How often do you take a cat to the vet? An adult cat should be taken to the vet at least once a year for a general exam. This is to verify that your cat is healthy and that it doesn’t have a progressive disease.
After the age of ten, they should be seen once every six months. A lot can happen to an elderly cat in six months. Put it in this way, the sooner a vet finds the issue, the better the prognosis for your cat, and the cheaper the treatment will be for you.
Cats are lovely, smart, and fun to be with. Most people consider their kitties as a family member. Although that doesn’t always translate in often for an appropriate number of visits to the vet for a regular check-up. Statistics show that cats visit the veterinarian half as often than dogs do. [1]
Why cats don’t go to the vet as often?
There are two reasons for it:
- Our kitties are no so good at changes and they get quite stressed about it. Us, as cat parents, we want to avoid them that anxiety and postpone what we could consider an unnecessary visit to the vet. After all, the cat is fine, ist it?
- Another reason is that cats are animals who have a natural tendency to once a year. Because they are prey animals, they are not going to let us know when they are not feeling well so easy. Sometimes until it is a little too late.
In recent studies with senior cats, it was found that a big percentage of them was suffering from arthritis. The deal was that nobody knew about it, as the cats weren’t really displaying signs or their humans weren’t picking the cues of it. [2][3]
This relates to other illnesses too.
The majority of the cats, when they are on their teens, they tend to have some degree of kidney dysfunction. It can go from mild to anywhere near peak capacity. Our kitty can be quite sick, and sometimes we wouldn’t recognise the signals. [4]
When should we take the cat to the vet?
In addition to the regular annual visits, and every six months from when your cat is ten years old, you should take your cat to the veterinarian for routine wellness care if your kitty shows any change in behavior or habits.
When should I take a kitten to the vet?
New cat parents are usually bound with the shelter after adoption to take the cat to the vet. This provides the opportunity for the veterinarian to track your cat’s health from the beginning and establish rapport.
Vaccines will start when your kitten is 6-8 weeks old. That will also depend on your lifestyle, your kitty’s family history, and the living environment.
About 3 or 4 weeks later, your kitty will have the second round of vaccines, boosting every 3 or 4 weeks until your cat is four months old.
Around the three months mark, your kitten will have his rabies vaccine put on. Then the booster will be at the one-year mark. After that, boosters of rabies will be every three years, or what the manufacturer says.
Does your cat like going to the vet? Tips to make the trips to the vet more enjoyable
Believe it or not, some cats love going to the vet. Making those visits to the veterinarian more comfortable, so your kitty enjoys it, can make the quality of its care much better. Here there are some tips on how to make your visits to the vet more enjoyable for your cat. [5]
- Find a vet or a hospital that really understands cats. On my experience, not all the vets have a good rapport with your kitty, and our furry friend knows it.
- Feel free to interview the clinic about their health care and check-up with their reviews, forums, etc.
- Cats don’t respond well to punishment. The reason behind a particular behaviour that is inappropriate for us, could be different for your cat. If you punish it, your cat wouldn’t establish a causality as we humans do. He would just suffer the consequences, which would increase anxiety even more. Also might show another undesirable symptom and negative association with the routine of visiting the vet.
- Cats are very good at picking on our anxiety. If you are anxious, your cat is going to get anxious. Try to be calm to make the journey more enjoyable. Also, when pitying your cat with phrases like “Oh, poor kitty” or “ That will hurt”, you are reinforcing the anxiety on both you and your cat. [6]
- Reward with treats any outcome behaviour that prays with a soft voice. That will keep him or her calm!
- Is best for your cat if he or she gets used to the carrier at home, before going to the vet. Leave the carrier in the room your cat likes to be in. Put a piece of clothing of its favourite person or one that it likes so much. It could be a favourite towel, blanket, etc. Then toss some treat in the carrier with some catnip. Don’t get frustrated if the cat takes some days to go in or towards the carrier. Your cat had some negative experiences with it in the past, so it’s normal if the process takes time. With patience and treats, it works every time!
- If you continue to have a problem, you can get a spray of synthetic pheromone and put some inside to help calm the cat. It should be used 30 minutes before departing to visit the veterinarian
Did you like How often do you take a cat to the vet? What is next?
Going to the vet frequently will make your cat’s visits less stressful, so he actually will enjoy it and is less anxious about it.
A stable relationship with your vet is the best way to assure thorough health screenings and long-term health tracking.
How often do you take your cat to the vet? Let us know
Also, check our take on what human foods you can share with your cat and which ones you shouldn’t give him.
In addition to this article, why don’t you have a look at these exciting house and family hacks?
