Prevent Feline UTI With a Canned Cat Food Diet (Part II)
 by: Nancy E. Wigal

Last week I wrote about the benefits of transitioning your cat to a raw food diet to stop feline urinary tract infections. As I also noted, some cats just won’t eat raw food. Part II gives you information about the more common diet alternative – canned cat food.

Many experts recommend you feed your kitty canned food almost exclusively to keep feline urinary tract infections from recurring. More moisture in kitty’s diet means better flushing capability by urinating more often, in larger amounts. Crystals can be flushed out of the cat when they are too small to do damage. This is critical to prevent cat urinary tract infections from happening again.

Since cats don’t lap up water like other animals, the moisture content in canned foods will offset this. Raw food (raw meat) diets also provide most of the moisture content cats need to stay healthy.

There are many different types of cat food you can purchase. It can be confusing. However, with a little bit of knowledge, you can easily determine what is best to feed kitty to keep cat urinary tract infections from happening again.

But don’t go rushing out and purchase tuna in spring water for kitty! There are several key ingredients you need to look for in canned cat food to prevent a feline UTI. Not just any kind will keep your cat’s urinary tract healthy.

Let’s go over them in a little bit of detail.

Meat or meat by-products?

When assessing the best canned cat food for your kitty, the first ingredient should always be meat. Not meat by-products, and not chicken meal, or similar ingredients. Cats are pure carnivores, and they must have a very high protein diet to stay healthy. By-products are junk for a cat.

Look for chicken, beef, lamb, turkey and duck. Many experts believe fish contributes to feline urinary tract infections, so it’s best to avoid the seafood choices you’ll find.

Rice and wheat:

These are fine, as long as they are high quality brown rice and wheat. However, if one of these is listed first, I’d put that can back on the shelf and would continue my search.

DL-Methionine:

DL-Methionine is an ingredient in both dry and canned cat foods. It’s an amino acid that helps restore the urine pH balance back to 6.0 – 6.8. Read the fine print to see if it’s an ingredient. If you don’t see DL-Methionine listed, don’t worry. You can add it to your cat’s food in powdered form.

Magnesium:

Magnesium is believed to contribute to crystal formation in a cat’s urinary tract infection. Look for canned cat food that lists the level. The magnesium level should not be higher than 0.1%, and no less than .025% in any cat food you purchase.

Cranberries and blueberries:

Although cats are carnivores, berries are a great ingredient to promote good urinary tract health. High quality canned cat food should contain either one of these, or both.

Vegetables:

I know I stated cats are carnivores. If vegetables are listed, and they’re far down the list, that’s fine. Typically you’ll find carrots, peas, squash and corn.

Armed with this knowledge, you’re now able to hit the pet food stores and easily analyze the label information on different kinds of canned cat food. Remember, anytime you’re thinking about changing your cat’s diet, please consult with your vet on the best way to make this transition. Cats are not partial to changes, and a radical diet transformation done overnight is not good for your cat.

If you’d like to read Part I, please contact me at my website.

Good luck in your search for high quality canned cat food that will keep those pesky feline UTIs from happening again!

About The Author

Nancy E. Wigal stopped the cat urine odor problem at her home, and kept the kitty that caused it. “18 Ways to Stop Cat Urine Odor Problems” saves you money, time and frustration by solving your cat urine odor problem – permanently.

http://www.stopcaturineodor.com

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By the time you finish reading this, you are going to understand why prevention is the best medicine and why you should only give antibiotics to your cat as a last result. Feline urinary tract infection is not a common problem but 10% of cat visits to the vet involve lower urinary tract disease. Feline lower urinary tract disease is often referred to as a “silent killer” because your cat may not show any obvious symptoms. As a result the infection can eventually travel up to your cat’s kidneys and kill him.

If cat urinary tract infection has progressed to the late stages, you most likely will need to take your cat to a veterinarian and administer conventional treatment. The most common treatment for feline urinary tract disease is antibiotics. Since the most common causes or urinary tract problems are bacterial infections and bladder stones, antibiotics function quickly and work to reduce pain and suppress symptoms.

The problem with antibiotics is that their overuse and abuse has led to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria and a lack of preventive care amongst pet owners. People come to rely on a quick fix rather than implementing the necessary dietary and lifestyle changes. Recurrent feline urinary tract infection can be easily treated and prevented by proper care and holistic treatment at home.

