The Veterinary Centre is an independent, small animal practice with its main surgery in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire and a branch surgery in Twyford, Berkshire.  The surgery runs a wide selection of nurse clinics covering dental care, arthritis, senior pets, adolescents, weight management and worming/flea treatments.

Historically, The Veterinary Centre has taken blood pressure in its hospitalised cats and blood pressure checks were taken on an ad-hoc basis during consultations if vets or nurses were worried about them.

Here we hear from Sarah Whittaker RVN, Dip AVN (Surg), Dip VNRT, Head Nurse at The Veterinary Centre on how the practice has incorporated nurse-led blood pressure check clinics into its nurse clinic schedule.

“We initially ran a free blood pressure clinic in December 2022 and repeated the exercise six months later in June 2023.  We emailed all owners with cats over seven through our practice management system and via PetsApp and we also posted about the blood pressure clinics on our social media pages.

Clinic format

“The blood pressure check clinics took place in a room separate from the main vet practice building (actually our physiotherapy room).  We booked out a 30-minute appointment and asked owners to stay in the car park with their cat to help keep blood pressure down!  We would place a blanket with Feliway sprayed on it over the cat carrier for added reassurance and we would call the owner over when we were ready for them.

“One of our nurses would carry out the blood pressure check using a doppler and if blood pressure was found to be borderline or high then a vet would be tasked with having a conversation with the owner.  Owners with cats with ‘normal’ blood pressure would be advised to come back for a check-up in six months.

Campaign results

“During the December 2022 campaign, we tested about 25 cats and approximately a fifth of them were pre-hypertensive or hypertensive; the hypertensive ones were prescribed medication and the owners of the pre-hypertensive cats were advised to come back for another test at a later date and, if borderline, were advised to have their cats re-tested in six months’ time.

Feedback from clients

“We had really positive feedback from clients and most cats were really well behaved during the blood pressure checks.  While some clients were surprised that we measure blood pressure in cats, others drew comparisons to having their own blood pressure checked with comments like ‘Oh, exactly the same as when we have our blood pressure checked at the doctor’s’!

Conclusion

“We found that owners were really receptive to having their cat’s blood pressure checked and we hope to repeat our free blood pressure check clinics every six months in the future to help identify other cats suffering from this ‘hidden condition’ that can be diagnosed so easily.”