New options abound in feline veterinary medicine

What they learn at conferences helps veterinary professionals provide animals with the most up-to-date care. COURTESY PHOTO

If your veterinarian or favorite veterinary technician was out of town a few weeks ago, it’s likely they were attending the North American Veterinary Conference to learn about advances in veterinary medicine, see new products and pick up new skills from speakers who are tops in their fields. Innovations in oncology, pain management, pets with obesity, ways to treat neurological and behavioral problems in pets, new medications developed specifically for pets and the use of AI in the clinic were among the hundreds of sessions presented to veterinary professionals who treat every species — from cats, dogs and horses to pythons, bearded dragons, otters and sea turtles.

For NAVC Chief Veterinary Officer Dana Varble, DVM, CAE, what stood out were the advances in animal-specific medications. Available in 2022 was Solensia, a monoclonal antibody injection ( uexpress.com/pets/pet-connection/ 2022/07/04) developed specifically for cats with osteoarthritis pain ( fearfreehappyhomes.com/osteoarthritis in-cats), followed last year by Librela, the same type of medication for dogs with joint pain.

While every medication has the potential for side effects, monoclonal antibodies appear to have safer and more predictable side effect profiles, Varble says. They are less likely to cause the types of liver and kidney issues that might be seen with long-term NSAID use, for instance, although they should be used cautiously in pets with neurologic disorders.

“What’s interesting is that we have it for cats and dogs before we have it for people,” Varble says.

Typically, it’s the other way around, with human medications being adapted for use in pets, but now companies are working on developing medications specifically for treating cats and dogs. They include a new class of oral hypoglycemic drugs — one a pill and one a liquid — for diabetic cats to replace insulin injections for managing blood sugar levels. Used in combination with appropriate diet, they may help to make life easier for people with diabetic cats.

Artificial intelligence in the veterinary clinic? It’s there, although robots aren’t yet diagnosing pets. Potential uses of AI include looking at radiographs, diagnostic tests and ear swabs to get results more quickly or to open up further areas of investigation.

One company has developed an app that uses AI to help evaluate feline expressions and determine the level of pain the cat may be experiencing. Veterinarians and owners can use what’s called a grimace scale to evaluate pain in cats, but it takes some training to recognize certain cat behaviors and expressions and learn how to read them. To make that information more accessible, Varble says, the company has come up with a way use AI to “teach” phones to look at pictures of a cat’s face and determine an accurate score on the grimace scale.

And AI is being used to generate medical records, relieving some of the workload on veterinarians and technicians so they can spend more time directly caring for pets.

One hope at the 2023 conference was that a Food and Drug Administration-approved medication for feline infectious peritonitis would soon be available. That has not yet come to fruition — a disappointment to Varble — but she’s crossing her fingers that it will happen this year. “In Canada they’re using it quite extensively and getting some good data on it,” she says.

The takeaway for pet caregivers on both sides of the exam table is that more options for all kinds of treatments are becoming available, and they’re specifically designed to work for animals. They’re also more convenient. A monthly visit to the veterinarian for an injection may be easier for busy people to manage than trying to get a pill down a pet once or twice a day at a specific time.

“It’s the same thing with feline diabetes medications,” Varble says. “We have options that may fit with busy schedules or budgets that are challenged. We’re seeing not only more pathways, more ingenuity in pharmaceuticals, but also this increased need to address the needs of pet owners as far as convenience and reliability and even cost.” ¦

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