Response to letter regarding “Value of repeated health screening in 259 apparently healthy mature adult and senior cats followed for 2 years”

Thank you for allowing us to respond to the letter to the editor by McKenzie, which presents us with the opportunity for additional dialog on the topic of routine health screening in older cats.

We would first like to clarify that the purpose of our study was to determine whether routine health screening has value with regard to the detection of disease in older cats that are apparently healthy to the owner, as is stated in the article. Our study was not designed to determine whether detection and subsequent treatment of abnormalities found during routine health examinations decrease mortality, nor to calculate which long-term financial benefits or burdens these health examinations cause cat owners. By describing which diseases can be detected with health screening in a population of apparently healthy older cats, owners can be better informed about the chance of disease being detected in their cats, so that they can make informed decisions about whether or not to have a health examination performed. We agree with McKenzie that it would be very interesting to have additional prospective studies to determine the long-term health benefits and costs associated with routine health screening in older cats, but examining these aspects was outside the scope of our study.