AVMA President Dr. Ted Cohn included in upcoming episode of Innovations with Ed Begley, Jr.
An upcoming episode of the Discovery Channel program Innovations with Ed Begley, Jr. will explore feline behavior, the value of veterinary care and efforts made by veterinarians to improve the health and welfare of America’s more than 70 million pet cats.
The program airs Monday, April 20, at 7:30 a.m. EST/PST and 6:30 a.m. CST. A clip of the program can be viewed below.
American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) President Dr. Ted Cohn is featured in the program, discussing the concern of disease going undetected in cats. According to the most recent edition of the AVMA’s U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographic Sourcebook, the number of households taking their cat to the veterinarian just once a year dropped 13.5 percent from 2006 to 2011. Overall, cats represented only 29.9 percent of total veterinary visits while dogs represented 58.2 percent of total veterinary visits.
“Cats are frequently seen as independent animals that do not need care the same way that a dog might need it,” Dr. Cohn says in the program. “Unfortunately, that is not true. Cats do need to go to the vet as often as a dog does, if not more frequently sometimes.”
The April 20 episode of Innovations will discuss the American Association of Feline Practitioners’ (AAFP’s) Cat Friendly Practice® Program (CFP) designation, which focuses on reducing the stress of veterinary visits for cats and cat owners. It provides tools for veterinarians to improve the treatment, handling and overall health care of cats.
“The AAFP’s Cat Friendly Practice Program is a groundbreaking program in veterinary medicine,”says AAFP President Dr. Susan Little. “The time is ripe for a program that helps veterinary practices do the best they can with their feline patients. The CFP program is about setting the standards of care, educating veterinary practices about what their feline patients need, about decreasing the stress of the veterinary visit, and it’s about making sure that once the cat is at the veterinary clinic they receive the best quality of care that’s appropriate to the cat.”
For more information about the AAFP and their Cat Friendly Practice program visitwww.catvets.com/cfp. For more information about the AVMA, visit www.avma.org.
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