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. 2023 Jul 27;13(15):2427.
doi: 10.3390/ani13152427.

Knee Joint Osteoarthritis in Overweight Cats: The Clinical and Radiographic Findings

Joanna Bonecka  1 , Michał Skibniewski  2 , Paweł Zep  3 , Małgorzata Domino  4
Affiliations

Knee Joint Osteoarthritis in Overweight Cats: The Clinical and Radiographic Findings

Joanna Bonecka et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Despite a high prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) reported in the domesticated cat population, studies on feline knee joint OA are scarcer. Knee joint OA is a painful, age-related, chronic degenerative joint disease that significantly affects cats' activity and quality of life. In dogs and humans, one may consider overweight as a risk factor for the development and progression of knee joint OA; therefore, this study aims to assess the severity of knee joint OA in the body-weight-related groups of cats concerning clinical symptoms and radiographic signs. The study was conducted on sixty-four (n = 64) cats with confirmed OA. The demographic data on sex, neutering, age, and breed were collected. Then, the body condition score (BCS) was assessed, and each cat was allocated to the underweight, normal-weight, or overweight group. Within clinical symptoms, joint pain, joint swelling, joint deformities, lameness, reluctance to move, and apathy were graded. Based on the radiographic signs, minor OA, mild OA, moderate OA, and severe OA were scored. Prevalence and co-occurrence of the studied variables were then assessed. Joint pain was elicited in 20-31% of the OA-affected joints, joint deformities in 21-30%, and lameness in 20-54%, with no differences between weight-related groups. Severe OA was detected in 10-16% of the OA-affected joints, with no differences between weight-related groups. Severe OA in feline knee joints appears with similar frequency in overweight, underweight, and normal-weight cats. However, the general prevalence of clinical symptoms and radiographic signs is different in overweight cats.

Keywords: BCS; feline; radiographic signs; radiographs; severity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Exemplary mediolateral view radiographs of feline knee joints scored as normal (A), minor OA (B), mild OA (C), moderate OA (D), and severe OA (E). The dashed line separates the image of a normal cat knee from the images of OA knees.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The overall severity of knee joint osteoarthritis (OA) (A), age (B), as well as the occurrence of females (C), neutered females (D), males (E), and neutered males (F) in the underweight (UW), normal-weight (NW), and overweight (OW) groups. Data in box plots are represented by the lower quartile, median, and upper quartile, whereas whiskers represent minimum and maximum values. Additionally, the mean values are marked by “+”. Lowercase letters indicate differences between groups for p < 0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Occurrence of joint pain (A), joint deformities (B), lameness (C), reluctance to move (D), and apathy (E), as well as the sum of clinical symptoms (F) of knee joint osteoarthritis (OA) in the underweight (UW), normal-weight (NW), and overweight (OW) groups. Data in box plots are represented by the lower quartile, median, and upper quartile, whereas whiskers represent minimum and maximum values. Additionally, the mean values are marked by “+”. Lowercase letters indicate differences between groups for p < 0.05.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Occurrence of minor (A), mild (B), moderate (C), and severe (D) radiographic signs of knee joint osteoarthritis (OA) in the underweight, normal-weight, and overweight groups. Data in box plots are represented by the lower quartile, median, and upper quartile, whereas whiskers represent minimum and maximum values. Additionally, the mean values are marked by “+”.
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