Page 91 - Complete Cat Care: How To Keep Your Cat Healthy and Happy

◁ Full body examination
As part of a routine checkup, the vet will
feel the kitten’s body all over to search for
abnormalities such as lumps or tender spots.

▽ Combing for fleas
Your vet will comb through the kitten’s
coat to pick up fleas or flea dirts. Severe
flea infestation can lead to anemia.

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regular checkups your vet can agitated, calling constantly to attract
draw your attention to any changes males, which is stressful for cats
that need monitoring, such as an and owners alike. After neutering,
increase or decrease in your cat’s these sexual behaviors either Microchipping Kitten health checkups
weight (see also Monitoring your disappear or never develop, and Having your kitten microchipped
cat’s health, pp.44–5). both male and female cats are more means that he can be easily
identified if he strays or is involved
likely to opt for a peaceful home life. in an accident. A microchip holds
Neutering Neutering also reduces the chances a unique number that is kept on
One of the first things to discuss of sexually transmitted infections— a database and can be read by a
with your vet is neutering, a including a feline version of scanner. Once in place, it is there
routine procedure under general HIV—being passed between cats, for life. The vet will insert the tiny
device, which is the size of a rice
anesthesia to remove the ovaries and removes the risk of cancer of grain, by injecting it under the skin
and uterus in females and the the reproductive organs. between the shoulder blades. At
testes in males. Apart from Vets usually recommend that later visits, your vet can check with
preventing unwanted litters, kittens be neutered at around a microchip reader that it is in place
having your kitten neutered has 4 months of age, before they reach and working. A microchip is only
useful if the contact information
other benefits. sexual maturity. Your kitten will stored is kept up-to-date.
Unneutered male cats often roam stay at the vet for only a few hours
far from home in search of a mate and will usually recover from the
and also have the habit of spraying operation within a few days. A
urine around their territory, female kitten may have a few
sometimes even in the house, as sutures in the skin, or none at all.
a calling card to females. These The vet will tell you whether any
roving toms can be very aggressive, skin sutures are dissolvable—in
ready to fight with any cat they see which case they should gradually
as a rival. Unneutered females are disappear—or whether they need
at risk of frequent pregnancies, to be removed, usually about
and when in season they become 10 days after the operation.

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