Vector-borne causes of fever in cats demand year-round preventive therapy
Increased body temperature is the single-most commonly noted abnormal finding for the medical practitioner. While it may be a sign of something relatively innocuous, it can also be an indication of underlying critical illness. In cats, an elevated body temperature equates to a reading in excess of 39.2°C or 102.5°F and, as in humans, it can arise as a result of two major mechanisms: hyperthermia and fever. Hyperthermia refers to a sudden and uncontrolled increase in temperature owing to failure of the body's thermoregulatory mechanism. By contrast, in fever (or pyrexia, from the Greek for 'fire' or 'burning heat'), the body's hypothalamic set-point is increased, secondary to the release of pyrogens, as the body's adaptive response to a pathological state.