Mammary cancer is aggressively malignant. By the time it’s discovered, it has already spread to the other mammary glands, lymph nodes, and lungs. Surgery and chemotherapy are ineffective, so survival is less than a year.
The risk is decreased by sterilization, called spay surgery in females. Cats spayed by 6 and 12 months have 91 percent and 86 percent decreased risk, respectively, of developing mammary cancer. Waiting until the cat is 2 years old decreases risk by only 11 percent.
Have your veterinarian spay Stormi as soon as her vaccination series is complete, or she may surprise you by going into heat. Typical heat behaviors include rubbing, nuzzling, rolling, crying, yowling, raising her behind, and spraying urine.
Female cats are seasonally polyestrous, which means they are in heat during seasons with increasing and long daylight, and they have multiple (“poly-”) cycles of heat (“-estrous”).
As daylight increases in January, female cats as young as 4 months go into heat, and they continue to have week-long heat cycles through the end of summer. If the cat isn’t bred during her first heat, she goes into heat about a week later. This pattern of recurrent heat cycles makes it seem as though the unspayed cat is always in heat.
Cats are pregnant for two months, giving birth during the warm months of spring, summer, and fall. It’s not uncommon for a female to have two litters a year.
Yet another reason to have Stormi spayed is to prevent uterine infection, which strikes 1 in 4 unspayed cats.
You can avert unpleasant heats, uterine infection, and mammary cancer by having Stormi spayed soon.
EG tastes sweet, so your dogs will be attracted to it. Keep them away from the area when you are changing your antifreeze, because just three tablespoons can kill a 25-pound dog. A cat can die after walking through a puddle of EG and licking it from her paws.
Even dilute antifreeze is toxic, so if you spill it or see the telltale yellow-green puddle on the ground, don’t hose down the area. Instead, sop up the antifreeze with paper towels, rags, or cat litter. Seal the contaminated material in plastic bags, and discard them in a secure trash can.
EG causes kidney failure. Clinical signs include vomiting, diarrhea, increased drinking and urination, disorientation, loss of coordination, rapid heartbeat, trouble breathing, seizures, and coma. Without immediate treatment, EG poisoning is fatal.
A safer alternative is propylene glycol (or PG) antifreeze. Popular brands are Sierra and Prestone LowTox. PG is added to foods, medications, artificial tears, and cosmetics, although at very high doses, even PG can cause problems. So remember that while it’s quite safe, it is still a chemical that should be handled cautiously.
To keep your dogs and others safe, be very careful when you drain and dispose of your EG antifreeze, and consider replacing it with a much safer PG antifreeze.
