How Often Should You Take Your Indoor Cat to the Vet?
Just as with people, cats go through several life stages. The frequency with which your indoor cat needs to see the veterinarian changes with each life stage. For vaccinations, an indoor kitten needs to see the veterinarian more often than an adult or senior cat. However, an indoor senior cat needs to see the veterinarian for physical examinations and monitoring more often than a kitten or adult cat. While vaccination frequency recommendations have been reduced in recent years for adult cats, it's still important that your house cat visit the veterinarian regularly for monitoring of overall health.
Kitten
When you adopt a new kitten, you should take the kitten for an initial check by a veterinarian. The kitten should have a set of vaccines, a fecal examination and be de-wormed if necessary. The veterinarian will schedule a series of appointments at that time. At each appointment, the kitten will continue the series of vaccinations, and the veterinarian will perform a fecal examination to ensure your kitten is parasite free. The core vaccinations your kitten will receive will include feline panleukopenia, feline viral rhinotracheitis and feline calicivirus. When your kitten is four months old, the veterinarian will vaccinate her against rabies.
Adult
When your cat is one year old, he will return to the veterinarian for a booster shot of the core vaccinations, a booster for the rabies vaccination, a fecal examination and an overall physical examination. Following this examination, the American Association of Feline Practitioners recommends a booster for the core vaccinations every three years. In some states, a three-year inoculation meets the legal requirement for rabies vaccination. In other states, you will have to return to your veterinarian each year for your cat's rabies vaccination. Even if your cat is not due for vaccines, Banfield Pet Hospital recommends that your house cat visit the veterinarian twice a year for a physical examination and fecal examination.
Senior
Once your cat is eight years old, she is considered a senior. Although a senior cat needs to be vaccinated no more often than a younger cat, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine recommends that the senior cat visit the veterinarian at least every six months. This gives your veterinarian the chance to examine your senior cat, evaluate her body weight and condition and catch any diseases or disorders that come with aging before they progress. Although many of the disorders associated with old age--such as arthritis and diabetes--can't be cured, if they are caught early you can manage the condition or take steps to make your cat more comfortable.
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