Short Takes

If youve ever been tempted to trim your cats whiskers, it would be best to resist the impulse. Whiskers are essential to cats navigation. They also serve as early warning systems and barometers of mood, says Leonie Richards, BVSC, head of general practice at the University of Melbourne Veterinary Hospital. The Winn Feline Foundation has awarded a grant to research at-home use of Holter monitoring in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

In advocating environmental enrichment for indoor-only cats, it calls food puzzles foraging devices. The journal warns that, if not managed appropriately, indoor life can contribute to health problems such as obesity and diabetes, and problem behaviors such as house-soiling and attention seeking. Nutrition is the most pressing subject that cat owners want to discuss with the veterinarian, but the same survey, conducted at the end of summer, found that 60 percent of owners dont regularly take their cat to the veterinarian.

If youre considering a clinical trial for your cat as an option for treatment, youll find extensive listings on a new database from the American Veterinary Medical Association, www.avma.org/findvetstudies. The AVMA Animal Health Studies Database is the first of its kind for owners and researchers.

Eye problems occur frequently in cats with feline herpes virus 1 (FHV-1) and can lead to blindness if untreated. Current medications must be applied several times daily and evidence of their effectiveness is lacking.

Not too long ago, conventional wisdom held that animals felt little pain and providing relief was unnecessary after spaying and neutering. Veterinary medicine today emphasizes the recognition and management of pain in animals, with professional organizations issuing guidelines, offering courses for members and expanding efforts to educate owners. Researchers, too, are pursuing pain relief, in one case discovering that a novel method of drug delivery for spayed cats provides relief.

Complete genomes - genetic blueprints - of numerous cats DNA have been sequenced in what has been described as a new era in veterinary medicine. Cornells Veterinary Biobank, as one example, is a database of DNA and tissue samples from several species. The biobank is supported in part by the Cornell Feline Health Center.

Its now generally accepted that feline healthy aging is achievable just as it is in humans where the field of aging is dedicated to optimizing mental, social and physical well-being and function in older adults, the report says. What has been less well defined, however, is what healthy aging actually looks like in a cat; in other words, what changes would be considered normal for age … as opposed to deteriorative changes.

The disease takes several forms: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where the walls of the heart are thick; restrictive, where the walls are stiff; dilated, where there is thinning and weakening of the heart muscle, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular, where fat and scar tissue replace heart muscle, primarily in the right side of the heart.

Pets were evaluated as ideal, overweight or obese. The APOPs survey also found that 54 percent of dogs were overweight or obese. The findings were nearly the same in 2014, when the association cited a fat pet gap, in which another of its surveys revealed that 90 percent of owners of overweight cats and 95 percent of owners of overweight dogs incorrectly identified their pet as normal weight. No one wants to think their pet is overweight, and overcoming denial is our first battle, said APOP founder Ernie Ward, DVM.

Winn Feline Foundation has awarded a grant for the evaluation of DNA variants associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, in Persians. HCM is the most common cardiac disease in cats. Previously, genetic mutations have been found in Maine Coons and Ragdolls, which led to genetic tests for screening before breeding.

Feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP, a viral disease that is nearly 100 percent fatal, has been successfully treated in a research project at Kansas State University. Collaborators in diverse fields developed an antiviral compound for the feline coronavirus associated with FIP. Manuel Martin-Flores, MV, , ACVAA, of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine will present preliminary results of his research on safer anesthesia for cats at the annual meeting of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia in September. Dr. Martin-Flores is one of only 220 anesthesiologists board-certified worldwide by the college.

The researchers say cats with the boxes adapted to their surroundings more quickly than the group without boxes - at least in the short term. Stress may cause more infectious diseases in shelters by raising cortisol levels, which may suppress the immune system, researchers note in explaining the studys importance.