Exorbitant veterinary fee forces owner into DIY dentistry

DIY animal dentistry

A woman living in South Wales, UK, said that she was forced into trimming her hamster’s teeth herself in an act of DIY animal dentistry because her veterinarian had quoted £500 for the task. Danielle Amos, from Sarn, near Bridgend, believes that the veterinarian’s quote was “ridiculous” and confirmed that she had been forced …

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Domestic cats don’t chew food they shear it

Feline carnassials

When you watch the domestic cat eating food you might think that they use their incisor teeth to grab food and then push it back to their premolars to masticate it into a form where it can be swallowed. But you would be mistaken. The domestic cat’s wild cat ancestor evolved dentition which is …

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Working out a domestic cat’s age from appearance

Young rescue cat estimated to be 12 months old

It is more difficult to work out a domestic cat’s age from appearance than it is to do the same thing with humans. Normally, most people can work out a human’s age from appearance to within 5-10 years, which as a percentage of their lifespan is about 10%. To hit that target for cats …

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Picture of a tortoiseshell cat with a tooth protruding into the opening of their nostril

To almost everyone except veterinarians, this is a very unusual cat photograph. It shows the closed mouth and the nose of a tortoiseshell cat with a tooth protruding from the upper jaw into the opening of the right nostril. And if you look to the right of the picture there appears to be two …

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At what age does a cat lose its baby teeth? Assessing kitten age.

Discarded baby canine tooth of a young cat at the age of 6 months as her permanent teeth come through

A cat owner on the Reddit.com website (user u/maifoothurts) asked whether young cats lose their baby teeth. The question was accompanied by a pretty stark photograph which you can see below of a canine tooth which had snapped off and come to rest on the living room floor. The answer is yes. See the …

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5 barriers to domestic cat success (infographic)

5 barriers to domestic cat success

This is a square infographic which illustrates five barriers to domestic cat success. As I state, this is not a criticism of cat domestication. It is realisation that barriers exist. We are two very different species with a lot in common despite the barriers. All five can result in problems in the human-to-cat relationship, …

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Calling all kitten adopters. Start them on chicken bones!

This is the advice of Dr Bruce Fogle DVM MRVS, the world’s best-known veterinarian/author. By birth he is Canadian, living in England. “I was born on February 17, 1944 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where I was raised and educated, graduating in 1970 with a DVM degree (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) from the Ontario Veterinary …

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