Macomb County, Michigan — Last week, Heather Goff, 23, watched her 2-year-old golden retriever, G, abandon her playful personality, become lethargic and die.
The St. Clair Shores woman said that despite veterinary care, including blood transfusions, G’s decline was rapid and shocking.
“She was the happiest, most healthiest dog ever,” she said.
G died of leptospirosis, a rare bacterial infection that some Macomb County veterinarians said they think is on the rise. Multiple cases have been confirmed in Warren and St. Clair Shores this summer; normally, there are just a few per year.
The main culprits are rat urine and standing water, said Dr. Courtney Farr of the Parkview Animal Hospital in Warren, who did not treat G.
Walking with Faith. It’s not an easy thing to do, especially when Faith is a two-legged dog.
The 8-year-old Labrador-Chow mix inspires hugs, smiles and even tears, hobnobs with celebrities, jet sets around the world and has even been made an honorary sergeant in the U.S. Army.
“She’s an inspiration,” Faith’s owner, Jude Stringfellow, told FoxNews.com.
Born without front legs in 2002, Faith was rescued by Stringfellow and her husband, who taught her to walk by luring her with spoons of peanut butter.
Since then, Faith has been on “The Oprah Show” and has rubbed paws with celebrities including Lindsay Lohan, Samuel L. Jackson and Ozzy Osbourne.
VENICE, Fla., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire/ — It’s the number-one killer of dogs over the age of two, but according to Dr. Steven Eisen, author of the new book Dog Cancer: The Holistic Answer (ISBN 1451518838, http://www.dogcanceradvice.com, http://dogcanceradvice.com/about-the-book-2/), not enough dog owners know cancer in dogs can be prevented and even cured using natural methods.
Despite naysayers, Dr. Eisen saw his methods work in his Lhasa Apso, Fergie, when she was diagnosed with lymphoma and given six weeks to live. Refusing to give up on their beloved pet, Dr. Eisen and his wife applied holistic healing principles to Fergie’s care, preparing simple meals with a specific mix of nutritional supplements chosen to help the dog’s immune system. Their efforts paid off: Fergie lived more than two years longer, cancer free, finally passing away at the ripe old age of 14.
Dr. Eisen has spent three decades studying natural and holistic healing. A respected medical researcher, he has written nationally recognized guidelines for the treatment of human diseases. But when he received Fergie’s grim prognosis, Dr. Eisen discovered an alarming absence of published guidelines or protocol for the treatment of canine cancer — in spite of the fact that according to the ASPCA, approximately 60% of all dogs over the age of six will be diagnosed with some form of cancer.
He aims to change that with the release of Dog Cancer: The Holistic Answer.
RANDOLPH — Bentley slowly lumbered through the cramped waiting room of the American Animal Hospital in Randolph Wednesday, sheepishly eyeing people as he sat down.
Slowly wagging his shaggy white tail, the 2-year-old Great Pyrenees looked to be a much older dog as he struggled to carry his 105-pound frame. He was clearly in pain, suffering from a torn ligament and arthritic back-right knee.
“I just want to give Bentley some relief, just so I can walk him again. I’m not expecting him to be a marathon runner,” said owner Erin McGuire.
That is why she drove her pampered pet 80 miles from their Brielle home to have the dog undergo the first one-day, animal stem cell transplant procedure in New Jersey history.
The technique ultimately will stimulate cell regeneration in Bentley, reduce inflammation and, more important, ease his pain so that he will again walk comfortably — possibly in two weeks, said Michael Hutchinson, a veterinarian from the Pittsburgh suburb of Cranberry Township, Pa.
Great Danes stretch more than a meter from paw to shoulder and can easily weigh more than 90 kilograms. A Chihuahua fits snugly inside a purse. Domestic dog breeds are more varied in body size and shape—not to mention coat color and fur length—than any other land-based mammal. Yet, according to a new study, a mere two to six regions in doggy DNA account for most of this diversity.
