Our guest this week is veterinarian Dr. Tracy McFarland DMV, founder of the Cat Doctor and Friends–a cat-only veterinary practice in Santa Clarita, CA. Dr. Tracy is our veterinarian, even though Santa Clarita is a bit of a haul from Los Angeles. We commute to see her, because she’s that good. And we are thrilled to have her with us this week to talk about cat health and cat behavior.  During the show we discuss:

• The importance of checkups
• What makes cats unique from a biological perspective
• Cat dental care
• Vaccinations
• Rabies
• Feline panleukopenia virus
• The outdoor vs. indoor cat debate
• Ohio State University advice on environmental enrichment for indoor cats (pdf)
• DIY cat toys
• A toy to be careful about
• Strange things Dr. Tracy has removed from cat’s stomachs
• Plants that are toxic to cats
• What should you feed your cats
• The raw food debate
• Natural veterinary food and homemade pet food resource: balanceit.com
• AAFCO feeding trial
• How to tell if your cat is fat
• Meal feeding cats
• How to know how much to feed a cat
• Dry vs. wet food
• Flea control
• Heartworm
• Listener questions: weepy eyes,
• L-Lysine
• Cat social hierarchy
• Zylkene

If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher. The theme music is by Dr. Frankenstein. Additional music by Rho. A downloadable version of this podcast is here.