We need to be more Curious about Cats

We’ve always known it. Cat owners are not curious enough about the habits of their feline friends and often don’t realise that small behavioural changes can signal big alterations in health status. We’ve launched our Curious about Cats campaign to try and change their perspective.

You told us that you think there is a need to support cat owners to enable them recognise the signs of illness in their pets and to encourage them to bring them to the practice for assessment. We agree, it’s a worrying issue.

Around 40% cats, compared to only 15% of dogs are estimated to have not visited a vet in the last year* so we’ve launched our ‘Curious about Cats’ campaign.

There are some significant barriers. We are concerned that cat owners find it hard to identify the signs of illness in their pets, hesitate about presenting them for treatment and even tend to assume that cats are so self-sufficient that they have little need of treatment.** All of those factors have been identified in previous studies and there’s a real opportunity here to improve health and welfare.

The new campaign will provide tools to help you educate your cat owning clients about age related changes in particular. Lintbells will supply your practice with free mobility tracker packs to hand out to cat owners to help them easily assess their cats’ mobility from home, providing valuable clinical data to help with case assessment and helping the pet owner to identify when there is a problem.

While you know that loss of mobility is very common in older cats and coped with by becoming more sedentary, many owners often don’t see as a health issue. Our tracker will help to highlight the problem and what can be done to help.

We will also provide certificated CPD workshops for the whole team, with a free lunch thrown in alongside the learning too. There’s even an opportunity to win a stress-busting cat hamper for the practice by taking part in our quiz.

Waiting room displays and digital materials will be provided to raise awareness within the local community because we think it’s important to get people talking openly about what is normal cat behaviour and the little giveaway signs that suggest all might not be well.

If the sounds of all this has you purring with satisfaction you can take part in ‘Curious about Cats’ by contacting your local Lintbells Veterinary Business Development Executive here.

*https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5465235/

** http://www.aaha.org/blog/NewStat/post/2013/07/24/437308/Bayer-AAFP-study-explains-why-52-percent-of-cat-owners-avoid-vet-visits.aspx