Zoetis Readies Simparica for U.S. LaunchFebruary 26, 2016Zoetis Inc.’s new flea and tick fighter, Simparica, has won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for use in dogs at least 6 months old. Simparica (sarolaner) Chewables received European Commission endorsement in November as an approved killer of four common European ticks and two types of fleas. The U.S. formulation is indicated for use against adult fleas, flea infestations and the Lone Star, Gulf Coast, American and brown dog ticks. The preventive’s U.S. release is planned for March, Zoetis announced Thursday. “Simparica is exciting for two reasons: It acts fast to kill fleas and ticks, and it maintains its efficacy all month long,” said Chris Adolph, DVM, Dipl. ACVM, a veterinary specialist with Zoetis. “Simparica kills fleas before they can reproduce and create a home infestation, and it kills ticks fast.” Zoetis, based in Florham Park, N.J., is marketing the monthly preventive as a faster killer of fleas and ticks compared with competitor Merial Ltd.’s NexGard. Zoetis cited a comparative study. While NexGard contains the active ingredient afoxolaner, Simparica uses sarolaner, a new Zoetis-developed ectoparasiticide in the isoxazoline class. Research into Simparica included field safety and efficacy testing involving more than 900 dogs, Zoetis reported. The …
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Man Brings Bleeding Seagull into Veterinary Office, Breaks Door on His Way OutFebruary 26, 2016Wild animals aren’t typically the patients veterinarians treat and it’s likely very rare that one is brought in. But that doesn’t mean it never happens. Last June, 47-year-old Colin Lowes brought an injured and bleeding seagull into a veterinary office in Ireland. BBC reports that Lowes had found the bird and thought the decent thing to do was to bring it to the veterinarian; he also came into the office shirtless, having apparently wrapped the seagull in it. When staff told him they could not treat the bird because it was a wild animal, and to take it to the Ulster Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA) in Belfast, Lowes left with the seagull, damaging the veterinary office door on his way out. The unnamed clinic filed a criminal damage report, after which police went to Lowes’ home and found him sitting with the bird, BBC reports. Through his lawyer, Lowes reportedly said that “the door was accidentally cracked.” The Ballymena Magistrates Court judge told Lowes that it was believed he was “acting in the best interests of this creature,” but that he should …
Veterinarians Perform Tooth Extraction on 408-Pound LionFebruary 25, 2016During a veterinary exam at Perth Zoo in Australia, 13-year-old Mandela, a 408-pound lion, was found to have a dental infection and a couple of cracked teeth, UPI reports. Veterinary specialists were called in for the extraction. Simone Vitali BSc, BVMS, PhD, MACVS (Zoo Animal Medicine) and Senior Veterinarian at Perth Zoo told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “Often predators in captivity give you very little in the way of clinical signs, so we didn't even know that Mandela had a dental infection until we anaesthetized him and had a look. It's quite amazing the sort of things they will tolerate. A tooth infection for us would lay us out for days but with them they just keep trucking on. So it's important for us as custodians to do what we can to make them comfortable, even if they're not giving us an indication that they're not comfortable.” Mandela remained sedated for two hours while the extraction was performed. “They're big teeth and they take a lot of work to get out so for today we've just removed the one that was infected,” Dr. Vitali told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. While Mandela …
Veterinary Dentist Starts ‘Tooth Fairy Fund’ for Pets Needing Dental WorkFebruary 25, 2016February is National Pet Dental Health Month. It’s the perfect time to inform clients of the importance of keeping their pets’ teeth healthy. You may have come across a client or two (or perhaps dozens) who say they can’t afford the dental care their pets need. Enter Brook Niemiec, DVM, DAVDC. Dr. Niemiec, who owns Southern California Veterinary Dental Specialties and Oral Surgery in San Diego, Calif., understands the disconnect between dental care for pets and shelter animals and the money to pay for it. To combat that disconnect, Niemiec set up the Tooth Fairy Fund. It was designed to help those who cannot afford dental care for their pets. Fox 5 San Diego reports that last December the Tooth Fairy Fund helped pay for the dental care of several shelter animals that had serious dental issues. The program is designed so that veterinarians nationwide can implement it in their practices. Niemiec told Fox 5 San Diego that $1 for every tooth extracted in any of the practices participating in the Tooth Fairy Fund is donated to the program. The money raised for Tooth Fairy Fund covers dental surgery and anesthesia.
