Feline care guidelines aim to boost veterinary visits, life quality

Palm Springs, Calif. - 2/8/08 - Two sets of cat-care guidelines, one for veterinarians and the other for owners, will be written to help reverse the trend of decreasing feline veterinary visits.

The decision to craft new guidelines followed the first-ever CATalyst Summit which brought together more than 40 veterinary leaders spanning the industry, public, private and academic sectors of the profession on Feb. 5-6.

The summit was organized to brainstorm how to improve medical care for felines and communicate the need to the public.

Members from the American Animal Hospital Association and American Association of Feline Pracitioners spurred by suggestions from the summit, announced they will seek board approval to jointly create feline-care guidelines to encourage consistency and agreement throughout the profession on the level of care cats should be receiving.

Owners will also be directed how to responsibly care for their pets with a separate set of guidelines to be formulated by Steve Dale, syndicated pet columnist and radio show host, Amy Shojai, founder and past president of the Cat Writers' Association, along with Hill's Pet Nutrition and the Winn Feline Foundation.

Both guidelines are slated for completion by January 2009.

Meeting organizers are in the process of establishing a steering committee to determine the next steps to take in addressing two other key ideas that came out of the summit: the need for DVMs to create cat-friendly practices and establish a cat-branding campaign to increase public acceptance of the cat and further encourage responsible pet ownership.

More extensive coverage will be highlighted in DVM Newsmagazine's March issue.