April 2025
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19 Reads
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April 2025
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19 Reads
April 2025
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2 Reads
April 2025
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1 Read
April 2025
April 2025
April 2025
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15 Reads
Little information has been published on the recorded disorders of pet chelonia. This cohort study aimed to report on demography, commonly recorded disorders and mortality recorded in chelonia under UK primary veterinary care in 2019. Electronic health records on a random sample of chelonia in VetCompass during 2019 were reviewed to extract species, recorded disorder and mortality data. Of 2,040 chelonia reviewed, 1,923 (94.26%) were recorded as tortoises, 74 (3.63%) terrapins and 43 (2.11%) turtles. Of the 811 (42.17%) tortoises with species information recorded, the most common species were Hermann’s tortoises (Testudo hermanni) (311, 38.35%), Horsfield’s tortoises (Testudo horsfieldii) (259, 31.94%) and Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoises (154, 18.99%). The most commonly recorded disorders were beak abnormalities (16.72%), overgrown nails (11.47%) and shell abnormalities (9.80%). The most common recorded causes of death were “disorder undiagnosed” (44.55%), dog bite (5.45%) and anorexia (3.96%). Of 178 deaths with age recorded, the median age at death was 7.32 years (IQR 2.50-15.14). Short temporal windows within the clinical records and often limited clinical workups were a frequent limitation to the precision of the recorded disorder terms. This is the largest study of chelonia to date. It has highlighted the most commonly recorded disorders of chelonia of which many are often linked to husbandry.
February 2025
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8 Reads
Endocrine Abstracts
January 2025
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19 Reads
Companion Animal Health and Genetics
Background Beagles are a popular companion animal dog breed and are generally stated to be a healthy breed. This VetCompass study aimed to report the demography, common disorders and mortality of Beagles under primary veterinary care in the UK. Anonymised clinical records within VetCompass were followed over time to extract disorder and mortality data during 2019 on Beagles under primary veterinary care in the UK. Results Beagles comprised 19,906 (0.88%) of the 2,250,417 dogs in the study population. Annual proportional birth rates showed an increasing breed popularity from 0.41% of all dogs born in 2005 and peaking at 1.06% in 2012, followed by a decrease to 0.90% in 2019. The median adult bodyweight was 18.19 kg (IQR 15.68–21.07). From a random sample of Beagles (3,729/19,906, 18.73%), the most diagnosed disorders were obesity (24.27%, 95% CI: 22.89–25.65), periodontal disease (17.78%, 95% CI: 16.55–19.01), overgrown nail(s) (11.61%, 95% CI: 10.58–12.64), otitis externa (11.18%, 95% CI: 10.17–12.19) and anal sac impaction (10.59%, 95% CI 9.60-11.58). Once disorders were grouped by pathology, the most common group-level disorders were obesity (24.27%, 95% CI: 22.89–25.65), dental disorders (21.48%, 95% CI: 20.16–22.80), ear disorders (13.62%, 95% CI: 12.52–14.72), claw/nail disorders (13.14%, 95% CI: 12.06–14.22) and anal sac disorders (11.10%, 95% CI: 10.09–12.11). The median age at death was 11.28 years (IQR 9.32–13.08) for 322 deaths recorded during the study period. The most common causes of death at group level were neoplasia (19.26%, 95% CI: 14.76–23.75), mass (13.18%, 95% CI: 9.32–17.03), poor quality of life (12.84%, 95% CI: 9.03–16.65), and brain disorders (6.76%, 95% CI: 3.90–9.62). Conclusions Their disorder profile suggests the Beagle breed should not be considered to have an extreme conformation. Owners and veterinary teams should put special emphasis on care related to bodyweight control and dental hygiene in Beagles. Their median age at death of 11.70 years suggests reasonable overall health but neoplasia is a common biomedical cause of death in Beagles.
