Blog Archives

Set Up the Perfect Exam Room for Cats

Heather E. Lewis
As veterinary practices implement Fear Free design for their patients, it becomes more important to cater specifically to felines. Even if you have a smaller facility, at least one exam room should be properly outfitted to care for cats. Many ideas are easy and inexpensive to implement. Here are some favorite cat exam room ideas:

Room Placement and General Features

Choose a room in a quiet spot. Reducing noise, traffic, and activity is a great way to sculpt a quieter and calmer experience for our feline friends. Ensure the walls around the room have sound insulation in them, if possible, to screen noise coming from other spaces.
If possible, use a room with a window. Cats see well in low-light conditions. Cats will prefer the room if artificial lights are lowered and the room is flooded with soft natural light. It is useful to have lights on a dimmer switch so they can be brighter for a proper physical exam and then lowered again for client consultation.

Furnishings, Cabinets, and Finishes

The exam table should be comfortable. Ensure that your table will have a non-slip surface for cats and that it can be outfitted with something soft. Any exam table is potentially acceptable and can be updated with a yoga mat for slip resistance and a towel for a soft surface. This said, we prefer a smaller table for less awkward maneuvering when working with a cat.
Create appropriate retreat spaces. Cats often need to hide to feel comfortable. Avoid designing trash access holes or flaps in cabinets or your feline patients will end up in the trash can! Extend upper cabinets to the ceiling to prevent cats from being able to get into ceiling panels (yikes)! Avoid chairs cats can get underneath; solid-fronted benches work better for seating. Create an appropriate space in the room for retreat, such as a wall-hung basket or a box in an appealing location in the room. The cat can enter this retreat space at will and coaxed out gently or examined there.
Choose light colors. We prefer to paint feline exam rooms with lighter colors, so they will function well when the lights are dimmed. However, avoid bright whites as sometimes these appear even brighter to a cat. Calming colors can help reinforce your goal for the room to be a retreat.

Equipment

While equipment may appear to be a small consideration, the right accessories will help your cat exam room become the Fear Free space you envision. Consider the following:

Feliway dispensers in the room.
A towel warmer to warm blankets and towels for use during examinations.
Non-figural artwork and no photorealistic images of cats. Cats can react negatively to this type of visual input. Use soft abstracts and landscapes.
Quiet casters on the stool so it does not clatter when rolled.

Feline exam rooms are easy and rewarding to design and finish. We consider cats to be our best architectural students; they tell us when we have executed spaces well. We create for them. Pair good spaces and good operations, and your feline patients will be happier and calmer. Happy patients make for happy clients!

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Heather E. Lewis, AIA, NCARB, is a principal of Animal Arts, an architectural firm that has exclusively designed animal care facilities, including veterinary hospitals and animal shelters, for more than three decades. She has worked on dozens of projects across the country, both large and small in her 19 years with the firm. Heather is a member of the Fear Free℠ Advisory Board and assisted in creating the Fear Free facility standards for veterinary hospitals. Heather is a regular contributor to various veterinary industry magazines. She has spoken on the design of facilities for the care of animals at dozens of national and regional conferences including Fetch Hospital Design Conferences, the UC Davis Low Stress Animal Handling Conference, and the Humane Society of the United States Animal Care Expo.

Photo courtesy Loyal Companions Animal Hospital & Pet Resort, Tim Murphy / Foto Imagery.

Stress and a Cat’s Urinary System: Managing FLUTD

Tony Johnson, DVM, DACVECC
It is a frustrating condition with many names: Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, Feline Urologic Syndrome, Feline Interstitial Cystitis, even the rather whimsical Pandora Syndrome. Anyone who has treated it knows the stress and anxiety it can induce in those treating the disease, as well as in patients suffering from it, not to mention their anxious owners.

That same stress and anxiety also contribute to the disease process itself. As an ER vet, I know the plumbing aspect of the disease very well and can usually get them unblocked and on more stable footing in short order. What I don’t usually have to deal with are the softer aspects of the disease – softer, but no less important. That usually falls to general practice veterinarians, who have to take the reins from ER vets like me and manage their patients long-term.

In the spirit of adhering to the Veterinarian’s Oath and reducing animal pain and suffering, I’d like to offer up some points to consider when either treating a cat with a urinary obstruction or managing a non-obstructed cat with signs of lower urinary tract disease.

Are you incorporating appropriate analgesia and sedation in your treatment protocol?

