Feline Friendly

Makes for the purr-fect visit.

As a certified Cat Friendly Practice and experienced cat family members, we know that your visit to our hospital begins before you even leave the house. We know first-hand the stress that you and your favorite feline friend go through to get here, and so we are committed to making the process as stress free as we can all manage together.

Our cat friendly specialist will talk you through how to make your kitty’s carrier a safe space for them to be. Things like leaving the carrier out in the living space, providing rewards for good behavior, and keeping yourself calm, cool and collected can go a long way to get your kitty more used to his cat carrier. We understand how tricky this process can be, and so encourage you to call for further recommendations. Once he’s in the carrier, we will talk you through how to make the car ride less stressful. Things like not feeding prior to a car ride for car sick prone kitties, providing a Feliway sprayed towel over the top of the carrier, and ensuring that the carrier does not move around in the car can help. If this is not enough and the car ride and carrier process is still stressful, we are happy to help with further recommendations or to provide your kitty with supplements and/or medications to help with anxiety and/or nausea.

Starting Off Right

Working Together

We understand what an important role you play in your kitty’s healthcare team. We ask that you consider bringing along your kitty’s favorite treats, toys and things that smell of home. Feliway can also be helpful for many kitties. Kitties are quite attached to the familiar so anything that you can bring to bring that sense of home along with them will go a long way in keeping them comfortable. This is especially important if they will be hospitalized. You can also help by rewarding calm behavior in the exam room as well as practicing with exam procedures at home in a comfortable environment to get them used to the process. Keeping voices soft but not whispering (sounds too much like a hiss) and touches slow and gentle help your kitty to feel calmer. We created a feline friendly environment for cats by having a kitty parking space. What this means is that once you arrive, your kitty will be escorted to our kitty parking area (to keep nosey canines out of their space) and a Feliway towel will be provided to reduce visual stimulation that may make them more nervous.

The Kitty Cat Café

The Kitty Cat Café is conveniently located nearby so that you can choose treats and enticement, and we will do our very best to get him directly into an exam room where he will be provided the chance to leave the carrier on his own terms. Once he comes out of the carrier in pursuit of treats, toys, curiosity or through the roof of his carrier, we will proceed with a thorough and gentle exam where he can guide us into the best way to examine him.

The Kitty Cat Café

The Kitty Cat Café is conveniently located nearby so that you can choose treats and enticement, and we will do our very best to get him directly into an exam room where he will be provided the chance to leave the carrier on his own terms. Once he comes out of the carrier in pursuit of treats, toys, curiosity or through the roof of his carrier, we will proceed with a thorough and gentle exam where he can guide us into the best way to examine him.

Love, Always

Our staff is trained in respectful, gentle and feline-friendly handling which helps keep your cat calm during the exam. We will take vital information from you about how he is doing at home, and combine that with the exam and potentially diagnostic information to get a complete understanding of how he is doing and how best to help him live a happy, healthy, and long life. Sometimes we need to work on making the experience more positive especially if your kitty has had a negative experience in the past or if he is feeling painful or insecure in some other way. We are happy to discuss any of your concerns and help to find out what will work best for your kitty and your household. Sometimes we need to help them with medication or supplements in addition to the cat friendly strategies we are all employing together.

Love, Always

Our staff is trained in respectful, gentle and feline-friendly handling which helps keep your cat calm during the exam. We will take vital information from you about how he is doing at home, and combine that with the exam and potentially diagnostic information to get a complete understanding of how he is doing and how best to help him live a happy, healthy, and long life. Sometimes we need to work on making the experience more positive especially if your kitty has had a negative experience in the past or if he is feeling painful or insecure in some other way. We are happy to discuss any of your concerns and help to find out what will work best for your kitty and your household. Sometimes we need to help them with medication or supplements in addition to the cat friendly strategies we are all employing together.

Only The Best

Finally, we understand that every kitty is very much an individual. If we are trying something and it is not helping your kitty, then we are willing to be flexible in order to provide him with the care that he needs in a way that is not going to overwhelm him. We know that kitties don’t read the textbooks and so while we are committed to continuing our education on best cat friendly practices, please know that we can adjust to what will work best for your kitty. Please help us in this process by letting us know what he loves best. If we have recommended something for you to try at home and it is not working, please call us so that we can adjust the plan.

Thank you for choosing us to help provide you and your feline family with the best tailored and compassionate care that we can provide. Please know that you can always ask us about ANY of your kitty cat concerns. We are so happy to help in any way that we can. Welcome to our certified cat friendly clinic.