Hello, it's Anthony Chadwick. Welcome to another episode of Vet Chat, which is the UK's number one veterinary, leading podcast. But we're not gonna do a podcast today cos we're gonna do a podcast because we're gonna be talking all things feline, and I'm very fortunate and pleased to have Sarah Heath on the line with me.
We're gonna be talking about cat behaviour. That should keep us going for a a fair while. Sarah is .
Fantastic behaviourist, also a good mate of mine, we often go to the football together, but we promise we won't talk. Too much about the offside goal during this podcast, but Sarah, perhaps for those who are listening who aren't aware of you and it can only be a handful, perhaps tell us just a, a little bit about how you found your way into animal behaviour. Oh, hi, Antony.
Lovely to be with you. And yes, it was definitely onside. But anyway, what we're gonna talk about today, as you say, is cats and cat behaviour.
And I've been involved in behavioural medicine now, for over 30 years. That I don't want to admit that, because that tells you a bit about my age as well. But, I started being interested in, behaviour of animals and, and how that relates to welfare way, way back when I was working on Dairy farms when I was a teenager.
So, it goes back a long, long way. I've been on other podcasts that people may have listened to about how I got into behaviour, so I won't go into all of that long story. But, yes, basically, I, I started life in general practise, in mixed practise, very, very interested in, behaviour and welfare of cattle, and then, gradually became more and more interested in what was happening with companion animals, and then, yes, gradually.
Moved into much more small animal work and, and obviously have recently been doing, cat, dog, parrot, rabbit, that sort of, level of species behavioural issues. But I'm very interested in, in just emotional health in all species, really. And of course we love all animals, we are vets after all, but I think possibly, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I think we both have a, a kind of special place in our heart for cats, don't we?
We were both at the ISFM conference in, in Dublin recently, and behaviour is so interlinked with. The wellbeing and the health of cats as well, isn't it? You know, if, if, if, if the environment isn't right for them, they can really suffer with that and then obviously that can impinge on diseases as well that they may either be suffering from or become more predisposed to because of .
The environment that they're living in. Yeah, absolutely. And of course, emotional, cognitive and physical health are linked in every species, including ourselves, and we all need to live in an environment that is meeting our species specific needs, and that's environments that are both physical and social.
But when we think about cats in a domestic environment, living alongside people, one of the big problems for them is that we are so different. In terms of our species specific needs. And so, obviously, actually making an environment, whether that's in the home or whether that's in the veterinary practise, making it meet the physical and social needs of our feline companions can be more of a challenge.
So it's not that it's not a problem for dogs. It certainly is, and for all other species that we should always be looking at them for their. Species specific needs.
But when it comes to cats, we don't do much of it intuitively because these are not things that human animals find important. We don't see the world the same way they do, and therefore, we have to actually think constructively about making an environment feline specific and, and to make it meet their needs. I think it's really interesting, and I know I've talked about Buddy on a number of podcasts and podcasts, so apologies, but he's, it, it's really fascinating watching behaviour as well, isn't it?
You know, there is a sport to it as well as a science, I think, just this fascination of he came as a, as well, he, he left home, he came to to us as a retirement home almost. And I think part of that was getting to know the, the, the. The previous people who who looked after him, I'm not never going to use the word owners with cats.
But it, it was just a chaotic household. There were obviously dogs, there were kids. I don't think there were any other cats, but the owners were very sort of grab him and hug him and things.
And cats very much need their own space, don't they, but they will then come to you on their own terms, and this is a cat that was really, we were unable to almost touch for the 1st 6 months a year, and now he kind of demands. You know that you stroke him and you cuddle him and I know we don't always use the word cuddle, but he literally does want to come over and nestle into you and be stroked and things. So cats need that reassurance, but they come to you on their own terms rather than, I think with a dog, it is slightly different.
I know again, you shouldn't be all over a dog, but they tend to want to give love a bit more readily than maybe cats do, don't they? I think it's in a different format, really, and the, the basis of why they want social contact is different. Of course, with Buddy, who I've obviously met as well, he's adorable.
He's was also an elderly cat when he made his decision that he really needed a much quieter life. He needed a household where he wouldn't be pestered, where there wasn't a lot going on in terms of socially with lots of movement around just yourself and, and your wife in the house and, and much quieter. And he made that selection of both the physical environment that I think was much more suited to his, his needs, particularly his sensory needs.
