Category Archives: New Research

Cats, Feline Health, Litter Box, New Research, News, Odd News, Research, Uncategorized

Toxoplasmosis Research: No Kittens Were Harmed in the Making of This Protozoa

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New scientific research means kittens may longer have to be sacrificed to study Toxoplasmosis gondii (Art by Dusty Rainbolt from Shutterstock photos.)

VETERINARY MEDICINE (Grenoble, France) Toxoplasmosis gondii is an indiscriminant single cell organism that can infect most warm-blooded animals worldwide (including humans and even birds). While it’s not picky about whose muscle tissue it inhabits, it’s very shy where it does the nasty. Out of all the living organisms in the entire universe, within the privacy of a cat’s intestines is the only place where the magic happens.  (That’s big cats, domestic cats, Cat in the Hat, any cat.)

Inside a cat it’s too dark to see

Scientists haven’t been able to observe toxoplasmosis hanky panky because (to rephrase Groucho Marx) inside a cat it’s too dark.

Until 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) used artificially infected kittens to incubate the protozoa for research purposes. But it was a short tenure for Fluffy.

According to the Cornell Feline Health Center, “Newly exposed cats usually begin shedding oocysts (eggs) three to 10 days after consuming infected tissue, and continue shedding for around 10 to 14 days.” 

The intestinal tract of a cat is only place in the entire universe that Toxoplasmosis gondii can do the nasty. (Photo by Shutterstock)

The poor research kitties’ usefulness spanned only two weeks. Once they stopped dropping magic turds, it was curtains. Typical government waste mentality. The USDA didn’t want to rehome infected kitties (even if they weren’t contagious!) They decided they should kill their furry incubators rather than the parasite. Treatment is no big deal—just a course of clindamycin and, sometimes steroids should take care of toxo. Even if the cat isn’t treated, it can’t transmit/pass on the parasite because he no longer sheds eggs.

USDA Idiocy

Finally in April 2019 the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (appropriate acronym ARS) stopped researching the parasite on kittens because U.S. citizens didn’t like their tax money going to kill kitties unnecessarily.

In the USDA announcement, I noticed sneaky wording. It said, “…the use of cats as part of any research protocol IN ANY ARS LABORATORY has been discontinued and will not be reinstated.” Notice the phrase “in any ARS laboratory.”  It didn’t say research on cats had stopped. Research in their own laboratories stopped. Just saying. What about contracted laboratories like Wuhan? Huh?

The USDA says they’ve stopped killing kittens when they stop pooping Toxoplasmosis, but have they really? (Photo by Shutterstock)

Stopping research on toxoplasmosis is unfortunate, because the parasite can harm fetuses of women who were infected while they are pregnant. So research is important, but they didn’t need to off the kitties once they cease to produce the eggs.

Toxoplasmosis and pregnancy

Don’t freak out, pregnant ladies. Remember, cats can only shed the parasite for the first two weeks. Even during that communicable 2 week period, the oocysts aren’t immediately infectious to humans or other animals.

According to Cornell, “Before becoming infectious, they [oocysts] must go through a process called sporulation, which takes one to five days depending on environmental conditions.” 

Have someone else scoop the box for you every day and wash your hands and you and your little bun will be just fine. (Don’t take my word. Read the sources below.)

Although cats are needed to complete the Toxoplasmosis gondii reproduction cycle, most people become infected from eating or handling raw meat. (Photo by Shutterstock)

Most common ways of being infected

By the way, toxo may only be able to make little protozoa inside a cat, but according to the Centers for Disease Control, humans become infected by:

  • Eating undercooked, contaminated meat (especially pork, lamb, and venison) or shellfish.
  • Accidentally ingesting eggs after handling contaminated meat or shellfish and not thoroughly washing hands.
  • Cutting raw meat and then slicing veggies with the same unwashed knife.
  • Not thoroughly washing your hands after gardening.

There’s good news, research is back on and no kittens will be harmed in the pooping of these protozoa.

