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Cats Benefit From Low-Stress Handling During Veterinary Visits

Rebecca Schmidt • Oct 18, 2013

Benefits

When a cat is overly stressed at the veterinarian’s office, it’s often difficult for your cat’s doctor to conduct a proper wellness examination. The stress can have a negative impact on blood pressure, heart rate and other tests.

By using low stress handling, it not only lessens these issues but it also helps build a level of trust between your veterinarian or vet tech and your cat. While many cats may never be fully comfortable at the vet, taking steps to make the situation less stressful will make the experience a bit more pleasant for everyone involved.

Setting the stage for low stress handling

Low stress handling encompasses so much more than how your cat is handled at an appointment. It also involves setting the stage prior to the exam to lower your cat’s stress level. This includes using a towel to cover your cat’s carrier prior to taking them into the exam room. Using a towel cuts down on visual stimuli that may add to your cat’s stress level.

If your cat is stressed by the carrier and would be comfortable exploring, you may want to let your cat out in the exam room to get used to the smells, sights and sounds. A softly lit exam room can be soothing to your cat. A quiet environment also helps in creating a low-stress handling experience. Talking quietly to cats during the exam and cutting out exterior noise – like phones, barking dogs and other loud noises also helps. Ceiling fans can be very scary to cats, all ceiling fans should be turned off or removed from the exam room.

Making a cat more comfortable

One way to create a low-stress handling situation is to set up a comfortable environment for your cat. This means setting up an area at the veterinarian’s office where your cat can feel safe and less threatened by the situation.

Some vets use big fluffy towels or blankets on the exam table which make your kitty more comfortable. If a cat would rather be on a chair or on the floor, the exam can be conducted there as well. Some cats feel more secure in their carrier. The top half of the carrier can be removed and an examination can be done without ever removing your cat. Towels can be used to cover your cat’s head during the exam. The towel gives them a place to hide.

Rewards for cats

One thing your veterinarian or vet tech can do to assist in making the environment a low stress situation is to provide rewards like treats, wet food or catnip. These treats or rewards will help create a positive experience for your cat that may turn very negative situations around. If a cat will be accepting of a food reward, this can then be used when drawing blood, clipping nails, checking blood pressure or conducting other tests.

Non-medical veterinary trips

One way you can start to condition your cat to make a vet trip less stressful is to set up some non-medical visits for your cat. These would be trips to your veterinarian’s office where your cat receives a reward such as treats or some loves from a technician.

Avoid negative experiences

Low-stress handling also includes your veterinarian or the vet tech taking steps that reduce your cat’s stress from the start. Calm, soothing voices and gentle pets work best. There should never be any yelling or scolding of a pet while at the vet. Another action you want to avoid is scruffing a cat – or picking up a cat by the scruff of his or her neck. Although mother cats use this method to move their kittens from place to place, it’s not a positive way to handle adult cats.
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