NEWS
Dog
makes cell phone call to save owner's life
Beagle
receives award after dialing 911 when man suffered seizure
ORLANDO
,
Fla.
- A 17-pound beagle named Belle saved its owner's life and has become more than
a just man's best friend. She's a lifesaver. She was the first canine to be
awarded the VITA Wireless Samaritan award, given for using a cell phone to save
a life / prevent crime / help in emergency.
Belle
was in
Washington,
D.C., on Monday to receive an award for biting onto owner Kevin Weaver's cell phone to
call 911 after the diabetic man had a seizure and collapsed.
"There
is no doubt in my mind that I'd be dead if I didn't have Belle," said Weaver,
34, whose blood sugar had dropped dangerously low. Belle had been trained to
summon help in just those circumstances. She had been taught to bite down on
the number 9 on his cell phone contacting 911.
Using
their keen sense of smell, animals like Belle can detect abnormalities in a
person's blood-sugar levels. The dog periodically licks Weaver's nose to take
her own reading of his blood-sugar level. If something seems off to her, she
will paw and whine at him.
"Every
time she paws at me like that I grab my meter and test myself," Weaver said.
"She's never been wrong."
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Exercising
Your Pet
You
understand that exercise is good for you helping you to maintain a healthy
weight, keep your muscles and joints flexible and helping you live longer and
feel better. For all the same reasons, your pets need to get exercise too. Not
only can exercise extend your pets lives; it may also expend some of their
nervous energy and make them a little less likely to chew on the furniture.
Without
you to lead the way, you're pet is not going to run laps or do 50 sit-ups. So
as a pet owner, part of your responsibility is to ensure your pets get safe,
enjoyable exercise on a regular basis. All pets need some physical activity to
help them live a happy, healthy life.
Different
pets require different amounts of exercise, so it may be best to have a chat
with your vet before determining the correct level for your pets exercise.
Dogs
Dogs
can be great fun to exercise as they can get you out and about yourself. After
your vet gives your dog a clean bill of health, start your pet on suitable
exercise for beginners.Just like people who aren't used to exercise, dogs
should start off slow. Moderately paced walking and swimming are a good way to
start--they let you pet build their cardiovascular and muscle strength without
putting undue stress on their joints. A daily 10-15-minute walking or swimming
session is a good start and you can build to an hour a day if your pet seems up
to it. If, after a few months your pet can handle long, fast walks without
fatigue, he could graduate to jogging with you.
Make
sure that you watch out for the following:
*
Keep a close eye on your dog: watch for any unusual signs of fatigue or trouble
breathing. If your pet wants to stop, let them. Dogs that overdo it can suffer
strained tendons or ligaments or other orthopedic problems.
*
Safety first--keep your dog on a lead when you run. Even the best-trained dogs
can run into the path of a car. And if you have to run when it's dark out, put
reflectors on your dog's collar as well as on your clothes.
*
Try to run on dirt paths or grass as much as possible. Gravel, concrete,
asphalt, cinders and road salt can irritate your pets paws.
*
If it's freezing cold or hot and steamy out, either keep your run short or play
a little indoor fetch instead.
*
The more active your dog is, the more water he will require. Make sure your pet
has enough fresh water before and after your run. If you're going for a long
run, take some water along for both you and him.
Cats
Cats
are a little bit different than dogs, they're designed for short, frequent
periods of intense activity, rather than longer, slower-paced exercise
sessions.
There
are wide selection of toys you can buy to get your cat active, including "kitty
trees" that will let your pet climb to the ceiling and mechanical animals that
can be chased around the room. There are a few main ways you can entice your
pet into activity:
*
Things that can be hit. Anything light that moves easily across the floor can
give your cat a chance to practice hitting and chasing. Balled up paper works
well. Just make sure that she's not batting anything she could chew up or
swallow.
*
Things that can be chased. The end of a moving string should bring out the
predator in even the most sedentary cat. Again, just make sure you pet doesn't
swallow the string.
