As a pet owner, it is your responsibility to take care of your pet and check its health regularly. Your pet is a part of your family, so you need to treat it as such and provide it with the best care possible. If your pet shows any signs of illness, you need to fix that problem immediately. Cats are very good at hiding signs of illness, so you can’t always notice that something is wrong but, fortunately, there are ways in which you can check your pet’s health at home, without constant trips to the vet. We’ll provide you with several tips for checking your cat’s health here. Read on to learn more about signs and signals you should pay attention to in order to keep your furry little friend healthy.

Appetite and Activity

If your cat has a good appetite, then you probably have nothing to worry about. However, if it happens that your cat is experiencing loss of appetite, it may be a sign of some illness. Sudden weight loss or weight gain can mean that your pet is sick, so you must address that problem as soon as possible. You can do this by checking to see if you can feel the ribcage of your cat by squeezing it very gently. If you can feel some change, you need to take your cat to the vet and probably change its diet. If your cat has gained weight and become less active than usual, it can become overweight which can lead to some serious diseases (see our blog here about Health Risks Associated with Overweight/Obesity). You need to engage in some playtime with your pet friend, to make sure it gets enough exercise and that it stays healthy and happy.

Physical Appearance

Grooming is very important for cats, so if your cat’s coat isn’t as shiny as always and its skin is dry, that may be a sign of some illness. If your cat’s coat shows bald patches, wounds or maybe cat fleas, it can also be a sign of sickness you need to take care of. You can tell if your cat is healthy by checking its eyes, nose and ears as well. A healthy cat should have clear eyes with no teary discharge, its nose should be dry and without any discharge as well, and its ears should be clean. If your cat is constantly rubbing its eyes and ears, it is probably due to some inflammation, so you need to take it to the vet. It’s also important that your cat’s teeth are always clean and its breath normal. If it has bad breath, it can be a sign of dental disease, kidney problems or diabetes.

Check Your Cat’s Health through Urine Collection

The best way to check your cat’s health is to get a sample of its urine, because it can show you signs of kidney failure, urinary tract infection, high glucose levels and blood in urine. You can check these parameters by using CheckUp, which is a non-invasive, non-toxic and stress-free at home wellness test for cats. The CheckUp kit provides you with hydrophobic litter, which you pour in your cat’s clean litter box, and a sample collection vial and pipette, as well as testing strips. With the use of the pipette and the vial, you can easily collect your cat’s urine sample from the surface of the sand and check for signs of a disease with the help of the testing strips. The CheckUp kit is the perfect solution for monitoring your pet friend’s health at home and detecting any signs of illness in time, so that you can provide it with the best care possible.

Your cat truly is a member of your family, so you need to do everything you can to keep your little animal friend healthy. Follow these tips to regularly monitor your cat’s health and ensure your cat remains happy at all times.