How to adopt a kinder approach to feline care in the clinic

In this video, Ellen Carozza LVT, VTS (CP-Feline), talks about what veterinary teams can do to make veterinary visits less stressful for cats. She highlights the concept of “stressor stacking,” noting that many feline patients arrive at the clinic already overwhelmed by accumulated stress. Carozza also notes that fearful behaviors should be recognized as fear responses, not aggression. With this in mind, she encourages veterinary teams to adopt a compassionate approach, which includes respecting the patient’s boundaries, reading their emotional cues, and tailoring care with tools such as breaks, treats, cooperative handling, or additional staff support.

Below is a partial transcript, lightly edited for improved clarity.

Ellen Carozza LVT, VTS (CP-Feline): So, for those of us in the clinic, how can we make things better for the cats that we see in practice? One, we can always recognize the stressor stacking that these cats experience before they even come to see us, because we know everything starts at home, and then all those little stressors begin to stack up to the point that when the cat comes and sees us, they're already beyond the emotional capacity that they are able to handle, and we need to recognize that these cats are acting out of fear and stress.

They're not aggressive, they're not mean, they're not spicy. It's a big fear response. And once we start respecting these cats, understanding their boundaries, learning their emotional behaviors, it makes it a lot easier for us to actually provide a plan of action when working with these cats.

And then we know ahead of time: Does this cat need a little bit of something to be sent home with to work with them safely in the future? Does this cat need many breaks during our physical exam or providing any kind of diagnostics? Does this cat need cooperative care? Can we go ahead and distract this cat with someone just talking to them, or even providing some treats? Maybe 3 or 4 people need to be involved with this situation. But it makes it so much better for the cat, and to the client, it provides a higher level of care that we actually care about this cat's emotional and physical distress at that point in time, and we're going to address it in a much kinder manner.

When we look at the cat as an emotional being versus just the task that we have to work with them on, it makes working with them much, much easier. And that's something that we really need to respect with these cats, is their boundaries and their emotional state of mind at that day.