Please Don’t Give Pets as Gifts

Updated 12/14/24 This is Brody, who is a very good dog. Giving is a wonderful thing, and we all have good intentions when shopping for our loved ones. You've seen the videos of a child opening a beautiful box with an adorable kitten inside, or of covering their eyes and leading them into a room where a puppy wearing a big bow is waiting. We have these joyful images lingering from our own childhood, as well as from social media, TV, and movies. A pet may feel like ...

2024-12-14T12:38:39-07:00November 29th, 2023|

Privacy Policy

The following policy applies to Little Big Cat, Inc. at www.littlebigcat.com. Little Big Cat is committed to protecting the privacy and security of its online visitors. We adhere to privacy principles and only collect the minimum amount of personal information needed and look after your personal information responsibly. We date our privacy policies so that you can see when our policy has been updated. We consider the following, among other things, to be personally identifiable information: first and last name, e-mail address, street address and phone number. We do not collect personal information about individual visitors to our website. Site ...

2020-05-17T09:49:46-07:00May 17th, 2020|

Pet Insurance: Is It Worth It?

Great thanks to Lisa L. Richman for allowing us to reprint her newly updated analysis of pet insurance! Back in 2012, I read an op/ed piece in Wall Street's MarketWatch written by contributing author Jeanette Pavini that suggested pet insurance was a waste of money. I wrote an article with an opposing opinion and was recently asked to update it. This is the 2017 version of the original Monday Medical post. ___________________ First, despite Ms. Pavini's 2012 claims that per insurance isn't worth your hard-earned cash, there are an increasing number of affordable ...

2017-06-06T08:47:47-07:00June 6th, 2017|

Lilies that Kill!

Lilies are beautiful, and lovely to see in the spring. They're especially common now, as Easter approaches. BUT... Lilies are extremely dangerous for cats. If your cat goes outside and brushes against a lily in your neighbor’s yard, the tiny amount of pollen that sticks to her fur, when she licks it off, is  enough to cause acute, fatal  kidney failure. Symptoms may include: Poor appetite Lethargy Vomiting Diarrhea Unusual thirst Inappropriate urination Scanty or absent urination Seizures Death Many plants are toxic to pets, especially bulbs, including: Lilies (any plants in the Lilium ...

2017-04-06T15:17:38-07:00April 6th, 2017|

When You SHOULD Induce Vomiting

We recently discussed when NOT to induce vomiting after your pet has eaten certain harmful items. Today we’ll look at common situations where you should induce vomiting (how-to instructions below). Rodent poisons often contain anti-coagulant (blood-thinning) drugs such as coumarin or warfarin; newer products contain bromethalin, a neurotoxin that is equally dangerous. If a pet ingests an anti-coagulant, or even eats an animal that has consumed it, life-threatening internal bleeding may occur. While symptoms typically take 5 to 7 days to develop, they need to be headed off by inducing ...

2017-03-23T14:00:21-07:00November 5th, 2015|

Rabies Vaccine Reality Check

Thanks to my good friend Dr. Karen Becker at Mercola.com for this incredibly important article! By Dr. Becker I have some encouraging news to share about rabies vaccines, or more specifically, how pets with out-of-date vaccinations that are exposed to a rabid animal should be handled. Currently, if a pet with a lapsed rabies vaccination is exposed to a rabid animal, the law in many states requires the pet to be quarantined for several months at the owner’s expense, or euthanized. In October 2014, a Brockton, Massachusetts woman was forced ...

2018-06-09T13:51:41-07:00October 29th, 2015|

When NOT to Induce Vomiting

Cats and dogs can get into a lot of trouble! If they've eaten something they shouldn't, the common advice is to induce vomiting by giving them syrup of ipecac or hydrogen peroxide. (My favorite item recovered by this method was a baby sock that had been eaten by a cat!) However, there are some things that are actually worse coming back up than they were going down. In those cases, you should NOT induce vomiting by any method. These items include: Household cleaning products containing acidic or alkaline ingredients, which ...

