Epidemiology of recurrent seizure disorders and epilepsy in cats under primary veterinary care in the United Kingdom.

Dan Gerard O'Neill,Stephanie A Phillipps,Jordon R Egan,David B Church,David Brodbelt,Holger A Volk

doi:10.1111/jvim.15881

Dan Gerard O'Neill, Stephanie A Phillipps + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.15881

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Abstract

BackgroundLittle epidemiological evaluation of recurrent seizure disorders in cats currently exists in veterinary literature.ObjectivesTo report the prevalence and risk factors for recurrent seizure disorders (RSD) and epilepsy in cats presented to primary care veterinary practices in the United Kingdom (UK).AnimalsA total of 285 547 cats under veterinary care during 2013 presenting to 282 primary care clinics in the UK.MethodsCohort study using multivariable logistic regression modeling for risk factor analysis.ResultsThere were 458 confirmed RSD cases, giving a 1‐year period prevalence of 0.16% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.15‐0.18). A subset of 114 (24.89%) cases was recorded as having epilepsy, giving a 1‐year period prevalence of 0.04% (95% CI, 0.03‐0.5). Increasing age was significantly associated with increasing odds of RSD. Breed, sex, neuter status, and body weight were not associated with RSD. Epilepsy was most frequently diagnosed in adult to middle‐aged cats. Cats aged 3.0 to <6.0 years had 3.32 times higher odds of epilepsy diagnosis compared to cats <3.0 years of age. Insured cats were more likely to be diagnosed with epilepsy compared to noninsured cats.Conclusions and Clinical ImportanceAlthough less common than in dogs, RSD and epilepsy still comprise an important disorder group in the UK cat population. Aging is a significant risk factor for these disorders in cats.

Highlights

All candidate cases were checked to confirm 458 (30.59% of the candidates) as recurrent seizure disorders (RSD) cases, giving an overall 1-year period prevalence for RSD in cats in the United Kingdom (UK) of 0.16%
The prevalence of RSD did not differ between crossbred cats (0.17%; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.15-0.18) and purebred cats (0.13%; 95% CI, 0.09-0.18, P = .165; Table 1)
Of the 458 RSD cases, 114 (24.89%) were recorded with epilepsy by the first opinion veterinary practitioners, giving an overall 1-year period prevalence for first opinion-classified epilepsy in cats in the UK of 0.04%

Summary

Introduction

Neurological disorders are common in cats and are among the leading causes of mortality in the pet feline population.[1,2] Of these neurological disorders, seizures are a common reason for cats to be presentedJ Vet Intern Med. 2020;1–13.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jvim O'NEILL ET AL.to a veterinary neurologist, with the prevalence of seizures in referral populations of cats reported as 2.1% in Germany[3] and 3.5% in Austria.[4]. The reliability of generalization from these secondary and tertiary care subsets to the wider cat population has been questioned.[6] Research on RSD in dogs utilizing datasets from primary practice electronic patient records (EPR) have reported a 1-year period prevalence for seizure occurrence in dogs of 0.82% and for suspected idiopathic epilepsy of 0.62% to 0.75%.7,8. Objectives: To report the prevalence and risk factors for recurrent seizure disorders (RSD) and epilepsy in cats presented to primary care veterinary practices in the United Kingdom (UK). Aging is a significant risk factor for these disorders in cats

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