About an inch long, the black widow spider is shiny black or brown with a red or orange hourglass-shaped mark on the underside of its abdomen.
Black widows live in and around houses throughout the United States (except Alaska) and southern Canada, where they spin funnel-shaped webs.
The black widow was named because the female kills and devours the male after mating, leaving her a “widow.”
The black widow’s venom is more potent than rattlesnake venom, though only females can envenomate mammals. While these spiders have venom glands, venom is actually present throughout the spider’s body and even in her eggs.
The female black widow’s fangs are long enough to penetrate animal and human skin. In addition, cats often toy with and then eat these spiders.
So cats are harmed through bites and by ingesting the spiders.
Fortunately, black widows aren’t aggressive. They bite only when provoked or when their webs are disturbed.
When they do bite, black widows inject a potent neurotoxin that is particularly dangerous to cats. Clinical signs begin within a few hours, peak at 24 hours, and persist for days to weeks.
Clinical signs include pain at the site of the bite without much skin damage, a rigid abdomen without abdominal pain, restlessness, tremors, seizures, weakness, salivation, vomiting, diarrhea, paralysis, and respiratory collapse.
The most important part of treatment is antivenom, which may be given up to 24 hours after the bite and is rapidly effective. Intensive hospital care is also required.
Without treatment, these bites are often fatal. In one study, 20 of 22 cats died, on average 4.8 days after envenomation.
Please keep your cats away from all black widows and their webs so the spiders can accomplish their mission of catching insects and your cats can remain safe.
Flaxseed, flaxseed oil, canola oil, soybeans, and walnuts contain alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA, which humans convert into two beneficial omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA.
However, the metabolism of dogs—and cats, for that matter—is different. They can’t convert ALA into EPA or DHA.
Therefore, Boomer needs actual EPA and DHA, which is present in fish, krill, and algal oils.
EPA and DHA are effective in the management of pets’ osteoarthritis, also called degenerative joint disease, as well as their allergies, kidney disease, heart disease, and cancer.
I recommend you get Boomer’s fish oil from his veterinarian. Alternatively, you may purchase an omega-3 fatty acid supplement marketed for humans, as long as the ingredient list includes EPA and DHA.
