
there's legal, good hope. So talk to your veterinarian if
you're ever worried about it.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Absolutely all right, we're gonna take a quick break and
when we get back we are going to do our
listener question and answers. Hey, doctor Josie, my cat will
randomly PM poop outside of our litter box and I
(08:36):
don't know why. Is there anything I can do? This
is a great question, I know, being I feel like
this is the number one one of the number one things,
one of the number one that doesn't really make sense.
One of the top things that we see with cat
owners when they come in is cats going to the bathroom,
not in their litter box. And what I would say
(08:57):
to that is they are the most sensitive of creatures
and more often than not, it's usually stress related or
something is different in the home and kind of like
throwing them for a loop and for whatever reason they
decide they are not going in their litter box.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
What do you think, Yeah, I mean, super super common,
especially being outside the litter box. I've struggled it with
it myself with my cat, And like you said, it
is a lot of times sometimes related to stress or
a behavior issue. Obviously, your that'll probably run some tests
to rule out any sort of like obvious medical cause,
like a UTI is what we hear a lot of
our you know, a parasite or something weird like that.
(09:32):
But in a lot of cases, it is this kind
of stress or behavior issue, and there's absolutely some things
we can do about it before you go.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
One thing that I always think of is people come
in and if they have a dog, you're like, oh,
these are UTI symptoms, Like of course, and it would
be so easy, like honestly would be easier for it
to be a UTI because you just give them an
antibiotic and they're better. But honestly, like eighty percent of
the time, ninety percent of the time it's not a
uti and it's something just as simple as like, oh,
you have your great aunt staying in the guest bedroom,
(10:02):
and that alone dressed the count enough for them to
want to be outside the litter box.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
It could be anything.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
And I had one case where the owner was convinced
that I was convinced by the end of it too,
that the cats started peeing outside the box when she
moved the cat's favorite chair just a little bit, and
then when she moved the chair back, everything went back
to normal. Yeah, so cats are very very sensitive to
really any changes. Something that seems minuscule or minute to
(10:28):
you can be a big deal for them.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
It's life altering to them, not the favorite chair.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
They need it.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And then another really interesting thing too is they can
be really some cats, not all of them, but some
of them can be so particular about the type of
litter they use.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yes, there is so many different types of litter out there.
And you know, in school they would tell you to
do a litters morgesborger a little buffet. I don't know
about you, but I do not want five litter boxes
with different litters in my house. So it's a good recommendation,
but a bit impractical.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Yeah, maybe not realistic.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
That the couple litters that I like, I think the
one that I always recommend if you're having trouble pooping
and ping outside litter box to the cat. It's called
called doctor Elsie's Cat attract Litter. I'm not paid by them.
They don't know me.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I wish, hey, how do you spell elsie e l
sy Okay.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
But no they I have no affiliation with them. I
love them though. They're great. Shut me out if you
need me. Yeah. But now it's supposedly I think like
it's like pheromone infused litter that's supposed to really draw
the cats into the litter box, and I recommend it
to all my clients that have this issue. Again, I
use it personally with great success. So that's kind of
an easy thing that potentially could could improve this a bit.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
The other thing, too, is cats are really particular. In school,
they teach us for every cat you have, you should
have one additional litter box. So if you have two cats,
you want to have three litter boxes. Obviously, if you
have two cats and you have one or two litter
boxes and they're using them normally. Great, But if you're
having an issue, add another litter box in and keep
in mind that if they have a hard time getting around,
like it could be the litter box set up like
(12:05):
it could be if you have one of those robotic
litter boxes. I know they're cool and I'll be interested
to hear what you think about them, But sometimes they
can be hard to get in and out of, and
sometimes you need something just as simple as like a
tray with litter in it.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah. Some I mean older cats. Sometimes they are arthritic.
They have trouble getting into a litter box if it's
too high, so something low. Sometimes they're afraid of the
electronic mechanism that scoops their own litter. There are a
million reasons you'd be like, oh my god, these cats
are crazy.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I maintenance they are.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
You think you're getting an easy cat, and a lot
of them are, but sometimes they are particular.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
What do you think about the robot litter boxes?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I want one personally, It's one less thing to think about.
I think if you've got an electronic litter box on
a mag feeder, that cat is good to go for
a long time. I think the downside is they're, you know,
on the more expensive side, and if you pail this
money and the cat is afraid of it and doesn't
use it, then you're.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Like a damn we stuck with an expensive litter box.
I guess you could sell it on Facebook marketplace. You
sure can get some money back. The nice thing about
the robotic litter box is cats are also very particular
in that if their litter box is dirty or it's
not frequently cleaned, they're like, nope, I'm not going here.
