Nathalie DowgrayHello, welcome to the July episode of Chattering with ISFM. I'm Nathalie Dowgray, Head of ISFM and host of this month's podcast. This month we have Dr Yaiza Gomez Meijas speaking with iCatCare's own Alex Taylor and they're discussing one of our newer carer guides, How to Increase Water Intake with Cats. Then we have AAFP's Dr Kelly St Denis and she's speaking with Drs Ilona Rodin and Daniela Ramos on the new AAFP Inter-cat Tension Guidelines.
Why does International Cat Care consider necessary, a caregiver's guide to encourage cats to drink?
Cats traditionally aren't very good drinkers. They obviously drink enough to survive because they have to. But their ancestry lies with the Near Eastern wild cat, which tend to get a lot of their fluid from the prey that they capture and consume. So they don't necessarily have a really big kind of thirst drive. This is okay for them to survive, but not necessarily when they start to get certain medical conditions or even just older cats, we need to make sure that they are drinking enough.
And that can be a little bit problematic for cats that either can't access their water due to mobility problems, maybe, or for cats in multi cat households as well, when they can't get to their water bowl because there's other cats preventing them from getting access. It's important that we make sure that they are drinking enough.
How can vets help to address owners concerns when they worry about their cats not drinking enough? This is a common concern I see in general practice.
It is, and I think the main thing is to look for any changes in drinking habits. If they're fed on a wet diet or predominantly wet diet, then owners might not see them drinking that much. If they're fed more on a dry diet, they may see them drinking more at the water bowl or at the water stations a bit more frequently. But really, what we're looking for are changes in their behaviour.
So for instance, it may be that a caregiver just sees the cat drinking usually once a day and now they're seeing them at that water station much more frequently, or perhaps they're starting to drink from the dog's bowl and they weren't before. Or I've had one owner that the cat started to drink out of the toilet. So, those kind of changes in the cat's behaviour can indicate that they're more thirsty, they need to drink more.
And if that's the case, then there could be an underlying medical reason for that, such as diabetes or hyperthyroidism or chronic kidney disease, all those kinds of things that we see in our cats quite commonly.
So what types of water bowl do cats prefer? And where in the house should they be?
That's such a good question because I really think it depends on the individual. As a general rule, it's nice to offer cats a nice wide water bowl so that their whiskers don't touch the side because their whiskers are obviously very sensitive and if the whiskers are touching the side then that can be a little bit uncomfortable for them.
So we want a nice wide bowl, ideally the bowl should be full to the top so that the cat doesn't have to dip their head too low so that they can still keep an eye on their surroundings. Remember cats are prey animals as, as well as predators, they always need to be on high alert really, but it can depend on the individual.
For instance, an older cat might prefer a raised bowl, so they don't have to crouch down too much to access that water if they've got a bit of discomfort there from osteoarthritis. And some cats, I used to have a cat that used to like drinking out of a glass. So it can depend on the individual, but generally a wide bowl, ideally something that's made of either glass or ceramic, not a metal bowl.
They can be a bit noisy, a bit reflective, and the plastic bowls can sometimes harbour bacteria and also carry the smell of things that have been in them before. So we're really looking at glass or ceramic bowls. Water fountains as well for some cats if they like running water, they can be a really good option and just making sure that these water stations are spread out throughout the home, especially in multi cat households. So the access is easy without having to encounter another cat.
And also making sure those bowls are not in the corner of the room, not too enclosed, because if a cat has its back to the room and it's living, again in a multi cat household, or perhaps there's toddlers running around, or there's a lively puppy in the room and they feel a bit anxious when they're trying to access that water, that's not ideal. So we need to move those water bowls away from the wall so that they've got kind of 360 degree access.
So when water is not enough to encourage the cat to drink, especially in those cats that you mentioned before with diseases and dehydration, what can we do?
Yeah, there's quite a lot of different things we can do nowadays, actually. So again, it's down to the individual preference. There might be a little bit of trial and error, but it could just be a case of introducing more wet food and less of the dry food if you want to increase a little bit more of that fluid intake. Or it may be that we need to offer different types of wet or fluid food or complementary food as well, which you can also get now for cats.
So sometimes with my cats, for instance, in the summer, I will offer them the liquid treats that are frozen because they like to lick those and it helps to keep them cool. And it just, it increases their, their fluid intake a little bit. It may be that if a caregiver has the time, they might want to cook something nice and tasty, like some chicken or some fish and let the water cool and then offer that water to their cat so it's got a bit of a flavour, if you like, some sort of meaty flavour.
Just avoid using anything with obviously spices or salt especially, we don't want to be doing that with cats because that's not going to be healthy for them. Another thing we can try is to get, say for instance, some tuna, a can of tuna that's in spring water. Make sure again it's not brine because that's salty and offer them the water from that because that has that nice sort of fishy flavour. Or I really like nowadays you can just get like the soups or the complementary hydration foods.
So these aren't a complete diet, so we need to be mindful that the cats getting other foods as well, but they can be really useful. They're mostly liquid. They have that kind of meaty flavour and they're already pre prepared. So they're quite easy for owners to get hold of and offer to their cats if they want to increase their water intake.
Brilliant. Brilliant. Thank you very much.
Nathalie DowgrayAnd now Dr Kelly St. Denis is speaking with Drs Ilona Rodin and Daniela Ramos on the latest guidelines from AAFP on managing inter-cat tension.