Although biologists haven’t been able to fully reproduce (pun intended) the entire love-making cycle of toxo, they’re getting there. Recently, research out of  Grenoble Alpes University in France came up with a gene editing technique that pushes the parasite toward sexual congress in the laboratory.  The new technique can only replicate the toxo foreplay. No big bang yet. Maybe try some protozoa porn to get them in the mood.

Something’s Missing

The missing piece could be some ingredient or compound inside the cat’s intestines that triggers reproduction. Maybe they’re just too shy to shag with the lights on. Maybe the sound of gurgling cat guts is the toxo equivalent of Barry White singing, “Let’s Get It On” or “Earned It” from 50 Shades of Amoeba.” Scientists are still working on it.

In addition to saving kittens, the new research could help researchers identify drugs that halt or accelerate different stages of the parasite’s life cycle, and perhaps even make it sterile. 

Sources:

https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2019/04/02/ars-announces-toxoplasmosis-research-review-discontinues-research

https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/toxoplasmosis-cats

https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/petcare/toxoplasmosis https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/toxoplasmosis_catowners.html

New Research

Jeffy’s In the Mews: Cats Lose to Farting Dogs in Human Sleep Study

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IN THE MEWS: Flawed Sleep Study Says Women Prefer Sleeping with Dogs

By JeffyJeffyBadBoy, Feline Investigative Reporter

Feline journalist JeffyJeffy demands reevaluation of the recent sleep study.



Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy? Who is the best sleep partner for women? Spoiler alert: We kitties come in third.

A recent study, published in the Journal of the International Society of Anthrozoology, concluded kitties aren’t the best sleeping partners for women, but neither are human significant others. Who then? Fideaux. Can you believe it? Stinky, snoring, farting dogs. Humans come in second. I hear that noise and emissions come from them, too. There’s no accounting for taste. As an independent journalist, I am contesting the findings and demanding a fairer rating system.

The study, “An Examination of Adult Women’s Sleep Quality and Sleep Routines in Relation to Pet Ownership and Bedsharing”, surveys 962 adult American women about their relationships and their sleep, 57% shared their bed with a human partner, 55% sleep with at least one dog and 31% spend the night with at least one cat.

(And what’s that about? There are way more pet kitties than dogs in the U.S. Why don’t we get to hog the bed like dogs do? I think the results are skewed. Why did they interview so few cat owners compared to human owners and dog owners. As a side note, no animal knows more about sleep than cats. Sixteen hours a day, baby!)

The study evaluated the sleep quality of women sharing their bed with a cat, a dog and another human and asked, which species provides the best night’s sleep? (In the spirit of full disclosure, I sleep with my boss and she only complains a couple of times a night about me pouncing on her feet and biting her toes.)

The ladies told researchers dogs were less disruptive to sleep than human partners and they felt more protected by a dog. Cats were more disruptive than human partners they didn’t feel protected. (Weighing in at 10 pounds it’s not like we kitties can take down that cat burglar.)

According to the study, dog owners tended to go to bed earlier and get up earlier than those who only had cats. Duh. They had to get up early to take the dog for a pee. We kitties manage to take care of our “needs”. So who’s really disrupting sleep?

The study didn’t say anything about canine flatulence or cover-stealing. I think they need to look into that.

Wanna read the study?

“An Examination of Adult Women’s Sleep Quality and Sleep Routines in Relation to Pet Ownership and Bedsharing,” authored by Christy L. Hoffman, etal can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2018.1529354

Behavior, Litter Box, New Research, Uncategorized

Study Shows Declaw Surgery Results in Chronic Pain and Behavior Problems in Cats

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We never considered subjecting Sam to declaw surgery. He never destroyed furniture because he had plenty of scratching posts. Photo by Weems S. Hutto.

