Regular health check in cat – why even bother writing about it?

Last months have been very intense for use due to many reasons… to be able to write about it I will have to split my summary in few posts. I’ll start with annual veterinary health check. But first I will explain why I even mention that. Test results will be presented in another post.
Unfortunatley it is believed that cats are generally healthy and don’t get sick. And if something is going on – it’s owners/breeders fault. That’s a myth – both about cats health as a cause of troubles. Many stereothypes comes from the fact that some things and symptoms go unnoticed – and if we don;t see something, it doesn’t exist.  But if cat’s didn’t get sick – I wouldn’t have much to do as a vet – right now cats are major of my patients at the clinic.

If the cat is sick does it mean it’s owners or breeders fault? I don’t think so. Sometimes even despite the best conditions, diets, love and cuddle – cat still cat get sick one day. It’s a living organism. With all the medicine develepoment (which is always few steps ahead of veterinary), we still cannot grant ourselves health. If our pet will get sick for ex from cancer, will we blame ourselves? Of course, there are cases of oversights, or even neglect, there are unexperienced owners who don’t know what to pay attention to – and it’s worth mentioning that cats are masters of disguise when it comes to health issues. That’s why it is so important to run regular health check and in case of possible problem – to be perceptive and react at once, not to wait “untill it passes by itself”. Luckily there are many owners who take care of their pets and thanks to their attention and regular tests, some problems are spotted soon enough. I won’t be writing off exactly what cases these are. I will jus mention that many of them, isn’t rally conspicuous – uvenitis, gangivitis, teeth tartar/plaque, early stage of chronic kidney disease, stress/idiopathic cystitis in presymptomatic stage, hyperthension, enteritis or malabsorption – these are just a few examples.

Someone may raise a hand and say that stray cats don’t go to vet clinics and live. Well yes, they do, but without any care – much shorter than others. And it’s not true they don’t go to vets. Our clients are also fundations and private people who take care of stray cats and take them for a visit. Of course it may not be the early stage of diagnostics or prophylactics, as in home pets, but this is also due to their attitude (many are really stray and hard to observe or handle) and lifestyle (sick cats will hide and it’s hard to catch them for examination).

If you don’t see symptoms it doesn’t necceserly mean the cat is completely healthy and you can hive up annual check up. It applies both for cats who live solitary with people or in larger groups. Some disorders risk increases with age – for ex. kidney disease, arthritis (well yes, cats also can have this problem), neurological disorder, decrease of immunity etc.
In my opinion – not only as a vet but also as an owner of many cats – regular check ups play a very important role in taking care of them. That’s also why we pay so much attention to it at the cattery. Thanks to that we were able to discover nephrologic problem in our adopted Dziabąg soon enough (more about it HERE). We’ve also learnt it’s not only a case in older cats.

Another thing is – should we firmly speak about it if there is a health problem at the cattery. There are breeders, and I think I may say it’s a majority, who prefers to stay silent about it and pretend this doesn’t exist at their cattery. And it’s not about any horrible things to hide. Unfortunately we are eager to critisise and and rate not even knowing all the facts. Hate is a common thing in the internet, and you don’t have to know much to talk a lot.

• “They withdraw a cat from breeding? It must be sick or have some behavioral problem and they want get rid of it”
• “Cat got cold? It probably lives in a mess and they don’t vaccinate.”
• “That cattery has some kind of a problem, they must have sick cats. We will go to another, where cats don’t get sick cause they don’t write about it.” etc.

These are jus a few examples mentioned by many breeders or heard at the clinic. As anywhere – there can be rotten apple, but most of these opinions are unfair and invidious. There are more issues that stand for “quality” of a cattery. And the truth is that in every one of them – sooner or later – a problem will occur.  We’ve been running between clinics with Dziabąg, who, as I wrote before, had a problem with one kidney; with Illy, who has one eye different due to a problem when she was little (about it you can read HERE and HERE).  I will probably get i t in the neck from few familiar breeders, but I will write it anyway – if someone says that in their cattery nothing has ever happened – they either have a very short breeding status or is not telling the whole truth.