So at least with the robot, you don't have to
worry about that as much, and they clean it after
every time, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
I think some do. I think I don't. Some maybe
have like timers or like daily But yeah, I'm sure
you can program it to do whatever.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
We were talking about this episode and you said something
where when that cats, if you have the automatic feed
and the litter box, like you quite literally have to
do nothing. And there's so many owners out there that
think they want a dog, but they actually want a cat.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Oh all the time, I see so many clients get dogs,
get puppies, and they have a little bit buyers remorse
because they're like, you know, I really just wanted an
animal that was like a companion for me. That's kind
of a little maintenance that I don't really have to
like do a ton of work for. And I'm like, guys,
you wanted a cat. You did not want a dog.
You wanted a cat. And I think cats have a
(13:59):
little bit of a negative connotation with them, especially with men.
I think it's kind of a man has a cat, You're.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Like, oh, like, are you a weird guy?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah, And I think that's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It is ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
So if you want a cat, if you do want
a low maintenance kind of companion that will still give
you love, a cat is You're a great bet for you.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
They're amazing. They really are underrated and they don't get
enough love. And it is like you hear crazy cat ladies,
or oh that's weird he has a cat. Like I
just think that is so silly.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It is very silly to me. And I'm here to
break the stigma. I'm here to advocate for the cats
and advocate for cat daddies and cat moms everywhere.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Shout out cat daddies. I love that you said something
about pheromone in the litter, pheromones in the litter. I
think a cool thing that a lot of people don't
know about is feel Away. And again this is not
an ad, it's just a product that we love. We
have them in the vet clinic and these are like
almost like a glade plugin that you would put into
your wall, and they release pheromones for cats. I think
(15:00):
maybe this is maybe I read this somewhere, but the
Mama scent gland where she like releases these pheromones to
her litters that kind of help bring down stress. They've
basically like created that into this like synthetic pheromone that
they're releasing into the house. So it's pretty awesome and
it comes and plug in sprays wipes. I highly recommend.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I love it. Any behavior she with a cat. Any
you have a new cat coming, you are introducing new cat,
feel get a plug in or two. I do believe
they actually work. I think there's some very similar products
that I will not name that I have questions about
whether they work or not. But I think the FeelA Way.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Absolutely works one hundred percent agree And we'll even sometimes
spray it on our scrubs before we go into an
exam room, and cats that are notoriously like trying to
beat the crap out of us during an exam will
be like so sweet and like rubbing up on you
and headbutting you and like it definitely absolutely works, I think,
and it.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Doesn't hurt at all. You know, it's much easier than
giving your cat a pill every day. I'm just having
a diffuser on if they're kind of an anxious or
stressed out cap totally.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
That's called it Feel Away everyone. You can get it
on Amazon. It's awesome. Okay, I'm just going to hit
you with some like topics, big cat topics, and we're
just going to go through them because these are some
of the common questions I get as a veterinarian. And
you are at the cat king, So let's dive right
in number one, what do you think about bathing your cat?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So I get this question a lot. I will say
my cat is thirteen years old. I have never bathed
through once in my whole life. Cats usually do a
great job of doing it on their own. I think
some breeds, like you know, if you have a long
hair breed with just lots of lots of hair, or
you know, some sort of like skin disease or there's
not good on their own grooming, then sometimes you do
give them a bath, take them to a groomer. But
(16:43):
I would say, in general, if it's not broke, don't
fix it.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Totally agree. I totally agree. I'm saying like, I feel
like it's part of their like routine to groom themselves.
Like cats are so particular in that way that if
we're doing it for them, they're kind of like what
the heck, Like, please don't Susan, just stop?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Please stop? Yeah, I mean, I I've seen some battle
wounds from people trying to bait their cats. So if
you don't need to do it, don't do it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
And then the long haired cats too, they'll come into
the clinic and sometimes we have to give them like
a little Brazilian wax around the booty hole, lit sanitary,
some dingle berries back there.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, you know, things get caught in things.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Back there, and if they're like a little chunky, which
we're going to dive into that too, they can have
a hard time reaching around back there. So it's never
a bad idea to have some clippers. Obviously you don't
need to clip them short, but just like trimming up
a little bit, and if you're nervous about it. Groomers
are great. If you're at your VAT clinic for something else,
you can ask them to do that. We usually are
pretty amenable to it.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, lungs are good, easy.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
As long as they're nice. I'm not trying to kill us.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
No, we can. We can make it happen.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Usually, definitely. Okay, what do you think about hairballs?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Hairballs? I as a doctor, I hate them because I
went to a talk a little while ago and they
basically said, we do not have any sort of like
peer reviewed research to fix hairballs. And you're like, well, great,
this is a great talk that I just came to.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Thank you for nothing.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Thank you. But I think unfortunately it's kind of something
you have to live with with the cats. A couple
of things that they say can help is just frequent
brushing if they tolerate that. Sometimes adding fiber to their
diet with like flavorless spinner mucles always my kind of
go to, or the other like fiber supplements.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
What dost do you say for meta mucle just like
a pinch?
Speaker 1 (18:24):
No, I think it's like a quarter to a half
teaspoon per meal, and you can kind of like tight
right up, depending on how it's going.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I say a pinch for everyone out there.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
That's how that's It's like a small little.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Like half a teaspoon, quarter teaspoon. I guess it depends
on how big your hands are.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
True.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Okay, well everyone measured.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I guess that's the cat energy is. I want it measured.
I want a particular I want it the right way.
And you're like a dog like I'm just gonna throw something.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Throw it on there, honey, and just see how it goes.
It's fiber, I mean that, what can happen? Okay, keep going,
what's the next thing?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
And then this other product that we like, which again
not sponsored by them. We just like the hat.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
We're plugging all our products. This is great.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's called laxotone. It's like a pace that you like
put on their paw and they're supposed to lick it off.
It's like a lubricant to just help kind of get
the hair to pass through so they're not throwing it
up quite as much.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah. I really like laxotone. It comes into maple and
I think like a tuna flavored and I've had a
lot of success. I know, it's not like we don't
have any major studies, but I feel like a lot
of my clients have told me they see a lot
of success with it, so definitely worth a shot. If
your a cat has a lot of hairballs, were the shot?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, I think the goal is always improvement. I tell
people the goals to minimize the hairballs. I don't think
we can ever stop them with anything that we have now.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, it's just part of part of them grooming themselves. Okay,
what do you say too? I have so many clients saying, Josie,
should I feed dry food? Should I feed wet food?
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Like?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
What is the answer as far as feeding your cats?
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I would say this is a controversial question because I
feel you probably will hear a lot of different opinions
for different beats. Personally, I like a mix of wet
and dry. I think there's pros and cons for each
of them, and I think, hey, a little bit of
each goes a long way. Some bets, I think, will
say wet only, and I don't think that's bad or wrong.
That's just not, you know, my preference. But again, unless
(20:20):
your cat is like a specific disease that they need
wet food, they need canned food. Then I personally like
the mix of both.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I like it to add a little crunchy in there
because I think it helps break down plack and harder,
like that act of chewing. Really it can be helpful.
And cats like their crunchies. I will say crunchies can
make them a little bit more fat.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
They're a little more calorie dense dry foods, and so
wet food is usually thought of as helping a little
bit more with weight loss. You know, they feel more full,
they don't want to eat quite as much some cats.
You know. I have clients all the time say the
cat will only eat right, will not eat wet, and
they get very stressed out of pan it, and it's like, yeah,
he's a cat. You can't force them to need something
(20:58):
they don't want to. If that's what it is, then
and that's what it is.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, they're gonna do in true cat fashion. They're gonna
do what they want when they want. So it's definitely
not the end of the world. I agree. I have
clients that really really get stuck on this, and if
they don't like one or the other, it is certainly
not the end of the world. But I do think
a mixture of both is important, especially because cats really
don't love to drink water. I feel like we have
to encourage them. One thing we had talked about was
(21:23):
I like having the water fountain. Again, we're not really
sure how much how scientific it is, but I do
think that they tend to drink more out of those
running water fountains.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I think it's always been the wisdom. I think for
a long time we were recommending fountains. I have a
fountain just because I like a cute little water feature. Yeah,
they do my apartment. But I think studies are coming
out where they're kind of saying, we don't think it
really makes a huge difference. But again, it's not gonna
hurt if you like a little water feature. If it helps,
(21:53):
then it's a win win.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Definitely not. I like to watch the videos of the
cats drinking out of the faucets too. It's so cute.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I love it. Yeah, my cat, if you leave a
water glass of water anywhere in the house, she is
going to drink out of it. And so sometimes I
have to decide. If a glass of water has been
sitting up for a while, I say, do I risk it?
Do I drink this.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
And I usually will your swapping spit with Alda.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
You know what, It's fine. I scoop her poop by
clean her all the time. It's it's okay, she's your daughter.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Yeah. So the dry food is more calorie dense, which
kind of brings us to fat cats. I find that
especially in multi cat households, like if you have one
or you know, two cats, three cats, there's always a
chonker and then the other cat tends to be like
pretty skinny, which is very frustrating for owners. And just
getting a cat to lose weight in general is just
(22:42):
the bane of my existence.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
It's tough, it's a challenge, and I will tell people
with a multi cat household we getting weight loss. It's
not impossible, it's just harder. So it does take a
little bit of work and time and time because yeah,
you usually will have one cat that is stealing all
the food and you can tell which one, oh, you know,
And usually I recommend what I would call kind of
strict meal feeding. Basically, you have your food, you're measured out,
(23:08):
you put it down ten minutes his meal time. At
the end, you pick it up and that's it. Some
owners I know have these like fancy microchip feeders that
if your cat does have a microchip, it scans it
and it'll dispense food out depending on which microchip they're scanning.
A little pricey, but I know somewhere is that it's
worked really well for.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I agree. I have some owners that I've used
the microchip ones and it's so cool. It's like, Okay,
here is Fluffy, We're going to feed him x amount,
and here's fat Sassy, We're going to feed her way
less so fat Sassy, no I think. I think, yeah,
if you can afford them, great, If not, I really
do like the timed feedings, just like you said. And
if you don't know how much to feed your cat,
(23:50):
ask your vet because all the cat foods have very
different amount of calories in them and it can be
confusing and following I always say this, but following the
back of the bag or what the can recommends you
always going to end up, for the most part overfeeding
your cats and your dogs. So talk to your vet.
They'll give you an exact calorie coount. You can look
at what how many calories are in the foods you're
feeding and come up with a little weight Watchers game
(24:11):
plan because obesity and cats, especially in all of our pets,
but especially in our cats, really can lead to a
lot of long term issues. I feel like our fat
cats are so prone to getting diabetes and joint issues.
So it's definitely something we want to stay on top.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Of, definitely. And I mean cats are kind of silent sufferers.
You know, they will hide illness or hide disease. So
I mean, yeah, if you have kind of a fat,
old thread cat, they're hurting. You know they're hurting, and
getting weight loss off of them is tricky, but again
not impossible and should always be the goal.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
I agree. Okay, what do you think about people? I
have a lot of clients that say, Okay, I can't
get my cat to stop jumping on my counters. What
do I do?
Speaker 1 (24:49):
So, I mean, my cat does not jump on the counter,
is hees perfect? So I think it's you know, it's
a training issue. I think you'll try to obviously discourage
it when they are jumping up the kind of a
couple of tricks that I'll recommend to people. Cats in
general are very tactile. They based a lot of their
decisions on how things feel, so putting like double sided
(25:11):
tape on the countertop or like aluminum foil. Sometimes serran
wrap also works. They hate how that feels, so they'll
usually jump on and immediately jump off. And so the
hope is that they just learned that they just don't
jump up there because it feels weird for them.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
And it's like dogs, where you start. If you start
them young as a kitten, hopefully they don't develop that
bad habit.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
With all behaviors cats and dogs, start them young, trim
their nails young if you can. Yeah, get any sort
of behavior shoes kind of sorted as early as possible
is going to be your best way to get it sorted.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, I mean I do get it. I think you
know your cats are going into the litter boxes or
peeing and pooping, and then if they're like walking across
your kitchen counter, it's probably not the best thing in
the world. So that is fair. Zalda doesn't jump on
your kitchen counter at all.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
No, wow, at all.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You were a strict cat daddy.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
I I mean I would say, I'm not. I am
not tempted by their their tricks. You know, cats and dogs.
I see them begging for food, I see them asking
tricks or things you have to be You have to
be stronger, you have to be stronger totally.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I think having some structure is a really good thing
sets you up for success. What do you think about
keeping cats on flea, tick and heartworm prevention all ye round?
Especially my clients will say, my cat doesn't go outside
their indoors only. Do I really need to do that?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
This is a tough one. I know. I'm going to
be very honest. I think you know, if you go
to your vet, your vet is probably going to recommend
this is my cat on flea and tick? She is not.
I kind of explain it to people, Hey, it's all
about how you manage risk and how comfortable you are
(26:52):
with risk. Can I say that it's impossible that your
cat will get fleas if they're indoor only, It's not impossible.
I've definitely seen cats get fleas when they're indoor only.
Is it likely not likely? So if you're a person
that wants no risk, you want to make sure you're covered,
then I would definitely stay on flee in tick. If
you're somebody that's like, you know, a little ambiguity is fine.
(27:12):
I can manage it. If it comes along, then you
may not have to put them on flee in tick.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, I think that's a good, really good point also too,
like depending on where you live, Like being is in
downtown Chicago in a high rise. It gets very very
cold there in the winter. I feel like you don't
see as many fleas, like down here in the South
in Nashville, we see so many fleas. And I think
if you have like cats, and you have dogs in
the house or other pets, you know, if they're going
(27:39):
outside at all, then having them on prevention makes a
lot of sense. But yeah, if you're in like New
York City or Chicago and you're living on the twentieth floor,
the risk of them not being on prevention is pretty low.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Pros and cons with each side. I think if they
have like a skin disease, I'll always recommend being on
free preventional least for a month or two. Just in
case cats. A lot of times you will not see
fleas on a cat. They groom themselves so so well,
and so I've had cases where we work them up
for alogies or other causes for itching and scratching, and
you do special diets, you do medications, you spend it
(28:12):
to a specialist and it was just a flea all
that time, and it's like, just put them on flee
prevention initially to see if it works, because that's such
an easy fix for kind of what I would call
a stupid problem. Yeah, and can save people a lot
of time and money.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
It's funny how you say that, Like dogs will see
them come in with fleas and it's so obvious they're
crawling in fleas, and then a cat comes in and
they are so meticulous they've like plucked each tiny little
flea off, and so you don't always know.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Oh no, and usually you never know, usually don't see them.
That's why I think always, if we're having a skin problem,
sort of, flea prevention is always a smart idea.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah. It's like twenty bucks and maybe thirty bucks now
and covers your bases and can definitely save you a
lot of time and money if that's what it is. Okay,
what do you think about my favorite thing in the
entire world, which is when cats make biscuits?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
What is everyone's favorite.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Things when they're in they no, she.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Uh now, it's it warms your heart when a cat
decides for the first time that they want to make
biscuits on you. It's like they have decided they love you,
they care about you. And that's why I like cats
more than dogs. I feel like a dog. Most dogs,
you give a treat, they love you forever. A cat
you really have to work for them to love you,
and when they love you back, it is.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Like nothing else, like you won the lottery. Oh you've
been chosen.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, you have been chosen. And so when they make biscuits,
you know, I think there's a couple theories out there.
I think some one time I read that as kitts
they do it to like stimulate milk production in their
mom so they you know, maybe they feel like you're
a parental figure. They love you, they're comfortable, they want
to kind of get a nice comfortable spot going because
(29:51):
I feel like sometimes my cat can make biscuits for
like twenty thirty minutes, really not long, and I say,
we get enough biscuits. We have too many biscuits. Now
we made many.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Who's gonna eat all these biscuits?
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (30:04):
That is crazy twenty thirty minutes. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Oh she'll she can go. I've seen cats can go
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Wow, just working away in the bakery just making biscus.
Oh there's nothing cute or oh I love it. I
need you to send me a picture of Zalda making biscuits.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I have videos I'll show you after this.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
On your chest making them, yeah, like on your chest.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
On your ab, demand on your back, like wherever they
want to do. Cat's jeless, do whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
I wish I could have a cat. I don't. I
as everyone knows, I have three dogs and my husband
is like deathly allergic. I would have to literally get
rid of him in order to have a cat.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
I mean, I love him, I love your husband, But
I mean I like cats a lot too, So I don't.
I'd have to think about it.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
It depends on the day. Some days I'm like, get out,
give me the cats. I will say.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
There.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
One thing that we haven't talked about is there is
a diet out there that Purina makes clear, live clear,
something like that, and the cats eat it. And one
of like the main sources of allergens and cats comes
from their saliva and their dander, and it's supposed to
kind of like change that so that if you do
have allergies, you're less allergic to the cats. I've had
(31:09):
some owners say it works.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
I've had some owners say it works. Yeah. I always
sell owners. You know, we don't have any studies. We
don't have any like research that proves this, I think,
but I've had owners try it and they think it
works and they're happy with it. So hey, if it.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Works, yeah, great, definitely worth a shot. I think the
big thing for me is like, if you know you're
highly allergic, you probably shouldn't get a cat because then
you're just gonna have to end up rehoming it. If
you already have the cat and you're experiencing allergies, great, like,
this is a great option to try live clear Purina.
Look at us, we're plugging again. Someone sponsor us.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Thanks my god, we love your stuff. Please sponsor us.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Pay us. We're poor. Okay. Next is what do you
think about outdoor cats?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
So again, it's kind of again how you manage risk
and everything. I think. I live in city of Chicago.
I would not let my cat outdoors, you know, as
long as you're doing it responsibly. Maybe if you're out
in like a more rural area or a suburban area,
you know, if they're vaccinated appropriately, if they have flee
intake prevention if you're doing regular fecal checks. So if
(32:09):
you're doing it and doing it responsibly, it's okay. But
I think you always need to know that there is
a real risk that's something absolutely devastating could happen. You know,
there's a very real risk it could get hit by
a car, get attacked by another animal. So I mean
that's how I will always phrase it. It just depends on
how you kind of are with risks.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I think if
you have an indoor cat that's like itching to go out,
but you don't want to like let it free roam.
You had said, getting it harness is a great idea.
The little cadios are so cute where you can stick
them in their backyard and then they can roam around
in it and see the sun and the birds and
feel the wind in their hairs, but don't necessarily run
the risk of escaping and you know, getting killed by
(32:50):
a coyote or a bobcat.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
And they have like backpacks that you can put them
in that have windows and holes, so you can do that.
They have strollers. I love a cat rolling down the
street in a stroll. I don't care what it looks like.
I don't care if it's embarrassing to the people, I support it.
So I support you getting a cat stroller and rolling
around in it.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
If I see you pushing your cat in a stroller,
just it's over. I'm going to come over and be
the happiest person alive. I have a patient that comes
in and it's a really big sphinx cat, so like
a naked cat, and she wiliers a big pearl necklace.
The cat does and she comes in her stroller with
her cheetah blanket, and I'm like, this is the best
day of my life. Amazing.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
They always come in with like the cutest like sweaters
because they're naked. Yeah, they don't have fur, they are naked.
You're funny though, that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Misconception. People think, oh, I have allergies, I can get
a naked cat. But no, it's sadly the allergies are
in their saliva and I'm a little allergic to cats.
And I'll still like tear up and sneeze after cuddling
and stuffing my face on a naked cat. It's too bad. Okay.
Next on the docket, what would you say to someone
that already has a cat or a dog and they're
(33:58):
introing and bringing in new cat into the household.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yeah, so there's a lot of things you can do.
You know, I always will say it can be a
little unpredictable. You could be doing everything right and the
cats still aren't getting along the cat and the dog
is still not getting wrong along. But generally you want
to take it nice and easy. I usually say, first
couple days, just keep them in separate rooms. Maybe the
classic thingel here is to switch blankets between rooms so
(34:22):
they smell each other, so they get their scent, and
then you kind of gradually increase it to kind of
supervise visits from afar. It's where they see each other,
and then again getting to more closer actual contact and all.
That's really over a week or so if they're real,
real sensitive, maybe even longer. Yeah, but I feel away
(34:43):
what we talked about before is a great thing to
help the cats relax a little bit more when there
is a new cat coming, to help decrease the temperature
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Yeah, definitely, so, and Steady wins the race. One thing
that this makes me think of is if you're bringing
in a new cat. Most people are getting their cats
from a shelter, even if it is coming from a breeder,
is doing the triple test for your new cat coming in,
which tests them for FIV, which is like kitty aids essentially,
and then FeLV which is feeling leukemia virus, which are contagious.
(35:13):
You can transmit them through bites and sharing food bowls
and water bowls. So anytime you're entering a new cat,
you definitely want to make sure they're negative for those
two things. And your vet will know exactly what to
test for. So check the papers that you're given, whether
it's from the shelter or your breeder, see if they've
done the test. If they haven't, I would definitely get
that checked prior to introducing them to other cats in
the house.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Oh yeah, ibsltly recommend that test. I think you know,
it's just one test usually right when you get them,
make sure they're negative for that, and then you really
don't have to worry about it ever again, because I
have seen one case I can think of they did
not want to do with the leukemia as fiv's tests
and they had other cats at home the cat ended
up being positive. We found out later and then the
(35:53):
other cats got it, and it's just a really sad
situation that is very avoidable.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah. Absolutely, Okay, this is sort of a random one,
but I have some clients come in and they say,
my cat looks like it's having like a spasm on
its back sometimes where it does like all this sort
of like twitching. What what do you say that that is,
doctor Meade.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
So I'd say that very commonly is something that we
would just call feeling hyperesthesia syndrome. And it's basically where
I think it's kind of poorly understood. It's basically maybe
where the nerves are a little bit over excited and
they have these twitching spells. Some people think it's like
allergy related, if it's like a skin issue. Some people
(36:36):
think it's like, again, a primary neurologic issue. Sometimes I've
seen anxiety as a potential cause. And so again it's
definitely something that you can talk about with your vets.
But the kind of trouble is treating this is a
bit of trial and error. Sometimes you try anti seizure meds,
sometimes you try anxiety medication, sometimes you try allergy medications.
(36:56):
And so it's tough to again, but the goal oftentimes
is to not maybe stop it altogether, but just try
to minimize it to where it's at an acceptable level.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I agree with that, and I feel like it can
be something as benign as they're just kind of overstimulated
and their little back does these twitchies, but it definitely
can represent something a little bit more sinister. So taking
them into the vet and getting a good exam is
definitely the place to start.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Oh yeah, I have one client who's kat has a
very severe case of it, and she's done on an
incredible job but just even doing her own research and
working with me and trying to figure out what cocktail
and what a couple of medications will work for him,
and he's doing great.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Love that.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
If you're listening, you know who you are.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Shout out to the good owners. Love you guys. All right,
we are going to take a quick break and when
we come back, we're going to do our paw and order.
(37:56):
All right, we are back and we're going to dive
right into our paw and order. Number one on the
dock at this week is I would not scoop my
cat's litter, or I'd be very mindful at least if
I was pregnant, what do you say to that, doctor Bean?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Yeah, so I'd say be mindful. I think the big
reason why pregnant women should just be cautious when scooping
letter other cats is there's a parasite called toxic plasmosis
that cats can have that I believe has been known
to cause like abortions and miscarriages in women. And again,
if you want to be extra extra safe, yes, you
(38:34):
have your partner do it, have somebody else do it.
But in school, we were taught if you're just regularly
cleaning the box daily or every other day, your risk
of contracting this is very, very low. I believe our
parasitology professor would tell us that it can take a
few days for the kind of parasite to become infectious.
After that they've been pooped out essentially, So here's being
(38:56):
diligent cleaning your litter box. Your risk is gonna be
pretty low. I would still use gloves, I still wash
your hands afterwards. But something to definitely be aware of.
Should not panic about it, shouldn't be afraid of it,
but just be aware, be educated, and make a plan.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
You don't need to be in a hals mat suit.
Just stay on top of it, wear some gloves. Make
your husband do it, and make your husband do it. Yes,
get those cat daddy's working. Yes, Okay, number two, I
would not declaw my cats. I know I have said
this before on this show. I'm pretty sure I've done
a whole pond order on it. But We're gonna die
on this hill because I feel very, very very strongly
(39:34):
about this.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yes, this is declined cats. I think ten years ago
was a common practice. And I've done a few the
surgeries previously, and they are just real tough surgeries. You know,
it is a It is a brutal surgery where you're
pretty much just removing the kind of you last knuckle
or last digit of their of their finger. And these
(39:55):
cats are painful. It can cause chronic pain. And and
you know, I've had clients say, well, my last cat
was declouded and I've not seen any sort of issues.
They seem fine. And cats are fighters, cats are survivors.
They're going to hide the pain. They're going to keep
moving on. You're not going to see a sign of pain.
But I can tell you these cats are really uncomfortable
long term.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean you hear. We hear from our
amputees as humans that anytime you have a joint or
anything that's been amputated like that, you can have phantom
pains and you're more prone to arthritis. And so imagine
in this case, it's disarticulating ten joints in there, well,
probably eight, I guess, depending on how many tobines they have, which,
(40:35):
by the way, I love tobines, but des articulating at
least eight of their wait, no, four, ten?
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Oh my gosh, those are your front four? Me on
the back, YEAHI on the front.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Yeah. Way, I can't do the math.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
That's twenty if you do all of them.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
If you do all of them, oh my god, twenty
little joints having phantom pain.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
And especially if your cat is an afdoor cat, decline
them is dangerous. You know. They need their claws to
defend themselves in case anything does happen while they're outside.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, and they just they do have a lot of
chronic They can have a lot of chronic issues with
chronic arthritis. Like doctor Bean said, it's actually illegal now
in Australia. I think it's illegal in like certain states
here in.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
The US, New York is illegal.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Now we're moving away from it, which I'm happy to see.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
I think the one caveat I will say the only
reason that some people will allow declaw is if someone
in the house doesn't mean a compromised so like cat
scratch fever, or you're getting some sort of infectious disease
from the cat scratch could be you know, debilitating for
these people, you know, if they're undergoing cancer or they
have some other kind of disease. So that's kind of
(41:39):
the only exception where we can declaw the cats. But
I've never run into any of that yet. I've not
had one that's asked to do it.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
And otherwise, if your cat, if you are just a
regular cat owner that doesn't have you're not that exception.
There's a lot of great alternatives out there. Again. Feel
Away can be really helpful with annoying scratching behaviors, getting
a scratching post. And then my favorite is the soft Pause.
They're so cute. They're like little stick on gel nails
(42:08):
and they're pretty easy, I mean, depending on your cat,
they're fairly easy to apply and they're just like these
little gel caps and you get them on all different colors,
so they can look very very cute in chic and
and that keeps their nails covered so that way they're
not destroying your furniture.
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Yeah, and I think the easiest thing is just cut
their nails regularly. Start when they're young, start with they're kittens,
so that they're used to it, so that you can
do it regularly at home, because that's going to be
the easiest, simplest, simplest thing.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Yeah, it will desensitize them, for sure. It is frustrating.
My girlfriend just got a new couch and it's already
like frayed from her cat scratching it. And I just
I understand why people get frustrated. It probably is Oh.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, my car. I got her when I was in undergrad,
so I did not know all this at the time.
And I mean, my couch is torn up to shreds.
