We are a Cat-Friendly Practice!

Did you know that the Pet Kare Clinic is accredited by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) AND the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)?

Did you know that accreditation is required for human hospitals but is only voluntary for animal hospitals?

What does it mean to be accredited by AAFP? It means that our practice is CAT FRIENDLY!  The Pet Kare Clinic joined this global initiative designed to elevate care for cats by reducing the cat’s stress when in the clinic, for its owners, and also the entire veterinary team.

Some of the changes we have made to comply our with cat-friendly practice status include:

• Providing a cat-only area in our lobby so our cat patients can’t be approached by dogs while waiting for an exam room.
• We have a cat-specific exam room which has a pheromone diffuser (click here to learn more about how this works) to reduce stress levels.  We try to leave this room available for cats to minimize the time they have to wait in the lobby.
• Our receptionists have been trained to educate cat owners when they call for appointments on how they can reduce the stress of bringing their cats into the clinic.  This includes bringing your kitty in a carrier that you can borrow from us if needed, and cover the carrier with a towel or blanket to reduce the cat’s stress. Some cats get especially stressed or even fractious and in those cases we can offer pheromone wipes to use in the carrier ahead of time. Just give us a call to talk with one of our helpful receptions and get more cat-friendly tips!
• We provide boxes as places for our hospitalized cats to hide while they are in their kennels.
• We aim to minimize stress during medical procedures by implementing “no-scruff” restraint techniques whenever possible.

You can read more about AAFP certification on their website.

Only about 12% of animal hospitals in the U.S. and Canada are accredited by AAHA and we are proud to say that we are one of them!!