Tuesday Is National Take Your Cat To The Vet Day

(CBS) – Tuesday Aug. 22 is National Take Your Cat to the Vet Day.

Why Aug. 22? Why not?

"It puts things on peoples' calendars so we have the opportunity to catch things early in cats when we see them annually," says Dr. Maggie Placer of the Arlington Cat Clinic in Arlington Heights.

Any day is a good day to set an appointment to take your cat to the vet, she says.

"Research just shows that in general the majority of cats are not seen annually," she says.

Dr. Placer adds some cat owners only visit the vet during an emergency. She says that's a bad idea.

"Think about a two year old cat as the equivalent of a 24-year-old person," she says.

Some of the things caught during regular vet appointments include dental disease, diabetes, heart disease, and early onset arthritis.