A sausage can kill your cat!

Cats are fussy eaters as any owner will tell you but they do like meaty morsels. Nonetheless anything that smells slightly suspicious is usually given a wide birth however it is possible for them to eat toxic meat that can kill! Botulism can affect cats and was discovered in 19th Century Germany when Dr Kerner examined a condition that gave people a creeping paralysis that killed them. The cause was cheap and infected sausages. Botulus is the Latin for sausage so Dr Kerner created the name - Botulism - the paralysing disease. Feral cats, scavenging for scraps, are the most likely to suffer but there are cures for domestic cats affected by the toxin - the paralysing poison of which is injected into people's faces as a cosmetic treatment with the more polite name of Botox!

 For the origin of the term Botulism check out the brilliant Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth or the inkyfool website!