New Study Shows Declaw Surgery Contributes to Behavior Problems

In the past, shelters and rescue groups have insisted that a larger percentage of declawed cats were surrendered for aggression and inappropriate elimination issues than kitties with intact toes. The pro declaw forces always downplayed the assertion with, “Show the scientific proof.” Of course, that was impossible.  No scientific proof existed because the research hadn’t been done. Thanks to a new study, led by Nicole K. Martell-Moran, DVM, MPH, we now have that proof.

Martell-Moran’s just-released study now supports those claims that declawed cats are at greater risk of developing deal-breaker behavior problems than cats with natural paws. Extrapolating from there, cats with biting and elimination problems are much higher risk of being surrendered to shelters than well-behaved cats.

The study, “Pain and adverse behavior in declawed cats,”was published online in May in the online Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.  Until now, no studies that incorporated modern pain assessment of declawed cats could be found in a PubMed search.

This study’s purpose was to determine if there was any association between declaw surgery and back pain, as well as unwanted new behaviors such as inappropriate elimination, biting, aggression, excessive grooming. Martell-Moran also wanted to determine if pain-causing bone fragments left behind after the surgery were associated with those behavior issues. The research shows that the surgery has the unintended consequence of causing potentially more serious behavior problems. The study evaluated 274 cats—half declawed and half intact, 33 of whom were four-paw declaw.

It concluded there was a clear association between declawing and long-lasting and painful side effects of the surgery. Also the “the prevalence of P3 fragments in declawed cats was excessive and surprising.”

Onychectomy, the technical term for declawing, is commonly performed in the United States and Canada to prevent cats from scratching and destroying furniture.

Four X-rays of forelimb and paw of four cats in the study. The arrows indicate fragments left behind after declaw surgery. The entire P3 has been removed in projection (a); <25% of the distal phalanx remains in (b); while >25% percent remains in (c); and only the tip of the distal phalanx has been removed (d) Photo courtesy of Nicole Martell-Moran.

 

Declaw surgeries are usually performed by using either guillotine cutters, dissection by scalpel or laser. Dr. Martell-Moran tried to determine the method used on each study cat, but that information was not always available. In those cases where she could determine the technique, there were some interesting revelations. She says all three techniques have the potential to leave behind painful bone fragments, but the guillotine most frequently left larger bone fragments that would regrow claw. This is not a painless process.  Laser surgery and scalpel dissection occasionally left smaller and fewer fragments, but there is no guarantee the kitty still won’t suffer painful side effects.

Pain and Behavior Problems May Take Years to Appear

Back pain, inappropriate elimination, biting, aggression, and/or excessive grooming occurred more often in cats who had bone fragments, but declawed cats without the bone fragments were still more likely to pee outside the box and bite than intact kitties.

Because of the floating bone shards, cats change the way they walk. “If you wear high heels, it’s going to change the way you walk and your back is eventually going to hurt,” Dr. Martell-Moran said. She added back pain causes litter box problems because of the position the cat must assume to eliminate. “In cats, defecating and urinating require different postures.” So the back pain may cause problems with peeing or pooping or both functions. Back and pain issue may appear years after the cat was declawed. (If you’re having litter box problems, please take a look at Cat Scene Investigator: Solve Your Cat’s Litter Box Mystery (Stupid Gravity Press.)

Another point not mentioned in her study, is the phantom pain factor. In human medicine, the 2002 study of human amputees, “Phantom Pain and Risk”  led by Pieter U Dijkstra, PhD,  found that phantom limb pain is “suffered by around seventy percent regardless the cause of amputation.”

Identifying and Managing Declaw Pain

Dr. Martell-Moran says not every single cat is going to have problems, but a vast majority of cats (likely 70 to 80 percent) suffer some pain.

“People just don’t know when they’re cats are in pain,” she said. “Look for changes in behavior such as suddenly not using the litter box or not wanting to be touched on the back. Sometime owners can tell by running their hand down the back. If cat turns around suddenly, he may be saying, “Hey, that hurts.”

Declaw surgery removes the distal bone of the toes. Photo courtesy of Nicole Martell-Moran.

