Gold Cat Friendly Clinic

Archway Vets are delighted to have been a Gold level accredited Cat Friendly Clinic since 2020!  We are thrilled to have been the first Gold level Cat Friendly Clinic in the South Lakes.  This means that the whole team understand that bringing a cat to the vet can be difficult so that we do all we can to minimise the worry for cats and their families.  The Practice has undergone a thorough assessment to achieve this award and continue to keep up exceptional standards to maintain the accreditation.

How do we improve the experience of coming to the vets for cats and their owners?

  • Cat Advocates Vet Megan and RVN Steph are in place to ensure that Cat Friendly criteria are met and support the team to follow best feline practice.  They each are required to carry out additional cat related studies every year to remain as Cat Advocates.

  • The team are able to provide advice for cat owners to help to minimise the stress of travelling to and from the clinic.  Once the cat has arrived at the surgery, the entire team carry out calm, gentle handling, respecting the unique needs of feline patients.

  • We have a separate waiting space for cats, where cats and dogs cannot see each other.  There is also the option to use shelves to place cats above floor level, as they feel safer higher up.  We offer one cat appointment at a time to reduce the number of cats coming into contact with each other in the cat only waiting room.

  • Our appointments are 20 minutes long giving the cats time to acclimatise and settle in the feline-only consulting room.  As the consulting room is dedicated to cats only, it is fully stocked with equipment suitable for cats e.g. a weighing scales and scopes for smaller ears and eyes.  Keeping the consulting room exclusively for cats means that it never smells of dogs, which can be seen by cats to as a potential threat.

  • Cats that need to stay with us for operations, or hospitalisation due to ill health are settled into large cages in a cat-only ward, again reducing their stress by avoiding other species.  There is a range of cosy bedding, the opportunity to hide away or sit high up and every step is taken to help the cat feel comfortable.  They are checked throughout the day and night by the RVN and vet team, and owners receive progress updates regularly.

  • Cats that need to stay with us for operations, or hospitalisation due to ill health are settled into large cages in a cat-only ward, again reducing their stress by avoiding other species.  There is a range of cosy bedding, the opportunity to hide away or sit high up and every step is taken to help the cat feel comfortable.  They are checked throughout the day and night by the RVN and vet team, and owners receive progress updates regularly.

  • The Archway standards for anaesthesia and surgery exceed those required to attain a gold Cat Friendly Clinic rating.  We achieve this by having multiple theatres equipped and ready for feline surgery, and qualified nurses available 24/7 to monitor sedations and anaesthetics using high quality equipment.  This combines to give you easy to access on site planned and emergency surgery with reduced risks and desired outcomes.

  • We have an operating theatre dedicated to dental procedures, 3D dental Adaptix X-ray, ultrasonic dental scaler, dental machine and a range of equipment to maximise feline dental health.  The dental Adaptix X-ray machine is used for all cat dentals to help detect problems under the gum line which cannot be seen by eye.  Conversely dental X-ray can also help to determine which teeth look unhealthy on the surface but are not causing the cat a problem, avoiding teeth being removed unnecessarily.

  • At the practice there is a top of the range 3D X-ray machine which is especially good at generating orthopaedic images due to the amount of detailed obtained in the views.  We also have a full in-house top of the range ultrasound machine which is used widely by our vets for diagnosing soft tissue disorders.

  • We also have a range of laboratory equipment that is used for testing samples such as blood, urine and faeces.  This allows us to obtain the information needed to create a full work up efficiently for both ongoing chronic and emergency conditions with minimal waiting times.