I think he was finding it all a bit overwhelming in his previous home, but also socially because yourself and your wife were not pushing yourselves on him, and there were young children, as you said, in the other house who were much more. Actively wanting to follow poor Buddy and pick him up and cuddle him and show him affection from the children's perspective. It wasn't coming from a bad place, it was coming from a place of love.
But he was much more suited to the situation with yourself, where you were willing to let him come in and live life on his own terms. And by being patient and by allowing him to get used to his new home, feel more safe and secure, feel less overwhelmed emotionally, he's now very affectionate with both of you, and I've seen lots of photos of him, cuddled up on your knee watching the football, so he, he's very interactive now and, and has been as well. Yeah, when, when other people have been in the house, so he's less on, on people he doesn't know, that's quite a normal feature of, you know, feline existence.
So it's a difference in social need, because cats are not socially obligate. What they mean by that is they don't have to have social interaction to survive, whereas dogs, horses, ourselves are socially obligate species. So, actually, when you have Affection from a cat, when you have a cat who chooses to come and sit on your knee.
I think this is one of the things that those of us who are cat lovers really appreciate, that they are there because they want to be there. They're there because they find that interaction fulfilling because it ticks. Their desire seeking emotional box that it's something that means something to them and is a value rather than because they need it.
And I think that makes that interaction actually very special. I think also there probably was a little bit of snobbery because he moved to us during the pandemic and his. Other, people who were looking after him lived on Corona Road, which is not probably the most popular road to have lived on during the pandemic.
And also we had a little garden and he loves just sitting out, and I, I love the way cats were on mental health today as we're, as we're recording this, and actually we can learn a lot from cats who just sit there. Doing nothing, living mindfully, you know, sometimes it's so important that we perhaps can learn from our pets around us that there is that need sometimes just to stop, take some deep breaths and enjoy the scene as we see it. Yeah, it's good to give a shout out to, National, World Mental Health Day today.
It's very, very important that we bear in mind not only the emotional and cognitive health, so the emotional well-being or mental well-being of our colleagues. Very, very important at this time. But also, of course, our own.
But this brings us to behavioural medicine and the fact that actually when we're veterinary surgeons, although we spend our undergraduate curriculum basically only thinking about physical health, that we mustn't divorce emotional and cognitive health from physical health, that these are inextricably together. And if you don't have good mental wellbeing, emotional and cognitive health, then your physical health will be detrimentally affected, and we know that is just as true for the animals that we deal with, the non-human species that we care for as it is for ourselves. And I think having animals in your life.
For most people, brings joy and helps with mental health as well, doesn't it? I know there's something very soothing about just stroking a dog or a cat or a horse, isn't there, that that actually, You know, all the sort of hormones that that we release as well. But there's a science behind that as well, Antony, and lots and lots of research into the benefits.
But I think we also need to remember, as we think about human benefits and that, and absolutely no disputing they exist, that if we are going to live with other species, it must be a mutually beneficial relationship. And so we do tend to concentrate on. The health benefits to us, and isn't it great if we can have a dog, a cat, whatever in our lives that it will be benefiting us?
And that's great and scientifically proven that it's true, but we must only do that when there is a mutual benefit. It's not OK to utilise other species for our benefit when it's not the right thing for them. Well, it's very much when we have a pet, there's a.
There's a responsibility and we talk a lot about rights and, you know, correct, but actually you have to have the balance right between rights and responsibilities and, and if you can't look after a pet properly for whatever reason, you're going to leave it in the house on its own all day or whatever, then clearly maybe the best thing is not to get. That pet at that time. I think our responsibility is education, because sometimes when animals is that, it's not, it's, it's through lack of education.
It's not because it's not like those children who were picking Buddy up and squeezing him to death, bless him. We're doing it from a place of love because they just didn't have that education that made them understand what was right for him. So I think our responsibility as The profession is to make sure that we educate and that we don't add to the misinformation, sadly, on television a lot.
We see vets interacting very inappropriately with animals. That that's not good. We have, you know, veterinary practises supporting individuals who are, you know, giving messages that are not appropriate.
It's very, very important that we as a profession, Give out the right messages and the right education, and make sure that all things like the photographs we have on our websites for practises only show correct interaction with non-human animals, where the animals are in an engaging emotional bias and where they benefit from that interaction. It's our responsibility as the profession that has the duty of looking after the health and welfare of non-human animals. It's our responsibility to educate appropriately.
Yeah, no, that's really important. And I think just to, to mention at this point, obviously we love chatting together anyway, Sarah, and you're always a, a good mentor for me in all things behavioural, but of course this podcast is free and it's been sponsored by Siva. So thank you so much for Siva who are.
