2021 AAHA Nutrition and Weight Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats.

The guidelines discuss the components of a systematic approach to nutritional management of dogs and cats. A nutritional assessment, including a body condition score and muscle condition score, is a screening evaluation that should ideally be performed at every examination. Individualized nutritional recommendations, based on the nutritional assessment, should be designed to achieve and maintain an appropriate body weight and meet nutritional requirements.

Quantified water intake in laboratory cats from still, free-falling and circulating water bowls, and its effects on selected urinary parameters.

Objectives: The study objectives were to determine if the method of water presentation (still [S], circulating [C] or free-falling [FF] bowl systems) influences daily water consumption in cats in a controlled environment, and whether differences in water intake affect urine relative super saturation (RSS) for calcium oxalate and struvite, urine specific gravity (USG), urine osmolality (Uosmol) and urine volume.

Methods: Sixteen healthy laboratory cats fed a dry diet were individually housed with urine collection systems. Each cat underwent a randomized 2 week crossover period with all bowl systems, allowing a 1 week acclimation period between each crossover.

Body composition of lean outdoor intact cats vs lean indoor neutered cats using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry.

Objectives: The objectives for this study were to compare the body composition of adult indoor neutered domestic cats with outdoor intact cats with an ideal body condition score using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, and to report the body composition findings of free-roaming cats, as this has not been previously reported. Most domestic house cats differ from free-roaming cats as they are confined indoors and neutered. Indoor neutered cats have reduced activity and hormonal alterations that may result in lower muscle mass and higher body fat percentages vs outdoor intact cats, despite similar body condition scores.

Characterization of aminoaciduria and hypoaminoacidemia in dogs with hepatocutaneous syndrome.

OBJECTIVE To characterize aminoaciduria and plasma amino acid concentrations in dogs with hepatocutaneous syndrome (HCS). ANIMALS 20 client-owned dogs of various breeds and ages. PROCEDURES HCS was definitively diagnosed on the basis of liver biopsy specimens (n = 12), gross and histologic appearance of skin lesions (4), and examination of skin and liver biopsy specimens (2) and presumptively diagnosed on the basis of cutaneous lesions with compatible clinicopathologic and hepatic ultrasonographic (honeycomb or Swiss cheese pattern) findings (2).

Hepatopathy following consumption of a commercially available blue-green algae dietary supplement in a dog.

Background: Dietary supplement use in both human and animals to augment overall health continues to increase and represents a potential health risk due to the lack of safety regulations imposed on the manufacturers. Because there are no requirements for demonstrating safety and efficacy prior to marketing, dietary supplements may contain potentially toxic contaminants such as hepatotoxic microcystins produced by several species of blue-green algae.

Case Presentation: An 11-year-old female spayed 8.

Perioperative physiology and pharmacology in the obese small animal patient.

Objective: To review the available literature concerning the physiologic and pharmacologic alterations induced by obesity in canine and feline patients and their relevance to perioperative care.

Study Design: Literature review.

Databases: PubMed, CAB, Web of Science.

Familial Aggregation and Segregation Analysis of Snoring and Symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

To investigate possible modes of inheritance that would explain familial aggregation in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), familial correlation and segregation analyses were performed on data derived from 584 pedigrees with 2019 cases enrolled in the Tucson Epidemiologic Study of Obstructive Airways Disease (TESOAD) who were at least 10 years of age and who had information pertaining to snoring and daytime sleepiness. Data were obtained from the 9th (May 1984 to October 1985) and 12th (February 1990 to October 1992) surveys of the TESOAD, which is a random, stratified sample of the non-Hispanic Caucasian population of Tucson, Arizona. A snoring phenotype was considered present if it occurred on at least some nights.