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Cat Facts: Editor's Letter Ricky Fund Update By Beth Adelman for Cat Facts |
 Last year we told you about Ricky, journalist Steve Dale's cat who died of feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a heart disease that kills thousands of cats every year. Steve, along with the Winn Feline Foundation, set up the Ricky Fund to encourage research into ways to treat and prevent the disease.
A year later, generous support from Steve's readers and listeners of his radio show on WGN Radio, the Devon Breed Club, Friskies, and cat lovers all over America has raised more than $30,000 for the Ricky Fund. And the Winn Feline Foundation is currently funding $130,000 in medical research on HCM. Dr. Mark Kittleson, a cardiac veterinary specialist at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California-Davis, is experimenting with a new drug that has never been used for cats with HCM. If this drug turns out to help cats with HCM, it'll be great news. Still, the UC Davis study -- which has only just started -- is already making news. The cats involved in the study all get an MRI before they begin, they get another during the course of the study, and a third MRI when they complete the study. Money from the Ricky Fund helped pay for the MRIs, and because cats' hearts have never been viewed in such detail before, Kittleson says there is much to be learned in the long term about feline health. At the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Amy Alwood is also using money from the Ricky Fund to determine whether a new type of heparin (a clotting drug) can prevent cats with HCM from developing blood clots. Like Kittleson, she'll be using new technology. The thromboelastography test (TEG) is used in people, and has also been used in dogs, to determine what the likelihood for forming a clot may be. If this new kind of heparin does turn out to prevent the onset of blood clots, Alwood hopes the TEG test can first determine which cats are at risk. To contribute to the Ricky Fund, log on to www.winnfelinehealth.org and click on The Ricky Fund. |
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