Also the manufacturers of Feyway, which I think this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary. I remember it coming out, Sarah, that's also not a good thing because it's giving away my age, but people who are watching rather than listening to this podcast probably have a good idea anyway that I'm cracking on a bit. .
I think Feyway's been really a fabulous product. But of course as time has gone on, it's not become one product, it's become several products, and particularly obviously in cats, I think it's been really, really useful and. Want to talk about it generally first, but then talk about the situations which I certainly saw when I had my practise where people would .
Sometimes when they brought a cat home after an operation, be worried and ring you up because the other cat in the household was, was dealing with the new with the cat completely differently after it'd been to the vets, and sometimes what I did was I advised both cats came in and one sat in there, you know, so that it was in the environment and different ways of dealing with it, but obviously Feyway has brought out. And or Siva has brought out another product that it would be good to talk about. But before we talk about a Feyway help, just talk to us a little bit about the science behind Feyway, and I know now there are, you know, several vari several varieties, there's classic, there's Friends, there's Optimum.
How do you see those fitting in, and I suppose, as a last little disclaimer. Obviously I know this podcast is listened to not only in the UK but in other countries. Some of the names will be slightly different if you're in America or Europe, and obviously some of the products may not be available in every single country, but obviously talking about this from a UK centric perspective, let's use the UK names, and I'm sure if anybody has issues, they can email us in or see that and ask, is there a relevant product in their country.
So perhaps a little bit of why does Feriway work in the first place? Yeah, absolutely. So I think the first thing that we need to think about is the fact that Feyway is no longer just one product.
So 25 years ago, as you say, we had this product called Fellyway. Which was an analogue of the facial pheromone complex. Just one part of that, the fraction called F3, which is a naturally produced pheromone.
And this was the start of something called pheromone therapy. And this was begun by, Doctor Patrick Paja, who is based in France. All of our pheromone related products, we are, we have to be, crediting Patrick with those.
It's his work that was at the basis of these products. And he was the first person to talk about the potential to use naturally occurring chemical signalling within a species and harness that in a domestic environment to assist them. And it's not only cats, there's dogs and pigs and horses, he's done it in many species.
But so the Feyway product was just a product, one type of pheromone, and it came out as a diffuser device and a spray. So we had the spray actually to start with. So going way back 25 years ago, we only had the spray.
Then we went on to get the diffuser later. And actually the diffuser made a massive difference to the way we could use that product because instead of only being able to put this analogue in specific places using the spray, we now have the possibility to diffuse this analogue into the whole environment, whether that was in a waiting room or a consult room or a hospitalisation area or whether it was at home. So a lot of the research, early research, of course, was done on Fellyway Classic, as we now know it, Feyway then, and this one pheromone analogue.
But over the years, as you mentioned, as you just introduced this product range, they changed the name Feiway to be a brand name instead of a product name. So now Feyway just describes a brand of pheromone related products for cats. And I know that in the dog world, the corresponding term.
Adapyl doesn't only relate to pheromones. So we, this is a brand name now, and therefore, when we're talking about the pheromone products, we need to talk to the talk about them using their product names. And so, the one we originally had is now called Classic.
So, Feyway Classic is the one that comes in the spray, and the one that comes in the diffuser. The next thing that came on the market was an analogue of the so-called appeasing pheromone. Now the appeasing pheromones are produced from the mammary sulcus, the area between the two rays of teats and the queen.
And therefore are about safety and security. So the fairyway classic came from the face. The facial pheromones are used to, indicate that a territory, a location, is safe and secure, so they use their facial pheromones to mark onto objects in their territory and also partially for social interaction as well.
So they will rub their facial pheromones onto other cats as well, who belong to their same social group. But we also have these appeasing pheromones which are produced as, say, from the lactating queen, and she is producing those while she's suckling her kittens, and it increases their sensation of safety and security. And there is actually a link to the chemosensory communication between the queen and her kittens in utero.
When they're bathed, of course, in that amniotic fluid, and when they're in that in utero part of their existence, they already have chemosensory communication with their mother. And that's very, very important, of course, for emotional development, development of the HPA access, etc. So this product coming onto the market opened up another application of pheromone therapy to increase that sensation of personal safety.
Now that was marketed using the product name Friends in the UK, Multi-cat in the US. And unfortunately, that has led to a lot of misperception about what that pheromone actually does. And it led to a lot of people thinking this was a product only to be used in multi-cat households, led people to think that the pheromone would make cats become friends.
