Winter has been a bit rough, the central heat has us a bit dehydrated…

Marmalade (my cat) is anemic on top of the chronic renal failure and he’s been doing pretty well (he doesn’t show the signs he should for how anemic he is.) Today he was looking a little rough though and I know that one of the things he really enjoys is going outside. You might think I was crazy to take him out in the cold when he’s not feeling good but I did it because I knew he would enjoy it. Well he perked right up and after about 10 minutes of being outside he seemed a fair amount better; his fur looked less spikey, his eyes more alert, he didn’t look as stiff when he walked and he continued to look better after I brought him back inside. This got me thinking…

… what are the affects of cold air on CRF or maybe more specifically anemia…

This ended up being a somewhat strange train of thought that led me to the idea of alternating hot cold treatments. I found some information on studies done with water that do suggest that there is an increase in blood circulation and then pointed out the obvious flushing of cheeks after one has gone out in the snow for a little while and then comes back inside. Brilliant! I’m not about to do hot cold water baths on a cat and end up traumatizing him but I may start making it a point of taking him outside for awhile each day. He enjoys sitting on the picnic table and sniffing the air and it could also be good for more than just his mood! Obviously I will closely monitor him and make sure he doesn’t get too cold (no shivering and if there’s any indication that he wants to go back in, we’ll go back in.) For those interested, he does wear a leash when we go out and he does wander around the yard a bit with me following.

Increasing blood circulation and blood production should be a good thing for an anemic cat. I’m not a doctor or a vet but I’m thinking this could really help.

This post may eventually be moved to the CRF section of this site…