*
Things that can be climbed into. Empty boxes and paper bags are perfect for
this. Remember plastic bags could cause suffocation.
*
Things that can be scratched. Scratching stretches and tones the muscles in
your cat's shoulders and back. A scratching post--or even a piece of cardboard
or carpet--can keep your pet active without your furniture taking the brunt.
Don't
use your hand or fingers as "bait" or as the object of teasing. This teaches
your pet that it is all right to scratch and bite your hands.Some cats can even
be trained to walk outside on a leash.
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New
law includes pets in spousal protection
Maine
is
first state to link domestic violence to animal abuse
PORTLAND,
Maine - Spurred by growing evidence of a link between domestic violence and
animal abuse, Maine has enacted a first-in-the-nation law that allows judges to
include pets in protection orders for spouses and partners leaving abusive
relationships.
In
helping pets, advocates hope to help battered women and others who aren't
willing to abandon their animals to be saved themselves.
"This
is a very innovative, new approach, and it makes perfect sense because the
protection order is a critical stage for women and others seeking protection,"
said Nancy Perry of the Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society of the
United
States
.
Gov.
John Baldacci says the law, which provides for civil penalties such as fines or
jail time for those who violate a protection order, should give pause to
abusers who might resort to violence or threats against pets as a means of
keeping their victims from leaving a relationship.
Law
enforcement officials, animal welfare agents and advocates for domestic
violence victims say it's not unusual to hear of abusers who vent their rage
against a partner's pet.
"It's
just another tactic to keep power and control over the victim," said Cindy
Peoples of Caring Unlimited, a shelter in
York
County
.
Susan
Walsh, whose dog and sheep were killed by her husband, said many victims stand
to benefit from including pets in protection orders.
"I've
heard so many horror stories from other women that I knew I was not alone," she
said.
When
the bill came up for consideration at a public hearing in January, Walsh
recounted how she remained in an abusive marriage in part out of fear for what
might happen to her pets and farm animals if she left.
Walsh
said her husband shot two of her sheep inside their Ellsworth barn. Another
time, when she was visiting her parents in
Pennsylvania
, he deliberately ran his truck over her deaf and blind border
collie in their driveway, she said.
Walsh,
who stayed in the marriage for more than 12 years before her divorce in 2001,
said she would have left sooner had it not been for her responsibilities to the
animals.
"It's
kind of hard to pack up a whole barn full of animals," she said. "And I knew
that any animal I left behind would be dead in 24 hours."
Expanding protection orders
The
law was an outgrowth of a seminar by the Maine State Bar Association in June on
the connection between animal abuse and domestic violence, said Anne Jordan, a
Portland
lawyer
who
serves on the Animal Welfare Advisory Council.
During
an informal discussion after the presentation, a judge raised the idea of
expanding the scope of protection orders,
Jordan
recalled.
Legislative
support was overwhelming, said the bill's sponsor, Rep. John Piotti, a
Democrat. He and others cited a study that found that 71 percent of pet-owning
women in a
Utah
shelter said their abusers had either harmed, killed or threatened
their pets.
Although
Maine
's law is unique, other states have statutes that reflect the link
between domestic violence and animal abuse. Laws in
California,
Connecticut,
Louisiana,
Nebraska,
Ohio
and
Tennessee
encourage cross-reporting among agencies involved in law
enforcement, domestic violence, child protection and animal control, Perry
said.
Safe havens
Animal
welfare agents already have been looking at ways to help potentially endangered
pets whose owners are in abusive situations.
"A
growing trend is called safe havens. These are cooperative agreements between
shelters for women and shelters for animals," Perry said.
Several
agencies in
Maine
participate in a program called PAWS — Pets and Women to Safety —
that arranges confidential placement of animals in foster care so their owners
can move into a shelter knowing that their pets will be safe.
