Abstract
What does the next 10 years hold for ‘cat friendly’?
Much has changed in the world of feline medicine and welfare over the past 10 years and ISFM and the AAFP have much planned to help this positive progression continue.
This Cat Friendly Special Issue contains new Cat Friendly Veterinary Interaction Guidelines 1 and Cat Friendly Veterinary Environment Guidelines, 2 as well as ISFM’s Cat Friendly Principles for Veterinary Professionals, 3 and it is our sincere desire to see every practice that treats cats integrate the invaluable learnings and information from these new resources into the way they practise feline medicine, in order to continue their cat friendly evolution. This aim aligns with amplifying our encouragement to become an ISFM CFC or an AAFP CFP, depending on a clinic’s location.
In the future, there will be a stronger focus on the ‘cattitude’ of all team members in the clinic, whether they interact with cats or clients (or both), to ensure a team approach in all aspects of the clinic. Such interactions, as described in the new guidelines, are critical to the veterinary experience, and this will be emphasised with additional training resources and requirements for the whole team to participate. There will also be ongoing staff education about the implementation of creating a cat friendly environment as it is vital to adjust the practice environment and equipment to minimise patient distress and improve the experience for cats.
Becoming a CFC or CFP can be a lot of work and commitment, but includes so many rewards (see page 1165), and we will be enhancing our resources available for clinics to celebrate their cat friendly status, as well as making the application and renewal process more streamlined and easy to complete.
We would like to see many more clinics become a CFC or CFP and our ultimate aim is that all clinics and veterinary professionals work in a cat friendly manner for the benefit of cats, their caregivers and the veterinary team.
