ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Comparative and Clinical Medicine
Repeatability and reliability of kinetic and temporospatial gait parameters measured with a pressure-sensitive treadmill in healthy cats
Provisionally accepted
- 1Diagnostic Centre for Small Animals - Day Clinic, Dresden, Germany
- 2Chair of Animal Nutrition and Dietetics, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany, Munich, Germany
- 3LMU Small Animal Clinic, Centre for Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
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Objectives: Interest in feline kinetic gait variables has increased substantially. This study aimed to assess repeatability and intersession reliability of kinetic gait analysis in healthy cats using a pressure-sensitive treadmill. Methods: Healthy client-owned cats (n=9) and cats housed at the cattery of the Chair of Animal Nutrition and Dietetics (n=5), without orthopedic abnormalities based on history, examination, and subjective gait analysis were enrolled. Cats (mean body weight: 5.2 ± 0.9 kg, age: 4.1 ± 1.7 years) were acclimated to a pressure-sensitive treadmill system (FDM-T-CanidGait®, zebris Medical GmbH, Isny, Germany). Treadmill velocity was adjusted individually for comfortable walking. For data acquisition, cats were placed on the treadmill and repositioned if they jumped off (total duration: 10 min, 5 x 2 min). The first five sequences with six valid gait cycles were selected. Data acquisition was repeated after two weeks at the same speed. Average maximal pressure, loaded paw surface, step and stride length, step width, stance and swing phase percentages, hind reach, step-stride ratio and symmetry indices were calculated. Repeatability was assessed with linear mixed-effects models, and intersession reliability with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Reliability was categorized as excellent, good, moderate, or poor, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05. Results: Most parameters did not differ significantly between time points, except for average maximal pressure of the left hindlimb (p = 0.037) and hind reach of both hindlimbs (p ≤ 0.001). ICCs demonstrated good to excellent reliability (0.885–0.988) for all variables, except for symmetry indices (moderate reliability; forelimbs: 0.547, hindlimbs: 0.676). Conclusions and relevance: A pressure-sensitive treadmill provides repeatable feline gait measurements with good to excellent intersession reliability for most variables and moderate reliability for symmetry indices, offering a reference for future studies. Further studies involving larger cohorts are needed to confirm these results and support broader clinical application.
Keywords: gait analysis, pressure-sensitive treadmill, Locomotion, Temporospatial parameter, kinetic gait, feline, cat
Received: 17 Sep 2025; Accepted: 19 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Weissig, Dobenecker, Zablotski and Lauer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Susanne K. Lauer, s.lauer@lmu.de
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