The
Animal Welfare Society in Kennebunk has a PAWS program that works with Caring
Unlimited. "They've worked with all kinds of pets and farm animals," Peoples
said, "from cats and dogs to horses and exotic birds."
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Flea
Prevention
The
Life Cycle of the Flea
The
flea's life cycle has four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The adult flea
uses your dog as a place to take its blood meals and breed. Fleas either lay
eggs directly on the dog where they may drop off or deposit eggs into the
immediate surroundings (your home or backyard). Because the female may lay
several hundred eggs during the course of its life, the number of fleas present
intensifies the problem. The eggs hatch into larvae that live in carpeting,
cracks or corners of the dog's living area. The larvae survive by ingesting
dried blood, animal dander and other organic matter. To complete the life
cycle, larvae develop into pupae that hatch into adults. The immediate source
of adult fleas within the house is the pupa, not the dog. The adult flea
emerges from the pupa and then hops onto the host.
This
development occurs more quickly in a warm, humid environment. Pupae can lie
dormant for months, but under temperate conditions fleas complete their life
cycle in about three weeks. The inside of your home may provide a warm
environment to allow fleas to thrive year round.
The
flea is a small, brown, wingless insect that uses specialized mouth parts to
pierce the skin and siphon blood. For millions of pets and people, it is a
remorseless enemy.
When
a flea bites your dog, it injects a small amount of saliva into the skin to
prevent blood coagulation. Some animals may have fleas without showing
discomfort, but an unfortunate number of dogs become sensitized to this saliva.
In highly allergic animals, the bite of a single flea can cause severe itching
and scratching. Fleas cause the most common skin disease of dogs - flea allergy
dermatitis.
If
your pet develops hypersensitivity to flea saliva, several changes may result:
*
A small hive may develop at the site of the flea bite, which either heals or
develops into a tiny red bump that eventually crusts over.
*
The dog may scratch and chew at himself until the area is hairless, raw and
weeping serum ("hot spots"). This can cause hair loss, redness, scaling,
bacterial infection and increased pigmentation of the skin.
The
distribution often involves the lower back, base of the tail, toward the back,
the abdomen, flanks and neck. It may become quite generalized in severe cases,
leading to total body involvement.
Remember
that the flea spends the majority of its life in the environment, not on your
pet, so it may be difficult to find. In fact, your dog may continue to scratch
without you ever seeing a flea on him. Check your dog carefully for fleas or
for signs of flea excrement (also called flea dirt), which looks like coarsely
ground pepper. When moistened, flea dirt turns a reddish brown because it
contains blood.
If
one dog in the household has fleas, assume that all pets in the household have
fleas. A single flea found on your pet means that there are probably hundreds
of fleas, larva, pupa and eggs in your house.
If
you see tapeworm segments in your dog's stool, he may have had fleas at one
time or may still have them. The flea can act as an intermediate host of the
tapeworm, Dipylidium caninum. Through grooming or biting, the animal ingests an
adult flea containing tapeworm eggs. Once released, the tapeworm grows to
maturity in the small intestine. The cycle can take less than a month, so a key
to tapeworm prevention is flea control.
Fighting
the Flea
Types
of commercial products available for flea control include flea collars,
shampoos, sprays, powders and dips. Other, newer, products include oral and
systemic spot-on insecticides.
In
the past, topical insecticide sprays, powders and dips were the most popular.
However, the effect was often temporary. Battling infestations requires
attacking areas where the eggs, larvae, pupae and adults all congregate.
Because some stages of a flea's life can persist for months, chemicals with
residual action are needed and should be repeated periodically. Sprays or
foggers, which required leaving the house for several hours, have been used
twice in 2-week intervals and then every two months during the flea season.
Treating
animals and their living areas thoroughly and at the same time is vital;
otherwise some fleas will survive and re-infect your pet. You may even need to
treat your yard or kennel with an insecticide, if the infestation is severe
enough.
