Reference Interval for Rectal Temperature in Healthy Confined Adult Cats
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Objectives: Despite the common use of rectal temperature for assessing health and identifying infectious diseases in cats, there is little evidence to support frequently cited feline reference intervals for rectal temperature. Body temperature measurements are most commonly performed indoors in animal shelters and veterinary clinics. In these facilities, cats are often inactive and housed in small enclosures in a climate-controlled environment. The purpose of this study was to establish a new reference interval for rectal temperature in healthy confined adult cats.\nMethods: Rectal temperatures were measured in 200 healthy adult indoor cats in animal shelters, veterinary clinics and private homes. The reference interval was established using the method of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute.\nResults: The reference interval for healthy adult cat rectal temperature was determined to range from 36.7°C (confidence interval [CI] = 36.6-36.8°C; 98.1°F [CI = 97.9-98.3°F]) at the lower limit to 38.9°C (CI = 38.8-39.1°C; 102.1°F [CI = 101.9-102.3°F]) at the upper limit. The ambient temperature ranged from 20.3-30.8°C (68.5-87.5°F). Rectal temperature was not significantly correlated with ambient temperature.\nConclusions and relevance: A range of 36.7-38.9°C (98.1-102.1°F) should be considered the new reference interval for healthy adult cats for rectal temperature measured indoors in climate-controlled conditions. This range is lower than commonly reported. Use of previously published ranges could lead to overdiagnosis of hypothermia or underdiagnosis of mild pyrexia.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".