Feline Behavioural Issues And A Spotlight On Chronic Axillary Wounds In Cats

Show Notes

This month Nathalie Dowgray, Head of ISFM, is in conversation with Dr Sarah Heath about the impact feeding can have on feline behavioural issues. We're also featuring our monthly JFMS clinical spotlight interview in which Nathalie discusses chronic axillary wounds in cats with Dr Rodrigo Paulino.

Recording during ISFM’s Rhodes Congress, Nathalie Dowgray is joined by feline
behavioural specialist Dr Sarah Heath. She provides practical tips to improve feline behaviour when considering how we feed our furry friends in a multi-cat household and advocates for kitten information evenings in your practice to improve feline welfare.

Nathalie then sits down with Dr Rodrigo Paulino to discuss his JFMS clinical spotlight article Chronic axillary wounds in cats: what do we know and how should we manage them? and Rodrigo shares advice for managing axillary wounds for those of us in general veterinary practice.

At International Cat Care we advocate for microchipping as being the primary source of identification for cats and, where collars are being used as a secondary form of identification, we strongly advise that they are quick-release collars to prevent the risk of axillary collar wounds.

For further reading material please visit:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/1098612X231162880

https://portal.icatcare.org/events/show/fafc1909-0e1e-416e-9ba8-abe0b8e3a213

Tune in next month for more interviews recorded at ISFM in Rhodes, and next month's clinical spotlight interview.

Host:

Nathalie Dowgray, BVSc, MANZCVS, PgDip, MRCVS, PhD, Head of ISFM, International Society of Feline Medicine, International Cat Care, Tisbury, Wiltshire, UK

Speakers:

Dr Sarah Heath BVSc PgCertVE Dip.ECAWBM(BM) CCAB FHEA FRCV, RCVS and EBVS Recognised Specialist in Veterinary Behavioural Medicine for Companion Animals.

Dr Rodrigo Paulino DVM, MS, PhD, Dipl ECAR, Veterinary Surgeon and published JFMS Author

For ISFM members, the full recording of this discussion is available for you to listen to at portal.icatcare.org. To become an ISFM member, or find out more about our Cat Friendly schemes, visit icatcare.org

Creators & Guests

Host

Nathalie Dowgray

What is Chattering With ISFM?

Welcome to Chattering With ISFM, the official monthly podcast of the International Society of Feline Medicine, hosted by Nathalie Dowgray (Head of ISFM). 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 ISFM members at portal.icatcare.org. If you would like access to our full episodes, would like to become an ISFM member, or find out more about our Cat-Friendly schemes, visit icatcare.org.

Nathalie Dowgray: Hello, welcome
to the April 2023 episode of

Chattering with ISFM. I’m
Nathalie Dowgray, Head of ISFM

and the host of this months
podcast. This month we are going

to be sharing another of our in
conversation with sessions

recorded live at our Rhodes
congress last year, I spoke with

Dr Sarah Heath about some of the
more common issues she sees with

cats that lead to problem
behaviours and we are also

featuring our monthly JFMS
clinical spotlight interview.

This month I’m speaking with Dr
Rodrigo Paulino on Chronic

Axillary wounds in cats. So we
hope you enjoy this episode.

What are the most common issues
with the cat's home resources

that you encounter that lead
them to be referred to you?

Sarah Heath: I think feeding is
the main resource issue that we

see. And not necessarily the
fact that cats are often fed

together. Obviously, that's not
ideal. They're solitary feeders,

so they should always have the
opportunity to eat alone, even

when they're in a socially
compatible group. So not, just

because they are socially
compatible, still doesn't mean

they should be eating together,
eating is a solitary behaviour.

