Nursing Care for Your Cat

Home > Cats Home Page > Nursing Care > Article: Nursing Care for Your Cat

Nursing care is often an essential component to your cat's recovery from an illness, accident or surgery. The success, speed of recovery and return to a normal lifestyle is many times enhanced by the care you provide for your cat in comfortable and familiar surroundings. Nursing a convalescing cat can be every bit as time consuming as that for a person, so it is best to be prepared to meet the special needs of your cat. Take time before you bring your cat home to talk to your veterinarian about what will be required.

What is Nursing Care?

Caring for a sick or injured cat involves many aspects that you may not expect. It is easy to overlook how independently our cats live until you are asked to meet their most basic needs. When caring for a sick or recovering cat, it is typical to be asked to keep your cat in a safe and confined environment.

Special temperature requirements may be necessary, and may involve keeping a cat warmer or cooler than normal. You will learn to observe appetite, activity and eliminations and perhaps administer medications or simple medical treatments. You should have a complete understanding of everything that will be required before your cat leaves the hospital to make the transition to home care as smooth as possible. Have a plan on hand in the event something unexpected arises or an emergency occurs.

Which Cats Require Nursing Care?

Many situations arise that require some level of extended care. Your cat may have had an accident resulting in an injury or may need to recover from a surgical procedure. Some medical conditions require days to weeks of nursing support before your cat returns to normal. Home care is often the next step after a hospital stay. Upon initial diagnosis, your veterinarian may suggest admittance to the animal hospital until a condition is treated and stabilized. Once your cat gets to the point where hospitalization has resulted in significant improvement, full recovery often comes much faster in familiar surroundings. Your cat's attitude and appetite may improve quickly while receiving your special attention and love.

Nursing Care 101

Just how do you go about convalescing a sick cat? It helps to have a plan and a routine just as it occurs in a veterinary hospital. Having a written plan will help insure that treatments, medications and feedings get done on schedule. It will also help prevent you from over or under medicating your cat. This is common when more than one person in the home is caring for the cat and not entirely sure of who's doing what. A sample routine may look like this, although your plan will be tailored to your cat's specific needs.

Sample Nursing Schedule

7:00am – Wake up and observe your cat. Ensure bedding is clean and dry. Note any urine/feces in litterbox.

7:30 am – Give medications (if any)

8:00 am – Feed. Note appetite and water consumption. Hand feed or offer a buffet of food if necessary.

8:30 am – Attend to special needs, like grooming, range of motion exercises, check wounds or surgical sites.

9:00 to 11:00 am – Observations. Note any specific problems or concerns and call your veterinarian if needed.

11:00 am –Note any eliminations, scoop litterbox.

11:30 am to 3:30pm – Monitor and offer more food/water.

3:30 - 4:30 pm – Scheduled medications. Attend to special needs.

5:30 pm – Feed. Note appetite and water consumption. Encouage food and water intake.

6:00 to 10:00 pm – Monitor

11:30 pm – Medications. Encourage more food/water intake.

Does every cat need such a regimented schedule? Of course not. Each cat will require a tailor-made nursing plan. Some will be quite easy and take minimal effort. The important thing is to write down on a daily basis the needs of your cat and any observations or problems that arise. It will be much easier to communicate with your veterinarian if you have kept a few notes on your cat's recovery.

If your cat has a need for more monitoring than you can manage during your hours away from home, ask a friend or neighbor to drop by or talk to your veterinarian about taking your cat to the clinic to be watched for the day.

The Newborn Patient (Birth to 6 weeks)

Newborns are challenging patients. Unable to fend for themselves, they require feeding, stimulation for eliminations, and a controlled warm environment. If you are caring for a sick newborn kitten, be prepared with milk replacements, cotton balls, lots of towels and a safe reliable heat source. A heating pad is a poor choice, even if covered, as young animals often burrow under towels and find themselves directly on a heat pad. You will find that being a surrogate mother is time consuming. These patients require attention and feeding every 3 to 4 hours. Other treatments or medications prescribed may increase your efforts. Have your veterinarian demonstrate the proper way to feed a newborn and stimulate urinations and defecations.

The Pediatric Patient (Six weeks to 6 months)

The age range for a pediatric patient is large because, for the most part, these cats will need a more sophisticated form of confinement. A crate or kennel is often necessary to contain a cat. Usually by this time, cats are eating on their own and eliminating frequently. Keeping sick cats clean becomes a bigger issue at this age as they can produce astounding amounts of urine, feces and vomit. In order to avoid soiling areas of the house you wish to protect, be prepared to confine a young cat to a place where nursing care can be easily managed.

The Geriatric Patient

Caring for a convalescing older cat often requires much of the same care as the pediatric cat. Older cats often need to be confined to areas so they will not mistakenly soil the house. Often extra padding is needed for beds to comfort pains from arthritis or degenerative joint disease. You may need ot place their favorite bed in an area that is accessible and they don't have to jump to get to.

You may need to hand feed your cat for a time, and assist him with rising, walking, and lying down.

For those cats unable to use the litterPerfect Litter Alert
Pet Ecology Perfect Litter™ outperforms all other litters in every way. Our Patented formula is ultra lightweight - up to 70% lighter than regul... box, plenty of towels or even absorbent pads are needed to contain voids. Lots of attention will be needed to insure your cat stays clean and dry. You may want to consider clipping any long fur around your cat's rear end to keep feces from contaminating the coat (have your vet do this for you). If you are asked to do any medical or therapeutic procedures at home, don't be shy about asking to have them demonstrated. Once you've seen it done, you can try it yourself with your veterinarian's supervision. This will make you feel more confident once you're home.

A Word To The Wise

Before the weekend arrives, make sure you have all medications, special foods or supplies you may need to see your cat through the weekend. Nothing is more frustrating (or scary) than running out of an essential medicine on Saturday night. Check your supplies at the end of the week so you can get more if needed.

 

Printable Version

Digg   Del.icio.us   Stumble   Share

Share this Article with a Friend Email To:

 

Have a Pet Question?

Send Your Pet Question to Dr. Jon
and His Staff of Veterinarians

Dr. Jon's Newsletter

Yes! Send Me the Latest Health Information, Pet Tips, Pet Stories and more...

 

 

Related Articles

Search Over 15,000 articles

• 1 How to Tell if Your Cat is Ill

  Your cat cannot explain his symptoms, so it’s the responsibility of you and your veterinarian to take care of him. You can help speed the diagnosis and recovery by having the answers to the following questions....

  Read More
• 2 Help, I Can’t Go!

  Is your cat suddenly making frequent trips to the litter box? Is he straining or meowing when he tries to urinate? Learn more about this common problem.

  Read More
• 3 Fighting Felines - What Can Happen?

  Cat fighting and the resultant injuries are a common reason that pets are examined and treated by veterinarians.

  Read More
• 4 How to Give Your Cat a Pill

  Your veterinarian has prescribed pills for your cat and it’s your job to see that your cat takes them. What now? Here’s how to get the job done without turning your cat into a hissing, spitting pill-hating...

  Read More
• 5 Drinking, Drinking, Drinking - Your Cat and Diabetes

  Diabetes mellitus – commonly known as sugar diabetes or “sugar” – is one of the most frequent and important medical disorders of humans. Surprisingly, diabetes also is a common illness of dogs and cats....

  Read More