Feline Heart Screening.

CSAG has also been reviewing feline heart screening in UK and this has been done over the past year by a panel including Virginia LF, Jo Dukes-McEwan, Emily Dutton, Hannah Stephenson, Rachel James, Susan Roberts & Vicky Ironside.

Again the need for standardising echocardiography amongst screeners was recognized.  Interpretation of the echocardiography results, particularly with respect to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, was also focused on.  The result is that detailed CSAG guidance for feline heart screeners has been produced and this will soon be available for all existing & prospective screeners.

It is proposed that screeners who have passed the canine accreditation examination, will be able to take a small additional feline screening assessment and after passing this, they will be admitted to the feline heart screener list as well.  The format of this has yet to be decided & it may or may not involve echocardiography of cats with an examiner.

Feline screening certificates are also still paper with carbon copies, but this will hopefully move to an online version via the VCS website.