Paws up for practice’s cat pillows
Apatient care assistant has found the purr-fect way to keep feline patients at Davies Veterinary Specialists, near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, comfortable in the cat ward: by making them special cat pillows.
The safe, super-soft pillows, which are all made from recycled materials and sprayed with a stress-relieving cat pheromone, have been given a definite 'paws up' by patients so far.
Davies, an International Society of Feline Medicine Gold Standard Approved Practice, already adheres to a rigorous set of criteria aimed at reducing feline stress, but the feline team are always looking for new strategies to make the practice even more cat-friendly. This is why Rebecca Stevens came up with a new idea to reduce anxiety in hospitalised cats.
Rebecca says: “Cats like to snuggle up to something soft so I came up with the idea of a pillow for each patient that can be sprayed with a special pheromone to help reduce anxiety.”
Rebecca recycled old pillowcases and blankets to make small cat pillows. Each pillow is stuffed with old pillow wadding, meaning that they are fully machine washable, which is important for infection control.
Rebecca adds: “They are a huge hit with our feline patients.
"It’s been such a rewarding project and pillows are now standard issue in the cat ward.”