While many people have an opinion on whether animals can help to improve wellbeing and care for patients in hospitals, does anyone really know whether there are benefits both for the patients and the animals themselves?
Warmer temperatures and longer days beckon outdoors enthusiasts and gardeners alike to get out and enjoy the season. However, Christopher Ohl, M.D., professor of infectious diseases at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and medical director of communicable diseases for the Forsyth County (N.C.) Health Department, reminds people to protect themselves and their pets from another springtime arrival – ticks.
When Cornell University veterinarians found half-foot-long worms living in their feline patients, they had discovered something new: The worms, Dracunculus insignis, had never before been seen in cats.
Calico cats, renowned and beloved for their funky orange and black patchwork or "tortoiseshell" fur, can thank X chromosome inactivation or "silencing" for their unique look. A team of University of California San Francisco (UCSF) researchers is striving to unlock the mystery of how one X chromosome can be rendered nearly completely inactive. They will present their latest results at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting.
Dogs aren’t the only pets who sometimes bite the hands that feed them. Cats do too, and when they strike a hand, can inject bacteria deep into joints and tissue, perfect breeding grounds for infection. Cat bites to the hand are so dangerous, 1 in 3 patients with such wounds had to be hospitalized, a Mayo Clinic study covering three years showed. Of those hospitalized, two-thirds needed surgery. Middle-aged women were the most common bite victims, according to the research, published in the Journal of Hand Surgery.
Young adults who care for an animal may have stronger social relationships and connection to their communities, according to a paper published online today in Applied Developmental Science.
Dogs and wolves evolved from a common ancestor between 9,000 and 34,000 years ago, before humans transitioned to agricultural societies, according to an analysis of modern dog and wolf genomes from areas of the world thought to be centers of dog domestication.
Drug industry veteran can speak about the rapidly growing and evolving pet therapeutics market and the specific challenges of developing new prescription treatments for dogs, cats and horses—an area that has been traditionally underserved by the medical research community.
Most adults remember their first success in learning to swim using the ‘dog paddle’. This classic maneuver has been used to describe swimming in armadillos, turtles, even humans – just about everything except dogs. Dr. Frank Fish, a professor of biology at West Chester University, set out with his colleagues to understand how real dogs perform the dog paddle. Fish has spent most of his career studying the swimming of marine mammals such as whales. But looking at swimming in dogs afforded Fish the opportunity to investigate how swimming in marine mammals may have evolved from walking in their terrestrial ancestors.
In a recently published article in the Journal of American Veterinary Medicine, a group of researchers compared the perceptions of raw meat-based diets (RMBD) for pets against existing evidence to help separate fact from commonly held beliefs.
This is a clinical trial for a new way of treating sarcoids, a benign skin tumor on horses. Testing of this treatment called H-Fire may lead to treatment of potentially deadly melanomas and squamous cell carcinomas, both skin tumors that both people and horses can develop.
Equine pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) can be detected earlier and more reliably with a new set of guidelines developed by the Equine Endocrinology Group (EEG), a body of leading veterinarians and researchers in the field of equine endocrinology.
People with asthma traveling to pet friendly homes for the holidays may want to pack allergy medication along with their inhaler. A study being presented this week at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology’s (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting reveals the number of people with asthma that are also allergic to cats has more than doubled over an 18 year period.
The Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has developed a diagnostic test that can detect emerging strains of canine parvovirus, a severe --- and potentially fatal -- virus that affects dogs.
New research from Tufts University scientists shows that feral cats that undergo a vasectomy or hysterectomy could reduce a feral colony's numbers more effectively than the traditional approach of neutering. This may be because vasectomized cats retain reproductive hormones, in addition to not being able to reproduce, and therefore protect their turf from sexually intact competitors.
The Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory is offering a rapid, accurate serology test for canine brucellosis, an infectious disease that affects male and female dogs' abilities to reproduce.
People have more empathy for battered puppies and full grown dogs than they do for some humans — adults, but not children, finds new research to be presented at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association.
With blue-green algae contaminating lakes nationwide, a Kansas State University toxicologist warns pet owners to understand the bacteria's dangers for their pets and for themselves.
Playful as a puppy even at 730 pounds, Nemo, a rescued black-and-white Hampshire pig, became a porcine pioneer after lymphoma struck. Undergoing a novel care plan, he became a teaching case for veterinary oncologists at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals, paving the way to combat cancer in large animals.
Nemo is believed to be the first pig to be treated for lymphoma. The pig’s medical treatment began when his owner, George Goldner, saw his friend fall ill.
CU Cancer Center and CSU Flint Animal Cancer Center study shows NOTCH signaling elevated in K9 osteosarcoma, but aspects of Notch signaling noticeably deactivated in the worst cancers.
As an expert in molecular genetics, Colin E. Bishop, Ph.D.’s, usual role at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine is to apply the techniques of genetics and developmental biology to the regeneration of human organs.
Emergency and critical care veterinarians at the Foster Hospital for Small Animals at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, one of the busiest academic veterinary teaching hospitals in the country, have put together a list of their top tips for a safe, fun season with your pet.
The unlikely pairing of an equine veterinarian and a burn surgeon is providing a second chance at a normal life for a horse that was doused in flammable liquid and set on fire late last summer.
Another piece of the puzzle to better understand and treat obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) has fallen into place with the publication of new research that shows that the structural brain abnormalities of Doberman pinschers afflicted with canine compulsive disorder (CCD) are similar to those of humans with OCD. The research suggests that further study of anxiety disorders in dogs may help find new therapies for OCD and similar conditions in humans.
Animals experience stress during traumatic events. Clinical associate professor from Kansas State University's Veterinary Health Center explains how to ease that stress.
Dog bite prevention begins with the understanding that dogs do not bite “out of the blue.” People can learn to recognize potentially dangerous situations.
Senior drivers who always take a pet in the car are at increased risk for being involved in a motor vehicle collision, said UAB researchers. In a study published on on May 2, 2013, the research team said both overall and at-fault crash rates for drivers 70 years of age or older were higher for those whose pet habitually rode with them.
From sniffing out bombs and weapons to uncovering criminal evidence, dogs can help save lives and keep the peace. Now, researchers have uncovered how to improve dogs' smelling skills through diet, by cutting protein and adding fats.
Scientists at the University of Montreal’s Quebec Research Group in Animal Pharmacology have found a way to recognize and treat osteoarthritis in cats – a condition that the owner might not notice and that can make even petting painful.
A popular dog treat, the "bully stick," could be adding more calories than pet owners realize, and possibly be contaminated by bacteria, according to a study published this month by researchers at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the University of Guelph.
More than 80 percent of pigs that tested positive for influenza A virus at Ohio county fairs between 2009 and 2011 showed no signs of illness in a new study. A second study showed a 99+ percent genetic similarity among human and pig flu viruses from 2012, indicating interspecies transmission.
In one of many states across the nation facing the monumental difficulty of pet overpopulation, Mississippi's largest university and only veterinary college is helping address the issue and saving lives, one dog and cat at a time.
As flu season approaches, people who get sick may not realize they can pass the flu not only to other humans, but possibly to other animals, including pets such as cats, dogs and ferrets. This concept, called “reverse zoonosis,” is still poorly understood but has raised concern among some scientists and veterinarians.