Taking Your Cat to the Veterinarian

Routine yearly healthy pet examinations are part of good health care and can allow your cats to have longer, more comfortable lives.  But, many cats dislike coming to the clinic; I would even say most.   My cat "Mango" for instance loathes the trip in - no snacks, no litter box, poorly responsive attendants when he inevitably needs to use the non-existent litter box.   The challenge starts with getting cats in the carrier and getting them to the clinic.  If we make that step easier, everything improves. The following information is reprinted from the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) website.  They are an ongoing wealth of kitty information.

• Cats are most comfortable with the familiar, and need time to adjust to the unfamiliar.  The visit to the veterinarian is often difficult because the carrier, car, and the veterinary hospital are unfamiliar. Your cat will need time to become familiar with new situations, people and places.
• Stay calm. Cats can sense our anxiety and frustrations, and this may cause them to become fearful or anxious.
• Cats do not learn from punishment or force. Give rewards to encourage positive behavior. Try to find treats that your cat thinks are delicious and are motivating.  If your cat is sitting calmly in or near a carrier, give a treat. Likewise, rewards can be given to help your cat become familiar with types of handling that may happen at the clinic.  Play or affection may also be seen as rewards.
• The goal is for your cat to learn to associate the carrier with positive experiences and routinely enter voluntarily.
• Make the carrier a familiar place at home by leaving it in a room where your cat spends lots of time.
• Place familiar soft bedding inside the carrier. Bedding or clothing with your scent can make them feel more secure.
• Place treats, catnip or toys inside the carrier to encourage the cat to enter the carrier. At first, you may see the treats removed from the carrier at night.
• It may take days or weeks before your cat starts to trust the carrier. Remain calm, patient and reward desired behaviors.
• If you still have trouble, you may need to assess the carrier itself. 
• If your cat needs to go to the veterinarian right away, and is not yet accustomed to the carrier: 
• Start by putting the carrier in a small room with few hiding places. Bring the cat into the room and close the door. Move slowly and calmly. Do not chase the cat to get it into the carrier. Encourage the cat with treats or toys to walk into the carrier.
• If your cat will not walk into the carrier, and your carrier has an opening on the top, gently cradle your cat and lower it into the carrier.
• Another option is to remove the top half of your carrier while getting the cat to go into the bottom half, and then calmly replace the top.
• Consider use of synthetic feline facial pheromone (Feliway®) analog spray in the carrier at least 30 minutes prior to transport to help calm the cat.

Coming Home – Cats are very sensitive to smells, and unfamiliar smells can result in one cat no longer recognizing another.  Aggressive behavior can occur when one cat senses another as a stranger. Consider the following.

• Leave the returning cat in the carrier for a few minutes to see how all of your cats react.
• If all cats appear calm and peaceful, let the returning cat out of the carrier.
• If you sense tension between the cats, or if previous home-comings have resulted in conflict, keep the cat in the carrier and take it to a separate room to avoid potential injury from an upset cat.  Provide food, water and litter box for a minimum of 24 hours while it regains the more familiar smell of home.
• If there is still stress after this time, contact the clinic to discuss slower introduction or medication.
• Feliway can help provide the sense of familiarity.
•  For future visits:  Use familiar bedding or clothing with your scent, as it retains the smell of home and helps with reintroduction.  Use Feliway.  Consider bringing both cats to the clinic together. This can prevent future conflict because both cats will carry the scent of the clinic.

The best carriers are inexpensive hard-sided carriers that open from the top and the front, and can also be taken apart in the middle.  An easily removable top allows a cat which is fearful, anxious or in pain to stay in the bottom half of the carrier for exams.  We can often do the exam in the bottom of a well-designed carrier.   Avoid carriers that require a cat to be pulled from or dumped out for an exam. Choose carriers that are sturdy, secure and stable for the cat, as well as easy for you to carry.  Some cats like to see out, whereas others are less anxious when the carrier is covered with a blanket or towel.

You are an important member of your cat’s healthcare team. You can be instrumental in helping your cat have a positive clinic visit and improved healthcare.

