YOUR CATS FIRST YEAR
UNDER SIX WEEKS OF AGE
Your kitten should be wormed for round worms at this age. You should continue doing this every two weeks until your kitten is four months of age. Now is the time to start teaching your cat to have any routine procedures such brushing, teeth cleaning, nail clipping and de-fleaing done. There are a couple of options when it comes to de-fleaing. We recommend that all animals in the household are on flea treatment. Topical applications such as “Advantage” are applied to the cat’s skin between the shoulder blades. This will give the cat flea protection for up to a month. It is safe to use on kittens even at six weeks of age. Another option is “Program Injectable” this can also be administered at six weeks of age. It is injected under the cats skin by your vet or vet nurse and gives you six months of protection. If you decide to use the program injectable they offer a 100% flea free guarantee.
SIX – EIGHT WEEKS OF AGE
Now your kitten is due for its first vaccination, this includes both of the respiratory viruses and feline enteritis. Continue worming every two weeks until four months.
TWELVE – FOURTEEN WEEKS
Now it is time for your kitten’s second vaccination again for feline enteritis and flu.
SIXTEEN – EIGHTEEN WEEKS OF AGE
This is time for the third vaccination as a kitten. This vaccine is only for cat flu. Now you need to start worming your cat every three months for all worms. You should vaccinate your cat every year.
TEETH
Your cat will have all its permanent teeth by about seven months of age. It is very important that your cat is not fed all soft food, as dental disease is very common in cats. It is also a good policy to begin brushing your cat’s teeth from an early age so as to reduce tartar build up and encourage healthy gums. Feeding strips of sinewy meat prior to each meal will make your cat chew and assist in cleaning the teeth. There are also commercial diets on the market to help prevent the build up of tartar. The pieces of dry food are slightly larger than normal dry food and the cat has to chew it before swallowing helping to keep the teeth free of tartar build up. Hills make a diet called Feline T/D (dental diet).
SIX – NINE MONTHS OF AGE
Time to desex your cat, male or female. Males should be desexed to prevent urine spraying and fighting and females to prevent unwanted litters. It is socially irresponsible to have an entire male tomcat in a built up area. A cat’s territory is about four times the size of a normal backyard. As a consequence it is not uncommon to find cats fighting, this can result in abscess formation and is the most common means of transmitting feline AIDS. One of our vets would be happy to discuss this with you if you are having a problem.
