We are looking for a baseline, so we are looking for things to compare to later. Especially as a cat gets older, there are certain things we want to know where they were when they were younger, where they were as things were going along, so we can look for things like diabetes, kidney disease, hyperthyroid disease as they get older. Wellness visits get us ready for future visits. It’s also not always easy to tell when your cat has gained or lost some weight unless it's a significant amount, and so when we catch some of those trends, we can catch some diseases early and make some changes.

Well, some of it depends on you and your cat. Is your cat healthy? Are there a lot of problems we need to address? Do you have a lot of questions? Is your cat older or younger? And what have we gotten into so far? Typically, we schedule routine cat wellness exams for 30 minutes. We’ll schedule senior cats for about an hour, giving a little more time for the collection of samples and going over certain aspects.

That can be a bit of a tricky question in some cases, as it depends on your cat. I'd say the majority of cats do not enjoy coming to see us. Even though we like seeing them, they don't want to be here. They're nervous, scared, and they sense things. Sometimes, preparing for a wellness exam will involve things like getting the carrier ready and trying to make it not quite as scary a situation for your cat.

We have things called kitty comfort kits here where they can involve things like Feliway wipes or pheromone sprays that you can use in the carrier to decrease some of their stress. Some cats respond very well to catnip and will relax with that. Having the carrier out a couple of days before your appointment is valuable, letting the cat go in and out of it. Give them some treats in there, and consider using treats on the day of. We also have some medications for some stressed-out cats that may bring things down a notch to help them. So those would be the things I’d recommend to get your cat ready.

Our goal isn't necessarily to completely sedate them. But like some people take some medications to fly, something just to take the edge off can make cats more comfortable. In some cases, we have to flat out sedate them when they get here, depending on the cat. Decreasing stress is a crucial part of it. Otherwise, you want to be ready for your exam by bringing what questions you have. Do you have some concerns? Are there things you want us to address? Have a list of questions or know what you're getting into—having a list of medications that your pet is on, the dosages, frequency, and things that you need like that.

Bring their records and have your questions written down because you could get here and blank and forget what you were going to ask.

It depends on what the numbers are. Generally, we like to check the lab work once a year, depending on the kitty’s age, to see where the numbers are going. And other than that, it depends on what the results are. If you notice kidney disease, we like to monitor those values periodically. If we start on any medication, we recheck the lab work afterward to monitor the response of the medication.

If the cat is sick or there's any change in how they're doing at home, we do la work. The last thing we consider is some additional tests to our screening lab work. Sometimes we add on other tests like urine culture or extended thyroid panels if it's not completely clear on the lab work what's wrong.

We like to do lab work a little more frequently in senior cats because they have a higher incidence of disease, most commonly kidney disease and hyperthyroidism. And again, we need that baseline to see where their numbers trend over time.