Moggie Madness

Now that summer is on the way, the two cats are shedding like no tomorrow. They sit on my lap for five minutes and leave half a pound of cat hair behind them, despite almost daily brushing to try and get rid of all that excess hair. Neither of them are overly fond of the vacuum so I’m not too keen to try out the pet attachment on them. Of course, no sooner have I vacuumed the house from top to bottom, when I see a new bundle of fur bouncing merrily down the hallway carried on the wind like tumbleweed through Arizona. Where on earth does it keep coming from? Not to be deterred, I kept on with the cleaning because I sure don’t want to be doing any more of it this week. I whipped out the floor cleaner and now my house has the lovely scent of pina colada!

No I didn’t spill the contents of my blender on the floor. In a bid to determine the source of Rosie’s allergy, I got rid of all the chemicals I routinely use in the house and replaced them with natural plant based products. I found a great range of them in the supermarket called Cinderella - they smell great, do the job properly and are safe for the furries as well. They might cost a bit more than your average household cleaner….but unlike other household cleaners, the Cinderella line is 100% biodegradable so it is better for the environment as well as the furries. Best of all, in supporting their product line, I’m also supporting young women and local business - the founder of Cinderella is Bex Gold (Pantene’s Young Woman of the Year 2006 - Business) who hails from the Gold Coast.

So what are you waiting for? Go get some Cinderella and I promise you, you might actually like cleaning your house.

I’m sure that we all know the old adage and we often do shop around to get the best prices, particularly on large ticket items. But how often do you do it for those veterinary products, like wormers, flea treatments and regular medications? I was astonished to find out that many people are still just getting them from their vet and paying full retail price!

I don’t believe in paying full retail price for anything so I usually do most of my veterinary product shopping online and you can save big bucks by doing so, even taking into account the price of postage and handling. There are literally dozens of places offering veterinary products at cheaper prices so you still need to shop around to find the best total price. For example, one place might have Revolution cheap as chips but charge significantly more for their wormer products. I’ve found in some instances that it’s even cheaper still if I buy my flea products one place and wormers in another, despite the double charge for postage.

So for the Australian consumers out there, I would recommend the following places for online shopping:

• Aussie Pet Direct is owned and operated by a friend of a friend. Not that I get mate’s rates or anything but he provides a quick and reliable service and I get to support his business as well. He has all the usual range of flea products - Revolution, Frontline Plus, Advocate and Advantage - as well as intestinal wormers and other supplements for your cats health, like Cat Lax, medicated shampoos and dental products. Paying is easy - just use your credit card, money order, cheque or direct debit.
• Priceless Pets has great prices on most veterinary products and have reasonably quick service. I have only one issue with this website and that is that you cannot submit your order and payment directly through their site. Basically you choose your items, it generates a form for you to print out and sign, then you have to scan it in to the computer to email or alternatively you can fax it through to them or send by normal post. Emailing the order form and faxing provide the quickest delivery time of course. It’s a little fiddly, but like I said, great prices so if you are saving a lot of money, then it’s worth the extra bit of fiddling to get your order into them
• Vet Products Direct is not always the cheapest place online to buy but they do offer a loyalty scheme. So if you’re buying lots of product and regularly, the points scheme may help you attract a discount in the long run. Quick and speedy service.
• Vet Pet Supplies Online is an online shop that was referred to me by a friend. Their prices for the products that I use regularly on the cats are quite competitive but as yet I have not ordered from there so I can’t comment on their service.
• Petwise is the pet shop I buy from locally when I’ve left it too late to buy online and I need stuff now. They aren’t as cheap as the other online stores for flea products and the like but they do offer a loyalty scheme as well.

Just as an aside, if you happen to use Hills specialty cat foods, you can get a free dry food cannister with your purchase until stocks run out. They have also started a new loyalty scheme where if you purchase Hills foods from the one pet store all the time, they will send you out a gift voucher after you have paid for $200 of product. Essentially you get one bag of food free for every 10 that you purchase within a six month period.

Earlier this year, Mojo went for his third yearly dental checkup and plaque removal under anaesthetic. He just thought he would share his lovely dental work with all the viewers out there. He was a bit late for Dental Awareness Month in August, but he figured better late than never. What a lovely set of teeth you have Mojo!!

“All the better to bite you with, human!” LOL

If you want to avoid a very costly vet bill for your beloved moggie, you can:

• Feed raw chicken wings or necks from a young age
• Brush their teeth regularly with special meat-flavoured toothpaste and finger brush (would not recommend this if your cat is feisty and you like your skin remaining intact)
• Feed them a special dental blend of dry cat food and ensure any meat given is in big chunks, rather than mince like consistency so that they have to chew more to get their food down.

Not just summer, any day when the temperature goes above a balmy 22-24 deg C. Not only is it unpleasant for me but it’s hard on the cats too. Mojo spends his days stretched out as long as he can get in the cat park to try and cool off in the shade but Rosie seems to get an allergic dermatitis in the warmer months. We initially had this problem with her shortly after we adopted her in February this year. That photo was taken after I noticed it, it got reddened, raw and inflamed really quickly but after a course of antibiotics, cream applied four times a day, a shot of antibiotics and basically lots of TLC, it cleared up. I was really hoping that this problem was just due to the type of flea medication they used to treat her on the last day she was at the shelter. But we have been treating both cats with Revolution since then with no problem. The weather warms up and it appears again, thankfully nowhere near as bad as last time. I had some cream left over so I’m putting that on to keep it at bay but poor Rosie!! This means she can’t be spot treated with Revolution….which means bath time again until the fur grows back. Fortunately she’s a pretty good sport when it comes to getting bathed.