Our main surgery in Braintree has been re-approved as an ISFM Silver Cat Friendly Clinic for 2014. If you haven't visited us recently, this includes a cat only waiting area, separate cat ward and staff across the team (Cat Advocates) who look out for the needs of your cat during their visit to the surgery.
We wrote about this when we first won our silver cat friendly award (news) and we have to maintain our high standards to be approved on an annual basis. This initiative is driven by our Head Nurse Gary Rutland and the Cat Advocate Team. They continue to look for ways to improve our friendly cat service and the gold cat-friendly-award continues to be their aim!
We thank Cat Behaviour Counsellor and Author, Vicky Halls RVN Dip Couns Reg. MBACP for her recent message, which read:
"I am delighted to see that Millennium Vets have achieved the necessary standards for the International Society of Feline Medicine's Cat Friendly Practice Accreditation. This requires specific knowledge, expertise, passion and commitment to cats and their owners and is a real sign that a practice cares about the needs of their cat patients."
Following the success of our cat only waiting area in Braintree, we are investigating a similar improvement at our Coggeshall branch. We recognise that it is difficult to keep dogs and cats apart in a small waiting room and want to improve this. We are also in the process of looking into completely separate cat consulting slots with a break at the end so our cats can come and go without having to meet any dogs! The trial is likely to be at our Coggeshall branch and if successful then we hope to roll this out in Braintree. So watch this space!!
We do ask that clients bringing their dogs into us, do not take them into the cat waiting area. If the your dog is visibly stressed and vocal, we can call you into your appointment from outside or from your car once you have booked in. Every little bit helps when it comes to the welfare of your pets.
All your pets are just as important to us as your cats. Cat's do become very stressed when they visit the vets which is why we want to do things separately for them. There are dogs who benefit from this segregation too as they are frightened by cats.
If you are worried about your dog's behaviour when they come to see us, please ring and speak to one of our consulting nurses. We offer a settling in program to help these dogs with the aim of overcoming some of their fears. We can advise you about making your pet more comfortable when they visit us and wait for their turn whether they are dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, small animals, birds or reptiles.
