Checking cat's vitals

Hello, I have been recently learning how to check my cats vitals because he has feline leukemia and I want to monitor his health daily by making sure his vitals are normal range. I have mastered checking temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate, but the only one I cant do is the blood pressure reading because I do not have a blood pressure cup that is designed for a cat. Does anyone in this group check their cats blood pressure? If so, where did you purchase your cats blood pressure monitor from? I am very much interested in buying one, but do not know where I can find one that is legit for cats and does the right reading! Thanks!!

Hello!  This is a fascinating idea and if it doesn't stress your cat out and is being done properly under the supervision/ instruction of a vet so that the pet is not being put at risk (eg perforation of rectum while taking temperature - this is definitely a risk that you and your vet need to be aware of).   I wonder what advantages you are hoping to glean?  I know a lot of vets uk wide and I cant think of any who have told me that they track these things daily, either for their own or their pets' health.  That's not to say that it is never useful; if the cat got used to having its blood pressure taken, then the readings might not be inflated when they were taken at home (the very act of taking a cats blood pressure will often increase the blood pressure to some extent).  However, the reference ranges we use in clinic will reflect this.    Regular BP checks may act as an early warning sign eg of hyperthyroidism or heart disease.  Yet it is not something that we recommend for most owners. About the cuffs; they would really need to be feline-appropriate cuffs because cats have very thin legs compared with ours and this does affect the reading.  A lot of vets have a range of sizes for differently sized small animals and this is thought to be very important. What would you do if the BP was unexpectedly high or low one day?  Do you know when to be worried / how to interpret it?  This is an interesting project and I would be interested to hear how you and your vets decide to take it further.

Hello!  This is a fascinating idea and if it doesn't stress your cat out and is being done properly under the supervision/ instruction of a vet so that the pet is not being put at risk (eg perforation of rectum while taking temperature - this is definitely a risk that you and your vet need to be aware of).   I wonder what advantages you are hoping to glean?  I know a lot of vets uk wide and I cant think of any who have told me that they track these things daily, either for their own or their pets' health.  That's not to say that it is never useful; if the cat got used to having its blood pressure taken, then the readings might not be inflated when they were taken at home (the very act of taking a cats blood pressure will often increase the blood pressure to some extent).  However, the reference ranges we use in clinic will reflect this.    Regular BP checks may act as an early warning sign eg of hyperthyroidism or heart disease.  Yet it is not something that we recommend for most owners. About the cuffs; they would really need to be feline-appropriate cuffs because cats have very thin legs compared with ours and this does affect the reading.  A lot of vets have a range of sizes for differently sized small animals and this is thought to be very important. What would you do if the BP was unexpectedly high or low one day?  Do you know when to be worried / how to interpret it?  This is an interesting project and I would be interested to hear how you and your vets decide to take it further.

I think at the moment the idea raises as many questions as it does answers for me.

My cat has feline leukemia, and last year he got severely anemic, and recently he has been sick again, just took him to the vet on 07/23/2022 due to fever of 106. They did a CBC and said he was getting pretty anemic again, so they prescribed him Doxycycline and Metacam i suppose for fever and infection and said if it does not seem to improve to bring him back in. The reason I want to keep up with his vitals is so I can be aware of when he begins to get sick. Cats are good at hiding their pain so I just wanted to stay on top of it because he has felvirus and i just dont want to lose him or miss a symptom, for instance, last night before taking him to the Vet, he felt extremely hot so i took his temperature with a baby rectal thermometer and thats when his fever was at 105 so i rushed him to the vet where it shot up even higher, so if i did not check his vitals sometimes i would not have even known he had a fever and never would have taken him to the vet last night and who knows what would have happened if they did not get his fever under control.