Hiss & Tell: Cat Behavior and Beyond

Emergency & Disaster Preparedness for Cats!

• Kristiina Wilson • Season 2 • Episode 26

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Ensure your feline companions are protected and prepared for emergencies and natural disaster with insights from Dr. Gina Rendon, a trusted veterinarian from Williamsburg Vets. Discover essential strategies for creating an impeccable emergency preparedness plan, ranging from assembling a foolproof emergency kit to mastering the art of pet anxiety management. With the rising threats of wildfires, floods, and hurricanes, our conversation is a critical guide for any cat owner eager to safeguard their pets amidst unexpected crises.

Dr. Rendon and I uncover the unique challenges of nurturing resilience in our feline friends when routines are disrupted. Learn why familiarizing your cat with harnesses and unusual situations is crucial, and gain practical tips on incorporating sedatives into your emergency kit to help soothe your pet during stressful events. We highlight the importance of community support post-emergency and underscore the need for comprehensive preparation, including the vital steps for international pet travel.

Secure your home and reduce your cat's anxiety with our effective sheltering techniques, focusing on creating safe spaces and employing recall training as a fun, routine game. From keeping microchip information updated to assembling a compact yet comprehensive emergency go-bag, this episode is your pathway to peace of mind. Prepare methodically by organizing vital documents and essential supplies, ensuring a seamless emergency response that keeps both you and your pets safe and sound.

Kristiina Wilson:

Hi and welcome to Hiss and Tell a Cat Behavior and More podcast hosted by me, Kristiina Wilson, animal behaviorist. In this week's episode, I'm teaming up with Dr Gina Rendon to tackle a topic that I think is really important for all of us emergency preparedness for cats. So, from the essentials of creating a foolproof emergency kit to tips for transporting your cat, our conversation is packed with life-saving advice. Make sure to check out the Hiss Tell website for guides, checklists and more information from this episode. Hi and welcome to another episode of Hiss Tell. I am your host, Kristiina Wilson, and with me again today is super friend and amazing veterinarian, dr Gina Rendon of Williamsburg Vets. Welcome, gina, yay.

Kristiina Wilson:

So today's topic is something that I think is really important and that I have been kind of spiraling I can't even talk Spiraling about lately, which is emergency slash disaster preparedness for pets, and so I just thought that we should dive into this topic. There have been a lot of wildfires lately. My area of the world, connecticut, has had wildfires and flooding. It's had a lot of crazy stuff. I think a lot of people are also nervous, given the political climate. So I think this is just something that's important for all of us to discuss and know about Gina. Do you have any thoughts?

Dr Gina Rendon:

So when you asked me to do this which is always something that I think is important to think about, but since I'm not the kind of person that does dwell on it, I actually really this was a very good opportunity for me to really kind of buckle down and see what needed to be thought about and taken care of.

Dr Gina Rendon:

And so, you know, I think for me one of the things is that in the past, when I've always thought about, like, emergency preparedness, I'll start looking at what's out there and I start to get overwhelmed almost immediately. Yeah, so I think you know, what I would really like is for this to be something that doesn't induce anxiety Right, the listeners, because I think for me, I don't tend to be a high anxiety person, but when I start looking at all of this, then my anxiety starts to rise and then it's really easy to be like, oh no, I don't, I don't need to do this. So I would really like to talk about, like, the basics for cats, for animals in general, and talk about the really simple things, but important things that somebody can do to start getting prepared. So that that's kind of the direction that I'd like to take this, but, of course, if you want to do more than this.

Kristiina Wilson:

No, I think and we were talking before I hit record that I think you and I are balancing each other out. I think, as we often do, because I am an anxious person and I'm also a prepper and I have always been a prepper, which has been really helpful. And you know, when we had Hurricane Sandy and you know I was already with all the cats for, you know, several weeks of no supplies and you know that was very handy. But I tend to then also go off in a crazy anxiety spiral, which is certainly happening right now. So I think it's good if we can balance each other out. So, like I said, if I start going too crazy, just tell me to shut it down, just get the hook and reel me back in yeah, reel me back in from talks of bunkers and stuff, because I can go that far Like, oh, I think we need a bunker. That's crazy, that's getting crazy. So, to start off with like why is this such an important topic for pet owners, especially cat owners? To think about being prepared in an emergency.

Dr Gina Rendon:

I mean, I think, for everybody. There's nowhere that you can live right now where there's not the possibility that something could affect you, right, whether you're like you were saying, because New York, brooklyn, we had a fire in recently and that's something you know reading the papers there's been fires up along the highways, and so New York has more fires than they ever have before.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Obviously, I'm in a flood zone, people are in hurricane zones, you know whether you're affected by tornadoes or whether you're affected by you know whatever tsunamis, earthquakes there are so many things.

Dr Gina Rendon:

It's really hard to think of yourself as somebody who is not going to be affected. I think everybody right now is potentially at risk for having some kind of emergency, and so being prepared, I do think, is so important. I think one of the things, though, that makes it also challenging, and one of the reasons that it was harder for me to sit down and think about, is because there are different ways for emergencies to go right. So there's the hunkering down like you're filtering in place type of emergency, which requires different types of preparedness than if you are on foot or in your car. So sometimes you have access to your car and you might be able to take your car, sometimes you don't. You know so. So there are so many different variables that you would have to prepare for, I think, for cats in particular. To me, what was very interesting is that this goes back to the thing that I feel like we always talk about in every single podcast that I do with you which is having your cat's carrier ready.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Yes, yes, yes, that to me is one of the biggest things, and this is actually true not just for cats, but also for little dogs or for just animals, having them transport friendly, whether you've got little lizards or little rabbits or whatever just having, because you'd be surprised how many times people come. We had somebody who came recently with their cat with no bag.

