When Lucy, a female tabby kitten, was not progressing as much as her littermate, her foster group, the Orphan Kitten Club in San Diego, was at a loss as to the problem. So, OKC’s founder, Hannah “Kitten Lady” Shaw reached out to Dr. Karen Vernau at the UC Davis veterinary hospital. Dr. Vernau’s experience with hundreds of kittens as a faculty mentor of a similar group, UC Davis’ Orphan Kitten Project, led her to believe that Lucy may have hypothyroidism.
The UC Davis veterinary hospital has treated hundreds of animals over the years that were burned in wildfires. Every year, there is at least one that everyone at the hospital remembers. This year, one of the most memorable was Ned, a semi-feral cat who was rescued from the property he calls home a few days after the LNU Lightning Complex Fire swept through and destroyed everything. This week, Ned was finally discharged after being hospitalized for three months.
Sick cats at UC Davis now have a more dedicated space to recover. The Small Animal Clinic at the school’s veterinary hospital has opened a feline treatment and housing suite to better care for sick and injured cats. The new facility combines a hospitalization ward with examination and treatment space. Veterinarians and technicians laud the suite as the most efficient use of space and time in order to care for multiple hospitalized cats.
So, what do a local university patron, four veterinary hospital services, a veterinary resident, a newly graduated Animal Science major, and dozens of faculty, staff, and student caregivers have in common? All of these UC Davis entities came together to save the life of a tiny kitten barely big enough to fit in your hand.
As many local clinics are unable to provide their usual levels of care due to the COVID-19 pandemic—on top of a significant caseload growth over the past decade—the UC Davis Emergency Room is seeing more patients than ever.
Young animals spend many hours a day nursing on their mothers; even when no milk is released, they will still suckle, which is called “non-nutritive sucking.” Unfortunately, when animals are separated from their mothers too soon, they may start sucking their littermates’ bodies.
Many animal owners have been concerned about the possibility of their animals contracting the coronavirus. Dr. Jane Sykes, an internal medicine specialist with special interest in infectious diseases, and the Chief Veterinary Medical Officer of the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital has conducted several media interviews recently to discuss the subject. We will continue to update this page with more media on animals and COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.
“My personal aim with stem cells is not to improve: I use it to cure. It’s ambitious, but that’s where we need to be,” said Dr. Boaz Arzi, director of the UC Davis Veterinary Institute for Regenerative Cures. “Stem cells do offer promise for many disorders that were previously not considered curable. But giving any regenerative therapy should be based on proper science and proper clinical trials. I think this is what we need to convey to the pet owner: not to be at full expectation, but also not to lose the excitement and the promise that it offers.”
