Comprehensive Health Evaluation

Comprehensive semi-annual health evaluations are critical to the long-term health and well-being of your cat in his or her senior years, especially since cats are masters at hiding illness. Because pets age faster than people, major health changes can happen quickly, especially in senior pets. Semi-annual exams can help us find small problems before they adversely affect your pet’s health. This evaluation will also include a nutritional and weight assessment, discussion of any behavior issues, and a dental health evaluation. 

Vaccinations

Vaccinations protect against preventable infectious diseases and help your cat live a long, healthy life. We take your pet’s lifestyle and risk into consideration when developing a vaccination schedule so that your pet does not receive any vaccinations that he or she doesn’t need, but ensuring protection against contagious diseases that are preventable. We prefer to schedule vaccine boosters on a rotating schedule for most patients, providing a lighter burden on the immune system.

FVRCP: This vaccine protects against several highly-contagious upper respiratory viruses, including rhinotracheitis (feline herpes virus), calicivirus, and life-threatening distemper. Feline herpes and calicivirus infections can be life-long. This is a core vaccine recommended for all cats. Once your cat has received the appropriate initial booster series and an FVRCP vaccine 1 year later, we then recommend vaccination every 3 years.

Rabies: This vaccine protects against a fatal disease that can be transmitted to humans. Rabies has been detected in foxes, coyotes, and bats in Oregon. Since cats are very curious and bats can get into our houses, we recommend rabies vaccination for all indoor and outdoor cats. We use a non-adjuvanted rabies vaccine in cats that provides protection for 1 year.

Leukemia: The feline leukemia virus is the leading viral killer of cats and is spread through bite wounds, mating, from an infected mother to her kittens, or through casual contact with an infected cat, such as sharing food bowls or litter boxes. We recommend feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) testing for all kittens and new cats. Following a negative test, we recommend an initial two-dose feline leukemia series for all kittens (since even indoor-only kittens may inadvertently get outside or may become indoor/outdoor cats later in life), and then risk should be revisited 1 year later. At-risk cats should continue to be vaccinated on a 3-year schedule. We use a non-adjuvanted feline leukemia vaccine.

Annual Deworming

We follow the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations for at least annual deworming of all cats, both to protect cats, and also their owners from internal parasites that can cause severe disease, including blindness in children and adults. We use an oral medication called Drontal which treats roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, and tapeworms. The monthly preventive Revolution treats most of these internal parasites, except tapeworms and whipworms. Your veterinarian may recommend annual deworming even if your cat is on monthly Revolution based on his lifestyle or if he has a history of having fleas (which are part of the tapeworm lifecycle).

Annual Intestinal Parasite Screening

We recommend annual internal parasite screening for all cats. We test for hookworm, whipworm, roundworm, plus protozoa coccidia and giardia, which commonly infect standing water in our wet weather (and which our routine dewormers don’t treat). When we also recommend annual deworming, we wait two weeks to have you submit a fecal sample for analysis, so we can ensure the effectiveness of deworming. Cats with heavy loads of internal parasites may test positive for hookworms, roundworms, or whipworms, even after receiving a broad-spectrum dewormer. Learn more about internal parasites in cats at PetsandParasites.org.

Senior Labwork

Just as our physical exam is used to evaluate your cat’s health, blood and urine testing provide an exam of your cat’s internal organs and can help uncover underlying medical problems that may not be obvious from the physical exam. Baseline testing at 7 years of age followed by annual screening can help us monitor your pet’s health and allow us to catch illnesses early, before it’s too late. Depending on your cat’s health status and use of prescription medications, we may recommend annual, semi-annual, or quarterly screening labwork to monitor his or her organ function.

Blood Pressure Screening

Cats are at high risk of hypertension, or high blood pressure. This condition can a primary problem, or be secondary to other illnesses, such as kidney disease or thyroid disease. Regardless of the cause, hypertension in cats can result in sudden blindness due to retinal detachment, so screening senior cats is a very important component of preventive care.

Monthly Flea Prevention

We recommend monthly flea prevention for at-risk cats year-round. We offer a variety of preventives, and can make a recommendation for a product that will best suit you and your pet based on lifestyle and preferences. We carry the following products:

Cheristin—over-the-counter topical flea preventive that kills fleas within 4 hours of application. The main ingredient is labeled for use in organic farming.
Comfortis—oral prescription flea preventive that kills fleas within 4 hours of administration, and the main ingredient is labeled for use in organic farming. It is a flavored pill that must be given orally with a full meal.
Frontline Gold—over-the-counter topical flea preventive that kills fleas within 12 hours of administration.
Revolution—topical prescription preventive that kills fleas within 48 hours, and also treats ear mites, and several internal parasites.