Russian Blue Cat Diseases, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention

Russian Blue Cat Diseases

Russian Blue Cat, sometimes also just called “Archangel Cats” are exquisite looking, energetic, and playful cats to own. Owning a cat as a pet is ideal for most people because they are quiet, undemanding, and require low-maintenance. Russian Blue Cat falls under the cat who is rare and intelligent. If you maintain a proper hygiene protocol, you will need minimal treatment and health treatment in Russian blue. However, some compromising factors can affect the cat’s health. I am here to clear you about the Russian Blue Cat diseases, their diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

The plush, silvery blue coat, and blinding green eyes of Russian Blue are breathtaking. The coat is extremely dense hence; the cat seems larger than they are. For pet parents with allergies, they can be a good choice because they do not shed a lot and contain lower levels of the glycoprotein Fel d 1 than other cat breeds, which is a recognized allergen in cats.

Many disorders and diseases are hereditary, which means that they are related to the breed of your animal. That does not mean that your cat has these issues, but it can be more fragile than other cats. I will address the key diseases in Russian Blue cat, the diagnosis, treatments as well as prevention to give you an insight into what will happen in their future.

Keep reading for more.

Russian Blue Cat Care

Before you know about the diseases that will affect your Russian Blue Cat’s health, you should first know the basic grooming and care routine for them. Regular cleaning, playtime, and exercise can help the cat to stay healthy and strong. Besides, it will also inform you about the mood of your cat making you identify if something is wrong.

Proper Diet

Cats are no doubt a little greedy. Most of the cats make the owner overfeed them. The Russian Blue Cat is no exception. They love to eat. Hence, it is your job as a pet parent to make sure the cats eat a balanced diet. Otherwise, your Russian Blue will face diseases like diabetes. Instead of free-range food, you can commit to scheduled food. In this way, you can track your cat’s appetite and note if your cat starts eating less, which may be a sign of a health issue.

Water

Never forget to give the cat the proper amount of water daily. Some people may forget to provide them with water leading to serious health problems. The food and water go hand in hand. Place many bowls in the house and change the water every day. The Russian Blue Cat should have a bowl of water all day long to encourage the cat to drink it whenever they want. This will avoid any kidney or urinary tract problems.

Cleaning Litter Box

Russian Blues are a very finicky breed and many do not even go into a box if you do not wash or clean it. Appropriately, you should extract the feces each day and replace the litter box at least two times per week. The Russian Blue is unique in hygienic, so the litter box needs to be washed more often. Doing this will lessen foul odor.

Grooming

Make sure you comb your cat at least once or twice a week. Its stunning blue-gray suit characterizes the Russian Blue. The coat is called a “double coat,” since its two different layers make the cats appear larger. Regular grooming helps remove any loose hair and avoids a fur ball by the cat.

Trim the Nails

To stop splitting and fracturing, the cat should have her nails cut every 10 days to 2 weeks. A calm, stimulus-free atmosphere of your home can be the perfect way to trim a cat’s nails. Try not to clip the nails of the cat in front of a window as creatures or noises distract them outside and try to run out your arms or harm themselves. Russian Blues have transparent or translucent nails, making it easier to see the pink vein running about halfway through the nail. Do not cut the vein else, it is going to bleed.

Check the Ears

It is also important to examine your cat’s ears for wax growth and any other health problems regularly. Check the ears every week. You can only put some olive oil on a Q-tip and swab the ear if the wax is collected.

Brush the Teeth

Clean the teeth once a week to keep your pet in good overall health. Speak to your veterinarian about the prescribed toothpaste and brush. At your nearest pet shop, you can buy feline toothpaste and toothbrush. Clean the teeth of your cat gently. In this process, you must introduce the brush and toothpaste slowly over time to make your cat comfortable.

Check the Eyes

Get into the habit of doing a quick, home eye exam before brushing your cat. This helps you recognize possible health conditions associated with tearing, crust, cloudiness, or inflammation.

Russian Blue Cat Diseases, Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment

Russian Blue is normally healthy cats, but daily checks and vaccines are required to keep them in good condition. Some diseases are more resistant to this race and the main signs are worth learning, so you know what to look for.

Read further for Russian Blue Cat diseases, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.

Dental Disease

Sadly, most cats do not care too much about their teeth. Your cat will develop severe gum disease without any further support and treatment from you. The Russian Blue Cat can also lose teeth or experience damage to internal organs in serious cases of chronic dental infections.

Diagnosis

Dental disease begins in your Russian with a food residue that becomes hardened in tartar that develops in the obvious sections of your teeth. Russian Bue does not clean their teeth and they are heavy eaters. Sometimes drinking water will also clean the cat’s mouth but when they do not drink enough water, the food affects the gums and there canbe cavities.

Treatment

For the treatment, you should remove the food residues regularly. This can also help prevent tooth problems completely. This treatment will be exhausting for your cat. It will be better if you take the necessary precautions beforehand.

