I spent last week at the North American Veterinary Conference. It’s huge, with over 10,000 veterinarians, vet technicians, vet students, practice managers, and support staff all come together to learn the latest in their field and see the latest in products to help them help their patients feel well.
Today, I’ll touch on some of the trends and newsworthy items I saw and heard around the conference.
Trends
There are a lot of companies selling veterinary diets now, and those diets often address the same things. For instance, for chronic kidney disease, your vet has choices from Hill’s, Royal Canin, Iams, Purina, and Blue Buffalo. To try to differentiate themselves in the market, Blue upped the game by adding mobility support to their kidney diet. This week, I saw that not only is Hills matching that, but they are introducing food with more palatability to encourage cats to eat their formula. This is going to be an advantage in the market if their food gets the reputation for the one that those often-queasy CKD cats will eat readily. It’s interesting to see these giants of the pet food industry pushing each other to innovate, and I’m sure the trend will continue.
Another trend I saw continuing was industry consolidation. This has gone on in the pet food industry for years, with fewer and fewer large companies holding most of the established consumer brands. The news that Mars, Inc. is buying VCA Hospitals is still fresh from last month, so they are under the same corporate ownership as Banfield and Pet Partners. And the news of the recently closed deal to bring Merial (manufacturer of Frontline and Heartgard) and Boehringer Ingelheim (manufacturer of Metacam and Prozinc) was prominent during the convention last week.
Other Tidbits of News
This may not be news to everyone, but I learned that pheromone sprays like Feliway aren’t instant but take about 10 minutes to work once a cat starts to smell them. I never thought about this, but it’s something to consider when spraying it in a cat carrier and putting a cat inside. The cat’s stress level may not be helped by the spray for a while. By that time, will they be too stressed out for it to have an effect? Spraying it on a blanket your cat rests on beforehand, then putting that blanket in the carrier might be a better solution.
The Morris Animal Foundation announced at the conference that one of their grants had funded research that may lead to an early diagnostic test for feline asthma. Researchers did breath tests on cats, examining the condensate from cats with and without asthma to identify biomarkers that identified asthmatic cats from the contents of their breath. Early detection before lung damage develops could be really exciting, so I’ll be watching for more from these researchers.
One of the most interesting products I heard about during the conference is actually not for cats (yet). Entyce is about to come to the veterinary market to treat dogs for inappetence. It mimics gherlin, the “hunger hormone.” Gherlin works by binding to the receptors in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls hunger. There is no date yet for the feline version of this new product, but the possibility of having something like this available for encouraging reluctant cats to eat is really intriguing.
Speaking of eating, there’s a shift starting to happen in the belief that your cat needs to go without food entirely before surgery. This shift in thinking started in human health a few years ago, but there’s an upcoming study about this for veterinary surgery, too. I wasn’t able to get further details yet, but since keeping a cat fully hydrated can be tough when the kitty has access to water 24 hours a day, this seems like it could help keep cats hydrated before and during surgeries.
The Catalyst Council had exciting news to share at the convention: The Catalyst Connection program has a trial running in Denver where before a cat (or dog) leaves a shelter, they have a recommendation for a local veterinarian. They want to make sure that every pet has a vet to turn to for their health needs. I think this is a great idea, especially for shelter cats who might end up relinquished back to the shelter if adopters don’t know where to turn for help.
I saw a statistic about cats last week that really surprised me: 24% of cats in Canada are over 10 years old. Nearly a quarter of the population of cats are seniors! With the knowledge and care we give our cats these days, they’re living longer than ever, and that means that they’re living a bigger part of their lives with senior cat ailments. Don’t you think that should change the way we think about cat care?
One of the interesting discussions I heard was about something near to the hearts of nearly everyone in animal rescue, the prevalence of FIV. The current prevalence of FIV is 3.6%, according to IDEXX Canada, and it has been rising. I didn’t realize that there was some debate about how much it is actually rising. Veterinary recommendations to test for FIV may mean that it appears to be rising faster than it is since it was already higher in the population to begin with. Either way, we know more about taking better care of cats with FIV so they have long, healthy lives with us.
Of course, there’s so much more I learned in the course of the week, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with all of you here in the upcoming months!
Mark's Mews says
Our VET mentiined having gone to a big convention and changed some habits. Maybe it was the same one. He says that he learned a lot.
Summer says
How cool you got to go to this, and find out so much cool, new information! My human is going to keep the tip about the Feliway in mind.
