Abstract
Dear Editors,
I would thank Smith et al for their contribution to feline medicine with their article ‘Comparison of axillary, tympanic membrane and rectal temperature measurement in cats’. 1 Assessing body temperature is a simple metric, yet little work has been carried out in cats. Their study found that tympanic measurement temperature (TMT) was less reliable than rectal or axillary temperature assessment. The article makes no mention of whether the right or the left ear was used for assessment of TMT. Mazzotti and Boere found that the temperature in the right ear was significantly higher in stressed cats compared with non-stressed cats. 2 They found that the right ear temperature measured 0.34ºF (0.19ºC) higher than the left ear in cats with elevated cortisol levels. I think this past published work should have been addressed in the current study. Additionally, with cats, it could be argued that a right-handed operator might more accurately angle the infrared thermometer to face the cat’s left tympanic, and vice versa.