If you’ve ever wanted the chance to kvetch about your cat’s doctor, here’s your chance. In honor of the spooky season, Gizmodo is on the hunt for horror stories about your cat’s veterinary care. Those who tend to talk about their experiences at the vet in general—good or bad –may also share their stories with animal behaviorists at the University of California, Davis.
Compared to dogs, cats just don’t go to the doctor for check-ups as often. Much of this resistance may come from previous harrowing encounters that cats and their owners have had with veterinarians, according to Nancy Hernandez, an undergraduate researcher in UC Davis’ Animal Welfare and Epidemiology Lab. And in their latest research, Hernandez and her team hope to unpack some of the reasons why taking cats to the vet isn’t so easy.
“Many veterinary practice follows published veterinary guidelines for setting up their waiting rooms, exam rooms, treatment areas and also guide their cat handling techniques. Yet previous research has found that approximately 60% of cat owners do not take their cats for a year veterinary visit because of their cat’s expression of fear and anxiety during physical examinations. The expression of these negative emotions leads to the owners also feeling stressed. This overall negative experience hinders the owner’s willingness to take their cats to routine veterinary visit,” she told Gizmodo in an email. “With this context in mind, our main research question is: Are cat carers’ perceptions consistent with veterinary indicative recommendations?”
Personally, both me and my cat — frequent Gizmodo cameo, Cheddar “Chiz” Cara — have never had a problem with the quality of veterinary care we’ve received. But there are some things that have made me reluctant to return as often as we should. Namely, it may take much longer than I would like for the potential costs of Cheddar’s treatments and shots to be fully recorded and disclosed to me. While I certainly know that vet care is often not cheap, and I now carry pet insurance for that very reason, the adjusted cost of a visit certainly shocked me. And in general, I wish more could be done proactively to make maintaining a pet’s health less of a financial burden for owners. A positive, if modest, development in that direction could be the People and Animals Well-being (PAW) Act, a bill introduced by US House representatives last September that would change the tax code so that pet and service animal care can be paid for through health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible spending accounts (FSAs).
Hernandez and her team’s study will specifically ask cat owners about their perceptions of cat handling practices during physical examinations, their attitudes toward cat-only areas in veterinary clinics and if they prefer to stay near their cats while they undergo routine procedures such as having their blood and urine collected.
“Our questionnaire is designed with questions about the past veterinary hiring experiences, the owner’s opinions about general hiring practices, and they will be given the opportunity to provide additional details with an open-ended question,” she said. All survey responses will be anonymous, and only basic demographic information about your cat, such as their age, sex, and spay/neuter status, will be collected. A link to the survey can be seen here.
We at Gizmodo always support a good piece of citizen science research. But for any cat owners who want to speak up or complain about their vet in a more public forum, feel free to speak up in the comments below as well.