Keeping cats healthy

According to figures from Fediaf, around 25 per cent of households in Europe have a cat, with the European cat population totalling nearly 111 million. This makes them by far the most popular pet, a trend that has persisted for years and has been amplified in the last year by the coronavirus pandemic.
A survey conducted in 2018 of 4 437 cat owners worldwide revealed, however, that only 40 per cent of all cats regularly receive preventive veterinary healthcare. In 2020, year of the coronavirus, another survey of 1 200 cat owners in Germany, Austria and Switzerland showed that 25 per cent of cat owners believed a trip to the vet was only necessary if their feline was actually ill.
"For healthy adult cats, it is usually sufficient to get a health check once a year," says vet Catharina Lücking, a scientific trainer at Royal Canin. She knows from the surveys that the main reason cat owners avoid visits to the vet is because every trip to the surgery causes stress for both cat and human. This reason was given by over half of the respondents in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 66 per cent indicated, however, that they would take their cat to the veterinary practice more often if this were easier.

With its awareness campaign "For healthy cats, visit the vet", covering preventive healthcare and nutrition, Royal Canin aims to make cat owners more aware of their pet's needs. To this end, the company is promoting a special offer in German and Austrian pet stores that continues up to 30 December: "Royal Canin will thank all cat owners who visited the vet with their cat with a money-back promotion of 5 euros on all of the company's cat products of at least 1.5 kg," states Royal Canin. At the same time, Royal Canin is organising ongoing online "cat whisperer" training for veterinary practices in cooperation with Idexx. As the official partner of the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM), the company is also supporting the "Cat-friendly clinic" project. This global initiative is intended to help make veterinary surgeries more cat- and cat-owner-friendly to reduce the stress of a visit to the vet.