But one of the things I would
just say as an added tip is if

they say, Yes, I do feed them in
separate rooms, which actually a

lot of people have heard that
now. And do do that. Ask them

where the cats are when they're
preparing the food. Because that

I find is the biggest stressor
that is still around, even when

people have heard about solitary
feeding. And there's a video I

show in one of the talks that I
give, which is of a nurse

colleague, who very kindly let
me video when I went to see her

cats, and she was very aware of
resource distribution, she did

feed them separately, very
meticulously weighed out foods,

because one of them was on a
weight management programme. And

I observed a feeding and took a
video of it. And as she's

preparing the food and weighing
out, the two cats are behind her

so she's not seeing them. And
we're getting staring and we're

getting a blocking behaviour,
we're getting some swiping. And

we have one fat cat. And one
thin cat, which is always a bit

of a telltale. And actually, the
preparation of food twice a day

was very stressful. But the food
was then delivered separately in

completely separate rooms with
the door closed between them.

And I see that so often. So that
would be my one, don't forget

about the preparation as well as
the delivery.

Nathalie Dowgray: And how would
you suggest people get around

that? That's a really hard one
to do.

Sarah Heath: It is really hard.
And so we need to be thinking a

little bit laterally. And so if
they're outdoor cats, so they

have time outside, then prepare
food and put it in the fridge

and then have it ready so that
you can get it out quickly. You

don't need to be doing any, if
it's dry food, weigh out in the

morning. So weigh out however
many meals you're gonna give in

the morning so that they're all
done, you don't have to go

through that each time. So it's
a much shorter period of time in

preparation. The other thing is
using neoprene sealed feeders,

so that they can actually self
access wet food that's fresh for

24 hours in a neoprene sealed
type of feeder. So that's

another way of doing it. If you
have more than one person in the

house. For someone who lives
alone, I know how difficult it

is when you don't have that
luxury of another human being.

But if there is another human
being there who can take the

cats into another room and play
with them individually, not

together. So do something with
them. So have one of them in the

kitchen while you're preparing
and the other one in another

room playing with someone else.
So they're not in the same room

that can help. So all sorts of
little ways in which you can get

round it but it is difficult.
And if they're indoor cats, it's

even more difficult because as
soon as you open that cupboard

door, good old Pavlov, here we
go. We know that cupboard door

means something and yeah, they
were asleep on the bed. No, they

weren't. They were lying on the
bed, because they heard the

cupboard door downstairs, and
suddenly they're all there. So

of course, it's not always easy.
But there are practical tips and

things we can do. And we get
very imaginative in the ways

that we solve these problems.
But it's very individual, of

course, to the client and the
house and the cats.

Nathalie Dowgray: Of course,
yeah, feeling some guilt that my

cats bowls are in the same room,
quite far apart.

Sarah Heath: It's visual
protection that's important to

cats. So if you have a peninsula
bar type style, or a central

island in your kitchen or
something like that, and you can

use that as a visual barrier,
that can be enough, you can use

a height barrier as well if, as
long as you cause visual

segregation, so it doesn't have
to be physical. I remember,

Ilona won't mind me saying this,
she had two cats and when I went

to stay with her, she was having
a little bit of an issue and I

looked at the way they were
feeding and we just put a

cardboard box between them and
immediately their body language

changed. It's like look at those
ears, look at that tail.

Immediately they went into a
nice crouched feeding posture,

that was what we're looking for.
And it was just a cardboard box,

and then we were able to look at
how we do that slightly

differently in a longer term.
But we don't need to spend a lot

of money. There are ways of
doing these things without

spending money. And I think
that's quite important as well.

Nathalie Dowgray: Brilliant.
Thank you for that. It's really

helpful.

Sarah Heath: I advocate kitten
information evenings. It's

something I've talked about for
a long, long time. But I do urge

you to do kitten information
evenings, that is where you

invite your kitten caregivers to
the practice. And you give them

a talk about cat behaviour,
about natural cat behaviour,

about the five pillars, about
emotions, and you get that

information to them as early as
possible in that relationship.

Nathalie Dowgray: And now I'm
going to be speaking to Dr

Paulino about his JFMS clinical
spotlight article on Chronic

axillary wounds in cats: what do
we know and how should we manage

them?
If you had to give some or two

top tips for managing axillary
wounds for vets in practice,

what would they be?

