Small Animal

Rally, a 1-year-old female Labrador retriever, was accidentally shot while on a hunting excursion, with both of her eyes sustaining major trauma. She was referred her to the Ophthalmology Service at the UC Davis veterinary hospital who helped save her vision.

Thirty percent of cat owners surveyed use food puzzles, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The puzzles benefit domestic cats by bringing out their natural foraging behavior.

A new study found a link between some popular grain-free dog foods, with a high content of legumes, and canine heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). The disease can lead to sudden death in dogs.

Pet health insurance has proven to be a popular benefit for UC personnel.

Initiatives in 3D printing are currently being utilized at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, where the work is complemented by the university’s Department of Biomedical Engineering expertise. The unique combination of disciplines provides opportunities to advance health that few other universities in the world are able to pursue.

There’s always an implicit comparison when we talk about cats as aloof little jerks, says Mikel Maria Delgado, a postdoctoral researcher on cat behavior at the University of California at Davis. And that comparison is with dogs, which humans have spent thousands more years domesticating and molding in our image. Cats, she pointed out, simply don’t have the facial muscles to make the variety of expressions a dog (or human) can. So when we look at a cat staring at us impassively, it looks like a psychopath who cannot feel or show emotion. But that’s just its face.

UC Davis veterinarians led a team that has found a link between some popular grain-free, legume-rich dog diets and a type of nutritional deficiency and canine heart disease known as taurine-deficient dilated cardiomyopathy. The study was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Pet parent Laci Ping had just 15 minutes to pack up her life—which included six cats, six chickens, three dogs, and three reptiles—as the Camp Fire approached her home in Paradise, California. She managed to secure all but one of her animals – 5-month-old Mayson, a male gray tabby cat. Scared of what was happening, Mayson escaped at the last minute. Ping tried frantically to catch him, but he ran away too quickly. Heartbroken, Ping was forced to leave without him.

The Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital is seeing an increasing number of cannabinoid intoxication since legalization. Animals find it on trails and in parks without their humans realizing it. Some dogs and cats need nothing more than extra comforting and fluids to counteract the effects, but others require additional medical intervention

Growing older can be tough – and that goes for all species. When it comes to age-related illnesses, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are some of the most notorious and least understood human afflictions. If you’ve noticed your senior dog has been increasingly irritable and disoriented, having sleep troubles (including sleeping all day) or having frequent accidents inside the house, he or she may be suffering from a disease that manifests very similarly to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in people.