Kristiina Wilson:

What.

Dr Gina Rendon:

No harness, no bag. She was carrying her cat and so it's so important for people to and that happens a lot with our exotics patients, where people will come in with a turtle in a plastic bag or, you know, in a paper bag, you know where the transport is not ideal and so finding and it doesn't have to be anything fancy, you know you can get those collapsible boxes at a minimum, not that I'm necessarily demanding that, but if you really need to and if you know funds are an issue, then that's that certainly is an option. But you know, one of the things that we've talked about over and over again and I cannot emphasize it enough is making your carrier part of your furniture. You know, having it out all the time, having your cats be used to, thinking of it as a space that they like to hang out in, putting toys in there, food in there, feeding them in there, put a nice little fleece bottom in there, so that it's nice and cozy.

Dr Gina Rendon:

But acclimating cats to the carrier is to me, one of the most important things, and I was going to say, and one of the things too is you know, as a vet I know that there are more cats as pets than there are dogs, and we see way more dogs because people are so reluctant to bring their cats in and that carrier readiness. Part of that is sometimes taking a trip to the vet, and so that actually, what I have found is that cats that come on a regular basis do tend to be easier to handle than the cats that all of a sudden they have to come because now something is going on. They haven't been to the vet in 10 years and I'm not exaggerating We'll see cats that haven't been to the vet in 10 years. Now they're in this situation that they've never been before, and it's so stressful, and so my recommendation is to. Obviously, I like to make sure that pets are being seen on a regular basis, but I feel like that's part of it.

Dr Gina Rendon:

That's part of the practice is you have them in a carrier. It's not a stressful situation. They're used to the carrier because it's out all the time at home. It's a place that they, like you know, using your feel away, using your thunder shirts, using your you know all of those things that we've talked about before the homeopathic ways of making cats comfortable, but then also, if you need, talking to your vet about using medications as well. Yes, yeah.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, yeah.

Kristiina Wilson:

One thing I wanted to add to that and that was all really wonderful information is that, on top of having your cat carrier trained and really comfortable in their carrier is possibly and I'm going to talk about this a little bit later in our talk is training a recall sound for the carrier, or not even necessarily a recall sound for the carrier, or not even necessarily a recall sound for the carrier, but a sound that the cat will then understand like oh, now it's time to go into the carrier.

Kristiina Wilson:

And you do that once a week, once a month in your home so that your cats understand like oh, when I go into the carrier and it gets shut and maybe I get carried around the house for a few minutes, that's a fun time for me. I get a treat. House for a few minutes, that's a fun time for me, I get a treat, and you associate that with a certain command, word, sound, whatever it is that you want to do, so that if there's an emergency, you can very quickly get your cat to go into the carrier and I will. I do want to talk about recall sounds for staying at home in terms of emergencies and going into like a not necessarily a safe room but like a basement if there is tornado or something like that, but we'll talk about that a little bit farther down the line in this episode. Are there particular challenges to preparing for emergencies with cats as compared to other pets that you think?

Dr Gina Rendon:

You know, I mean, I think it's just challenging in general. I think it's challenging for any animal that doesn't understand what's going on. You have to change their routine, you have to change the situation. I feel like that's inherently going to be stressful, no matter whether it's a cat or a dog. I mean, I think how use your animal is to your handling and to being in unusual situations, it's going to make it a little bit easier. And so you know, having your cat trained to have a harness, for example yeah, you know things like that, just having them used, being a little bit more resilient when it comes to changes, I think is just really important. I don't know that. I would say that cats are more challenging this way. I feel, like any, any, I think we're going to be really challenged.

Dr Gina Rendon:

I don't think anyone's going to be in a way where it's like, oh you know, this is easy peasy. I think it's. It's something that all, all creatures are going to have a little bit of a hard time with. But you know, on that end, I think that, and we can certainly later talk about what we want to have in our emergency kits. But one of the things that I have not seen on the various lists that are published online are sedatives, and I really do think sedatives are super important. We give them away to animals that are traveling. You have the clients that are traveling with animals because there are such really great, safe, easy to use sedatives, and so I do think it's very important to have that as part of your emergency preparedness kit.

Kristiina Wilson:

I would totally agree, and actually that was my next question is what essential items do you think should be included in a cat emergency preparedness kit?

Dr Gina Rendon:

Yeah, so and the the links that you have that have various lists. I really like the AVMA preparedness website and I'm assuming that you're going to have these.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yes, I will. For everyone listening. I'm going to post, probably under the YouTube of this and on the Hissintel website on the actual episode link. I will post links to all of the resources that I think Gina and I both looked at for this episode, which is the ASPCA disaster preparedness and the CDC pet disaster preparedness, and the US Government Emergency Preparedness, humane Society like FEMA, and then, of course, the AVMA, which I think is, at least for Gina and I, always an amazing place to go to to look for. So there's so many sources and I will paste them all there so you guys can go there and check out all those resources.

