Acommitment to Improving Well-Being When Aggression Has A
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® Expert information on medicine, behavior andhealth from a world leader in veterinary medicine INSIDE ACommitment to Improving Well-being Short Takes 2 The secrets to cheetahs' speed; help Now in its 38th year, the Feline Health Center continues for pain control; no taste for sweets. its support ofoutreach and groundbreaking research Looking Beyond the Food Bowl 3 The setting, frequency of feeding and afood bully can impact nutrition. magine veterinarians are amenable to I being able to sterilize chemotherapy. When to worry about tail injuries 4 feral cats by vaccina These are just Simple fractures may heal on their own tion instead of surgery. three of the many but not scrapes and heavy bleeding. Or to identify the con scientific studies Why Do THey ••• Head Bump? 5 nection between a rel funded by the Cor This common behavior is believed to atively benign form of nell Feline Health be aform of olfactory communication. feline coronavirus and Center where, under feline infectious peri the guidance of Di Ask Elizabeth: 8 tonitis, which is nearly rector Colin Parrish, All-meat diets won't provide essential always fataL with the Ph.D., Professor of nutrients necessary for good health. hope of finding ways ~ Virology, the goal of --------------1 to diagnose and com ~ bettering the health IN THE NEWS ••• bat it. Or discover how of cats continues and why vaccine-asso to be the focus and Trial uses stem cells ciated sarcomas may commitment, as it trigger DNA damage has been since the to treat kidney disease in some cats and how this damage may be center opened its doors in 1974. Researchers at Colorado State used to predict which cases of the sarcomas (continued on page 6) University College ofVeterinary Medicine are testing a new treat ment for a common problem in aging cats.They're using stem When Aggression Has a Physical Basis cells in an effort to better man age chronic kidney disease. Its emergence in older cats calls for special "In our clinical trial, we are see ing if stem cells can improve renal concern because they typically mellow with age function, decrease inflammation and scarring in the kidney, and our cat is shy but generally sweet natured The emergence of aggreSSion in older improve levels of excess protein Yand affectionate. Imagine your shock, then, animals is a particular cause for concern, Dr. in the urine," says Jessica Quimby, when you reach to pick him up and he tries to Houpt says, because cats tend to mellow with DVM, who's working with a bite you - for no apparent reason. Did your age. Moreover, pain is easy to miss in geriatric team of team of veterinarians eat's inner tiger emerge? felines, who will spend a good deal of time and researchers at the school. When the onset offeline aggression is sleeping. Owners might think the cat is simply They're isolating stem cells sudden, there's a good chance that the source slowing down when, in fact, he's hurting. from the fat of healthy young could be a health problem, and you need to cats and injecting them into cats make an appointment with your veterinarian. Two painful diseases. Primary sources of with kidney disease. Preliminary "A medical cause for aggression in cats undiagnosed pain in cats include periodontal results suggest that the cells may is relatively rare, but it must always be ruled disease - in the worst case, a receding or ab stabilize the disease's progression. out," says Katherine A. Houpt, VMD, Ph.D., scess of the gums that makes eating difficult Dr. Quimby's research, funded diplomate of the American College of Vet - and arthritis. Dental work and medications by the Morris Animal Foundation, erinary Behaviorists and emeritus James such as corticosteroids, respectively, are usu includes a study of telomeres Law Professor ofAnimal Behavior at Cornell ally effective in mitigating the problems. - protective structures at the UniverSity's College of Veterinary Medicine. Several diseases can also cause dramatic ends of chromosomes - in the "The primary cause of medically based ag behavioral changes. The following are the kidneys of older cats to under gression is pain, no matter what the source of most common: stand their role in renal disease.