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August 2024
Utilize Your Techs to Become More Cat Friendly
Over the last few years, credentialed veterinary technicians have continued to play a vital role in the progression of veterinary medicine. They are utilized more in practice to improve efficiency, workflow, and overall profitability in our clinics. Technicians can also be utilized to improve feline interactions overall and reduce the impact of fear and other negative emotions that may be associated with visits. By Jamie Rauscher, LVT.
A Technician’s Perspective
Cats have always seemed to be the minority in our profession. They go to the vet significantly less often than dogs do. Medicine and research regarding their care always lags years behind that of their canine counterparts. This has been accepted as the norm for a long time.
But, as the years have gone by, the field of veterinary medicine has made great strides to catch up with the times. Over the last few years, credentialed veterinary technicians have continued to play a vital role in the progression of veterinary medicine. They are utilized more in practice to improve efficiency, workflow, and overall profitability in our clinics.
Technicians can also be utilized to improve feline interactions overall and reduce the impact of fear and other negative emotions that may be associated with visits. This would result in more efficient examinations, better experiences, more reliable testing, and improved feline wellbeing.
When focusing on the recently published AAFP/ISFM Feline Friendly Veterinary Interaction Guidelines, we are given multiple ways to help these interactions become more patient-friendly, efficient, and effective.
Understanding Cat Friendliness
Since the initial publication of the AAFP/ISFM Feline Friendly Veterinary Interaction Guidelines in 2011, the understanding of what is considered “cat-friendly” has progressed considerably. We now acknowledge that a cat-friendly approach encompasses both nonphysical and physical interactions. We understand that cats have good long-term memory and can remember a single event, such as a negative experience during a veterinary visit.
First impressions of veterinary visits can impact a young animal for life. A kitten’s experiences between 2 and 9 weeks of age can have a significant impact on the behavior of the cat throughout its life.
This means that our interactions not only affect the cat at the time of the visit but also can influence their emotional responses and behaviors at follow-up veterinary visits. First impressions of veterinary visits can impact a young animal for life. A kitten’s experiences between 2 and 9 weeks of age can have a significant impact on the behavior of the cat throughout its life.
Credentialed veterinary technicians can be instrumental in helping to educate clients and their coworkers on the benefits of implementing cat-friendly interactions that will help to enhance appointment efficiency and overall human safety. Restraint increases negative emotions and undesirable behavioral responses. Consistent positive handling allows our feline patients to become safer and easier to work with, which then allows appointments to be completed more quickly with minimal handlers.
Cat-friendly interactions provide benefits for both our patients and our staff in the following ways:
- Increased human safety
- Improved feline responses to future visits
- Increased efficiency
- Better veterinary care (more frequent visits)
- More accurate exam findings
- More complete examinations
- More accurate diagnostics test
- Improved anesthesia time and shortened induction time to anesthesia
- Improved client satisfaction
Being a Cat Advocate
With the right training and support, technicians can help promote a more cat-friendly environment, while saving the veterinarian time and money. Before the veterinarian sees the patient, technicians can help to evaluate a patient based on their body language and other factors.
As technicians, we can help to educate our coworkers on the appropriate terminology when referring to our patients. Using negative terminology such as “evil,” “nasty,” or “aggressive” creates false labels that can impact our response to patients.
It is always better to interact with cats in their preferred location. In the practice this is often the bottom half of their carrier or another safe, confined area (high-sided cat bed, under towels or blankets). Offering perches or elevated spaces is better for those who like to explore. Allowing the cat to approach versus being approached is also a favorable method of introduction. Cats also may have a preference on how they like to be physically handled, which way or not at all. Technicians can help with all of these obervations.
A technician’s own experience with handling the patient may make the difference in a successful visit versus one that may be a disaster.
Technicians can also help update the cat’s medical records with information such as caregiver education, medications recommended by the veterinarian prior to the visit, the cat’s preferences, and the cat’s emotional state.
As technicians, we can also help to educate our coworkers on the appropriate terminology when referring to our patients. Using negative terminology such as “evil,” “nasty,” or “aggressive” creates false labels that can impact our response to patients. It can lead to a lack of sensitivity among team members toward cats in general or toward individual feline patients. Negative terminology oversimplifies individuals’ personalities and prevents us from identifying the real underlying stressors. Dismissing a cat as simply “nasty” prevents us from trying to establish actual solutions to minimize the patient’s stress.
The Importance of Client Interactions
Sometimes technicians need to advocate for their patient’s welfare in ways that may not be obvious to clients. For example, if chemical restraint is deemed necessary for an appointment, technicians can help the veterinarian explain this to the client. Trained technicians can help the client understand the pet’s needs and what needs to happen to make their pet’s visit more successful. Sometimes even rescheduling the appointment may be in everyone’s best interest. Again, this might not be convenient or even make sense to a client, but a technician can help explain the situation.
Part of the solution to help minimize both patient and client anxiety involves utilizing technicians to educate clients on carrier selection, stress-relieving medications that the doctor may prescribe, training advice for travel, and mini-health exams at home to help make visits easier.
Technicians can offer advice and materials to help clients train their cat at home. This can help the cat be more comfortable with carrier travel and handling, thus improving outcomes during future visits.
Part of the solution to help minimize both patient and client anxiety involves utilizing technicians to educate clients on carrier selection, stress-relieving medications that the doctor may prescribe, training advice for travel, and mini-health exams at home to help make visits easier. Technicians can help to emphasize the benefits to the cat and the caregiver and explain that all training must be positive in order to reinforce desired behaviors. These techniques can be demonstrated by staff who have had the appropriate training in this area.
In some cases, helping owners keep their cats in a home environment may make a world of difference in their comfort level while they are receiving treatment. The cat as well as their owner will often be more at ease at home, and this may also result in more positive treatment outcomes.
Depending on the state that one lives in, technicians can help with these house-call appointments by taking blood pressure, medication administration, fluid administration, and even end-of-life care and counseling. Discussions on hospice care are something that technicians can assist in. You may find that you have a technician that has a passion for this, and you both may benefit from utilizing them in this manner.
Providing information on websites and social media, videos or links to videos to help educate our clients can be helpful. Practices like these are instrumental in developing cat-friendly protocols that help to make visits as successful as they can be. This leads to stronger client relationships that benefit from being cat-focused and adapting to a cat’s comfort level when they are in the practice.
Technicians can ask clients questions such as the following to help with a more cat-friendly examination:
- How was the trip to the practice today?
- What carrier training has your cat received?
- What other training has your cat received?
- How has your cat reacted to previous veterinary visits and examinations?
- What areas of the body is your cat comfortable with being touched?
- What changes in your cat’s behavior have you noticed since the last vist?
Technicians can help their veterinarian by:
- Reviewing the medical record for history that maybe helpful in developing a successful treatment plan
- Reviewing the medical record for any conditions that might affect the upcoming visit
- If the patient is coming in for a mobility assessment, requesting that the client video the cat in its own home is best as most cats do not move normally in the practice
- Assisting to reduce wait times
- Helping to remove stressors in the waiting area
- Working to develop a cat-only exam room or area of the hospital where things are more cat friendly
- Helping to perform outpatient procedures in the exam room
- Ensuring that all equipment is available in the room prior to starting the examination and is thoroughly cleaned between animals to remove smells
- Using appropriate feline-friendly restraint techniques, along with educating co-workers on how to do these as well
Once the patient is in the clinic, the technician can continue to assist by discussing and recording:
- Medications given regularly—ease of administration
- Notation of previsit treatments (ease of administration, dose, and timing) and effect
- Demeanor on arrival and caregiver information about the trip
- Reactions in the practice and with handling—what has worked and what has not
- Cat’s behavior on its return home after the last visit
After the visit, noting things such as the need to schedule the appointment during a quieter time, and/or longer duration may also help to prepare for future visits to improve the outcome. Assessing the positives and negatives of the visit can help to make subsequent visits more successful.
A negative visit is an opportunity to improve the next time. Becoming more cat-friendly and focusing on techniques to improve your practice’s overall cat care protocols for your patients and their owners will help to make your staff more comfortable in the long run. Your technicians can help to advocate for their feline patients in conjunction with their veterinarians to allow for a team approach that works for everyone and will produce pawsitive results.
Photo credits: hocus-focus/iStock via Getty Images Plus, Prostock-Studio/iStock via Getty Images Plus, Phynart Studio/E+ via Getty Images