First Visit to the All-Cat Veterinarian

I wasn’t comfortable with the treatment plan that our regular veterinarian came up with for Pierre, and that meant he had to go out for yet another exam, this time at the all-feline veterinarian.

Pierre: I wasn’t supposed to have to go back for months. What’s going on? Not funny! Can we go home now?

Never having been to an all-cat vet clinic before I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first thing we saw was a welcome sign for Pierre and the other cats who had appointments that day.

We were greeted by the clinic cat, Josie. Isn’t he beautiful?

She was very friendly, but what she really wanted was to get up in the window so she could watch the people and scenery outside. She has her own cat-sized sofa (behind her in the photo) to make sightseeing comfortable.

There were also a pair of cats for adoption in the lobby. Donut here has just as good a view as Josie from her window. I hear they sometimes get squirrel visitors on their cat TV, too.

I was surprised at how tiny the exam room was. I took this photo by backing up into the corner until my back was pressed against the walls.

I thought about it and realized that I was used to vet clinics that were laid out just like the one I had grown up visiting with my pets as a child, all sized to accommodate big dogs. That’s not a consideration in the all-cat vet.

Instead of being sized for big dogs, the cozy exam room was a calming place for cats. There was tranquil music playing that reminded me a little of what you hear during a massage session. There was something else to help cats relax, too. Do you recognize it?

It’s a Feliway diffuser, to help cats feel calmer and more comfortable in the exam room.

And for the humans, the decor in the exam room itself was pretty whimsical.

Pierre: I am so unimpressed by the fake birds on the wall. Can we go home now?

Everyone coming and going from the room opened the door gently and spoke in soft voices, from the techs to the veterinarian. That’s something that certainly didn’t happen at our regular veterinarian!

Dr. Avok gave Pierre an exam while he was on the scale since he seemed to want to stay there after his weigh-in.

While Dr. Avok and I had a talk, Pierre was free to find the most comfortable spot in the room.

The most comfortable spot in the room was apparently behind a little water conditioner unit. I asked if I should get him out from behind there, since I knew my usual vet would have wanted him moved, and Dr. Avok said, “If he’s comfortable back there, you can leave him. He’ll probably come out when we leave the room.” Wow, a vet who thinks like a cat! I wasn’t used to that.

Pierre: No looking! When my head is hidden, you aren’t supposed to be able to find me. Can we go home now?

Pierre needed blood and urine drawn for some additional lab tests. When Darby, the vet tech, said they were going to take Pierre in back, I asked if they would do the draws in the exam room. She didn’t bat an eye. “Of course.” That never would have happened at my regular vet, either.

Darby and Michele drew Pierre’s blood and performed a cystocentesis to get urine right there while using surprisingly little restraint. They even offered to clip his nails while they were at it!

Pierre: I’ve had enough poking and prodding. Can we go home now?

Apparently, they normally do checkout on a laptop in the exam room so that cats don’t have to go back out into the lobby and wait. What a great way to cut down on stress to cats who have already been through an exam. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that for Pierre’s visit due to network issues. So we went back out into the lobby.

Pierre waited on one of the very posh chairs in the waiting room while I took care of the bill.

Pierre: Can we go home now?

Yes, Pierre, we can go home now.

We are waiting for additional lab work to come back so that we can get a treatment plan, but I feel better having talked to a cat-oriented vet who was willing to hear the research I brought her and discuss how it fits into a long-term treatment for chronic kidney disease.

Pierre may have acted unimpressed by going to an all-cat vet where there were so many details intended to make him comfortable, but he was back to his normal self almost immediately when we got home instead of going into the closet to hide for a few hours the way he normally would after a vet visit. So it seems that the experience was better for him, too. I finally understand why people who go to all-cat practices say there’s such a difference. All the details really do add up to better vet trip for everyone.

Cat Disaster Preparedness

Yesterday was FEMA’s National Animal Disaster Preparedness Day. By disaster, they don’t mean when your cat knocks over a vase; they’re talking about when an emergency strikes that causes you to have to be ready to leave your home with your cats.

You probably know whether your house is in an especially disaster-prone area, but as the terrible fires in Canada this past week have reminded us, emergencies can happen anywhere, to anyone. Not only do we live in Florida where we need to be ready for hurricane season, but part of the cost of having our beautiful view from our back windows is also living in a 100-year flood plain. So we try to be ready for disasters.

Carrying ID

Even cats who are normally safe indoors are at a higher risk of being displaced during an evacuation. Making sure they have ID can help you be reunited if you are separated during an evacuation. A visible collar with a tag that includes a contact number that isn’t your home phone number is important, since you won’t be at home during an evacuation.

Making sure your cat has a microchip with up-to-date information is important, too, since collars can be lost, but a cat can’t drop their microchip. Think about what information is registered with the microchip company and be sure that they will be able to reach you during an evacuation if you and your kitty get separated.

Your Disaster Kit

We totally redid our disaster kit this year. Last year, I stored everything in a plastic bin, but I got to thinking about the last time I did anything like an evacuation: a cross-country move. Carrying supplies for the cats while I was also carrying cat carriers up and down motel stairways at midnight isn’t something I wanted to try to do with a big bin, so instead, I have shifted to a bag for most of the supplies. I had messenger-style bag that Solv-It had sent me last year during a miscommunication in which they thought I was a dog blogger, so I grabbed it and started to restock.