The Island Cats says
Wow, so many new things in the veterinary world. Thanks for sharing them with us. We knew about feliway, but then our behaviorist is the one that helped develop the new multi-cat feliway, so she told us about how to use it. That’s good news about the kidney diet foods, too, though we wish the pet food makers made the food with healthier ingredients.
Katie Isabella says
I wish the manufacturers would stop using that white lining in their cans…suddenly I forgot its name! I can’t believe I forgot the name of the white lining they line the cans with… in cat food cans. Human canned food doesn’t have it now as there are toxins. But it’s OK to poison our kitties? They need to stop that practice!
Caren Gittleman says
Lots of great info here, love that kitty that I think is made out of legos? As for Feliway, they have it at my Vet’s office…..Cody isn’t fearful at the Vet, but I have always felt that Feliway doesn’t work and is more for the humans as an aid to make them THINK that it is working so that THEY calm down. A humans stress level can transfer to the cat and I think that is quite often the case.
Ingrid King says
Thank you for this round up – great information!
Random Felines says
we love it when your peep attends these things and translates all the “vet speak” into english for the rest of us 🙂 we aren’t fans of all the consolidations going on, but we love that groups are out there trying to make strides for cats
Chey, Ichiro and Gemini says
What a fascinating convention! And such a lot to learn!
Kitties Blue says
Julie, thanks for this great report. I truly appreciate it. If a more palatable CK food can be created, that is terrific news. Fiona wouldn’t eat any of it on the market now! Interesting about the Catalyst Council. You cannot adopt a cat from any shelters here without listing a vet where the cat will be treated. I guess, if you don’t have one, the adopting shelter recommends one. I look forward to reading more. Janet
da tabbies o trout towne says
guyz….thanx two yur mom for sharin thiz info….itz apurreciated
~~~~ 984 paws up two de Morris Foundation; we hurd they R all sew conducting ree serch on de dread FIP
♥♥♥
The Swiss Cats says
Thank you for sharing so many great informations with us ! Purrs
Connie says
goodness, so much info, so much to comment on.
Feliway and other pheromone type products. I wish these were better marketed. People don’t understand what they are for or how to use them and then become very frustrated when they don’t do what someone promised what they would do. They can help with urinating outside of the box, but only if they are urinating outside of the box due to stress. It won’t help if they have a medical condition or if the box is too small.
oooh, that Morris research sounds fascinating.
Entyce will probably never be studied and approved for cats. Most meds aren’t. It is too expensive to go through the process twice. Most vets just start using them off label.
Our local shelters provide a free vet exam with each adoption. Well, technically, the vets provide the free exam in partnership with the shelter to get the pet established at their clinic. It is good for the vet, but also good for the owner. If they ever find themselves in an emergency situation they already have a relationship with the vet and they have all of the records at hand. I always promote this with new adoptions.
Brian says
That was a cool update, thanks!
Three Chatty Cats says
Great recap, thank you! I didn’t really think about that for Feliway either. Very good to know! I love all of your pictures.
mommakatandherbearcat says
I love that cat made of Legos! You shared a great recap. I wish there was more transperancy within and between cat food brands. The choices are overwhelming and most people don’t take the time.
Melissa & Mudpie says
What a fascinating convention that must be! We had heard the news about the new asthma test last week too…such an exciting development!
Marty says
Will also be keeping ears and eyes open regarding latest research on feline asthma, biomarkers , and earlier detection. Last three of my cats, all from the same dairy farm, have had asthma. First and second developed lymphoma, so I’ m worried about the impact of daily Flovent treatment on their immune systems. God bless researchers!
Cathy Keisha says
Whoa! My head is spinning with all the data. Of course we’re innerested in the asthma thing even though I was already diagnosed. I wouldn’t feed Blue Buffalo to my worst enemy. First they make food so that cats gets kidney problems and then, surprise, they have a prescription diet for it.
William's Kith & Kin says
Great info as usual! We had no idea that Mars bought VCA–that’s where our vet practices! We’re not sure if this is a good or bad thing.
Ellen Pilch says
That sounds like an amazing conference. Thank you for sharing the highlights. I am glad they are trying to make the kidney diet food more palatable.
emma and buster says
What a fascinating conference to attend.
Lola The Rescued Cat says
Wow! This is great info, you sure learned a lot. The feliway tip is a great one.