Dr Gina Rendon:

And one of the things that I actually started working on which I can also make available. I'm not done with it yet, but one of the things that is also challenging is that you have to prepare for yourself, you have to prepare for your family and you have to prepare for your pet, and so I actually did start making consolidated lists because there's obviously some overlap. But you know your documents bag that should have your information. You know your ID, your passports, your you know your little bag of your important information should also include your pet information.

Dr Gina Rendon:

And we can talk about the specifics of that, but I can also have that checklist. We'll put that on our Williamsburg website and then you can also have access to that, but that would be amazing, because that that was another thing I was going to talk about.

Kristiina Wilson:

That I think I forgot to put on the list of things that we're going to talk about today, Gina, because I am a hot mess, but I'll just bring it up now so that then we can talk about it after we answer. This question is getting your pet ready, if you need to, for international travel. So if there is some kind of disaster here and you need to get your pets on a plane and take them to another country, what do you need to have? I will talk about that later, but just so that marinates in your brain as we're talking about some stuff, yeah no we do a lot of certificates, so yes, I'm very, very familiar.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yes, but sorry, I as usual digressed, especially because this topic as discussed makes me antsy and I'm just like. So what essential items should be in the cat emergency preparedness kit?

Dr Gina Rendon:

Obviously food and water, I think the most important things. If you're going to leave, you should have food and water, for I think the AVMA says two days, two to three days at most. But so, interestingly enough, I did talk recently to somebody who was in Asheville during Helene and what was kind of nice to hear from her point of view was that she felt like after those initial couple of days of you know things not like the electricity was out, everything was bad, but then the community support and the outreach that was going on there, they were able to very quickly have resources available. So I think it's important for people to know that you're not going to be completely alone. So this is not what's that TV show with Pablo Pascal.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Oh, oh, ah my brain, the rest of us, I don't know.

Kristiina Wilson:

The last, the last? No, that's not right. We sound so like like moms right now, like, no, that's not right. We sound so like moms right now, like, oh, what's the show with that? Peter guy? Peter Pasquale, you know, you're just getting everything wrong. Hang on, I'm going to. I have to Google it now. Pedro Pascal, I think it's the Last of Us, but I'm probably very wrong. I just started typing in Peter Pascal. I am such a moron. Do do do the last of us all, right, you're right, yeah, okay you know.

Dr Gina Rendon:

One would hope that it's not going to be like that where you're just on the lam right yourself and there's. You know, people do actually come together after emergence, and so at least being prepared for the first two to three days is really important. So food and water Food you know how much you're feeding your cat every day, and so that times three. For water, the rule of thumb is about a cup per 10 pound cat and that's actually, I think, true for most animals. So a cup of water per day, so you don't really need a huge amount of water. The water that I think the recommendations for humans is something like a gallon, three gallons.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Something. Is it three gallons or one gallon? I think it's one gallon. One gallon. One gallon per person per day.

Kristiina Wilson:

Let's look that up up so we're not giving incorrect information and making people dehydrated.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Yeah, one gallon per person. So one gallon per person per day, and then not that much more for your animals, because a cup per day is really not too bad, but yeah, just making sure that you're accounting for them as well. So, with cats, litter boxes obviously are really important, and they do make collapsible litter boxes. Yes, yes.

Dr Gina Rendon:

I got a bunch of those for our kit we're so excited to be able to store those away um much easier than having your standard plastic litter box. But in a pinch it's also important to remember that you can also use like a you know, the um cardboard that the cans, the small cans yes, I've used those before.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah.

Dr Gina Rendon:

You can use those, but with like a plastic lining and so in a pinch, if you really need to, something like that. And then obviously, litter and I couldn't find like how much litter you should bring per day, but think about what would cover the bottom and having room to be able to, or being able to dispose of that and put more, refresh that a couple of times. But, and also, in a pinch, if you don't have litter, you can use shredded paper. So we've used shredded paper for kitties before and you know, as long as they're kind of in an area that looks like a litter box, then they'll often use it.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Wee-wee pads obviously are important because you know, sometimes you just end up having to use the wee-wee pad Medications and so you know it's good to have at least like a week's worth of medications.

Dr Gina Rendon:

And this to me is another really important thing as a vet. We often have people who will call for a refill of their medication the day before it's finished. No, no, fingers pointed so, and that you know, even under the best of circumstances that doesn't really people would be shocked by how many prescription refill requests we get every day. And so to think that you're going to call and get the refills before you run out the next day is very optimistic thinking, and so, just in general, I would love to train people to think about give it at least a week, if not a couple of weeks, before you call to get your refill, so that you always have a couple of weeks on hand. So that's very important. And then things like flea and tick and heartworm preventative I think a lot of people don't think about, especially if they have cats that are inside only, but would be really important if you are leaving, you want to make sure that you have those. So, and then, of course, like I said, the sedatives is part of your medications as well.

Kristiina Wilson:

Is it possible and this is my panic brain, because I've done this for my personal medications to get an advanced supply to kind of hoard for the emergencies right, so you can have like two weeks or a month's supply of your cat's medication? That's just in your emergency preparedness?

Dr Gina Rendon:

area.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, is that something that people can do, or is that not something that people?

Dr Gina Rendon:

can do Veterinary hospital to veterinary hospital, you know, kind of depends. So we do have protocols in place for recheck examinations and blood work, not so much for the sedatives. Those pretty much are really and again, like I'm not speaking for every, there's not. Every hospital has their own protocols, but if it's a chronic medication we generally will give six months out at a time and so as long as the exam is up to date and as long as the blood work is up to date, then you can continue to get those refills. So you could have as much as six months on hand, which is well more than enough than what you would need for an emergency.

