If you see some swelling or an abscess. I tell people that anytime there's a hair loss, or if there's inflammation or bleeding, we need to take a look at that. As long as it's anything more than just a minor irritation, we need to take a look at things and, again, get this thing under control pretty quickly. The other thing with cats is anytime you see a lump or bump, we need to see it sooner rather than later. Cats do get skin tumors, and, unfortunately, they tend to get bad skin tumors. So the sooner we deal with those, the better off they'll be.

Just like you or me, minor abrasion or cut irritation that we may clean up will heal on it. We don't have to see a doctor for that. A cat's immune system may help a minor skin infection, but anything much more than that needs to be seen because if we don't deal with it soon, then it becomes a bigger and bigger problem until we're dealing with a major problem that's much more difficult to get under control. I found that having had a lot of cats in my life, that one little claw that's punctured the skin can quickly become an abscess and get infected, and you don't know it until possibly the abscess is ruptured, and you're just shocked, or it gets really swollen and painful.

Most veterinarians should be skilled enough to deal with most skin issues. Our veterinarians are highly skilled and can help you deal with the vast majority of skin issues in a cat. Very rarely will we have to refer a pet to a dermatologist. Although, those are available if we feel like we need to. I feel that skin issues seem to be a joint thing where you make the recommendations and give the plan, but it's really up to the owner to follow that plan and follow up with the medications. And that kind of goes to the point that skin issues are complicated and frequently time-consuming regarding treatment, which requires you guys to do some work at home. That's the hard part about skin. It's rarely me giving a shot that fixes it. It usually takes some continued care at home. That's labor-intensive sometimes.

Definitely, even if your cat is a strictly indoor cat, there are multiple reasons that that will factor in, but especially our outdoor cats are more at risk. However, with our indoor cats, we often have another pet that may go in and out. Maybe we have one cat that's all indoors, but one that goes in and out, or our dog, or we go in and out of the house. All of those factors can put your pet at risk, and there are things that can come indoors, like mosquitoes that can transmit heartworms and put your pet at risk. With flea and tick prevention, we are often protecting not only against flea and tick but also against intestinal or heartworms. You may not see any fleas or ticks on your cat that goes in and out, but they often groom them off. They may miss one, and one turns into thousands fairly quickly. So it's just good to have the preventive on there that takes care of the multiple things and keeps your cat healthier.

Of course, it's optional, but we would say that it's very necessary. Not only is it better and easier to prevent than to treat, but it's also less expensive. So if you can do those things on the front side, you don't have to come and see me as much for the problems that could occur later.