Caring for Your new Kitten/CAT Our guide to keeping your new addition safe and well for many happy and healthy years together! Congratulations on your new arrival and thanks for choosing Natterjacks to look after your newest member of the family. Cats make wonderful, adorable pets - here begins an amazing journey and we are looking forward to sharing it with you and being there for you when you need us. This leaflet is designed to summarise the main routine healthcare requirements to ensure that the new member of your family is protected from illness and kept in tip-top condition.
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Caring for Your new Kitten CAT · Caring for Your new Kitten/CAT Our guide to keeping your new addition safe and well for many ... member of your family is protected from illness
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Caring for Your new Kitten/CAT
Our guide to keeping your new addition safe and well for many
happy and healthy years together!
Congratulations on your new arrival and thanks for choosing Natterjacks to look after your newest member
of the family. Cats make wonderful, adorable pets - here begins an amazing journey and we are looking
forward to sharing it with you and being there for you when you need us.
This leaflet is designed to summarise the main routine healthcare requirements to ensure that the new
member of your family is protected from illness and kept in tip-top condition.
Vaccination
Vaccination is a very simple, safe and effective way to protect your cat against a range of nasty diseases. All
the diseases vaccinated against are highly contagious and can be fatal. These disease include cat flu, feline
enteritis and feline leukaemia.
Cat flu
Cat flu is a combination of 2 viruses – calicivirus and herpesvirus. The symptoms are similar to a severe cold
cold and secondary infections of the eyes and airways can be very serious. Worst of all, it can never be
completely removed from the body. Sufferers of cat flu will often come down with the disease at times of
stress throughout their lives (like a human cold sore which is also a herpes virus). It is a disease that is much
easier to prevent than to treat.
Feline enteritis (Panleucopaenia)
This is a condition similar to Parvovirus in dogs and causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea with blood loss
leading to dehydration and collapse. It is often fatal.
Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV)
This virus causes cancers in the intestines, skin and other organs. It also suppresses the immune system,
reducing the cat’s ability to fight other infections. When a cat catches FeLV, it can take 4 to 6 years before
any problems occur and symptoms can be almost anything before the cat eventually dies. A simple blood
test is available to detect active infection with FeLV. It is recommended that all kittens be vaccinated and
advised that older cats should be tested for the disease before vaccination. FeLV cannot be caught by
humans or other pets.
Vaccination can cause temporary side effects including lethargy and inappetance or even mild stomach
upsets or colds. However the risk of these minor side effects is massively outweighed by the crucial
protection that then develops.
Contrary some rumours, there is no harmful long-term effect from vaccinating and our tailor-made
vaccination regimes have been selected to provide the maximum of cover with the minimum of vaccines
throughout your cat’s life.
Kitten vaccination courses involve two vaccinations given three to four weeks apart and can start from 9
weeks of age with the second vaccination being given no earlier than 12 weeks of age. Before this age your
kitten should be protected by the immunity they will have acquired from their mother’s milk and vaccination
cannot be done at an earlier age since this acquired immunity will prevent the vaccines from working. Your
kitten can then start to safely go outside a week after the second vaccine.
However, if vaccinated at 9 and 12 weeks, your kitten will still be very small at this stage and we generally
advise waiting for a further 4 weeks before commencing trips to the garden (see later section). Typically we
would advise booking them in to be neutered about 4 weeks after the final vaccination – which is often a
good time for implanting a microchip as well – and then starting their introduction to the great outdoors.
You can then feel safe in the knowledge that they are fully vaccinated, neutered and microchipped before
they start wandering off and making new friends!
Microchipping
Microchipping is now the most popular and reliable method of permanently identifying your cat. The
microchip itself is implanted with an injection and contains a barcode. This barcode is your cat’s individual
identity number. When the microchip is implanted, you will be asked to fill in a form with your personal
details and these details will be sent to the national database alongside your cat’s identity number. Once the
microchip is in place, a handheld scanning device can be used to detect the barcode on the microchip.
Vets, the Cats Protection League, RSPCA and many pet shops as well as the local Council all have access to
scanners and this is what makes microchips so effective. When a cat goes missing and is then found, the
barcode on the microchip is reported to a national database and is matched to your personal details. This
makes reuniting you with your adventurous cat a much easier task!