This is a painful condition. Pain causes stress, which can exacerbate the disease – and make future trips to the vet even more stressful. Making sure you have incorporated appropriate analgesia when unblocking a cat, and when managing a catheterized cat in the hospital, is a vital part of treatment – and one that is often overlooked. Proper (and safely chosen) sedation, and incorporation of a sacrococcygeal block while unblocking, good pain control with buprenorphine or a full-mu opioid agonist, and home analgesia for three to five days after discharge will help to minimize the pain and anxiety of an episode of urethral obstruction. Owners will appreciate advanced pain control protocols and knowing that you are taking their pet’s emotional wellbeing into consideration. It also makes cats easier to handle in the hospital and more likely to come back for future visits – everybody wins!

Suggested Protocols

Sacrococcygeal block:

Use 0.1 mL/kg of either lidocaine or bupivacaine
Unless the cat is very sick and moribund, this is typically done under heavy sedation or anesthesia
Move the tail up and down in a “pumping” motion, palpating the sacrococcygeal region.
The first movable space at the caudal end of the sacrum is either the sacrococcygeal or intercoccygeal space. Either site is okay and there’s no need to differentiate which site you are in.
Insert a 25-ga needle through the skin on midline at a ~45° angle.
If bone is encountered, withdraw the needle a few mm, redirect slightly at a steeper or flatter angle and reinsert. This is known as “walking” off the bone.
Repeat this process until the needle is in intervertebral space. A “pop” may be felt and there should be no resistance to injection.

Buprenorphine – while in hospital:

24 mg/kg Simbadol® SC q 24 hr up to 3 d
01–0.02 mg/kg IM, IV, SC q 4–8 hr

Buprenorphine – sublingual/outpatient: 0.01–0.02 mg/kg transmucosal q 4–12 hr

Fentanyl CRI – 1-5 ug/kg/hr IV

Note: Since many cats who are blocked may also have some degree of acute kidney injury, NSAIDs should be used cautiously or not at all in acute obstructions. They may be helpful in cats with normal renal function for non-obstructive episodes.

Are you reducing stress in the household? In your hospital?

Imagine you are a hospitalized blocked cat: fluorescent lights, a painful catheter, Elizabethan collar, barking dogs – sounds awful, right?

Do everything you can to reduce the stress of hospitalized cats. Put yourself in the patient’s position and imagine what their existence in your hospital is like. If you don’t have a “cat room,” try and keep cats in the quietest part of the hospital, out of sight and sound of dogs. Allow time for rest and a break from medical procedures and provide a box or other structure in the kennel where the cat can hide.

Both at home and in the hospital, use of feline facial pheromones (Feliway®) may help alleviate stress and anxiety. Consider installing one in your ICU and changing it regularly. A few sprays of Feliway® on your patient’s bedding may also help. The Feliway® diffuser can be particularly helpful at home.

Make sure cats at home have distractions and safe spaces to hide from dogs, children, and other cats. During stressful times (moving, boarding, redecorating, addition of new pets or children to the home) consider advising clients to spend extra time with their cats or discuss safe sedation and anti-anxiety protocols and environmental enrichment to reduce fear, anxiety, and stress.

Stress can bring on this condition, and the things we have to do to treat it are often stressful and uncomfortable, creating a continuous positive feedback loop. Owners are stressed, vets are stressed, and (most of all) patients are stressed. Do everything you can to reduce the anxiety and discomfort of feline urologic conditions and you will not only be keeping up your part of the Veterinarian’s Oath, you’ll be practicing better medicine as well.

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Dr. Tony Johnson, DVM, DACVECC, is a 1996 Washington State University grad and obtained board certification in emergency medicine and critical care in 2003. He is currently Minister of Happiness for VIN, the Veterinary Information Network, an online community of 75,000 worldwide veterinarians, and is a former clinical assistant professor at Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine in Indiana. He has lectured for several international veterinary conferences (winning the small animal speaker of the year award for the Western Veterinary Conference in 2010) and is an active blogger and writer.

A Fear Free Look at Canine Noise Aversion and Feline House Soiling

A Fear Free Look at Canine Noise Aversion and Feline House Soiling

Join Amy Learn, VMD, and Valarie V. Tynes, DVM, DACVB, DACAW, as they review two behavior problems that may be seen frequently this time of year: canine noise aversions and feline house soiling.

