Bringing Home a Kitten: The First Two Weeks

A new kitten changes the whole house within about a day, and somewhere between the naming and the first zoomies across the living room, there's a short list of things worth doing early rather than later. Here's what the first couple of weeks should actually look like, based on how we handle new kittens at Best Friends Veterinary Care in Iowa City.

Book the first exam right away

Whether your kitten came from a breeder, a shelter, a rescue, or showed up in your yard, get that first exam scheduled as soon as you can. It's the starting point for everything else, the vaccine schedule, the testing, and a general check that your kitten is eating, growing, and moving the way a healthy kitten should. That first visit also includes a full physical exam, the same starting point we use for every new patient regardless of age, checking eyes, ears, and skin and listening to the heart and lungs, so we have a real baseline for your kitten from day one.

Testing for FeLV and FIV before anything else

One of the most important things we do at that first visit, before your kitten has real contact with any other cats in the household, is test for feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). The order matters. Testing first, before introductions, protects any resident cats you already have and gives you real information to plan around rather than finding out after the fact. This matters most when a kitten's background is unknown, a stray, a kitten from a large shelter intake, or one separated from its mother early, since there's no history to go on and the test is the only way to know for certain.

The vaccine series

Like puppies, kittens go through a vaccine series rather than a single visit, because it takes more than one exposure for a young immune system to build solid protection. The series covers:

• Rabies
• Feline panleukopenia (feline distemper)
• Calicivirus
• Rhinotracheitis (feline influenza)

Depending on your kitten's risk factors, particularly whether they'll spend any time outdoors or around other cats, we may also recommend the FeLV vaccine on top of the FeLV/FIV test itself. We'll talk through what makes sense for your kitten's actual situation rather than defaulting to the same plan for every cat that comes through the door.

Parasite testing

The early visits also include testing for intestinal parasites, the same as we do for puppies. It's a simple, routine part of getting a new kitten established, and it's one more reason not to put off that first appointment, even if your kitten seems perfectly fine on the surface. Kittens that came from a larger litter or a shelter environment are more likely to be carrying something worth catching early, simply because of how much contact they've had with other kittens.

If your kitten came from a shelter or rescue

If you adopted your kitten from a shelter or rescue group within the last two weeks, we offer a free adoption exam. That covers groups like the Iowa City Animal Care & Adoption Center, Safe Haven of Iowa County, Cedar Valley Humane Society, Petfinder, K9 Kindness Rescue, and Fur Fun Rescue. If you're not sure whether your particular rescue qualifies, just call and ask, we're happy to check. That exam is a good time to bring along any paperwork the shelter gave you, so we can see what's already been done and what's still ahead on the schedule.

A few practical things worth knowing

We have free parking at the clinic, which helps when you're carrying a kitten carrier in one hand and trying not to drop your keys with the other. Our hours vary through the week, we're open until 6pm on Mondays, close at noon on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and are closed Sundays, so it's worth checking before your first visit. Between appointments, our online pharmacy is linked from every page on the site if your kitten needs anything reordered.

Two weeks feels like a short window for so much to happen, but spacing it out any further just means waiting longer to know your kitten is actually healthy. If you have questions about timing or what to expect at the first visit, call us at (319) 341-7111 or email ask@bfveterinarycareic.com, and we'll walk you through it before you even come in.