Prevention

The prevention of dental illness can be overcome by brushing your Russian Blue Cat’s teeth once or twice a week. Since the treatment for dental diseases can be painful and expensive, you should opt for preventive measures.

Hyperthyroidism

This is one of the genetic problems in Russian Blue Cat. Especially, when your Russian blue is middle-aged. The thyroid gland has a significant role located in front of the throat. Known for producing thyroxine or T4 hormones. The total speed of metabolic processes in the entire body is controlled using thyroxine. The cells in each part of the body start to function faster as the levels of T4 in the blood increase. If T4 levels are decreased, the thyroid gland produces more T4.

Diagnosis

Hyperthyroidism typically appears with a benign tumor in the thyroid, which contributes to too much thyroid hormone, which then accelerates the metabolism. Hyperactivity, nervousness, vomiting, and weight loss provide signals for hyperthyroidism in Russian Blue Cat. Hyperthyroidism in advanced cases can lead to heart failure, renal failure, and fatal blood coagulation.

Treatment

The only way to treat hyperthyroidism in Russian Blue is through medications. Conveniently, you can handle this; your Russian Blue will be extremely likely to lead a safe and normal life with radioactive iodine, medication, or surgery. The latest successful form of treatment will potentially cure the disorder by destroying the abnormal tumor cells while keeping the normal thyroid cells safe; this ensures that many infected cats have a normal life span.

Prevention

Now, this disease can be inevitable in Russian Blue cats. However, you can take the necessary answers and identify the disease by performing the standard blood test on your cat.

Eye Conditions

Just like us, cats also suffer from eye problems. The conditions in your cat’s eye can be prevented depending on the infection. Russian blues are more likely to have conjunctivitis, causing lesions, cuts to the surface of the eyes or something within, loss of the development of tears production, allergies, or entropion.

Diagnosis

Elevated pressure in the eyeball is responsible for eye infections such as glaucoma. Similarly, the Russian Blue can also suffer from cataracts that is due to the opacity of the lens. The entropion is from the inward rolling of eyelids. As well as, the inflammation of the insides of Russian Blue causes conjunctivitis or retinal problems.

Treatment

Generally, the treatment of eye infections can be done by using eye drops. Different eye infections require varying eye drop solution. The severity of the problem will also play a key role in the treatment of the Russian Blue Cat’s eye infection treatment.

Prevention

I would not say that you could completely prevent eye infection. This is because there can be many reasons as to why the infection occurs. All you could do is check your Blue Cat’s eyes and keep them in a clean environment.

Respiratory Tract Disorders

Divided into two sections. One is the upper section consisting of the nose, nasal passages, and windpipe. Second is the lower section of small airways and lungs. Let us know about the Russian Blue Cat diseases, the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of respiratory tract disorder.

Diagnosis

If your Russian Blue is suffering from respiratory tract disorders, you can diagnosis through the symptoms of sneezing and nasal discharge. You can also diagnose your cat from lower respiratory tract problems. If so, you can see them coughing and wheezing.

Treatment

Unfortunately speaking, the respiratory tract diseases are incurable for Russian Blue. Nevertheless, you will be able to manage these diseases with long-term medications such as injections, using inhalers, or tablets.

Prevention

You must prevent this incurable disease from ever occurring to your Blue Cat. You can give them vaccinations of these conditions beforehand.

Diabetes

Russian Blue Cat is not immune to suffering from diabetes. It is very much similar to humans. The diabase causes the body to stop producing insulin or makes the body unable to use it. Lately, the number of diabetic cats has risen significantly due to indoor inactive lifestyles. Russian Blue Cats and other cats should not be just the pets that are exclusively kept indoors.

Diagnosis

The best way to find out about diabetes in your cat analyzing their behavior. Diabetes causes extreme thirst and urination as well as weight loss in your Blue Cat. A painful disorder known as pancreatitis may also be associated with diabetes. Chronic pancreatitis, which is believed to have a genetic inheritance, may lead to insulin-producing cell damage to the pancreas and therefore to diabetic status in a cat.

Treatment

Again, there is no complete treatment for diabetes. You can control diabetes in your Russian Blue through a controlled diet, insulin shots, or medications. Like humans, many diabetic cats do not have to be injected with insulin if they lose some weight and change into a low-carbon high-protein diet.

Prevention

There is no way that you can know that your cat is suffering from diabetes. The best way to handle is to monitor and regulate proper care.

Kidney Diseases

It is also known as Renal Failure. This refers to the incompetency of the kidney to carry out their blood waste cleaning and controlling hydration functions adequately. Sometimes very young kittens can have renal failure if they have genetic kidney defects so I suggest, screening before anesthesia or surgery and frequently over their entire lifetimes.

Diagnosis

The renal disorder is severe in older cats but typically is due to the exposure of toxins or genetic factors in young cats. Infections, blockages, toxins, or tumors caused by renal conditions (particularly by liquid anti-freeze) and age-related changes can affect Russian Blues.

