In the latest part of her cat care column, pet expert Pauline Dewberry (who runs the website www.thedailymews.com) offers some tips on taking your kitten to the vet with the least amount of stress for the both of you.

Other than your kitten’s first course of injections, and his ‘operation’, one would hope that he would only need to visit the V-E-T once a year for his booster.

When he has the ‘snip’, he can be microchipped at the same time, thus reducing the number of visits he’ll have to make. This lowers the stress levels for both you and little Fluffy.

Cats seem to have a sixth sense when it comes to going to the V-E-T. As soon as their carrier comes out into the open, they’ll have an urgent appointment in the garden to deal with, leaving you with a carrier and no cat.

It can be very stressful for cats to go to the V-E-T (I’m spelling out the word because they also seem to understand it when you say it out loud. Even if you only think it to yourself, without voicing it, they tune in on your thoughts, clever little devils that they are!), so here are a few tips to hopefully make trips in the future less of an ordeal for both of you.

• Keep the basket in the room (if you’re able to, I know space is a premium for some folks) where the cat spends most of his time. Leave it open for him to explore and put a nice blanket and some of his toys in there so that he will associate the basket with ‘good things’.

• On the day of the visit, add a t-shirt or nightdress (not a diaphanous one as you might encourage unwanted attention from someone else in the V-E-T’s surgery!) – something that you’ve worn recently which has your own scent on it, something that your cat will associate with you. Don’t be tempted to spray your clothing with a burst of Obsession or Paco Rabanne as cats don’t like very strong perfumes or aftershave.

• Spray Feliway in the basket and over the nice blanket and your item of clothing about 10 – 15 minutes before you pop him into the basket. Feliway is a synthetic pheromone which mimics a cat’s natural pheromones, and this will relax him.

• Give yourself plenty of time to get to the V-E-T because if you’re rushing, Fluffy will pick up on your anxieties and will act accordingly. Casey always deposits the smelliest of poos in the carrier on our trips there and back. Someone said it was out of spite because he doesn’t like going to the V-E-T, but cats are not spiteful that way. It’s more likely because of nerves. Cats do have long memories and they remember being poked and prodded.

Follow these tips and trips to the V-E-T in future should be a breeze!