Beware of Cat!: Avoiding the human hospital after visiting the veterinary hospital

When you visit the veterinarian with your cat, and your cat is being a bit feisty and wiggly, a technician may be called into the room to hold your cat for you. You may wonder why that is - it's your cat, your loving companion, after all! You should be the one holding her, right?

Unfortunately, even the sweetest of cats may become unpredictable when frightened, and at that point, she may not care WHO is holding her. She just wants to get away to a safe, dark spot, and hide.

One of the reasons that we bring a technician in to hold a cat is that they have many years of experience holding unruly cats while remaining calm and gentle, but firm. They also have a lot of experience in avoiding getting bitten while still maintaining control of the situation, preventing others from getting bitten as well.

Why do we care so much about bites?

Well, besides the fact that they hurt - A LOT - cat bites have a high likelihood of becoming infected. According to a new study, about 1 in every three people who sought medical care for a cat bite more than 24 hours after the bite ended up being hospitalized for 3 or longer. As many as 72% of the hospitalized patients required surgical intervention for their bite wounds. Several of the patients needed multiple surgeries, and several had complications such as abscesses or lingering joint mobility issues. We don't want your visit with us to end up with a doctor visit for yourself!

At Exclusively Cats Veterinary Hospital, it is our goal to ensure that the safety of both our patients and our clients are of highest priority. For this reason, we hope that you understand when we ask you to sit back in your chair and relax while someone else holds your cat for the veterinarian. It's also one of the reasons why we might ask to take your cat "in the back".

 More information about cat bite related medical problems can be found here.