As cat guardians, we are responsible for ensuring our cat’s physical health and behavioural health. Understanding their specific environmental and emotional needs is essential to ensure they live a happy and comfortable life.
Furthermore, learning about your cat’s normal behaviours and what drives them to behave in certain ways can help further assist us in preventing and treating behavioural issues. Identifying abnormal behaviours is also important as this often correlates to a poor welfare and may indicate underlying pain or anxiety.
At Perth Cat Hospital, we offer feline behavioural consultations to help with issues including:
- Inappropriate toileting – including urine spraying
- Stress/anxiety
- Scratching and destructive behaviour
- Aggression towards other cats
- Aggression toward humans
- Pica (eating non-food items)
- Feline Idiopathic Cystitis
- Night time activity
- Over-grooming
*Please note Dr Martine is currently off consulting due to long-term COVID related illness. Please contact the hospital for further information on our current behaviour counselling options.*
Our consultations are provided by Dr Martine who has more than two decades of experience working with cats as a veterinarian. She is an invited Member of the International Society of Feline Medicine Academy of Feline Practitioners and completed the 2-year ISFM Advanced Certificate in Feline Behaviour with Distinction. She regularly provides lectures to veterinary students on feline behaviour and other feline health issues and runs an annual workshop to educate them on the importance of Feline Friendly handling to minimise their stress in the veterinary clinic. She has also provided community lectures on providing an enrichment environment for cats.
Because many behaviour issues in cats are closely linked to illness, we generally advise that your cat requires a full vet check with one of our cat vets prior to commencing a behaviour assessment. This allows us to look for underlying causes of pain or sickness as cats are masters at hiding disease. The vet may recommend laboratory testing such as blood and urine testing.
Prior to your behaviour consultation, our team will send you a detailed questionnaire to complete. It is important that you take plenty of time to give as much detail as possible. We will ask you to draw a floor plan of your home to detail all the important aspects relating to you cat. We encourage you to also include any video footage or photos of specific areas where the problems occur, or of the behaviour occuring.
Once the questionnaire is returned, we will contact you to schedule your appointment with Dr Martine. We run these appointments via video conference so you can remain in the comfort of your own home. This also helps Dr Martine to visualise any aspects of your cat’s environment that she may have identified important from your questionnaire and floor plan.
After your consultation, you will receive a comprehensive report detailing your treatment plan. This plan may include prescribing anti-anxiety medications if indicated. We strongly advise ongoing revisits via video conference to allow us as a team to fine tune the treatment plan to get the best results for you and your cat.
*Please note Dr Martine is currently off consulting due to long-term COVID related illness. Please contact the hospital for further information on our current behaviour counselling options.*
- 26 Apr 2020
- Behaviour, Services, Wellness
