Why don't cats have vets?

[Mollycat]

Our vet is a cat Gold Standard practice but last year they registered half the number of new cats as dogs, despite there being slightly more cats in the UK than dogs. They are planning to do a survey at some point to see why this might be.

I have a few ideas, well lots actually, but I thought it would be an interesting discussion for us here. Any thoughts?

[papa cat]

Maybe cats are hardier than dogs ?
Cats hide their illnesses so, to their keepers, they don't appear to need to visit the vet.

[fjm]

I wonder if, in the past at least, cats were seen as something you got for free, and therefore did not get basic preventative care or even emergency care. But I would have thought that would have changed, especially in the past year. Perhaps more cats and kittens are being adopted from rescues, fully vaccinated, wormed and deflead, and their owners are avoiding visiting vets because of Covid? How did figures compare in previous years?

[Ruth B]

My first thought was how much comes down to breeding.

I've no figures, but I have the impression that a moggy is a lot more common than a mongrel, and certainly cats breeds don't have the same number of conformation issues that dog breeds possess.

Also while i have never had a dog, I have the impression that a dog will come to their owner if something is wrong where as a cat is more likely to off somewhere quiet.

[Mollycat]

They didn't say about previous years but I had a hunch maybe 2020 might have been a bit skewed, though I was thinking more of how the price of puppies has gone through the roof suggesting there is increased demand.

Also vaccines and chipping are essential for pups but more of a choice for cats, especially indoor cats, and there's no such thing as an indoor dog. And maybe cats are genuinely more hardy than dogs, as well as better at hiding their woes?

I remember those old days, when ads in the local newsagents read "kittens free to good homes" and all our kittens (all 3) came from friends, free. OH was really shocked when I showed him that our "daft old Wusstat" Boo was actually as I put it "800 quids worth of daft old Wusstat" but there are much more expensive breeds than that.

[Kay]

I suspect it comes down to breeding too - I wonder how many of the dogs registered are pure bred - most probably

unregistered mongrels might well be closer to the unregistered moggie number - and as spaying and neutering must be a major reason for registering cats, the fact that rescues do this is another reason for the difference