Feline Wellness - Acne

Today starts a new series of on-going blog posts I will be doing about Feline Wellness, inspired by all my fellow cat bloggers who blog for feline health!
Feline Acne,  is actually a common ailment that cats face. In fact it is so common, it happened in my household today. My cat Brooke seems to be having a difficult bout of acne. Our black cat Henry is prone to cat acne on his chin. Though his acne is not ever as large as Brooke's and it always dissapears quickly.

Brooke lounging on my bed after her visit to the vet.

This past Sunday night my parents noticed that Brooke seemed to have small bumps on the side of her face. Not wanting to be alarmists, we decided that we would watch the bumps but not take immediate action. This morning as I was lying in bed, I was givving Brooke a chin rub when I felt quite a few more bumps under her chin. They were close to her collar and seemed to be about pea sized.

Since these lumps seemed to be out of the ordinary, we decided to take extra precaution and make Brooke a vet appointment. Fortunately, the vet had an appointment a few hours later.

Our vet felt under Brooke's chin and was surprised to feel how large the bumps were. Perhaps it is due to stress. Brooke's routine has been disturbed when my parents went to France for a week, in addition to being closed out of my room while my grandparents were staying there. Even though all has been returned to normal, Brooke appears her normal self.

The problem with feline acne, is that the exact cause is truly unknown. Ways to help avoid or reduce the cause of feline acne include not using plastic bowls (try ceramic or metal bowls), wiping the area after eating, and keeping the food bowls as clean as possible.

Right under Brooke's chin is where the acne lies.

The vet gave Brooke a shot to hopefully rid her of the acne within the next two weeks. After the two weeks have gone by, the hope is for the acne bumps to have dissapeared. I will post an update about Brooke's acne in two weeks, along with my next feline health post.

Three Dogz Giveaway!

Deb Larocque from Three Dogz has kindly given me some great goodies to review and give to one lucky winner! Three Dogz is Upscale apparel for Cat, Dog and Horse lovers.

"All of THREE DOGZ™ products and apparel designs are original, eye-catching, touched by classic styling, with fashion forward appeal."

To enter this giveaway, please 'like' Three Dogz on their Facebook page AS WELL AS leaving a comment here on my blog, with your email!

If you don't put your email or leave some way for me to get in touch with you, I won't be able to include you in this contest. I want everyone to have a chance to win these lovely prizes:

Paw print tissue paper,  cat lover mouse pad, cat lover coaster, cat lover pencil and cat and dog shaped paper clips.

Deb kindly gave me a set of the gifts to give away and I couldn't be any more happy with the products! The tissue paper will be great to wrap presents in for all the animal lovers on my gift list. The coaster is on my  nightstand, protecting it from the water bottles I bring upstairs every night. The mouse pad is fun to use when I am working on my blog. The pencil and paper clips are great for school or work, everyone loves my cat related accessories.

This giveaway will run from Saturday November 26 to Saturday December 3 until 8 pm EST. Only accepting entries from the United States. Winners will be contacted via email and will be given 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. I will use random.org to choose my winners.

Thanks for entering, remember to put down your email & good luck!

Note: I was not paid or compensated for this review. I did receive these products free of charge to keep. The opinions of this review are solely mine.

Cat Writers' Conference!

This past weekend I attended the 18th annual Cat Writers' Association Conference in White Plains, New York. The getting there wasn't easy, but it was a blast to meet my fellow bloggy buddies who have helped me so much in the last few months. 

I got to connect with so many fellow bloggers. My new friend Layla Morgan Wilde from Cat Wisdom 101 featured a picture of the cat ladies (including me) having lunch whic you can see here: here.

I also enjoyed getting the most pawsome swag bag and attending the Westchester Cat Show! Here are some pictures to capture the highlights of my trip.

Awesome swag bag including a litter scoop, tons of cat toys, treats, food, a Bissell Stomp Pad, a calendar and many other useful cat related things!

 

Lenny, a purple lilac British Short hair 4-month-old kitten at the Westchester Cat Show.



