Book the first vet visit within the first week or two, even if your cat looks fine. Cats are good at hiding illness, and shelters and breeders occasionally miss things. A check-up early on sets a baseline you can compare against later.
Before the appointment
Pick a clinic that sees mostly cats, or one with a separate cat-only waiting area. Dogs in the lobby make the visit harder than it needs to be. My cat used to shake for an hour after every visit until I switched to a cats-only practice. Different cat now.
Leave the carrier out at home for a few days before the visit, with a familiar blanket inside. On the day, spray the carrier with a feline pheromone product (Feliway) about 15 minutes before loading the cat. Drive with the carrier secured on the back seat. Not the front, not in the footwell.
Skip the meal four hours before, so the cat isn't carsick.
What to bring
- Any paperwork from the shelter, breeder, or previous owner. Adoption records, vaccination history, microchip number, deworming dates.
- A stool sample in a small clean container, ideally same-day. Most clinics screen for intestinal parasites.
- A list of food you've been feeding, including brand and amount.
- A list of questions. Vets are happy to answer them. You will forget half of them otherwise.
What the vet will do
A first appointment runs 20 to 40 minutes. Expect roughly this sequence:
- History. Where the cat came from, age estimate, any symptoms you've noticed, your home setup.
- Weighing. Recorded in the file as a baseline.
- Nose-to-tail exam. Eyes, ears, mouth and teeth, lymph nodes, skin and coat, abdomen palpation, listening to heart and lungs, a quick check of joints. Temperature is taken rectally. Most cats tolerate it.
- Parasite screen. Stool sample for worms. Coat check for fleas and mites.
- Microchip check. If the cat isn't chipped, this is a good time to do it.
- Vaccinations, if due (see below).
- A plan, written or verbal: when to come back, what to watch for.
If your cat is a holy terror at the vet, ask about gabapentin before future visits. It's safe, takes the edge off, and makes everyone's life easier. My second cat went from "two-vet-tech wrangling job" to "compliant patient" on 100mg gabapentin ninety minutes before the appointment.
Core vaccinations
Standard kitten schedule starts around 6 to 8 weeks, with boosters every 3 to 4 weeks until 16 weeks, then yearly or every three years depending on the vaccine.
- FVRCP (sometimes FPV+FCV+FHV-1). Covers panleukopenia, calicivirus, and feline herpesvirus. Core for every cat.
- Rabies. Required by law in many places. Singapore is rabies-free, so it gets skipped there.
- FeLV (feline leukaemia). Recommended for cats that go outdoors or live with other cats of unknown status. Often given as core to kittens.
Optional, situational vaccines include FIV and Chlamydia. Talk to the vet based on lifestyle.
After a vaccine, cats can be quiet or sore for a day. Anything more (swelling, vomiting, lethargy past 48 hours) gets a call to the clinic.
Questions worth asking
- What weight should we aim for, and how do I check body condition at home?
- Which food and how much, given this cat's age and activity?
- What flea, tick, and worm prevention do you recommend here, and how often?
- When should we spay or neuter, and what does the day look like?
- What's an out-of-hours emergency number, and which signs warrant a same-day visit?
- Is dental cleaning likely to come up in the next year or two?
After the visit
Let the cat out of the carrier in their safe room and leave them alone for a few hours. Some cats sulk. Some smell different to housemates and get hissed at. Both pass within a day.
Note the date of the next booster and the next parasite treatment in a calendar. Set a recurring reminder so it doesn't slip. (Mine slipped twice. Both times I caught it because the cat threw up a worm.)