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.

A big thing I find with cats, especially indoor cats, is proper nutrition and portion control. We know that our kitties indoors don't get quite the exercise they do outside. They're not relying on hunting to survive and to be nourished because we're providing that food. Being overweight can cause a lot of problems, so keeping them at an ideal weight can prevent a lot of problems. Overweight cats can't groom themselves as well, and diabetes is a threat. Another thing you can do at home is to make sure your cat has plenty of environmental enrichment. That's the big name that we use because that can prevent behavioral issues. Behavioral issues are one of the leading causes of having to rehome your pet, wanting to rehome your pet, or even euthanasia, which we don't like to think about. If we can do things to prevent behavioral issues, it's a lot easier than treating them later. Things like cat trees, puzzle toys, two sides of our den have windows, and I'm a bird photographer, so we have birds all over the place. The cats will just line the couch and watch birds. Something to enrich their mental as well as their physical, is perfect. Playing with them is a little more difficult, but a laser pointer and things like that help.

During that appointment, we will do a complete physical exam. One of the first things we do is talk about history. So we ask questions like do you have any concerns? Because even on a regular wellness exam, a lot of times, clients have questions. Maybe their pet's doing something that they aren't used to or acting a certain way, and they want to know, is that normal? That's good for cats because if they change their behaviors or habits, there's usually a reason. They hide things so well. With the full physical exam, we talk about how we examine a pet from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. We want to look at all aspects in between, whether that's looking at their teeth or proper dental hygiene, looking at their ears, making sure there are no infections there, listening to the heart, feeling the belly, and looking at the coat. That's a lot of what's involved in wellness exams.

It can help in a lot of different aspects. When we think about our younger cats, their immune systems are not exposed to many things, so vaccinations can prevent them from catching certain diseases. We talk a lot about flea and heartworm prevention. By going ahead and applying that prevention beforehand, we don't have to worry about fighting fleas or diseases that parasites can carry.