Researchers discover rare human disease in dogsMay 17, 2016Researchers say they have discovered a rare, severe form of pulmonary hypertension in dogs. Up until this point, it had only been classified as a human lung disease.
SPONSORED CONTENTThe Case for Year-Round Heartworm Prevention and Affordable OptionsVeterinarians are often more than just clinicians - they’re advisors, educators, and, increasingly, financial counselors. In today’s economy, pet owners may hesitate to invest in year-round prevention due to budget constraints; but, skipping even a few months of heartworm protection can have serious consequences. + Learn More
Zoetis launches noise aversion drug for dogsMay 16, 2016The explosions and whistles of Fourth of July fireworks displays may become less bothersome to dogs administered a new prescription medication from Zoetis Inc.
BIVI's Bordetella vaccine tops 17 million dosesMay 12, 201617 million doses and counting. Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Inc. reported the milestone sales figure Tuesday for Bronchi-Shield Oral, a four-year-old canine Bordetella vaccine.
Weather warming up? Time to talk about ticksMay 9, 2016When the weather warms it’s safe to assume that ticks are out looking for their next meal. Although the arachnids are found throughout the United States, deer ticks, also known as blacklegged ticks, are common carriers of Lyme disease.
MSU Launches Chronic Diarrhea Dog StudyMay 9, 2016The Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine (MSU-CVM) is seeking local practitioners to participate in a new study designed to develop more practical and cost-effective methods of managing chronic diarrhea in dogs. These protocols, according to the college, are designed to be affordable for most pet owners and, whenever possible, to reduce the need for costly or invasive referral-level diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. MSU-CVM researchers plan to recruit up to 50 dogs. To assist the veterinarian and owner in working up these patients, funding of $300 will be provided to the referring veterinarian. The funds are to help subsidize diagnostic and therapeutic management, according to the college. The college anticipates that most typical cases will not require referral to MSU-CVM, and that the management of the patient will be covered in entirety at the veterinarian’s own practice. A follow-up study will be available for those patients that do not improve with the given in-practice treatment protocols. Subsidization will be provided.
How This Mexican Shelter Is Doing ‘What it Takes’ for PetsMay 6, 2016On the outskirts of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, away from the beach sports and tourist hustle and bustle, barking dogs greet visitors to SPCA Puerto Vallarta. Dogs and cats are rescued from the streets and sometimes out of abusive conditions. Some are ill and require veterinary intervention. At SPCA Puerto Vallarta, animals with special needs may require a longer stay, but staying here isn’t so bad. They all receive the medical care they need—somehow resources are found—even if it means seeing a veterinary specialist. “We do what it takes,” says founder and President Janice Chatterton. There’s even whirlpool for rehabilitation on the premises. There’s also a veterinarian with a special interest specifically in shelter medicine, a rarity in Mexico. More than a shelter, SPCA Puerto Vallarta truly is a sanctuary. Dogs are kept in spacious indoor/outdoor runs and almost always have the company of one or more canine companions. A cadre of volunteers, ranging from residents to tourists, walks the dogs daily. Cats live in a colony and can catnap inside or outdoors in an area protected from …
Study: Labs More Interested in Food Than Other BreedsMay 5, 2016Dog owners tell their vets that Labrador retrievers are always interested in food, and new work shows there might be a biological truth to the claim. A study in the journal Cell Metabolism links a gene alteration specifically found in Labs and related flat-coat retrievers to greater food-motivated behavior, describing the first gene associated with canine obesity. The variation also occurs more frequently in Labradors chosen as assistance dogs, and might explain why these canines seem more trainable with food rewards. The study was called “A Deletion in the Canine POMC Gene Is Associated with Weight and Appetite in Obesity-Prone Labrador Retriever Dogs.” Labrador retrievers are more interested in food and tend to be more obese than other breeds, regardless of owner. "Whenever there's something more common in one breed than another, we think genetics are involved," said Eleanor Raffan, MRCVS, a veterinary surgeon and geneticist at the University of Cambridge who previously studied human obesity before investigating the canine angle. Starting with an initial cohort of 15 obese and 18 lean Labrador retrievers, Raffan and her colleagues selected …
OVC Takes Part in Bone Cancer Clinical TrialMay 3, 2016The University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College recently entered an 8-year-old Rottweiler named Cujo into a clinical trial headed by the U.S. National Cancer Institute’s Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium (NCI COTC). It’s the first such collaboration between the college and the NCI COTC. The study, funded by the Morris Animal Foundation, will include about 160 dogs from 21 veterinary teaching hospitals across North America. Researchers will evaluate the effectiveness of the therapeutic agent rapamycin for treating osteosarcoma in dogs by delaying or preventing metastases. The trial is expected to last about eight to 12 months. “This is exciting for us,” said Paul Woods, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, a veterinary cancer specialist at OVC and co-director of U of G’s Institute for Comparative Cancer Investigation. “Our goal is to improve the dogs’ quality and quantity of life while living with cancer.” Dogs, especially large breeds, develop osteosarcoma 10 times as often as humans, according to the college. OVC’s Animal Cancer Center sees up to three new osteosarcoma cases each week, the college further noted. “We’re not sure why it’s so common in large dogs,” Dr. Woods said. Despite aggressive treatments …
NC University Researchers Design Hardware, Software that can Train DogsMay 2, 2016North Carolina State University researchers have developed and used a customized suite of technologies that allows a computer to train a dog autonomously, with the computer effectively responding to the dog based on the dog’s body language. “Our approach can be used to train dogs efficiently and effectively,&rdquo犀利士 ; said David Roberts, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work. “We use sensors in custom dog harnesses to monitor a dog’s posture, and the computer reinforces the correct behavior quickly and with near-perfect consistency.” “Because the technology integrates fundamental principles of animal learning into a computational system, we are confident it can be applied to a wide range of canine behaviors,” said Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and co-author of the paper. “For example, it could be used to more quickly train service dogs. Ultimately, we think the technology will be used in conjunction with human-directed training.” The dog harness fits comfortably onto the dog and is equipped with a variety of technologies that can monitor the dog’s posture …
Study Shows that Canine AD Shares Significant Features of Human ADApril 27, 2016Atopic dermatitis (AD), a chronic inflammatory skin condition and the most common form of eczema, is estimated to afflict as much as 10 percent of the U.S. population, and is much more common now than it was 50 years ago. Veterinary clinical estimates also show that approximately 10 percent of dogs have atopic dermatitis. How AD arises isn’t yet fully understood, but a new study from researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine, have uncovered important insights about the association of AD in dogs compared to humans. The study appears online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. To a greater extent than mouse models, canine AD shares important features of the human version. For example, in both humans and dogs AD has been linked to abnormal blooms of Staphyloccocusbacteria on the skin – mostly Staphyloccocus aureus in humans, and Staphyloccocus pseudintermedius in dogs. In the study, the research team, comprised of veterinary dermatologists, microbiologists, pathologists and primary scientists, tracked the bacterial populations, or “microbiomes,” on dogs’ skin, …
