(AVMA) added prevention of disease to the veterinary oath. Considering that the pet population is on the rise yet veterinary visits are declining, this change to the oath is very timely. AAHA is committed to ensuring that pets receive the preventive healthcare needed to keep them healthy and happy, and just as committed to providing tools to help veterinary professionals accomplish that. The various Guidelines published by AAHA are a great example of those tools. Four Guidelines specifically focus on being proactive in the prevention of disease, rather than being reactive and treating disease as it occurs: • The AAHA-AVMA Canine and Feline Preventive Healthcare Guidelines address the lack of understanding by the pet-owning public of the important relationship between regular health evaluations and the well-being of their pets. • The AAHA Canine Life Stage Guidelines and AAFP/AAHA Feline Life Stage Guidelines also address the importance of routine preventive care, along with the value of building strong relationships between the pet owner and the veterinarian. These Guidelines help veterinary teams understand unique and specific wellness and preventive healthcare necessary through the various stages of life, leading to the best possible care. • The AAHA Nutritional Assessment Guidelines for Dogs and Cats focus on the importance of nutritional assessments and dietary recommendations for every pet at every visit, including one of the fastest growing health issues facing both pets and humans today: obesity. As a veterinary professional, implementing any of the AAHA Guidelines will be beneficial to both your practice and the animals you serve. The Guidelines above are even more useful and powerful when integrated, with the focus on optimal preventive care. Wouldn't it be great to have more patients coming to you for preventive healthcare exams before problems start? All four of the Guidelines address prevention and have areas that overlap and complement one another. By combining them and implementing an approach to ensure all key topics and recommendations are covered during each visit, your team will be poised to provide optimal preventive care in a more efficient manner, leading to healthier patients and happier clients.

Feline interstitial cystitis (FIC) is a chronic pain syndrome of domestic cats. Cats with FIC have chronic, recurrent lower urinary tract signs (LUTS) and other comorbid disorders that are exacerbated by stressors. The aim of this study was to evaluate behavioral and physiological responses of healthy cats and cats diagnosed with FIC after exposure to a five day stressor. Ten healthy cats and 18 cats with FIC were housed at The Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center (OSUVMC) vivarium. All cats were housed in enriched cages for at least one year prior to the experiment. Cats had daily play time and socialization outside of the cage, food treats and auditory enrichment. The daily husbandry schedule was maintained at a consistent time of day and cats were cared for by two familiar caretakers. During the test days, cats were exposed to multiple unpredictable stressors which included exposure to multiple unfamiliar caretakers, an inconsistent husbandry schedule, and discontinuation of play time, socialization, food treats, and auditory enrichment. Sickness behaviors (SB), including vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia or decreased food and water intake, fever, lethargy, somnolence, enhanced pain-like behaviors, decreased general activity, body care activities (grooming), and social interactions, were recorded daily. Blood samples were collected in the morning, before and after the stress period, for measurement of serum cortisol concentration, leukocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils, neutrophil: lymphocyte (N:L) ratio and mRNA for the cytokines interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Overall, the short term stressors led to a significant increase in SB in both healthy cats and cats with FIC, whereas lymphopenia and N:L changes occurred only in FIC cats. Daily monitoring of cats for SB may be a noninvasive and reliable way to assess stress responses and overall welfare of cats housed in cages.

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Acute stress affects gut functions through the activation of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) receptors. The impact of acute stress on pelvic viscera in the context of chronic stress is not well characterized. We investigated the colonic, urinary, and locomotor responses monitored as fecal pellet output (FPO), urine voiding, and ambulatory activity, respectively, in female and male CRF-overexpressing (CRF-OE) mice, a chronic stress model, and their wild-type littermates (WTL). Female CRF-OE mice, compared with WTL, had enhanced FPO to 2-min handling (150%) and 60-min novel environment (155%) but displayed a similar response to a 60-min partial restraint stress. Female CRF-OE mice, compared with WTL, also had a significantly increased number of urine spots (7.3 +/- 1.4 vs. 1.3 +/- 0.8 spots/h) and lower locomotor activity (246.8 +/- 47.8 vs. 388.2 +/- 31.9 entries/h) to a novel environment. Male CRF-OE mice and WTL both responded to a novel environment but failed to show differences between them in colonic and locomotor responses. Male WTL, compared with female WTL, had higher FPO (113%). In female CRF-OE mice, the CRF(1)/CRF(2) receptor antagonist astressin B and the selective CRF(2) receptor agonist mouse urocortin 2 (injected peripherally) prevented the enhanced defecation without affecting urine or locomotor responses to novel environment. RT-PCR showed that CRF(1) and CRF(2) receptors are expressed in the mouse colonic tissues. The data show that chronic stress, due to continuous central CRF overdrive, renders female CRF-OE mice to have enhanced pelvic and altered behavioral responses to superimposed mild stressors and that CRF(1)-initiated colonic response is counteracted by selective activation of CRF(2) receptor.

Corticotropin-releasing (CRF) factor plays a central role in the orchestration of behavioral and neuroendocrine responses to stress. The family of CRF-related peptides (CRF and paralogs: Urocortin (Ucn) -I,-II and -III) and associated receptors (CRF-R1 and CRF-R2) are also expressed in peripheral tissues such as the skin and gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Local signaling may exert multiple effects of stress-induced exacerbation of many complex syndromes including psoriasis and visceral hypersensitivity. Interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome (IC/PBS), a chronic visceral pain syndrome characterized by urinary frequency, urgency and pelvic pain, is reported to be exacerbated by stress. Functional changes in the epithelial lining of the bladder, a vital blood-urine barrier called the urothelium, may play a role in IC/PBS. This study investigated the expression and functional activity of CRF-related peptides in the urothelium of normal cats and cats with feline interstitial cystitis (FIC), a chronic idiopathic cystitis exhibiting similarities to humans diagnosed with IC/PBS. Western blots showed urothelial (UT) expression of CRF-R1 and CRF-R2. Enzyme immunoassay revealed release of endogenous ligands (CRF and Ucn) by UT cells in culture. Evidence of functional activation of CRF-R1 and CRF-R2 by receptor selective agonists (CRF and UCN3 respectively) was shown by: (1)-measurement of ATP release using the luciferin-luciferase assay and (2)-the use of membrane impermeant fluorescent dyes (FM dyes) for fluorescence microscopy to assess membrane exocytotic responses in real-time. Our findings show evidence of CRF-related peptide signaling in the urothelium. Differences in functional responses between FIC and normal UT indicate that this system is altered in IC/PBS.