The
vacuum cleaner can be a real aid in removing flea eggs and immature forms. Give
special attention to cracks and corners. At the end of vacuuming, either vacuum
up some flea powder into your vacuum bag, or throw the bag out. Otherwise, the
cleaner will only serve as an incubator, releasing more fleas into the
environment as they hatch. In some cases, you may want to obtain the services
of a licensed pest control company. These professionals have access to a
variety of insecticides and they know what combinations work best in your area.
Treatment
and Prevention
Prevention is the most effective and easiest method of flea control
compared to treatment.
*
One group of products works to control fleas by interrupting the development of
fleas by killing flea larva and eggs. These drugs are called insect growth
regulators (IGRs). These products do not kill adult fleas, but they
dramatically decrease the flea population by arresting their development. One
common oral product used is lufenuron (Program®). Lufenuron is given monthly,
and is combined with heartworm protection in the product
lufenuron/milbemycin
Sentinel®. Lufenuron is also available as an injection that lasts 6 months.
Methoprene and pyriproxifen (Nylar®) are also very effective IGRs that are
available as sprays or collars.
*
Other products kill the actual flea (adulticides) and work quite rapidly. These
include both spot-on and oral products. Spot-on products are usually applied on
your pet's skin between the shoulders. The medication is absorbed into the skin
and distributed throughout the body. Fleas are killed rapidly on contact with
the skin. Spot-on products include
fipronil(Frontline®),
imidacloprid
(Advantage®), and selamectin (Revolution®).
*
A recently developed oral adulticide is
nitenpyram
(Capstar®), that when given begins to kill fleas in 30 minutes.
All
these products are safer, easier to use and, if used correctly, the most
effective method of flea control. Additionally, some have the added benefit of
efficacy against other parasites. Some veterinarians are even recommending a
combination of an adulticide and insect growth regulator (Frontline Plus®) as a
more complete method of flea control.
With
all these choices it is best to consult your veterinarian as to the best flea
control and prevention for your pet. The choice of flea control should depend
on your pet's life-style and potential for exposure. Through faithful use of
these systemic monthly flea products, the total flea burden on your pet and in
the immediate environment can be dramatically reduced. Keeping your pet on
monthly flea treatments, especially in areas of high flea risk, is an excellent
preventive method of flea control. These products often eliminate the need for
routine home insecticidal use, especially in the long run. Although it may
still be prudent in heavy flea environments to treat the premises initially,
the advent of these newer systemic flea products has dramatically simplified,
and made flea control safer and more effective.
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Genetic
discoveries fuel veterinary medicine
DNA knowledge is leading to new tests, improved care for pets
Ricky,
a Devon Rex cat, played the piano, jumped through a hoop, and was once mistaken
by a bank teller for a wind-up toy. Ricky had another, less-fortunate
distinction: he suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common form
of heart disease in cats.
When
Ricky died of a massive heart attack in 2002, his owner, Steve Dale of
Chicago
, set up The Ricky Fund for research into feline hypertrophic
cardiomyopathy (HCM) in conjunction with the Winn Feline Foundation, which
funds research into cat-related health problems. Since then, among the advances
researchers have made include identification of the gene that causes HCM in
Maine Coon cats, a great step in the path toward treating the disease.
By
cracking open the textbooks of life through the sequencing of the canine and
feline genomes, researchers are discovering new approaches to pet health and
disease. They've begun to identify the genes responsible for certain inherited
diseases and create genetic tests to identify affected animals. These
breakthroughs mean new hope for people whose cats and dogs suffer from such
diseases, as well as for breeders, who can use new techniques to screen for
disease and prevent passing it on.
"Finding
the gene [for HCM] will lead to the availability of a genetic test to identify
affected Maine Coon cats in the near future, and it will spur research to see
if the same gene is responsible for the disease in other types of cats," says
Susan Little, a veterinarian in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and president of the
Winn Feline Foundation.
