Cats and Kittens

Ailurophile: a cat fancier, or a lover of cats

Have you ever found yourself wondering what makes our feline friends tick? Do you ever feel that a cat has a mind of its own or rules the house? Cats, unlike the dog, do not think of themselves as people, but instead, think of themselves as Big Cats. Remember, they come from the family of meat-eating animals that include the tigers, lions, leopards, and panthers. However, contrary to popular belief, they are social pets that can respond to human speech and enjoy human companionship. The early interactions we have with our kittens can dictate the personality traits they will exhibit later in life. We are very fortunate as feline providers to have them grace the halls and rooms of our house.

During your visits with us, we will work with you throughout your pet’s life to make recommendations and discuss preventative care with you. We believe in addressing all the life stages of your pet and more importantly have age-appropriate discussions with you. From the “baby” stage through the terrible twos, from adolescence to adulthood continuing right through the senior years, we will be with you each step of the way.

Annual Examinations

We recommend yearly wellness examinations for your pet. This will give us a chance to evaluate your pet’s overall health and to detect problems before they turn into serious illnesses. Because your pet cannot tell you how he or she is feeling, we rely on a thorough physical examination and your observations of your pet in order to determine if your pet is truly healthy. For senior pets (7-years-old and over), we recommend twice a year visits.

Vaccinations

Immunizing your pet against disease is one of the best tools of preventative medicine. Vaccines are inactivated or altered live disease agents that cause the immune system to produce a protective response specific to that disease.

Is my pet at risk?

Your pet’s chances of being infected are based on several factors:

  • Where you live
  • Your pet’s age
  • Does your pet go outdoors?
  • Exposure to mosquitoes and ticks
  • Traveling with your pet: camping, hunting or hiking
  • Drinking from puddles and walking through elimination areas of other animals
  • Going to the groomer, boarding, cat shows

Are vaccinations safe?

Yes. The majority of pets respond well but as with human vaccines, there are some risks. Fortunately, serious side effects are rare. The most common side effects of vaccination are low-grade fever, depression or decreased appetite. These are usually short-lived (24-48 hours), require no treatment and are similar to what people experience after a flu or tetanus shot. Vomiting, diarrhea, itching, difficulty breathing, swelling of the face or extremities and hives are some of the rare allergic reactions that can occur.

Cats should be immunized against:

  • Feline panleukopenia (distemper), herpesvirus, rhinotracheitis, and calicivirus.
  • Rabies
  • Leukemia if an outdoor cat

Vaccines may be appropriate based on where you live and your pet’s age and lifestyle. How often you should have your pet vaccinated against certain diseases depends on many factors. Discuss these with us to understand what is recommended for your pet’ unique situation.

Surgery

All pets not intended for breeding should be surgically spayed/neutered for many important reasons. In addition to improving the health and behavior of your pet, you will be doing your part to reduce the high unwanted pet population in cats. Millions of unwanted animals are euthanized each year because good homes are limited and most pets simply cannot be adopted out.

The Benefits

Females:

  • Prevents signs of heat
  • Prevents blood stains from heat
  • Decreases chance of breast tumors
  • Eliminates the chance of cystic ovaries
  • Eliminates the chance of uterine infections
  • No unwanted pregnancies or offspring

Males:

  • Prostate cancer incidence reduced
  • Testicular disease eliminated
  • Decreases roaming
  • Decreases aggression
  • Eliminates undesirable sexual behavior.
  • Prevents spraying/marking
  • Decreases odor of urine

Your pet will not get fat or lazy because of this surgery. Diet, exercise, and heredity have much more influence on the weight and attitude of your pet.

Surgery can be performed as early as four and six months of age but can be done at any age thereafter. Surgery is performed while your pet is under general anesthesia. At the Gardner Animal Care Center we require a pain management program. Surgical risk is minimal and your pet will go home the same day.

Nutrition

A recommendation by your veterinarian is based on knowledge, experience and caring. We want to help your pet live a longer, healthier life. We recommend Hill’s pet food. It offers the right balance of advanced nutrition based on age, activity level and special needs, avoiding both excesses and deficiencies of key nutrients. It also has a great taste that pets love.Hill’s also has a special food line used by veterinarians to help manage the nutrition of pets with a variety of disease conditions. Hill’s uses only quality ingredients and have more scientific research than any other pet food company.

Senior Program

We’re pleased to introduce a program that will help us provide the best care for your senior pet: Celebrate Seniors! Living longer, living better-starting at 7.

As your pet enters his/her senior years, he/she may start to develop diseases common to senior human counterparts, such as diabetes, cataracts, arthritis, hypothyroidism, and cancer. These diseases can go unnoticed in their early stages and may develop rapidly, making regular monitoring and blood testing very important. Here are a few facts important to senior pets:

  • Pets become seniors much faster than people. Your pet ages roughly seven years for each human year.
  • By age seven, many pets are feeling the aches and pains of aging, and they cannot tell us what’s wrong.
  • Older pets’ joints and organs don’t function as efficiently, and health and comfort can be compromised.

You play a key role in maintaining your pet’s health because you know your pet better than anyone else. With your watchful eye and our medical care, we can establish baseline information, identify illnesses early and provide effective treatment to help your pet avoid serious or life-threatening conditions.

Please ask us about our senior program that we offer starting at 7 years of age.

Microchip

The HomeAgain Pet Recovery Service is a safe, simple and permanent form of pet identification designed to quickly identify lost pets and reunite them with their owners. Over 10 million pets become lost each year.

The chip is no bigger than a grain of rice and contains a unique ID code capable of being read by an ISO standard scanner. The microchips biocompatible material is extremely safe for the animal. It is a passive device and requires no battery.

Microchipping your pet takes just seconds and is relatively painless and does not require anesthesia. You will then have the paperwork to enroll your microchipped pet in the HomeAgain nationwide recover database. A professional recovery team is available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. A successful recovery occurs approximately every 6 minutes.

Contact Gardner Animal Care Center today!