Well, I've looked at how breed relates to a number of different disorders. I suppose one interesting one would have been Tritrichomonas foetus, so that's a, a gut parasite. I was able to show that Bengals and Siamese cats are particularly predisposed. And we're trying to find out why they're predisposed over all the other breeds to, to develop disease related to this parasite. Also looked at idiopathic cystitis, which is a, a stress-related disorder which causes very, very painful bladder, and can cause a urinary obstruction. And actually, if you leave it long enough, or the cat suffers for long enough, it can actually end up turning into transitional cell carcinoma, so into cancer of the bladder. And we know that certain breeds are predisposed. So Persian cats particularly, are predisposed to that, and so, we're trying to work out why these cats respond to stress, in such a, an unusual way that the, it affects their bladder. I think inflammation is always essential. So, if you know, for example, that Persians don't cope with stress very well, then it makes it, particularly around times of kittening, because that's where the damage is done to the, the, the, the nascent adrenal glands, that the cat then goes on to develop stress related disorders when they're older. So being particularly careful with a, a pregnant Persian cat, making sure they're not stressed et cetera, making sure they have all the key resources close at hand. It's really, really important and, you know, that way we can prevent the stressed kittens being born. And same with, if you know you've got a, a group of, of Bengal cats. You know, if they develop diarrhea, you know you need to start looking for this parasite very early, and you need to look at it for, in all the cats, because you know they've got a really high risk that they will be infected. And if they're not showing clinical signs, that, you know, the parasite is still in their, in their intestines, and you need to get it out. So it's by trying to understand how the, the genetics might predispose them to disease, and then that information always helps us then to either try and prevent disease or to resolve it more quickly. Certain breeds of cat are predisposed to certain mycobacterial infections, to come back to one of the areas that I'm doing more research on. But and that's, Siamese cats, particularly predisposed and Abyssinians and Somalis. So, you know, if one of those presents with particularly skin disease, hypercalcemia, you need to think really quickly along the potential mycobacterial route because those infections are so hard to treat. You have to treat them harder, you have to treat them for longer. And so it's understanding the, the breed related risks. So if I see a very weak Burmese in the clinic, then I know they're predisposed to low blood potassium. So I'm immediately going to start looking at that because that's that can prove quite rapidly fatal if you don't correct that. So by knowing what different breeds are predisposed to, to which diseases is so important for my work because a lot of our patients are pedigree. They do over rep, they do are much more highly represented than in the, the general population. The general population of Britain would only be about 12% pedigree, whereas probably at least 50% of my patients are, but that's because, you know, our bills are pricey. We are a referral, you know, secondary, third tertiary referrals. So the, for owners to, to have kept going, to, to really want the, the very, very best for their cat and, and to have the funds or the, more typically, that the cat is insured, so they tend to be more pedigrees that come to me. And so I need to always be thinking, what might this pedigree cat be predisposed to? Because it, it's so important, because the quicker you can get a diagnosis, then the quicker we can get them better. And the problem, because cats hide illness, by the time they come to my clinic, they're often really very poorly. So, I need to turn them around fast. Everyone has seen these super typed Persians and exotics where the poor things they can, they can barely blink. So we see what's corneal sequestration, so where the central part of the cornea dies, goes black and eventually falls off. Can be very, very painful. Because their noses are, are so pushed up they're very, you know, the, the ultra types they, very similar features to the pug. So they've got their nostrils up, you know, on level with their eyes, which means their tear ducts don't work. It also means they're much more likely to have entropion where the bottom lid folds in and so the hairs are directly irritating those poor eyes. And the, they get really bad skin folds, and they get infections, fungal infections particularly in the skin folds. Not only that of course their teeth don't match, so they can't actually chew. And while I know some of the food companies are now designing food specifically for brachycephalic cats, I really feel that's the wrong way around. We shouldn't be designing food to assist these cats, we should stop breeding them so typed so they can't chew properly. Because of course, when you teeth don't meet properly, you get a lot of dental disease. So these poor cats get a lot of gingivostomatitis and they often end up having all of their teeth removed. So, you know, just by being a little Persian that's got ultra typed, all of those things can be a problem. Their nostrils could be so small that to get any oxygen in, they're really working hard, to the point that we actually see much more of the, the brachycephalic airway syndrome-type picture with them. And we can even see them with increased right side of the heart because they are trying so hard to, you know, to, to, to breathe. It, it's really, really frustrating to see these cats. Typically when you, the, the Persians with the ultra type, when you take their heart rate, you actually have a sinus arrhythmia. Something you don't see in cats unless they've got upper sper, obstruction, or they're sleeping quietly at home. Because the minute you stress a cat by bringing it into a clinic, then it's got enough catecholamines in it that the heart rate lifts up, and you don't see that sinus arrhythmia. But with these poor guys, their respiration is so labored, that you start seeing the sinus arrhythmia come back in again. So you know that every breath they're taking is hard work. And we have shown in another study, looking at radiographs of Persian cats, that Persian cats have a, a, a narrower trachea, on average, than normal cats. So again, that is part of the brachycephalic airway syndrome. You know, the tiny nose, the everything's squashed up the, the, the narrow trachea. So yeah, they're not as bad as the pubs, but unfortunately they're heading in the same direction, and that is really, really sad. Really important is clean air, reducing dust. So anything that is an airway irritant, anything might inflame the lining of the nose because everything so closed over already, then that's going to help. So, with cats that's particularly if they have a litter box, making sure that they are using dust free litter. Not having a lid on the litter box, because not only does the dust build up in there, but urea builds up in there from the urine, and that can further irritate the airways. Ideally you have someone come to your house to either flat-sit or cat-sit or come into the house two or three times a day to look after the cat when you go on holiday, rather than having the cat go to a cattery. Because going to a cattery significantly increases the risk of getting cat flu. And it's not necessarily that your cat is going to catch an infection from another cat in the cattery, it may be a beautifully run cattery. But the viruses that cause cat flu, they hide. So if you're cat was exposed when they were a baby, then the, the, the viruses are still there, not causing a problem but they're hiding. But you stress your cat out by taking it away from you, away from it's territory, those viruses come out. And so that is why cats so often go down with signs of flu when they're in the cattery. It's not that they caught it there, it's recrudesced because of the stress. So if you can keep the stress down in these cats, if they don't catch airway infections or they don't recrudesce their own, then that's really going to help. Things like not using hair spray around them, not using plug-in air fresheners, et cetera, all of those things can be highly irritant to little cats' noses. If you think about where we plug in those horrible air fresheners, it's just at cat nosed height. It's just plain rude. So, cats do not need to be exposed to that. So, it's just, try to think cat, and using some kind of vacuum cleaner that has got HEPA filters, et cetera, that really reduce the level of, of dust mites will really help as well
