Abstract
ISFM comes of age
Launched in 1996, the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM) has grown and developed and this year celebrates its 21st birthday. It was first brought to life as the European Society of Feline Medicine (ESFM) by its parent charity, the Feline Advisory Bureau (FAB, which went on to become International Cat Care in 2013), and became ISFM in 2010.
The specific aims for the society were to promote feline health and welfare, to provide a forum for the dissemination of information and knowledge about developments in feline medicine, to develop feline-related continuing professional development in Europe, to publish a dedicated journal, and to develop links with other like-minded organisations. As can be seen from the ‘21 ISFM facts and stats’ below, ISFM has gone above and beyond these original aims.
Andy Sparkes, ISFM’s Director, comments: ‘ISFM has brought a real buzz to feline medicine and no practitioner who sees cats should be without the fantastic information it provides. Its discussion forum welcomes vets from all over the world and members enjoy free monthly webinars from global feline experts. Thanks to ISFM, feline medicine has become mainstream and exciting.’
The society was established by (left) Claire Bessant, Chief Executive of International Cat Care, the parent charity of ISFM, and (right) Andy Sparkes, Director of ISFM, in collaboration with veterinary colleagues with a passion for feline medicine. Claire and Andy are pictured at ISFM’s recent awards ceremony in London, UK.
iCatCare
Celebrating feline innovations
International Cat Care, the parent charity of ISFM, presented six ‘Easy to Give’ and five ‘Cat Friendly’ awards at its annual awards ceremony in London on July 14. A brief outline is provided below; for more information about the awards go to
ISFM Easy to Give Awards
These awards recognise the efforts of companies in making prescription-only medicines (POMs) that are easy to administer to cats, or novel methods of delivering POMs. They were presented for:
*These are product updates of previous Easy to Give award winners
(from left) Hannah Newbury, Carolyne Dyson and Amanda Melvin from MSD Animal Health displaying their Easy to Give Award for Bravecto
Cat Friendly Awards
These awards recognise non-POM products that have made a real difference to cat wellbeing and welfare. They were given for:
Christopher Sprung and Joelle Sprung from Eickemeyer Veterinary Equipment, recipients of a Cat Friendly Award for their Mouth Gag Set
iCatCare Facebook page is well liked
iCatCare’s Facebook page has recently reached a milestone of more than 20,000 likes and followers. For more information about iCatCare events, news and features, such as ‘Cat of the week’, like the page at
‘Street cats’ photography competition winner
This photograph has been selected as the winning entry in the 2017 iCatCare photography competition, the theme for which was ‘street cats’. According to the photographer, Catan Ngan, this cat is part of a group of community cats in Hong Kong. Fortunately, it lives in a relative safe area of the streets and, as such, is at less risk of being caught by people to sell or eat. The judges loved the intimate portrait that captured the battered but defiant street cat. This is the fifth photography competition that iCatCare has run and this year the winner was selected from 2100 entries submitted from 56 countries
First mobile Cat Friendly Clinic
Cat Friendly Clinic (CFC) programme has accredited its first ‘catmobile’! The twin-room mobile operating theatre exclusively for cats has Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ accreditation and has achieved bronze CFC status. Crewed by a vet and a veterinary nurse, the vehicle is providing a mobile veterinary service in the Surrey and south-west London area of the UK. After initially visiting clients’ homes in a family car, Amy Bergs recognised that there was a demand for an operating facility that would save clients having to travel with their cat to the clinic for certain surgical procedures. To find out more about becoming a CFC, visit:
AAFP
Cat Friendly Practice program surpasses 4000 Cat Advocates
As the Cat Friendly Practice (CFP) program continues to grow in North and South America, so does the number of professionals who are advocating better care for cats.
Currently the AAFP has over 4000 veterinary professionals who are the CFP ‘Cat Advocates’ at their practice. This means they are the dedicated point of contact for answering client questions about the program, act as the champion for educating the whole practice on the CFP program, and work to ensure the practice culture and procedures support a cat-friendly environment.
Conference partners – spotlight
The AAFP is excited and grateful to have many wonderful partners participating in the 2017 Annual Conference in Denver, CO, USA.
Long-standing partners, the
For the second year in succession,
Two new partners for 2017, the
JFMS
Dust down your Doppler
Hypertension is a potentially severe disease that is challenging to recognise in cats and consequently is likely to be underdiagnosed in clinical practice. In a new podcast interview, Sam Taylor discusses a valuable resource for practitioners – the ‘ISFM Consensus Guidelines on the Diagnosis and Management of Hypertension in Cats’, published recently in JFMS – which recommend that blood pressure is assessed routinely in all cats.
Offering words of encouragement and practical tips, Sam, the panel cochair for the guidelines, encourages all veterinarians who treat cats to read the guidelines and consider how they can be applied in their own practices. One of the particular challenges is interpreting blood pressure results in borderline cases and, in response to a question asked via ISFM social media, Sam discusses whether a cut-off value can be used for differentiating between stress and hypertension.
JFMS Resident Best Paper Award presented in Brighton
Sara Janssens (centre) received the JFMS Resident Best Paper Award at the ISFM World Feline Congress in Brighton for her paper ‘Middle ear polyps: results of traction avulsion after a lateral approach to the ear canal in 62 cats (2004–2014)’. Here she displays her award with some members of the JFMS team – (from left) Réhannah Karim, Senior Marketing Manager; Neil Chesher, Commercial Sales Acount Manager; Jennie Atkinson, Senior Publishing Editor; and Abi Tansley, Assistant Editor. More information about the award can be found at:
Recognition for contribution to peer review
SAGE, the publisher of JFMS and JFMS Open Reports, is partnered with Publons, a third party service that aims to foster high quality, fast peer review by giving reviewers the recognition they deserve for their hard work and expertise. Recently, the two journals have been integrated into the service, giving our Editorial Board members and reviewers the opportunity to record, verify and showcase their peer review contributions. Already over 100 JFMS and JFMS Open Reports reviews have been added to Publons, and the number is expected to rise rapidly as reviewers become familiar with this free service. For more information on how to get started and set up a reviewer profile, visit:
‘Me and my JFMS’
We are preparing to celebrate JFMS’s upcoming 20th anniversary, and we need your help! Submit a picture for our ‘Me and My JFMS’ Collection… you and a copy of JFMS pictured in the clinic, at home, with your cats, on your travels, alongside an iconic building – the more imaginative the better! Submit your picture to: