VISHDAAL and diagnostic challenges in senior cats

When evaluating senior feline patients, behavioral changes can often go undiagnosed due to clients believing the cat is just aging or thinking whatever is going on with their pet is not serious enough to bring up to their veterinarians. Because of this, professionals can then not treat these pets because they cannot treat what they do not know is happening.

During this interview with dvm360, Lisa Restine, DVM, DABVP (Feline), and Allison McGrath, MS, shared what the VISHDAAL is and how it helps veterinary professionals and clients identify behavioral changes to help diagnose pets earlier, and get them the treatment they need sooner.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity.

dvm360 staff: What does VISHDAAL stand for and can you explain why these behavioral signs of CDS can be difficult for owners and veterinarians?

Lisa Restine, DVM, DABVP (Feline): I think the 2 reasons [why this is underdiagnosed] are the pet owners and the veterinarians. For cat owners, a lot of those signs they can attribute to what they would consider normal aging when it's not normal. It's not [necessarily] going to happen to every cat. I think cat owners are extremely perceptive, and they may notice these subtle changes, but they just don't think that it's important or, you know, they're not going to bring it up to the veterinarian, because, 'Well, my cat's just getting older, and I don't need to talk about it.'

And I can say, you know, as an owner of a senior cat, I did that too, so it's very, very easy to do, and just kind of miss some of those signs as important, and on the veterinary side, I think time is a huge factor. The questions that we need to ask in order to get to the level of understanding that is required to start this whole diagnostic process are pretty extensive, and we don't have a lot of time in the clinics. So unless you're taking measures to be pre-prepared for your exam, or you're expecting to have this conversation. It's not something that happens on a regular basis.