Our Stocksfield surgery is a silver accredited ‘cat friendly vets’.

We are very excited to let you know that our Stocksfield vet practice has recently been awarded ‘Cat Friendly vet’ Silver accreditation from ‘The International Society of Feline Medicine’ (ISFM).  This means that our team consider your cat’s well being and comfort during their visit as one of our main priorities and we have lots of things in place to ensure it can be as stress-free as possible for them. An accredited cat friendly vets must follow strict guidelines and specific staff training in order to receive accreditation.

Our waiting rooms have separate cat waiting areas and our team, headed by our ‘cat advocate’, Jill Crawford, BVMS, MRCVS, are specially trained in minimising the stress that your cat may feel when visiting the vet. Read on to find out exactly what this means for you and your feline friends.

What is a Cat Friendly vet?

This accreditation has been awarded by ISFM – this is the veterinary department of the organisation ‘International Cat Care’ whose aim is that all cats are treated with the care and compassion that they deserve. An accredited cat friendly vet clinic (CFC) is awarded this status once they have shown that they are able (and committed) to providing a higher standard of cat care for their patients and owners. There are currently three existing levels of accreditation – Bronze, Silver or Gold.

What does this mean for your cat and you?

This achievement involves every single member of our team (reception, nurses, students, vets) working towards a common goal – to ensure your cat receives the very best care that we can provide. Our practice has a nominated (and enthusiastic!) ‘Cat Advocate’ who will ensure our standards are continued to be met. We hope that this will help to further improve the experience that your cats (and you!) have when visiting our practice. Jill Crawford is our cat advocate and many of you will Jill who has been with us for 20 years! She has put many hours of hard work into our practices becoming cat friendly vet clinics.

What have we as a practice had to show to achieve our silver status?

• Staff training, CPD
We ensure that all members of our team keep up to date with the best clinical protocols for cats in order for us to continue to provide the best care.

• Handling of cats within our clinic
It’s impossible to make any trip to the vets 100% stress-free, but we aim to limit the stress experienced by our feline patients during their visits with gentle handling during examinations and procedures (we commit to never, ever ‘scruffing’ our cats if there is any alternative whatsoever). We try to keep any stressful noises or smells to a minimum within the practice. Our team are educated to recognise fear/stress so that we can respond and act to reduce it.

• Our Clinic and Waiting room
We provide a separate cat waiting area so that they don’t have to worry about sitting too close to (or enter into staring contests with!) any dogs.

• Hospitalisation facilities for daytime or overnight stays
Our cat hospital ward facilities have been assessed to ensure that they meet the required standard – this includes location and size of the individual kennels, plus the ‘facilities’ inside them (i.e. litter-trays, feeding and sleeping areas). All cats hospitalised with us will be provided with comfortable bedding and also somewhere cosy so that they can hide to help feel safe during their stay. At our Stocksfield surgery we have state of the art kennels which has special lighting and heating to keep your cat as comfortable as possible.

• Operating area and anaesthesia
We have shown that our practice has appropriate equipment to safely induce and maintain anaesthesia in cats (keep them asleep during operations), including equipment to keep kitties warm whilst they’re asleep.

• Equipment for surgical operations (including dental procedures)
We have the suitable equipment to be able to perform a range of emergency and routine surgical procedures in a sterile manner – this includes dental cleaning (scale and polish) and extractions.

• Diagnostic imaging (x-rays)
We also have x-ray equipment available in our clinic which we can use to take x-ray images of your cat or kitten should they need it.

• In-house laboratory facilities
Our clinic has lab facilities on site which are able to run examinations on blood, urine and other samples if required, so that we can quickly work towards treating your pet.

As part of our achievement, our veterinary team promises to make every effort to ensure your cat’s visit is as comfortable as possible by:

• Making visits to the clinic as friendly as possible.
• Handling and approaching cats gently in a caring and understanding manner.
• Maintaining (and always improving!) our excellent level of clinical knowledge and equipment so that we can provide the best standard of veterinary care to your cat.

Book an appointment for your cat today at one of our cat friendly vets!