Credit to Murdoch University
You will have to enlarge the photo to read the print.  The body temperature chart  is in centigrade.

Don't forget all the things associated with Easter that are harmful to your pets! Pet proof your home to have a safe Easter weekend with your pets.​

Especially in households with younger children, it is very import to pet-proof your house for Easter festivities! Between sneaking chocolate from baskets, eating candy wrappers strewn across the house, and mistaking fake, plastic grass for the real deal... Easter weekend is an ingestion hazard waiting to happen. 

The best place to start is by avoiding all fake, plastic Easter-basket-grass as it can be lethal when consumed by an unsuspecting pet (not to mention it's very hard to recycle!). Here are some favorite go-to replacements are:

•  If you have a lawn use fresh grass if it isn't fertilized with chemicals.
• The healthiest alternative would be kale! Now this is a basket-filler you can encourage your pets to eat.
• The grass-free-alternative... recycled paper! 

Also, while the toxicity of chocolate to dogs and cats is well-known, there's another silent killer at many Easter affairs - lilies. Lily flowers are toxic when eaten by cats and should be avoided in households with roaming felines. 

As with all holidays, I always recommend pet-proofing your GUESTS as well as your house to avoid incidents and to reduce the stress on your pets.

Especially with less-frequent guests, give visitors a quick run-down of your pet-rules-of-the-house - i.e. keeping outside doors closed, not feeding the pups from the table, don't chase or handle the animals, unless advised how to. 

However, in any situation with many visitors to your home, your pets will inevitably have heightened anxiety and stress. In these situations I've found two products to be incredibly effective in keeping my pets happy and relaxed - Diffusing doTERRA Essential Oils and playing calming music.  They can both calm your pets!

March is Poison Awareness Month so let's be cautious with our pets!
Are you aware of all the poisonous plants to your pets that are in your surroundings and food?  Created by Proflowers.

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By Dr. Becker
It’s estimated that over half of all pet cats over the age of 10 suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is also often referred to as chronic renal disease or chronic renal failure.
In fact, the condition is so common I try to keep it top-of-mind here at Mercola Healthy Pets so I can help cat guardians be on the lookout for signs of the disease, and take steps to prevent or effectively manage it.
Causes of Kidney DamageCauses of chronic kidney disease are wide-ranging and include:
Malformation of the kidneys at birth
Exposure to toxins

Congenital polycystic kidney disease
Acute injury to the kidneys that leads to chronic disease

Bacterial infections of the kidneys
Chronic urinary tract obstruction

High blood pressure
Certain drugs, especially non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs)

Immune system disorders such as systemic lupus
Infectious diseases such as feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukemia (FeLV)

