Scratchings-and-Sniffings

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Attending the Vet Conference in Florida Posted: 13 Jan 2010 08:59 AM PST Dr. Larry wrote a post this morning about our attending the North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando, this weekend and into next week. Our focus is Feline Health - sort of a Myth of Nine Lives. I've written before about the lack of attention we give our cats. It's not that we don't love our cats - gosh, we love'em to pieces! But, cat's are stoic. Cats are independent. Cats can be sick and just go off and lie around and we think it's normal. So, it seems that we tend to take our cats for granted. We think they're okay cause they act as if they are. Even when they vomit, we chalk it up to hairballs and clean up after them. Many of us forget to be on the alert for reasons other than hairballs, for upset cat tummies. The folks over at the CATalyst Council talk about that a bit now and then. Well, I'm happy to say Tom and I will be at the Vet conference, our focus will be on cat health, and we'll be blogging, twittering, and posting to Facebook. This is for you, cat lovers. This is an intense look at some cat issues you might not know about and some you do know about but don't take seriously (when, maybe you should?) Our thanks to our sponsor, Purina Veterinary Diets, for arranging this. One of the best things that will be happening at the NAVC conference is our meeting Dr. Larry for the very first time, in person! OMG! Really - is that the best, greatest news, ever? Okay - I'm just as excited about being able to cover The Myth of Nine Lives (do cats really have nine lives? we'll talk about that), but it's been my dream since Dr. Larry started contributing to this blog, to meet him in person. Yay! I hope you'll tell all your friends that we'll be giving you the inside scoop on cats, cat health, new medical developments, and whatever else we can uncover at this conference. We might sneak some dog info in, too. For the folks who have dogs and cats. Stay tuned - we send us any questions you want answered by the experts we'll meet there. Send us stories. Send us pictures. This is for you, and your cat.

A Flurry of Feline Fun From Florida Posted: 13 Jan 2010 08:12 AM PST Next week is cat week here on the blog. Yvonne and I will be at the annual North American Veterinary Conference in sunny Orlando and we are planning to spend three whole days immersed in cat health. Of course we'll be sharing that information with you almost as it happens. I'll let Yvonne tell you what she plans to do but for me I'm focused on posting about some of the most common health issues affecting our feline companions. On Monday morning, Purina is hosting a series of talks and I plan to report on Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease and some new thinking on Feline Weight Loss. On Tuesday, Idexx, a company involved in diagnostic tests and laboratory analysis is hosting another all morning session on cat health. They have a particularly interesting line up of talks starting with Feline Hyperthyroidism and moving on to Renal Failure and Diabetes. We've talked about all those issues on the blog before and it will be interesting to hear the latest on these common health threats.   On Wednesday morning the American Association of Feline Practitioners is hosting Dr. Tony Buffington on a variety of topics. I've known Tony for almost thirty years and he's a great expert on feline health. He's also an amazing bike rider and a good all around guy.   One of his programs caught my eye and it should be interesting for you cat lovers. He's going to discuss the most current thinking on Feline Life Stage Wellness Guidelines. These are the tests, exams and procedures we should have done routinely throughout our cat's lives to keep them in tip top shape. There is a lot of confusion out there on this subject and Tony will consolidate the thinking of the AAFP and The American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) on what's needed and what's not needed.   All in all it sounds like an interesting week. It won't hurt that the weather looks to be improving for the weekend. My Florida buddy, Bud Hanson, and I will be out fishing one day over the weekend. I hope to hook up and release one of those big Tarpon like I caught last year.   So, if you love cats be sure to check in next week. Yvonne and I are going to be learning tons of new information and we'll be sharing it with you each and every day.

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