A common saying in veterinary medicine is that “cats are not small dogs”. Cats are a very different species with different diseases — some even joke that cats have an extraterrestrial origin — feline UFOs you might say.
We also see fever a bit differently in cats and dogs. Typically with dogs, if a diagnostic “net” is cast wide enough a diagnosis can be made but that is not always the case in cats. If enough parameters are met in investigating a cat fever without the cause being identified, we will call this “Fever of Unknown Origin” (FUO).
Although fevers are common in cats, information about FUO in cats is limited. Most often, feline FUOs are eventually determined to be due to an infection. Less often, cancer or immune-mediated disease is found to be the cause of the fever. Still, the origin of 10-15% of fevers of unknown origin in … Continue reading