The Cat Lovers Thread

I just love my little girl Lulu so much. She is just so pretty. She's actually very small comparatively to my other cats. They did say when we adopted her she was the smallest and oldest one of the kitten room.
 

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I used to have cats that were indoor-outdoor. Now, if I have a cat, it's indoor only. Cats kill birds, and it's important for cat lovers to keep indoor-only cats. See this for how many birds cats kill.

Domestic cats in the United States are estimated to kill between 1.3 billion and 4.0 billion birds annually, with feral and unowned cats responsible for the majority of these deaths. This predation is considered the leading human-caused threat to bird populations in North America, surpassing other factors like window collisions and vehicle strikes.

  • In the United States alone, outdoor cats kill approximately 2.4 billion birds each year, according to multiple studies including those by the American Bird Conservancy and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.
  • A comprehensive 2013 study by the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that cats kill between 1.3 and 3.7 billion birds annually in the U.S., with unowned cats accounting for about two-thirds of the total bird deaths.
  • The range of estimates varies, with some studies suggesting a lower bound of 1.4 billion birds and an upper bound of 4.0 billion, depending on the methodology and population data used.
  • In Canada, a 2013 study estimated that pet cats kill between 100 million and 350 million birds annually.
  • Globally, cats are responsible for the deaths of billions of birds and mammals, with one study indicating that free-ranging felines kill between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals each year worldwide.
  • The impact is especially severe on islands, where cats have contributed to the decline or extinction of 63 bird species.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: 1956 and Tom L.
Has anyone had a cat that needed to have anal glands expressed?
I knew Bobby had been kinda hesitant to fully sit and had made an appt. I thought he was constipated. I came home Monday to an absolute awful smell, and traced it to him. I expected to see some poop on his butt--but instead it was bloody mucus leaking out! Luckily they told me to bring him in right away. She couldn't say 100% it was an anal gland infection (or tumor) but gave antibiotics and pain meds. He did respond to them in a couple days so it does, and did show elevated white blood cell count, so looks like an infection
I knew dogs would get anal gland issues, but never heard of that in cats
 
I didn't know cats could have that either. We had to take our JRT in for that recently. The vet said it can be quite serious.
 
Has anyone had a cat that needed to have anal glands expressed?
🙋🏻‍♀️

Stella...I had to have her glands expressed every 2-3 months or so. Usually I ended up waiting until she had a leak, which wasn't ideal. It always seemed to happen if I went to pick her up… I would call it "getting skunked". Then I would call the vet and bring her in. This went on for a good five or six years. She's 11 now and for some reason it's no longer a problem, except on rare occasions. She has been on a high fiber prescription diet for pretty much forever. But I also think that, since she has been diagnosed with constipation and needing lactulose 2 to 3 times a week, it could be the lactulose that has helped.

It is very rare for cats to have this issue. It is definitely more prevalent in dogs. Of course I had to be the lucky one, lol. For Stella, it was more of a nuisance than anything else… There was never any infection or other issue to worry about.
 
Supposedly, you can be shown how to express the glands yourself but I was never interested in that because of my fear of doing it wrong and possibly hurting her.