New research from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has revealed the most common diseases in pet cats diagnosed by veterinary surgeons across more than one million pet cats in the UK.
These included gum disease, obesity, overgrown nails and flea infestations.
The new study shows that the risk of each condition varies significantly based on a cat’s age and sex.
Understanding the most common diseases in pet cats can help owners make more informed decisions when caring for their cats as well as helping vets focus on targeted preventative healthcare.
The study, led by the RVC VetCompass programme, investigated the health patterns of a random sample of 18,249 cats from a study population of 1,255,130 cats in the UK.
The most common cat breeds in the UK were British Short Hair (3.01 percent), Ragdoll (1.82 percent) and Bengal (1.22 percent). Other common breeds included Maine Coon (0.93 percent), Persian (0.73 percent) and Siamese (0.68 percent).
On average, each cat was diagnosed with one condition per year. The average count of conditions per year was higher in males than females, and higher in older cats than younger cats.
Of the specific conditions diagnosed, the most common were gum disease (15.23 percent), obesity (11.58 percent), general dental disease (9.23 percent), overgrown nail(s) (5.23 percent), flea infestation (5.07 precent) and heart murmur (4.44 percent).
Females and males had different risk for almost half (14) of the 30 most common conditions.
For example, female cats had higher risk than males for poor quality of life, post-operative wound complication, over-grooming, flea bite hypersensitivity, hyperthyroidism, and overgrown nail(s).
Males had higher risk for periodontal disease, road traffic accidents, heart murmur, lameness, obesity, abscess wound and cat bite injuries.
Other key findings include:
- The risk differed between younger (under 8 years) and older (8 years or above) cats for 27 (90 percent) conditions. For example, younger cats had higher risk for cat bite injury, flea infestation, RTA and post-operative wound complication
- Older cats had higher risk for lameness, abscess, cystitis, over-grooming, general dental disease, constipation, underweight, osteoarthritis, haircoat disorder, anorexia, otitis externa, vomiting, cardiac dysrhythmia, weight loss, chronic kidney disease, disorder undiagnosed, gum disease, poor quality of life, heart murmur, flea bite hypersensitivity, obesity, overgrown nail(s) and hyperthyroidism
- The most frequent general groups of conditions were dental disorder (21.21 percent), obesity (11.58 percent), skin disorder (9.63 percent), bowel problems (8.50 percent), parasite infestation (6.30 percent) and heart disease (5.99 percent)
- The average age of cats recorded with each of the 30 most common grouped-level disorders varied from 1.67 years for post-operative wound complication to 15.15 years for endocrine system disorder
These findings provide vets, vet nurses, cat breeders and owners with new evidence to better understand and predict the occurrence of these common disorders in pet cats.
It also highlights the key features for owners to prioritise in order to give their cat the best possible life.
Dan O’Neill, associate professor in companion animal epidemiology at the RVC and lead author of the paper, said: “This study helps owners to understand that dental, weight and parasite care are the key health issues of cats in general, so that owners can focus their care and finances better on giving their cats a better life.”
This study was supported by an award from the Kennel Club Charitable Trust and Agria Pet Insurance.
