I mean, truthfully, who really likes going to the doctor? Hypochondriacs and those “Münchausen by Proxy” people are all I can think of that like it.

Right now, I’m with my family at our yearly beach trip in the Outer Banks, NC - a place as close to heaven as I can imagine. I take this time each year to catch up on reading all these magazines I get throughout the year. In fact, I just read a statistic that says that cats are twice as likely not to see the vet as dogs. This report found that pet owners took their dogs to the vet for routine care more often than they took their cats, even in households that had dogs and cats. That statistic blows me away… that people think cats don’t get sick.

The only reason that I can think that that happens is because cats fake it when they’re sick. I’ve seen cats that have severe dental disease (that is painful rotting teeth that would have most people begging for relief) and according to their owners, these cats showed no signs of problems at home and “still are eating well.”

I think my whole point of this blog is that it is so important to have at least one exam at the vet for every pet every year… ideally every 6 months. Those cats that haven’t been seen most probably have problems that need to be addressed. I don’t think cats have less problems than dogs. I think that because of their sometimes solitary nature, and the fact that they are master fakers, people don’t realize that they need help.

Now for the insurance tie-in… I know that pet insurance will help all cat owners not think twice about the money side of it. There will be no,”Oh, the cat’s fine. Let’s skip the exam this year,” attitudes. Owners will bring their cat to the vet for every recommended exam and vaccination, and will jump at the chance to bring that cat in the moment it hunkers up under the bed and misses a few meals.

I want all our pets to have long and happy lives filled with love… (and annual or semi-annual exams).

That’s really why we’re all here for in the first place, isn’t it?

Blogging from my slice of heaven,

Dr. AJ