Cat friendly or not so friendly

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Ian M — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 19:53:20 GMT

When the scheme was developed I believe that the reason behind self-assessment was that there was a realisation that it was simply not going to be possible to get out to every practice to assess and inspect, the lessons had been learned when the charity had previously run the much smaller accredited boarding cattery scheme and that had required a huge input of voluntary resource to inspect and difficulty in getting round to everyone. This was absolutely the right choice as ICC is a relatively small charity and the implications of having to develop legions of inspectors are huge. They are also a very approachable and discrete charity so I would again reiterate to let them know if you have any concerns about another practice or indeed are unsure of specifics concerning your own.

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Gizmo — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 06:29:55 GMT

I know ISFM would be more than happy to hear if practices are not adhering to standards after receiving cat friendly status at any level - I've contacted them about the clinic I'm in. We have silver standard accreditation but quite frankly we don't deserve it. A recent refit has seen the disappearance of our visual barriers between dog and cat waiting areas, I'm the only one who uses the cat only consult room, and there are a number of other issues particularly with handling and noise, which we could address if management would just back me up. I'm extremely disappointed as the cat friendly accreditation was one of the major reasons I chose this clinic to work in. Personally I love Pet Remedy as well as the Feliway products - kittens love it and I've had some very stressed adult cats just sit on a sprayed towel and completely chill.

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Anne Watkins — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 23:14:25 GMT

Definitely, it should be said but it is always harder with certain vets find.

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Kate Richardson — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 17:15:15 GMT

[quote user="annie77"]I think that is often the prob is locums coming through who don’t all have the ‘gentlest’ approach! you cant unfortunately change that at the time.[/quote][quote user="annie77"]I think that is often the prob is locums coming through who don’t all have the ‘gentlest’ approach! you cant unfortunately change that at the time.[/quote]

It is difficult I accept, but if the practice strongly believes in cat friendly handling it could be something discussed on induction (if that happens in your practice, but I suspect this is rare), or at least mentioned when the contract is taken on? It depends on how hard you have worked to improve things I guess, I personally have a set of 'cat rules' for newbies! Some might call it a bit OCD, but I have worked hard to establish this clinic and it only takes one bad handling incident to knock its reputation.

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Anne Watkins — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 15:29:19 GMT

I think that is often the prob is locums coming through who don’t all have the ‘gentlest’ approach! you cant unfortunately change that at the time.

I try to have a more hands-off technique with bloods and exams now, minimal restraint unless absolutely ness.

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 22:39:30 GMT

Sorry - I hurriedly read your post before my shift!

Yes I can honestly say that we try our best to live up to the gold standard - my missus (who works at the same hospital as I do) is Cert. AVP with a massive interest in feline medicine, and many of our other vets and nurses are naturally sympathetic to cats' needs. But changing people's behaviour isn't easy and it takes time (and diplomacy). And you can't legislate for locums etc. who might cover a night shift or whatever. I understand your frustration / concern - I have heard of horror stories coming from supposedly accredited practices. I'm at a loss to see how the scheme could be improved upon though. I guess that self-certifying is inherently going to be open to abuse to a degree.

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Kate Richardson — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 17:46:14 GMT

[quote user="Sal the 1st"]

along the same lines (you have got me interested ) if a practice got accreditation some time in the past, not just for cat friendliness I can think of other things as well, will their 'historic' standard reflect the current standard ? hope that makes sense

[/quote]

Sal the 1st Indeed. All it takes for the cat advocate(s) to move on and unless someone else takes it on to make sure standards stay as they should. I am not sure how long the accreditation lasts for to be honest and whether it gets reviewed periodically, but as its based on facilities, not actions, it is unlikely things would change as far as the tick list is required. But say the BP monitor breaks and doesn't get replaced, whose checking?

I should say that I am in no way criticising ISFM/ICatCare, I love them and have a huge amount of respect for them and the work they do to improve things for cats, but I just have some concerns about the CFC scheme.

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Sal the 1st — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 16:59:26 GMT

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Kate Richardson — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 15:57:08 GMT

[quote user="jimbomcgrimbo"]

We have a gold accreditation - as you probably know, it's a declaration that you make yourselves on trust, and after you submit your application with photographs etc, I don't know if they ever come out and check that people have been truthful - they haven't with us. That is where the job of the cat advocate comes in - to make sure that people are in fact doing what you said they were going to do. So choose someone plucky and tenacious to be the cat advocate (we have appointed one vet and one nurse) and keep records of everything. As I understand it, the ISFM acknowledge that things are never going to be absolutely perfect all of the time.

[/quote]

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN Thankyou. I am aware of how the accreditation works having done it at my own clinic and being cat only, I can say with hand on heart that we ARE cat friendly. I'm just interested in whether practices who have done the accreditation are actually following through and practising cat friendly ways as well as having the facilities. Would you consider your gold standard clinic to be practising cat friendly ways?