University of Wisconsin Gains New Professorship in Companion Animal HealthFebruary 24, 2016The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine recently reported that Peter Muir, BVSc, Ph.D., professor of orthopaedic surgery and co-director of the Comparative Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, is the first to be named the Melita Grunow Family Professor in Companion Animal Health. The endowed professorship was made possible by a $500,000 gift from animal lover Melita Grunow and a match from UW-Madison alumni John and Tashia Morgridge (Grunow’s brother-in-law and sister). The professorship will be bestowed upon a different SVM faculty member every five years and will provide $45,000 annually to support research that benefits companion animals. Dr. Muir plans to advance several research projects in the coming years with the help of the new funding, according to the university. This includes discoveries related to the genetic components of canine cruciate rupture, acquired laryngeal paralysis, and equine degenerative suspensory ligament desmitis; the treatment of osteoarthritis in dogs; and the management of condylar stress fracture in Thoroughbred racehorses. “This professorship will definitely support some innovative discovery research,” Muir said. “I’m also excited about the possibilities it will create for the education of veterinary medical students and the career development of veterinary clinician-scientists.” …
Veterinary Hospital Cares for Three Sea TurtlesFebruary 24, 2016In January, 2,000 sea turtles that had washed up on the shores of North Carolina. They were feeding when the temperatures dropped and they were unable to get back to warmer water quick enough. While some have been released back into the water, others are still in rehab and three had to make a trip to the Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital in Durham, N.C., for treatment. One turtle arrived with a hole in its shell, which a CAT scan revealed had nearly missed the spinal cord, according to The News & Observer. The turtle is expected to recover over the next few weeks. Another turtle arrived with paralyzed flippers. NC Aquariums’ Emily Christiansen, DVM, is considering an acupuncture treatment. The third sea turtle arrived at the veterinary hospital with a lacerated flipper. Mike Grafinger, DVM DACVS-SA Dipl. ACVS and co-owner of Triangle Veterinary Referral Hospital, performed the surgical repair. Dr. Grafinger pioneered sea turtle flipper repair while he was a resident, The News & Observer reports. As seen in the video above, Grafinger stitched the flipper using a metal wire, then used red tubing as a splint. When the sea turtle …
Veterinary Staff Performs Cesarean Section on GorillaFebruary 24, 2016Have you ever had to perform a Cesarean section on an animal? What about on a gorilla? The veterinary staff at Bristol Zoo Gardens in the U.K. had to on Feb. 12. Kera, a western lowland gorilla, was showing “symptoms of potentially life-threatening pre-eclampsia,” according to the Bristol Zoo in Bristol, England. Veterinary staff assessed Kera, and the decision to perform a C-section was made. It was the first time a gorilla had been born by the procedure at this zoo. Dr. David Cahill, St. Michael’s Hospital gynecologist and reproductive medicine and medical education professor at Bristol University, was called in. “Having been involved with the care of these gorillas over the years, with some trepidation and excitement, we were invited to the Zoo to assess the well-being of Kera, because she was in late pregnancy and showed some signs of being unwell,” Cahill told Bristol Zoo. “Following our assessment, we considered that Kera might have a condition that humans get (pre-eclampsia) and that the only way to treat it was by delivery. We also thought that the baby in her uterus was showing signs of being …
One Health Case Studies Now OnlineFebruary 23, 2016The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges has teamed up with another organization to publish 15 case studies on One Health topics. The material, produced by researchers and available at http://bit.ly/1WH4qr7, may be used by instructors in fields such as veterinary medicine, human medicine and public health. One Health is a concept that closely links the health of animals, people and the environment. “This is one of our most promising initiatives in the area of One Health,” said AAVMC’s executive director, Andrew T. Maccabe, DVM, MPH, JD. “What’s unique about this program is it unites different health professions on a common platform to begin educating new generations of health professionals about the One Health approach.” The case studies range from “A Veteran and His Dog,” which focuses on carbon monoxide poisoning, to “Pet Ownership,” which addresses the health benefits of human-animal interaction. Each online report, selected from among 34 proposals, targets a potential audience and offers student and facilitator materials. “Pet Ownership,” for example, is recommended for veterinary, veterinary technician, medical, nursing and public health students. Managing the project with AAVMC were the Association for Prevention, Teaching and Research and the Washington, D.C., organization’s Healthy People Curriculum …
Equine Ulcer Drug Performs Well in StudyFebruary 23, 2016A proof-of-concept study conducted by Jaguar Animal Health revealed that one of the company’s investigational new animal drugs, code-named SB-300, may be a faster and more effective treatment for glandular ulcers in horses. Equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS) is commonly treated with omeprazole, but the drug may remain in a horse’s system for up to three days, a potential violation if a performance or race horse is required to be drug-free near the time of competition. Jaguar’s SB-300, which is made from a botanical extract of the Croton lechleri tree, is minimally absorbed within the gut, said CEO and President Lisa Conte, MS, MBA. “We intend to demonstrate that SB-300 is not systemically absorbed in horses, thereby providing a treatment regimen that can continue without mandatory withdrawal prior to competition,” Conte said. “Moreover, we also aim to demonstrate that SB-300 can be administered in the presence of feed, another constraint of omeprazole administration.” Jaguar’s blinded, randomized study looked at 30 standardbred or thoroughbred racehorses suffering from both non-glandular and glandular gastric ulcerations. Broken into three groups, the horses were either administered water-filled syringes every six hours, 5 grams of SB-300 divided into two doses a day, or 40 grams of …
Virginia Tech Researcher to Develop Porcine VaccineFebruary 23, 2016A researcher at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech has received at a two-year, $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop a new vaccine against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus. The virus, first discovered in North America in 2013, has resulted in at least 10 million pig deaths, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). “The process starts in the laboratory here using molecular techniques to make genetic changes to the virus and test it in small-scale tissue cultures in the laboratory,” said Adam Rogers, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology. “If we find a mutation or mutations that will make the virus non-pathogenic, then we will move onto an animal test. We are starting with the emergent American strain of the virus so that we will end up designing a vaccine specifically targeted to control the disease here.” Rogers’ mentor X.J. Meng, University Distinguished Professor of Molecular Virology, said that even though the researchers were using the emergent U.S. virus strain, a new vaccine based on the U.S. strain …
