February 24, 2026
Categories: Webcasts, Continuing Education

Maddie’s® Insights is our ongoing webcast series with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. Join us on Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 12PM PT/3PM ET for “Early life stressors and the behavior and physiology of rescue kittens.” Dr. Jennifer Vernick veterinary behavioral medicine resident at Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) in Canada will present.

Across species, early-life stressors, such as inadequate nutrition, maternal separation, unreliable access to shelter, threats/abuse, and disease, profoundly affect brain development and behavior. Research has shown these stressors can impair cognitive, emotional, and social functions as well as alter the body’s stress response systems, particularly the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In kittens specifically, early nutritional stress and maternal separation have been linked to learning deficits, abnormal fear responses, increased aggression, and altered play behavior.

At the end of this webinar, you will:

  • Be able to identify several different examples of early life stressors
  • Understand why hair cortisol concentration (HCC) may be useful to measure
  • Be able to provide potential reasons for high and low HCC
  • Understand why relative telomere length (RTL) is measured
  • Be able to provide potential causes for shortened telomeres
  • Be able to provide examples of how early life stressors were associated with the behaviors that rescue kittens displayed during testing

Earn continuing education credit from The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement towards 1.0 CAWA CEs. This webcast has also been pre-approved for 1.0 continuing education credits by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA). It has also been submitted for 1 hour of continuing education credit in jurisdictions which recognize RACE approval for on-demand viewers.

Maddie’s® Insights is our ongoing webcast series with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people. Register now and join the discussion on Maddie’s® Pet Forum.