In The Highly Sensitive Dog, 2nd edition, I talk briefly about the importance of recognizing discomfort as a potential cause of “bad” behavior in dogs and horses.

Highly sensitive individuals, of all species, are generally more sensitive to pain than those of average sensitivity, so even mild discomfort matters in these animals (and people).

Here's a recent study for the cat lovers:

Even so, this study is worth a quick look because it does not involve any products. It simply examines how the Feline OA Checklist — which is completed by the cat's person, about the cat's behavior at home — compares with the more established, in-clinic means of diagnosing degenerative joint disease in cats (history, physical examination, orthopedic examination, radiography [x-rays], etc.).

Feline OA Checklist

Here is the Feline OA Checklist in three easy-to-follow charts:

The study involved a total of 939 cats seen in five urban/suburban veterinary practices in the Northeast and Midwest of the United States:

* 502 cats whose medical records were examined retrospectively (looking back through the cat's record for what has already been done)

* 437 cats whose people filled out a Feline OA Checklist while they were sitting in reception, waiting to see their vet for either a sick-cat or well-cat visit

(An example of a “well-cat” or “wellness” visit is a vaccination appointment.)

. . .

In the 502 cats whose records were examined retrospectively, only 1% overall (it ranged by age group from 0 to 5%) were identified as having or showing signs of OA using established, in-clinic methods:

"[C]linics were asked to review the record and determine the reason for the visit, any diagnostics undertaken or recommended during the visit, any current diagnoses for the patient and any treatments that were recommended or in use for any current diagnosis."

" [...] Slightly less than half (48%) of the cats were seen for wellness visits, including vaccination. For those that presented for non-wellness-related examinations, reasons for presentation included upper respiratory infections, ocular [eye] issues, hyperthyroidism, skin infections/abscesses, parasites and chronic renal disease.

"Cats presenting for orthopedic-related issues constituted less than 3% of cases, with 10 cats presenting for acute orthopedic injuries and five (1%) cats presenting for chronic orthopedic changes. For the 10 cats presenting with acute orthopedic injury, all were aged 6 years or under. For those cats presenting with chronic orthopedic changes, all were aged 10 years or older."

Based solely on a review of their medical records, here is the breakdown of OA diagnosis in these cats, divided by age group:

* 0 cats under 6 years of age

* 2 cats who were 6—12 years of age (2% of this age group)

* 3 cats over 12 years of age (5% of this age group)

Overall, the incidence of OA in these 502 cats was reported to be only 1% (5 cats in all).

. . .

But in the 437 cats whose people cast their minds back to how their cats behaved at home in the past week, 39% of cats overall were identified as having shown signs consistent with OA-related pain:

* 19 cats under 6 years of age (7% of this age group)

* 57 cats who were 6—12 years of age (38% of this age group)

* 57 cats over 12 years of age (71% of this age group)

Note that in the senior cats, over 70% showed some signs indicative of chronic joint pain.

. . .

Are we seeing a commercially-motivated example of overdiagnosis in this study?

Or are we seeing evidence that chronic joint pain is far more common in cats — particularly in mature and senior cats — than we thought?

Perhaps it's some of both. We cannot overlook the commercial affiliation of the author, whose employer funded, designed, conducted, analyzed, interpreted, and wrote up the study: