by Judy Lin

Created on: May 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 16, 2007

Most feline diseases, if caught early, are manageable, whether it's something as scary as chronic renal failure or feline diabetes, or something as mundane as the feline equivalent of the common cold. How early is "early"?

It can be something as simple as drinking water. My CRF cat, Tibbles, was drinking water, even though she was on raw food. I took her to the vet for a blood test the week after, and lo-a diagnosis of CRF. She had not yet started drinking excessively, vomiting, losing weight (and right now, she's actually gaining weight), peeing all over my apartment, or pooping in my bathtub. She looked fine, acted fine-energy levels still high, being the cranky little old lady she was-everything about her seemed to be peachy. Except she was drinking water. And I knew that was abnormal because Shadow, my normal cat, hadn't touched the water bowl in 4 months (except to play with the water-she's a puddle duck).

My point is, if you want to catch a disease early, you have to realize what's normal and what's not. And it's a lot easier to notice what's normal if you take a few simple steps every day:

For instance, scooping the litter box: most people do this once a day, some every other day. I do this twice a day. Every twelve hours. This means that I can catch diarrhea before it dries out, I know how many times each cat has gone, and whether the water contents of Tibbles's diet needs to be adjusted. It also means the litter box is clean, that it doesn't stink, and my cats have no reason not to use it-because if they didn't, there's something else wrong. If this seems excessive, consider the alternative: if your cat stops using the litter box, you have no idea whether it's because it's dirty, if it's upset about something, or if it's got kidney problem. If you keep the litter box clean, you've eliminated the first cause right away, and you can focus on the next two.

Feeding two meals a day (or 3-4 if you have kittens) is a far better way of gauging whether your cat has lost its appetite, than free-feeding. A cat will normally be hungry in time for the meal, and will therefore eat its food with gusto. If not, then you know the cat is not feeling well. If there is always a bowl of kibble out, then how are you to differentiate between a cat that's not eating because it's sick, and a cat that's not eating because it's not hungry? Even so, a loss of appetite alone is not always a cause for concern. More likely than not, the cat ate a piece of plastic and has to hork

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