Short Takes

An international team of researchers has analyzed results of the cat genome - the complete mapping of DNA and genes - to arrive at a greater understanding of cats domestication.They compared the genomes of domestic and wild cats and found that areas of the domestic cat genome differed significantly from their wild counterparts, including genes involved in the reward centers of the brain and the development of neurons that produce dopamine, which helps control the brains pleasure centers. The researchers say that this suggests that the first wild cats bred for domestication were those responding to rewards such as food and stroking.

In little more than a decade, changes have taken place in veterinary medicine to help prevent cats developing malignant tumors at the site of certain vaccinations. However, 22,000 cats in the U.S. still develop injection site-associated sarcomas (ISAS) every year, and the tumors are often more aggressive and prone to recurrence than spontaneous ones.

If you want to understand how your cat can effortlessly leap on counters, you could study takeoff velocity (TOV) and hind-limb length. Or watch Alley, who made the 2015 Guinness World Records as the longest-jumping domestic cat. Her broad jump: six feet, with her TOV from a standstill.

Estimates are that osteoarthritis affects 90 percent of cats over the age of 12 years. Confirmation of the disease, however, can sometimes prove elusive. In the search for an accurate diagnosis, the Winn Feline Foundation has awarded a grant, funded by the animal health company Zoetis, to researchers at the University of Melbourne. Their goal is to develop a blood test biomarker - a molecule indicating an abnormal process - so the disease can be identified earlier.

Surgeons at the University of Georgia Veterinary Teaching Hospital have used a Siamese cat’s stem cells to improve acceptance of his kidney transplant. The recently announced surgery on 4-year-old Arthur, performed in May, is the hospital’s second successful kidney transplant using feline adult stem cells.

Researchers at North Carolina State have launched a study to determine if probiotics can protect kittens from deadly gastrointestinal disease. More than 15 percent of kittens at animal shelters in the U.S. die or are euthanized before 8 weeks of age because of illness. The majority have diarrhea or GI diseases, says the Winn Feline Foundation, sponsor of the study.

We may think our cats have it easy, being fed and loved while living safely indoors, but nutritionist Tony Buffington, DVM, Ph.D., at Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine says cats can have a different perspective:

Spending on pets will reach $59 billion this year, up 4.9 percent over 2013, according to the American Pet Products Association. The surprising category with the greatest proportion of growth last year: pet services such as boarding, training, pet sitting and grooming. It grew by 6 percent to $4.4 billion.

The placebo effect has been the subject of frequent research in human medicine, with results ranging from the psychological — you expect to feel better taking a medicine and you do — to the physiological — endorphins in the brain and spinal fluid caused your improvement.

The placebo effect has been the subject of frequent research in human medicine, with results ranging from the psychological — you expect to feel better taking a medicine and you do — to the physiological — endorphins in the brain and spinal fluid caused your improvement.

A three-year retrospective study of people who went to the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, Minn., with cat bites to their hands found that 30 percent of them required hospitalization. While dog bites can seem dramatic, with torn skin, broken bones and considerable bleeding, their open wounds can often be easier to clean — and heal.

Veterinarians are increasingly using a human drug to prevent arterial thromboembolism — a blood clot interrupting blood flow — in cats. The clots are common in feline heart disease, and their presence carries a guarded to poor prognosis: more than 60 percent of cats don’t survive them. In addition, because cats who do survive often develop a second clot, usually causing extreme pain and paralysis of the rear limbs, many are euthanized.