An important step in reducing the incidence of UTI in your cat is making sure your cat always has access to fresh, clean water. The consumption of fresh, clean water promotes detoxification and the flushing out of harmful bacteria that causes cat urinary tract infection. It is also essential to feed your cat healthy, unprocessed foods that contain important minerals like magnesium. As a complementary therapy to conventional treatment or as a treatment method on its own, a homeopathic remedy can be highly beneficial. It can be taken for long periods with no risk of side effects.

If your cat is in the early stages of feline urinary tract infection, he can recover safely with homeopathic treatment. There is no need to make him suffer from the dangerous side effects of antibiotics, which are known aggravate infections since the doses required are very high. Antibiotics and surgery are treatments that should be considered as last resorts because they are expensive and have serious consequences.

Your goal? Prevent feline urinary tract infection from becoming a problem by making sure your cat’s diet and lifestyle are health-promoting. It might break your heart to see your cat in pain but you shouldn’t let that stop you from seeking out a treatment gives you results gradually yet effectively rather than immediately and temporarily. Use homeopathic remedies instead of antibiotics in order to treat mild infections and prevent future recurrences. If you do so, you will find that natural treatment gets to the root of the underlying problem and leads to permanent recovery rather than just a suppression of symptoms.

If you want to make sure you are giving your pets the best health care available, please take time to read more about the many natural alternatives at my site: http://www.natural-pet-treatment.com

BIO: Ann Matthews is a long time pet health enthusiast with Pet Alive who has a real passion for the well-being of all pets

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One of the most popular social networking site on the web is MySpace.

MySpace is a place that attracts massive traffic from search engines and repeat traffic from millions of visitors from their member base.

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Here are 5 killer tactics to drive traffic using myspace…

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Design your own page, this will help you to bring out your personality. Make it beneficial by including your video, audio, graphics and content that will be valued by the visitors in your niche.

To drive traffic to your site donot forget to embed your websites url out there.

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Make sure to create your myspace blog.

Blog with myspace, this will help you to create your credibility as an expert in your niche.

Post your articles and inlude your website link out there. This will make sure that you provide valuable information to your visitors and in turn this will also help to boost your website traffic. This will make sure that members consider you as an expert in your niche and this will boost your credibility and they will start trusting you.

3. Classified Ad Section.

Drive traffic using the classified ad section of your myspace.

Make sure that your ads in the classified ads section are keyword rich.

This will be useful in increasing your click through rates.

4. Increase Your Network.

Constantly keep looking for members who might be interested in your niche.

Invite them and make sure that you make them your friends.

Ask them their needs and wants. Help them to solve their problems. And then strategically introduce themt to your products and services.

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Post new informative articles, photos or just keep updating your blog with valuable keyword riche content.

About The Author

Murtuza Abbas has helped hundreds of newbies ‘One-On-One’ to start their internet home business.

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Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization is a civilization-building board game by Vlaada Chvatil that spans the history of human civilization. Guide your civilization up from antiquity, through the middle ages and into modern times, and defeat all rival civilizations who dare to stand against you!

Ever since Sid Meier’s Civilization computer game was created in the early 1990’s, the idea of civilization-building has captured the imaginations of millions of players. It is therefore only natural that players would want that same experience in board game form so that they can play face-to-face with their friends. There have been many board games in this genre (including the original Civilization board game on which Sid Meier based his computer game), but none has managed to combine the epic feel of civilization-building with sleek mechanics as well as Through the Ages has.

The objective in Through the Ages is to build a civilization that is greater than all others. The full game will take you from the Age of Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Age of Exploration and finish up in the Modern Age. During this time, you have to make sure your civilization ends up being the most powerful with the most lasting legacy. This is measured in the game using culture, which represents your civilization’s overall mastery and glory. This is done by developing your military, religion, technology and government; and the civilization that manages these sectors most wisely will win the game.

There are two types of actions in Through the Ages: civil and military actions. Civil actions allow you to obtain and play civil cards such as leaders, wonders, technologies and governments, as well as grow your population and construct buildings. Military actions let you draw and play military cards such as wars, pacts, territories and events, as well as hire armies. These actions limit the amount of things you can do each turn, and can be increased by adopting advanced governments or researching technologies.

You start the game with the most basic knowledge such as farming, mining and religion. You need food to grow your population, resources to construct buildings and hire soldiers, science to research new technologies and happiness to keep your population from rebelling. These can all be improved as you research new technologies. For example, researching the iron technology will allow your mines to produce more resources, and the scientific method technology will improve your science research. You need all this in order to create a culture-generating engine that will win you the game.

