I always remembered the day when Meowko was first diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, I was so scared, so worried, felt extremely sad. "Oh my god, my furry sister is dying!"--- that probably was the only thing I could spit out whole that evening. That night, I couldn't sleep, couldn't stop googling, reading everything relevant, until I found Tanya's website. On the website it says at the begining, while we can't change the fact that our cats have ckd, at least knowledge is power. With more things we know, we can therefore do the best choice through every stage of the disease for our cats.
Knowledge is power, it is also true for any kinds of feline medical conditions in addition to CKD. In light of this, here is a list of resources that I have been using to find cat medical information for Meowko and Jaja, including preventive care, introductions of different kinds of diaereses, medication choices, veterinary news...etc. I will keep updating this list on a regular basis, and hope this list can help cat parents find needed information.
Feline health libraries
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| Actually, I also searched over human health libraries trying to figure out what was wrong with you touching and kissing me everyday... The symptom checker said, you are a catafile... |
- VeterinaryPartner is a website built for vet professionals by the Veterinary Information Network, Inc. It is widely used by vets and animal clinics across the U.S. You can search on various topics on this website.
- The Merck Veterinary Manual online version also provides professional information about various medical conditions categorized by body-systems.
- Cornell Feline Health Center is an independently funded center. It carries on many up-to-date feline studies, and also provides a library for cat health issues.
- Washington State University college of Veterinary medicine has a collection of articles for pet health issues. Dog and cat articles are not separately organized, however.
- The American Association of Feline Partitioners' website provides many information for cat caregivers, including finding a cat friendly clinic, it's annual meeting info, research trails...etc. It also maintains a list of common cat medical conditions for cat owners.
- International Cat Care (previous fabcats, Feline Advisory Bureau) is a UK based organization. In addition to various resources for both owners and cat professionals, it also provides introductions to health issues and treatment plans.
- Winn Feline Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to feline care and relevant research. It has a cat health library with brief articles on common diseases written by vet practitioners.
- PetMD is a commercial website, but it claims that all its information is authorized and approved by veterinarians. It has an A-Z list of introduction to various medical conditions. But more than that, it has a symptom checker and an encyclopedia of vet terminologies, which may be useful for new cat parents.
- Pet Education is, again, a commercial website established by Doctors Fosters and Smith. It provides a collection of articles categorized by different body-systems or topics. Vet dictionary, explanations on diagnostic tests and procedures, symptom checkers are available as well. Although most information I have read here does seem well presented, some articles are author-unknown. So it is hard to know whether they are written by people with veterinary background.
- PetPlace has a library of articles for feline diseases and conditions, which can be found here. This website also claims that most of its articles are veterinarian approved.
Once you know the diagnosis of the medical condition you and your cat are dealing with, it would certainly be a good idea to read a specialized website with comprehensive information about treatment protocols, and to join related cat supporting groups. People who write specialized websites or participate in the supporting groups are generally either professionals, or people who have tried with many medicines, who lost their cats to the diseases, and who are now coping with the disease. Simply put, these are experienced people. They love to share their experience, and their collective wisdom may help you come up with treatment alternatives that you and your vet would otherwise not think about. Many supporting groups are set at Yahoo Groups, so be prepared to register a Yahoo account if you would like to join them.
Chronic kidney disease/Chronic renal failure
Cardiovascular diseases
Diabetes
- Feline Dibetes
- Diabetic Cats in Need, its facebook page and yahoo supporting group.
- Diabetic Cat Help
- My cat has diabetes
- Other Yahoo supporting groups: FelineDiabetes, DiabeticCatsDM.
Yahoo supporting groups: FIPCatSupport, FIP-to-HEALTH, FIP_Support
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV)
Bud's FIV Therapy and its supporting group: this website and supporting group memebers have a lot experience on anti-virus medications and nutraceuticals. So even if you are coping with feline virus other than FIV, such as FeLV or FIP, this website and group can still teach you a lot of things! After Meowko was tested FeLV positive, I used this website to explore some possible anti-virus regimens with our vets.
Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV)
Feline Leukemia Support, its listserv and sister supporting group
Feline seizures and epilepsy
Intervertebral disk disease
This is common on dogs but rare on cats; Here are two introductory articles for feline intervertebral disk disease:
This is common on dogs but rare on cats; Here are two introductory articles for feline intervertebral disk disease:
Pancreatitis
Vaccine Associated Fabrosarcoma (VAS)
- Shorti On-line and its supporting group
- Sylvia's journey
- Vaccine Associated Feline Sarcoma Task Force (website is down for now).
In the last several weeks of Meowko's life, we started to adventure into some new medications. While the medications she used seemed to be pretty safe overall, we however did experience a lot of scary moments because of unexpected side effects. To prevent situations like those, I personally found it is very helpful to check every medication that would be fed to my cats. It is not because I don't trust my vet; it is because all the medications could have adverse effects and contradictions, and as a cat parent, I need to know what to watch out for.
The most comprehensive way to get information about your cat's medications is to have a drug book your vet uses. Most vets in the U.S. prescribe medications based on Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook. It is available on Amazon or you can lend one from a library.
There are also some on-line resources you can use to check for medications:
- Merck Veterinary Manual online pharmacology section
- Mar Vista Animal Medical Center Pharmacy Library
- PetMd medication index
- Pet Education common drugs and nutraceuticals
- PetPlace Pet Drugs list
Academic research
The US National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health, provides many free-access journal articles for the public, including several leading journals in veterinary science. Its current veterinary resources include:
- Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica
- BMC Veterinary Research
- Canadian Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Science/Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research
- The Canadian Veterinary Journal
- Irish Veterinary Journal
- ISRN Veterinary Science
- Journal of Veterinary Science
- Veterinary Medicine International
- Veterinary Research
But veterinary studies are also published in more general medical journals. It may therefore be worth trying to also look at other specialized journals. The full list of US National Library of Medicine's journals is available here.
In addition, if you are a college student, do check out your school's library. Many university libraries are equipped with access to all kinds of medical journals, which can inform you the most up-to-date research advance in veterinary fields. If you don't have access to university libraries, Google and Google Scholar can also help you get on top of everything!
Important reminder:
Although there is a lot information available as listed here, nothing can substitute your vet. Knowledge is for you to be able to work with your vet better. Treating your cat without consulting your vet first is never a wise thing!
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