STORY: Wildfires are making cats at higher risk of deadly blood clots

That’s according to a new study from the University of California

Ava Tan, Research Fellow at UC Davis:

"They have a much higher propensity to clot as compared to cats with underlying heart disease, who we already know have a high tendency to clot, so this is most probably a different physiology.”

Researchers studied 29 cats from wildfire events

They found the cats had overactive platelets, which increased their odds of clotting

Blood clots in cats can have similar consequences as humans

They’re most likely to occur in the major artery leading to the legs, causing pain and paralysis

Ava Tan, Research Fellow at UC Davis:

“It is important in terms of the future for cats with wildfire-related injuries because in our study, we have shown potentially that treating these cats with aspirin could actually reduce their tendency to clot, which would help reduce the side effects of throwing clots to different organs and potentially leading to death, so that’s a big impact of the study. Of course, with wildfires becoming more frequent around the world in Australia, in California, I think we’re going to see more and more pets being affected.”