Abstract
AAFP
Cat Friendly Practice continues to grow
The AAFP’s Cat Friendly Practice (CFP) program helps veterinary practices in America to become more cat friendly in both the physical environment of the practice and the way in which medical care is delivered. The AAFP has continued its efforts to develop marketing strategies, educational materials and communication tools to deliver that message.
In 2013, several marketing initiatives were deployed to educate cat owners, including: brochures, articles and advertisements, social media messaging, radio interviews, online geo-targeted and pay-per-click campaigns, and a rebranded website that included pages specifically designed to encourage cat owner education. The AAFP also equipped veterinary practices with ongoing educational resources and tools to promote their CFP status to local cat clients. Among those tools have been a new CFP decal and poster; an event playbook; sample press releases; text that could be utilized on practice websites, newsletters or social media; bi-monthly e-newsletters and marketing materials.
Samples of CFP advertisements, articles and promotional materials
Genetics
Call for cases: audiogenic reflex seizures in cats
A team of veterinary specialists, a neuroscientist and executives of International Cat Care are seeking cases of suspected audiogenic reflex seizures in cats for the purposes of genetic research. They write:
Phenotypic characterisation and identification of a DNA marker may help in the identification, management and understanding of this complex disorder. Stimuli we know to evoke seizures in cats include the sound of breaking the tin foil from treatment or tablet packaging, the crinkling of tin foil, a metal spoon dropping into a ceramic feeding bowl, a daisy wheel printer, a digital alarm, the hammering of a nail or the clicking of an owner’s tongue.
A reflex seizure is defined as one consistently precipitated by environmental or internal stimuli. It is differentiated from spontaneous epileptic seizures in which precipitating factors cannot be identified. 1 Reflex epilepsy syndrome is, therefore, one in which all seizures are precipitated by sensory stimuli. 1 However, some authors suggest that only the majority of seizures need to be precipitated by sensory stimuli to constitute a syndrome of reflex epilepsy. 2 Audiogenic reflex seizures refer to those predominantly induced by sounds.
If colleagues have a case of suspected auditory-induced reflex seizures in a cat, or would like further information, they should contact Mark Lowrie at
Research team
Davies Veterinary Specialists, Manor Farm Business Park, Higham Gobion, Hertfordshire SG5 3HR, UK
Department of Pharmacology, UCL School of Pharmacy, 29–39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, UK
International Cat Care, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6LD, UK
Research
Canine distemper virus threatens tiger survival
Rare Amur tigers in Russia are succumbing to infection with canine distemper virus (CDV), according to the authors of a study published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. In the study, a team of scientists from the US and Russia showed that CDV has infected and can cause fatal neurological disease in members of this critically endangered species. They estimated that the virus has killed at least 1% of Amur tigers since 2009, a significant number in an endangered population of less than 500, and that the disease was distributed across the tiger’s entire range.