Dear Boo:

With the coming of summer, I hope you’ll be able to take time from your very busy schedule to answer my question. I have two cats, both five years old. They are primarily indoor cats, but they do like to spend time with my partner and me in our yard in the summer months. We have very a high fence (too high for them to jump over), and the cats are never out there without one of the two of us. They are never outdoors without supervision. Any special precautions that we should take even though they don’t have contact with any other animals when they are outside, and we are always with them?

Mike (and Duncan and Puck)

Dear Mike (Duncan and Puck):

Cheers to you for keeping your furry feline friends indoors unless they’re well supervised outside. Cats who freely roam outside have a much shorter life span due to both disease and trauma (being hit by cars, mistreated by humans who don’t like cats, locked in garages, attacked by dogs or wildlife, etc.) Assuming your cats do not have any chance of exposure to other cats, and neighborhood cats don’t come into your yard (sounds like you’ve got a great fence!), your Duncan and Puck don’t have a high risk (and probably no risk) of infection with feline leukemia virus. Therefore, they should not need the feline leukemia (or FIV) vaccines. They should be up to date, however, on their combination feline distemper/ upper respiratory virus vaccine (as these are airborne viruses), as well as their rabies vaccine. See our library article on vaccines in cats.

In addition, fleas can be a big problem here in Chicago, especially in the warmest and most humid months of summer. Our doctors always recommend the once monthly topical flea products for any of our patients who spend any time outside in the summer. These products are very easy to administer, and they are very safe. (Even though I never set my three feet outside, I still have to have a monthly flea preventive applied by our nurses here, just in case any of the cats that come into my hospital may bring in a flea or two. Our staff here, though, is very aggressive about keeping any cat with fleas in our isolation area, and aggressively treating them, as well as any areas where they have been in the hospital).

It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, too, to consider microchipping your Duncan and Puck. For more information on microchipping, see our Services page.

Lastly, a safety collar with a bell, along with your supervision while your cats are in the yard with you, may keep Duncan and Puck from decreasing the bird population when their hunting instincts kick in while they are outside. (And trust me, even though I’m very well fed, I, like all cats, have that instinct to hunt, even with three legs and on a full belly!).

Have a good summer!

Boo,

the busy Businessman