Canine Noise Aversions

Common canine noise aversions including storm and fireworks phobias, their presenting signs, possible contributing causes, diagnosis, and suggestions for management will all be covered.

Feline House Soiling

Both urine marking and inappropriate elimination and the diagnostic criteria for differentiating the two forms of feline house soiling, as well as their different causes, management, and treatment, will be included.

Brought to you by Ceva.

Now You’re Here, Now You’re Not: Preparing Your Pet for Yet Another Change

Now You’re Here, Now You’re Not: Preparing Your Pet for Yet Another Change

First our pets had to get used to their humans being around more than usual as people sheltered in place. For many pets, this was a positive change, but even positive changes can be stressful. They’ll face upheaval again when pandemic precautions relax and people go back to their normal routines. In this webinar, Valarie V. Tynes, DVM, DACVB, DACAW, will help you determine which patients may be at an elevated risk of increased anxiety and stress due to changes in routine, and offer practical, straightforward tips that you can share with your clients for preparing these pets for a return to “normal.”

Brought to you by Ceva.

6 Ways to Improve Lighting in Shelters and Help Pets

Heather E. Lewis
While the best place for a dog or a cat is a loving home, a shelter can be a lot less stressful if the design considers the social, physical, and physiological needs of each animal. One important topic for creating Fear Free spaces in a shelter is lighting. Below are some practical ideas every shelter can incorporate:

Sunlight Is Best. No matter what we do with artificial lighting, we cannot replace the benefits of natural sunlight. Regardless of the age and quality of your shelter, it’s possible to find ways for the pets to experience daylight. For dogs, outside play time or walks will make a positive difference for behavior and well-being. A catio can be a great addition for adoptable cats; they will enjoy sunbathing and exploring a safe outdoor environment. Even if your shelter is extremely limited, look for ways to add a glass door or a tube skylight to let in natural light. Daylight benefits:
- Reinforces natural circadian rhythms.
- Improves staff and volunteer productivity and mood.
- Natural UV disinfection for spaces receiving direct sunlight.
- Energy savings for spaces that do not need to rely on much artificial lighting.
- Creates an environment that feels more natural.
Replace Fluorescent Fixtures with LED. If you’re building a new shelter, this is required by energy codes, but many people do not know to replace older fluorescent lighting in their current shelters. Fluorescent fixtures buzz and flicker, and these disturbances are more obvious to dogs and cats than to people because of the way pets see and hear. Properly designed LED lighting converts alternating current to direct current at the fixture, which eliminates buzzing and flickering. As a bonus, LED fixtures use far less energy than fluorescent ones, so lighting replacement projects pay for themselves quickly.
Go Dimmable. LED lighting fixtures are easy to specify with dimming controls. This is a wonderful feature as it allows shelter staff to brightly light spaces when they are being cleaned or during adoption hours, but to turn down the lights during quieter times so dogs and cats can rest more easily throughout the day.
Keep It Dark at Night. If it is necessary to keep a light on at night for staff safety, specify a fixture that emits red light. Because dogs and cats do not see colors on the red end of the human visible spectrum, a red light creates a darker space for pets at night, allowing them to sleep normally in the shelter.
Use Cool Color Temperatures. Lighting can be designed to balance beautifully with natural daylight. Fixtures that are color balanced but tuned toward cooler color “temperatures” will feel more like daylight. We specify fixtures that emit light in the 3500 – 4000 Kelvin range. These are cool but not so cold as to feel institutional. The goal is for spaces to feel clean and crisp! Be careful to specify all fixtures in a similar color temperature so they blend well together.
Light Adoptable Animals Well. While we like animals to rest well during non-adoption hours, we also want them to leave the shelter quickly and go to their forever homes. Adoption spaces should be lit more brightly than circulation areas where people are viewing, so the animals show well and gain the attention of potential adopters.

A good lighting design can help reduce fear, stress, and anxiety in a shelter setting and can help the pets go home more quickly. It is well worth the investment!

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Heather E. Lewis, AIA, NCARB, is a principal of Animal Arts, an architectural firm that has exclusively designed animal care facilities, including veterinary hospitals and animal shelters, for more than three decades. She has worked on dozens of projects across the country, both large and small in her 19 years with the firm. Heather is a member of the Fear Free℠ Advisory Board and assisted in creating the Fear Free facility standards for veterinary hospitals. Heather is a regular contributor to various veterinary industry magazines. She has spoken on the design of facilities for the care of animals at dozens of national and regional conferences including Fetch Hospital Design Conferences, the UC Davis Low Stress Animal Handling Conference, and the Humane Society of the United States Animal Care Expo.

