The Threats from Disease are Always Changing

The threats from disease are always changing. The knowledge I gained about feline diseases as a veterinary student in the 1960s is now hopelessly outdated.

Then, feline infectious enteritis was a common and lethal killer; now preventative inoculation and other factors have dramatically reduced its incidence. Then heart disease was rare; today it is relatively common.

When I began in practice, hyperthyroidism, an overproduction of thyroid hormone, bad never been reported in a cat; now I regularly see individuals with this old-age-onset condition.

 Some infectious agents, such as feline immune deficiency virus (FIV), have only emerged in recent decades. The nature of disease and illness is always changing.