Knowing When to Take Kitty to the Vet
You should always take your new kitty to the vet as soon as possible after you bring it home. This acquaints you with the veterinary clinic youll be using and the procedures for getting an appointment there, and also let you meet the veterinary, and the veterinary meet your kitten! It also means that your kitten can have an initial examination and get treatment for any kitty ailments that it might have if youve bought the kitten from a pet store or farm then its possible it may have worms or ear mites that can be easily treated. Depending on the age of you kitten it may also be time for any shots that havent already been administered before you took over ownership of the kitten. One of the basic things that the veterinary will tell you at this visit is whether your kitty is a boy or girl dont automatically assume the original owner got it right, its not always easy to tell and it is easy to get it wrong!
Knowing when to take your kitty to the vet outside of a normal annual examination however is trickier. Rather like when you are sick but unsure whether you are sick enough to warrant a doctors time, its hard to ascertain if your kitten is sick enough to warrant a veterinarys time not to mention the expense! A good rule of thumb is to remember one very important fact a kittens health can deteriorate rapidly within a few hours even so making a decision to think about it cant mean putting off for a couple of days, you are looking at 24 hours maximum, and if things dont improve with kittys health then you make an appointment and tell the reception how old he is, how long hes been sick and what the symptoms are. If he gets worse before 24 hours are up, contact the veterinary clinic immediately and talk to the reception staff that may be able to connect you through to either the veterinary or clinic nurse who can discuss whether or not it sounds dangerous enough to require immediate veterinary help.
Knowing your kitty is part way to knowing when hes feeling off-color. By performing a regular informal examination of his movement, eyes, ears, mouth, and general appearance you can see when hes not himself. It may be that hes limping or scratching himself more than usual or it could be that a usually active cat is sleeping more than he normally does. These are all signs that something is amiss and need you to start paying attention. A kitten that is sleeping all of the time, or has a temperature should always go straight to the veterinary, as he should if you notice he has problems or blood with his urine.
For the most part, cats are quite healthy pets and by learning your kittys normal appearance and traits, you can soon pick up on when hes not feeling well, and a quick phone call to the veterinary clinic can reassure you that hes almost certainly going to be ok to monitor for the next day or so, or whether you should bring him into the clinic that day.