Very rarely. Is it possible? Absolutely, anything is possible, but it's very uncommon for grooming products to cause a problem. For those brave souls who bathe their cat, good on you. Good luck with that. Cats don't need to be bathed the most situations unless they fall in a bucket of mud or something. But cats are pretty good at grooming themselves. They generally don't need to be groomed or bathed. Although, if you want to and you're brave, go ahead and do it. It is just not something that you really need to worry about too much.

Yes, they can. Uniquely, we do see it more in the Asian breeds, Himalayas and Siamese. It's more common in those breeds. I should say mixes of Siamese primarily, but not exclusively. We do see more behavior issues, and one thing that makes those issues unique is we'll see the cats that'll be excessively grooming. They'll lose a lot of hair, but typically it's going to be very symmetrical. You can look at your cat and say, Gosh, they've lost almost the exact same amount of hair on both sides. We typically don't get irritation to the skin. We don't get the scabbing and things of that nature. They are what we call self-barbering, but not mutilation. They're not ripping their hair out or leaving sores or scabs. They just have symmetrical hair loss.

If we get an itchy cat, we're always going to be thinking allergies first and/or fleas because sometimes they play hand in hand. There are four different types of allergies. The most common ones we see in cats are flea allergies, which I'll elaborate on a little bit more. We also have seasonal allergies, which are more common in dogs than in cats, but at certain times of the year, they seem to have more issues with their skin. The third would be indoor allergens. Again, it's more common in dogs than in cats. Indoor allergens are going to be primarily house dust and dust mite. The fourth one is food allergies. We do see several food allergies in cats. We'll talk a little bit more about that here momentarily.

The things you mentioned just a moment ago. Primarily allergies, but also cancer, behavior issues, and ringworm. Those are the big four that we would typically see in a cat.

The number one condition that we see in cats for skin issues is allergies. We'll get a little bit more into that in just a second. We can also see problems with ringworm, which is caused by a fungus, not a worm. On occasion, we see issues with cancer, sadly, but they can be addressed as well. Sometimes, we'll see behavior issues that can also result in skin issues.

That's a really good question. One of the questions that come up quite a bit is about clients who want to feed raw food to their dogs or their cats. I don't have any problem with that whatsoever. The big problem that I have is if somebody goes to Walmart or Sam's Club or the local grocery store and they buy a chicken carcass, and they put it on the floor and let their pets have at it. That's okay from a protein standpoint, but what about all the micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, and a few carbohydrates, fiber, and fat they need? They're missing out on so many other nutrients if they get a chicken carcass or catfish that you filet that you bought at the grocery store. That's the problem. They're missing out on so many nutrients. So I want you to think about going to a website: Balance It. It is a veterinary nutritionist that runs an organized website with a lot of information about trying to feed a raw diet to a cat, or a dog, for that matter. I don't have any problems with raw diets. You just have to make sure that you're not just feeding meat. With meat, they may be getting a little bit more than just the protein, but that's not going to be suitable long term to meet the nutritional needs of any pet, dog or cat.

Potentially. It just depends on the cat. Here is the problem. As we've already mentioned, dry cat foods are too high in carbohydrates, so they don't feel as satiated or as full. In many cases, but not all cases, they don't feel as full. They want to go back to the food bowl, and of course, they'll scream and scream, and we cave in and give them more food. That's not free feeding, but they train us to put more food into the bowl, which means they're getting a higher carbohydrate diet. Guess what? They're probably going to get too heavy over time.

Maybe. It depends on the food. I'm not going to demonize human food for cats because, let's face it, we eat steaks, venison, chicken, tuna fish, or something like that. If you give that to your cat, I don't have any problem with that at all. But again, we want to make it a protein. If you started trying to give Cheetos and pizza crust to your cat, that would be a no. Don't do that. Human food can be harmful, but it can also be beneficial. You just have to be aware of a cat's nutritional needs.

No, he's a cat. That's what cats do. Watch Animal Planet! Granted, they're going after mice and moles, not gazelles and antelope. But they're not missing something in their diet. They are hunting. It's the same as somebody taking a little fishing line out of the house and they put a little stuffed mouse at the end of it. Cats are also just hunting. That's what they do. Their nature is to hunt. He's not lacking anything. He's just doing what he's supposed to do.

It depends on your cat's condition. In general, no, because they're targeted for specific medical needs. If you've got an otherwise healthy cat, there would be no reason to put them on a prescription diet. The more common issue we see with commercial diets is with cats with urinary tract issues. In some cases, those cats do need to be on a prescription die to try to prevent the formation of crystals or stones in the bladder, which can lead to a blockage in male cats, which sadly can be life-threatening. We would look out for those things in cats having urinary issues. But in general, no, we don't just uniformly want to say cats need to be on a prescription diet until there's a specific medical need for it.