 

If you suspect your declawed cat is painful, Dr. M-M suggests “getting X-rays of the feet to see if there are bone fragments.” If fragments are found, she said, “Go back and have the fragment removed.” She also suggested talking to a cat-friendly vet and investigating medical pain management.

Bottom line, Dr. Martell-Moran’s “study showed persistent pain and discomfort following declaw surgery is an important risk factor for behavioral changes” (i.e. housesoiling, aggression, biting.)

How do you feel about declawing cats? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below the bio.

About Dusty Rainbolt

Author Dusty Rainbolt is an award-winning veterinary journalist according to her answering machine. She is an associate certified cat behavior consultant and member of International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, as well as past president of the Cat Writers’ Association. Her books, columns, reviews and articles have been honored with more than 50 writing awards including three-time recipient of Friskies Writer of the Year. Her just-released award-winning cat behavior book, Cat Scene Investigator: Solve Your Cat’s Litter Box Mystery, is the consummate guide for dealing with a cat who sidesteps his/her appointed toilet. CSI, which provides science-based methods for determining the medical or behavioral causes of feline inappropriate elimination, teaches cat parents to view their cat’s litter box avoidance through the eyes of a detective to determine the cause and, ultimately, the remedy.

New Research, Uncategorized

Gooey Slug Slime Medical Adhesive Inspire Tomorrow’s Wound Care

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Take Two Slugs and Call Me Tomorrow

The adhesive is modelled on a defensive mucus that is secreted by the Dusky Arion slug

 

Medical sutures and staples may someday go the way of the dodo, thanks to man’s new best friend, the slug, the Dusky Arion slug to be precise (Arion subfuscus). Thanks to a new study, Tough adhesives for diverse wet surfaces, led by author Jianyu Li, an Assistant Professor at McGill University, future doctors may forego classes in stitching and knots and opt for arts and crafts where they can learn advanced gluing techniques. Tissue adhesives are used as an alternative to stitches or staples and can be less damaging to the healthy tissues,  but present options are inflexible and simply don’t adhere to wet, slimy surfaces inside the body. Slug slime will change all that.

The Dusky Slug (Arion subfuscus) is native to Europe and is considered an invasive pest in North America.

 

Li wanted to improve medical adhesives. And of course, when people think adhesive, they automatically think slug, right? But it’s not so far a stretch. When threatened, the slug secretes mucus that glues it in place, making it difficult for a predator to pry it off a surface.

The snail slime contains proteins as well as positively charged calcium ions.   The positive charges are attracted to the surface of biological tissues like a chemical version of Velcro®.

Since the bonding isn’t immediate, the hydrogel slug glue will be much easier for doctors to work with than existing tissue adhesives, which is basically Superglue that sticks instantly to many surfaces. The Superglue not only hardens unforgivingly fast, it doesn’t adhere to wet surfaces, like the inside of a body.  Ever tried to put a Band-Aid on a sweaty arm?  Same principle.

Slug Slime Creates a Sticky Situation

The slug-inspired medical adhesive stuck easily to wet tissue, like this pig heart.

 

The slug hydrogel forms a stretchy web of molecules, which are made up of 90 percent water.  That’s perfect for plugging a hole in a beating heart or even a growing heart.

In tests on both dry and wet pig skin, cartilage, heart, arteries, and liver, the adhesive was significantly greater than other medical adhesives, requiring more than three times the energy to disrupt the bond.  The slug slime adhesive can be cut to desired sizes and applied to tissue surfaces as a patch or injected for deeper injuries.

Adhesion occurs within minutes, whether or not the tissue is wet (translate: bloody) and it’s flexible enough to withstand a motion within a functioning body.  This family of adhesives may be useful as tissue adhesives, wound dressings, and tissue repair, not to mention adhering children into chairs until they finish eating their okra.

Hopefully in the near future we’ll see slug technology saving lives and limbs in human emergency rooms and veterinary clinic around the world.

Would you let your doctor or veterinarian use snail slime analogue on you or your cat? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

In the future say goodbye to Band-Aids, sutures and staples.

