Inverness vet: Keeping your cat happy indoors during coronavirus pandemic

This is a column by Alison Laurie-Chalmers, who is a senior consultant at Crown Vets in Inverness.

The current advice is to keep your cat indoors if you are self-isolating.

Vulnerable people are sensibly being advised to minimise any close contact with their pets and maintain good hygiene by washing their hands before and after touching their pets.

Cats are very independent creatures and they don’t like any change to their usual routine, so staying indoors can be stressful for some cats if they are not used to it.

But they will still like to play and need some exercise and mental stimulation.

Here are some tips to help them adjust and keep them happy and healthy during the advised Covid-19 restriction period:

• Ensure that you have, or are provided with, plenty of cat food supplies and cat litter for them plus an adequate supply of any ongoing medicines if required. Your vet clinic can provide you with their ongoing prescription medicines.
• Have a couple of litter trays out for one cat and if you have more than one cat, have one litter tray for each cat plus one extra, to allow plenty of hygienic indoor toileting facilities.
• Make sure they have access to a couple of comfortable accessible beds separate from their feeding area and away from their litter trays.
• Cats are very independent and they require some space, but they will soon let you know when they want some attention. They can easily get fractious and stressed if they receive too much unwanted attention, especially from young children or other pets.

• Allow them a safe hiding place and space within the home by providing them with plenty of makeshift hiding places using igloo beds or large cardboard boxes.

• Use “puzzle feeders” to make their day interesting and let them look for and “hunt” for their food. You can make your own puzzle feeders by hiding a small portion of their daily dried food in the cardboard inner tube from toilet rolls or use old empty egg boxes or old paper bags or large paper envelopes. These can also be filled with catnip to encourage play.
• Cats like to survey their “territory” from a height, so if possible, arrange a safe perch area for your cat to safely jump on to and monitor their home from high up.
• Cats love to scratch surfaces so allow them to have something that they can scratch safely in the home such as a scratch post or a rough block of wood, or use old carpet backs or carpet samples.
• Cats like toys and a new toy can provide some welcome, mental stimulation. Be safe and avoid anything which they could potentially swallow. A simple scrunched up ball of paper can provide hours of fun. Cat laser-toys are always fun or a small soft toy attached to a string from a pole like a fishing rod can usually entice some activity, even from the laziest of cats!

Also, monitor you cat’s weight while he is being kept indoors. To avoid weight gain, adjust their daily food quantities down, as they will not be getting the same amount of exercise as usual and take any “treats” out of their advised daily food quota.

If you have any health concerns about your cat, call your vet clinic for advice, do not visit the practice at this time. There will be someone who can assist you and your vet clinic will still see any emergency cases.

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