Contact KnowCatHub

Reporting an error

Corrections are the most useful message this site receives.

Email [email protected] with the address of the page and the sentence you think is wrong.

Where you can, include the source that contradicts us. A link to published guidance moves a correction along far faster than a description of it.

Corrections are made as soon as they are confirmed, and the page's updated date moves with the change.

You do not need to be a professional to report an error, and you do not need to be polite about it.

Questions about an article

If something on a page is unclear, ambiguous, or seems to contradict another page here, that is worth telling us about.

Unclear writing is a defect in a reference site, not a matter of taste. Several pages here have been rewritten because a reader said they could not tell what the advice actually was.

Suggestions for subjects we have not covered are welcome.

We cannot promise to cover a specific topic, and we do not take commissions or sponsored suggestions.

A question you had to ask is usually a sentence we failed to write.

What we cannot help with

Some requests fall outside what this site can responsibly do, and saying so up front saves everyone time.

• Advice about your individual cat. We cannot examine an animal, and a description is not an examination.
• Interpreting test results or a diagnosis. That belongs with the veterinarian who ordered them.
• Recommending a dose, a medication, or a treatment. Not under any circumstances.
• Recommending a specific product by name. This site does not rank or name best products.
• Recommending a breeder, a rescue, or a veterinary practice.
• Guest posts, link exchanges, and sponsored placements. These are declined without exception.

The last one gets asked often enough to be worth stating plainly. No page on this site is for sale, in whole or in part.

Press, permissions, and reuse

Short quotations with a link back are fine, and no permission is needed for them.

Republishing a full article is not permitted. The terms of use set out the position in full.

For press enquiries, or to ask about anything the terms do not cover, use the same address and say what you need in the first line.

Please do not send attachments in a first message. Describe what you have and we will ask if we need it.

What to put in the message

A good correction report takes about a minute to write and saves a long exchange.

1. The page address. Paste the full URL rather than the article title.
2. The sentence. Quote the exact wording you think is wrong.
3. What is wrong with it. One line is enough.
4. A source, if you have one. A link to published guidance moves it fastest.

The page address and the exact sentence are the two things that matter most.

Security and abuse reports

If you find a security problem with this website, report it to the same address and put security in the subject line.

Please give us a reasonable window to fix it before publishing details.

We do not operate a paid bug bounty, and we will credit you if you would like to be credited.

A security report is always read before anything else in the queue.

What to expect

KnowCatHub is run by a small team, and email is answered in batches rather than continuously.

Corrections are prioritised over everything else. A confirmed factual error is fixed before it is replied to, because the fix matters more than the reply.

Messages that fall into the list above may not receive a reply. That is not rudeness, it is the honest consequence of a boundary we have decided not to cross.

Please do not send the same question repeatedly. It does not move a message up the queue, and it makes the queue slower for everyone.

We do not run social media accounts, and any account using this name is not us. Email is the only way to reach the editors.

A site that answers medical questions by email is a site that will eventually harm an animal.

Confirmed factual error

Fixed first, replied to after

Unclear wording

Read and queued for a rewrite

Topic suggestion

Read, no reply guaranteed

Advice about your cat

Not answered

Guest posts and link exchanges

Not answered

If your cat is unwell right now

This inbox is not monitored continuously and it cannot help with an unwell animal.

For anything urgent, contact a veterinary practice or an out-of-hours emergency service directly. Several signs should not wait for an appointment at all.

• Difficulty breathing, or breathing with an open mouth at rest.
• Straining in the litter tray without producing urine, particularly in a male cat.
• Collapse, a seizure, or sudden loss of use of the back legs.
• A known or suspected poisoning, including lilies and antifreeze.
• Repeated unproductive vomiting, or a wound bleeding freely.

Take the packaging or the plant with you. It changes what treatment can be given.

It is worth finding your nearest out-of-hours service now and writing the number somewhere visible, rather than looking for it while holding a distressed cat.

Suggesting a subject

Suggestions are welcome, especially when an existing answer leaves an important question unresolved.

The most useful ones describe the situation rather than the title. "I could not find out whether the dose on a wormer changes for a kitten" tells us more than "please write about worming".

What helps most is knowing what you searched for, what you found, and why it did not answer the question. A question you had to ask twice is usually a question the site should have answered once.

We cannot promise to cover a specific topic, and we do not take commissions or sponsored suggestions.

Describe the situation you need help understanding, rather than proposing a title.

Requests for a specific product recommendation, a breeder, or a veterinary practice will not be answered, for the reasons set out above.

What makes a correction easy to act on

Every correction has to be verified before a page changes, and how a report is written decides how long that takes.

The three things that help most are the page address, the sentence you think is wrong, and a source that contradicts it. With those, a correction can usually be confirmed the same day.

Without a source, a report still gets looked at, and it takes longer because the original checking has to be repeated from scratch.

Reports that a page is out of date are welcome and are treated the same way. Guidance moves, and a page written accurately two years ago can be wrong now.

The page address and the exact sentence are worth more than a long explanation.

If English is not your first language, write in whatever is easiest. A rough description of the problem is far better than no report.

Accessibility problems

If something here is difficult to read, difficult to navigate with a keyboard, or does not work with a screen reader, that is a defect and we want to hear about it.

What helps is knowing the page, the device or software you were using, and what happened when you expected something else.

Please include the page address, the device or assistive software you used, and what happened.

An answer nobody can read is not an answer.

Accessibility reports are treated as corrections rather than as suggestions, which means they are acted on rather than added to a list.

Language, and reaching us another way

Email is the only channel. There are no social media accounts, and any account using this name is not us.

Write in whatever language is easiest for you. A message we have to translate is still a message we can act on, and a correction reported imperfectly is worth far more than one nobody sends.

We do not use a contact form. Email leaves you with a copy of what you sent.

Write from an address you can receive a reply at, because a correction usually needs one question answered.

If you would rather not be contacted back, say so and we will act on the report without replying.