Jon Bowen, animal behaviour consultant at the Royal Veterinary College and Sureflap have declared 8th May 'Vet Cat Watch Day', and are asking the profession to record the reason why each cat seen that day is brought into the practice.

Jon explained: "There are more than 10 million pet cats in the UK, however there is little information about the prevalence of injuries, disease, cat fights and road traffic accidents on a national scale".

The absence of data became apparent when findings from research on over 1,000 cats - conducted as part of the Neighbourhood Cat Campaign, supported by SureFlap and Your Cat magazine - revealed cats that had suffered minor injuries from fights were more likely to develop other health issues, such as hair loss and eye infections.

Judith Bank from SureFlap said: "People often purchase a microchip-operated cat flap to help their pet to feel secure. Owners tell us that their pet is spraying in the house or has been losing fur and this motivated us to support research to look deeper into the problems that pet owners might be having. We soon realised that objective data from vets was not available to qualify the findings and this is where the idea of 'Vet Cat Watch Day' emerged."

Jon said: "The aim of Vet Cat Watch Day is to take a snap-shot of cats' health from veterinary practices across the nation, on one day. The results will be compiled alongside information from cat owners gained in 'Cat Watch Day' a few days earlier.

A report detailing preliminary findings from the Neighbourhood Cat Campaign is available from the SureFlap website.  When complete the results will be used to help provide vets with an insight into the lives of domestic cats so they are better equipped to understand behavioural issues.

For more information on Vet Cat Watch Day please visit the SureFlap website The site hosts a PDF to print out and help record the feline cases that come through practice doors on the 8th May, which can be downloaded from www.sureflap.co.uk/vetwatch_info. At the end of the day, visit www.sureflap.co.uk/vetwatch to upload your data to the online survey.

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