July 2024
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25 Reads
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2 Citations
Background Domestic rabbit breeds vary substantially from the wild rabbit body type. However, little is known about how the conformation of pet rabbits influences their health. Methods Data were extracted from VetCompass anonymised clinical records of rabbits under UK primary veterinary care during 2019. Results The study included 162,107 rabbits. Based on 88,693 rabbits with relevant breed information recorded, skull shape was classified as brachycephalic (79.69%), mesaticephalic (16.80%) and dolichocephalic (3.51%). Based on 83,821 rabbits with relevant breed information recorded, ear carriage was classified as lop‐eared (57.05%) and erect‐eared (42.95%). From a random sample of 3933 rabbits, the most prevalent disorders recorded overall were overgrown nail(s) (28.19%), overgrown molar(s) (14.90%) and obesity (8.82%). Compared to those with a mesaticephalic skull shape, brachycephalic rabbits had lower odds of obesity, anorexia and gastrointestinal stasis and higher odds of perineal faecal impaction, tear duct abnormality and haircoat disorder. Compared to erect‐eared rabbits, lop‐eared rabbits had higher odds of perineal faecal impaction and tear duct abnormality. Limitation A large proportion of records with incomplete breed information hindered full analysis for breed‐related and conformation‐related attributes. Conclusion Limited evidence for major links between skull shape or ear carriage conformations and overall disorder risk suggests that factors such as husbandry or even just living life as a domesticated species may be bigger drivers of common health issues in pet rabbits in the UK.
July 2024
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74 Reads
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4 Citations
There is growing evidence supporting clinically important associations between age at neutering in bitches and subsequent urinary incontinence (UI), although much of this evidence to date is considered weak. Target trial emulation is an innovative approach in causal inference that has gained substantial attention in recent years, aiming to simulate a hypothetical randomised controlled trial by leveraging observational data. Using anonymised veterinary clinical data from the VetCompass Programme, this study applied the target trial emulation framework to determine whether later-age neutering (≥ 7 to ≤ 18 months) causes decreased odds of early-onset UI (diagnosed < 8.5 years) compared to early-age neutering (3 to < 7 months). The study included bitches in the VetCompass database born from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2012, and neutered between 3 and 18 months old. Bitches were retrospectively confirmed from the electronic health records as neutered early or later. The primary outcome was a diagnosis of early-onset UI. Informed from a directed acyclic graph, data on the following covariates were extracted: breed, insurance status, co-morbidities and veterinary group. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to adjust for confounding, with inverse probability of censoring weighting accounting for censored bitches. The emulated trial included 612 early-age neutered bitches and 888 later-age neutered bitches. A pooled logistic regression outcome model identified bitches neutered later at 0.80 times the odds (95% CI 0.54 to 0.97) of early-onset UI compared with bitches neutered early. The findings show that later-age neutering causes reduced odds of early-onset UI diagnosis compared with early-age neutering. Decision-making on the age of neutering should be carefully considered, with preference given to delaying neutering until after 7 months of age unless other major reasons justify earlier surgery. The study is one of the first to demonstrate successful application of the target trial framework to veterinary observational data.
... Dental disease is a common welfare issue in domestic rabbits, with recent studies estimating the prevalence to be 15.36% and 18.23% in UK pet rabbits [1,2]. Whilst several signalment-related and environmental risk factors are reported to be associated with the disease [1][2][3][4][5][6], some dental abnormalities have been suggested to be conformational. ...
July 2024
... Other studies have reported no association between the incidence of UI and bitch neutering age [6,52,53]. More recently, using a target trial emulation approach for 612 bitches neutered between three and seven months of age and 888 bitches of various breeds neutered between seven and 18 months of age, Pegram et al. [54] reported a reduced risk of UI for bitches neutered at later ages (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.97). In the present study, UI occurred in low numbers (2.3% of bitches overall), and more frequently in bitches neutered after puberty (one PrePN and six PostPN). ...