Lessons from the Cat: Litter Box Basics for the Veterinary Team

Rachel Lees, RVT, KPA CTP, VTS (Behavior)Cats are often considered a more independent, self-sufficient species compared to dogs, largely because they do not need humans to take them outside to eliminate. Most cats successfully learn to eliminate in the home by going to a litter box.

Nonetheless, feline elimination issues are one of the biggest behavioral problems clients bring to veterinarians. Often, the problem develops because human preferences regarding litter box location and type don’t match up with the desires of their feline companions.

As veterinary professionals, we must feel comfortable teaching clients what their cat wants from an elimination station. This article will review cat preferences regarding desirable locations, litter box styles, litter types, and more. This information can not only help the cat who is eliminating outside the box but can also help new kitten owners be successful from the start in setting up their new cat’s environment.

Litter Box Design and Location

Place litter boxes in safe, low-traffic areas but right off a high traffic area, so it is easily accessible. Keep them away from loud appliances such as washers and dryers, furnaces, dishwashers, air conditioners, or toilets. All these items have the potential to frighten the cat with unexpected sounds, interrupting the normal elimination pattern. An example of a safe, quiet location is a spare bedroom or bathroom that is rarely entered.

Many commercial products also offer “hidden” locations where cats can eliminate, disguised as planters or side tables, for instance. Although this hides the litter box from the human, it may also place it in a higher traffic location. Keep this in mind when giving recommendations on litter box placement. Everyone prefers privacy for elimination, even cats.

Litter box design preferences differ from cat to cat and human to human. Most cats prefer an open litter box. Most cat owners prefer a covered litter box. Covered litter boxes may trap odors and make the human environment smell better but for those reasons they may not be as desirable for the cat. If boxes are not cleaned regularly, the odor may be aversive to them.

Most commercial open litter boxes are too small for the average cat. The size of the litter box should be one and a half times the length of the cat’s body. Most veterinary behavior teams recommend using storage containers, Tupperware bins, dog litter boxes, or cement mixing pans. It is also important to find out if litter box sides are low enough for the cat to jump in without injury or pain. Using a litter box that cleans itself is typically not recommended as the sounds and machinery can scare the cat.

Litter Preferences

Many different types of litters are on the market: scented, unscented, clumping, non-clumping, wheat, newspaper, sawdust, pine, and more. A study by veterinary behaviorist Jacqueline C. Neilson DVM, DACVB, found that cats generally prefer unscented clumping litter beneath their paws. And although scented litters may be more desirable to humans, cats often disdain them. Cats are far more sensitive to odors than humans. Keep in mind as well that crystal-like litter can feel unpleasant to sensitive paws. When the cat eliminates the crystals can “pop,” causing a startling sound. Recommend giving cats the most preferable substrate—a plain, unscented litter—to set them up for success.

Since Flushing Isn’t an Option: Cleaning Tips

Litter boxes should be scooped once or twice daily. Cats prefer a clean location to eliminate. When boxes are not cleaned at least once daily, this can cause an aversion as the cat may not want to step and eliminate in a litter box filled with yesterday’s urine clumps and stool piles. Most humans would not desire this either.

To make boxes as attractive as possible, they should be emptied, cleaned with a mild, unscented detergent, and refilled with fresh litter at least once a month. Avoid cleaning the box with strongly scented cleanser.

Recommendations for Multi-Cat Homes

Design, location, cleaning, and substrate preferences are identical, but in homes with more than one cat, owners should provide one box for each cat, plus one extra. Place boxes on separate floors and rooms of the home to prevent one cat from blocking access to a box.

Keep in mind as well that using covered boxes in multi-cat homes can create increased anxiety if one cat is a stalker. If victim cats venture into the box to eliminate, they cannot see if the stalker cat is creeping up on them. If there is low-level aggression between the cats, and the victim cat is attacked when coming out of the box, the experience can create litter box aversion. For this reason, open litter boxes should be recommended in multi-cat homes.

Remember: It’s a cat’s world. We just live in it!

Author’s Note: Elimination out of the box is not always a behavioral concern and can very well be a medical cry for help. It is always important to rule out a medical condition before blaming behavior. Every patient who eliminates out of the box should be examined by a veterinarian and medically worked up (CBC/Chem/UA) before specific recommendations are made.

