Dr. Elizabeth Chapman
Owner and Medical Director
Just Cats Clinic
Reston, VA
Taking your cat to the veterinarian can be a challenge. Putting your four-footed child into its carrier is just the start. Then, there is the battle of giving your cat a pill if the vet prescribes medication.
“There must be a better way to deal with those situations,” you tell yourself.
Yes, there is! You’ll hear about solutions to those problems on this episode of The Hissing Feline podcast.
Vet visit tips you will learn about on this show:
- The vet visit starts long before the appointment
- A better veterinary visit starts by changing what the carrier, car, handling, and even medications mean to the cat at home.
- Carrier training: Stop hiding the carrier. The carrier should be furniture, not an alarm bell.
- Choosing a good carrier.
- Practice when you aren’t going anywhere.
- Introduce “medication foods” before you need them. Don’t let the first Pill Pocket mean “there’s a pill in this.”
- Pre-visit medications.
- What to do the morning of the appointment.
- Dealing with the car ride.
- Tell your vet is your cat is terrified.
- The bigger message: Stress is cumulative.
- Takeaways: Three things owners can start doing today:
Learn more about Just Cats Clinic in Reston, VA, at justcatsclinic.com.