Learn more on cat health issue
I recently had to say goodbye to my feline friend of 11 years due to complications from urethral obstruction.
The urethra is the portion of the urinary tract that connects the bladder to the outside world. Urethral obstruction is very common in neutered male cats. It is more common in male cats because their urethra is longer and more narrow than female cats.
Symptoms of this condition can be overlooked until things become dire. Symptoms can include increased vocalization and trips to the litter box. They might lick their hind end more and strain unproductively in the litter box.
If left untreated, this can be a life-threatening emergency due to the back up of toxins in the blood stream and electrolyte imbalances.
If left untreated for 24 hours or more, the cat can rapidly deteriorate and show further signs such as vomiting, weakness, poor mental function, and inability to stand up. Because of this, any cat seen straining to use the litter box should be taken to the veterinarian immediately.
If an obstruction is present, the treatment is complicated and can be quite expensive. Unfortunately, after one blockage, it is not common to have subsequent issues.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have done the following things. I would have used canned food or homemade food rather than dry food. I would have added extra water to the canned food. Cats need water. Dry food absorbs water from the gastrointestinal tract rather than adds water.
There are prescription foods available that are supposed to help avoid this problem. Also important is to make water readily available and likable. Put bowls of water everywhere or get a fountain if your cat prefers to drink moving water.
In addition, have plenty of clean litter boxes and place them separately throughout the house. The current recommendation is to have one more cat box than you have cats.
Lastly, do what you can to minimize their stress. Although this condition is more common in male cats, it can be experienced by female dogs also. I encourage you to educate yourself more about this topic.
Dr. Edie Spence, Murphy
World War III’s ahead
Barak Obama’s puppet, President Joe “Wrecking Ball” Biden, is marching us to war. NATO and the World Economic Forum can’t control the world with Russia and China remaining sovereign nations. They must be destroyed.
2014 began a reign of terror in four regions of eastern Ukraine, which is 90 percent Russian. The Azov Nazi battalion murdered over 14,000 Russians, mostly men, leaving their families destitute. These Russians cried for years for Putin to rescue them, but Russia was not yet capable to fight a war.
In January, NATO sent troops, armaments and missiles to the Ukrainian/Russian border, provoking Russia to war. Putin had enough and decided to stop the genocide and denazify Ukraine. These four provinces recently held a referendum on annexation into Russia. They voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia.
On Feb. 7, Biden said, “If Russia invades, that means tanks and troops crossing the border of Ukraine, then there will no longer be a Nord Stream Two. We will bring an end to it.” Remember, Biden shut down the Keystone pipeline.
In September, both Nord Stream pipelines were attacked. This was an act of war, as about 25 percent of Russia’s revenue is from the sale of natural gas. This could destroy the Russian economy and its people. Do you think Putin will ignore this act of terrorism? World War III is on, and America will suffer Russia’s blowback.
National media propagandists claim it was Russia that attacked its vital source of revenue and leverage with Europe. Who could believe such poppycock? Who would benefit? America, as Europe must purchase America’s natural gas at exorbitant prices or freeze to death.
The World Economic Forum – a global, tyrannical shadow government – has planned a “Great Reset.” This war is part of their plan. Prepare spiritually, physically and mentally. Sorrows ahead.
Mary Mason, Murphy
‘Right’ doesn’t care for morals
During the campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, the facts about Herschel Walker have come out.
He paid for a girlfriend’s abortion in 2009. However, he claims he supports a total abortion ban at the same time.
His son, Christian Walker, has accused his father of threatening to kill his family. He says they moved six times in response for their safety.
He has fathered a child out of wedlock. He said he worked in the past in law enforcement. He never did.
He claimed he graduated in the top 1 percent of his college graduating class. He never even graduated. (Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, The Daily Beast.)
The lies keep coming. One would think righteous (self) would disavow his candidacy and admit the party’s mistake in choosing Walker. Yet, after the breaking news about the abortion, some $500,000 was received by the campaign in response (his own campaign reported).
Why? In 2011, only 36 percent of Republicans said they could vote for a politician who’d committed “an immoral act;” today, it’s 71 percent (Philadelphia Inquirer).
Winning the Senate seat is more important than their morals. “It was never about abortion. It was never about the sanctity of marriage or the Golden Rule. It is only about that one word: control. And unless the silent majority of Americans who believe in morality and good government show up on Nov. 8, the good guys are in very real danger of losing it.’’ (Philadelphia Inquirer.)
Jim Grazis, Young Harris, Ga.
Ready to vote Republican
I urge everyone who loves this country, and the freedoms it affords, to take the time to seek the truth about President Joe Biden administration’s policies that are destroying the United States. Biden took an oath to protect this country, but instead he opened our Southern border.
Social Security and Medicare are just two issues Democrats use as scare tactics. They rule through fear.
The rich make up about 1.5 percent of taxpayers. Do you really think Biden hired 87,000 IRS agents to go after so few? He’s coming after all of us, anyone making a few bucks on the side.
The climate change hoax is making the left and China rich. The United States processes oil cleaner than any country in the world, yet Biden on his first day in office shut down pipelines and fracking, killing thousands of jobs, then put in so many regulations we can’t produce, making us energy dependent again. We are paying the price at the pump and in everything we buy, not because of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
In women’s rights, transgender men have taken over women’s sports. Abortion is now decided by each state – as it should be, not the federal government. This was never a right, the right is for every American to have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And life begins at conception.
Can you afford an electric car at $60,000 and to replace the battery at $14,000?
America, wake up or we will be a Third World country. Democrats can’t control our spirit of individual freedom, so they are replacing us with illegals used to group-think socialism.
God is our only hope. He alone can open the eyes of people who have been fed a steady stream of lies. Wake up, America!
Wanda M. Russ, Andrews
Animal life before death?
This week’s case before the U.S. Supreme Court is not about abortion, religious freedom or gun rights, but whether farm animals are entitled to life before death. The meat industry is challenging California’s 2018 law requiring minimal space and health standards for the animals.
As millions of male baby chicks are hatched, they are ground up or suffocated because they don’t lay eggs. Groups of females are crammed into small wire cages that tear out their feathers and cut their feet. Their beaks are cut off.
Mother pigs suffer for a lifetime in tight metal gestation stalls. Their babies are torn away shortly after birth, mutilated without anesthesia, crammed into crowded pens for six months, then slaughtered in the dawn of their lives.
Dairy cows spend their lives chained on a concrete floor, and have their milk sucked out of them by machines twice a day. Every year, they are artificially impregnated to keep the milk flowing.
Delicious, healthful, eco-friendly plant-based replacements for animal meat and dairy products are widely available. Every one of us can help defeat the meat industry’s case on our next trip to the supermarket.
Armando Jacinto, Marble