Rodrigo Paulino: Top tips is
wound preparation. Working with

less experienced colleagues, the
most common mistakes would be

the initial wound management,
the adequate flushing of the

wounds, making sure that we
collect a sample, make sure that

we are using the correct
antibiotic. Because this is key.

We need to be very careful with
our antibiotic use because we

don't want to eventually run out
of antibiotics, run out of

choices. We need to be very
careful with our antibiotic use.

Definitely clear as much debris
as possible. So decrease the

debris burden and the bacteria
as much as possible with our

flush. Appropriate antibiotic
and then just wait. Don't, Don't

rush. So I would say top tips
are appropriate initial wound

management and don't rush into
anything that you're not ready

or the wound is not ready yet.
So it's just kind of careful

planning.

Nathalie Dowgray: Great, thank
you, yeah, I think it's a really

good tip. Because yeah, I think
I could say I've probably been

guilty of rushing some of these
cases, you see a wound and you

think I just need to close that.
So that's really, really good

advice. You mentioned some
bandaging techniques in the

paper. Do you have any tips for
us about bandaging these type of

wounds and how to get the
bandage to stay on?

Rodrigo Paulino: Yeah, I think
cats are always tricky because

they don't behave as they should
and there much more flexible,

more wile, so it needs to be
something that allows the cat to

move freely. So what I like to
do is a tie over bandage, it

doesn't need to be super close
to the wound, it can be quite

far away from the wound edges.
So I mean, the anchors can be

quite far away. And then on top
of the tie over bandage, I like

to place, for instance, like a
pet shirt, the cats really feel

comfortable, feel secure, and
then allows a little bit of

fixation of the of the bandage
as well. And then if it slips a

little bit, it's fine, because
we still have the pet shirt. So

yeah, I really like a nice tie
over and then a pet shirt. Maybe

if the cat is well behaved, not
wearing the buster collar. But

that's another subject.

Nathalie Dowgray: If we can
build on that actually, do you

generally use buster collars in
these cases? Or does it really

depend on the individual cat?

Rodrigo Paulino: I think it
depends on the individual cat, I

would prefer to keep it just on
the pet shirt. But it is case

dependent too, these guys are
proper ninjas. So we don't know

how they're going to be until we
actually have them in the

hospital with a bandage, with
the pet shirt, with the buster

collar. So I would prefer to
keep as minimal as possible so

that they can feel more
comfortable. But in some cases,

if keeping the patient without
the buster collar would

compromise the wound healing, I
would definitely place a buster

collar.

Nathalie Dowgray: Thank you for
listening. At International Cat

Care we advocate for
microchipping as being the

primary source of identification
for cats and, where collars are

being used as a secondary form
of identification, we strongly

advise that they are quick
release collars to prevent these

types of injuries occuring. This
is an issue where the veterinary

profession has a strong role to
play in educating and advising

the public about what
appropriate collars for cats

are. If you are an ISFM member
you can hear more from Dr

Paulino with his full interview
being available on the ISFM

members podcast, to access this
please visit

portal.icatcare.org. And as well
as the podcast, ISFM veterinary

members can also access all the
other ISFM member benefits

including Dr Heaths lectures
from our ISFM Rhodes congress,

monthly webinars, the discussion
forum and much more. If you are

looking for more CPD in May we
also have two open access

webinars. The first is from
IDEXX and Purina. It's early

chronic kidney disease in the
cat: how to detect it and what

to do next. And that's with
Sarah Sweet and Dottie Laflamme.

It's going to be live on the
11th of May. The second webinar

is from ISFM and it's on
creating a cat friendly

veterinary environment with Sam
Taylor. And that's going to be

live on the 16th of May. And,
don't forget, JFMS is now an

open access journal so if you
wish to read Dr Paulino’s

clinical spotlight article
please do follow the link in the

show notes. We'll be back again
next month with more interviews

recorded at ISFM Rhodes and next
month's JFMS Clinical spotlight

interview. If you don’t want to
miss it make sure you sign up to

Chattering with ISFM on you
preferred podcast platform.