There are various ways to generate culture. You could build the Hanging Gardens wonder that will generate culture right from ancient times. Or you could build theaters (which can be upgraded to opera and movies later on), and combine them with the effects of great leaders such as J. S. Bach or a Rock & Roll Icon to generate lots of culture from the Renaissance onwards. Or you could recruit the fearsome Genghis Khan and create a huge cavalry army that will earn you culture by sheer domination. Or you could even complete wonders of the modern age such as the Internet and the First Space Flight to earn endgame culture. The options are nearly limitless!

However, if this were the only aspect of the game, it would end up becoming a game of multiplayer solitaire. There is plenty of interaction between players in Through the Ages. If you have a larger army than your opponents, you could initiate aggressions and wars against them. Doing this can allow you to steal their technology or culture, or even plunder their resources and raze their buildings! Anything to give yourself a leg up in this race.

You will also have to compete with other players when you colonize new territories, sending in your armies to claim new land. There are also less aggressive forms of interaction such as research and defensive pacts that you can make with other civilizations, helping each other as you advance through the ages. You can also “seed” events that will change the course of history (hopefully in your favor). If you have the lowest culture, why not include a barbarian uprising event which will destroy the buildings of the more cultured civilizations?

As you can tell, there is so much going on in Through the Ages that a review can hardly cover everything. There are a few quibbles though that prevent it from being the perfect civilization-building game. It would be nice to have a map which shows the reach and influence of your civilization and its borders with either friendly or hostile players. Unfortunately, there isn’t one in this game. The major drawback though is the amount of time it takes. A full game with 4 players can last over 4 hours, and that is if every player is experienced in the game. You need a pretty large time investment in order to play it. After all, building a civilization from antiquity right thru the modern age isn’t something you can do in an hour!

The designer has accounted for the time factor though. You can play a basic game that ends with the Middle Ages, or an advanced game that takes you to the Age of Exploration. However, the full game is still best as you get to experience the entire span of human civilization. Overall, Through the Ages is the ultimate board game for those who love the history of human civilization and want to see their efforts rewarded by steering their civilization to become the most powerful in the world.

Complexity: 4.5/5.0

Playing Time: 4 to 5 hours

Number of Players: 2 to 4 players

You can read more about Through the Ages at http://www.ageofboards.com/through-the-ages.html

About The Author

Steven maintains Age of Boards at http://www.ageofboards.com/ – a website devoted to the best and latest board and card games. You can read game reviews and customer comments via this website.

A Common Cat Litter Box Problem – Feline UTI
 by: Nancy E. Wigal

Cat litter box problems stem from a variety of sources. One of the most common causes is a feline Urinary Tract Infection (UTI).

Cats tolerate pain pretty well. As a matter of fact, we can be fooled that kitty is feeling fine because she’s eating, purring, and snuggling up to us for human love and attention. But at the same time, if she’s demonstrating out-of-cat-litter-box experiences, she could be suffering from from a feline UTI. It’s up to us to figure it out.

When you know the symptons, it becomes clear that kitty has a problem. She may cry in pain while urinating. She may try to urinate, but little or nothing comes out.

Your cat may groom her privates excessively, and cries while she does it. But the biggest indicator that your cat may be suffering from a feline UTI is blood in her urine.

If your cat has stopped using her cat litter box, and she’s urinating on a surface that’s white or very light colored, the blood will clearly stand out in the cat urine puddle.

Many cats who suffer from a feline UTI associate the litter box with the pain that comes from this infection. Their kitty logic says if they stop using the cat litter box, maybe the pain won’t come around again. This is when you start discovering cat urine puddles all around your home.

If you’re one of the lucky ones whose cat is still using her cat litter box while suffering from a feline UTI, the cat litter color and composition may hide the blood. It’s always a good idea to closely check your kitty’s deposits on a regular basis to make sure she’s healthy.

Feline UTIs are quite treatable with antibiotics from your vet. If you suspect a feline UTI, call your vet immediately and follow her instructions for bringing in your kitty for further evaluation.

Once the feline UTI is diagnosed and treated, your cat should regain her good litter box habits again. If not, a short period of confinement for cat litter box re-training is very effective.

Feline UTIs are preventable with a permanent change in your cat’s diet. Consult with your vet on how to safely proceed with this.

About The Author

Nancy E. Wigal solved the cat urine odor problem in her home, and kept the cat that caused it. Read “18 Ways to Stop Cat Urine Odor Problems” to discover your solution.

http://www.stopcaturineodor.com

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