Tips to Keep Your Cat Healthy

This article is about tips to keep your cat healthy. For me having a cat is a fun thing. I can play with cats, usually I also talk to cats, I don’t know, it feels like he understands what I’m saying. How about you ? Haha

As pets, cats are very useful for maintaining our mental health. After being tired of doing daily activities, it feels like meeting your beloved cats is a very pleasant moment.

Then, what if there is a pandemic like now? In fact, many people work from home, aka WFH – Work from Home. Of course the cat can accompany you to work. Even though it’s annoying at times, it’s still adorable.

Like myself, tired of studying and doing homework all day in front of the laptop. Time to play with Timy, Nana, and Ameng. My eyes felt clear again. Haha

The topic of tips to keep your cat healthy has actually been discussed in various forums. However, this time, let’s discuss in a little more detail how to maintain the health of your beloved cat. Here are some tips that we can do to maintain cat health :

1. Providing Food and Drink

The need for food and drink is a basic need that is useful for supporting the life of a cat. You can provide food with good nutritional quality, and of course easy to digest.

Cat is carnivorous animals that like to eat meat, fish, and various other animal food sources. Different ages of cats, different types of food that must be given. Because, basically kittens need more nutrition than adult cats. Likewise a female cat who is pregnant.

Here are some of the nutritional needs of cats according to their circumstances, ranging from kittens, adult cats, old cats, and pregnant cats.

a. Kitten

Generally kittens consume milk from their mother until they reach 8 months of age. This period is known as the ‘Lacteal Diet’. At the same time, kittens can be introduced to food gradually from 7 weeks of age.

Like children in general, kittens need complete nutrition to support their growth and development. Cat food must contains several important nutritional components such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins.

Cat vitamin needs, such as vitamins A, D, E, K, and B must be given so that metabolism runs smoothly. However, giving vitamins should not be excessive because it can cause various diseases, such as rheumatism in the legs and spine.

Kittens also need soft food, because their digestive system is still unstable. Therefore, giving dry food to kittens should be avoided. Because it’s too hard and dry.

b. Adult Cat

Adult cats need more food than small cats. Feeding an adult cat can be done three times a day.

You can find food for adult cats at the nearest petshop. If you ask about adult cat food, you will usually be given some cat food recommendations.

c. Old Cat

Old cats are not young anymore. They generally require less energy than adult cats or young cats.

In addition, the digestion of old cats should also be considered, especially regarding feeding diseases such as FLUTD (Feline Lower Urinary Tract Desease) in cats.

Therefore, you should be good at combining wet food and dry food for your beloved old cat.

d. Pregnant Cat

Food and nutritional needs for cats who are pregnant need to be considered. Pregnant cats generally need food with high protein and sufficient vitamins. In addition, feeding can also be adjusted according to the cat’s wishes, a little but more often.

We need to know, that in general there are various types of cat food that we can give to anabul. Namely wet food, semi-wet food, and dry food.

• Wet Food : Usually wet cat food is packaged in cans. If it has been opened, it must be consumed immediately. Because if left open at room temperature, wet food is not fresh anymore. Even moldy or contaminated with bacteria.
• Semi-Wet Food : Semi wet food is needed by cats under certain circumstances only. A sick cat, for example.
• Dry Food : Dry cat food is the most widely marketed cat food in the nearest pet shop. In addition to the low price, dry cat food also has a long shelf life.

To find out about the advantages of dry food and wet food, also read the article on Wet vs Dry Cat Food.

In terms of drinks, you can give clean water to your beloved cat. If you use a stagnant container, try to change your cat’s drinking water regularly so it doesn’t become a breeding ground for bacteria and fungi.

Because usually after eating, the cat will immediately drink. So that the food in the oral cavity will fall and mix with drinking water.

Currently, we can find lots of different types of cat feed and drink containers, both sold in online stores and at the nearest pet shop in your city.

2. Keeping the Cat’s Body Clean

After the needs of eating and drinking are fulfilled properly, the next tip to maintain cat health is to keep the cat’s body clean. Because keeping the cat clean is a must.

You can clean the cat’s body by bathing the cat regularly, cleaning the cat’s ears, and trimming the cat’s nails. For me, it is a very fun routine to do.

To bathe your cat, choose a good quality cat shampoo. In this case, you can consult directly with the nearest veterinarian in your city. Or if you want to provide the best service for anabul, you can also come to the grooming place directly.

3. Keeping the Cat Cage Clean

The next tips to keep your cat healthy is keeping the cat cage clean. Keeping the cat’s cage clean is an important thing. Clean the cat’s cage regularly, as well as other equipment such as cat eating and drinking paces.

Because a dirty cage will become a nest of various disease-causing agents, such as parasites and bacteria. Therefore, there is no longer any reason for us to be lazy in cleaning the cage. Lets do it !

4. Vaccination and Dewormin

Giving vaccines and deworming drugs is important to maintain the health of your beloved cats. Vaccination is intended so that the cat’s body forms antibodies that are specific to certain viruses. For example, when a cat is exposed to the X virus, and the cat has been vaccinated against the X virus, the cat’s body can fight the virus.

The most common vaccine given to cats is the rabies vaccine. Usually, we can get the rabies vaccine for free on World Rabies Day, which is every September 21. There are lots of veterinary clinics that participate by giving free rabies vaccinations on that date.

For deworming, I absolutely do not recommend you to give your own deworming medicine to cats. At that time, my lecturer Prof. Dr. I Komang Wiarsa Sardjana, drh., DEA. told me that he was once asked by a client, “why my cat was vomiting ?” It turned out that the cause was giving the wrong worm medicine.

Please note, that each type of worm has a special deworming medicine. Therefore, deworming is a curative measure, not a preventive measure. Deworming medicine is contractionary, if it is wrong then the cat can experience vomiting.

Please come to the nearest veterinarian to find out whether your cat has worms or not, if you have intestinal worms you can find out what type of worms attack your cat. So that the medicine given is not wrong.

5. Check the Cat’s Health to the Veterinarian

The next tip to keep your cat healthy is routine to check your cat’s health to the vet. Health checks are important to know the current condition of your beloved cat.

Maintaining cat health is a very important thing to do. Actually, it’s not just cats. Other pets must also be kept healthy, because the health of pets is directly related to the health of the owner. Yup, your health.

We need to know, there are many diseases in this world. However, there is one class of diseases that should really concern us all. That is a disease that is classified as a zoonotic disease or zoonoses disease.

Zoonoses are diseases and infections that can naturally be transmitted from vertebrate animals to humans and or vice versa. This understanding also includes conditions in which an organism can live both in the human body and the animal body, even though the organism is not generally transmitted from one to another.

(Wijayanti, 2010)

Commonly known zoonotic diseases in cats are scabies which is caused by a parasite and ringworm which is caused by a fungus. Therefore, it is important for all of us to maintain the health of the little cats and the big cats.

Thank you for reading the various tips to keep your cat healthy. Keep the spirit of living, cat lovers around the world.

Bibliography :

• Wijayanti, T. (2010). zoonoses. BALABA: JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SOURCE DISEASE R&D CONTROL BANJARNEGARA, 20-21.