 

Behavior, New Research, Special Days, Uncategorized

Spring Forward with Cats—The Daylight Savings Time Dilemma

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Weems S. Hutto
George dreads those late dinners after Daylight Savings Time makes us spring forward.

 

Oh joy. It’s spring. That means allergy season is upon us. Worse still, the second Sunday in March (this Sunday morning) prompts us mindless lemmings to “spring forward” into Daylight Savings Time. A few hours later my alarm clock will roust me from my bed kicking and screaming. It’s like having jet lag without the benefit of a trip. I guess you can tell I’m not a fan of the twice a year time change.

Daylight Savings Time is Hazardous to Your Health

While most of us love that extra hour of sleep we gain when the clocks fall back in November, our bodies never quite make the adjustment to the springtime sleep deprivation jump.

Research shows the time change may actually create health problems. According to a 2014 study  published in the medical journal Open Heart, on the Monday following the change to Daylight Savings Time, the number of heart attacks increase by 24 percent over a normal Monday. There’s also an increase in suicide risk for vulnerable individuals. An Australian study concluded that male suicides increase in the weeks following Daylight Savings Time. A 2009 study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that, on the Monday after we spring forward, workers were more frequently injured than on a normal Monday. Also those injuries were more serious.

(Please Texas Legislature, get rid of this plague on Texans.)

Whining Session Over

Alright, I’m done complaining.  My point is: there are real issues for people who have to alter their schedule to accommodate the time change. Humans are ruled by a circadian rhythm, our biological clock. When Daylight Savings Time disrupts your body’s natural schedule, you can experience anxiety. As it turns out, your cat and dog can, too.

The internal clocks of wild animals are ruled by natural sunlight, and the rising and setting of the sun. As a survival mechanism free-roaming cats are creatures of habit. They live by a strict time schedule throughout the day to prevent unfortunate encounters with adversaries. Indoor cats still rigidly cling to that need for a predictable schedule.

Fluffy’s daily schedule is inextricably linked to yours: feeding time, playtime, clean litter box time and bedtime. Since he can’t hunt for food, he’s concerned about when you get up to feed him, and when you get home…to feed him. If you arbitrarily start rising an hour earlier, he wonders, “What the rat?”

After all, the sun still rises and sets according to Fluffy’s Solar Standard Time. If you’re late returning from work (according to his internal clock), he may fear he’ll starve, and that’s stressful.

Reducing Fluffy’s Stress

Cats hate when we spring forward
Feeding Time

Instead of changing his schedule all at once, transition to the new routine over a week or so. Wake-up time 10 or 15 minutes earlier every couple of days. Between now and Sunday, feed Fluffy a few minutes sooner until he’s eating at the new feeding time. Or, slowly do away with a fixed dinnertime altogether. Vary it by 15 or 20 minutes either way. This will also help reduce stress later if you get caught in traffic or stop to have dinner with a friend.

Instead of a regular dinner hour, offer your kitty food puzzles. He can eat whenever hungry rather than dwelling on the fact that your 60 minutes late. He’ll get used to working for his food. Food balls also reduce stress, boredom and destructive behaviors.

Medication

If your cat takes medicine, call your your vet about changing the time you pill him. Most of the time, a one-hour change won’t cause a problem. That may not be true of cats who need insulin injections or seizure meds. Early doses of insulin could lead to low blood sugar levels. Insulin administration is based on Fluffy’s mealtime and should be given every 12 hours, so ask Doc about mealtime too. She can give you instructions about easing into a new schedule.

Litter Box Maintenance

We all want a clean bathroom. Since you’ll arrive home an hour later than usual, the litter box will go unflushed even longer, give it a quick scoop before you leave for work and again when you get home. Both Fluffy and your carpet will appreciate.

Snuggle Time

Let’s face it, Daylight Savings Time isn’t the end of the world for even the most sensitive of kitties. But giving Fluffy a little extra attention during that irritating transitionperiod will probably make adjusting easier for both of you.

