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Top tips for pet owners

April is ‘National Pet Month’ and so it seems fitting to discuss new pets and some top tips for keeping our animals happy and healthy throughout their lives.

First of all, looking at our own lifestyle, free time, working hours and home environment is of utmost importance, these factors are key influencers for choosing between a cat or a dog or a rabbit or guinea pigs and for some, perhaps a reptile. As this is my ‘vets diary’, I’m going to focus on the process of choosing a new feline friend as after nine months here at Shepton and Wells Vets, I think it might be time for me to really settle down and introduce a cat into my life!

A new cat doesn’t have to mean a new kitten, we are very lucky to live here, in an area with dedicated charities such as The Cats Protection League and rehoming centres such as Happy Landings on our doorsteps. They work hard to improve the lives of many animals and provide us, the general public, with the opportunity to rehome adult and elderly cats. With so many cats and dogs in rehoming centres waiting for the right family to come along, we would always recommend having a look and considering rehoming.

If you’re very sure that it is a kitten that you’re after, then we always recommend visiting breeders to see the litter and the Queen. We went to ensure that all the kittens and the mother are healthy, well handled and appropriate preventative treatments such as worming have been implemented by the breeder.

Cats by nature are solitary animals, they like to have their own space and rule their roost. That doesn’t mean they can’t live in an environment with other cats, but ensuring there is adequate space and resources for more than one is essential for harmonious living. It seems like a lovely idea to us to have multiple cats in our homes, but this can be a huge stress for some animals which can predispose cats to many conditions such as ‘stress-induced cystitis’ or worse, complete urinary blockage. If you’re looking at adopting or purchasing multiple cats there are a few things that can help ease the transition. Kittens from the same litter often are more tolerant of each other than those from different litters. If introducing a new cat to a household with an already established feline, plug-in diffuser products used before, during and for some time after introduction can help them to develop an amicable relationship.

Kitten or adult, it’s a good idea to register your new pet with us. At Shepton and Wells Vets, we offer a free vet consultation for new pets so we can check them over and get to know them when they’re healthy. It also gives us the opportunity to discuss with you appropriate preventative healthcare to maximise their quality of life and longevity, such as vaccinations, diet and flea and worm treatments. We also offer ‘new puppy’ and ‘new kitten’ chats with our nurse who have a wealth of experience and advice to share with you.

In the UK, we vaccinate our cats against four main diseases; calicivirus, panleucopenia virus, herpesvirus and leukaemia virus. We do this to greatly reduce the risk of contracting these nasty and potentially life threatening diseases in our individual pets but also we must consider the species as a whole. Therefore vaccination aims to reduce the overall disease prevalence nationally, thus is an important part of a wider disease control programme. The initial (primary) vaccination course involves two injections, given three weeks apart, after that is complete we usually advise waiting two weeks before allowing your cat to explore the big wide world as this gives the body time to respond to the vaccines and create appropriate protection against the diseases. We then ‘top-up’ the vaccines each year to give their immune systems a boost. The veterinary profession as a whole is not interested in over-vaccinating any animal, we follow the most up to date research to provide you as our clients and more importantly, our patients, your pets, with the best possible health care so they may live long and happy, disease-free lives.

There are a myriad of products available for treating and preventing fleas and worms. It often depends on the product as to how frequently they are recommended to be used, often it’s monthly to three monthly. The most commonly seen flea is the cat flea, and you don’t have to see live fleas on your cat for them to be present. Cats are incredibly good at grooming themselves which will remove the flea from their coats, but usually that flea will have laid hundreds of eggs that will now be present in the environment. Regular treatment of our cats for fleas will break the flea lifecycle, stopping their ability to reproduce. Closely linked with fleas are tapeworms, they share parts of their lifecycle which means any cat with fleas is highly likely to have a tapeworm burden too. Another risk factor for fleas and worms are cats that go outside and interact with wildlife populations, especially if your cat is a bit of hunter!  Thankfully, a lot of products or combination of products that we sell at the vets will treat our animals for everything in one go.

If you purchase a cat from any charity, they will have neutered them before rehoming. This means that, in males, the testicles, and in females, the ovaries and uterus will have been removed. There are several reasons to do this; health benefits such as reduce prevalence of certain cancers, less roaming behaviours so reduced likelihood of road traffic accidents or cat bite abscesses as well as behavioural traits in the home such as urine marking and calling queen’s during the breeding season that can run from spring to autumn. Of course, it will also stop unwanted pregnancies too.

Microchipping is now a legal requirement in all dogs from the age of 8 weeks. There isn’t yet any similar law for cats but it is strongly advised, especially if their lifestyle includes access to the outdoors. This is because, should anything happen, an accident or if your cat gets brought to us as a suspected stray, we can use the microchip to help find the owners. It helps removes a lot of stress from a distressing situation!

On another note of removing some stress from stressful situations is on a financial note. We highly recommend taking out a pet insurance policy so that should anything happen, be it an accident, illness or a condition that requires long term medication, we can provide the best possible health care and diagnostics and the most appropriate treatments for your animal without it breaking the bank.

Taking on a new animal is an exciting time but there can be lots to think about. Remember we are always here at Shepton and Wells Vets to help you out and share advice!