Sounds like things are improving for the hundreds of cats down in the recent Florida hoarding bust.  Check out the Huffington article from HSUS president Wayne Pacelle.  My colleagues at the shelter medicine program at the University of Florida did a fabulous job spaying/neutering/triaging hundreds of cats in a very short period of time.  Now the cats are ready to be adopted so if you happen to be living near there, swing by and take home a cat! 

I just finished reading a nice article on Feline Upper Respiratory Tract Infections (URI) while working on a new chapter for Kirk's Current Veterinary Therapeutics XV on Feline URI.  It is co-written by my colleagues at the UC-Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program, Dr. Wagner and Dr. Pesavento.  The article demonstrates that cats with URI have predominantly feline herpesvirus-1 (FHV-1) and that qPCR and histological examination of tissue samples from cats with FHV-1 are in agreement with each other.  Here's a link to the abstract: 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21562109weeblylink_new_window


So, what does this mean?  Well...like other studies, it shows that FHV-1 is the predominant player in feline URI.  It also demonstrates that qPCR is picking up the actual lesions that are found in these cats. Furthermore, it means that we really do need to focus on preventive strategies to minimize disease expression in these cats.  Why is that?  Because we know that FHV-1 is a stress-associated disease.  So cats that are stressed out will get colds.  And who's more stressed than a trapped cat in a tiny steel cage, surrounded by strangers, barking dogs, and strong odors?  Luckily, there's a lot we can do to help these cats - easy solutions that will really make a difference and decrease the likelihood of cats getting feline URI.  Stay tuned for more details!  

This blog will serve as a location to post and comment on fun, interesting shelter-related topics.  The site itself will be updated regularly with new resources, but links to news articles, journals, and other sites will also be posted in this blog. So stay tuned for more to follow!