The medicine you do before anything happens
Vaccines, parasite treatment, neutering and a yearly check-up. It is the cheapest part of your cat’s health and the one that saves the most heartache, because a cat hides illness until the very end.
The vaccines it needs
There is a core group recommended for every cat, including those that never go out: feline panleukopenia and the two main viruses behind cat flu, herpesvirus and calicivirus, which usually come together in what is called the trivalent vaccine. The feline leukaemia vaccine is recommended for kittens and for cats that go outside or live with cats that do, after a test confirms they do not already have it. A kitten’s first course is several doses from eight or nine weeks up to sixteen weeks or later, with a booster afterwards. In Spain, rabies vaccination is compulsory for cats in some regions and is always required to travel abroad from Spain. Your vet sets the schedule for your cat.
Parasites, and a mistake that kills
Internal parasites are prevented with regular worming, more often in kittens and in cats that go out or hunt, and less often in an indoor cat, as your vet advises. External parasites, fleas and ticks, come into the house on clothes or with another animal, so an indoor cat can get them too. Always use products made for cats, at the right dose for its weight. Never use a dog spot-on or collar: many contain permethrin, which in cats causes tremors and seizures and can kill, even from simple contact with a dog that has just been treated.
Neutering
In Spain, Law 7/2023 requires cats to be neutered before six months, except breeding cats belonging to registered breeders, and in cats the benefits are clear. An unspayed female can come into season every two or three weeks during the breeding season, with intense yowling and escape attempts, and is at risk of pyometra and mammary tumours, which in cats are mostly malignant; spaying before six months greatly reduces that risk. In males, neutering reduces urine spraying, fighting and roaming. The operation is routine and recovery takes a few days. Afterwards, watch the ration.
The yearly check-up and the mouth
One visit a year with a full examination, and from seven or eight years old, blood and urine tests and a blood pressure reading; from ten, every six months. Cats hide pain and illness by instinct, and many chronic diseases show up in a blood test before they cause symptoms. The mouth deserves special attention: periodontal disease and tooth resorption, lesions that destroy the tooth and are very painful, are very common. A cat with a sore mouth usually keeps eating, though it may chew on one side or drop food.
What you can spot at home
You see your cat every day and the vet once a year. Notice how much it eats and drinks, the size and number of clumps in the litter tray, the state of its coat, and whether it hides more, grooms less or stops jumping up to high places. Learn to read its face: there is a feline grimace scale, validated by vets, that recognises pain from the position of the ears, half-closed eyes, a tense muzzle and straightened whiskers. Run your hands over its body feeling for lumps and weigh it every month. Any change that lasts more than a few days is worth a visit.
Core vaccines plus whatever else your cat needs, parasite products for cats only, never for dogs, neutering before six months and a check-up every year, every six months from age ten. And notice the small changes: a cat does not complain.
Educational content from Michipedia. It does not replace the advice of a vet or a feline behaviour specialist. Every cat is an individual.