2017-03-23T14:00:33-07:00October 15th, 2015|

Filling Pet Prescriptions at Human Pharmacies

I recently came across a very disturbing article in a veterinary publication about the errors being made by human pharmacists when filling prescriptions from a veterinarian. The Oregon Veterinary Medical Association (OVMA) conducted a survey to determine how often mistakes are occurring; and the results are horrifying! Examples of these errors include: • Changing Insulin. Pharmacists may substitute a cheaper product for the prescribed insulin. They do not understand that the many different types of insulin are not interchangeable. Using the wrong product may cause serious problems for pets. • Thyroid hormone ...

2017-03-23T14:33:43-07:00November 21st, 2012|

Declawing Alternatives

By Jean Hofve, DVM All reasons for non-medical declawing have non-surgical alternatives. There are many humane choices will still protect both human and feline health, as well as sofas and Persian rugs: Scratching posts, mats, corrugated cardboard, logs, softwood boards, sisal rope Training (yes, cats CAN be trained!) Regular claw-trimming Rotary sanders (Peticure, Dremel) Nail caps (SoftPaws, Soft Claws) Emery scratching boards (Emerycat) Double-sided sticky tape (Sticky Paws) Non-stick furniture protectors (Corner Savers, Fresh Kitty Furniture Protectors) Pet repellent sprays Access restriction (upside-down vinyl rug runner) Remote aversive devices (ScatMat, ...

2017-02-21T15:19:01-07:00November 17th, 2012|

Can You Make Your Cat Sick?

This is a question many people would like to know more about! Animal disease transfer to people is called "zoonosis." Humans transmitting diseases to their pets is called "reverse zoonosis." How and why this happens is still poorly understood. But veterinarians wonder if pets could be getting sick from humans, and not the other way around. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, "While new strains of flu can evolve from animal populations and ultimately move into human populations, it now appears that humans have passed the H1N1 flu to ...

2017-03-23T14:34:09-07:00November 13th, 2012|

What Your Vet Must Tell You about Vaccines (but probably won’t)

Many thanks to our good friend Jan Rasmusen for the following video and information. Click here to browse her vast resources on vaccines and more. Please be sure to sign this petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/veterinarians-fully-inform-us-before-vaccinating-our-dogs-and-cats The Darker Side of Pet Vaccination: A Video to Save Lives My sweet Maltese Jiggy died in August. His last moments are pictured here. His descent into lifelong illness started 11 years ago with rabies vaccination and puppy shots gone wrong. Vaccine-induced autoimmune liver disease — yes, this is a well-known reaction – eventually spawned two unrelated kinds ...

2017-03-23T14:04:28-07:00October 14th, 2012|

AVMA’s New “Guidelines for Responsible Pet Ownership”

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) just published its new Guidelines for Responsible Pet Ownership (Journal of the AVMA, 2012 Jan 1;240(1):11-12), parting ways with the California VMA's Golden Rules of Pet Ownership that it had previously endorsed. It's interesting, and instructive, to compare the two. I've rearranged them so the most similar rules are side-by-side. In some cases, rules have either been combined or separated; and some do not seem to have a corresponding rule in the other set. CVMA AVMA The joy of pet ownership also brings responsibility. ...

2017-03-23T14:54:48-07:00December 30th, 2011|

Disclaimers

The proprietor of this site (littlebigcat.com) is Jackson Galaxy. Jackson, Dr. Jean, or Little Big Cat, Inc. may receive compensation from other websites  or products we mention on this blog. You should probably assume we do. Sometimes, products we promote were given to one of us as free samples. For the purposes of the Liability Disclaimer, "information" includes (without limitation) any statement of fact or opinion, advice, data, documents or computer readable material in any form whatsoever. Liability Disclaimer In preparing this site, we have endeavored to offer current, correct ...

2012-04-05T08:42:21-07:00November 26th, 2011|

Copyright Notice

This site and all the information and all graphic representations or images on it belong to Little Big Cat in the absence of any contrary indication. Copyright and all intellectual property rights in any information and any graphics on this site, or relating to it, including but not limited to ebooks and reports sold or sent from this site, are vested in Little Big Cat and reserved unless otherwise indicated. No part of the text or graphics on or from this site, including but not limited to ebooks and reports ...

2011-11-27T12:14:16-07:00November 26th, 2011|
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