How does the transition to Daylight Saving Time affect your cat? What do you  do to help him? Tell me about it in the comment section below.

_________________________________

About Dusty Rainbolt

Author Dusty Rainbolt is an award-winning veterinary journalist according to her answering machine. She is an associate certified cat behavior consultant and member of International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, as well as past president of the Cat Writers’ Association. Her books, columns, reviews and articles have been honored with more than 50 writing awards including three-time recipient of Friskies Writer of the Year. Her just-released cat behavior book, Cat Scene Investigator: Solve Your Cat’s Litter Box Mystery, is the consummate guide for dealing with a cat who sidesteps his/her appointed toilet. CSI, which provides science-based methods for determining the medical or behavioral causes of feline inappropriate elimination, teaches cat parents to view their cat’s litter box avoidance through the eyes of a detective to determine the cause and, ultimately, the remedy.

Behavior, New Research

Research Concludes Cat Memory as Good as Dogs’

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Cat memory is more than a Broadway song. It’s a fact according to new research.

 

It’s long been believed Fideaux is smarter than Fluffy, but new research questions the validity of the canine propaganda. Last year, a study published in Current Biology concluded that dogs remember some details of past experiences. A just-published study shows that cats, too, can access memories of past events and even recall some of the details.

Cats can recall memories

A team of Japanese scientists observed 49 volunteer domestic cats to determine whether or not they could remember which containers they’d already eaten from. Researchers let the cats explore open food bowls and eat from some containers before removing the kitties from the room. Fifteen minutes later, when the kitties returned to the room, they spent more time checking out the bowls they hadn’t yet emptied. The study, “Use of incidentally encoded memory from a single experience in cats,” was published last week in the journal, Behavioral Processes. Scientists observed the kitties recall details of past experiences, and “utilize the ‘what’ and ‘where’ information.” The final conclusion: cats have episodic memory, meaning they can recall details of a specific experience. Episodic memory is associated with self-awareness.

Cat memory is no surprise to anyone who has set out a carrier prior to a vet trip or quicked a claw while trimming nails. Cosmo, a one-year-old Siamese-mix, had always cooperated whenever I trimmed his nails. That is until the afternoon I accidentally pinched his toe while cutting his nails. For the next 13 years he hid whenever I pulled out the the nail nippers. He never forgot that pinched toe. So cats recall traumatic or painful events, but what about pleasant experiences?

Cats may even be able to daydream. In tests about understanding human gestures and facial expressions the cats performed as well as dogs.

Better relationship is researchers’ goal

These experiments weren’t IQ tests, but rather an attempt to better understand how kitties store and retrieve memories of experiences. The researchers hope their conclusions will cat owners and their pets develop better relationships.

“Understanding cats more deeply helps to establish better cat-human relationships,” lead author Saho Takagi, a psychologist at Kyoto University, said in an interview with  BBC. “Cats may be as intelligent as dogs, as opposed to the common view of people that dogs are much smarter.”

Additionally she told BBC that cats performed comparably to dogs in tests about understanding human gestures and facial expressions.

So next time you watch the Broadway musical, Cats, and Grizabella sings about her glory days, remember that the aging puss may actually be able to recall details of what and where.

Tell me about your cat’s memory in the comments below.

About Dusty Rainbolt

Author Dusty Rainbolt is an award-winning veterinary journalist according to her answering machine. She is an associate certified cat behavior consultant and member of International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, as well as past president of the Cat Writers’ Association. Her books, columns, reviews and articles have been honored with more than 50 writing awards including three-time recipient of Friskies Writer of the Year. Her just-released cat behavior book, Cat Scene Investigator: Solve Your Cat’s Litter Box Mystery, is the consummate guide for dealing with a cat who sidesteps his/her appointed toilet. CSI, which provides science-based methods for determining the medical or behavioral causes of feline inappropriate elimination, teaches cat parents to view their cat’s litter box avoidance through the eyes of a detective to determine the cause and, ultimately, the remedy.