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

James Colver Cert. Ed, RVN — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 15:19:40 GMT

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Sal the 1st — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 22:11:15 GMT

Not sure what level we are - forgot to check and I'm on holiday for the next week. One thing I forgot to mention was that we very very rarely use buster collars only for things like eye problems where the cat rubbing at eye may be a problem and in all honesty we never or almost never get any problems with wound interference (could count the number of incidences in the last 10 yrs comfortably on one hand). We don't use baby grows or anything like that but the vets are really good at not putting in sutures that are too tight or uncomfortable and cats just don't bother with the sutures. We always offer food as soon as the cat is awake to eat and over all the cats are just happier when they go home compared to a lot of places I have worked.

Trying to remember stuff that we do differently but been doing it so long is just second nature now. We don't just do things a certain way to satisfy a tick box its just the way we work - and it does work well. Its not so much doing things in a special way as understanding what works and why it works. We just try to keep things as calm and stress free as we can. Just as I am no good with a stroppy dog- and I know that and get out of the way for somebody who is - people who are wound up are not going to get anywhere with a cat and we try not to put either the cat or the person in that position.

PS just remembered - we swapped to non woven swabs from gauze swabs for surgical prep, seems to cause a lot less irritation. Don't know if there is any written evidence out there to support this or if it is something we just find better

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Kate Richardson — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 21:56:06 GMT

[quote user="Ian M"]

Kate, I think ICC would be more than happy to hear from you with concerns about a CFC. Even if it's expedient just so that it's on their radar even if you didn't feel it was something they could act upon. It's a few years since I I left their employment, but I doubt that has changed, and since the scheme is self-assessed, I would expect them to be open to any reports.

[/quote]

Thanks Ian, I am planning to discuss this with them, but I just wanted to get a feel for 'how is it working' so to speak. I have close connections with ICC/ISFM and respect them enormously and the CFC scheme has done wonders for raising awareness, I just wanted to see if it is actually working and in the clinics it isn't, how can we address this and ensure the public get what they expect from a CFC accredited practice, so any thoughts/feedback really appreciated

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Ian M — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 21:46:27 GMT

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Kate Richardson — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 21:39:49 GMT

Any further comments? I'm sorry not completed my profile, so to fill you in, I'm an Advanced Practitioner in feline medicine, and manage a cat only clinic with silver status, and have heard some horror stories of very not cat friendly practices that have accreditation, incl gold standard that really aren't very cat friendly in their handling at all. So keen to see how common this is. I have had some lovely positive stories as well so keen to hear them too. So if your practice has strived to achieve CFC status, do you think it has helped improve things for cats?

RE: Cat friendly or not so friendly

Sal the 1st — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 01:46:43 GMT

we are cat friendly (would have to check on level ). We don't have a totally separate waiting area for cats but we do have a quieter area of the waiting room we can use - or if we get a particularly mouthy dog in we have the option to ask the dog owner to go for a walk round the garden or sit in the car which helps everybody or put the cat and owner in a spare consult room or even the staff room. We have a table so that cat basket can be put on it rather than on the floor or some clients just put the basket on the empty chair next to them. Consults are 15 mins and for cats they get the chance to have a walk around and explore, generally we have a towel or a soft fleece on the table for cat cons (yes and a lot of washing on the line).

We use Feliway in the building (really not keen at all on pet remedy). Minimal restraint at all times, quiet clippers. We do not use cat muzzles or cat bags - absolutely hate them and rarely (very rarely) use a crush cage which is never used to crush. Cats are never scruffed - it is a sackable offence. We have a couple of staff members who are better with cats than dogs (I'm one of them). I would rather have a spitty cat than a shitty dog any day of the week.

Separate cat ward to dog ward , my main regret is stainless kennels but we have made them as cat friendly as we can. No cat kennels at ground level, no cat kennels facing each other, always either a towel covering part of the door or somewhere in the kennel for the cat to hide if it wishes (we use the cat basket it arrived in with the door removed wherever possible so that way if it wants to climb on top for extra height it can) alternatively an adapted cardboard box which is disposed of on cats discharge . kennels are all small/medium dog sized not the really tiny ones and although there are two tiers the top tier is very rarely in use. Our cat baskets are mostly wire+ top opening. Extractor fan in cat kennels is very quiet and radiators in there are all guarded and there is some sound proofing from next door dog kennel. Another regret is that you have to walk through part of dog kennels to get to cat kennels but that is just the way the building is and nothing we can really do about that and there is a door in between. When we can we always try to deal with cats first on ops list so they can go home earlier -especially if we have gobby dogs in.

cat grabbers - used them about once in the last 10 yrs - more likely to use them for getting stuff off the shelves as I am a bit on the short side. We have gauntlets but again rarely need to use them. separate food and water bowls wherever possible - cats that need a bit of encouragement are a lot more likely to eat from a wide shallow bowl.

Always looking to do things better - so happy if people want to point me in the right direction if there is something I could be doing different.

For me one of the main things is to keep reminding everybody that cats are not small dogs- they are wired different, they don't read rule books - they write them.

Probably quite a bit more I could put but I need to make the effort to go to bed - just seen the time!