•:. that pain." (continued on page 5) CatWatch The Cat's Speedy Cousin rather than a lack of ability." They don't have EDITOR IN CHIEF Biologists at the Royal Veterinary College to work for their food. Bruce G. Kornreich, DVM, Ph.D., in London may have discovered the reason Both species put a greater proportion of Dipl AcvlM for the cheetah's record as the fas test li vin g weight on their hind limbs at high speed EDITOR Betty Liddick land mammal. Researchers at the college's rather tha n the forelimbs, as was generally Structure and Motion Laboratory compared believed. But ch eetahs sup ported 70 percent ART DIRECTOR Mary Francis McGavic the cheetah's ga it to that of raCing Grey of their body weig ht on hind limbs, com hounds, whose speed tops out at 37 mi les pared to 62 percent in tne Greynounds . "This ADVISORY BOARD James A. Flanders, DVM, Di pl per hour. Th e big cats have been clocked at will enhance the cheetah's grip for accelera ACVS, Associate Professor, 64 miles per hour. tion an d ma neuvering using their powerful Clinical Sciences "Cheetahs and Greyhounds are known hind limbs," the researchers say. Marc S. Kraus, DVM, Dipl ACVIM, to use a rotary ga llop [in which the limbs fa ll The leng th of time the cheetahs' limbs Senior Lectu rer, Clin ical Sciences in circu lar sequence around the body) and remained in contact with the ground Margaret C. McEntee, DVM, Dipl ACVIM, DACVR, physically they are rema rkably si mila r, yet there ca lled the stan ce - was also longer, perhaps Professor of Oncology is this bewitching difference in maximum imparting an advantage in their speed in the William H. Miller, Jr., DVM, ACVD, speed," says researcher Alan Wilson, Sse. , Ph.d. wild. Increased stance time reduces the peak Professor, Clininical Sciences His team videotaped cheetahs at a Lon load on the legs. Ilona Rodan, DVM, Dipl ASVP don zoo and a cheeta h center in So uth Africa, Wisconsin Cat Care Clinic, Madison, WI using lu res and embedded force plates, New Help for Pain Control in stru ments that meas ure the forces gener Nova rtis Animal Healtn na s introduced ated by a body standing on or movi ng across Onsior (robenacoxib) tablet s, a three-day them . Th ey tested Greyhounds at the lab. non-stero id al a nti - in~ammatory drug for Cornell University Among their findings, published in the postoperative cats weig hing 5V2 pounds or =§ College of (ii). Veterinary Medicine Journal of Experimental Bio logy: Cheetahs more and at lea st 6 months ol d. used strides of 2.4 per second at low speed, The drug is intended to control pa in For information on you r cat's health, in crea sin g to 3.2 strides per second at high and in~ am m at ion after orthoped ic surgery, visit the Corn ell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell Fel ine speed w hile Greyhounds used a constant ovari ohysterectomy and cas tration. It's the Heal th Center website at 3. 5 strides per secon d at al l speeds. Wh en first multidose oral NSAID approved for cats, www.vet.comell.edu/fhcl. they were at the same speed, however, the Novartis says cheetah s' strides were slightly longer tha n The drug is quickly eliminated from blood the Greyhounds'. w hile persist ing longer at the site of in~amed "U nfortunate ly, in this study the tea m tissue, the company reports. Side effects in couldn't tempt the cheetahs to run any clinical tria ls and field tes ts included surgical fa ste r th an the raCing Greyhound s, with both site bl eed in g, infection, le thargy, vomiting CatWatch' (ISSN 1095-9092) species achieVing top speeds of and inappeten ce, although studies suggest _ is published monthly around 40 mph," th e that robenacoxi b is generally safe in cats if for 539 per year by _ Belvoir Media Group, researchers say. "It is used properly =1 LLc' 800 Connecticut th oug ht that this is due Belvoir Ave, Norwalk, CT 06854 163 1. Robert En glander, to a lack of motivation in Taking a Pass on Sweets Cha irma n and CEO; Timothy H. Cole. the [captive) cheetah s A team of a dozen scientists from Executive Vice Presi dent, Ed itorial Direc tor; Philip L. Penny, Chief institutions ranging from Capital Medical Operating Officer; Greg Kin g, Execu tive University in Beijing to the University of Vice President, Marketing Director; Ron Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer; Tom Pen nsyl vania to the Waltham Centre for Pet Canfield, Vice President, Ci rcu lation . Nutrition in the UK may have found why cats 102012 BelvOir Media Group, LLC. have no interest in sweets. Th ey probably lack Postmaste r: Send address corrections the gene to detect them. to CatWatch, P.O. Box 8535, Big Sandy, TX 75755 -8535. A taste bud receptor consists of the For Customer Service product s of two genes, but in cats one of or Subscription information, visit the genes for the receptor that senses sweet www.catwatchnewsletter. co m/cs ness isn't functional and isn't expressed, the or call toll free: 800-829-8893. researchers say.