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Cats

Our advice for a healthy cat

At Celyn Vet Group, we recommend the following to our cat owners:

1. Arrange an annual health assessment and vaccination against cat flu, enteritis and leukemia virus. Leukemia virus vaccination is optional for cats that never go outside. Kittens should have a primary course of 2 injections, three weeks apart, generally at 9 and 12 weeks of age. The specific requirements of your cat should be discussed with your vet. Vaccination is the only way to protect your cat from these diseases and is the main reason these diseases are now uncommon. It is important to vaccinate, not only to protect your cat, but also to protect the population of cats in the area.

2. Feed a good quality diet that is high in animal protein and have ingredients you can recognise such as Hills, Iams or Nature Range. Avoid supermarket foods like, Go Cat, Felix and Whiskas. Feed real meat as a treat.

3. Stay on top of worming. Most cats need worming every 3 months especially hunters. Indoor only cats can be dewormed yearly or every other year.

4. Flea treatment. Minimum treatment period should extend from Spring through to Winter until well after a few good frosts.

5. Neuter from about 6 months of age.

6. Get complete peace of mind and your pet’s wellbeing looked after with Pet Health Club® and save money on routine healthcare, every year.

7. Insure your cat against accident and illness. Choose wisely, the more expensive policies are often better in the long run. For further advice on insurance, click here.

8. Microchip your cat to help find it when lost (an added bonus is our microchips have a built in thermometer so no more struggling with rectal thermometers).

Fleas are little parasites that attach themselves to your pet’s skin and feed off their blood.

Fleas are normally picked up from the environment where other animals, infected with fleas, have been. This could be from wildlife in the park or from other areas where your pet goes.

Affected animals leave eggs behind. These eggs will hatch and eventually develop into fleas, which will then sense the vibrations and warmth of your pet nearby and the fleas will jump onto your pet.

Facts:

  • 1 in 10 dogs and 1 in 12 cats have fleas.
  • One female flea can lay 50 eggs per day.
  • If the fleas are not kept under control, the female flea will lay her eggs in the environment. This can be the pet’s bedding, carpets, sofas, skirting boards etc.
  • Even if you then kill the fleas that are on your pet, the eggs that have been laid in the environment will hatch and re-infect.

If you ever have a flea infestation on your pet, it will be necessary to ‘de-flea’ their environment too. This can be done easily with a household spray treatment and by washing any bedding on a hot wash.

De-fleaing your pet could not be simpler. All you need to do is apply a Spot-On treatment to the back of your pet’s neck every month.

It is important that you only give your pet flea treatment that is recommended for their species and weight. Dog flea treatments contain permethrin, an insecticide that is safe for dogs but highly toxic to cats.

Harvest mites, as the name suggests, are quite prominent in the UK in the late summer and autumn. It is the larvae that can cause a seasonal skin problem in dogs and cats. These 6 legged larvae are reddish/orange in colour and visible to the naked eye.

They tend to favour longer grass and are active during dry, sunny days. They congregate on the animal where there is less hair i.e. around ears, eyes and on the legs and in between toes. They are surface mites and therefore do not burrow under the skin or suck blood. The biting they do to feed causes irritation, leading to the animal biting and scratching the affected areas.

Prevention

Harvest mites are active in the daytime so a walk early in the morning will help reduce infestations. As will keeping moving, to prevent the mites climbing up onto your pet. Also avoid areas with long grass and vegetation or areas that are known to have high mite numbers.

Treatment

There is no licensed product to treat harvest mites but flea treatments that work well on the surface of the skin can help e.g. Frontline spray.
Also treatments that reduce the irritation can help, such as shampoos and skin supplements like omega 3 fish oils and vitamin E.