Kristiina Wilson:

Right, okay. And what about a first aid kit for cats?

Dr Gina Rendon:

Yes. So you definitely want a first aid kit and again, I think I mean we could go through the individual things, even though I feel like that would be a little time consuming and probably better just to have the list as a link. But the first aid kit for humans and pets would have a lot of overlap. So your bandages, your gauze, your cling wrap there's something called vet wrap in the vet world which is, I think it's now pretty standard. Once it was in the vet world, I think it went over to the human side a little bit too. But that's important. To have.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Antibiotic ointment is important to have Saline flush, and for cats and dogs in general, I think it's not a bad idea. This was also not included on any of the lists that I saw, but something like an e-collar protect you if your animal is hurt. You could do a muzzle. I'm not a big fan of muzzles for cats. Something like an e-collar would give you a little bit more, I mean a little protection without it being a muzzle, right, but having something like that, I think, is not a bad idea. Squeezers, eye drops, saline I think the rest is pretty much similar. Okay, so whatever you have oh, thermometers, make sure that you have an animal dedicated thermometer.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, and are there any medications that people should try to have in advance, other than antibiotic ointment?

Dr Gina Rendon:

It's not a bad idea to have Benadryl, because both animals and people can use Benadryl, and then, yeah, your sedatives.

Kristiina Wilson:

But yeah, okay, what is the best way to safely and quickly transport cats during an emergency evacuation? I will just share that Allie and I are thinking pretty strongly about getting a minivan so that we can easily because we just have like a regular Subaru right now, of course, two ladies. We have a Subaru, so we are thinking about getting minivans so that we can get the whole family of 13 cats and us in the car at the same time, if we need to and book it out of here. So do you have any advice about safely and quickly transporting cats in an emergency evacuation?

Dr Gina Rendon:

Well, obviously, your carrier, but also making sure that you have something to cover the carrier with, so something that has a hole around it so that you can have the handle, but is covering the entire carrier, because it can provide protection from wind and rain and and also give the cat a better sense of being enclosed and being safe. So, but you know, I think this is the part that's really hard, because if you're on foot, like, yeah, have a carrier, there are backpack carriers which that I, you know, it just popped into my head right now.

Dr Gina Rendon:

We do have a lot of people who use backpack carriers to come into the clinic, but I don't know if I necessarily think that's a great thing for emergencies. Yeah, it does free up your arms, but you know, most people don't have 13 cats. Yes, so I think, I think, you know, just a regular car probably would be sufficient.

Kristiina Wilson:

Oh, yeah, I'm not saying everyone needs to go get a minivan. Can everybody go get a minivan? No, that's just us, because we have so many animals and if we had to go somewhere on foot, I don't know what we would do, because we can't carry 13 cats.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Yeah. We're not going to think about that. We're not going to be fleeing on foot, like Pablo Pascal, I know.

Kristiina Wilson:

Pablo Pascal, and I know Pablo Pascal it's Pedro Pascal, gina, peter Pablo.

Dr Gina Rendon:

I love him, so I don't know his name, that Jeremiah Pascal.

Kristiina Wilson:

He's such a cutie. What that was amazing. It's good to put some levity into this discussion. Oh my gosh, I feel crazy, okay, okay. So, moving on to if we have to stay at home during a disaster like a storm or an earthquake or a hurricane, whatever's going on, what special precautions should cat owners?

Dr Gina Rendon:

take. Obviously, you want to make sure that everything is secure, that your windows are secure, your doors are secure. I would say in a situation like this, it would make really a lot of sense to not only make sure that your animal is in a carrier, but to go into a room, so something like a bathroom or your bedroom, so that they don't have full range of the entire house. You want to be able to keep them relatively isolated, which is going to keep them calmer. Make sure you have your feel-away spray or diffusers, but I think that's the important thing away from windows, away from doors, obviously, and ideally for cats, having them in a place that is um dark and um covered, you know. So, even in a, in an emergency situation, a closet might be a good, but probably in the carrier, or at least with the carriers and the door shut, where they could go, like in and out of the carrier, within a closet something like that depending on what situation you have, but I think for cats, the cozier they are, the better.

Dr Gina Rendon:

You don't want them to feel too exposed because that is very traumatizing, absolutely.

Kristiina Wilson:

And I will add that I think again, this is where recall I think really comes into play here and this is something I need to work on more in our house is training your cat or cats to have a recall sound for that particular area that you think is gonna be your kind of safe area, given the type of emergencies that happen in your town. So just to give an example, where we live there are often crazy storms, there can be tornadoes, so we have a relatively big cedar closet in the basement of our house. It's the only place that doesn't have windows, so that's the safest place to go in the event of a crazy storm. So I really need to work more on recall sound training for all the cats to on command to be able to just run down there, get into that room that already has the collapsible litter boxes and litter and food and like all the stuff ready if we have to be down there for a bit. And just so that people know, I can now also a link um on the our website page and on the youtube description um to this about how to do a recall training for your cats.

Kristiina Wilson:

But the short of it is essentially you're doing association, so you associate either a particular word or a sound. I used to use keys jingling for recall what I wanted cats to come in, just because they never heard that. So you could pick whatever. Some people use a, but I find then you're like looking for the whistle and that's sometimes not ideal.

Kristiina Wilson:

So, some kind of unique sound that you don't make a lot but that you can easily make when you need to, and associate that with a particular treat and you start really small. You make the sound whenever your cat kind of turns towards you. You give them the treat and then that session ends and then the next time you try to get them closer and closer and closer to the area you want them to recall to every time, rewarding them when they get a little bit closer, and then eventually you have them all the way to that area and then you want to drill them at least once a week, I would say, on that recall, just so that they're remembering it in their head and they're making an association between that sound and this very high value reward, whether it's like, oh, we get tuna in this weird cedar closet, yeah, it's the tuna room. Like they're not thinking, oh, it's the emergency room, it's the tuna room or whatever.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Yeah, that's what I want it to be Make it fun and to make it a game. Yes, exactly, I think that's also for your own training yourself. It should be something that's fun, so that you're not doing it in a state of like, oh my God, let's get this, because if you can make it part of your just normal recall, then that's going to save you so much time and so much anxiety.

Kristiina Wilson:

Exactly, I agree. But I really think, especially with cats, who can so easily panic and then, like a lot of our listeners have wrote in for the questions for this episode, go and hide and go and hide and very difficult for us to reach places, it's great if we can gamify certain situations that would otherwise be scary and give them almost a pattern game that they recognize, so that helps get them out of their anxiety and be like oh no, this is familiar, I know what's happening here.

Kristiina Wilson:

So, they don't go and hide. This is a routine that they've done before and you don't have to waste time digging them out from under the bed or wherever it is they've gone to hide. So I think the more familiar your cat is with this particular routine that you're setting up, the less anxious they'll be and the more easy it will be to get them to shelter. And then the other thing I just wanted to touch on is how to prepare your home to make it as safe and comfortable as possible for cats during a disaster.

Kristiina Wilson:

I personally think, just like having that room that has supplies, that is ready in the event of something where you guys all need to go to a safe room, have your food, your water, your supplies to be warm or cool, the cat's food, their water, their litter boxes just have that all safe and ready so you don't have to worry about it and it's all ready. And you guys have played this game of oh hey, this is where we go to get our tuna treat or freeze dried chicken or our stinky minnows or whatever it is that we do. Um, and make sure there's nothing breakable in there, make sure that you have hand crank flashlights or whatever it is that you need a hand crank radio. Those are. I love hand crank stuff because then you don't have to worry about electricity. I don't know what you would like to add to that, gina if anything, that's exactly what I would say.

Dr Gina Rendon:

And again, it comes back to being prepared before you need to be prepared, yes, thinking of this as something that you should be doing on a regular basis.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, so if people have senior cats or kittens or cats who have health issues, is there anything different that they should do in terms of preparing?

Dr Gina Rendon:

I mean, I think the main thing is just making sure that you have their medications ready, that you're not running out of their medications.

Dr Gina Rendon:

We have not talked about microchips that's what's going to be the next. The next thing was that you're psychic. So and here's an embarrassing story is, as I was preparing you know, doing my disaster preparedness preparations, whatever um, I I know my dogs are microchipped and then I thought, oh my God, I don't even know if their registrations are up to date, I mean my registration. I had them registered early, but my dog, jojo, is still under her adoptee name or her whatever her previous name, which is Peaches, so she was still listed as peaches. So here is an important thing A lot of animals do get microchipped a lot of the time when they're spay or neutered or they're in rescue, and then you kind of think, oh, there's the microchip there, but you don't take those steps to make sure that they're registered and that you have a number.

Dr Gina Rendon:

You'll usually, when you are sent home with your microchip, you're going to have the little barcode and you're going to have the little it's usually a little stickers with the numbers. And use those stickers. Put them on your emergency go bag, put one on your collapsible carrier or whatever carrier you're going to use. Make sure that you have that information registered and up to date and that you have that with your important information, because that's, I think, one that people really take for granted. If you're not sure, then make sure the next time you take your animal to the vet that your animal is scanned and you have that information, because the other thing is that sometimes microchips do fall out, so you may think that, yeah, which isn't, isn't that crazy?

Kristiina Wilson:

Fall out of their body, not just out of position, but like out.

Dr Gina Rendon:

They can leave their body. So we had a, um, an animal that was microchipped and about to go to Hawaii and you know, scan them and then by the time they got to Hawaii there was no microchip. And so they will occasionally and this has happened more than once, and so we've had which I know people don't really know. It's very rare, it's very, very, very, very rare, but we're I'm talking about, we've seen thousands of animals and occasionally they when you think an animal is microchipped, they're not, and so it's always good to scan and then have that checked again.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, that's wild. So immediately after this, I'm going to get out my scanner and scan everyone, yeah.

Dr Gina Rendon:

It's an unusual thing, but it can happen, so yeah, Wow, okay, that is crazy.

Kristiina Wilson:

I wonder where they go.

Dr Gina Rendon:

I think it's usually after they've been microchipped, because the needle itself is pretty large, yeah, and so I think sometimes you know, they get placed and they get scanned and it's there, and then, I think, during the healing process it probably makes its way back out of that hole. That's what happens. It's not like, you know, after they've been microchipped, two years later it's going to fall out.

Kristiina Wilson:

Okay, that's what I was thinking. I was like what?

Dr Gina Rendon:

Okay, that's what I was thinking. I was like what? Okay, I think it's something. So like our Hawaii dog, I think it was microchipped, scanned, it was there, but then by the time it was in Hawaii, it had already migrated. Okay, an entire nightmare. But so just check, yeah, yeah, just check and see.

