North County Cat Hospital
Information about Specific Diseases & Conditions
These pages are intended primarily to serve as supplemental information for our clients to help them understand why we recommend what we do and to explain what can be expected after a specific diagnosis. There is a lot of good information available to the general public concerning cat diseases and we don't feel that we need to repeat that here. Part of our goal here is to clarify and expand on specific information that we have given our clients. It is specific and is intended for our clients.
There are several forms that dental disease can take in cats. They include but are not limited to periodontal disease, broken and infected teeth, stomatitis, and resorptive lesions. This describes some of the more common problems that we see.
A cat with severe stomatitis.
Fleas are very common parasites in this area that are easy to miss. They are usually fairly easy to eliminate.
Cat Fleas
Chronic kidney disease is one of the most common diseases we see in older cats. If caught early and monitored, there are a lot of potential treatments that can be very beneficial to cats with this disease.
Hyperthyroidism is a common disease in older cats. It is due to excess production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland. This excess thyroid hormone causes an increase in the cat's metabolism. This usually causes the affected cat to lose weight despite an increased appetite. It also forces the internal organs to work excessively hard which usually causes at least some damage to those organs, especially the heart and kidneys.
If hyperthyroidism is caught soon enough and treated, the prognosis is good. This is one of the diseases that we screen for at least yearly in middle-aged and senior cats.
When cats first get hyperthyroidism, they usually don't show any signs that they are ill.
Diabetes is commonly seen in obese cats. This disease can usually be cured if caught early and treated closely.
Our page on diabetes is intended for our clients only. Diabetes is best treated by one veterinarian giving one set of directions. "Too many cooks" can create a lot of problems when treating diabetes.
Diabetes is commonly seen in obese cats being fed carbohydrates.
It is common for cats to get cystitis (inflammation of the bladder). The signs that people notice most commonly are frequent attempts to urinate, small amounts of urine produced at a time, urinating outside the litter box, and blood in the urine.
To treat cystitis effectively, it is important to understand the various causes of it. This page describes how we organize the information to make it understandable and useful.
A radiograph (X-ray) of a cat with bladder stones, one of the three common causes of cystitis (bladder inflammation) in cats.
