20 Oct 2026
Vets Sarah Merrett and Lucinda Alderton-Sell discussed their Vet Times clinical review of FPV and what clinicians can do to bring down case numbers on the Vet Times Podcast.
Chris Simpson
Job Title
Two leading charity vets have urged clinicians to discuss vaccination and neutering with clients to help bring down cases of feline parvovirus (FPV).
Last year, Cats Protection teamed up with Blue Cross and the RSPCA to issue a plea to vets amid growing FPV case numbers in the late summer to early autumn period.
One year on, Cats Protection’s head of cat welfare engagement, Sarah Merrett, and senior community veterinary manager Lucinda Alderton-Sell have written a clinical review of FPV for Vet Times (VT56.41) and discussed the role vets can play in curbing the disease on the Vet Times Podcast.
Dr Merrett said: “It’s a disease that really highlights those conversations that, as vets, we have every day with owners around preventive health care, such as vaccination, such as neutering. It highlights how those decisions for an individual cat can also have population-level impacts.”
The RCVS advanced practitioner in feline medicine said while there are evidence gaps around FPV numbers, Cats Protection believes there is a “population dynamic”, with a large population of susceptible cats driving an increase in cases.
Citing the charity’s latest Cats and their Stats report, she noted while vet registrations sit at 93%, only 79% of owners reported their cats as up to date with vaccinations and around 5% reported their cats are not vaccinated at all.
Dr Merrett said: “In some areas, that is going to be even higher where there’s more barriers to accessing vet care, so just those conversations around vaccinations are really important.
“It’s worth considering taking advantage of seeing a cat potentially for a different reason that hasn’t been vaccinated to discuss the worth of vaccination.”
Dr Merrett also noted neutering has declined from 88% in 2020 to 79% in 2026, with owners primarily citing wanting their cat to have kittens or their cat being indoor only.
She said: “That’s a really useful fact for us to know as vets, as vet nurses, as veterinary receptionists, the whole practice team, to be able to come in and actually talk about some of that responsibility that comes with making that decision and some of the unintended consequences, as well.”
She argued vets’ recommendations are “strong motivators” for clients and encouraging neutering at four months rather than six will “have a bigger effect and a bigger impact on the growth rate” of susceptible populations.
Dr Merrett concluded: “The value of those preventive health care actions for the individual on the population, I think, it’s a really key message for us of making every opportunity for preventive health care to count as much as possible.
“Communication among the profession is important as well because it does tend to be that you don’t see a case in isolation very often.”
Dr Alderton-Sell also urged clinicians to be vigilant – particularly with kittens.
She said: “Consider [FPV] in the face of sudden death. Don’t be looking for haemorrhagic diarrhoea as a symptom of FPV.
“As a practice, have a standardised approach to how you recognise the disease, how you’re planning on confirming it, those measures of biosecurity that we all feel so passionately about, and have the opportunity to review your vaccination guidance.”