{"id":4832,"date":"2023-09-25T08:19:10","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T12:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=3970"},"modified":"2024-02-01T16:18:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T21:18:43","slug":"purr-fecting-cat-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2023\/purr-fecting-cat-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Purr-fecting Cat Care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

Dogs will come when they\u2019re called, the saying goes, but cats will take a message and get back to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean cat owners care any less about their pets. And with the percentage of cat-owning households growing, the College of Veterinary Medicine is responding with a new Feline Health Center that includes plans to help veterinarians create clinics that are less dog-centric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an umbrella to bring together people who are excited about cats\u2009\u2014\u2009people doing research on cats, doing clinical work on cats\u2009\u2014\u2009so we can share our knowledge,\u201d says Dr. Margaret Gruen \u201908 MS, \u201916 PHD, associate professor of behavioral medicine, who leads the center along with Dr. Alex Lynch, associate professor of internal medicine and emergency medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gruen says there is growing recognition that cat owners are as loyal as dog owners. \u201cPeople are increasingly treating cats as part of their families,\u201d she says, yet many small-animal clinics are not well set up for cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/span><\/span>

MEOW MIX<\/h2><\/a>
\n

38 percent of Americans own dogs
24 percent own cats<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The center is designed to make NC State\u2019s Veterinary Hospital more cat-friendly and help practitioners learn to do the same. That can mean minimizing the number of people who handle the cat and making sure the cat can get its footing on the exam table. \u201cSomething as simple as making sure the scale is in the exam room so the cat doesn\u2019t have to be taken out of the room to get weighed can help,\u201d Gruen says. Cats also do better if they don\u2019t see other cats\u2009\u2014\u2009or dogs\u2009\u2014\u2009in the waiting room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because dogs travel more easily and tolerate exams better, veterinary students don\u2019t get a lot of clinical experience with cats, Gruen says. As for Gruen, she doesn\u2019t play favorites\u2009\u2014\u2009she\u2019s the proud owner of an all-black cat named Nox, and Lucy, whom she describes as a \u201cCarolina brown dog.\u201d The two get along fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

Dogs will come when they\u2019re called, the saying goes, but cats will take a message and get back to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean cat owners care any less about their pets. And with the percentage of cat-owning households growing, the College of Veterinary Medicine is responding with a new Feline Health Center that includes plans to help veterinarians create clinics that are less dog-centric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an umbrella to bring together people who are excited about cats\u2009\u2014\u2009people doing research on cats, doing clinical work on cats\u2009\u2014\u2009so we can share our knowledge,\u201d says Dr. Margaret Gruen \u201908 MS, \u201916 PHD, associate professor of behavioral medicine, who leads the center along with Dr. Alex Lynch, associate professor of internal medicine and emergency medical care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gruen says there is growing recognition that cat owners are as loyal as dog owners. \u201cPeople are increasingly treating cats as part of their families,\u201d she says, yet many small-animal clinics are not well set up for cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/span><\/span>

MEOW MIX<\/h2><\/a>
\n

38 percent of Americans own dogs
24 percent own cats<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The center is designed to make NC State\u2019s Veterinary Hospital more cat-friendly and help practitioners learn to do the same. That can mean minimizing the number of people who handle the cat and making sure the cat can get its footing on the exam table. \u201cSomething as simple as making sure the scale is in the exam room so the cat doesn\u2019t have to be taken out of the room to get weighed can help,\u201d Gruen says. Cats also do better if they don\u2019t see other cats\u2009\u2014\u2009or dogs\u2009\u2014\u2009in the waiting room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because dogs travel more easily and tolerate exams better, veterinary students don\u2019t get a lot of clinical experience with cats, Gruen says. As for Gruen, she doesn\u2019t play favorites\u2009\u2014\u2009she\u2019s the proud owner of an all-black cat named Nox, and Lucy, whom she describes as a \u201cCarolina brown dog.\u201d The two get along fine.<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New center pushes for feline-friendly veterinary clinics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":3971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"caption\":\"Illustration by Joel Castillo\",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"New center pushes for feline-friendly veterinary clinics.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[215,278,367,371,431,874,942],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-4832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-cats","tag-college-of-veterinary-medicine","tag-dr-alex-lynch","tag-dr-margaret-gruen","tag-feline-health-center","tag-nc-state-veterinary-hospital","tag-pets"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":52,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5088,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4832\/revisions\/5088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4832"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=4832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}