No More Scaredy-Cats: Comer Vet Debuts Low-Stress Feline Appointments
- Dallas Duncan
- Nov 25
- 5 min read
Crowds, loud noises, new smells, strange people, and tight quarters can cause stress for anyone. For cats, that overstimulation affects their ability to be properly diagnosed, which is why earlier this fall, the Comer Veterinary Hospital team decided to offer cat-only appointments.
Now on Thursday mornings, cat patients can experience a catered veterinary environment aimed at reducing their stress during visits.
“We’re trying to make the morning cat-only to begin with. If it takes off and works really good, we may look into doing the entire day,” says Dr. Mandy Adams, DVM, veterinarian at Comer Vet. “We avoid having dogs in the facility unless, of course, it’s an emergency. In those situations, we would have to see our canine patients.”
Though select slots are cat-only except for emergencies, they are not the only times Comer Vet accepts cat appointments.
“We do see cats on non-Thursdays, and we try to be very cognizant when we’ve got cats,” Adams says. “The downside is that dogs would be coming in at the same time. We still practice a lot of the same things when we see cats on a daily basis, it’s just that it would not be a cat-only day.”
If cat parents can’t make Thursday mornings work for vet appointments, Adams suggests scheduling at the end of the morning or beginning of an afternoon, which tend to be less hectic times at the clinic.
“You can ask when you’re scheduling, ‘I would rather be at a quieter time when there’s not dogs’, and we can certainly try to accommodate,” she says.
Improving Existing Practices
The move to prioritize cat-only days comes at the recommendation of Dr. Autumn McBride, DVM, feline veterinarian and owner of Classic City Kitty. McBride taught appropriate cat handling while she was a faculty member at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, and now offers those services to vet clinics.
“I started to notice that even though I was teaching students the appropriate ways to do things, they would then graduate and go into practices that were maybe not doing things that way, or the very best way for cats,” she says. “I saw a need for that and then I just love to teach and love to make things better for our kitties.”
McBride reached out to vet clinics with which she had professional relationships, including Comer Vet. Prior to McBride’s consultation, Comer Vet already had low-stress procedures in place, including the use of towels during appointments, providing a feline pheromone-infused room designated for hospitalized cats, and offering stress and anxiety medications to be given at home before a vet visit.
“What I found was that y’all are already doing really positive things for cats and I was really, really proud and happy to see that,” McBride says. “Y’all already had Churu and all the fun treats for cats, and then there was really very minimal scruffing of cats.”
She mentioned too that the lobby was kept quiet, with patients being moved to exam rooms fairly quickly after arrival.
“It helps keep them from just sitting there, smelling all the things and hearing all the loud noises and ramping up their stress level more and more,” McBride says. “If they can just go in an exam room and be with their owner and quiet space, then that’s really helpful. [Comer Vet was] already doing a lot of that.”
McBride provided insight for areas of improvement on top of what Comer Vet staff already offered for cat patients.
“Dr. McBride suggested we have an exam room that is designated just for cats to minimize the smells of dogs in that room, and have a pheromone infuser in that room to help provide the cat with a happy, calm feeling,” says Jessica Morris, practice manager and vet tech at Comer Vet. “She suggested allowing cats to walk around the exam room instead of waiting in the carrier, to help them become more familiar with their environment while waiting for the doctor. And the biggest suggestion was having a day designated to cats-only, to minimize sounds of dogs barking, heavy walking, and to minimize dog smells.”
Calm Cats Allow for Accurate Diagnoses
Many times, angry, panicking cat patients can be heard the moment they come in the door, says Dr. Preston Russell, DVM, veterinarian at Comer Vet.
“They’re already yowling. They’re upset. They’ve been shoved into a carrier, don’t know what’s happening, and driven down the road,” he says. “By the time they get to us, sometimes they’re open-mouth breathing, they’re salivating, they’re hissing and angry. So, we’re just trying to help decrease that stress as much as we can.”
When cats are stressed or overstimulated, they tend to go into “fight or flight” mode,” Morris says, which does not allow vets to do a thorough exam or assistants to perform diagnostics safely.
According to McBride, stress can cause cats’ blood glucose and white blood cell counts to spike, which could lead to misleading lab results — an indication of diabetes or infection, for example, instead of pointing to what’s actually happening with a cat. Increased heart and respiration rates are common during stress, which can mask those being symptoms of something more serious. Of course, all that’s assuming the Comer Vet team can even examine the patient safely: Stressed cats may lash out, and cat bites and scratches pose health risks for humans.
Low-Stress Before the Vet
Keeping stress levels low prior to an appointment begins at home. The Comer Vet team recommends keeping carriers out with food and treats, so they become familiar and are not just brought out before a trip.
“Let them play in it, let them sleep in it,” Russell says. “A lot of the crates you can take apart, so put that bottom half out with a blanket in the house somewhere so that the cat knows it’s actually a safe place.”
He says some carriers nowadays are meant to be used as pet beds too, and are designed to look like they belong out as furniture. Others have drawers instead of removable tops, which can be a safer option, as a vet or vet assistant doesn’t have to reach inside to grab a cat.
For good Samaritans who find strays, McBride says the most important aspect of de-stressing those cats also begins with the carrier. She says humane traps, classic hard-style pet carriers, and even big dog crates are suitable options.
The Comer Vet team suggests when bringing the carrier inside, cover it with a towel sprayed with feline pheromones and support it from the bottom to minimize movement. The pheromones used at Comer Vet are simply scents that calm cats, Adams says, and are available to homeowners. She recommends making sure that a room’s square footage is considered when deciding how many to buy.
“A lot of times they may be something related to what Mom and nursing smells like,” she says. “It’d be like us, if Grandma’s house always smells like a baked apple pie and you enjoy going to Grandma’s house because it smells that way, that smell always reminds you of that. So, if we find a smell that’s comforting to these cats, then a lot of times that will make them feel more comfortable.”
Sometimes, because it does take so long for cats to return to baseline after being stressed out, it is necessary for a vet to send them home with medication and reschedule the appointment for a time when the cat can be less anxious and scared.
“If your cat generally has high stress and anxiety, do not be ashamed to ask for medications to help prior to their appointment,” Morris says. “Pet parents know their pets better than we do and should advocate for them.”
To schedule your cat’s next appointment at Comer Vet, please give us a call at 706-783-5111 or request an appointment through our online form. Cat-only appointments are held Thursday mornings.