Scylla Sunday & #BtC4A

Sometimes I go in the backyard. I love to sit in the Jungle Gym and remember when me and Charybdis used to play on it as wee kittens. I will snap a quick selfie, then...I am going to turn the blog over to Yin, she has something important to MEOW about. ~Scylla, reporting for ATCAD

Hello, I want to Blog the Change for Animals. Black Cats and Dogs are the last to be adopted. This is very sad, as we have lots of love to give and are very loyal. A wonderful lady came up with a way to help Black Cats, Layla Morgan Wilde, came up with a book, Black Cats Tell All, where black cats could share their stories. I was lucky enough to get to share the story of how I came to be adopted with my brother Yang. You can read our review on Goodreads, they also tell you where you can purchase it. The proceeds from the sell of this book go to help Black Cats find their very own forever homes. And while my mission is to find homes for Black Cats and Dogs my pal and sister Tuiren has her own mission. Yin, reporting for ATCAD



Most of you know that I am a Heartworm Disease Survivor, so this is an issue very dear to my heart and it affects dogs and cats.

The American Heartworm Society has information ever pet guardian should be aware of.


Heartworm disease has been reported in all 50 states. I live in one of the areas with the most cases of heartworm disease reported.

What Are the Signs of Heartworm Disease?

For both dogs and cats, clinical signs of heartworm disease may not be recognized in the early stages, as the number of heartworms in an animal tends to accumulate gradually over a period of months and sometimes years and after repeated mosquito bites.

Recently infected dogs may exhibit no signs of the disease, while heavily infected dogs may eventually show clinical signs, including a mild, persistent cough, reluctance to move or exercise, fatigue after only moderate exercise, reduced appetite and weight loss.
When I found Mommy I was already showing clinical signs, I had a mild persistent cough and I seemed very tired (Mommy thought I was a really OLD dog).

Cats may exhibit clinical signs that are very non-specific, mimicking many other feline diseases. Chronic clinical signs include vomiting, gagging, difficulty or rapid breathing, lethargy and weight loss. Signs associated with the first stage of heartworm disease, when the heartworms enter a blood vessel and are carried to the pulmonary arteries, are often mistaken for feline asthma or allergic bronchitis, when in fact they are actually due to a syndrome newly defined as Heartworm Associated Respiratory Disease (HARD).
 I was lucky in that they have a treatment for doggies, currently there is no treatment for cats.

Currently, there are no products in the United States approved for the treatment of heartworm infection in cats. Cats have proven to be more resistant hosts to heartworm than dogs, and often appear to be able to rid themselves of infection spontaneously. Unfortunately, many cats tend to react severely to the dead worms as they are being cleared by the body, and this can result in a shock reaction, a life-threatening situation. Veterinarians will often attempt to treat an infected cat with supportive therapy measures to minimize this reaction; however it is always best to prevent the disease.

There are heartworm preventives for both doggies and cats and I sincerely hope that you give your dog or cat one every month.

If you want to read about my fight with Heartworm Disease you can read
Scylla Sunday (My first Heartworm Treatment)
Tuiren Day (My Second Heartworm Treatment)
Tuiren Tuesday - Heartworm Treatment (The Final Treatment)


Mosquito season is just getting in full swing so PLEASE, PLEASE make sure your cats and dogs are on a monthly heartworm preventive. ~Tuiren reporting for ATCAD




11 comments:

Summer said...

We love black cats - my human's parents had lots of black cats, and the last one lives upstairs at our house, and she's very sweet.

Erin the Cat Princess said...

Very important messages there, for black cats and dogs and Heartworm. And something that we all need to get involved in, one way or another to show we care.
Toodle pips and Sunday selfie purrs
ERin

The Swiss Cats said...

Great post ! Purrs

pilch92 said...

Excellent post. Great idea for Blog the Change. Black cats are great! And heartworm is scary. I still don't know if Sammy has any adult ones, he tested positive for exposure then negative , but I guess that just meant there were no pregnant ones.

Timmy Tomcat said...

Scylla that is a wonderfur selfie. Yin Toby is an all black cat and was adopted by Dad because he was friendly enough to tap Dad with his paw, not once, two weeks in a row. We hope more black cats are adopted. Tuiren we are so glad you are a survivor
Great post friends
Timmy and Family

Millie and Walter said...

We think Millie suffered from black dog prejudice and that's why she was in the rescue for so long. It was our good luck though because all the people that overlooked her didn't know what they were missing. We are so glad that Tuiren found your mommy so that she could get rid of all those nasty worms. We take heartworm preventative year round even though we don't have mosquitoes all year.

Lone Star Cats said...

Great selfies. My momma luvs black cats.

Brian's Home Blog said...

That was a great post beautiful Scylla and you sure look pretty on the jungle gym!

Alastriona, The Cats and Dogs said...

We are so glad you take heartworm preventive all year. We have mosquitoes all year, most years, so we have to but we know some of our friends don't. Sadly one of our friends (we can't remember who at the moment) didn't cause they lived up North but they came on vacation with their parents down here and contracted heartworms cause their parents didn't know you can get bit by a mosquito even in January down here. It was such a sad thing, and stuck with us. This was several years ago so we are hoping the word has gotten out that you need it all year.

We are sorry Millie was overlooked at the shelter, we think she is beautiful (Fenris, thinks she is the most beautiful doggie in the world) but we are super duper glad that she was there waiting for you to find her.

Our tile will be laid this week and Mommy finally approved the drawings so they are building our cabinets. ~Fenris & Tuiren

Alastriona, The Cats and Dogs said...

We are purring for Sammy. Hopefully he cleared the heartworms, with no damage done. The cat is an atypical host for heartworms, and most worms in cats do not survive to the adult stage. https://www.heartwormsociety.org/heartworms-in-cats

Meezer's Mews & Terrieristical Woofs said...

We lost our second kitty (Angel Simba) to heartworm...he had what appeared to be a heart attack, but it was caused by a sudden blockage of the blood vessel by one of those nasty worms. He got out in the yard once, and all it takes is one bite...and who knows how many bites he had in the 20 minutes or so it took for petcretary to find him after the toddler unfurbro let him out by mistake...since then all of us kitties get preventative...and of course so did MJF and Dalton too.