Timothy R Kraabel, DVM, DABVP (Canine/Feline Practice)

Outreach Chairman, American Board of VeterinaryPractitioners

Milestones Reached - Thanks Sarah

I found out the other day that I missed an important milestone.  Our head technician Sarah just passed the 15 year mark at the clinic.  Remembering important milestones and personal details of those close to me is on a list of talents I do not  possess.  The list is long and also includes things like singing in tune and dunking a basketball.  Sadly, I may work a lifetime on the list and never improve.

Sarah started at the clinic in 1999 as a volunteer and has essentially been with us the whole time we have owned the clinic.  She rose through our ranks and has been our head technician for a long time.  She is also one of the most skilled technicians I will ever work with.  She has had stints of being my surgery technician and she is as efficient and caring as she is talented.  

She grew up here with us.   She has been there for the growing pains of us becoming bosses.  She was there when were first figured out to have staff meetings every week and when we started the staff newsletter.  She has watched us expand and learn new techniques and was instrumental in developing our policies and protocols for many medical procedures such as chemotherapy.  Sarah watched us fix up the old building, contemplate its replacement, design the new building, move into the new building, and figure out life in the new building.  

There has been struggle and triumph.  I watched as she persevered and studied to became a licensed technician.  I was and am so proud of her achievement.  We have navigated staff upheaval together.  She is a breast cancer survivor.  She is married to a wonderful guy who is her sole mate.   She is an accomplished violinist and I have had the pleasure of accompanying her on the piano.  We once played at an adult music camp together.  She knows more music than anyone I know.  No one loves a “Highlights” magazine joke more than she and she is so funny and shares my sense of humor. She is my friend. Currently, she is pregnant with her first child.

I wish I could manage to acknowledge and thank all those who help me and make my life easier.  It is a daunting task sometimes and I can get caught up in just keeping up.  Sarah has always taken care of me and our patients.  She makes me a better person and doctor and she makes the clinic and those around her better.   

Thanks Sarah, for so many years of dedication and humor and for all that you do for all of us.  I wouldn’t have wanted to try and do this all without you.

Timothy R Kraabel, DVM, DABVP (Canine/Feline Practice)

Outreach Chairman, American Board of VeterinaryPractitioners

The Father Daughter Dance

"Sometimes you can have a whole lifetime in a day and never notice that this is as beautiful as it gets."

·                                 Robin Williams in “The World According to Garp” 

Saturday night was the annual Father/Daughter Dance on Vashon.  My daughter Aubrey and I went for the 6^th time.  She is 17 and I am so very glad she will still attend such an event with me.  This year we had dinner and went to the dance with Steve and his daughter Quinn.  Steve is married to Kristin, one of the clinic’s excellent front staff.  The dance is a splendid event where the daughters get their dads dressed up and go to dinner and then see them attempt dancing.  The last part is not necessarily the good part.  The dance was started by some dads on the island 8 years ago and was sold out again this year.

It was held at the Vashon Country Club and while the dance floor is small there are extensive golf course grounds for the little girls to run around when not dancing.  There is also a lovely deck area where the dessert options may be enjoyed.  The social event is a mix of daughters dancing with dads

and daughters dancing with friends, little girls running about and the non-dancing dads off to the side discussing sports and yard maintenance.  Steve and Quinn and Aubrey and I danced a lot of the night away.  The dance floor area was essentially as hot as the internal core of the sun so we did take occasional golf course breaks.  Steve and Aubrey and I have some rudimentary swing dancing ability and we were not afraid to showcase it.  Aubrey and I have been swing dancing together since she was very little.

I am keenly aware that the remaining number of these dances for me is dwindling.  Aubrey will be a senior next year and has great things to do with her life.  These will most obviously soon involve not living with her parents.  I am both profoundly proud and sad as I watch her write the last pages of her childhood.  It is about living and enjoying the moments and this was a wonderful moment.  I hope to never look back and worry that I didn’t appreciate the moments.  I appreciate them beyond measure.

Quinn is only 9 and this was their first father daughter dance.  I hope Steve has many more.

Timothy R Kraabel, DVM, DABVP (Canine/Feline Practice)
Outreach Chairman, American Board of VeterinaryPractitioners