Kristiina Wilson:

That's totally fair and I like to kind of double triple, be crazy with our animals, as you're aware, because I'm a crazy person. So of course they all have microchips, but they also all have breakaway callers, of course, that have their name and our phone number on them.

Kristiina Wilson:

Right. They also have little trackers on them that if I'm within a certain radius of them I can see exactly where they are. I can ring the tracker so that I can hear where they are. I got those particular trackers just so I could find them in this house. Ah smart, yeah.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Well, I think that's actually a good point too, because a lot of people think that the microchips are trackers. Yes, they're not trackers. All they can do you have to scan them in order to get the information. You have to be registered in order for somebody to contact you. There are universal scanners that will. I mean, for the most part, a microchip can be read by multiple different types of scanners, but not trackers.

Kristiina Wilson:

Right. Yes, that's a very good point.

Dr Gina Rendon:

I think the other important thing, too, is so we have our microchips, our tags with names, phone numbers, which I think should be on collars Make sure that you have a spare collar, that is with your go bag and then also making sure that you have pictures of your pets so that, if you should God forbid get separated, that you have pictures of you with your pet, so that you can show that that is in fact your animal, but also a picture that you can use to distribute around if you need to. We can certainly talk about documents if you'd like.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, let's talk about a scenario where people need to move quickly and they need to go overseas. What documents do people need? And I think obviously you have to look up depending on each country, so we can't cover every single country like what those documents?

Dr Gina Rendon:

are Very different. Yeah, so they do. The USDA APHIS pet travel website is what to check? 99% of the countries require an up-to-date rabies vaccine, and many of them have very specific regulations about those rabies vaccines. So it can't be within 21 days of travel. It has to be at least 21 days or longer.

Dr Gina Rendon:

You can't let your rabies vaccines lapse, because every time it lapses, and so this is actually an issue that we face not infrequently, where an animal will have had a one-year vaccine that lapses and then, for some reason, the next vaccine they get is deemed a three-year vaccine, and that is incorrect. It has to be a one-year vaccine. So then somebody's traveling and they haven't had that vaccine for the animal hasn't had that for years, and that now they're not vaccinated according to travel plans. Right, so that makes it.

Dr Gina Rendon:

You should definitely never let your rabies vaccine lapse and make sure that you're checking those regulations, because it does vary by country. They can be very strict. There are timing issues, so make sure that you know those timing issues. And then some countries also require things like dewormings within a certain number of days of traveling. Some require rabies titer testing, and so that's important. That has to be done months in advance. If you ever want to go to New Zealand or Australia, it's going to take you a year. It's going to take you a year to go. It is a very long and involved process.

Kristiina Wilson:

Why does it take a year? What are they doing?

Dr Gina Rendon:

There's a lot of testing. Oh my gosh, they've recently changed it. I can't even tell you, it's bonkers. So first you have to take pictures of your dog from all these different angles and have a veterinarian attest that that's your dog. You have to have two vets do that and that the rabies fine. Oh my gosh, I can't even tell you. It's like this incredibly long, involved process and then, once there's verification, then you have to start this whole other process where they have to get tested for, I believe, leptobucillosis. There's various disease testing that they have to go through. It's just a very long and expensive and, um you, you know you can't just be johnny depp and go that's what I was gonna say.

Kristiina Wilson:

That's why johnny depp and amber heard just well, as they should like if you have a regulation, you can't just be famous and have a pj and just sneak your animals in like yeah, that's gross yeah yeah, yeah.

Dr Gina Rendon:

so it's very, very involved. So Europe have Europe countries can issue pet passports, so then you can travel more easily back and forth between European countries. Yeah, yeah.

Kristiina Wilson:

All right. I would also say, because I've been looking into this, that you should look up how many animals you're allowed to bring in and what are the regulations around that if you are a multi-pet household, like we are. Again, I think most people probably don't have 13 plus animals, but definitely different countries have different regulations about how many you're allowed to bring in and what the processes around those are. So I would look into those ahead of time as well, just so that you feel prepared and you know know what you're getting into, especially if you're looking at going to a country that has so many restrictions and or has a quarantine period, as some countries still do.

Dr Gina Rendon:

It's good to be prepared and not think, oh, I'm going to go to France tomorrow and think that your vet's going to be able to help you with that, because we get a lot of you know people will. I mean, it's like we're doing it, we're not doing this. These are regulations that are created by the countries. Like I have nothing to do with those vaccine requirements, sure, but we get a lot of the anger about that.

Kristiina Wilson:

You guys get so much of just the anger in general that I am just sorry.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Yeah, yeah. There are some things outside of our control, and that certainly is one of them.

Kristiina Wilson:

Well, how long if people do think that like oop, you know, I feel like in a couple months I might feel like I need to get out of here. How far in advance should people contact their veterinarians to kind of get the? How far in advance should people contact their veterinarians to kind of get the ball rolling? Just in general, because obviously we can't pick.

Dr Gina Rendon:

A month is a good amount of time for most countries. For most countries Australia, like I said, or New Zealand it's going to be a year, I think. I believe South Africa is also incredibly challenging for some reason. Yeah, so again, just look at the website, look at the requirements, the requirements, and then plan accordingly. But you're not going to just jet off the next day.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, that is fair. So now that we're all prepared, what do you think first steps would be for once the immediate emergency has passed, like, what are some ways that people can sort of assess their cat's health and safety?