Neither of those things are true. So this is a product that is useful in single cat households. It's useful in your veterinary practises.
It's about increasing personal safety. But if you have cats who are not socially compatible with one another, the more personally secure they feel, the more they're going to accept the presence of a cat they don't consider to be part of their social group. So it doesn't change their perception of the other cat at all, changes their perception of themselves, that they feel safer and therefore less bothered.
By the presence of an incompatible cat. So it's less stressful for them. So it does reduce some of the outward signs of social tension, and it was a very important addition to the portfolio.
With the friends one, there's there's lots of strategies about moving cats around rooms as well as using the friends, isn't there, or, or, and as you say, it's important to see that it's not. Making them friends, but it's just making them feel more comfortable with other cats in the vicinity. Yeah, very important and very successful in that way as well.
But none of the pheromone products should be used on their own. They all need to have additional environmental changes, whether that's social environment or physical environment, to meet the needs, which we started this podcast talking about, the fact that we are, needing to optimise that environment. So all the pheromone products need to have that optimisation alongside them.
So, using that word, optimum leads us to the next product in the range. So, Feyway Optimum was the most recently produced diffuser version of this product, the oil-based diffuser, which was the original way that diffusers were made. And Optimum is different because it's not an analogue of a naturally occurring pheromone.
So Patrick Paget's work originally was looking at what occurs naturally, finding the chemical composition of that through the skill of his team, and then creating analogues of that that are in Feyway Classic for the facial pheromone, Feyway Friends or multicat, with the appeasing pheromone. And then the benefits of both were considered to be applicable in so many environments. So, at home, in the veterinary practise, if we could make both the location and the individual feel safer, then that would be hugely beneficial.
And so, Patrick Paget's team bioengineered. A pheromone that has constituents from both the appeasing and the facial. So this is a bioengineered product, and it gives you the benefits of both.
And also they tweaked with that bioengineered molecule, so that it binds more successfully to the bone and nasal organ. So you should get a more uniform. Effect of Optimum with any cat, and that is the real advantage of using Optimum, in situations where both would be helpful.
But it doesn't mean that classic and, friends are not also really useful if you have a specific context where you need either appeasing or facial. And then that brings us to fairlyway help, which is developing this product range along the lines of creating products which are much more context-sensitive. So, in other words, now we're looking at, well, how could we use a pheromone in a very specific type of context and have a product that better delivers that pheromone?
Faway help has the facial pheromone. So it's a form, if you like, a Feiway classic. It's the same pheromone, it's the facial analogue, so it's not the bioengineered, it's the analogue of the facial pheromone.
But the difference is it's delivered as a matrix diffuser, not an oil diffuser. So it's delivered in a slightly different way. So probably what would be helpful is to talk a little bit more about fellowway help.
Yeah, no, that sounds great. So we almost need a little drum roll cos I think it is a fairly new product as well, isn't it? Yeah, it is a new product.
Yes, absolutely. It's fitting into a niche of those caregivers for whom the application of a pheromone which increases the sensation of location safety is needed over a shorter time scale. So this is a product that lasts for 7 days rather than 30 days.
So it's a different, it's using a matrix in a, in a diffuser device, not an oil. So it doesn't take us long to heat up and get to active temperature. It is more, it's within the environment much more quickly.
But the product lasts for 7 days. Now I understand at the moment, if people purchase it, there's a QR code on the back where they can scan and order a free refill, so they'll actually get 14 days' worth of Feyway help when they buy a 7 day product. But the actual product is for 7 days.
Where, where would that be helpful? Well, if you're gonna have relatives coming for a long weekend, and you could put Feluway help in a couple of days before they arrive, it would be present while they were present, and then for a couple of days after they left, or maybe your cat's going into a cattery, and you could send that Feyway help diffuser with them to help them feel more safe and secure within that Qatari environment whilst you're not with them. Obviously, when we're in a veterinary hospital, we would probably be using the Feyway diffuser, actually probably using the optimum in the veterinary practise.
But what Feyway help can be really useful for is to give to the caregivers of cats who are going home after a either an elective procedure like being spayed or coming in for a dental, or maybe even have been hospitalised for a medical illness or for post-surgical recovery. That you can take one of these Feyway, help diffusers home and get Feyway support much more quickly and have it for those 7 days, you can then use the QR code to get another 7 days. But you may well find that caregivers then feel, actually, I do want to carry on with this.
