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We Are a Cat Friendly Clinic - Silver Status, Great News For You and Your Cat

Cat Friendly Clinic - Silver Accredited Practice 

We are proud to be an iCatCare cat friendly clinic with SILVER accreditation, this initiative from International Cat Care organisation veterinary division. 

We understand brining your cat to the vets can be challenging. Many cats find travelling stressful and can feel unsafe when away from their familiar home environment. Cats are highly sensitive to unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells and most prefer quiet spaces and minimal disturbances. Being near dogs in a busy waiting room can also significantly increase stress levels. For this reason we have a separate cat waiting area and all cats are handled calmy, gently and with respect at all time. 

What does cat friendly clinic accreditation mean? 

The scheme recognises practices that have achieved a higher standard of feline care. In practical terms, this means that we; 

  • Understand specific needs of cats and have adapted our practice to make visits as stress-free as possible
  • Use gentle, considerate handling techniques tailored to each individual cat 

  • Have appropriate knowledge, equipment and facilities to provide high quality feline care 

     

Achieving Cat Friendly accreditation involves all members of our team including Receptionists, Registered Veterinary Nurses (RVNs), Ward Assistants and Veterinary Surgeons. Our practice has serval dedicated Cat Friendly Advocates too spanning across our different departments. These team members help maintain our cat friendly standards and are always happy to discuss your cats health and care with you. 

What does being a cat friendly clinic mean for you and your cat? 

Choosing a cat friendly practice give you the confidence and reassurances that: 

  • Our practice meets recognised accreditation standards
  • We have carefully considered the physical and emotional needs of you and your cat
  • Our team is happy to explain our approach, answer your questions and show you around the practice. 

What are the different levels of cat friendly clinic? 

Accreditation is at three levels, Bronze, Sliver and Gold.  We have silver status but are always working towards Gold status



We hold Cat Only Clinics each week; have members of staff dedicated to running and improving our feline services;  have a quiet feline only ward for our patients and a number of members of staff across the team, either in training or trained as Cat Advocates.

Feline Friendly Staff


Vet, Elsje Probert (click here) and Registered Veterinary Nurses, Emma Mead (click here) and Abi Thompson (click here) are all passionate about feline veterinary care, health and welfare and focus on building on our high standards of care to provide even better care for our feline patients and importantly supporting their owners.  Elsje is currently working towards her General Practitioner Certificate in Feline Practice and Emma holds the ISFM Feline Nursing Diploma while Abi is working towards her Diploma.

Our whole MVP team support them in their quest, including Vet Laura Marshall (click here) who is our Small Animal Medicine Advanced Practitioner.

 

Our Cat Only Clinic


We run a Cat Only Clinic appointment sessions.  Our cat only vet appointment sessions are on a Tuesday mornings and our nurse sessions on a Thursday morning - both at Braintree.

We encourage all our cat clients to consider booking into this special clinic.  We find that the whole experience is less stressful for you and your cat.  Ring us or drive to the Cabin to let us know you have arrived for your appointment and simply wait in your car by the rear of the practice.  You will be invited into Emma's Room, through its back door entrance.

This means your cat will not have to go through the vets waiting room experience! 

During regular consulting times we will direct you to wait in our segregated cat waiting area. It's less stressful in there but we can reduce the smell, sound and sight of other cats and dogs while they wait.

The usual waiting room experience is stressful for your cat, especially when confined to their cat basket with no-where to run or properly hide.  As a result their anxiety level rises which makes any interaction, handling and examination more difficult for them when they reach the consult room.  We recognise that cats are very good at hiding their emotions and a very quite, still cat can be feeling just as stressed as the cat who is outwardly unhappy.  However they present, we want to help reduce their stress wherever we can.

Another benefit of our Cat Only Clinic, is the ability to do more in one consulting session.  Quite simply if we have a quieter environment, a more relaxed cat with time to take a break as the cat requires - we can get more done!  If, for example, your cat requires blood pressure monitoring or blood samples, we are more likely able to do this during your time at the clinic rather than come back another day.

 

Feline veterinary care, health & welfare advice

Finding trusted online resources can be difficult.  We are here for you if you need any advice on the care, health or welfare of your cat.

Visit our MVP pages for Cat and Kitten advice - take a look! click here. 

We recommend you choose these sites when looking for further feline information:

And finally why not become a member of Cats Protection and receive their quarterly 'The Cat' magazine, packed with news and in-depth articles all about your feline friends! cats.org.uk/support-us/membership
And while you are joining up why not consider doing a cat course!  Free with the Cats Protection - cats.org.uk/help-and-advice/online-learning


Our CAT ONLY CLINICS are part of our commitment to our feline patients as part of our silver, Cat Friendly Status Clinic. For more information about the scheme please visit their dedicated website which accredit Feline practices across the globe: https://catfriendlyclinic.org

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