Over the past few years, researchers have linked a number of canine traits—from size to coiffure—to specific mutations in dog DNA. This new line of research was made possible by the completion of the Dog Genome Project in 2005 by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in Bethesda, Maryland. But researchers lacked a large-scale analysis of these traits across a wide variety of breeds. As a result, they didn’t know whether traits were governed by a large number of genetic regions, each contributing a small effect, or by a few regions with large effects.
So a team led by Carlos Bustamante, a comparative geneticist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and Elaine Ostrander, a comparative geneticist with NHGRI, analyzed genetic information from 915 domestic dogs representing 80 different breeds. The researchers compared the dogs’ DNA, looking for sequences that differed by a single base, known as single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Once they found out where the DNA differed, they compared those differences between dogs with, for example, short versus long legs or perky versus droopy ears.
Harry Wamboldt says he has long suffered from depression. But since October, when he learned he had Stage 4 lung cancer and one to two years left to live, he has sunk into despair.
Chemotherapy has made him weak and tired, and he spends most of his time in the one-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife in Whitehall.
In April, friends announced they were unable to take care of their dog, a 6-year-old Yorkshire terrier-chihuahua mix. Seeking a source of comfort, Mr. Wamboldt adopted her.
Baby Girl, as she is called, has become his constant companion.
“She’s always with me. She’s my little girl,” he said.
But last month he received an eviction notice from the management of the Whitehall Place apartment complex. The letter said he had violated the terms of his lease by having a dog.
ROCKFORD, Mich. (AP) – A Michigan man says he’s grateful his dog ate most of his toe while he was passed out drunk.
Jerry Douthett of Rockford says Kiko’s action helped uncover an undiagnosed diabetic condition and led to treatment that could save his life.
The Grand Rapids Press says the 48-year-old musician knew for a while something was wrong with his foot. He resisted seeking care until giving in to his nurse wife’s pressure one day last month.
Before going for an appointment, he went out drinking, then came home and passed out. When he awoke, the terrier was beside him in bed and lots of blood was where his toe used to be.
His wife rushed him to Spectrum Health Blodgett Campus, where doctors found a bone infection and amputated the rest of the toe.
Gina, a highly trained bomb-sniffing dog with the U.S. military and Staff Sgt. Chris Kench on a sofa at the kennel at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AP) – Gina was a playful 2-year-old German shepherd when she went to Iraq as a highly trained bomb-sniffing dog with the military, conducting door-to-door searches and witnessing all sorts of noisy explosions.
She returned home to Colorado cowering and fearful. When her handlers tried to take her into a building, she would stiffen her legs and resist. Once inside, she would tuck her tail beneath her body and slink along the floor. She would hide under furniture or in a corner to avoid people.
A military veterinarian diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder – a condition that some experts say can afflict dogs just like it does humans.
“She showed all the symptoms and she had all the signs,” said Master Sgt. Eric Haynes, the kennel master at Peterson Air Force Base. “She was terrified of everybody and it was obviously a condition that led her down that road.”
A year later, Gina is on the mend. Frequent walks among friendly people and a gradual reintroduction to the noises of military life have begun to overcome her fears, Haynes said.
Frustrated by waiting six-years for the anti-tethering legislation she has pioneered to finally become law, Dogs Deserve Better co-founder Tamira Ci Thayne has chained herself to a dog house in front of the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building. She hopes to get lawmakers to pay attention to the suffering that chained dogs endure.
From her Operation Fido’s Freedom website, she writes:
Knock, knock. I’m here for the law for the chained dogs? You’ve probably just been busy. I know how that goes, I’ve been busy too. But thing is, here we are almost at the end of another legislative session, and the dogs still have no law to protect them.
It’s not right.
I intend to stay awhile, and I’m hoping that, together, we can get this thing done. Time is short, and they’ve suffered enough.
Yeah, I know I should be doing other things. A million other things, like having a life, working on other Dogs Deserve Better campaigns. Rescuing chained dogs, one at a time, from those few who see the light or want a convenient place to dump their garbage. Even spending time with my family would be nice.
But, I can’t get away from the nagging thought that they’ve still got nothing. We’ve waited six years for a law for them. Through HB1911, HB1065, HB1254, the Casorio/Caltigirone bill we were promised but never materialized this March, and now SB1435. It’s been exhausting!
And yet, here we are still without a tool to help them, and they are still suffering. Many waited their entire lives for help that never came, and have now turned to dust, having never known a kind word or the kiss of love.
Maybe it doesn’t matter to you, but it matters to me, it matters to the majority of Pennsylvania dog lovers, and most importantly, it matters to them.
Have I mentioned yet how the chained dogs are suffering? As they suffer, I have decided to bring their suffering to you, because maybe you just have been too busy to notice. I’m sure if you did notice it, did comprehend the pain of living as they live day in and day out, you’d have taken the necessary action to end it by now.
As they remain shackled to one grassless spot 24 hours each day, I will stay chained in front of OUR Capitol (Yes, I believe the Capitol belongs to me too) for ten hours Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. As they go without food and water, so will I fast each week from Monday through Friday. And as they are subjected to the elements, so will I be drenched when it rains, wilt in the summer heat, and shiver in the cold of approaching winter.
So that you may begin to really UNDERSTAND their suffering, I am bringing it to you. Let’s get this thing done. I’m here for their law.
—Tamira Ci Thayne, founder and CEO, Dogs Deserve Better
P.S. If you’re looking for me, I’m the woman chained to the doghouse in front of the Capitol.
You can follow Operation Fido’s Freedom on Twitter, and the Operation Fido’s Freedom Website.
GENEVA — Researchers have found that fragments of a dog’s skull and teeth discovered in a cave in Switzerland date back more than 14,000 years in what could be the oldest known remains of man’s best friend.
The fossils were among a haul of archaeological finds uncovered in 1873 in the Kesslerloch cave in northern Switzerland, Swiss news agency ATS said Monday.
But it was only last year that researchers at Germany’s Tuebingen University took a closer look at them, it said.
“During a recent re-analysis of the faunal remains, we identified a cranial fragment and teeth of the domestic dog,” the researchers said in an article in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
“The large maxillar fragment was directly dated to …14,100-14,600 BP (Before Present),” it said.
“We argue that the maxilla fragment must now be considered the earliest indisputable directly dated evidence of a domestic dog,” they said.
Belgian archaeologists have claimed to have found the cranium of a dog dating back 30,000 years, but researcher Hannes Napierala told ATS: “We are skeptical because the teeth are very similar to those of a wolf.”
The fragment found in the cave in Switzerland’s Schaffhausen canton, however, was clearly distinct from remains of wolves, the researchers said.
For the first time, scientists have shown that selective breeding of domestic dogs is not only dramatically changing the way animals look but is also driving major changes in the canine brain.
The brains of many short-snouted dog breeds have rotated forward as much as 15 degrees, while the brain region controlling smell has fundamentally relocated, researchers from the University of New South Wales and University of Sydney have found.
The large variations in dog skull size and shape follow more than 12,000 years of breeding for functional and aesthetic traits.
The discovery of such dramatic reorganisation of the canine brain raises important questions about impacts on dog behavior.
The research is published this month in the Public Library of Sciences journal PLoS ONE.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, dogs often shower us with praise. New research has just determined dogs automatically imitate us, even when it is not in their best interest to do so.
The study, published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B, provides the first evidence that dogs copy at least some of our body movements and behaviors in ways that are spontaneous and voluntary.
In other words, they can’t really help themselves when it comes to copying people.
“This suggests that, like humans, dogs are subject to ‘automatic imitation;’ they cannot inhibit online, the tendency to imitate head use and/or paw use,” lead author Friederike Range and her colleagues conclude.
It’s long been known that humans do this, even when the tendency to copy interferes with efficiency.
“For example,” according to the researchers, “if people are instructed to open their mouths as soon as they see the letters ‘OM’ appear on a screen, responses are slower when the letters are accompanied by an image of an opening hand than when they are accompanied by an image of an opening mouth.”