Hanging with Ingrid of Conscious Cat (left) and Deb!

Another favorite part was meeting Deb Barnes of Zee & Zoey!

Ingrid won the Hart's Chewable Vitamins Award for her article on The Joys of Adopting an Older Cat.

The conference was very useful, I made lots of new contacts and met so many amazing cat writers. A senior in high school could've never dreamed to go on such an amazing trip.

Castor & Pollux Natural Petworks Giveaway!

Hi everyone! Tonight's post is really cool, because I have been given some awesome stuff by the Castor and Pollux Natural Petworks people to give away!

Castor Pollux Pet is all about natural and organic pet products. The company started in 2000 and continues to succeed today. Their goal is to "provide pet parents with healthy, safe, and innovative choices for their dogs and cats."

Castor and Pollux has provided me with 8 cans of their adult cat food and 2 organic cat nip toys and a big ol' bag of nip to go along! All of this could be yours if you win!

To enter, please leave your email! Contest runs from 11/8/11 to 11/22/11 EST. Winner will be picked at 8pm EST on 11/22/11!

*Comments without email addresses will not be entered.

Good luck!

31DBBB - Task 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (Little behind...)

Task 11:
A web of more ideas that string from posts I've already written.

Task 12: Making a Posting Calendar/Post Plan
I try to post at least 2-3 times a week. I keep a book that I write all my blog ideas in.

Upcoming posts will include: Castor & Pollux Giveaway, My personal cat literature from when I was a kid and a review on the new Zee and Zoey book.

Task 13: Take a trip to the mall...
Well I'm always at the mall. What brings me there is when I specifically am looking for something, if I know a store is having a promotion and if I have a good coupon. Their slogans aren't always what brings me into the store, it's the price. I'm typically not someone who pays full price for most things. If a tank top is $20, I'll wait until it's on sale for less than $15. I try not to pay full price when I know most products will go on sale within a few weeks.

Task 14: Update a key page on your blog...
1. What is the most important page on your blog? Him, well I guess it would be the...about me? I mean, people want to know who I am and what my blog is about. Whenever I visit a new blog I always check out the "about me" section to see what the person is like and what they do.
*I'm hoping to update my blog and get a better "about me" and just vamp up the blog to a little higher standard.

Task 15: Find a blog buddy. I don't just have "a" blog buddy, but multiple buddies! I belong to the Cat Lady Coalition on Facebook where I can ask questions to many well known/published pet bloggers, like Ingrid King of the Conscious Cat, Deb Barnes of Zee and Zoey, Tamar Arslanian of I Have Cat as well as so many others!

Can you have 7 cats in the house & a live mouse?

10/30/11 at 12:36 pm.

I'm on the phone and all of a sudden I hear a bloodcurdling scream and a whole bunch of shrieking and yelling. I told the person that I had to go that something was going on downstairs and there was a bunch of screaming and I had to go check it out.

I fly down the stairs and run into the kitchen where the commotion is going on. I see on the floor...this little guy....

Yes, we have a mouse in the house! It's hard to believe that the poor little mouse was still alive because we have 7 carnivorous cats on the prowl. Pearl, our white fluffy Turkish Angora, hadn't even come up for breakfast this morning, she must have known we had mice in the basement.

After quickly shoving the horrified mouse into a tupperware, my mom brought little mousy outside and released him into the grass. He took off like a speeding bullet, surely shellshocked that he had been played with by our cat Henry.

Aftering promptly posting about the mouse on the loose on Facebook, my cousin reminded me off the famous child book "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie." She said: "Are you going to bake cookies or take him to the movies?"

Hopefully mousy will be lucky next time that he finds himself in a house with animal lovers....and no cats! So the answer to the question is YES! You can have 7 cats in the house and a live mouse!

Catto Contest

Not enough people have entered in the Catto contest for me to pick a winner! Enter here on my original blog post and leave a comment. Say what type of catto design you would like.

I will extend the contest until Monday 10/31/11 at 11 am EST! Post now for your chance to win!