Treatment

Russian Blue Cat with kidney disease can live longer, more satisfying lives through special diets and medications. You can maintain a good diet at home by following the doctor’s recommendation.

Prevention

You should screen for kidney disorders early on. Before any surgery on your cat, and throughout life, you will need screening. If your Russian Blue suffers from genetic renal condition there is no way you can prevent it. However, you can control the disease through medication.

Heart Diseases

Cardiomyopathy is a health term for heart muscle disease, either primary or secondary to other cardiovascular diseases. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common type of heart muscle thickening, mostly induced by an overactive thyroid gland. Another example is dilated cardiomyopathy or DCM caused by an amino acid taurine dietary deficiency. DCM was a major problem in the past, while all major cat food manufacturers now add taurine to cat food, DCM is not commonly found in cats today with high-quality diets.

Diagnosis

It is crucial to catch cardiomyopathy early but the cat’s normal trend to cover up disease can make it difficult to detect symptoms. The first thing a pet parent generally discovers is fast respiration, lethargy, and low appetite. These symptoms can seem to be happening at once in several hours to a few days, but in most cases, the cat is in deep trouble for weeks to months.

Treatment and Prevention

The early diagnosis would help the Russian Blue to undergo various therapy and medication. The treatment would be more effective then. Many cardiomyopathy cats have a heart murmuring that can be observed at healthcare, but specialized diagnostic imaging is required to achieve a clear diagnosis.

FLUTD

Generally, the conditions affecting the bladder and urethra of cat is known as Feline Lower Urinary Tract Diseases (FLUTD). Commonly, also recognized as Cystitis. Cats are good at hiding just how ill they are so that you can easily miss the first symptoms of FLUTD. You may feel angry or furious if your cat urinates outside the litter box. But don’t get angry too fast. Cats urinating around the building send signals for assistance in most situations. Although the inability to regulate the bladder muscles is true urinary incontinence, it is rare in cats and is normally attributable to a spinal malfunction due to improper nerve function. A cat that urinates on “unappointed” places usually has a problem and tries to get you to know it.

Diagnosis

Russia Blues can suffer from stress, not urinating enough, infections, bladder stones, or crystals. Cats with cystitis frequently want to urinate, and sometimes the blood is contained in the urine. Cats that urinate around the house give in most cases signals for help. Your Russian Blue with cystitis typically make difficult urinary efforts, and blood frequently appears in the urine.

Treatment

Treatment is dependent on the trigger, but cats diagnosed with cystitis typically need pain relief, access to a large quantity of water, special diets and may need help with stress reduction.

Prevention

Observe about your Russian Blue’s urination. Do they urinate frequently daily? Are the cats drinking enough water along with diet? These will help you to prevent the FLUTD to some extent. Introducing your cat for daily urinalysis helps to scan for symptoms of cancer, kidney disease, urinary crystals, and diabetes.

Vaccine-Preventable Infections

These are diseases or viral infections occurring on Russian Blue Cat that you may prevent absolutely.

You can prevent your cat from diseases such as panleukopenia, calicivirus, rhinotracheitis, rabies, etc. The risk your Russian Blue contracting these diseases is high, so it is referred to as ‘main’ vaccines, which are highly recommended for all cats. Vaccines are also available to protect the health from other serious diseases such as feline leukemia (FeLV).

While recommending the vaccinations for your Russian Blue, the doctors would analyze your cat’s age, the prevalence of diseases in your area, cat’s age, and other risk factors specific to their lifestyle.

Parasites

All sorts of parasites and bugs will attack in and out of your Blue Cat body. From flues to ticks to ear mites, anything can infest their skin and eyes. Any of these parasites can be exposed to you or a family member and constitute a severe threat for all.

Unclear water, soil contamination, or infected mosquito bites may cause hookworm, roundworms, heartworms, and whipworms in your Russian Blue. This can cause pain, discomfort, or even death for your feline companion, which is why we need to test it regularly.

A fecal exam can identify many parasites, so it is a good idea to take your pet for two health examinations a fresh stool sample. There is no heartworm infection medication available in cats. Prevention is the only cure for this life-threatening illness. The doctors to keep your Russian Blue safe also prescribe preventive medications.

Final Tips

It may be just a mild or temporary problem to have an irregular symptom in your pet, but also a sign of a severe illness or disorder. To take care of your cat is important to know when to seek medical assistance and how urgently. Many diseases can contribute to the symptoms of cats, which together can be a strong indicator that your Russian Blue needs support.

Conclusion

Maintaining good health perfectly for your pet is an impossible task. There will always be some problems or the other. However, the pet owner needs to understand the health risk that may arise in their pet.

I hope that from this article you have some understanding of Russian Blue Cat diseases, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Therefore, when a problem comes to your Russian Blue, do not panic, and take the necessary actions.

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