What was the drive behind making a full guideline on the topic of inter-cat tension? What makes this such an important topic to veterinarians?
It's such an important topic because most veterinary professionals do not understand social behaviour in cats. Or, how to address inter-cat tension, which is such a common problem in cats. The most common problems occur when introducing a new cat. The guidelines have, step by step, how to set up the home beforehand, make good decisions about adoptions, and then go through the steps of introducing the cats. Challenging cases will definitely need to go to board certified veterinary behaviourists.
When we look at the behaviour caseloads from behaviourists around the globe, inter cat tension and conflict is becoming the top one main complaint by the caregivers. It used to be house soiling. The current caseloads are showing that cat tension and conflict is getting the first position. So this means that caregivers are starting not only to seek assistance from veterinary behaviourists, but also to general clinicians. So veterinarians in general must know more to understand this problem.
Yes. And I love that you pointed out that inter cat tensions are becoming more of the issue than house soiling. And I know even in my practice, when I see cats, if there's more than one cat in the household, in most of my appointments, they're preventive care appointments. I'm going to identify something that's happening between those cats that the caregivers didn't recognise.
And then the other aspect of the house soiling versus cat tension is that a lot of house soiling probably falls back on inter-cat tension. And maybe we're really starting to see caregivers are more aware of what's going on between their cats. And now they're not just coming in and saying, 'Oh, he's, he's peeing on my stuff because he's mad at me.' They're actually recognising that there's something going on between the cats.
And when they think, Oh, we were gone for the weekend. And now all of a sudden my cats urinating out of the litter box. It's probably because I went away for the weekend. But they don't recognise it could be inter-cat tension. It could be something else that was causing distress for the cat.
In the beginning of your inter-cat tension guidelines is this 10 myths that you guys talk about for feline social behaviour. And that's one of my favourite ones, right? Because I hear it all the time. He did it on purpose. He was mad at me. Why are these important with regards to inter-cat tension?
Our clients, they believe in so many myths and those myths, most of the times make the clients think the cats are all sorts of negative things. And before they understand the reason why cats behave in certain way, if we don't break this myth then their action towards managing the problem doesn't fit with the management we need to provide to this cat. So before any treatment plan, we need to help clients to understand what is cat interaction and why they have tension and conflict.
Veterinarian professionals, as well as caregivers, we need to stop thinking that cats are behaving to spite them. They're just in the moment, and okay, I'm fearful, I'm anxious because my caregivers are away. There's all kinds of reasons. And also to help veterinarians understand, cats are social animals, but they're socially flexible. It really depends on their parents, their genetics, their parents sociability, their experiences, especially early in life.
Yeah. And that's just something that we have to keep talking to people about and getting them to understand. There's no dominance hierarchy with cats. How can we help cats that live in the same household avoid competition?
So we made a point of talking about the five pillars and that was an important section of the guidelines to explain to clients, what are the essential needs of a cat, of a feline healthy environment. And then when you put multiple cats together in the household, you need to think about resources. So the core territory is where cats want food, water, safe places to rest, and also play.
At the same time, they need to be separated so they don't have to be in the same exact place if they don't choose to.
People tend to think that cats occupy their space randomly. And then when we think about cats living in groups, they may think that it's a question of increasing the amount of resources and that's all. And it's not only about quantities. We have to understand how cats follow their feline rules when occupying the space, cats are not random. There are rules. This will help them decide about quantities and how to spread all this stuff.
Watch where blocking occurs, or where staring occurs, so that you can tell, oh no, I need to move the litter box, or I need to move the food station.
Do you have anything else to add about how the five pillars can be impacted by inter-cat tension?
Introducing a new cat can lead to the resident cats feeling threatened by this cat taking over some of their resources. Food should always be fed separately with the visual separation. And even food preparation should be done separately, in a separate room from the cats. Because often the cats are distressed during food preparation. Other things, a cat blocking a litter box, or a cat blocking a cat bed, like they'll push another cat out of a cat bed. It's because they're insufficient resources.
The five pillars are not just a checklist. They need to be reassessed and changed to meet the needs of every single cat.
Yes. One of the pillars that I think it's very important, but in many occasions are not so much discussed, is pillar four about providing the with positive, consistent, and predictable interactions with people. It's very common caregivers use verbal reprimands or water sprays. They don't know what to do. And sometimes they get very nervous with the situation and they shout.
So the quality of the relationship between human and cats in that household, it deteriorates because not only the cats that are involved in tension, but all the others, all of a sudden is they start to listen to loud voice and the caregiver is not acting as before. So this creates even more tension for everyone.
So this is something that it's very important to emphasise so the caregivers start right at the beginning, talking and acting in an appropriate way, at least to prevent the tension to increase.
That's an excellent point. These things come up every day, and I'm sure everyone also has lots of questions that they're thinking of in their minds. Please go and check out the 2024 AAFP Inter-cat Tension Guidelines on Recognition, Prevention, and Management. This is an amazing resource. There's lots of supplemental material also. I want to thank Dr Ilona Rodan and Dr Daniela Ramos for joining me today and also for all of their hard work put into being co chairs for these guidelines.
Nathalie DowgrayThank you for listening. If you're an ISFM member, don't forget you can access the full version of the podcast and all the other ISFM member benefits, including Congress recordings, monthly webinars, our clinical club, the discussion forum, and much, much more at portal.icatcare.org. We'll be back again next month with another episode. If you don't want to miss out, do make sure you're signed up to Chattering with ISFM on your preferred podcast platform.