Sick Cat? Feline Bladder Problems? Try Environmental Consistency

Many cats with chronic illness, including bowel and bladder problems, improve to the point of becoming normal, if simple changes are made in their environments.

At the North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando, FL, January 2016, Dr. Tony Buffington presented findings that outlined simple environmental changes able to promote health in chronically ill cats. Dr. Buffington studied 200 cats that pet families had relinquished because the families could no longer handle the cats` chronic health problems. These cats had feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD), Feline Urinary Symptoms (FUS), feline interstitial cystitis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), or pulmonary disease. Within six months of coming to live in a cattery environment with environmental consistency, over 90 percent of the chronically ill cats improved so much so that their health was identical to that of regular cats.

Guidelines for Environmental Consistency

The following guidelines for environmental consistency were instituted in in Dr. Buffington’s ``sick cat `` cattery:

• Consistent caretaker with a calm approach
• Lights on and off at the same time every day so that there were consistent periods of light and dark
• Music, such as Vivaldi, with the avoidance of loud or clanging noises
• Areas to hide so that cats could not see other cats, and other cats could not see them
• Areas to eat in private away from other cats
• Areas to perch so that cats were above or equal height to other cats rather than being below them on the floor
• Limited changes when cleaning so that rather than cleaning food dishes, bedding, and litter box all at the same time, only one object was cleaned at a time, thus maintaining familiar odors in each cat`s environment

Millions of Dollars

Millions of dollars of grant money have been given to Dr. Buffington over the years to study feline health because many feline health problems are similar to those experienced by humans, including female bladder irritability. His lab had access to the best of scientific research techniques, including gene studies and brain mapping. In addition to having the best that medical research had to offer, Dr. Buffington said he had the best  of consistent, caring, and enlightened assistants throughout his research.

Feline Enrichment Less Important than Environmental Consistency

Dr. Buffington found that environmental consistency was more important in influencing feline health than was enrichment with toys, playtime, and special treats. It is not that enrichment with toys and special activities weren`t important, but these enrichments were less helpful in ensuring feline health than was environmental consistency.

Brain Development and Environmental Vigilance

Dr. Buffington showed that chronic feline disease in cats with FUS, FULTD, IBD, or pulmonary disease was correlated to enlargement of areas in the brain devoted to environmental vigilance. He demonstrated that chronically ill cats were actually hyper vigilant to their environment, meaning that changes or inconsistencies in light, sound, odors, other cats, or caretakers created stress in hyper vigilant cats.

Dr Buffington showed that these chronically ill cats became hyper vigilant because they experienced stress early in the life, either in utero or during the neonatal period. This early stress stimulated the development of genes that increased growth and sensitivity in brain areas devoted to environmental awareness. Cats that did not experience early stress did not develop an increase in size and sensitivity in environmental awareness areas in their brains.

Cats Hyper Vigilant To the Environment Can Manifest a Variety of Diseases

When exposed to changes or inconsistencies in its environment, the hyper vigilant cat’s adrenal glands are stimulated to release cortisol and other stress hormones. Stress hormones circulate throughout the cat’s body and damage areas that are not genetically robust. Thus, in cats with genetically “weak” bladders, FUS, FLUTD, or interstitial cystitis develops. In cats with genetically “weak” bowels, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) develops; and in cats with genetically “weak” lungs, asthma and congestive obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) develop.

While cats that are hyper vigilant to their environment all have the same areas of the brain over developed, they will each have their own pattern of illness. How these cats manifest their illness depended upon which areas in the body were genetically weak.

Peaceful Environment Soothes Hyper Vigilant Areas of the Brain

In summary, Dr. Buffington found that many chronically ill cats became ill because their brains are hyper vigilant to the environment; change in the environment causes stress; stress causes organs to malfunction.  Regardless of the which organs had become diseased, study cats improved dramatically when placed in a peaceful and predictable environment. Dr. Buffington’s study started with 200 chronically ill cats that the owners had given up hope on ever having healthy and ended with cats that could not be distinguished from normal cats.

A Peaceful, Safe Place for Cats

Cats that we have commonly referred to as ``bowel`` or ``bladder`` cats are more correctly recognized as ``environmentally hyper vigilant `` cats. Their lives can be improved simply by creating environmental consistency, providing a peaceful, safe place for them in this world.

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