“Feline Fine!” Comorbidities in Geriatric Cats

Stuart Walton, BVSc (Hons), BSCAGr (Hons), MANZCVS (SAIM)

Dr. Walton is a clinical assistant professor in Small Animal Internal Medicine at University of Florida. He is a clinician of 20 plus years, receiving his veterinary degree at the University of Queensland. He has completed two internal medicine residencies at Veterinary Specialist Services (Australia) and Louisiana State University. Dr. Walton currently resides in Gainesville, Florida where he trains students, interns, and residents promoting common-sense veterinary medicine. He has a broad range of interests including infectious and inflammatory diseases, immune mediated disease, respiratory, urinary, gastrointestinal, and hepatic disease as well as extracorporeal blood purification techniques. He is the Co-Editor of Clinical Medicine of the Dog and Cat and has authored multiple articles and book chapters.

Overview:

Aging in cats has become complex. With the advancement in veterinary medicine cats are living longer and over time things “wear out.” To put it simply with aging comes disease. In cats, comorbidities appear to be the ‘new norm’ with the aging process. The following are known diseases that have an association, specifically in cats. It is likely that some coexisting conditions may not have direct relationships and may be coincidental. For veterinarians, the challenge is to recognize when these comorbidities may be occurring before cats become clinical for these diseases. For this to occur we, as clinicians, must be vigilant in assessing and screening cats regularly for developing diseases to provide earlier identification of problems. As part of the screening process, serial thorough histories, performance of a comprehensive physical exams, and clinicopathologic testing (e.g., CBC, serum chemistry, urinalysis) are all essential to identify these diseases before cats become clinical. During this lecture we will discuss common comorbidities that occur in cats, how we recognize when these may be occurring, the diagnostics testing associated with these common comorbidities and their limitations. Finally, we will discuss the therapeutic strategies to manage contrasting diseases.

Learning Objectives:

To be able to recognize the common comorbidities that occur in cats
To be able to choose and perform diagnostics testing for common comorbidities and recognize the limitations of these tests
To be able to develop therapeutic strategies to manage contrasting diseases

This course is RACE-approved for 1.0 continuing education credits hours in jurisdictions that accept RACE-approval.