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Here are some essential things you need to do for your
kitty to keep them as healthy as possible
Vaccination for kittens is the first step in maintaining the health of your four legged friend and an up-to-date F4 vaccination record is vital if you ever want to board your cat. The first vaccination is usually given before you purchase your kitten and will only require a booster four weeks later. However, if your kitten has not had any vaccinations it will require two injections, given four weeks apart. After your kittens vaccinations have been finalised, a booster is required annually. Vaccination courses are also available for the deadly feline AIDS virus (FIV), and require three injections given every 2 weeks. FIV is present in the southern cat community in high numbers, and is transmitted mainly by fighting and thus saliva transfer. FIV is NOT transmissible to Humans.
 Desexing is another important aspect of responsible Kitten ownership, as female cats fall pregnant very easily! This can happen as young as 6 months! We recommend desexing your Kitten between the ages of 5 to 6 months before puberty begins. Every year thousands of kittens end up dumped on the street or at the RSPCA and only a few hundred ever manages to find a home. The unwanted cats are destroyed. Additionally, we offer pre-anaesthetic bloods to check the health of your kitty prior to desexing and intra-operative fluids to assist in recovery and anaesthetic quality. Feel free to discuss these options with any member of staff.
Parasite Control is another important responsibility to consider. Intestinal worms and fleas are prevalent in our animal community and prevention is definitely better then cure! Intestinal worms can cause problems such as bloody diarrhoea and anaemia if left untreated. Fleas can cause a nasty allergic reaction leading to self mutilation in some cats. We recommend the use of Revolution as it is an all-in-one treatment that can be given once a month. It also covers for heartworm, although this parasite is extremely rare in cats. The only parasite it does not control is tapeworm, so in conjunction with Revolution we recommend giving your cat a tapewormer tablet every 6-12 months.
Microchips are a rice grain sized implant placed just under the skin between the shoulder blades. It is a permanent form of identification which can be used to find you if your cat should ever wander. Animal charities, the local council and most vet clinics have microchip scanners. Our price includes registering your pet with the national microchip database too! This is an excellent idea for cat owners as there is currently no registration system with local council to help keep track, if your fluffy friend should ever go wandering! It can be done at any stage, but placing an “M” tattoo in your kittens ear (which isn’t essential, but acts as an extra push in the right direction for whoever finds your cat to scan it) needs to be done in an anaesthetised cat (eg, during desexing).
Nutrition is important, especially for growing kittens. For this reason we stock and recommend Hills Science Diet and Advance as they are 100% balanced to produce the optimum results in your pet. Feeding canned food is not the best option as it sticks to teeth, causing long-term teeth problems and when you buy it, you are paying for up to 80% water! Most supermarket dry foods tend to have a lot of unnecessary fillers, colour and preservatives, and may contain about 10 times more salt than premium foods, making it far less healthy than Hills or Advance. Feed your kitten a quality complete dry food, such as Hills Science Diet or Advance and leave diets to the experts. Please ask your Vet for advice if you are unsure.
Insurance for pets is becoming more popular and is something you should give huge thought to. As with human medicine, vet medicine is constantly changing and new drugs and procedures are constantly coming on the market. Unfortunately cost is often a limiting factor and it breaks our hearts when we have to put a pet to sleep purely because an owner cannot afford treatment. When you consider, even a simple broken leg that can be fixed in clinic costs about $1000-1500 and to refer a kitty to a specialist for a more complicated fracture costs from $3000 upwards, you can see that insurance is a must. Included in this kitten pack are leaflets on a few of the insurance companies available.
If you would like to know any more information, don’t hesitate to give us a call, we’re always here to help
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