Threatening reflex
A threat reflex or threat reaction is a neurological examination method in veterinary medicine , which is mainly used in small animals to check their vision. A quick hand movement is made towards the animal, to which it usually reacts with a blink, sometimes with further defensive movements. The reaction can be tested individually for each eye by closing the other. The normal reaction depends primarily on the optic nerve and the facial nerve (blinking by the orbicularis oculi muscle ), but also on central connections in the cerebrum and cerebellum . When performing the procedure, care must be taken that there is neither a draft nor a touch of the whisker hair , because then a disruption of the visual sense cannot be ruled out. The reaction to the threat is a learned behavior, so it usually cannot be triggered in puppies under three months of age. In some cats, the threat reflex is difficult to trigger, so the cat should be gently touched several times beforehand in order to attract their attention. One study showed that two thirds of neurologically and ophthalmologically healthy cats show a reduced threat reaction.
Individual evidence
- ^ André Jaggy: Atlas and textbook of small animal neurology . 2nd Edition. Schlütersche, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8426-8519-2 .
- ↑ Hans Lutz, Barbara Kohn, Franck Forterre: Diseases of the cat . 5th edition. Georg Thieme, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-8304-1243-4 , p. 807 .
- ↑ P. Quitt et al., Cit. according to das tierauge , volume 6, 2015, issue 11, p. 9