"Finding the gene responsible for a disease always opens the potential that new
treatments will be found as well."
Winn-funded
researchers have also identified the gene responsible for polycystic kidney
disease (PKD), which affects 30 to 40 percent of Persian cats and related
breeds, such as Himalayans.
"With
the identification of the PKD gene has come a simple genetic test to identify
affected cats, and hopefully it will lead to a treatment for cats that develop
chronic renal insufficiency due to their PKD," Little says.
Early
screening
With
this test, breeders can screen kittens as young as 8 weeks of age for the PKD
gene and replace any PKD-positive cats in their breeding program over time.
Because the gene is found in such a large proportion of Persians and related
breeds, it's important for breeders to eliminate the gene slowly so as not to
restrict genetic variability.
"Restricting
genetic variability would lead to more health problems," Little says.
"Eventually, there should be very few Persians born with PKD, something that
will bring peace of mind to pet owners. Pet owners who have Persians now can
also get them screened for the gene and learn more about the disease."
Some
diseases are genetically complex, linked to more than one gene. In the past,
that's been a difficult issue for breeders and researchers, especially if
diseases don't occur until later in life. By the time the disease shows up, the
animal may have offspring that also carry the genes for the disease.
"New
genetic tests should really help us deal with issues like that," says
veterinarian Patricia Olson, president and CEO of
Morris Animal Foundation
in
Englewood,
Colo.
"We should have some very good tools that can tell us earlier if an animal is
predisposed to something. It doesn't mean you don't utilize that animal in
breeding, but you utilize it in a way that the carrier is mated appropriately
and doesn't pass on the disease. You want to optimize the good traits, not pass
on the bad, and have the tools to be able to make the difference."
New
vaccines in the works
Another
breakthrough is in the area of vaccines for cats. Vaccine sarcomas — cancer
that forms at the injection site of a vaccination — are uncommon in cats, but a
higher-than-normal incidence of them, which was first noticed in 1991, caused
veterinarians to take a second look at the possible causes.
"No
one has been able to prove an absolutely spot-on, definitive link between
vaccine A and tumor B, but it's fairly well accepted that the suspects were
rabies and feline leukemia vaccine," says Robin Downing, a veterinarian in
Windsor, Colo., president of the International Veterinary
Academy of
Pain
Management.
The
adjuvant — the compound added to vaccines to stimulate the immune system — is
the most likely culprit, although again no one has proven a definitive link,
Downing says.
"There's
enough of an implication that many of us were nervous about a linkage between
the adjuvant and the tumors," she says. "So now we have a series of vaccines
available to us that use recombinant DNA science to avoid the need for an
immune stimulant or that are delivered in new ways. For cats, we have a
distemper vaccine that is delivered using a few drops on the nasal mucous
membrane. For leukemia virus, we not only have recombinant DNA vaccines but
also air-driven delivery into the skin. The rabies vaccine is still an
injectable vaccine; however, it's recombinant DNA technology." Vaccines using
recombinant DNA technology are also available for dogs.
Hope
for better cancer care
Cancer
is a major concern as well. "By being able to evaluate the genetic contribution
to these diseases, as well as environmental and nutritional triggers, we can
look at animals in a really different way," Olson says. "When you look at
cancer, for example, you've got golden retrievers who are at risk for one type
of cancer and
Boston
terriers for another, and if you can start to tease out [the different genes
responsible], it could be extremely powerful."
Veterinary
cancer researchers are actively working to target certain cancers with gene
therapy, in particular melanoma. Their goal is to manipulate the genes of
mutated cells to help the body's immune system fight the cancer.
Genetic-based
treatments may not be that far in the future.
"Now
that the canine genome has been mapped, I can't wait for the next wave of
information that will come from that," Downing says. "I won't be surprised if
within a five-year period I can target some diseases genetically, whether
they're cancer or congenital problems. I'm not sure I necessarily would be
willing to expect it, but I won't be surprised."
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