Objective measures of post-operative skin inflammation in the domestic cat (Felis catus)

Abstract

There is no standard method to quantitatively describe inflammation, making it difficult to monitor healing rates of companion animals following surgery. Using variables associated with known signs of inflammation: redness, swelling, temperature, and skin function (i.e., hydration and sebum), I directly measured inflammation with dermatological tools in two human trials comparing skin metrics under different conditions (i.e., swim events, and induced histamine reactions). Then the same tools were applied to evaluate the inflammation of 20 feline patients before and after spay surgeries at the Coulee Region Humane Society. Significant findings from human trials showed an increase in skin hydration (74.8%) following the swim, and a sebum presence 25 times higher following the histamine reaction. In felines, sebum level increased >200% following surgery from (mean± SE: .250 μg/cm2 ±0.20) to (mean± SE: .850 μg/cm2 ±0.11), while hydration (~40%) and elasticity (~37%) both decreased following surgeries. However, surgical wound area color did not change following surgery. These results demonstrate that select objective, quantitative measures of physiology can be used to reliably detect inflammation. By directly linking numerical data to healing outcomes, these tools decisively enable rigorous analysis postoperative care for felines with immediate translational relevance to human postoperative care monitoring.