Cat Only Vet Clinics: What’s The Benefit?
For cats (and their owners) a trip to the vets is often an overly stressful experience. It’s not just being sat in a tiny crate or the car ride that makes a trip the vets such an issue, it’s the other animals that are then met in the reception area or in the waiting room. There’s no getting away from the fact that being forced to sit down in a waiting room with a cat, when there are dogs everywhere is an enjoyable experience for anyone involved.
These kinds of situations are extremely stressful for cats and can cause severe anxiety for them and their owners too, making future trips to the vets even more uncomfortable. For owners, hearing their cat meowing and seeing them visibly distressed is concerning and can cause them to also become anxious and stressed out.
For this very reason, cat-only veterinary clinics, like Cat’s Whiskers Veterinary Clinic in Worthing, that was launched by Dr. Amanda Nicholls in 2010, after she realised that cats and their owners would find veterinary visits more enjoyable and less stressful in an environment that felt less threatening, are extremely beneficial.
There are various benefits of cat-only veterinary practices, below are some of the most important ones.
The entire environment is designed to be cat-friendly
One of the major benefits of cat-only veterinary clinics is the fact that they are designed purely for feline patients and their needs. Exam rooms are created to be made to perfectly fit the needs of the cat, the veterinary specialist and the owner. Spaces are decorated in a way that keeps cats calm, with the furniture incorporated into the space designed to be cat-friendly. There are also no small spaces for them to squeeze into and disappear, like in regular veterinary practices. The designs of cat-only veterinary practices are completely cat-friendly – these spaces are designed especially for cats to receive the very best care.
The team have chosen to work with cats
The team of staff at cat-only veterinary clinics have all chosen to work only with cats, which means that like at Cat’s Whiskers Veterinary Clinic, they have specialised in feline care. This means that the quality of care that the cat will receive is far higher, as the care plans on offer are designed specifically for cats. The vets have also specialised in feline health and wellness, meaning that they can offer a higher quality of care.
Vets keep up with the latest cat care
At cat-only veterinary practices, veterinarians like Dr. Amanda Nicholls ensure that they and their entire team are kept up to date with feline-related health news and feline medicine. This is especially important today, as procedures and treatments are constantly advancing thanks to new technology.
The experience will be far less stressful
As mentioned above, the experience of visiting a cat-only veterinary clinic will be far less stressful for your cat, as feline specialist vets like Dr. Nicholls and her team understand how to make cats (and their owners) feel less stressed and more relaxed, which helps to decrease the anxiety that comes with veterinary visits. The fact that cat-only veterinary clinics are also dog-free further helps to decrease feline anxiety when it comes to veterinary visits.
There are numerous reasons why visiting a cat-only veterinary practice is beneficial for both you and your cat, these are just a few of them.
This makes complete sense! Why cause extra stress for your kitty by being around dogs? There is at least one cat-only veterinary clinic here in Las Vegas, fantastic idea!
Yes it’s a great initiative. And even a cat friendly clinic with separate waiting areas is a good compromise already but cat only beats that.
There is a clinic about one mile from me that has separate entrances for dogs and cats. But a cat-only facility is a better idea for the animals sake.
Not all clinics will be able to provide such a brilliant one species only service so it’s also goo to see how other clinics cope with the problems of different species in their practice. 🙂
lovely ??
Thank you 😀
So many pluses to a cat only vets, and the only down side at the moment for me is the distance between them. Lets hope more are established very soon.
Toodle pips and purrs
ERin
It seems to be starting a trend so let’s hope you get one closer to home soon 🙂
I suspect the economics of a vet practice only treating one species of animal is a factor in the low number of these speciality clinics being in existence. They would need a large client base to be sustainable. Then there is the downside of losing veterinarian experience and competence treating other types of animals and problems.
Yes! Very true. Luckily there seem to be more and more cat specialised clinics as they realise how many cat owners there are and that cats are after all NOT small dogs which is what used to happen back in the days. ;o
I love my vet at my local clinic, but they do see dogs in the practice, too. I think it’s a good idea to have “cats only” clinic, but I wish Dr Natalie would open one!
Does your local practice offer independent waiting areas tho? That can already be an improvement for the cats and dogs. 🙂
There is one in Boise, they were Karl’s vet after I learned about it. Another vet we visited had the dogs and cats come in at different day. That was better than setting in an office full of dogs.
Very good idea to have separate days. I wish my local vet was cats only but he does at least offer separate sitting areas to be cat friendly. 🙂
Kato wouldn’t accept the carrier and because he was good on leash we let him get away with it. He could MEOW very loud and for long period of time. He rode in the motorhome
with no problem. He find a place to sleep until we near the
location. I figured he knew by the scent.
I wish we could train ours to walk on a harness. ?
I t takes time and I am a believer any can be trained to work on leash. All dogs are terrain to use the leash. The first you need to do is buy/ get a dog harness that fits your cat. Afterwards lead the harness leash will the cat will encounter it for about a week. Put the leash on the cat let him get used to it. Next take the leash and attached indoors. Cha gets are he will fight -give love and treats. If he fights too much leave harness a d leash where he can see it. Dogs fight at this also. Next outside on the leash. Small animals can be carried a out a block away. They just walk back. Once Kato learn what leash no problems. BE AWARE cat may insist on a walk the rest of his life. When Kato want a walk we knew he was extremely ill.
Luckily we have a number of companies in the U.K. that make harnesses specifically for cats and one just made two for us. 🙂 we shall see how we get on.
Cats can get out those harness that are sold cats. No one told .e you couldn’t rain a cat on leash. I had trained two before someone told I couldn’t. I trained SilVerman shorthairs. Good luck in training your cats.
Thank you Betty 🙂
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A beautiful thing!
We all go to a Cat Only Vet place and even though it’s a 30 minute drive it’s very special once we get there and we all feel comfortable there, the Vet and the staff is terrific!
We all go to a Cat Only Vet place and even though it’s a 30 minute drive it’s very special once we get there and we all feel comfortable there, the Vet and the staff is terrific!
To make the vet visit less stressful…. When you first get a kitten or even if you have had your cat awhile, leave the carrier out and open always. Have a blanket or towel inside this way they can go in and out as they please and will likely willingly go in of their own accord. We did this with my sweet Sully and we never had a problem getting her in the carrier to go to the vet. No scratches or cat screams. She even enjoyed the car rides. (I’d hold her on my lap in the carrier and let her watch out the window while I’d talk to her.
Excellent advice. We leave our carrier out for a while before pre scheduled appointments. 🙂
My late cat Millie, a tortoiseshell, would have been severely disappointed if there were no dogs at the vet’s, although she did like the guinea-pig (just to stare at in amazement). Neither of my current cats mind them and in fact the presence of any other animal seems to be a plus. But then none of these cats were scared of dogs, just properly cautious when a big dog was around off its lead.