Dr Gina Rendon:

I think one has to be prepared for there to be some confusion after everything is done prepared for there to be some confusion after everything is done. And so you know assessing your cat. I always tell people you know your animal better than anybody and so you're going to have the best sense of how they're doing. For cats, I always recommend a gradual reintroduction to things. Don't just open all the doors and here we go. If you've had to hunker down and you're in a small, dark, quiet place, very gradually open things up to them again.

Dr Gina Rendon:

I think it's very important to make sure that, especially for cats, that they are eating, which is so important for the health and such a big indicator of their mental state as well. So that's going to be something that you can assess relatively easily. I think, actually one of the things with food that I wanted to. Now that I'm talking about eating, we should probably quickly talk about food because and we had that whole podcast on food my recommendation generally for cats is wet food.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Fresh food is a big thing right now and you know fresh food if you want to do fresh food.

Dr Gina Rendon:

But keep in mind that if your electricity goes out, your fresh food is not going to stay. It's not going to be good, and so for these situations, it's really important to make sure that you have canned food available, and I would also say it might make sense to also have kibble available, even though it's not something that I typically recommend on the regular. Obviously, if your cat eats kibble, keep feeding them kibble during emergencies. But as something that's transportable sometimes easier to transport than cans it's nice to be able to have available if you need it. And if you, you know, if you buy a six pound bag of some, I don't even care meow mix, something that you have on hand, that in an emergency, if you need to feed it, you have it. If you end up not feeding it, then, just you know, donate it to an animal shelter, you know. And food definitely will have an expiration date. Yes, you want to make sure that every I believe it's every six months.

Kristiina Wilson:

Rotate it.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Yeah, exactly. Rotate it out, so that's also something that's really important to keep in mind. You may be sheltering in place, but you may be sheltering in place without any electricity, so be prepared and know that you may need to have food that does not require refrigeration.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yep, that is very good advice and that's again personally. What I did in our stockpile is just a lot of big bags of dry food and then some cans. But again, if you're feeding this amount of cats, we have to mostly have just big bags of dry food, because it's just easier and it's, yeah, like I said, it's just more portable.

Kristiina Wilson:

It's more portable and, I think, also having an easy way to feed them, because you don't know if you're going to be able to do washing up or anything. So I think getting those like paper little paper, they're not plates, they're like they're French fry trays, that's what it is. I was trying to think like what did we get them? Get in them in elementary school? Because I was fed from them in elementary school, thank you, french fry trays that we use into the shelters too, right? Yeah, yes, get a pack of those. They're so cheap at the dollar store, really like a dollar for one bajillion.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, and then you can just feed your cats in those and throw them out. And normally, obviously, I'm not going to advocate for disposable stuff, but I think in an emergency situation you want to be sanitary and not have to worry about like where am I going to wash this? So, that's a good situation. I think to have in your little stockpile.

Dr Gina Rendon:

Exactly Other things. Speaking of sanitation, and again we'll have the list, but other things to think about would be like a waterless shampoo or wipes, if you need, and then a brush for your, especially if it's something that they find comforting. Nail clippers. And if people are not clipping their kitty cats' nails on a regular basis, either training them or, you know, figuring out a way to do that so that during those emergencies, that's when those nails become problematic. So making sure that those are nice and trim.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, a good idea as well.

Dr Gina Rendon:

But also, you know, just to go back to it, what I would recommend for people who do feel overwhelmed is even just start with the basics. So, starting with making sure that your microchip is registered, like you know, like I did, realizing that, oh, I have to make sure that this is up to date, that you have your documents together, so your pictures of your animals, your proof of adoption or ownership, your up-to-date vaccine list, and so every time you go and have your animals vaccinated, you can just ask them can you please print out the vaccine record and just put that in your bag. Take out the old one, put the new one so that you have that, making sure that you have your emergency contacts and so that your numbers. And so this is, I think, too, another thing to remember is that when you're out of electricity right now, it's like, oh, I have everything right on my phone. Yes, you have that. So it's so important to you have if you can use your phone Awesome. Important to you have if you can use your phone awesome. But if you don't have access to your phone, it is so important to have your waterproof documents bag.

Dr Gina Rendon:

So I would say start there, just collect your things, get them together, put them in your, and it does make you feel so much better. Start thinking about your first aid kit, which will have that list, for, you know, have a bag that has your first aid kit and then make sure that your emergency carrier is tagged, that you have a blanket with it, that you have the things that you would want to bring with your animal. You know they usually have little pockets and stuff you can put patients in the pocket. So just be, you know, just take those first steps and then, and then I feel like, at least for me, I already feel it's funny because I've been gathering all these things and Johnny's like has it come to? This? Does make me feel better to have prepared. You know, yes, it does. It does make me feel better to have prepared.

Kristiina Wilson:

You know, yes, yes it does come to us. It does, I think I for me personally, I get really anxious while I'm doing it, but once it's done I can be like great and shut that door and be like we are prepared. Oh, look at that, you did it.

Dr Gina Rendon:

I did it Well. This, actually this is my bag. I'd have to make copies Birth certificate. I did it well. This, actually this is my bag I'd have to make copies birth certificate who's? Birth certificate. That's, yeah, that's mine from oh, that's yours.

Kristiina Wilson:

I was like you got a dog birth certificate, no, no, okay, that's hilarious, like that's cute to me, like it's all here.

