Preventative Care for Your Cat

At Morningside Vet Clinic we understand there is so much to take on board when you have a pet and keeping on top of it all to keep your pet healthy can be a headache.

We offer a reminder service that can be sent as a text, via email or by post to help you keep your pet’s preventative care up to date. So just look at our check list below for cats to make sure you have everything covered:

1. Vaccination – Annually against panleukopenia, calicivirus & rhinotracheitis (referred to as F3)

also Feline Immunodeficiency virus (also known as FIV or cat AIDS)

* Kittens will need 3 vaccines to boost their systems up to full immunity. These are done at 8, 12 & 16 weeks of age or 3-4 weeks apart depending on what age you get your kitten.*

2. Heartworm prevention

3. Intestinal worming (including spirometra worms for those lizard/frog/insect hunters)

4. Fleas

5. Ticks

VACCINATION

For your pets this can be one of the most important things you can do to protect them. They are a safe and effective way of preventing certain illnesses. The diseases we vaccinate against are highly contagious and often life threatening. The young animals should not be allowed out until a week after their final vaccines, so their body can build immunity to the vaccinations.

HEARTWORM PREVENTION

This worm is carried by mosquitoes and can be transmitted by a single bite from an infected mosquito. The worm travels in the blood stream and grows in the heart, which explains the name, ‘heartworm.’ This worm then grows within the heart, filling up all the cavities, which affects how the heart works and can be fatal if not treated.

For cats the easiest way to dose them is combined in with their monthly flea treatment as a spot on the back of the neck. At Morningside Vet Clinic we recommend Bravecto Plus or Revolution Plus spot on for this as it covers a range of parasites including the heartworm.

INTESTINAL WORMING

Intestinal worms can be transmitted in a variety of ways, usually through direct contact with eggs or an animal with an active infestation. As puppies and kittens they can be carrying the worms transmitted in the mothers milk. At Morningside Veterinary clinic we recommend that your pet is wormed fortnightly between the ages of 6 and 12 weeks, and then monthly until they are 6 months old. Once your pet is older than 6 months, worming is every 3 months for life.

We recommend Milpro, which covers tapeworm, roundworm & hookworm.

Revolution Plus or Bravecto Plus spot on covers most of the intestinal worms, but not tapeworm or the spirometra (referred to as hunter tapeworm). So in this case we would recommend you use Popantel, which is a tapeworm only tablet, every 3 months. A double dose is needed to treat the hunter tapeworm, however.

MICROCHIPS

No bigger than a grain of rice, this amazing little electronic device could help you to reunite with your pet if ever they go missing.

Just once in their life they get implanted with a little electronic chip that carries a specific number. This number then gets registered on a database along with all your details. So if you ever move or change numbers make sure you keep it updated! There are some databases that only operate within certain states, so if you moved interstate you’d have to re-register them. But, let’s be honest – if you were moving interstate, the last thing you’d think of doing would be changing their microchip details! Luckily, there are also some Australia-wide databases such as Australasian Animal Registry (aar.org.au; 02 9704 1450).

FLEAS & TICKS

These parasites are everywhere; they can lie dormant around your house

until they sense it’s a good time to hatch. They are very irritating for pets – some can even have an allergy to them, which makes them twice as itchy and may result in them losing their fur. To treat the fleas effectively, ensure that you treat ALL PETS in the household.

There are many different ticks that can affect your pets, however the most dangerous one is the paralysis tick. As its poison relaxes the muscles, including those powering vital organs such as the heart and lungs, a paralysis tick bite can be fatal if left untreated. If you see any: weakness of limbs, unusual vocalization, difficulty breathing, difficulty in keeping food down or other signs of distress, please bring your pet to Morningside Vet Clinic straight away!

When it comes to paralysis ticks, prevention is better than the cure.

If you ever find a tick on your animal, take a picture of it for later

identification and remove it immediately.

TICKS ARE AN ALL YEAR ROUND PROBLEM!! Some people believe that they only come around in the warmer months, but we see tick cases throughout the year

There are a range of spot on treatments in the market for cats, some more effective than others.

At Morningside Vet Clinic we recommend Bravecto Plus, Nexgard Spectra or Revolution Plus for all round parasite prevention including tick coverage.