To ask your opinions

[Lonecatwithkitten]

As most of you know I am a cat loving vet. I am thinking of making some changes to my practice including times of the day with appointments exclusively for cats. We would see cats in other surgeries if it was urgent or if you couldn't make it to cat clinic.
Would you lovely ladies come to the vets at a fairly specific time slot if it was for a cat only clinic?

How specific is specific? My vet has two hour long surgeries each day for all animals and tbh I'm not too concerned about what other animals are there. Although I suppose I'm not that keen on very large dogs.

I always have a specific time of appointment anyway, Lone. maybe that's not usual?

There's often a puppy or dog there waiting but we've never had any problems with mixed surgeries (except for dog enemas or similar which stink the place out for everyone.)

I suspect you might be really hamstringing your practice if you were more specific - what with building on existing exclusions for operating hours etc. Are you getting complaints about the presence of dogs or something?

I would imagine after 6pm because cat owners work ft, I associate dog owners with one person being at home or pt.

Dog free clinics would be brilliant, they try & sniff the carriers, plus the owners block the area chatting.

This emoji is a kitten. I have to say this because it will look like a square.

??

I want to know how people make these diamond question marks? I've never managed it.

Actually, there's a germ of an idea there in the post 18.00 timing. I work from home so timing isn't that important to me but I've certainly sat in the waiting room and heard people get themselves in right tangles with trying to arrange follow ups etc to combine with work obligations.

I like the thought of a 'Cat Clinic'. Maybe not taking out sections of the day every day but - say - having a later night session once a week (if colleagues will participate) called Cat Clinic and combining appointments with educational and promotional work for cat welfare and health - perhaps even roping in local rescues/CPL etc with regard to funding assistance for lower income owners on desirable procedures.

I'll think on't more. It's getting late and my brain is starting to seize.

Whilst we have appointment times there is a feeling that even being in the waiting room with a single dog is very stressful for the cat. The capacity I was looking at is spread across several surgeries times 11.30am to 12pm, 4 to 4.30pm, 3.30 to 4pm Monday to Friday and 10 to 10.30am on Saturday mornings. A large proportion of my clients do home working at least one day a weekso have flexibility if when their lunch hour is.

I think it is a great idea. I sit in the waiting room dreading a big dog coming in.

However, other than annual innoculations, all my vet visits tend to be urgent (feisty feline gets into lots of scrapes) so I would want the next available appointment no matter who might also be waiting.

If I knew a vet in my area was particularly sympathetic towards the needs of cats I would definitely go to that vet!

I'm probably not a good example then because none of my boys have ever seemed to care much about dogs being around. (They seem to consider themselves superior in any case but also don't like the vets much - smells, strangers talking, telephones ringing, other stranger things - so it seems to be all of a one to them: a chore which has to be got through.)

I think they would be just as annoyed to have another cat sounding off near them - after all, 'cat only' doesn't necessarily mean a single cat sitting in splendour in the waiting room, and I know that my Siamese for example have hated other cats much more than they ever hated dogs.

Given emergencies and other practicalities which could throw your schedules, I'd be tempted to try it out but on, maybe, fewer and slightly longer time slots. (Lots of half hour slots is really quite difficult to manage on a day to day basis.) Saturday morning for two hours?

Just musing though.

PS - but Meid has a fair point about preferring vets who are sympathetic to cats. I voted with my feet when I came to this new house because the surgery I'm currently at was so attentive to cats' needs, particularly with age related issues.

Bizarrely in my practice multiple half hour slots is much easier to manage and as much as I would like it two vets consulting for half an hour Ina Saturday is the max I could get. Late nights not possible as we run putof hours with just a single vet.

The practicalities of real life, eh? Stay flexible and give it a try?

I wonder too if there are some dog owners who worry about cats etc being present in the waiting area, if their dog doesn't handle the presence of other furry beings well? I've noted some cat owners go to lengths to use carriers that 'hide' the cat or use a towel, whereas the other day someone brought a cat in and sat it on their lap!

My phone wouldn't let me finish my post, but, I guess I was thinking dog only slots might be good too?