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Rachel Lees, a Level 3 Fear Free Certified Professional, is a veterinary technician specialist in behavior, a KPA certified training partner, and lead veterinary behavior technician at The Behavior Clinic in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. She loves helping people create and maintain a strong human-animal bond.

Stationing and Consent Behaviors: Useful Skills for Every Veterinary Team (Part One)

Rachel Lees, RVT, KPA CTP, VTS (Behavior)Most of us became veterinary professionals because of our fondness for animals. Our goal is to assist them in times of need and to be their voice when they are unable to articulate their desires.

Unfortunately, our patients don’t always understand that. Most of our patients are not overjoyed about their trip to the veterinary practice. Even though we are here to help them live long, healthy, happy lives, they see our clinic as the place where they may be poked, touched inappropriately, and sometimes scared, even if this is not our intention.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could communicate with our patients the way we can with humans? If they had the opportunity to say “Yes” or “No” to being injected or touched before resorting to a growl, bite, or air snap? Teaching strong stationary behaviors and using them as a consent cue can be useful and can take your veterinary team to the next level.

Stationary Behaviors

These behaviors cue the animal to stand, lie down, or touch a body part to a specific location for a duration of time. They are typically taught outside the veterinary setting using marker training and shaping techniques*. Once the patient is comfortable performing the stationary behavior in a non-stressful setting, training sessions can begin to take place at the veterinary practice. The patient should enjoy training and interacting with the stationary behavior as this is the place where most veterinary husbandry behaviors will be performed in the future. The patient should associate this location with reinforcements such as high-value food and fun. Stationing behaviors include but are not limited to the following:

Body Target to Mat
- Four paws on the Mat
- Lying in Sternal Recumbency on the Mat
- Lying in Lateral Recumbency on the Mat
Nose Target to a Hand or Object
Chin Rest
Paw Target to an Object

What Is Consent?

Once the above behaviors have been taught and the patient is 100 percent responsive in the veterinary practice, the concept of consent can begin. Consent allows the patient to choose to engage in training with the owner and veterinary team members by responding to the cued behavior and allowing the procedure to be performed. If the patient does not want to interact, they will send a clear signal that they are uncomfortable and are unable to perform the stationary behavior at the given time.

The goal with consent is to give patients some control by allowing them to make choices to reduce fear, anxiety, and stress, increase comfort, and increase the animal’s ability to cooperate. It is important to fully understand the patient’s body language and to understand that not responding to the cued behavior is not the patient being “stubborn.” If the patient is reluctant to stay in the cued stationary behavior, assess the patient and yourself, and then end the training session or veterinary visit. Remember that animals use avoidance behaviors such as displacement or conflict when a situation becomes stressful. Our goal is to give the animal a choice and to respect that choice.

Examples of avoidance behaviors:

Sniffing the ground
Not responding to a well-known station behavior
Yawning
Lip licking
Slow response to a station behavior
Head turning away
Weight shifting away

Final Note

If taught correctly, stationary behaviors can be an asset to any veterinary team. Any veterinary team member who is interested in teaching these protocols should consider training the patient ahead of time to wear a basket muzzle as we are teaching voluntary veterinary care. The patient can and will still say that they are uncomfortable if they are pushed too far above their comfort level. A veterinary team member should be well educated in canine and feline body language before working on these procedures. The best resource for fully teaching these behaviors is the text “Cooperative Veterinary Care” by Alicea Howell and Monique Feyrecilde, published by Wiley Blackwell.

*Shaping will be discussed in Part Two

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Rachel Lees, a Level 3 Fear Free Certified Professional, is a veterinary technician specialist in behavior, a KPA certified training partner, and lead veterinary behavior technician at The Behavior Clinic in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. She loves helping people create and maintain a strong human-animal bond.

Success Stories: How Humans and Pets Benefit From Fear Free

Kim Campbell Thornton
It’s not just dogs and cats who benefit from Fear Free techniques at the veterinary clinic. Humans often find that they are calmer and happier as well.

