What is a Cat Friendly Practice®?

The AAFP seeks to encourage and facilitate good quality veterinary care for cats. However, we recognize that there are unique challenges and difficulties in bringing your cat to a veterinary practice, including:

• Cats often do not travel well.
• Cats do not feel safe when they are away from their normal home territory.
• Cats are highly sensitive to unusual sights, sounds and smells.
• Most cats prefer quiet and solitude.
• Most cats are highly susceptible to stress and anxiety.
• Most cats are highly stressed by dogs and other cats being in close proximity at the practice.
• Cats need to be handled gently, with care and respect in the practice.
• Cats have unique medical requirements that Cat Friendly Practices are capable of providing.

The AAFP established the Cat Friendly Practice® program to help veterinary practices meet the wide range of unique needs of cats in a veterinary practice setting. An extensive self-assessment checklist was designed to demonstrate that Cat Friendly Practices®:

• Understand the unique needs of cats and have made veterinary visits more cat-friendly.
• Understand how to approach and handle cats in a gentle, empathetic and caring manner.
• Have an appropriate standard of equipment needed to investigate and treat feline patients.
• Meets a standard for the facilities and care for hospitalized cats.

Find out how you can benefit from visiting a Cat Friendly Practice®. Additional information can be found in the CFP Cat Owner Brochure.

Click the video below to find out how CFPs can reduce stress of cat visits:

Click the video below to see why cats need routine veterinary checkups: