In the January episode of Chattering With International Cat Care, we explore two distinct but equally important areas of feline health: welfare research and clinical cardiology.

First, Sarah Ellis speaks with Morgane Van Belle, recipient of the iCatCare Welfare Research Award 2025, about her research into social behaviour in multi-cat households. They discuss why understanding and describing feline interactions matters, and how this work can support better welfare outcomes for cats living together.

Then, Kelly St. Denis is joined by Sonya Gordon to discuss the practical use of pimobendan in cats. Together, they explore key considerations around evidence-based decision making and how clinicians approach treatment choices in real-world practice.

For further reading material please visit:

For iCatCare Veterinary Members, full recordings of each episode of the podcast are available for you to listen to at portal.icatcare.org. To become an iCatCare Veterinary Member, or find out more about our Cat Friendly schemes, visit icatcare.org

Host:

Yaiza Gómez-Mejías, LdaVet MANZCVS (Medicine of Cats), RCVS CertAP (Feline Medicine), iCatCare Veterinary Community Co-ordinator

Speakers:

Sarah Ellis, BSc, PgDip, PhD, Head of Cat Mental Wellbeing and Behaviour at iCatCare, Feline Welfare Consultant, Educator and Writer

Morgane Van Belle, DVM, MVSc, PhD Student at Ghent University & ECAWBM Resident (AW Science, Law & Ethics)

Kelly St. Denis, MSc, DVM, DABVP (Feline), Co-editor of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery and JFMS Open Reports & Guideline co-chair

Sonya Gordon, BSc, DVM, DVSc, Diplomate ACVIM, Professor at Texas A&M University

Creators and Guests

Host

Yaiza Gomez-Mejias

Veterinary Community Co-ordinator @ International Cat Care

What is Chattering with iCatCare?

Welcome to Chattering With iCatCare, the official monthly podcast of International Cat Care, hosted by Yaiza Gomez-Mejias (Veterinary Community Co-ordinator). Each month, we chatter about cats and cat-friendly practices with industry experts and contributors to The Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. Each episode contains highlights from our longer discussions and interviews, which are accessible to iCatCare members at portal.icatcare.org. If you would like access to our full episodes, would like to become an iCatCare Veterinary Society Member, or find out more about our Cat-Friendly schemes, visit icatcare.org.

Hi, I am Yaiza Gomez and this
is Chattering with iCatCare.

I hope you started 2026 very, very well
and full of curiosity about cats because

as you may have heard from February
we'll be offering feline medicine CPD

in an easier and more digestible format.

If you want to find out more, follow
us on our social media and take a look

at our website portal.icatcare.org.

Today, Kelly St. Denis and Dr Sonya
Gordon will discuss the practical use

of pimobendan in cats, the topic of
this month's JFMS spotlight article.

But first, Sarah Ellis will
interview Morgane Van Belle on her

iCatCare Welfare Research Award.

Enjoy.

Morgane, I'm absolutely
delighted to talk to you today.

I'm just gonna tell our listeners
a little bit about the iCatCare

Welfare Research Award, because
this is only its second year.

It's designed to recognize and
celebrate individuals who've

dedicated a piece of research to
improving domestic cat welfare.

When we think about cat welfare, we
think about the physical health and

mental wellbeing of the cat, that
real integrated, holistic view and the

research may come from any discipline
within animal welfare, including

behavioural medicine, ethics, and law.

Our award aims to encourage researchers
from a variety of disciplines

to conduct cat welfare research
and to disseminate such research

in ways that make meaningful,
positive differences to cat welfare.

That's really important for us at
iCatCare because learning new knowledge

is fantastic, but if we can't put that
knowledge into action to drive change and

improve welfare for cats, then really it's
not doing the job it was intended for.

So we're big fans of applied
research at iCatCare.

The award is given at the European
Veterinary Congress this year, and your

winning abstract was part of your PhD
research and it was entitled Ethogram

of domestic cat intraspecific social
behaviour in multicat households.

A huge congratulations again for
that award and for some of our

listeners, they might not necessarily
know what the word ethogram means.

Not all of our veterinary
audience will have that kind of

behavioural understanding or maybe
wouldn't have used an ethogram.

So can you give us an overview
of what an ethogram is?

So an ethogram is actually like a
list of behaviours and definitions

for a specific like animal.

So we have ethograms for monkeys or dogs
but also for cats, and it's important

to have these fixed behaviours or terms
because that way we can describe things

uniformly across studies or across people.

So we are like talking about the
same thing by using same words.

Yeah.

Okay.

That makes complete sense because
behaviour is quite complex and if we're

not calling it the same things, then how
do we know we are talking about the same

thing or we've identified the same thing.

So that ethogram is like a
description of what a behaviour

is with some visuals to help?

Yeah, so for our ethogram, it, it
focuses on social behaviour in cats.

We identified behaviours that might
be relevant in cat encounters, and we

also try to not only define them, but
also provide visual illustrations via

drawings or video clips to show people
how the behaviour actually looks.

Nice.

I think the video clips are crucial
because behaviour is not static, isn't it?

And there's only so much
an illustration can do.

I love the fact that you are focusing
on multicat households because we are

seeing that they are extremely popular
across the world, and we hear from our

behaviourists that inter cat tension, so
problems between cats, are quite common,

whether that's overt, biting, scratching,
wrestling, or more subtle stuff around

them blocking access and cats urinating
outside the litter tray, for example.

So it feels very pertinent.

I think as humans, we just so often
take for granted in our social

relationships if somebody walks in
the house after being out for a day,

we just say, hi, how was your day?

We don't avoid them or attack them.

So it could be complex
for us to understand.

So I understand that this particular study
in the development of ethogram is one part

of your PhD, which is focused on social
behaviour in cats and multicat households.

But can you summarise for us
a specific piece of research

that you got the award for?

My whole PhD is focused on
understanding social behaviour, and

social bonds in multicat assaults.

But for doing so, we need a way to
describe our behaviour of the cats.

Because I'm working with videos of cats,
I'm doing behavioural observations,

and we then need a tool to describe
what is happening in these videos.

And for that, we needed a ethogram.

We have quite some ethograms available
on cat behaviour, but most of them were

focusing on old behaviour of cats, like
all their general behaviour and not like

really specifically on the social context.

And because these ethograms are focusing
on every behaviour cats can possibly

do, they're also very extensive and
it makes it difficult from my point of

view, for this research to use it on
a day-to-day basis for these videos.

So we needed our ethogram for that.

So we decided to develop one
ourselves and also try to validate

it so it would be stronger case.

Yeah.

Then we had like multiple staff in which
we assessed our face validity of the

ethogram and also if it was reliable
across researchers from different people,

would you would score the same behaviour?

Are they seeing the same?

We use literature search in our first
steps, and then we went to watching videos

together with multiple people to see if
our definitions work, if we have like

correct labels and really try to fine tune
it and after our different people looked

at it, we tested it with independent
people if it was a reliable tool, if

people can use it to score behaviour
and as that in the beginning, we also

wanted it to be as practical as possible.

So we tried to cluster our behaviours
into meaningful categories like not

too much behaviours and illustrate
our behaviours with drawings or video

clips so people can see the behaviour.

I think that really helps.

When I've looked at ethograms in the
past when I was more research active and

there was just written descriptions of
the behaviour and maybe an illustration,

I really struggled to tell the difference
between things like a cat batting or

a cat coughing, and I couldn't work
out are these two distinct behaviours?

Or are these just two researchers calling
the same thing by different names?

When you see the videos that
really enhances the descriptions

and you say, oh, okay, I get it.

This is the same thing, or this
is a different thing, but having

that singular language, that common
terminology, that we can all use just

takes away that cognitive unpicking
that we have to do to go, hang on a

minute, what do they mean by this?

What is actually the thing?

And I think the ultimate goal is
if we could get our veterinary

professionals and our caregivers,
whether they're the owner of the cat

or somebody that cares for it in a
homing centre or a shelter, for example.

If we could all speak the same language
when describing cats, then that would

be absolutely a wonderful foundation on
which to build our cat welfare practices.

Now Kelly St. Denis, JFMS editor, will be
interviewing Dr Sonya Gordon, first author

of the article titled Use of pimobendan in
cats: a practical evidence-based review.

Dr. Gordon, thank you so much for
joining us today, and thank you to

you and your co-authors for such an
amazing clinical spotlight article.

We don't really talk about pimobendan
a lot, and there seem to be widely

differing opinions regarding the use
of pimobendan and cats, its efficacy,

safety, and I wonder if we can just
touch on some of the concerns or even

controversies that surround its use
or application in the feline species?

I think the most obvious concern or
starting point would be that we have

a species that has a disease that is
characterised mostly by thick heart walls

that apparently squeeze quite well, right?

Like good contractility and
pimobendan is an inotrope.

It strengthens the heart muscle and
it's hard on the surface to see a role.

I think that initial part of like how
is it possible this could play a role

is probably one of the controversies.

Yeah, and that's certainly one of the
most common diseases I guess, that we see

in cats is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,
so it's gonna be problematic.

But I guess what we're understanding
is that this application is

for congestive heart failure.

So what sort of application would
we use if we have a cat that's

got congestive heart failure?

Is it regardless of the cause of the
heart failure or the limitations to

the use, depending on the diagnosis?

So someone in clinical practice has
a cat with congestive heart failure.

Do they need to have a diagnosis of
the cause before they can even consider

using something like pimobendan?

We don't always have a for sure diagnosis,
medicine is acceptable uncertainty.

Having said that, it is really a drug
that if we're gonna use it in the cat,

we're already trying to take advantage
of some of its other properties, like

the fact that it can maybe improve
relaxation of these sick hearts.

It might strengthen the contractility
of the actual atrium, which tends

to get dilated in these cats and not
squeeze well and puts them at risk

for thrombus as well as heart failure.

And then at the same time, as long
as a little after load reduction is

tolerated lower resistance downstream.

Maybe that does make it more ideally
or optimises forward cardiac output.

So I think there's a constellation
of things that, it's not really just

about the fact that everybody thinks of
pimobendan as an inotrope, but it actually

has a lot of other things that might
benefit and it's not just obviously heart

failure characterised by obvious weak
pumps where the heart does not squeeze.

And that's an obvious indication,
but that's the rarity in cats

and requires echo to diagnose.

And so I think it's really about
how do you leverage this medication

in the right situation clinically.

And I think for me, I would say
I fit in the middle of the pack.

And I think as we wrote this, we all did,
that we believe there's clear indications

and then there's probably some that are a
little more grey zone and we used clinical

studies or a little case vignettes in
the paper to try to show those off a bit.

But the easiest way to say it
would be if you're treating a cat

with heart failure and he's not
doing well on standard treatment.

He may never get an echo by the
way, but he's getting Lasix and his

pleural effusion keeps coming back,
or he's even got large volume pleural

effusion at the outset and he doesn't
tolerate the high diuretic doses.

I think as a rescue treatment, little
to lose, but as a first line, that's

where people get a little twitchy.

So as a rescue treatment then, and some
of these cases, I've noticed that it's

with client awareness that you're using
something that is a rescue treatment that

may or may not be effective, presumably
not necessarily harmful though, is

that, would you say that's correct?

Unless we have certain situations
happening with the heart?

Yeah, I think, like I said,
the safety data is pretty good.

The concern around safety would be that
if you take a heart and make it squeeze

harder, and it's already squeezing
anyway, the contractility is good and

you make it hyper dynamic, can you
exacerbate or even cause obstruction of

the type we see in cats with hypertrophic
cardiomyopathy, so the obstructive form

where they have abnormal mitral valve
motion, systolic anterior motion of

the mitral valve, or they even have a
segment of their wall at the base of

their heart, there's, at the base of
the septum there that's quite thick.

As soon as you make them
squeeze excessively, perhaps

you can exacerbate that.

So that's the concern.

The problem is, it's hard.

I think if you echo a cat and you
show that he has that obstruction,

you know he can do it, but it's
very hard to rule it out in any

given cat because it's situational.

And that's why cats can have murmurs
that are louder and softer, or

one of the reasons they can have
murmurs that are louder and softer.

So if you're being the safety person and
you're like, you want some, ability to

assess this cat is tolerating the drug.

It's easy to do by measuring a blood
pressure after you dose them or a few days

after and listening to see if the murmur
gets louder or a new murmur develops.

But I think if they tolerate it and
that they don't show any tachycardia

or new murmurs that are louder, I
think you should have confidence

in the chronic dosing, at least
Like I said, with the safety.

Many of these retrospective studies
that we talked about that that have

people reported using it do include
cats that have had obstruction and

a primary hypertrophic phenotype,
and they certainly didn't seem to

show any adverse effects, but that
is the concern that surrounds this.

That's that conundrum, that controversy.

Right.

Echocardiogram is not
available for everyone.

I live in Northern Ontario.

We don't have a cardiologist at hand,
and not everyone can go for referrals.

So sometimes we're basing it on
pocus or no echocardiogram or

ultrasound of the heart at all.

So I appreciate that list of things
that you would be looking for if

you were gonna try to use it to
see if it was making things worse.

So heart rate, blood pressure.

New or louder murmur.

We know enough about dosing that the
oral dose is available quite quickly.

So if you were quite nervous, you
could literally give the first

dose in the hospital and before
you release them, re-listen and I

don't believe that a single dose
is gonna be detrimental anyway.

So if that's your concern, it's easy
to, couple hours, two three hours

after the first oral dose to listen.

And if you're really worried,
measure blood pressure and such.

We tried to show people where we
thought a good stepping off point

was, but showed them that there's
a lot of places where you don't

need to consider it at the outset.

Yep.

I really appreciate that, and I
certainly would say to our readers,

like when you're using this, I love
these clinical spotlight articles

as resources in my practice too.

This one's a gem from that perspective
because we are confronted with these

things and in the middle of a day
and we don't always know what to do.

So it's really good to have access
to just even those case studies

pimobendan aside, which is, I found
them very helpful and interesting.

I think sometimes if you can read
something, and I thought like the clinical

studies at the end that I really felt
strongly about including in this paper

were really just to show an application
of what they read in a way that was

probably digestible for a clinician.

Yes, and very much so in that good
thinking process of, like you said,

going through, is it a first timer?

Have they relapsed?

What do we know about their heart?

Do we know anything situation so.

What do we know about the
owner relationship with the cat

and the ability to medicate?

Yeah.

This is so much more than we, I think
I've been a, a vet for 25, 26 years

now, and we've really gotten good
at thinking about spectrum of care

and that caregiver and caregiver
burden as well as the patient, right?

So I think that's, those are
really important considerations

to, to take into as well.

Glad that you guys touched on that.

So I just wanted to say thank you.

I think I could ask questions
all day about not just

pimobendan, but cardiology.

So thank you to you and your authors for
giving us this clinical spotlight article.

I really appreciate it, and it's
gonna be very well received.

We enjoyed the opportunity to put it
together and the chance to talk about it

with

you

today.

Did you like it?

Join us again next month and
listen to more interviews about

feline medicine and welfare.

In the meantime, feel free to
leave a comment wherever you're

listening to this podcast.

We're always happy to receive feedback.

We'll be back in February.

Until then, you take care.

Chattering with iCatCare

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Use of pimobendan in cats: a practical evidence-based review

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What is Chattering with iCatCare?