Abstract
Neutering cats is, and will remain, one of the major activities of veterinary surgeons globally. However, feline reproduction is a constantly evolving discipline and our knowledge is developing at a rapid pace. Cat owners and breeders alike are increasingly expecting a wider range of reproduction services from their veterinarians, including detailed male and female infertility diagnostics; regular visits to breeding establishments, with ‘on the spot’ inbreeding coefficients for their breeding lines; reversible control of reproduction; semen evaluation; and artificial insemination with fresh (and perhaps, one day, frozen) semen.
This second Special Issue on Feline Reproduction and Reproductive Problems will help to dispel old dogmas, such as the beliefs that progestogens are dangerous, investigation of infertility in queens and toms is futile, inbreeding coefficients are too complex to grasp and intrauterine artificial insemination in cats is impossible. The issue also shows how much can be achieved with feline cases today vs the only technique that has historically been available: irreversibly removing the cat’s reproductive system. There now exists a variety of approaches to male and female infertility, with semen analysis increasingly becoming routine; fertility can be reversibly blocked for the desired amount of time with remarkable precision and without side effects; and reproductive performance can be monitored and improved by using inbreeding coefficients and selecting breeding animals accordingly.
Ulisse, a 3-year-old Exotic Shorthair tom cat, had repeatedly failed to impregnate the queens he was mated with and so was referred to the University of Padova, Italy, for semen evaluation. A few minutes after complete sedation with 100 μg/kg IM medetomidine, semen was collected by inserting an open-ended urinary catheter 9 cm into his urethra; he was woken up with a similar volume of atipamezol immediately after the procedure. The 15 μl semen sample collected was analysed and showed poor semen quality (8 million sperm/ml with 20% motility and 10% normal morphology). The owner declined further diagnostic investigation and removed Ulisse from the breeding line
Together, the two issues of JFMS have aimed to demonstrate that it is possible to solve an array of clinical reproductive problems without the need for a specialist. In line with this, many of the techniques described in this issue, such as vaginal cytology, ovarian or prostatic ultrasonography and semen collection, are achievable in a standard practice setting; intrauterine artificial insemination, which requires a fairly expensive sialoendoscope, is perhaps the only exception. Be sure to read the articles carefully to learn about the techniques that you could carry out yourself and, if in any doubt, get in touch with the relevant corresponding author. Of the techniques discussed in the issue, vaginal cytology and semen collection using medetomidine have the greatest clinical relevance relative to the skills and cost required, and I increasingly find myself using the latter for evaluating breeding soundness in tom cats (as described in the accompanying image).
As feline practitioners get to grips with these techniques, it is exciting to think that the range of services available to clients will expand over the next decade. Even if, by 2030, veterinarians are not able to communicate with their feline patients through a subdural chip, as I was envisaging back in 2001, 1 feline artificial insemination might well have become routine by then.
