A monthly home check earns its place between vet visits only if each area has a specific target, so this circuit covers coat, eyes, ears, mouth and weight with the exact signs to look for in each. Work in the same order, in good light, while your cat is calm, and log the same fields every month: date, coat, eyes, ears, mouth, weight. You are building a comparison with last month, not grading your cat against an ideal, and change over time is the information your vet can actually use.
Coat: Shine, Skin and What Your Hands Find
Run your hands against and then with the coat over the whole body, slowly enough to feel the skin beneath. A coat in good order feels smooth and looks glossy rather than dull, with no dandruff flakes lifting as you stroke. Note thinning patches, broken hairs, redness, scabs, or excessive grease, and feel deliberately for lumps under the skin, recording size by comparison with a coin and the exact location, since a lump's growth matters more than its presence on one day. Part the fur at the tail base and look for flea dirt: tiny dark specks that are a finding to report and act on with vet-directed parasite control. A cat grooming one spot obsessively, or suddenly grooming far less than usual, is also a coat finding worth writing down with its date.
Eyes and Ears: Clear, Clean and Quiet
Healthy eyes are clear and bright, with no discharge in the corners, no redness, no cloudiness, and both pupils responding evenly to light. A visible third eyelid drawn across part of the eye, persistent watering, yellow or green discharge, or squinting in one eye moves the finding out of the monthly log and into a prompt vet call. For ears, lift each ear flap and look at what you can see without probing: the visible ear should look clean and pale, with no dark gritty debris, no thick wax build-up, no redness, and no odour. Dark grit, a sour smell, head shaking, ear scratching, or a head tilt are findings to report rather than clean away repeatedly at home, and nothing should be pushed into the ear canal during a home check.
Mouth: Gums, Tartar and Breath
Lift your cat's lip on each side, gently and briefly, rather than forcing the mouth open. Healthy gums are pink, and the teeth should be free of heavy tartar build-up, the yellow-brown crust that gathers along the gumline. Note bad breath that is new or worsening, red or bleeding gums, drooling, a broken or discoloured tooth, or your cat dropping food or chewing on one side, all of which belong on the vet list. If your cat resents mouth checks, build the habit gradually across sessions with strokes and treats, and record only what you genuinely saw; a partial honest entry beats a complete guessed one.
Weight: Ribs and the Monthly Trend
Weigh your cat the same way each month, in a carrier on household scales or held and subtracted, and write the figure down rather than rounding it from memory. Then feel for condition: ribs should be felt under a thin fat cover with light pressure, not hidden and not sharp. A rising trend, a falling trend in a cat eating normally, or ribs becoming hard to find between checks is the finding, and it deserves raising at the next visit or sooner if appetite, thirst, or energy changes alongside it. Bring the log itself to appointments: date, coat, eyes, ears, mouth, weight, month after month, turns five minutes of home attention into evidence a vet can scan quickly. Red flags bypass the schedule entirely: an eye held shut, straining to urinate, a mouth that will not open, drooling with distress, or sudden weight loss all mean contact the vet now. Stored inside its Pet Passport on KinsLe, that monthly log sits next to clinical findings, so home and clinic observations build one continuous picture.