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ShortznCurlz
Health
Policy
Without good health of our cats and kittens
all that we do is meaningless. That is why Christine and David
are making health their highest priority.
Our aim is to breed for health and temperament
first then type. We believe that what most people want is a
healthy, happy, loving cat not the best "whatever" on the show
bench.
Over the years we have been confronted by some
of the many problems that breeders have to deal with and believe
we have responded appropriately and tried to eliminate or manage
the problems. With our expertise in human integrative medicine
we have used the best research we can find and our own trial and
error methodology to come up with our procedures.
In 2007 we have specific health goals.
1. To ensure our cattery is FeLV (
Feline Leukemia Virus) and FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus)
Free
In April 2007 ALL our cats were blood tested
for these two diseases and ALL WERE NEGATIVE
2. To eliminate ringworm from our cattery.
Our hot humid Sydney climate is just what the
fungus that causes ringworm loves. We have and continue to have
policies and practices to test for and remove this difficult
problem. None of our cats have any active ringworm however, no
cattery can guarantee their cats do not carry ringworm spores.
We continue to monitor all our cats and their environment for
ringworm.
Our next test comes when the breeding mums
have their kittens, this stresses their immune systems and is
the time most likely for ringworm outbreaks to occur which may
then infest the new kittens. Every effort using immune
stimulating herbals remedies & F10Sc to clean is used to prevent
this happening.
We have a policy of fogging the kitten areas
with F10SC regularly and use Program as a preventative.
3. To eliminate and minimize feline Chlamydial infections.
Chlamydia causes "meaty eye", so called
cat flu, runny eyes and may cause kitten pneumonia, kitten death
and "fading kitten syndrome". It is a major problem
when there is a multi cat environment.
David has been researching and writing on Chlamydia since 1996.
We routinely treat our queens a few days before birth to
minimize the transmission of Chlamydia in the birth canal, which
is how most kittens probably get infected. We still unclear
about the efficacy of Chlamydial vaccination although any
cats that remain in our cattery are vaccinated as adults.
Bristol
University in the UK has done some great research on the most
effective ways of eliminating Chlamydia, and using this research
we treated recently all our cats with a thirty day course of
doxycycline, topped up with Clavulox injections.
Update April 2008 SUCCESS we have had NO
reoccurrences
4. To minimize the risk of FIP - Feline
Infectious Peritonitis - from our cattery.
In April 2007 we tested all 20 of our cats for FCOV
virus. This is an attempt to eliminate the risk of FIP which is
caused by a mutation of the Feline Coronovirus (FCOV).
Identifying the levels of antibodies to FCOV in our cats blood
gives us an idea of the exposure they have had to FCOV.
The plan is to identify and isolate and or not
breed with any cats that have high antibody levels. We will
continue to monitor the levels within the Cattery and have a
policy for testing and isolating any new cats that come into the
cattery for whatever reason.
If you are interested in learning more about
or donating to FIP research please follow these links.
http://www.dr-addie.com/
http://www.orionfoundation.com/
http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/Pages/FIP_Web.pdf
Interested breeders can also join the chat
line
AustFIPSupport@yahoogroups.com
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