Cat Friendly Clinic
At Highgate Vets, we’re so proud to be an accredited Silver level ‘Cat Friendly Clinic’ and a member of the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM). This means that we are going to extra lengths to improve the veterinary experience for your cat which can otherwise be very stressful- with all its unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells.
The Cat Friendly Clinic programme was established in 2012 by ISFM to help veterinary teams adapt the clinic environment and the way they interact with their feline patients to reduce cats’ stress and, in turn, benefit their mental wellbeing and physical health.
We are doing this by providing separate calm and quiet spaces for cats within our clinic, employing specialist feline veterinary equipment and through gentle and respectful handling of all of our feline patients.
All of the team here at Highgate Vets are well trained and up to date with the latest information on the veterinary care of cats and dedicated to looking after our feline patients in practice. Our Feline advocate is Kerry-Anne Griffiths who is on hand to provide specific information and advice on caring for your cat.
In order to achieve our Silver Cat Friendly Clinic accreditation, we have had to meet carefully selected criteria as stipulated by International Cat Care.
We have demonstrated that we:
- Understand the needs of cats and strive to make visits to the vet clinic cat friendly
- Approach and handle cats gently and with care through ongoing staff education
- Follow the ISFM Feline Friendly Handling and Nursing Care guidelines and have made the pledge to be ‘Scruff free’
- Have invested in equipment to manage the specific care requirements of cats
- Have an appointed Cat Advocate to oversee our cat friendly clinic status
Our cat friendly facilities include:
- A separate cat waiting area in reception where there are raised tables on which to place your cat carrier screened by plants and away from other animals
- Tasty cat treats to help reduce stress and blankets to place over carriers for privacy
- The use of feline pheromone diffusers, sprays and wipes to help calm and reassure
- A quiet, well-equipped feline only consulting room specially adapted for cats
- A range of equipment such as blood pressure monitors and cat-specific weighing scales to provide a high level of care to our feline patients
- A separate hospitalisation ward for cats with comfortable, soft bedding, calming music and cat hide boxes to allow your cat privacy during their stay with us
- Facilities for surgery, dentistry, lab testing and diagnostic imaging to allow procedures to be performed to the highest standards for all feline patients
