CAT’S HOME REMEDIES...hints
& tips for simple ailments.
Use home remedies with prudence...and be sure to see your vet if your cat is
sick.
Vinegar for diarrhea.
Cider vinegar is good for more than cooking. Given in small
doses to cats it can stop the cramps
that cause diarrhea and it also can settle the stomach and stop a cycle of vomiting. Take a juice glass of
water and add half a teaspoon of cider vinegar. Then use this mix to fill a syringe and slowly give the
cat drops at
the side of his mouth. You could also put a syringe full in his food dish
with
some wet food—always something he’s
accustomed to eating.
A vet-recommended aid for stopping diarrhea is something from your pharmacy. It’s called
Smecta, an argile based product to mix with water. As always use an extremely small amount,
less than you would for children. I sprinkle a pinch or two on the wet food or mix it with water and pour it
over wet food.
Vinegar for worms.
There is some evidence that giving your cat a small amount of cider vinegar in the water
or in the food dish in water will keep the intestinal worms at bay. Sometimes worming several cats or
stray cats can be a problem but if you feed them in a dish with water and a few drops of cider vinegar
added it may be an inexpensive and easy way to worm them. I’ve found that pharmaceutical preparations are
less and less effective and more and more expensive. My domestic cats and the colony of stray cats in my
village have all been ‘dosed’ with water and cider vinegar. I have seen no adverse effects. The worm
problem at my house is no longer a problem and the stray cats who hunt and always pick up worms will
continue to be treated as needed with water and cider vinegar. (In my village there is an old
man whose house is next to the gutter. He throws his cleaning water which contains a mild dose of bleach
into the gutter every morning. The stray cats voluntarily drink water from this gutter when fresh water
is available. I’ve seen no adverse effects from this and very few cats in the village are plagued with
worms. I think this is worth some looking into though at this point I can’t recommend using
bleach…)
Water in dish of food.
Speaking of water in the food dish—a vet once told me that
cats have a tendency to not drink enough water when they’re ill. To combat this put wet food in a food
bowl and add water to it. Don’t stir it but let the cat lap at his food as he wants. It can sometimes be
messy if the cat uses his paws to pull out some of the food chunks. Be prepared for this because the
benefits are worth it. I have an old cat that in the past had ongoing problems with bladder infection. I
finally started a program of putting water with her food, along with a mild dose of cider vinegar in the
water. After a week she was urinating normally and without pain. From that time forward I have given her
water in her bowl of fish morning and night and she has been free of infection and urinary
problems.
Cologne for fleas.
Have you ever run out of Frontline spray for your home in the middle of summer and all
the stores are closed for the holidays? This happened to me and I looked around for something to use in
the interim. I decided that an old bottle of eau de toilette (cologne) could be put into a spray bottle
and used to ‘chase’ the fleas off my rugs, curtains and sofa. Not only did my house smell fresh and
lively but I found that the fleas hated the smell of the cologne and where they and their eggs were
touched by the spray—they dehydrated quickly and were no longer a threat. Great idea! I now use only eau
de toilet or cologne in a spray window cleaner bottle.
The cologne is the very cheapest I can find at Carrefour, Leclerc, etc., about a euro a
liter, there are several scents, usually I use green or fresh scent…
I also found that putting a healthy helping of cologne on your hand and running your
fingers through your cat’s fur will ’chase’ the fleas as well. Most cats don’t like the smell either but
as long as you don’t soak the fur, the cat’s coat and skin won’t dry out.
Rillettes for giving pills.
When giving a cat a pill, try giving it in a small ball of rillette (meat pate with fat, called
‘Rillettes de Manns’ in the French stores). Cats usually can’t resist that fatty meat and wild cats will
swallow it without chewing…pill delivered. I use this method for handing out ‘birth control pills’ to my
village’s stray females…every Saturday morning they are waiting in a queue for their pill and
rillette.
Tea tree powder for hair/itching and fleas.
We all know tea tree essential oil is good for many things. I found that it was also good
for what ails a cat as well…in small doses. I use a tea tree and witch hazel cream (Lanes) for cuts on
cats. I also make a powder by using baby talc (Carrefour house brand is 100 percent talc, no scent). Pop
the lid off of the shaker bottle of talc, drop in about ten or fifteen drops of tea tree essential oil.
How much oil you use depends on how big the bottle of talc is. The powder should definitely smell of tea
tree. Shake the bottle of talc every time you use it. When the fleas are in season and I don’t have any
spot on (until the stores open!) or if the cat has dry skin and lank hair, sprinkle some tea tree talc on
the fur and fluff the hair. Some cats don’t mind but some run from the smell. The fleas will also run
from the smell and the powder dries up their bodies very quickly. The tea tree helps heal itchy, dry skin
and the fur looks silky after a day or so. This tea tree talc is also good for people! If you get heat
rash in summer try this talc, its antiseptic and kills bad bacteria.
Lose weight.
Sterilized domestic cats can gain a lot of weight in a short period of time. Mercredi was
so overweight - see obesity - that she
couldn’t clean herself or even walk without pain. Her breathing was labored and she was miserable. Thanks
to Bruce who found a website dealing with cat obesity, he recommended I feed her with white fish and no
dry food. I started feeding Mercredi only cat tuna twice a day (in a dish with a small amount of water).
This is a cat food which is available in supermarkets like Carrefour and Leader Price here in France.
It’s not expensive and it’s a simple tuna in water preparation. By taking Mercredi off the dry food and
giving her only tuna she lost weight the very first week. (Diet dry food had been recommended by several
vets, it was expensive and she gained weight!) Mercredi’s weight is now at a normal level. She is able to
clean herself, her breathing is good and she has a good turn of speed in the garden when she decides to
run! I give her five or six pellets of dry food as a treat with her tuna at every meal…we all have to
have our ‘bit of chocolate’ now and then.
Temperature control after sterilization.
I was told by my vet that when a cat is put under anesthesia,
after it wakes up it must be kept warm because for the first day after the anesthesia the cat cannot control
its body temperature. This was proved to me when Mercredi had her op. When I took her home I put her in a quiet
area…a short hallway off the bathroom. What I didn’t realize was that the floor was over a cold basement area
and the floor was also made of stone. This made for a bone chilling cold which came up through the floor and
through her blankets. She was also semi-comatose because of her obesity. Anesthetic is stored in the fat for a
period of up to three days…so she was in danger of dying. I put newspapers under the blankets and spent the
night on the floor with her, hugging her close. She did recover slowly but without any more scares, and I’ve
learned that keeping a cat warm and away from drafts is the ticket to success with sterilization whether it’s
for a domestic cat or a stray cat.
Next page...CAT'S OPINION -
Keep cats indoors at night...