Kittens can be microchipped from the time of first vaccination and onwards. However at Natterjacks we
often delay microchipping in very young kittens until they come in for neutering a few weeks after their
second vaccination. This is because a large needle is used to insert the microchip and we try to avoid too
many painful experiences at an early age so that they do not develop a fear of the surgery – we want our
patients to look forward to coming to see us!
Insurance
We strongly recommend pet insurance. Whilst minor ailments and routine procedures at Natterjacks should
be easily affordable, costs of treatment for longer term illnesses or major injuries can be considerable. Cats
are renowned for having ‘nine lives’ but in the process of using up these lives they do tend to have a
tendency to require some veterinary treatment along the way!
Whilst advances in veterinary medicine mean we can do more for your pet, treatment costs can soon mount
up. For example, treatment of skin disorders (very common in cats) and diabetes can easily exceed £12,000
over a lifetime whilst repairing a broken leg can cost £2500 or more. For most people these sorts of costs
are not likely to be within the scope of the family budget leaving some very difficult decisions to be made.
It’s important to be aware that not all pet insurance is the same. Don’t just shop around on price
alone. Some cheaper policies have disconcertingly low levels of cover which will cost you a lot more in the
long run or may leave you without any cover at all. However with a bit of research you should be able to
find an affordable policy that will provide you with ample cover for the lifetime of your pet – please see our
online guide for more information: http://www.natterjacksvet.com/insurance/
We have independently researched the market thoroughly on your behalf and we believe that both Agria
and Petplan offer the best policies at this moment in time. We offer a free 4 week insurance policy for
animals less than 12 months with both Agria and Pet Plan to provide you with some immediate cover – there
is no obligation to keep the cover going but we have found these companies to be consistently reliable and
provide adequate levels of cover should you need them.
Diet
A healthy pet starts with a healthy diet and the choice of diets is bewilderingly large. Many kittens will have
been weaned onto a certain diet already and this may or not be suitable for long term use. There is no one
regime or diet that suits every animal and their owner but we generally feel that the better quality complete
dry diets are the best option for most of our patients. They are painstakingly formulated to provide the
correct nutrients for each stage of your cat’s life. If you want to change the diet, do so over a few days by
mixing the new food with the kitten’s usual diet.
There are lots of good quality complete diets on the market and we can help advise you on a suitable diet to
meet your pet’s needs. We do not profit from the sales of pet food so you can be sure that our advice is
unbiased and genuinely in the best interest of your pet. We currently stock diets made by Meowing Heads,
Lily’s Kitchen and Purina (the ProPlan range as well as their Veterinary Diet range for treating certain health
conditions). We have found them all to be highly palatable, good quality and cost-effective. However we
can supply almost any diet and often at considerably lower prices than the big stores. Diets made by Royal
Canin, Hills, Applaws, Canagan, Calibra, Iams, Burns, James Wellbeloved and Arden Grange are other reliable
manufacturers. Be wary of budget brands, cheap supermarket diets or so called ‘mixers’ as these often have
high levels of cheap cereals as well as added salt to improve palatability. This can lead to a range of
problems including dental disease, obesity, diabetes, skin and digestive problems as well as heart and kidney
disease.
Raw-feeding and home prepared diets have become more popular recently and can suit some cats very well
– particularly if your cat has problems with allergies or obesity. However in young kittens it can be difficult
to ensure that you are providing the right balance of nutrients and there is also a greater risk of food
poisoning (for cats and humans!) caused by improperly stored or prepared raw food. If you are keen go
down this road then ensure to do your research and seek plenty of advice to ensure that you get it right.
Done properly it is an excellent alternative to conventional complete diets and it is possible to feed both raw
and complete diets together to get the benefits of both. A reputable local supplier of raw diets is Nurturing
by Nature (www.nurturingbynature.co.uk) and complete raw diets made by Nature’s Menu are widely
available in many stores.
If you are feeding a dry food, kittens can have unlimited access to it (unless you have other animals that will
eat the kitten’s food!). Wet/moist food goes off quickly in the bowl, so needs to be given as separate meals
throughout the day. Kittens aged 8 to 12 weeks need four meals per day, between three and six months old
they need three meals per day and once over six months’ old they need two meals per day. Once fully