Herding Cats

Program stresses the need to get cats into the clinic on a regular basis

Andria Saxon and the team at The Veterinary Hospital in Eugene, Ore., had heard and read industry reports about the failure of pet owners to get their cats the regular exams they need. That fact, combined with the recent economic downturn and resulting slowdown in client visits, convinced the clinic staff that they had to take action. When their Boehringer Ingelheim rep spoke to the team about the company’s “Have We Seen Your Cat Lately?” campaign, things clicked. By the end of June, The Veterinary Hospital had launched a comprehensive marketing program to promote regular feline visits.

     “Clients don’t understand the needs their cats have,” says Saxon, practice administrator. “That’s our fault – as an industry and as an individual practice. We haven’t taught them to make good wellness decisions about their cats.” But that’s changing.

     Launched in August 2010, the “Have We Seen Your Cat Lately?” campaign provides participating clinics with a kit containing educational materials and checklists to help veterinarians and staff members communicate better with clients about feline wellness. In-clinic tools include posters, window clings and buttons.

     “Clients have underestimated the needs of their cats,” says Saxon. “If they don’t understand what to look for and how to take care of their pets, they’ll end up with a much sicker cat in the future.” The message from The Veterinary Hospital is that prompt, regular medical attention not only results in healthier cats, but also keeps the owner’s overall costs down. “If we can catch [problems] early, maybe we can treat them through diet,” rather than through more costly measures, she says.

     “We feel many cat owners do not consider it important to bring their cats in for routine checkups and vaccinations,” says Robert Schachner, DVM, Cooper City, Animal Medical Center and Bird Clinic of Hollywood (Fla.), a participant in the “Have We Seen Your Cat Lately?” program. “The typical response we get to our question, ‘Why haven’t I seen your cat before,’ when the cat comes in with major disease, is, ‘My cat is indoors and there’s no way he’ll get sick.’ Obviously, they do, and unfortunately, that’s when we see them. There’s a disease process going on, or somehow the pet has fleas, which could have been preventable had we seen him on a routine basis.”

 The ideal routine

Ideally, the clinic would see cats every six months, or at least once a year, says Schachner. “Depending on age, we’d check for internal or external parasites, do a thorough clinical exam, listen to the lungs and heart, do any palpitations and skin checks for tumors or masses. We look for changes in weight, which can be very significant – either one way or the other. If the cat has gained too much, or unexplainably lost a lot of weight, we would be suspicious or diabetes or thyroid [disorder], which are quite common among cats.” The veterinarian would also check the cat’s oral health. “Just as with humans, the healthier we keep their teeth, the healthier we feel they’ll be in the long run.”

     Older cats receive a senior health check, consisting of blood and urine testing, says Schachner. Pet owners are more conscious of feline leukemia, feline AIDS and feline heartworm, “and we’re stressing it more and more,” he says.

    Adds Saxon, “There’s a huge difference between ‘My kitty’s sick and throwing up’ and bringing [the cat] in for an annual wellness exam. It’s our job to differentiate the two for our clients.” The clinic staff can do so by stressing that when the cat is brought in sick, the veterinarian may be unable to detect subtle signs of disease or disorder, which might be spotted during a wellness checkup.

     The annual exam helps the clinic make the owner aware of things like obesity. “Many people don’t realize they have obese cats,” says Saxon. Obesity can lead to arthritis, joint pain and diabetes. “We’re another set of eyes and another advocate for the patient.” Cats especially need that advocate, since by nature they tend to hide or mask their ailments.

     “Another condition that isn’t as obvious, and that people don’t consider treatable, is behavior,” says Saxon. Cats’ behavior can change as they age, or if a new pet or family member enters the picture. During the annual exam, the veterinarian can ask questions to uncover some of the underlying causes for behavioral changes. “People don’t have to live with [those changes],” she said. “There are a lot of options that many people don’t know about,” such as certified behaviorists. Only by seeing the pet regularly can the clinic staff make the owner aware of those options.

 Team effort

While cat owners have never been as diligent about regular checkups for their pets, the role the economy played “was the best wake-up call we could have had,” says Saxon. It was that drop-off in visits that spurred the clinic into action.

     The Veterinary Hospital launched “Have We Seen Your Cat Lately?” at a team meeting in June. “We talked about expectations for the program,” and even created a trivia quiz about feline health and information that pet owners might not know. “We gave that quiz to the team, we had drawings, and we had gift prizes,” says Saxon. The feline initiative is featured on the clinic’s website and Facebook pages, and is mentioned in its voice mail “hold” recording. From July through September, the clinic offered a “hot link organic catnip toy” to cats whose owners mentioned the “Have We Seen Your Cat Lately?” program.

 Just the beginning

The results haven’t been dramatic … yet. “I see this as the beginning of an educational campaign we will embrace for the rest of our business days,” says Saxon. “The questions we’ll ask ourselves are, ‘Are we making inroads? Are we educating our clients? Are we doing a better job?’

     “Are we talking about [feline health] more? Is there more top-of-mind awareness on our team’s part? Yes.” Still, she figures she won’t see the true rewards of the program for two or three years.

     “I think with our efforts to make people more conscientious about bringing their cats in for routine health care, we are seeing some increase [in cat visits],” says Schachner. “Is it significant? No. We need to get the word out more. Unfortunately, the majority of cats we see are sick cats. Certainly that’s what we’re here for. But our most important job is keeping pets healthy. That’s why we’d like to see more routine health checks.”