How Often Should A Cat Be Visited?

A pet sitter wrote to me last month with a question that I feel warrants an answer. This pet sitter has a client who requests she visit her cats on every third day. The pet sitter was very uncomfortable with this arrangement and asked how often pets should be checked.

Although cats tend to be very self-sufficient, we must always remember that the domesticated cat depends on us for survival. Animals cannot call the doctor when they are sick or injured and cannot medicate themselves. They are dependent upon us for their food and basic well being.

While it is common practice for an owner to leave for the weekend and leave a cat behind with “overflowing” food and water bowls, it could also be dangerous practice. Just last week a lady brought a cat into our hospital. The owner was away on vacation and this person, a friend, was checking on the cat every few days. On this particular day she found the cat in a coma with pools of vomit surrounding it. She rushed the cat to the hospital, where we were able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The cat had developed a urethral blockage (the tube that connects the bladder to the outside) and could not urinate. The bladder had become very distended and kidney toxins began to poison his bloodstream. If this lady had waited another hour or two, this cat would have died. Fortunately for the cat, we were able to relieve the blockage and place the cat on intravenous fluids. After three days of hospitalization he was doing well.

The point of this story is to remind everyone that anything can happen when an animal is left alone. I always get a barrage of emergency calls between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. This is due to owners coming home from work and finding their animals with this problem or that injury. These animals had only been at home alone for 12 hours or less!

My advice would be a set policy to check any animal every day or twice daily. If you decide to let an owner talk you into checking an animal every two or three days, make sure you have it in writing that this goes against your policy and that the owners have been advised that problems can arise when an animal is not checked daily. Remember that when an owner contracts your services you are now responsible for the care of the pet. Should anything happen to the animal, guess who the owner is going to blame?

We are all guilty of letting owners “bully” us into things that make us uncomfortable. We must always remember that by compromising ourselves, we also compromise our reputation and our profession.

To find a professional pet sitter in your area, visit the PSI Locator.

© Copyright 2010 by Pet Sitters International. All rights reserved. For reprint permission for this article, contact EllenPrice@petsit.com.