Dr Gina Rendon:

So my information is here. So my birth certificate, my marriage certificate, our insurance stuff, all of Jojo's things, it's all in one place. There's no reason for it to be separate. We're all it's. The family is all in one bag, yeah, and so start there.

Kristiina Wilson:

I think that's that is great advice. And I would say, just do like a little bit at a time, because otherwise you're going to get really overwhelmed and freak out and spiral and then not do anything because you just get it's too much. So, like, yeah, I think, doing the do the documents one week, maybe the next week, you put together your first aid kit and then maybe the next week you start, you know, doing some recall training and then the next week maybe you figure out, like what do you need for your you know week's worth of supplies and just kind of generally, maybe that's something we should do. And then add to this is put together a little like list of our schedule, of like how to get ready.

Dr Gina Rendon:

if you're not ready at all, like, yeah, that's a good idea, but every single day, work on your recall, yes, yes, every single day. You know today, take out your carrier and find a place that you can put it. You can hide it under a blanket or whatever, so that it doesn't mess with your decor. You know, whatever, I know that a lot of people you know maybe that's part of the issue, but have that out there, throw some cat treats in there. Start making that something. Cats love to be in containers.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yes.

Dr Gina Rendon:

I think we all know that there was a Japanese TV show, I remember, where they put out all these bowls and then they released a bunch of cats to see how long it took for all the bowls to be filled with cats. And it was adorable and it took no time whatsoever. Cats love to be in things they do, so make sure that your carrier is out and that your cat associates it with good things and that it's not going to be the battle when the time comes.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yes, I will give one piece of advice for when you start carrier training that I have just found over all the years is that I think everybody knows that if you're working on something and you put something on the floor let's say you're building something and you have instructions and you put those on the floor, right, what's going to happen? The cat's going to come over and sit on that right, and especially if you ignore them Like if you're oh, I'm doing, I'm doing this, If I'm doing a project, they don't like that.

Kristiina Wilson:

So you can yes, you can really lure a cat into a carrier by just putting a piece of paper in there because it's new. It's a new thing and they're like why is this in here? They're so curious, they can't help themselves, so they'll often go in there just because they're like well, I got to sit on this, so a piece of paper can work. I also find that those little cardboard scratching pads if I.

Kristiina Wilson:

I just because I was just recently putting together um, I got for, like a secret Santa, this really cute little cat cafe scratching house, you know fork for them, and I was just trying to put it together and it had one of those cardboard you know pad things for them to scratch on. I couldn't even put it together because every cat would just come and sit on that and then I'd move them and they'd be immediately replaced by another cat and I'd move them and then another cat. So I think if you took one of those and put it in, that's a good idea.

Kristiina Wilson:

A cat carrier to put something new in there that they're not used to. So they don't have that association with ooh cat carrier. Now they're like this is something different and it's some. It sit ready, like you have to make it sit ready for them.

Dr Gina Rendon:

You have to be subtle too. Yes, don't put your cat carrier there and then try to get your cat to come around. Yeah, ignore them, put it out, let them think it's yours, you're doing things in it, but don't imply that they have to go in it or around it, because I do think that that's such a draw for cats, like, if it's something that's yours, yes, it is they want to see, they want to know. It's true. Yeah, I think that I love the scratching of the cardboard. That's such a great idea.

Kristiina Wilson:

Yeah, you got to really reverse psychology. The cat sometimes and just like not look at them or this be like, this is mine, like absolutely don't go in here, like ew.

Dr Gina Rendon:

And then you've got them when I was in vet school, my cat was sitting in front of my computer the entire time, like when I was trying to work, because I was wiped over my or on my textbook, and it was. Yeah, that was awesome.

Kristiina Wilson:

That's the story of every client Zoom meeting that I have with Kevin at some point, and when Mimi was still with us, mimi, they would just come in and be like yes, right.

Kristiina Wilson:

What's happening, hello, and I'd be like, excuse me, I'm trying to show that I have some control with cats and they're just like, excuse me, like I'm trying to show that I have some control with cats and they're just like no, this lady's a bozo, I'm here Every time, yeah, so yeah, that's. I think that's a very good strategy. So, in closing, we are going to have the lists of a schedule for getting all this stuff together and all the lists of resources and the resources that we're making on the Hiss and Tell website under this episode. This will be episode 26, I believe, so we will have this under that episode and the whole like blah, blah area On the Williamsburg Vets website as website Well, so wonderful education, disaster preparedness so excellent.

Kristiina Wilson:

And everyone should take their pets to Williamsburg vets If you are in even the tri-state area, because Dr Rendon is the best vet in the world, so everyone should go there, um, and I'm always sending my clients there because I think that she's the greatest. So, anyway, check out the resources Gradually, start to prepare, try to not get overwhelmed, and I just want to say thank you, as usual, to Dr Rendon. Always so fun, it's always super fun and you're so knowledgeable and I really appreciate you. Thanks for being the greatest. Oh, thank you for being the greatest. Aw, thank you for being the greatest. Oh, I'm just tolerable, but thanks, thanks for listening, as always. If you enjoyed the podcast, please go ahead and give us a rating and or a review. We'd super appreciate it. You can find our social medias, instagram and TikTok at Hiss Tell Podcast. You can find our social medias, instagram and TikTok at hissandtellpodcast. For cat behavior consultations, go to catitude-adjustmentcom. Music provided by Cat Beats.

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