There is a lot of research been done in the last two years that suggest that the majority of dog owners are not bothered by other species being there. However, this research shows that cat owners are very bothered by this.
In general our cat owners are 25 to 45 years of age and female. Also the cat is the UKs most popular pet. However, they are only 40% of visits to vets and tend to be sicker when they visit the vets than other species due to owners feeling visiting the vets with the cat is difficult and upsetting for the cat.
As well as offering cat only clinics, we are an international cat care approved practice and offer lots of tips of how to get your cat in the box,

Goodness - on their lap? Our vet has a rule (up on a poster) that cats must be contained. To be honest, I've no idea what would happen if you just turned up with a loose cat because I've always taken my boys in carriers. (The thought of one of them bolting and running among traffic outside doesn't bear thinking about.)

One thing that Cat Only slots would definitely do, Lone, is put out there your practice's sympathy for cats. That alone could get some more tentative owners in to you.

(One thing to consider, also, is the issue of less ambulant owners. i know that my Mom, for example, didn't vet Seniorboy for many many years - most of his life in fact - because she wasn't too well and never got round to arranging for someone else to do it. There's a need there, I think.)

How big is your waiting room?

Our vet partitions off a cat area, works very well

We already have a cat roomand do routine house visits. I have one cat cat who I visit to clip her claws and another who is hyperthyroid and had never visited the surgery. This is really looking at the total cream for cats as we are already doing the bread and butter.

Ah well - they deserve it. And you're really after reaching the tentative owners more than the cats aren't you?

(I just have this belief that cats are, by and large, right little toughies and that it's rather their owners who get the collywobbles at the thought of the vets. Sadly, it's also the owners who hold the car keys and the purse clasps.)

Ah cozie research would disagree it shows that travelling to and from and attending the vets is massively stressful for cats by taking them out of their territory and challenging them massively.
The caveat is that orientals are exempt from a lot of these feelings.

Maybe that's why then - most of my boys have been orientals and their territory has been ME. (If I'm there, all is right with their world - as long a there are no other cats to make them jealous!) That's why I can't go on holiday or away for more than a night. They would stop eating and would just pine.

Our local vet has a cat-only clinic on one weekday afternoon for an hour or so. I think it's a brilliant idea, even if as a f/t working mum I can't actually get to it!

I can only manage appts after 7pm when DH is home to take over the childcare, and always take a fleece blanket and put it over one side of the carrier to hide the cat from the inevitable large dog. (Other side is facing me, so they can see a familiar human.)

If ours had a cat clinic on Saturdays I'd be delighted!

It's a cracking idea and I'm sure loads of clients would love it. Personally I can only make vet appointments in the evening but thankfully my practice is open until 7pm. It wasn't when I first registered - I chose them as they had 24 hour nursing care on the premises.

I agree that having specific cat clinic times would be great for putting yourselves out there as a very cat-friendly practice and encouraging cat owners to bring their animals along.

I also think that cats are more likely than dogs to get stressed at the vets, as much because they hate car journeys and being contained in a carrier as anything else. I'm not sure it's the case that cats get more stressed if dogs are present in the waiting room. Cats can get just as stressed in the presence of strange cats as they do with dogs.

Tbh I'm not bothered by my cats sharing a waiting room with dogs, but I suppose that's because my two cats share their lives with three dogs. I can certainly understand why other cat owners would prefer not to have dogs around at the vets though, if they thought it would be extra stressful for their pets.

I'd also like to think that if my cat needed a vet's attention urgently that I could get the next available appointment rather than have to wait for a cat clinic. I like to be able to get an early evening appointment, as I work full time.

In short, I think cat-only clinics are a good idea, but that they probably will benefit the owners more than the cats. However, as owners are the ones making the appointments, this is very relevant.

Could I bring my rescued German Shepherd to your cat clinic please? He adores cat he lives with 8 house cats! However due to being a rescue he hates other dogs he does not know approaching him. A cat clinic would be fab for him. He would love it, he absolutely adores cats :)

It is all summed up by a picture often used by the profession of two dogs and one cat looking over the back seat of the car from the boot.
The two dogs are both saying great.
The cat is saying we are all going to die.