{"id":421,"date":"2017-07-28T15:09:48","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T22:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cattitudebehavior.com\/?p=421"},"modified":"2020-10-26T12:50:16","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T19:50:16","slug":"feline-cognitive-dysfunction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cattitudebehavior.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/28\/feline-cognitive-dysfunction\/","title":{"rendered":"Feline Cognitive Dysfunction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published August 21, 2012, The IAABC Journal (International Association Of Animal Behavioral Consultants)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The joys of keeping our cats indoors with plenty of environmental enrichment, good food, health care and an enormous amount of love and respect are all well-documented: besides having a happier and healthier companion, those fur-kids are living longer. Much longer. Indoor cats living over 20 years simply aren\u2019t uncommon any more.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, as with humans, our pets are also getting ills that can come with age, including neurological conditions. One such ailment is cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS), which is characterized by a set of changes in behavior that can be upsetting to see. Although CDS is well known in dogs, some vets feel that cats don\u2019t get such a syndrome, that it is old age in itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

The debate: does CDS exist in cats?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Ross Babcock, a veterinarian in Phoenix for over 48 years says, \u201cI don\u2019t see it in the exam room. Cats age. Their behavior changes, but it\u2019s almost as though the behavior is a result of not having the ability to back things up. There are clear syndromes in dogs, but we don\u2019t see it in cats.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Many vets and experienced behaviorists strongly disagree. \u201cFew vets recognize cognitive dysfunction because of where the money is\u201d. according to Beth Edelman, feline behaviorist for over 15 years and former cat columnist for the New York Post. \u201cThey recognize it in dogs,\u201d she goes on, \u201cbecause a lot of health research is driven by the purebred world, and the dog fancy represents a much larger proportion of the dog world than the cat fanciers of the world do. Good studies do show altered behavior in older cats that differs from normal aging. Aimless wandering; night vocalizing and wakening;, irritability; aggression; disorientation\u2014not normal with aging. The difference is neuro-degenerative, and that\u2019s nothing to do with old age.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We know more about dog CDS than cat CDS, certainly. In an article for Psychology Today<\/a><\/span>, canine cognition researcher Dr. Alexandra Horowitz wrote: \u2018In the last decade, the study of dog cognition has blossomed: there are now many research groups, in the U.S. and especially abroad, committed to testing the behavior of pet dogs\u2026 But research into \u201ccat cognition\u201d has lagged behind.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Why might this be? Dr. Horowitz has the following suggestion:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel that we already know what cats can do. Cats are padding along in some 30% of American households; they don\u2019t feel exotic. There is no dearth of cat behavior books; every cat owner thinks himself an expert in the species\u2019 behavior (and probably is reasonably expert at least at describing his own cat\u2019s behavior). And among the things we \u2018know\u2019 about cats is another blow against their likelihood of being studied: cats are seen as \u2018independent\u2019 and unresponsive to owners. The impetus of the field of dog cognition rests largely on the dogs\u2019 successes at \u2018social cognitive\u2019 tasks: those predicated on their being reliably responsive to and interactive with humans. Some physiological features of cats also handicap them as behavioral research subjects: their facial features are less flexuous, less expressive, than the dog with his protruding snout, wide mouth, and often enormous, mobile ears.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Babcock has a simpler answer: \u201cThere\u2019s no money in cats. Dogs are genetically closer to humans than cats are.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This debate begs the questions: what is the difference between old age and real CDS in cats? And, have those researchers and vets who are taking feline cognitive dysfunction seriously found ways to manage the condition? Are cats being managed as well as dogs with cognitive dysfunction?<\/span><\/p>\n

Different types of cognitive dysfunction in cats<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To answer these questions, we first need to understand the difference between cognitive dysfunction syndrome and other degenerative neurological conditions in cats, like dementia. It\u2019s easy to get confused.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dementia is a progressive loss of cognition or mental faculties due to brain tissue damage. It\u2019s associated with aging, but younger cats can get it due to other causes, such as head trauma. We know heredity plays a role, but we don\u2019t completely understand the causes. In humans, Alzheimer\u2019s disease is a type of dementia.<\/span><\/p>\n

CDS is a kind of mental health disorder, involving degeneration and loss of nerve cells in the brain, resulting in behavioral changes. Here too, age is the greatest risk factor, but it\u2019s not the only one. Cats as young as eight (48, in human terms) can show symptoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

If, as Dr. Danielle Gunn-Moore<\/span><\/a> of the University of Edinburgh\u2019s Royal School of Veterinary Studies, says, \u201cTwenty-eight percent of pet cats aged 11to14 years develop at least one old age\u2013related behavior problem and this increases to more than 50% for cats over 15,\u201d then how do you know if Finchley is just getting older, or has CDS?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t easy\u201d admits Dr. Marc Schmidt, veterinarian in San Tan Valley, Arizona. \u201cWe make sure it\u2019s diagnosis by exclusion\u2014that it isn\u2019t medical, that the cat\u2019s behavior is out of character, such as staring off into space, getting confused.\u201d Aren\u2019t those also symptoms of old age? \u201cYes. In people, they have a more defined and refined way of judging, but in cats, we haven\u2019t gotten that far. We can\u2019t test our patients the way doctors can with people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the bottom line: thus far, nobody can know for sure just what is wrong with your cat. Dr. Scott Plummer, of the Veterinary Neurology Center in Arizona, is succinct: \u201cAging and feline cognitive dysfunction are impossible to differentiate at this time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The causes of CDS are also not fully understood, but several possible reasons are being explored. For example, the environment has been implicated. \u201cAir pollution and excessive noise may predispose to\u2026cognitive dysfunction, over time,\u201d says veterinary nursing lecturer Julie Cory<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> of the College of Animal Welfare in Huntington, England. \u201cNeuro-inflammation associated [with these things] can lead to oxidative damage and the development of amyloid plaque [the buildup of a kind of protein found in the CDS brain].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Abnormal behavior that looks like CDS can have many causes, explains Dr. Alexander de Lahunta<\/a><\/span>, emeritus professor of anatomy at Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine. Tissue inflammation, hyperthyroidism, kidney disease, tumors, trauma, or metabolic conditions can all be responsible. \u201cIf magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and analysis of cerebrospinal fluid fail to reveal a physical problem in the brain, then the problem is something that is probably best treated by an animal behaviorist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDiagnosis by exclusion,\u201d meanwhile, is all we have to go on; what\u2019s left may be CDS, or it may be just old age.<\/span><\/p>\n

How can we identify the symptoms?<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There are, however, symptoms that pet parents and behaviorists can be on the lookout for. There\u2019s also a context: a symptom or two may not be CDS but age; more than that should be checked out. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n