It’s only taken nearly 90 years, but payback for diabetic dogs has arrived.  Treatment for diabetes got its start when scientists isolated insulin in dogs. It seems only fair then, that all the advances since that discovery are now being applied to our furry and no so furry friends (dogs, cats, cows, horses) in the form of continuous glucose monitoring.  Over a period of days, this  yields the kind of information owners need for optimal disease management.  Gets rid of those nasty frequent blood tests, too!

Medtronics makes the device that sits between the shoulder blades just beneath the skin and records information every five minutes. Diseases that can stem from obesity often have their root in carbohydrate fillers.  With this new device, vets can better see how diet is affecting the disease and get the insulin dose right.

The University of Missouri’s Charles Wiedmeyer conducted the published research and is hoping companies will design devices specifically for animals.

(Source: Science Daily )

Prosthetic paws were fitted to Oscar, a two-and-a-half-year-old cat from Britain, after his hind legs were clipped by a farmer’s combine last October.  Neuro-orthopedic surgeon Noel Fitzpatrick made this historic advance for feline amputees thanks to a technological breakthrough in the field.

The three-hour surgery involved grafting replacement legs onto the remaining stumps of bone.  This is a sea change for prosthetics – the metal and flange you see on Oscar now allows for skin to grow into them to form a really tight bone connection. The surgery was done in November and is considered to be, given the delicate structure of the bones that were drilled and tapped to receive the prosthetics, quite an engineering feat:)

This black cat had amazingly good luck in benefiting from ground-breaking technology developed by a team at University College, London, led by Prof. Gordon Blunn. “The design of the feet uses custom-made implants to ”peg” the ankle to the foot and mimics the way deer antler bone grows through the skin” according to a report from the UK’s The Engineer. ”What made Oscar’s operation so difficult was its feet were severed at the… junction between the ankle bones and the arch of the foot.” You need to fashion the prosthetics in such a way that they mimic the “see-saw movement” of the ankle to ensure a natural gait. It took four months before the cat could walk on all fours, but  Oscar is now running and jumping as cats do.

Owner Kate Nolan was concerned with what would be the best solution for Oscar and give him quality of life – that she even had this option is fantastic.  For more on the science, read on. 

If anyone knows what the cost of this operation was, please share.  It may have been less costly due to its experimental and historic status – then again, that could be cause for the opposite case.  I’d like to know just how lucky this black cat was!

Update: The cost of the bionic paws was nearly $3000, and the price of the surgery is yet to be mentioned anywhere.  The best part by far is we now have video!! Thanks to Steve Dale for the lead.

(Photo source: AFP)

Blogs out there are talking, arguing, even fighting about pet food:  What’s the “best”, the most “natural”, the most “nutritious”.  I know my head has been spinning lately with some good, and some downright bizarre posts, so I thought I’d list the main points of interest.  I have recent info from an international study to add, I’ll pose a question for you, and then you can chime in with your educated opinions and experience, and share some of the things that still have you confused.  Here are the choices we have to consider:

1.  Raw Food and Meaty Bones:  Dogs in the wild forage and take up plant materials (and minerals) from the ground, and as human companions were omnivores. While dogs are built as carnivores, they do require vegetables to help balance their nutrition, and sufficient fats not only for energy, but so the body can absorb essential vitamins. The FDA recently released their statement against bones of any kind. (Unfortunate in its complete abdication of “authority”, taking the easy way out.)

2. Home Cooking: The one problem with home cooking is ensuring the right balance of vitamins and micro-nutrients.  There are several good supplements on the market . You can check with your local holistic pet food supplier.  Don’t forget the essential fatty acids.( Here’s some recipes your dog might enjoy - check with your vet first.)

3. Dehydrated and Raw:  I use some of these products, and stick with salmon treats on the one end and dehydrated vegetables and fruits at the other.  You have to plan ahead with main meal foods that required rehydration, and you also have to add your meat portion so it’s more like home cooking without having to buy and prepare all the vegetables/fruits and digestible grains.

4. Commercial Dog Food: It’s not all filled with the 4Ds (dead, diseased, dying and downed) you hear about.  And yes, pentobarbital, a euthanasia drug, was tested for and found in pet food.  Obviously, you do need to know how to shop to navigate these issues.  Vets will often say that any of these products are just fine and serve their purpose, which may be true in the most scientific definition of “fine.” Adequate to nutrition.  It also reflects a way of looking at things, as an aerial view, one shared by many vets.  Consumers are expecting more.  When they find out what it means to have just “adequate” nutrition (see the 4Ds mentioned above), they want human-quality in their pet’s food, just as they have with their pet’s health care.  The “pets as part of the family” concept has changed the way pet people look at everything to do with their furry housemates.  Adequate is not enough—people  want their pets to live beyond the age of 12 as a matter of course, not as a newsworthy factoid.  Check out Consumer Search, a site that reviews the dog food reviewers and looks at several worthy sites summaries and how they rate foods.