Oh yeah. And everyone always yells at me, get a
new couch, get a new couch. If I get a
new couch, she's gonna do it again. So again I
have to wait till she dies to get a new couch.
But then again, she's gonna live forever, so who knows
(43:09):
what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
We'll just have a stress.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Well, we're going to live with the shudded couch.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
There was one time I was very happy that a
patient was declaude. It was actually at Boulevard I was
working at in the River North location in downtown Chicago,
and a cat came in named Chili Palmer. I will
never forget him and shout out to Chili Palmer if
your parents are listening. I was sitting on the opposite
side of the room. The parents were on the other side.
The exam table was in the middle. This cat was
(43:34):
like completely on the other side of the room in
a corner. This cat launches up onto the table, takes
his paw and goes and just smacks me across the face,
like just like part of my friend. She bitch slapped
me and he was declawed. Thank god, otherwise I would
have like thrash remarks across my face.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
It's hard to recover from that when a cat just
bitch slaps you and you're like, I don't know what
to do now. It's like like bye, I'll see you.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
It'll buy right red. I just was like I'm just
gonna go away for a minute. You can't recover now,
like I would need to take a minute.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
You have to take a excuse myself. I'll be back
or maybe not.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
He was definitely I don't know what I did to
offend him, but my apologies, Chili Palmer. Okay. Number three
on paw and order, I would not minimize or ignore
if my cat seems a little bit off. They are very,
very tough. If a dog stubs his toe, he's screaming
like he's dying. If a cat is in full throttle
(44:32):
like kidney failure, you usually have no idea. They are
so tough.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
They are tough. Again, I think people don't really realize it,
but cats are. They're predators. You know. They don't like
to show weakness. Dogs definitely a bit more dramatic or
have a flair for the dramatics who us. But I
think it's always really really important to just do regular
preventive care visits with your cat once a year. I
(44:58):
think I saw a study, I think from the main
society that said majority of cats do not go in
for yearly checkups because you know, it could be a
hassle for people to bring them in yearly if they
seem to be doing well. But I think you will
look at the teeth, we'll listen to the hearts, we'll
talk about obesity, if they have weight issues. There's a
lot of things that go into that yearly checkup that
even if they're fine, they may not be and especially
(45:23):
when you start noticing little small things, if they're not eating,
if they're losing weights, you if they're drinking more. These
are all signs that something's happening by your cat. This
definitely does not want you to kind of pick up
on that.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Mm hm. I feel like so often we talk about
you said, teeth and dental disease with dogs especially, we
see like chihuahuas with gross mouths or docs in with
all this plaque and tartar on there. But cats are
very sneaky and that they may not have tons of
plaqu and tartar, but they can have really significant dental disease,
specifically something called resort devisions where to the untrained eye
(45:56):
you would never ever notice it, and that's something that
we diagnose all the time, and we know that it's
really painful for them. So again, just another reason like
getting them in once a year so that we can
get a really good look in their mouth and make
sure they're not living in pain and not showing us
any signs of it.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah, the reserved a lesions are the bane of my
existence sometimes that I call them just like cat cavities. Essentially,
that's what they are. And basically it's where the tooth
is kind of disintegrating and resorbing essentially back into the jot.
It's a pretty painful process when it happens, as you
could imagine. The only real treatment is to remove the tooth,
and once they get one, they're prone to getting more,
(46:33):
so they may get more in time. My fun fact
that I tell clients about them, it's just kind of
a cat thing that happens with their genetics. I went
to one CE and the dentist said that even on
saber tooth tiger like fossils, they were seeing these resorved
a lesions. Really, so, the specialist said, so, I think
that's a fun nugget that I tell people. It's just
kind of a cat thing that happens.
Speaker 2 (46:54):
Maybe those cats that get resorped ilesions are like the
great great great great grandchildren of the saber tooth tiger.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
I mean they're descended yet they are.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (47:03):
You're you have a vicious predator in your house the
size of making biscuits exactly. And that's that's why. That's
the duality of cats. You know, they can be making
biscuits in Cuddley and they can be vicious predators. So
I like that they're complex like that, just like.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
You, my favorite housecat. Amazing. Well, thank you so much
for coming in, Bean, I absolutely adore you, and we
covered a lot of ground here today. I would say,
if you guys still have any cat questions for us,
let us know. You can always DM me on Instagram
at doctor Josie Vett. You can also find doctor Bean
(47:38):
on Instagram. His Instagram handle is at since You Bean Gone,
like the Kelly Clarkson song, and as always, click the
link in my bio you can record a voicemail for
us to play. And then, last but not least, please
be sure to rate, review, subscribe, give us five stars,
or a new podcast, so every single review counts and
(48:02):
we'll see you guys next week
Host
Bobby Bones
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