Another thing – why breeders don’t talk firmly about it? One because of possible criticism, backbiting and hasty conclusions drawn by both future cat owners and other breeders. On the other hand – we also have this problem that even if something isn’t our fault – we still tend to blame ourselve. Cattery is a lot of work and most of us get very involved and devoted also emotinaly. What comes with it – we outlive every trouble and failure. Sometimes we run out of strenght to talk about something and go trough it again. How I know?

Dziabąg at first was given very little to no chance to survive when he was brought to our station in Ukraine. We fought for him for many months afterwards. Since then it seemed everything was ok untill one little change in his blood tests. Something many would simply ignore or miss. After few consults and further tests it turned out to be a complication after infection he had in the first place when he was little. New his tests results come back normalne and he has adjusted care to his condition. But still I’ve had many sleepless night overthinking if I could have done more to prevent it. Illy’s case we have overlived for long, we did everything we could so she has the best care she can get – including surgery and consults in Warsaw with dr Garncarz. It cost us a lot… time, stress, sleepless nights. I won’t write about money becuse that was secondary and we never spare it for cats.

Additionally I am this kind of doctor who gets invloved – also emotinaly – in work. I worry about my patients at the clinic, after I leave for home, it happens that I stay after hours or call in some cases on my days off. And when it comes to relief pain for one last time for my patients – I stay still to comfot the owner but it happens that I cry when I’m alone afterwards.

Cattery require same amount of emotions, time and involvment. Letting kittens go for new homes is never easy for any of us. (Once I even told Tomek that a day when I won’t cry after a kitten who has left is, will be the day when we should stop. But I don’t think this day will ever come). A true breeder is affected by every of his/hers ward – both this healthy one and one with issues. This is not an easy “job”. Often it also includes getting along with people, sometime very difficult, in other cases immpossible. Common loitering to lower the prices, unfair competition or “catteries” from legal kitty mill assosiations. If we were about to also take criticism or blame for every single issue – I’m not sure if anyone would decide to breed cats or dogs. That’s why many breeders don’t speak about their problems and talks only about safe subjects to avoid further worries. I can relate to that. It’s the easy way and why in the hell would we want to make our lives more difficult?

If someone got this far reading this, you may think I search for some kind of excuse for myself for some serious thing. Well not really. Right now our cats are pretty well and I will soon write more about it. Why then, should I write what I wrote?
As you may have noticed, we’ve had a long break since the last post. One of the reasons was lack of time due to work change, courses, changing laptop (and recovering data from previous one after it burnt off) and everyday duties. The other reason was a dilemma if I should write about prophylactic tests at all. Many breeders don’t do it (personaly I don’t know anyone who would write more than negative results of FIV/FeLV tests), maybe because many years in breeding, they have experience that tells them not to. But this is also a thing that creates a picture of cats as animals who don’t get sick if they have a proper care. And that’s a myth! with which I struggle everyday at my work.
I see many cats who get to the vet too late, because people believe these stereothypes that they are healthy. That’s one of the reasons they don’t show up to very rarely in the clinic. Another one is shame and fear that they will be judged (you can see not only breeers are afraid of that) – “because if the cat is not healthy, someone might think I am a bad owner and my cat has good conditions to live”. If you post on a cat group that you cat has a problem, among advices and support you will get lots of hate comments that this is your fault. But good conditions and care doesn’t exclude that the cat can get sick.
I wish that every cat, not only coming from our cattery, had an aware and attentive owner. That vet visit was a natural habit – with regular health check, and not a shame – in case of troubles – because this increases chances for a long life in good quality.

So someone has to start. Breeders are often the first source of information for future owners. And they also should be a perfect example. If we are ashamed to talk about problems and embed stereotype of healthy cat – nothing will ever change. That’s why against all the advices, to stay quiet – I won’t.

I know I do everything so my cats stay healthy and happy – from conditions, by veterinary care and constant learning. But still I am aware that sooner or later – our cats get older as everyone – we will face health issues. I know that even then we will do our best instead of pretending that everythign is fine. I don’t like to pretend or lie. I am an open person and I would like to be able to talk freely about our cats and cattery. Not to mind every word so nothing slips out. I don’t think that there is anything I can accuse myself of when it comes to caring for cats. Because our webpage is run a bit like a blog, I know that we have many people who follow our life with cats and cheer. Also because of that I just want to be educate a bit, be honest and show all the shades of cattery not only the bright side.