Since both Ashton and Newton eat raw food, the emergency kit includes freeze-dried raw food for them. It also upgrades Pierre’s food from cans as I had in the emergency kit last year to pouches, which weigh less. They all fit inside the bag. This bag has pockets for things like a thumb drive that is of photos of the cats and critical veterinary information like proof of recent vaccines that might be necessary if the cats have to be boarded unexpectedly. My thumb drive also includes written instructions on meals, but you could include that information about medications, too.

Dividers inside that let me to organize the enough pouches, freeze-dried food, and paper plates separately for at least five days. Having them in nicely divided sections is fun, but but you could put them in any kind of bag that you can carry hands-free.

The cats’ Torus travel bowl fits perfectly into the mesh outside pocket on the back of the bag. Again, if you had another type of bag, like a backpack, you could keep you water bowl inside.

Don’t forget the water! FEMA recommends having five days’ worth on hand for every human and cat. We keep enough on hand that we do store in a bin because one of our stored gallons sprung a leak in the spare bedroom closet last year. I didn’t include a photo of the water bin because it’s too heavy for me to move by myself, and I’m not letting anyone see the inside of that closet!

Cat litter and disposable litter tray stay outside the bag. I use a big, disposable turkey broiler pan for a travel litterbox. Check the sale aisle of your grocery store the week after the big family-eating holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas to stock up on these aluminum pans for your emergency kit.

I shared this pet emergency kit checklist a while back, but I am including it here again to help with your planning.

Where to Go

Not everywhere you might go in an evacuation is pet friendly, so it’s a good idea to ask around before you need to find a place to go in an emergency.

Local Evacuation Centers

Do the evacuation centers in your area allow pets? More shelters are making arrangements for them than used to, but be sure to check rather than assume your cat will be welcome there. Your local emergency management agency will have contact information so that you can plan ahead.

Friends or Family Members

Do you have a friend or family member in a nearby region or state who might accommodate you? It’s always better to ask now rather than showing up in their driveway in an emergency!

Pet Friendly Hotels

Did you know that some hotels and motels welcome pets while others don’t allow them? Our friends at GoPetFriendly have a great listing of pet-friendly accommodations you can use to find a a place to stay during an evacuation. Lodging fills up fast when evacuations start, so knowing how to find a place and calling ahead may make a big difference.

What if You Aren’t at Home?

One of the most unthinkable scenarios is an emergency happening when you aren’t around to get your cats out to safety. Talk to a trusted friend or neighbor in advance about helping evacuate and meet you with your pets in a safe location away from the disaster. If they are willing to help you and you are willing to help them in this scenario, both of you have a backup plan for disasters.

We all hope that disaster won’t strike us, but it’s best to be prepared and not need the plan than need a plan and have no idea what to do!

Water, Water Everywhere with Heyrex Torus

Ever since Pierre’s blood tests showed him in stage 2 chronic kidney disease, I have been thinking about ways to keep him hydrated and having water everywhere he goes. So when the good folks at Heyrex offered to let us try out their Torus water bowl, I only had to hear the word “water” to say I wanted to try it.

The Torus bowl is shaped like a hollow donut with a floor in the “donut hole” to contain drinking water. The hollow donut around the bowl can store either 1 or 2 liters of water in a surprisingly compact space, and s small hole on the inside of the donut lets a small portion of water spill into the “donut hole,” where your cat can drink it.

You know those watering bowls that have a tall tank and make a big “glug” sound when they dispense additional water? Yeah, that would terrify Pierre. He’s still unsure of his own drinking fountain. But the water from the Torus reservoir spills silently into the center bowl area, letting even a timid cat accept it almost immediately.

The reason the Torus bowl works silently is that it is gravity-fed. There are no batteries or plugs needed to make it work.

One of the other things I really liked about this bowl as a clumsy human is that it’s low profile. Unlike a regular bowl, when I blunder into it in the middle of the night, it isn’t going to splash all over the place because it only has a small amount of water dispensed at a time. It’s also pretty heavy when it is full of a liter of water. That combined with it being low profile means that any accidental midnight soccer games you play with it will keep it pretty much in the same location and keep things tidy.

You fill the Torus bowl up by switching the three-way switch to fill mode and removing it. Water goes right in.

So does one of the Torus carbon filters that helps keep drinking water clean.

Then you put the switch back on, and switch it to drink mode. The reservoir around the Torus bowl gravity-feeds into the bowl in the middle. I liked how you can switch the bowl to travel mode and shut off refilling. After you empty the bowl, even turning the Torus upside-down doesn’t spill a drop. How great is that for car trips?

The only drawback I see to the Torus bowl is cleaning it. Water is stored on the inside of the donut-shaped reservoir and the cradle to hold the charcoal filter makes it hard to feed even a flexible brush inside. I can’t scrub all of the surfaces that come into contact with water. There’s a solution, though. You can use sterilizing tablets, designed for baby bottles, to clean the interior.

All in all, I love the Torus bowl. Even more importantly, so does Pierre. His having water everywhere is the real deciding factor for me.

The Torus bowl is cleverly designed, and it’s a really useful way to dispense water, especially if you travel with your cat. I’m going to add one to the cats’ hurricane evacuation kit, because that’s when my cats are most likely to travel and need it the most. Water everywhere you go. It doesn’t get more convenient than that!

FTC Disclosure: We were compensated for this review, but the opinions expressed are our own and not influenced by any outsider.