July 2024
... A descriptive epidemiological study using clinical records in the USA showed that the life expectancies of companion dogs and cats were 12.69 and 11.18 years, respectively (11). In contrast, studies in the UK revealed longevities of 11.23 and 11.74 years, respectively (5,12). There may be systematic factors that cause a shorter life expectancy. ...
May 2024
Journal of Feline Medicine & Surgery
... Tick saliva, while playing an important role in the biological development of the tick, also allows for the transmission of pathogens to susceptible hosts in addition to shaping its parasitic effect (Altay and Şahin 2020). Tick species that cause paralysis vary by country (Hall-Mendelin et al. 2011;Kocoń et al. 2023;O'Neill et al. 2024). The female Ixodes holocyclus tick secretes a strong holocyclotoxin after attachment, which causes severe neurotoxicity in pets, including dogs, cats, cattle, sheep, horses, and goats (Masina and Broady goats, while Hyalomma rufipes is responsible for the same condition in sheep (Onyiche and MacLeod 2023). ...
April 2024
Journal of Small Animal Practice
... em questão optou-se pela intervenção cirúrgica, visto que a mesma acelera e aumenta a taxa de recuperação, além de potencializar a função da articulação, atuando na redução da claudicação(Martínez, 2023), corroborando com o observado no presente caso e em um estudo realizado porPegram et al. (2024), onde se observou a eficiência do tratamento REVISTA OBSERVATORIO DE LA ECONOMIA LATINOAMERICANA, Curitiba, v.23, n.4, p. 01-18. 2025.cirúrgico ...
March 2024
Preventive Veterinary Medicine
... [17][18][19][20] one retrospective study found that 68.8% of a cohort of cats had both CKd and degenerative joint disease. 21 There are publications focusing on the medical management of specific feline comorbidities, such as triaditis, 22 diabetes mellitus and pancreatitis, 23 hyperthyroidism and CKd, 24 obesity and diabetes mellitus, 25 and others, [26][27][28] and also on general approaches to these patients. 17 The current review focuses specifically on strategies and important aspects to consider when making diet choice in these patients (summarised in Figure 1), as it can be difficult to determine the best feeding approach. ...
February 2024
Journal of Feline Medicine & Surgery
... The current study had some limitations. Although the study reports on absolute disorder risk, future work that also extracted diagnosis data on the non-Beagle dogs in the underlying population would be needed for formal reporting of breed predispositions [93]. Similarly, the current study used the disorder prevalence results to infer somewhat on welfare impact but fuller welfare impact assessment would also require additional extraction of disorder duration and severity data [48]. ...
January 2024
Canine Medicine and Genetics
... These traits influence skin barrier integrity, immune function, coat type, and anatomical structure, ultimately affecting the severity, chronicity, and treatment resistance of allergic manifestations. More specifically, breeds like Shar Pei, French Bulldog, Pug, English Bulldog, and West Highland White Terrier are known for their allergic susceptibility due to their skin structure, which creates a warm, moist microenvironment ideal for bacterial and fungal proliferation [29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. ...
December 2023
Canine Medicine and Genetics
... To enable evaluation of national and regional efforts, recognizing prescription rates and patterns is crucial. Measuring antibiotic use can be done either by manual surveys or through automatically developed systems (12)(13)(14)(15). Automatic monitoring of antibiotic use for different diagnoses is facilitated by the usage of an implemented and integrated diagnostic coding system (16). ...
October 2023
... The worldwide popularity of brachycephalic breeds has increased over the last decade including in the United Kingdom and the United States (Steinert et al. 2019; American kennel club 2020; Bognár and Kubinyi 2023). This rise has occurred despite the various health issues commonly associated with these breeds (O'Neill et al. 2023;Maclennan and Smith 2019). The growing ownership of brachycephalic dogs has led numerous researchers and organisations to express concerns about the health and welfare implications of the physical characteristics of these breeds (Rooney et al. 2009;Felska-Błaszczyk and Seremak 2021; disorders that are intrinsically linked to their characteristic physical traits (Ekenstedt et al. 2020;O'Neill et al. 2020). ...
July 2023