Vet World Vol.16 September-2023 Article-21
Research Article
Veterinary World, 16(9): 1940-1951
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2023.1940-1951
A retrospective evaluation of confirmed and suspected poisonings in 166 cats between 2016 and 2020
2. Department for Small Animals, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
3. Clinic of Small Animal Medicine, LMU Munich, 80539 Munich, Germany.
Background and Aim: Poisonings commonly bring cats and dogs to veterinary emergency facilities. This retrospective study aimed to analyze clinical signs, confirmed or suspected toxicants, treatments, and outcomes of feline poisoning cases presented over 5 years to the emergency service of a small animal referral center.
Materials and Methods: Medical records of 166 cats were evaluated for a history of confirmed or presumed poisoning, suspected toxicant, clinical signs, treatment, and outcome. Poisoning probability was determined using patient history, clinical findings, observation, toxicologic examination, and, in some cases, gastric contents.
Results: Most cats were hospitalized (94.0%) due to poisoning with mostly unknown toxicants (48.2%), rodenticides (21.1%), and various toxic plants (12.0%), followed by antiparasitics (6.0%), chemicals (6.0%), drugs (4.2%), tetrahydrocannabinol (1.2%), or inhaled smoke (1.2%). Patients presented predominantly with neurologic deficits (68.7%), reduced general condition (60.2%), and hypothermia (43.4%). The survival rate was 88.6%. Most cats (93.2%) showed no apparent complications at the time of discharge from the hospital. Toxicant-related complications (48.2%) included thermodysregulation (22.9%), central nervous system signs (18.7%), respiratory issues (7.2%), nephrotoxicity (6.0%), gastrointestinal complications (4.8%), evidence of hepatic failure (4.8%), and hemorrhage (1.8%).
Conclusion: In this study, the causative toxicant remained unidentified in many cases. Known poisonings were mostly caused by rodenticides. Neurological signs were the most common clinical presentation. Survival rates were high and comparable with those reported by others. Keywords: clinical signs, intoxication, outcome, seizures, toxicant.
Keywords: clinical signs, intoxication, outcome, seizures, toxicant.
How to cite this article: Markert C, Heilmann RM, Kiwitz D, and Dörfelt R (2023) A retrospective evaluation of confirmed and suspected poisonings in 166 cats between 2016 and 2020, Veterinary World, 16(9): 1940-1951.
Received: 22-05-2023 Accepted: 29-08-2023 Published online: 23-09-2023
Corresponding author: Carina Markert E-mail: carina.markert@ivcevidensia.de
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2023.1940-1951
Copyright: Markert, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.