Fear Freed

My sister has a beautiful kitty named Sushi whom she adopted about eight years ago. Her veterinarian, Dianicia Kirton, DVM, whose Hopkinton, Massachusetts, practice is Fear Free certified, has been recommending that Sushi get her teeth cleaned but my sister was hesitant. The veterinarian addressed each of her concerns until eventually she was ready to move forward. A few weeks later, Sushi’s mom brought her in for the teeth cleaning, although she was still nervous and reluctant. The veterinarian and staff were very calming and worked on Sushi quickly. Everything went well, and Sushi was her normal, happy self afterward. My sister told the vet that she felt like she had been “Fear Freed,” and Dr. Kirton responded, “Yes, it’s as much for the people as it is for the animals.” My sister was happy with the whole experience and thankful to have found a practice that uses these methods!

Kay Henze

Penny-Wise Visits

Pennie, a 7-year-old 78-pound Chesapeake Bay Retriever, had never had a full veterinary exam after her puppy vaccines because she bared her teeth and growled at veterinary team members at every clinic she was taken to. When she was brought to us, we implemented several Fear Free strategies, spending 45 minutes building her trust both outside the clinic and in the exam room. We were able to get her to stand on the lift table and receive vaccinations without being muzzled. On her third visit, we were able to lift her lips and examine her teeth. Now she boards with us routinely and is a big part of our veterinary practice family. Implementing these Fear Free tools has changed Pennie’s life and her owner is now able to better understand and relate to her dog, making it much safer to take her for walks and be groomed.

Dr. Sarah Lavelle, Ark Veterinary Practice, Belgrade, Montana

Happy Cats and People

We love our Fear Free veterinary hospital. At TLC, there are separate areas for cats and dogs. We took our two cats in last week, and the exam room was comfortable, with shelves for the cats to explore. A board listed the names of the technician and veterinarian who would be seeing the cats, so we knew who would be treating them. The technician who went over the intake information was sweet and tender with Lucy and Lilu. An email ahead of time alerted us that a new veterinarian would be seeing the cats. She was calm and handled the cats gently. Both cats were calm throughout the visit—although Lucy didn’t much like having her teeth examined—and when they got home they came out of their carriers calmly and went about their day. Lilu was her regular self and didn’t hide away as she has on some prior visits to other clinics. The clinic called the next day to see how the cats reacted to their vaccines and visit. We feel we have found our new clinic!
Katherine and Brent Williams, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Zola’s Optimism

Zola has been to a number of veterinary clinics before and has always been nervous and reactive. During her first appointment she was quite nervous, but with the help of some peanut butter as a distraction she allowed us to pet her. We decided that that was a win and that Zola would benefit from coming back another time after having gabapentin to help calm her. At her next visit, Zola was visibly more relaxed, and we had a Kong full of peanut butter ready for her. Knowing that Zola did better with minimal restraint we kept her focused on the Kong and were able to do a full exam, vaccinations and a blood draw. Zola’s owners had never seen her so relaxed at the vet and she has since come back willing and happy to see us.
Anne McClanahan, DVM, Four Lakes Veterinary Clinic, Madison, Wisconsin

Want to be featured? Submit your success story here!

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Kim Campbell Thornton is content manager for Fear Free Pets and is a Level 3 Fear Free Certified Professional. She has been writing about dogs, cats, wildlife, and marine life since 1985.

Fear Free Nail Trims: Behavioral Considerations to Trim Away the Terror

Course Overview

For humans, nail trims are mundane experiences. But for pets, nail care can cause stress by imposing on their personal space, restricting their freedom to move, and sometimes causing discomfort or even pain.

Successful nail care encompasses more than just being able to physically maintain nails. True success is found in gaining calm participation and trust from the animals you’re working with.

This course will teach you to:

View nail care from the pet’s perspective and identify several common causes of FAS
Understand the uses, benefits and drawbacks of each common nail trim tool: clippers, nail grinders, nail files, and scratch boards
Incorporate the Fear Free concepts of Gentle Control, Considerate Approach and touch gradient into nail care
Describe how, and just as importantly, when, to use food distractions, desensitization and classical conditioning, or consider medications to achieve Fear Free nail trims

This one-hour course is open to all professionals who are signed up for a Fear Free certification program and is approved for 1 RACE CE hour and one hour of CEUs from CCPDT, IAABC and KPA

This course consists of four lessons:

Lesson 1: Nails, from the Pet’s Perspective
Lesson 2: Tools of the Trade
Lesson 3: Applying Fear Free Core Concepts to Nail Care
Lesson 4: Going Beyond Food Distractions

How Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Release Works in One Florida Community

Arden Moore
His official title is Community Outreach TNVR Coordinator, but most of the time, Paul Bates feels like a mediator, problem solver, and teacher. That suits him just fine.

Bates leads the team at Peggy Adams Rescue League in West Palm Beach, Florida. The organization works closely with shelter volunteers, cat rescue groups, and cat-caring neighbors to ensure free-roaming cats in Palm Beach County are properly vaccinated, sterilized, and fed.

It is estimated that more than 200,000 cats live on the streets in Palm Beach County. Once called feral cats, they are now identified as community cats.

“These are cats who live outside, who do not belong to anybody, and who are not adoptable because they are not socialized with people,” says Bates. “They certainly do not belong in animal shelters where they are often euthanized. Our job is to work with community cat advocates to make sure these community cats are neutered/spayed, vaccinated, and returned to their outdoor homes.”

On the Case

It’s a tall order, but Bates is up for the challenge. He is a Fear Free Pets Shelter Course graduate who works to educate people about the mindset of community cats and safe ways to trap, vaccinate, spay/neuter, and return these cats back to their colonies without stressing them or getting injured.

His shelter also helped get a county-wide law adopted that requires these cats to be sterilized, vaccinated, implanted with a microchip, have left ears clipped to identify these actions and then released to the same area where found.

Bates makes daytime and night-time visits to community cat sites in neighborhoods, car dealership parking lots, and alleys behind restaurants. He gives talks to volunteers and shares tips and resources on two key Facebook pages: Project CatSnip and Community Cats of the Palm Beaches. Project CatSnip is a program of the Peggy Adams Rescue League that provides free TNVR through grant funding and conducts free humane trapping classes.

Safety 101

Even though many of these cats appear friendly and may even allow a trusted person who feeds them to pet them, they are still capable of lashing out if they feel threatened.

“If you see a stray, friendly cat, do not attempt to pick up the cat and put him in a carrier because chances are that you will be bit or scratched,” he cautions. “Scooping up a cat in your arms can make them go into panic mode. The nails come out, and the teeth are ready to bite. It is far safer to set up humane traps to get them in so we can give them vaccinations and spay/neuter them and return them to their cat colony.”

To reduce fear or anxiety in the cat during transport, Bates recommends placing bed linens made of breathable fabric over the trap to help the cat settle down.

“A cat in an uncovered trap is apt to freak out and bounce off the sides of the cage,” he says. “Covered humane traps look like safe spots to a cat. Avoid using heavy blankets, thick towels or quilts because a cat inside could overheat due to the lack of air flow. And, he could also have to inhale the strong ammonia smell if he urinated or defecated during transport.”

To reduce fleas and ticks among these community cats, Bates recommends mixing food-grade diatomaceous earth powder with catnip and allowing the free-roaming cats to roll in it. This powder is safe for pets and people, but destroys exoskeletons in these parasites.

Tips for Success

Other insights shared by Bates:

Community cats should not be relocated. Many risk injury or death from vehicles or predators in their determination to travel miles to return to their colonies.
Attempts to completely remove a cat colony will only result in another cat colony moving in and producing kittens, a phenomenon known as the vacuum effect.
The best way to lure intact community cats into humane traps is to place traps where cats gather to eat and allow a few days for the cats to get used to them. Then create a trail of food leading into the traps and placing the highest-quality smelly food (to these cats, that is usually sardines or tuna or even Kentucky Fried Chicken) in the middle of the traps.
If you find a homeless cat whose left ear is notched, do not bring him to a shelter unless he is injured or ill. This is the universal sign that he is a community cat who has been neutered.
Do not leave bowls of food out; they attract raccoons and other wildlife. Set up specific feeding times and remove bowls within an hour.

Numbers indicate that this multi-approach effort is working. Before the TNVR program began in 2009, Palm Beach County shelters took in 19,000 homeless cats with more than 14,000 cats euthanized in 2008. That number has been cut to fewer than 2,000 cats euthanized this year in county shelters.

“It really takes a village to help these cats,” says Bates. “We have a passionate group of board members, staff, volunteers, and people in neighborhoods all doing their part to help feed and keep these cats healthy.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Arden Moore is The Pet Health and Safety Coach. She is a best-selling author, radio show host, in-demand speaker and master certified pet first aid/CPR instructor who travels the country teaching with Pet Safety Dog Kona and Pet Safety Cat Casey. Learn more at www.ardenmoore.com and www.facebook.com/ardenmoore.

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