It has been really helpful, and they could then change on to the diffuser, the oil diffuser of plastic, if they want to have that oil delivered. That goes for 30 days. So it's filling a bit of a niche market, if you like, of specific places where more rapid delivery, 7-day delivery is actually more appropriate for that particular cat and that particular caregiver.
So it's almost filled a gap that was there, which is obviously why they produced the product. It, it sounds as if it's really interesting and as you say, particularly in those cases of cats coming home. I suppose interestingly, you know, as people who a lot of vets and nurses will be listening.
Just talk a little bit about that fear of a cat going into a, into a practise to be spayed. Obviously, it's a time of anniversaries. We were at ISFM in Dublin a couple of months ago, and I think it's 10 years since cat friendly practise, so.
Where does Fayway fit in, and I think you've mentioned it briefly there, but within practises, you know, within the consulting room or within the operating theatre, the, the kennels area, presumably having separate kennels is, is a real useful start, isn't it? Yeah, I think it's really important to talk about the work of ISFM and also AAFP, the American Association of Feline Practitioners, those two organisations work very closely together. It's a great privilege every year to go to the ICAT care conference.
It's my conference for my own CPD. I certainly think it's one of the best conferences that's available. Obviously it's about cats as well, which makes it even greater.
So, but it's also an excellent conference. And I think one of the things that we need to think about is how much ISFM and AAFP have done for cat welfare over that 10 year period of establishing the cat friendly clinic scheme. And, and just give a shout out to the dog friendly clinic scheme, which was born last year.
So it's just been launched by BVBA British Veterinary behaviour Association, and the Dogs Trust, just so that the, the dog's a bit behind, 10 years behind, but hopefully now it's going to get some more support. And the dog friendly clinic is something that we should all be looking at. But the cat friendly clinic is also associated with a lot of guys.
Guidelines. I'm sure your listeners are familiar that ISFM and AFP produce some absolutely amazing guidelines on all aspects of veterinary healthcare for feline patients. Now, in 2022 October to mark the anniversary, the 20-year anniversary of Cafriendly, clinic in the UK cat-friendly practise in the, in the US, they launched two new sets.
Of guidelines. One was cat-friendly veterinary interactions, and the other one was cat-friendly veterinary environments. And if people who are listening to this podcast have not yet downloaded those guidelines, I would urge you to do so.
They're free of charge. You can download them from either the ISFM or the AAFP, websites. So either of them have them available.
They're also open access in JFMS. So do just Google Scholar, search for them and you'll find them, and you can download that PDF of those documents. Now those documents talk about.
Making sure that we create cat friendly environments, as we just talked about, and cat friendly interactions within practises. The new guidelines on interactions are based on 150 odd references, I think it's 153, that's a massive explosion in research into the importance of taking a cat friendly approach to the way we interact with our feline patients. And those guidelines really emphasise the need to think about the cat, about their sensory perception of the environment, about how we have our light levels, our noise levels, our manner of our interaction in terms of physically touching these cats, but also in the environmental guidelines which accompany them, talking about how the layout.
Of your practise is important. The flow of people through the practise, the waiting rooms you alluded to earlier, Antony, when you talked about having separate waiting rooms for cats and for other species, remembering that other species also have these requirements, so we should be looking for dog only waiting rooms, those sorts of ideas of looking at other species too. But pheromones play a part in establishing an environment that starts to meet the needs of our feline patients.
And so, the other document to download is the ISFM guidelines on feline environmental needs, which is, was produced a few years ago. That is really complemented by the environmental guidelines, the now veterinary environment. Guidelines from 2022.
So really looking at those two together really helps us to optimise the veterinary experience. And then if we can use pheromone products within the practise, but then encourage our caregivers to continue using those products at home, and Fenway help can really be useful in giving that seven day introduction. To being using pheromones in the home environment, so it's a 7 day introduction which may then lead to continued use.
Sarah, thank you so much for that. That's been a great intro. I think also, a big thanks to ISFM for all the fantastic work they're doing, and also to Siva, so thank you so much for coming on.
I, I really felt, and it was one of the reasons I went over. To Siva at ISFM to just clear it up for me. I'm sure maybe other people have got a better idea of them, but I, I'm sure there will be many who weren't sure of all the different products and how to use them and the context to use them in.
So, thank you so much, Sarah, ISFM for all the amazing work they do for cats, and of course thanking Siva for making this podcast possible. Thanks very much and take care and thanks everyone for listening. Bye.
