Update; Nov 2014

Imogen Wright /

My questionnaire is nearly complete!
I just have to finalize a version on Surveymonkey.com and complete my version on Microsoft Word to be printed out and given to people who may not have access to the internet. Hopefully they’ll be ready within the next few days and I can start my data collection. This means that over Christmas I can leave the data to amount up before analyzing it in Jan/Feb 2015.

 

Once the questionnaires are complete and handed out/gone live I can focus on writing my draft methodology. This shouldn’t be too difficult and I have almost a month to do it, so I’ll start that this week too.

Update; Questionnaire and Journals (11th October 2014)

Imogen Wright /

Hello again!

Just a quick update on how the project is going so far…
I met with Helen again on Tuesday 7th October.
We discussed that I’ll be writing my dissertation in the form of a journal article; in particular in the style that articles are written for the ‘Journal of Veterinary Behavior; Clinical Applications and Research’. (http://www.journalvetbehavior.com/)
To do this successfully I’m going to have to read a lot of papers on there to get a feel for how they’re written and then try and have a go at starting mine too. I’m quite happy that I’ll be writing it in the style of a journal article/scientific paper as I think it’s a very useful skill to have.

With regards to my questionnaire I’m hoping to have it completed by the end of October/start of November so I can start gathering data as soon as possible. I had a go on Survey Monkey (see image below) at setting out how I wanted my questions and I now know which options I’ll need to select for certain questions so that it looks right. Once the questionnaire is finished, I’m going to ask a group of friends and family and also maybe post it on Facebook to do a trial run and ask people to record how long it took them to complete it. This is so I can advise people who are filling out the questionnaire for real how long it will take them to do. If I get my questionnaire out by my target time; I should hopefully be able to start analyzing the data by January.

Untitled

Over the next few days I’m just going to be tweaking how my questions are written so they sound better and doing a bit of research on the subject area I’m researching and reading a few papers from the JVB website.

 

 

 

 

 

Progess over the weekend…

Imogen Wright /

I’ve added a few more draft questions to my questionnaire ready to meet up with Helen again on Tuesday.
I’m really pleased with how it’s coming along so far and am looking forwards to starting to gather my data! I also need to think about beginning to write my introduction; which currently I’m not sure how to begin, so I need to look more into that and maybe ask for some advice.

Asides from a few minor improvements to my questionnaire, over the weekend I did some fundraising for Guide Dogs for the Blind by street collecting for a couple of hours on Saturday morning, which I enjoyed despite the horrendous weather. I also applied for some graduate jobs and visited Bransby Horses home with my Mum which was great to get out of Lincoln for a little while and have some family time, and now I feel I’m ready to focus on my work next week!

Bransby

 

Starting my Questionnaire

Imogen Wright /

After meeting with my research project instructor Helen Zulch when I got back to Lincoln after the Summer holidays and discussing what route I wanted to go down specifically with this project, we decided the best way of collecting my data would be to construct a questionnaire.

This questionnaire will be used to gather data from cat owners across the UK about their behaviour and health. Currently I’m thinking of creating it on SurveyMonkey.com and distributing it via Facebook and Twitter, and posting it on relevant forums through these social media platforms. I’ll also ask family members and friends to distribute some printed off questionnaires out to their friends, so that I’m not missing out a demographic of people who don’t use the internet, but may still provide valuable data that I can use.
I’m also most likely going to ask veterinary practices (some in Lincoln, some in Barnsley and some in Newcastle) if I can leave a selection of printed out questionnaires in their waiting rooms for people to fill in, and then I can collect them a few weeks later. Getting information from patients who’re waiting in the vets with their animals there and then would possibly provide really great data as they’ll be able to recall the behaviours their cats are showing really easily.

After completing my first draft of the questionnaire, Helen said she was impressed which was good to hear and great to know that I’m on the right track so far. We went over what I’d written so far, and now I know where to make some key changes, and have already started doing so.

First draft

I’m finding it really interesting to research about the most common diseases and health problems cats suffer from in the UK, and the vast array of abnormal behaviours they can show. I’m looking forwards to getting the data back from my questionnaire already.
I think that choosing to do my research project on this topic will highlight my interest for animal health as a whole even moreso!

I’ve also completed my risk assesment & EA1 (an ethics form) so I can submit those onto Blackboard once I’ve sent them to Helen to be signed. For the rest of this week I’m just going to be trying to improve my questionnaire some more and doing some research behind the medical problems I’m asking about.

 

Initial thoughts and ideas for my research project

Imogen Wright /

I’ve chosen to do my final year research project studying about underlying health problems causing abnormal or unusual behaviour in domestic cats.

We were sent a list of research project options which we could choose from, and this was the one that stood out to me the most. It could’ve been about dogs or cats or both, but I chose to look into cats rather than dogs as there isn’t much out there relating to domestic cats in this subject currently.
Another reason is that I’ve also always grown up having pet cats (Pippin, Charlie & Tigger can be seen below!) and I’m hugely interested in their behaviour, health and welfare so it really appealed to me.

I’m going to try and find a correlation between cat’s who show abnormal behaviours (which I will discuss in more detail in later blog posts) and if these behaviours could be caused by underlying health problems. A common example is when cats start frequently urinating outside of their litter tray/in areas of the house they shouldn’t do so as a result of having developed FLUTD (Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease). This is just one of many examples, where behavioural changes can explain hidden health problems or diseases. I’m looking forwards to gathering my data for this project, and am going to try and update this blog with my weekly progress.

pippin charliephoto

(L-R; Pippin, Charlie and Tigger)