Fleas transmit tapeworms in cats. The cat has to ingest the fleas, so you don't have to have a severe infestation of fleas to have a problem. One or two fleas can be on your cat, and when they bite the flea, they get exposed. The best way to prevent tapeworms in your cat is to have them on monthly, year-round quality flea prevention. It doesn't completely eliminate the potential for exposure, but it's uncommon to see tapeworms in a cat that's on prevention. That includes indoor-only cats. We see many indoor-only cats with fleas and tapeworms as a result.

Some cats go in and outside in multi-cat households and transmit parasites through fecal contamination. So even if the feces is picked up, animals still step in it and we get fecal material on our shoes. We can bring it into the house, get on the pet skin, and when they're grooming, they get infected. They get exposure even without gross fecal material being apparent. They also get parasites from the soil, so they'll get exposed if they are indoor-outdoor cats. We see intestinal parasites in indoor-only cats as well because fecal material can be transported in microscopic amounts so easily. Those are the common ways that cats get exposed to intestinal parasites. Kittens specifically are the most susceptible to these worms, and they often get these parasites from their mother. We'll sometimes see young kittens with multiple worms, depending on the situation with the mom and the litter.

We can, with reasonable confidence, prevent most parasites. The problem with saying we can prevent them altogether is that environmental exposure can sometimes be very high, and even with monthly deworming, you can still end up with parasites. It's hard to deworm for every potential parasite. By following the next steps, we can reasonably and confidently prevent most parasites in cats: ensuring that your indoor cat's litter box is cleaned at least once a day to ensure that the feces is picked up because that's commonly how parasites are transmitted. Make sure your pet is on monthly broad-spectrum parasite prevention year-round, especially if you're in Fort-Worth, Texas, or in a similar climate. Fleas transmit some intestinal parasites, so ensuring that your pets are on good flea prevention will help to avoid that particular parasite called tapeworms. Following these steps can greatly reduce the chance of your pet getting intestinal parasites.

That's a good question because we see this type of thing a lot. Human food can inherently make your dog overweight, but not necessarily. You can feed your dog small amounts of human food and still keep your dog lean. The problem is, once you start feeding them human food, they become more acclimated to it. They end up hanging around you when you're eating and begging a lot more. You end up giving them more food. In most circumstances, dogs tend to be overweight when they're fed human food regularly. Another thing to consider is when you're feeding your dog human food in addition to their normal dog food, the density of those calories is much more impactful because the animal is much smaller than us. This is especially true for smaller dogs, but it applies to any dog.

Even a small piece of meat in a 10-pound dog is like an entire meal for somebody our size. So giving them human food on top of their dog food, will set them up to be overweight. The other part of that is that if they are getting more than 10% of their daily caloric intake from foods that are not their balanced dog nutrition, you risk having a nutrient imbalance. And typically, when people are feeding human food, dogs will tend to lean more heavily on human food and eat their dog food less and less. This is commonly the case to the point where they're not even eating their dog food anymore, or only sporadically because they're getting their nutrients and their food on the human side.

That is setting them up for nutrient imbalances unless you're really diligent about it. Regardless of their weight, there is a much higher risk of having significant GI-related issues, particularly pancreatitis and a condition called HGE, which can sometimes be related to certain food indiscretions. Feeding dogs human food, specifically high-fat meals, in even small amounts, triggers those types of conditions, which are potentially very dangerous and certainly very costly to deal with.

It depends on the salon. Certain salons have a lot of experience with cats. If the facility's right, like when there are not many dogs and cats together in kennels, and if it's more like a mobile grooming salon, grooming can be done without any sort of medication or sedation. If cats are groomed routinely as maintenance, only doing it every so often is sufficient. Grooming at our veterinary facility entails a lot of medical grooming on cats, which can be challenging. Across the board, we provide sedation for the cats when they get grooming to make it as comfortable and as safe as possible. We coordinate with our medical and our grooming staff to be able to support that type of professional grooming. That allows us to do a good job, especially with these matted cats, in as safe a manner as possible.

They have a very unique, specialized tongue that has little projections on it. If you ever feel a cat's tongue, you'll be able to tell it's very different from what you would expect from your own tongue or a dog's tongue. It's designed specifically to help them groom themselves, clean their coat, and do everything they need to do from a grooming perspective. Their specialized tongues allow them to be such good groomers themselves.

If you're a groomer and have experience, then yes. But otherwise, I would shy away from it. I've seen too many cats that come in with lacerations from owners trying to cut out mats over the years. Of course, they feel terrible when that happens, and they never it on purpose, but cat skin is very delicate, and if you've got matting, safely getting it out can be a real challenge. Even in the hands of a professional groomer, I've seen the skin accidentally cut. I recommend not trying it. I think brushing it is great, but avoid using scissors or clippers. Unless you're very comfortable with it, I recommend professional grooming.

That's a good question. Again, it will differ between cats. A lot of cats will be fine just grooming themselves, maybe getting some supplementary brushing, and never needing a bath. Cats that have an underlying skin disease and indoor-outdoor cats that don't adequately groom themselves can benefit greatly from the occasional bath. But that's challenging because it's often a very stressful event for your cat. I suggest you speak with your veterinarian to determine if it's necessary. For cats that are just a bit stinky or not grooming themselves well but their skin is healthy, considering soapless shampoo that doesn't require water could be helpful. You could facilitate the process with a damp, warm washcloth. This could help you accomplish what you want without traumatizing the cat. However, if your cat genuinely needs a bath, I suggest getting some help because it can be scary.

Most cats do a really good job at grooming and cleaning themselves. Whether they do it well or not differs from cat to cat. Generally speaking, the leaner your cat is, the better they are at grooming themselves, but that's not always the case. Cats are generally fairly hygienic, but it depends on the individual cat. Evaluating your cat, making sure that they're grooming themselves well and not getting any matted fur, ensuring their coats are shiny and that there's not a lot of dirt at the base of the coat are all good habits to get used to doing.