Forcing the pill

You’ve probably heard this before: a dog can be fooled into taking a pill mixed with food, but a cat cannot. It’s true, which means you have...

Chubby castrati

male opera singers of centuries ago who had been castrated (voluntarily) before puberty so they would retain a sweet soprano voice all thei...

The Black Death—not dead yet

Europe in the Middle Ages, is still around and still caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Then as now, the germ is carried by flea-beari...

The rib test

We have all seen stray cats who looked pitiful with their ribs protruding, and our instinct is to bring them home and fatten them up. In a c...

The sweet sickness

Greece and Rome spoke of the “sweet sickness,” a disease we know as diabetes. It occurs not only among humans but cats as well, generally c...

Shutting down the immune system

Yes, cats do get a form of AIDS. It’s caused by the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and it’s closely related to the human AIDS virus. A...

The pill obsession

pet owners impose this obsession onto their animal companions, assuming the pet just can’t get by without some sort of pill or liquid suppl...