Like children, pets aren’t always fans of their doctor visits, but parents realize that routine wellness care is as important for their four-legged children as for their two-legged ones, and stock up on bribes and treats. While we don’t hand out candy and stickers at your pet’s wellness visit—peanut butter and spray cheese are our favorites—we strive to make your furry family member’s visit as pleasant as possible, to ensure their continued good health. Cats tend to be less enthusiastic than dogs about their exam, but wellness care is critical for these independent creatures. Cats are prey and predator, so they are highly skilled at hiding illness or injury, which makes annual or biannual visits vital for detecting hidden disease. 

During your feline friend’s wellness visit, your Caldwell Animal Hospital veterinarian and care team perform many services, all designed to keep your pet in tip-top shape for years to come. Take a behind-the-scenes peek at the four essential parts of a feline wellness exam. 

#1: Discussing your cat’s lifestyle and behavior

A conversation about your cat’s typical habits and behaviors at home is a key part of your pet’s wellness exam. By asking questions about your cat’s eating, drinking, and litter box habits, we can learn a great deal about your furry pal’s health. Monitoring for changes in your cat’s routine, behavior, and attitude provides the first clue that something may be amiss. For example, your kitty may suddenly seldom jump onto their favorite windowsill to soak up the sun, which you may chalk up to the peculiarities of the feline mind, but their hesitation to jump, and other normal behavior changes, actually indicate osteoarthritis pain. Any subtle change you notice may hint at an underlying issue that needs addressing, so keep a list of your cat’s abnormal behaviors.

#2: Performing a whisker-to-tail physical exam

We will pay close attention to your cat’s history, and any changes you noticed at home during the thorough physical exam. We’ll check every part of your pet for hidden signs of illness, injury, or disease, as we perform the following tasks:

  • Listen to the heart and lungs for abnormal sounds, rates, and rhythms
  • Check the mouth for signs of dental disease, or oral tumors
  • Look at the ears for polyps, inflammation, or potential yeast, bacterial, or mite infections
  • Evaluate the eyes for cataracts, glaucoma, ulcers, or eyelid issues
  • Comb through the fur, to check skin health, and search for external parasites, infections, or allergy signs
  • Palpate the abdominal organs, to check for signs of pain, masses, or abnormal organ shape or size

After combining your cat’s at-home history and our physical exam findings, we will use this information to guide our next step during your pet’s wellness visit. 

#3: Screening for potential disease and illness

While blood work before anesthetizing your pet is necessary for health evaluation, it’s also a vital part of a wellness visit. Performing routine diagnostic testing, such as blood work, allows us to monitor patterns and identify changes in your pet’s normal values, giving us the ability to detect and treat disease much sooner. Depending on your cat’s lifestyle, history, and clinical signs, we may recommend various tests to screen for infectious diseases, intestinal parasites, or urinary issues. Examples of routine diagnostic tests include:

  • Complete blood count (CBC)
  • Blood chemistry profile
  • Blood glucose
  • Thyroid level
  • Blood pressure 
  • Urinalysis
  • Fecal exam
  • Feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus

We may also recommend screening tests based on your cat’s risk factors for potential diseases.

#4: Administering lifestyle-appropriate vaccinations

After determining your feline friend is healthy, we want to ensure they stay that way, so we will administer vaccinations, based on their lifestyle, that they need for protection from infectious diseases, such as rabies, feline viral rhinotracheitis, calicivirus, leukemia, and panleukopenia. While many people believe vaccines are the main purpose of their pet’s wellness exam, they are actually a small part of your furry pal’s overall care plan. 

We know your cherished cat is a beloved family member, and you want to keep them purring in your lap for many years to come. Lean on your Caldwell Animal Hospital team by scheduling a wellness visit that will help keep your kitty happy and healthy.