Kidneys for Kitties and Other Feline Miscellany

We haven't had any terribly exciting live-animal labs lately so sadly, I have no feats of heroism/horrific embarrassments to report (really, it seems to only go one of those two ways, and there isn't much separating one from the other...). But we did have our only Cat Lab last week, and it relates to something pretty crazy I learned in tutor group Monday, so I'll try to make something up from that.

Of the domestic animals, cats really do have a hard time of things. It looks really good on the surface- there are more owned cats than owned dogs in this country, for example, and just look at how spoiled those are!- but the fact that cats reproduce like rabbits just doesn't work in their favor, especially since they revert to a feral form in pretty short order (thus getting outside human supervision, and reproducing even more). On my last visit to the Tompkins County SPCA, there were maybe 15-20 dogs at the shelter.... and over 500 cats and kittens. In other words, cat overpopulation is a BIG part of the BIG problem of pet overpopulation, and the cats are the ones to suffer for it.

So back to tutor group... we learned about an interesting incentive for some owners to let another kitty into their lives. One of the major medical killers of cats is kidney failure, and the sad thing is, once it starts, there isn't much you can do to stop it... until recently. UC Davis and UPenn both have feline kidney transplant programs... yes, feline kidney transplant... that can give your kitty another chance. In order to do this, the programs suggest/require that you adopt a healthy cat from a local shelter to serve as the donor, so that ideally you'll end up with 2 healthy cats, 1 kidney each. If a) you have a limitless bank account, b) the surgery goes as planned and both animals live, and c) your senior-citizen renal-failure kitty gets along with the new young donor cat, then perhaps some kind of happily-ever-after can occur. Hopefully.

I'm not saying it can't happen... but it's ethically sticky at best. While I think it's great that the technology is available, if very new, I'm not sure how feasible it's going to be in the long run, and if it even should be a serious consideration for renal-failure cats in the future. You wouldn't/shouldn't/probably couldn't adopt a child to provide some biological parts for your own kid (although I'm pretty sure I saw that once on Law & Order)... while it doesn't line up 1:1 for cats, it still feels kind of odd. I suppose animals are subjected to a lot worse through animal testing and food production, though, so who's to say that taking a kidney for a noble cause is wrong? Interesting!

Cool stuff coming up... next Tuesday is the infamous BOVINE RECTAL EXAM lab, and next Wednesday is a CPR lab being held by SVECCS (Student Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society) that I'm participating in, so I should have real stories by then :) But after that is Block I finals so there may not be any posting (or other contact with the outside world) for a good week or two... just a heads up!

And I feel like this post deserves a Bob Barker sign-off... Don't forget, SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS!!!