IT'S EASTER TIME!

This is your friendly reminder to keep those darned Easter lilies OUT OF YOUR HOUSE! There are dangerous and benign lilies out there, and it’s important to know the difference. Peace, Peruvian, and Calla lilies contain oxalate crystals that cause minor signs, such as tissue irritation to the mouth, tongue, pharynx, and esophagus – this results in minor drooling. The more dangerous, potentially fatal lilies are true lilies, and these include Tiger, Day, Asiatic, Easter and Japanese Show lilies – all of which are highly toxic to cats! Even small ingestions (such as 2-3 petals or leaves) can result in severe KIDNEY failure. If your cat is seen consuming any part of a lily, bring your cat (and the plant) immediately to a veterinarian for medical care. The sooner you bring in your cat, the better and more efficiently we can treat the poisoning. Decontamination (like inducing vomiting and giving binders like activated charcoal) are imperative in the early toxic stage.

Can cats detect cancer? Well, while we humans may not believe in the "sixth sense" of the cat, it may be true after all! Check out this article previously published in the Edmonton Sun February 15 2009.

CALGARY — This was no ordinary CAT scan. But it potentially saved Lionel Adams’ life.

Now recovering from surgery to remove cancer from his lung, Adams, 59, is crediting his eight-year-old feline friend Tiger for alerting him and his family doctor to a mass in his lung. “He would climb into bed and take his paw and drag it down my left side — he was adamant there was something there,” he said. “And it was right where the cancer was.”

Nestle-Purina performed an interesting feline food study called the Feline Longevity Study. This study looked at 90 healthy cats over a 7.5 year time span (between the ages of 7-17), and divided them into 3 groups with different diets:

• a complete and balanced senior diet
• a complete and balanced senior diet + antioxidants
• a complete and balanced senior diet + antioxidants, oils, and a prebiotic