Heavy metal exposure
Abdominal trauma

Research has also established a link between feline distemper vaccines and immune-mediated inflammation of the kidneys, which is a cause of chronic kidney disease.
Panleukopenia (feline distemper) is a life-threatening disease, and at-risk kittens should receive their initial vaccine series, since unvaccinated, exposed cats are at risk.
Many indoor-only cats are never at risk and can healthfully go their whole lives without being immunized. Your integrative veterinarian can help you assess your cat’s risk of disease.
But remember, adult cats who were successfully immunized as kittens do not need repeated boosters, and cats with kidney disease should not be vaccinated at all.
Feeding cats an exclusively dry-food diet is also associated with development of CKD. Kitties are designed to meet most or all of their body’s water requirements through their diet, not at the water bowl, so they don’t have the thirst drive of other species.
The quality of protein in most dry cat foods is terrible; there’s a HUGE difference between “feed grade” and “food grade” (human grade).1 I believe rendered protein is harder to digest and process. Fed consistently, it can cause organ stress to the liver and kidneys.
Additionally, kibble provides a very small percentage of the water a canned or raw diet offers. Cats fed only kibble suffer chronic mild dehydration that causes significant stress to the kidneys over time.
How the Kidneys Fail: The kidneys are made up of thousands of tiny tubes called nephrons that filter and reabsorb fluids. In young healthy cats, there are so many nephrons available that some are held in reserve.
As a result of the aging process or damage to the kidneys, some nephrons stop functioning and reserve nephrons take over. At some point in the life of most kitties, all of the nephrons that can function are functioning, and there are none left in reserve.
With no backup nephrons, as damage to the kidneys progresses, signs of chronic kidney disease start to appear. It’s the system of reserve nephrons that masks signs of kidney insufficiency until the damage is truly significant.
When two-thirds of the nephrons are lost, the kidneys will no longer be able to conserve water, and the cat will pass larger amounts of dilute urine. By the time creatinine levels are elevated on bloodwork, 75 percent of nephrons in both kidneys are gone.
Your Cat’s Kidneys Have a Lot of Jobs to Do. As blood travels through the kidneys, they perform a complex filtering process that removes waste materials and keeps beneficial substances like serum proteins in the bloodstream.
The kidneys also regulate the amount of water in the blood, and help to maintain healthy blood pressure by regulating sodium. They regulate calcium and vitamin D. These hardworking little organs also secrete a hormone called erythropoietin that stimulates bone marrow to produce red blood cells.
So as you can see, when the kidneys aren’t functioning at full capacity, there are many organ and body systems that can be affected.
Kidney Disease Symptoms:  Because the kidneys have so many jobs to do, there are many symptoms of kidney dysfunction, and they vary from one cat to the next. Signs of a problem can be subtle and progress slowly, or they can be sudden and severe. Symptoms of failing kidneys can include:
Increased thirst and urination
Anemia
Urine leakage (especially at night)
Generalized weakness
Vomiting
Bone fractures
Diarrhea
Hypertension that can lead to sudden blindness
Loss of appetite
Itchy skin or bruising of the skin
Weight loss
Bleeding into the stomach
Depression
Oral ulcers
Arriving at an Accurate Diagnosis: Most of the symptoms of kidney failure are also common in other diseases, which makes accurate diagnosis really important. Routine blood work can detect a chronic kidney problem at an early stage. For cats 7 and older, tests for kidney function should be performed at least annually. I recommend every six months for my own patients.
It’s amazing the number of cats who have notable changes in their organ function over a short six-month period. A lot can change in a few months, and catching failing kidneys early is critical.
Blood chemistry profiles will show if there are elevated levels of circulating waste products, which is a sign of declining kidney function. Routine bloodwork will also pick up anemia, which is common with CKD. A full blood panel can also detect other diseases like diabetes and hyperthyroidism.
A new test that measures a biomarker called SDMA (symmetric dimethylarginine) is, according to IDEXX Laboratories, a better measure of renal function in older cats than creatinine. IDEXX claims the SDMA biomarker can identify the onset of kidney disease on average 17 months earlier than the standard test for the condition, which measures serum creatinine levels.2
Creatinine is a marker for the breakdown of muscle protein, but since most kitties lose lean body mass as they age, their creatinine levels may be normal. SDMA isn’t influenced by lean body mass, so it’s presumably a more accurate measure of loss of kidney function.
A urinalysis is really important in providing critical information about kidney function. It can pick up a urinary tract infection, and more importantly, it can quantify the concentration of your cat’s urine and detect if microprotein is being excreted. These are two of the most common, earliest recognizable signs that kidney dysfunction is occurring. Your veterinarian may also want to run a UPC (urine protein to creatinine ratio) test if there is protein found in your cat’s urine.
Cats with kidney disease tend to drink a lot of water, and they urinate a lot, as the body tries to work around the kidney insufficiency by flushing extra waste products out of the system. Reduced kidney function affects the kidneys’ ability to concentrate urine, so very dilute urine is a common problem.
It’s important to check thyroid function in any kitty suspected of having kidney disease, especially if the cat is older. Hyperthyroidism often exists alone or in conjunction with kidney failure, and its presence can change the way the conditions are treated.
Blood pressure should also be checked since many cats with kidney disease also have hypertension or high blood pressure. Sometimes an additional abdominal ultrasound or other diagnostics are performed to take a more in-depth look at what’s going on inside the kidneys with a three-dimensional picture.
Kidney Disease Staging: CKD is staged depending on the severity, which is estimated based on the level of waste products in the blood and abnormalities in the urine. The International Renal Interest Society (IRIS) developed a method to gauge the severity of the disease in four stages. Stage 1 is the least severe and Stage 4 is the most severe. Staging the disease is useful for treatment and monitoring of patients.

• Stage 1 is characterized by creatinine levels in the blood that are less than 1.6 milligrams per deciliter. Presence of waste products in the blood is unremarkable at this stage, but there can be other kidney abnormalities, including inadequate urine concentration, or kidneys that feel different when palpated, or appear abnormal on x-rays.
• Stage 2 is when creatinine levels are between 1.6 and 2.8 milligrams per deciliter.
• Stage 3, creatinine levels in the blood reach 2.9 to 5 milligrams per deciliter. There is moderate renal azotemia (accumulation of waste products in the blood) as measured by blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels.
• Stage 4 is characterized by creatinine over 5 milligrams per deciliter, severe azotemia (elevated BUN), and the presence of multiple additional symptoms.