5. Vegetarian Pets:  I know some vets say it doesn’t matter where the protein comes from as long as pets have a sufficient amount of proteins, fats, and carbs to maintain all bodily functions.  But there’s not a lot of testing to support this theory that vegetarian feeding is healthy for dogs, is there? Are there twenty years of data somewhere to let us know long term effects and contraindications? Perhaps they don’t need that long to extrapolate results, but this is a serious change.  I wonder what the thought process was when agribiz changed how cows fed from grasses to grain.  And this gives us a good segway into a recent study about corn, since corn is everywhere in pet food.

6. Ingredients in pet food are important, and it’s helpful not to get entangled in misinformation. A twitter pal, dog trainer Hilary of @fangshuicanines, sent a tweet with a link she had objected to.  My jaw dropped. Hill’s website  has a page on how great and nutritious corn is. 

The International Journal of Biological Sciences reported findings earlier this year on the effects on mammalian health of 3 of Monsanto’s genetically modified varieties of corn, now linked by this study to organ damage in rats. All had been approved for consumption in the US, Europe and by several other national food safety authorities.

Monsanto refuted, but industry has governments over a barrel.  Monsanto reported to the FDA that their Genetically Modified crops were safe for human consumption.  This was based on a 90-day study. No, not kidding. Also, because their procedures and processes are protected as proprietary information, no independent scientists are allowed to test or retest any data produced by Monsanto paid scientists. Still not kidding.  They are a power unto themselves.  One of the scientists in charge of the study speaks in less formal language here.

Instead of proponents of this or that food fighting amongst themselves about what’s the best choice to make in feeding our pets, why not try working together to push major change in the meat industry, how animals are kept and slaughtered, and define (and legislate) what should never be included in our dog or cat food?  We can write letters and sign petitions of course, and we can also vote with our dollars. But if we do it together we might be able to chip away at it.  What do you think?

Often in our culture it seems that the fact we have so many choices completely blinds us to what we might be doing to make things better from the ground up.

Related posts: What’s In Your Dog Food an Why?

I have always kissed my dogs.  Some people I know have been pretty squeamish about this.  Whoever said dog kisses were full of germs will likely have to eat their words.  Why else would the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGEN) release news that sloppy dog kisses could hold the keys to some pretty rare cancers and diseases? 

Dogs and humans share a lot of rare diseases accord to TGEN, and this DNA study should speed the process of finding genetic-based causes of diseases. Van Andel Research Institute(VARI) has joined with TGEN to form the Canine Hereditary Cancer Consortium (CHCC) to learn why naturally occurring cancers form.

None of the testing involves harming dogs.  All blood, saliva, and tumor samples are provided by family animals and breeders at veterinary offices across the country.  Morris Animal Foundation and the AKC have endorsed the study.  If CHCC can find the cause, they can provide a therapy, and that’s the projects mission.

Did you know that half of all dogs over 10 years old die of cancer? Osteosarcoma is one of the rare cancers in humans that doctors really have no guidance for. There are just not enough samples to gather from humans, that’s where the “rare” part stops progress. Limbs get surgically removed and that may not be enough since the disease arises not only in bone but in connective tissues and fat – there is no other current course of treatment. Those are not words you ever want to hear from your doctor.  Dogs, on the other hand, commonly contract osteosarcoma, as happens to be the case with many other rare-in-humans cancers.

The study will later continue with behavioral and neurological disorders, loss of hearing, and other conditions humans and dogs share.

This public-private partnership will eventually involve the pharmaceutical companies – the “all of us working together” helping dogs help humans, then using treatments created to help dogs has an elegance that makes me smile – hope it does the same for you!

PetSmart and Hill’s Pet Nutrition have each granted the study $500,000 and $4.3 million dollar federal grant over two years seeds the project.  If you’d like to learn more about this project, read on…

Related links: FDA Approves First Cancer Treatment for Dogs   Cancer “Miracle” Drug Helps Dogs and Humans?

I just got off the phone with Tom Keppeler, PR contact at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine regarding the news that dogs are blazing trails for themselves and humans in OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) studies. 

After reading about Cummings work with Dobermans, the canine form of OCD (CCD), and the identification of the OCD gene I wanted to get a better picture of what that research entailed.

“Research came from spontaneous illness…Dobs were brought to our behavior clinic and were qualified as participants and with owner’s approval and consent, blood work testing for diabetes and other illnesses was done, which is routine for nearly any patient at the behavior clinic.  Broad Institute at MIT did the genetic sequencing from that blood and the analysis of findings was done by University Of Massachusetts program in medical genetics.  

This three-way partnership was very  interesting and integrated results without  pain to the animals.  This will unlock new therapeutics for CCD and humans with OCD down the line. It will also provide a better quality of  life to the offsprings Labs, Dobs, Bull Dogs and other canines with this genetic disorder.”

And here’s a useful quote from this afternoon’s Cummings press release:

“This lead is so intriguing that we look forward to working with Dr. Dodman’s group [Cummings behaviorists] to extend our current findings to other populations.” added Dr. Marzena Galdzicka, assistant professor of Clinical Pathology at UMass Medical School. Collaborations are already in progress with Dr. Dennis Murphy’s group at the National Institute of Mental Health to determine the extent to which CDH2 confers risk for human OCD and autism spectrum disorders.”

Thanks for the good news, Tom! I’ll have to say it again–how much more can dogs possibly give us?

More Information: Carolyn Y Johnson’s story at the Boston Globe

Henry, a schnauzer/poodle mix, was shown a treat. The dog was being held by his owner, while the treat was placed under one of two inverted cups on the floor, mixing the cups and placing the treat so no one could tell which cup it went under. 

Henry figured out what was being asked of him when the man pointed a finger to one of two inverted cups where a treat was located. The owner let the dog go, and Henry chose the cup Hare was pointing to. According to Brain Hare, assistant professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University Hare, only two species on Earth have the ability to figure out what a pointed finger means.

In the Time magazine interview, Hare asks that we consider what it takes to understand that a gesture represents a thought that must be decoded. The canine human partnership has helped dogs acquire a unique set of sophisticated social skills. Hare is hoping to figure out how their connection to us has shaped what dogs know, providing the science that is lacking in this field.

The mission is to understand dog psychology, why some breeds solve problems differently from others. Dogs solve problems more like we do than our closest relatives, chimps.  Hale said through these studies they can also find more of ”what it is about our species that is so unique or different.”  

The Duke Canine Cognition Center will be testing hundreds of volunteered dogs, as will Harvard’s Marc Hauser, a cognitive psychologist who opened his own lab and has 1,000 subjects he will test.  There are more research facilities in the US and Europe are also working in this field. Outcomes should also result in more refined dog training methods.

(Source: Time)

We animal lovers are lucky. We have memories, moments where our furry family members have had a significant, sometimes even remarkable effect on our lives, or on the life of someone we love. You can probably reel off at least five memories yourself right now. The human - animal connection has blossomed over the years.

I was reading a science article on the benefits of having pets in the house. The psychological, medical, and emotional difference a dog or cat makes in your life was a theme, and it reminded me of an earlier discussion I had with Elizabeth, a good friend I work with on Lake Shore Animal Shelter’s board.

Elizabeth mentioned that a pet call came in having to do with a woman asking for help because her aging mom, who was caring for her dad with Alzheimer’s, had also been feeding the cats gone feral in the area. Now she was worried–the population grew…and grew… and there are too many kittens. She could see before her eyes, even though she experiences a simple joy in being able to help them live, she was not going to be able to afford to feed all those mouths. And it’s getting colder every day.

The caller, let’s say her name is Linda, was from the other end of the country, making her efforts all the more difficult. She tried calling organizations, but everyone she talked to was overwhelmed, underfunded, and out of cages.  It’s a stark reminder that pet problems are people problems and there is no separating the woof from the warp. We are responsible for what we have tamed (and left to go feral) (homage to Saint-Exupery).

Problem-solving continues as did the discussion. It turns out Linda is a social worker who trains other social workers. She was saying how tough it was to get through to “non-pet” social workers the importance of pets in people’s lives who come into the system, especially children and the elderly.  That connection to their pets is one that needs to be continued in some way, so they know how their furry friend is doing. It’s often the only purely loving connection that person has, not one to be ignored, diminished, dismissed. Training this idea into people who don’t get it can be like batting your head against a wall (my words).

And tonight this science article shows up, on one of the most interesting conferences I’ve heard of in awhile both for its diversity of interconnected professions and its global scope; one that Linda and people like her can really appreciate. It even considers what the animals get out of the interaction:

University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction (ReCHAI) will explore the many ways animals benefit people of all ages during the International Society for Anthrozoology and Human-Animal Interaction Conference in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 20-25.

Research in this field is providing new evidence on the positive impact pets have in our lives,” said Rebecca Johnson, associate professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing, the College of Veterinary Medicine and director of ReCHAI. “This conference will provide a unique opportunity to connect international experts working in human-animal interaction research with those already working in the health and veterinary medicine fields. A wonderful array of presentations will show how beneficial animals can be in the lives of children, families, and older adults.”

The Human-Animal Interaction Conference will bring together people [from] around the world working on similar projects as ReCHAI, Johnson said. These people include nurses, physicians, veterinarians, social workers, psychologists, physical and occupational therapists, and activity directors.

Alluding to the fact that we’ve all heard about the benefits of the human-animal bond, James Griffin, a scientist at NICHD adds “But there has been relatively little rigorous research documenting these benefits and examining how and why they occur. By providing support for this conference and additional research studies, we hope to generate some answers.

Other conference discussions will include ways that human-animal interaction benefits humans and animals, new facets of human-animal interaction, and ways to apply new human-animal interaction knowledge to their fields. Some of the presentations will highlight the special role of companion animals in facilitating reading and physical activity in children and adults.

Read the rest at ScienceDaily.  

 It does make me smile to see that work like this is happening.