Feline medicine
Routine and sick-visit care for cats. Cats hide illness well, so a regular exam finds a problem earlier than you would notice it at home.
Cats go to the vet less often than dogs, and it is rarely because they need it less. Getting a cat into a carrier, into a car and into a waiting room is hard enough that the appointment gets put off, and then put off again. So a good deal of the work here is about that problem and not only about the medicine.
Why a cat who seems fine is still worth bringing in
Cats hide illness. It is a survival behavior, and it does not switch off because your cat now lives indoors and sleeps on a sofa. A cat in the early stages of kidney disease, or with an overactive thyroid, can eat, sleep in the sun and look completely ordinary at home. By the time the change is obvious from across a room, it has usually been under way for a long time.
That is why we recommend a yearly exam. A doctor’s hands, and bloodwork where it is indicated, will find a change earlier than your cat will show it to you. In an older cat that mostly means kidney values and thyroid, the two conditions that reach an outwardly well cat first.
What happens during a feline visit
We keep your cat from seeing another pet while they are with us, and keep things quiet around them.
The exam covers what any wellness exam covers: weight, coat and skin, eyes, ears and mouth, heart and lungs, abdomen and joints. Where the carrier allows it, the top comes off and your cat is examined sitting in the bottom half of it. Whatever a particular cat objects to most is left until the end.
Handling a frightened cat
A frightened dog usually tells you: barking, pulling, refusing to move. A frightened cat more often goes still, flat and silent and pressed into the back corner of the carrier. If a cat is too frightened for the exam, it stops, and we reschedule with medication on board or split the visit so the urgent part is done now.
What a feline visit costs
The exam is $85. Anything recommended during the visit, like bloodwork or a dental, is discussed and priced with you before it happens.
Ready when you are
If your cat is due or overdue, or has changed in some small way you cannot quite name, like drinking more, eating differently or hiding, that is worth an appointment.
Feline medicine — common questions
My cat hates the carrier. What can I do before the visit?
Leave the carrier out. The biggest single change you can make is for the carrier to stop being the object that only appears on the day something bad happens. Put it somewhere ordinary in the house, leave the door open, and let your cat sleep and eat in it. A blanket from home in the bottom and treats dropped in now and then do most of the rest. This works over weeks rather than over a morning. For a cat we have examined before, we can also prescribe something to give at home before you leave. We cannot prescribe before we have seen your cat, so tell us when you book that the carrier is the problem and we will plan the first visit around it.
How often does my cat need to see a vet?
At least once a year, and more often when there is a reason to: an older cat, something we are already managing, or a change worth keeping an eye on. That is the same answer we give for dogs, and it matters more for a cat, because a cat who is quietly unwell is harder to notice at home.
My cat has stopped using the litter box. What now?
Assume it is medical until somebody has ruled that out. Litter box avoidance is the clearest example there is of a behavior sign with a physical cause underneath it: a urinary tract infection, bladder stones, or arthritis that has quietly made climbing into the box hurt. All three look like a cat being difficult, and none of them gets better with a different litter. One version of this is an emergency. A male cat going in and out of the box, straining, and producing little or nothing may be blocked. Call us if we are open, and go to the nearest 24-hour emergency hospital if we are not.
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20801 N Scottsdale Rd, Suite 101 · Scottsdale, AZ 85255
480-585-3512