Cats and Birds – Not the Same Thing

A cat is a quadruped and a mammal with a tail for balance and sharp claws with which to climb and fight. A bird, on the other hand, is a flighted type of animal, which actually has a less advanced brain than a cat – and in most birds, the claws are exclusively for standing on. A cat and a bird are not the same thing. In fact, when a cat and a bird are in the same area, they have this nasty tendency to fight one another. The argument generally stems from the cat wanting to eat the bird, and the bird absolutely hating the idea and violently opposing it.

So, if you happen to have either a pet cat or a pet bird, the methods of health attention you give to them should not be identical. And of course, medications which work swimmingly on one type of animal may very well do nothing for the other (or may even end up causing more harm). And while Sentinel works well against the types of parasites that typically infest cats, it is less effective on avian anatomy. And when it comes to treating these two very different types of animals, there are slightly different procedures, which are generally employed.

For one thing, when you deal with a cat within a medical context, it is substantially different than when you are dealing with a bird. With a cat, you have to be concerned that the animal might very well bite and scratch you. They fight very hard, and they will maul you like crazy, so you must carefully restrain their paws. But with a bird, while being pecked is potentially a big deal, you have another variable to consider – most birds are capable of flying and will do so if they feel that they are threatened. It is often necessary to "towel" the bird, by actually wrapping it up in a towel.