The amount of protein passed in urine and the presence of elevated blood pressure are also factored into the staging process.
Treating CKD Treatment of kidney disease focuses on controlling uremia (the buildup of nitrogenous waste products in the blood), delaying the progression of the disease, and maintaining the cat’s quality of life for as long as possible. Fluid therapy is usually recommended initially to deal with dehydration, anorexia, and vomiting, and to flush away circulating waste products.
Depending on your pet’s condition, fluid therapy may be administered in the hospital intravenously. Once kitty is stable and rehydrated, most owners want to learn how to give subcutaneous (sub-Q) fluids at home. Sub-Q fluids are injected under the skin, usually in the scruff of the neck between the shoulder blades. Cats tend to handle the procedure pretty well — better than their humans, initially! The frequency of injections depends on the severity of disease.
A diet high in excellent-quality (human grade) protein and lower than normal amounts of sodium and phosphorous is recommended for CKD kitties. Controlling phosphorus intake has proven to be very important in slowing the progression of the disease.
Many veterinarians still insist that a renal diet should be low in protein, despite studies that show aging pets — including those with kidney disease — need more protein, not less.3 But it has to be very high-quality protein. If your cat is addicted to a poor-quality food that is difficult to digest and process, I recommend you reduce the amount of toxic protein in the diet.
However, if your cat is eating human grade (preferably antibiotic- and hormone-free) protein, then protein restriction prior to stage 3 CKD is often counterproductive and can actually exacerbate weight loss and muscle wasting — two common health issues for cats with failing kidneys.
Ideally, if your cat is eating poor-quality food, the goal is to wean him off it and onto a better-quality food so that adequate protein intake can be continued.
Many veterinarians will suggest a “prescription food” for kidney disease, but I recommend against this as well, unless it’s a human grade, fresh food diet formulated for kidney disease like Darwin's Intelligent Design. Darwin’s has created the only excellent-quality, fresh food diet specifically formulated for cats with CKD. It can be fed lightly cooked or raw. Unless your cat absolutely refuses to eat anything else, I don’t recommend feeding prescription dry kidney diets.
Additional Help for Failing Kidneys: Vitamins and minerals can sometimes be beneficial for kitties with CKD. I often add a variety of the B-vitamins to a cat’s sub-Q fluids. B-vitamins can help with anemia, relieve nausea, and improve a cat’s overall feeling of well-being.
Antioxidants, L-carnitine, and medium-chain triglycerides (coconut oil) can also be beneficial. Adding a source of blood-building supergreens, such as chlorophyll or chlorella, can help fight a low red cell count. I also recommend adding detoxification support, such as dandelion and SOD (superoxide dismutase), if your kitty will consume it.
Probiotics that contain specific kidney supportive strains such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, casei, and plantarum, Streptococcus thermophilus, and Bifobacterium longum can also be extremely beneficial. These strains, which support healthy urea metabolism, are available in “kidney-specific” products, as well as OTC probiotics, so read labels carefully.
Feline Renal Support by Standard Process can also be very helpful, as well as phosphorus binders and sodium bicarbonate, if appropriate. Your veterinarian will help you decide if these are indicated based on your cat’s specific situation.
Making your kitty’s environment as stress-free as possible is also extremely important. And most important of all in the prevention or management of kidney disease is vigilant monitoring of organ systems. The goal should be to identify risks and subtle changes long before kidney failure occurs. Many cats live long full lives when kidney disease is identified early and managed proactively.

Let's talk about cats!

With cats... ultimately, you will hear many things from many people about cats and oils. Here's my take: Cats lack an enzyme called glucuronyl transferase. This is important for the Cytochrome p450 liver metabolism pathway. This makes cats very susceptible to ALL kinds of toxicity, including plant, NSAIDS (like aspirin, ibuprofen and Tylenol), chocolate and caffeine (methylxanthines), lead, zinc, and many, many types of pesticides.

So which oils do you stay away from? Most certified pure essential oils are so pure that you can use them topically on cats sporadically in a highly diluted form (as if for infants). It's not a good idea to use them topically or internally on your cat every single day (with the exception of helichrysum, lavender and Frankincense).

The oils to stay away from and use something different if you can are the oils that are high in phenols and eugenols as far as direct application (topical or internal) to your cat (the oils high in phenols are basil, birch, cinnamon, clove, fennel, melaleuca, oregano, peppermint, thyme, and wintergreen.)

As far as diffusion - I diffuse everything! I just make sure not to diffuse anything in my kitty's room (where her food and litterbox are) and make sure she's not "locked" in the room with the diffuser - she will go away if it's one she doesn't like or need.

The main thing is, don't give oils to cats topically or internally every day (with some exceptions), dilute them, only use certified pure essential  oils, and when in doubt, feel free to ask!