Contents Pyometra is a reproductive disorder very common in bitches over 8 years of age in which physiological effects of progesterone on the uterus play a major role. The traditional therapy for pyometra is ovariohysterectomy. The main advantage of ovariohysterectomy over medical management is that it is both curative and preventive for recurrence of pyometra. However, surgery is associated with the risk of anaesthesia and renders the bitch sterile. During the last 10 years, numerous medical treatments have been proposed to treat both open and closed cervix pyometra. The most effective medical treatment with minor side effects seems to be the repeated administration of aglepristone with or without the additional treatment with low doses of prostaglandins.

Case series summaryIn October 2011, an abnormally large morbidity and mortality event was noted in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a veterinary school hospital in Nantes, France. Cats, and cats only, transferred from the emergency room presented with fever, ulcers on the tongue and cutaneous lesions around venepuncture or surgical incision sites, leading to suspicion of a feline calicivirus-associated virulent systemic disease confirmed with reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. A total of 14 cats were suspected. The clinical features and the origin of the contamination were described for each cat. The median length of incubation was 4.5 days. Fifty-seven percent of the cats were euthanased (8/14) and 21% died (3/14), with a combined mortality of 79% (11/14) – the highest ever reported. Median survival was 12 days. The recovery rate was 21% (3/14).Relevance and novel informationEight outbreaks have been reported, in veterinary clinics or in group-housed cats. The main unusual aspects of the present outbreak were: (1) the extreme flare-up of lesions at sites of skin breach, precluding any puncture/incision; (2) the suggested better survival rate at home than in hospital; and (3) the immediate control of the outbreak after recognition of the disease. Other striking but less unusual features of this outbreak were: (4) the increasing of the virulence of the calicivirus with the passage of time; and (5) the primary role that the caregivers’ hands played in the spread of the outbreak.

Eleven pregnancies in six queens were monitored daily from day 7 to day 28, corresponding to the end of the embryonic period, using ultrasonography with a 12.5 MHz probe. The first mating was considered as the presumed start of gestation, as has been described to be the case in 92.3% of pregnancies. The embryonic vesicles were identified on day 11, while the embryo appeared on day 15 or 16. The stage of pregnancy could be evaluated approximately by measuring the length of the embryonic vesicle or the crown-rump length of the embryo from days 11 and 17, respectively, up until the end of the embryonic phase of gestation. The visualisation of certain organs could also be used to date gestation; for example, the limbs, neural tube and stomach were visible from days 19, 20 and 26, respectively. The 12.5 MHz probe did not enable the diagnosis of gestation to be performed any earlier than with 7.5 and 10 MHz probes. However, there was a significant difference in comparison with a 5 MHz probe.

Ten gestations in six domestic shorthair cats (Europeans) were monitored daily during the foetal phase of gestation, from the 28th day after the first mating until parturition, using ultrasound with a 12.5-MHz probe. The development of the various organs over this period was recorded. The diameters of the head (HD) and abdomen (AD) were measured. Skeletal calcification visible on ultrasound occurred in a defined order between the 34th and 40th day of gestation. During the last 30 days of gestation, there was a significant correlation between HD and days before parturition (DBP) (r(2)  = 0.99) and between AD and DBP (r(2)  = 0.98). The following equations were obtained: DBP = -2.10*HD (mm) + 50.74; DBP = -1.01*AD (mm) + 42.19. The confidence intervals were stable over the last 30 days of gestation. For the HD, the confidence interval was ±1 day in 53% of cases and ±2 days in 85% of cases. For the AD, the confidence interval was ±1 day in 45% of cases and ±2 days in 77% of cases. A table obtained by combining the HD and AD measurements made it possible to estimate the date of parturition within 2 days with a reliability of over 85%.

Although semen collection and artificial insemination in cats have been first described 50 years ago (Sojka, Jennings, & Hamner, 1970), assisted reproduction procedures are not a routine in veterinary practice (Zambelli, Cunto, Prati, & Merlo, 2007). In recent years, the number of pet cats has considerably increased, reaching 13 millions in French households (www.i-cad.fr) which lead to increased demand from cat breeders for assisted reproduction (Johnson, 2018).