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Objective—To determine the items (question topics) for a subjective instrument to assess degenerative joint disease (DJD)–associated chronic pain in cats and determine the instrument design most appropriate for use by cat owners. Animals—100 randomly selected client-owned cats from 6 months to 20 years old. Procedures—Cats were evaluated to determine degree of radiographic DJD and signs of pain throughout the skeletal system. Two groups were identified: high DJD pain and low DJD pain. Owner-answered questions about activity and signs of pain were compared between the 2 groups to define items relating to chronic DJD pain. Interviews with 45 cat owners were performed to generate items. Fifty-three cat owners who had not been involved in any other part of the study, 19 veterinarians, and 2 statisticians assessed 6 preliminary instrument designs. Results—22 cats were selected for each group; 19 important items were identified, resulting in 12 potential items for the instrument; and 3 additional items were identified from owner interviews. Owners and veterinarians selected a 5-point descriptive instrument design over 11-point or visual analogue scale formats. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Behaviors relating to activity were substantially different between healthy cats and cats with signs of DJD-associated pain. Fifteen items were identified as being potentially useful, and the preferred instrument design was identified. This information could be used to construct an owner-based questionnaire to assess feline DJD-associated pain. Once validated, such a questionnaire would assist in evaluating potential analgesic treatments for these patients.

To determine the prevalence of radiographic signs of degenerative joint disease (DJD) in a randomly selected sample of domestic cats.Prospective observational study.Client-owned cats.Cats (n=100) from a single practice and equally distributed across 4 age groups (0-5; 5-10; 10-15, and 15-20 years old) were randomly selected (regardless of heath status) and sedated for orthogonal radiographic projections of all joints and the spine. Quasi-Poisson regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between patient demographics, blood biochemistry, hematologic and urine analysis variables, and DJD severity.Most (92%) cats had radiographic evidence of DJD; 91% had at least 1 site of appendicular DJD and 55% hador = 1 site of axial column DJD. Affected joints in descending order of frequency were hip, stifle, tarsus, and elbow. The thoracic segment of the spine was more frequently affected than the lumbosacral segment. Although many variables were significantly associated with DJD, when variables were combined, only the association between age and DJD was significant (P.0001). For each 1-year increase in cat age, the expected total DJD score increases by an estimated 13.6% (95% confidence interval: 10.6%, 16.8%).Radiographically visible DJD is very common in domesticated cats, even in young animals and is strongly associated with age.DJD is a common disease of domesticated cats that requires further investigation of its associated clinical signs.

To (1) determine prevalence of radiographically detectable meniscal mineralization in domestic cats and (2) to evaluate the association between meniscal mineralization and degenerative joint disease (DJD).Prospective study.Client-owned cats (n=100) and 30 feline cadavers.Randomly selected client-owned cats were used to determine the prevalence of meniscal mineralization. Stifles from feline cadavers were used to evaluate the relationship between meniscal mineralization (using high-resolution X-ray), radiographic DJD, and cartilage damage. Menisci were evaluated histologically.Forty-six percent of the client-owned cats had meniscal mineralization detected in 1 or both stifles. Pain scores were not significantly different between stifles with meniscal mineralization and those with no radiographic pathology (P=.38). Thirty-four of 57 cadaver stifles had meniscal mineralization, which was always located in the cranial horn of the medial meniscus. Percentage mineralization of the menisci was significantly correlated with the cartilage damage score of the medial femoral (r(2)=0.6; P.0001) and tibial (r(2)=0.5; P.0001) condyles as well as with the total joint cartilage damage (r(2)=0.36; P.0001) score and DJD score (r(2)=0.8; P.0001).Meniscal mineralization is a common condition in domestic cats and seems to indicate medial compartment DJD.Clinical significance of meniscal mineralization is uncertain. Further work is needed to determine if the meniscal mineralization is a cause, or a consequence of joint degeneration.